FRANKFURT — Why would a buck and a doe cross the road? Deer cross a road in the Taunus forest in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The red deer, the most populous in Europe and one of the largest species, also inhabits the Caucasus Mountains region, Anatolia, Iran, and parts of western Asia. Opportunistic feeders, red deer will go wherever they can forage and are most often seen feeding in the early morning and dusk, with food most abundant between April and September.

This forest is part of the Taunus mountain range and comprises the southeastern segment of the Rhenish Slate Mountains.

DUBAI — Nature’s revenge — uncharacteristic flood waters in the desert: Vehicles sit abandoned in floodwater covering a major road in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Heavy thunderstorms lashed the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, dumping over a year and a half’s worth of rain on the desert city-state of Dubai in the span of hours as it flooded portions of major highways and its international airport. The soil or ground in many arid regions, including the southwestern U.S., cannot absorb that volume of heavy rain falling all at once, and flash floods become more likely.

The UAE has been trying to mitigate water scarcity with cloud seeding, a process that implants chemicals into clouds to increase rainfall. However, questions have arisen over whether cloud seeding contributes to extreme flooding.

INDIA — Education and edification … about voting: Officials prepare bags of election material to be distributed along with the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) ahead of the national parliamentary elections in Jorhat, India, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Jorhat Lok Sabha constituency, one of the 14 Lok Sabha constituencies in Assam state in northeastern India, is a significant and diverse political area and is pivotal in Indian politics, especially since Assam shares borders with Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; lit. ‘Indian People’s Party’), founded in 1980, is one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress and has become the ruling party in India under incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

TBILISI — Occupied but still fighting Russian control: Police block protestors gathered outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, protesting against “the Russian law” similar to a law that Russia uses to stigmatize independent news media and organizations seen as being at odds with the Kremlin. The draft — proposed by the ruling Georgian Dream party — calls for media and non-commercial organizations to register as being under foreign influence if they receive more than 20% of their funding abroad.

Tbilisi, founded in the fifth century C.E., is strategically important as a trade route near the Silk Road and thus desirable to many ruling powers. Tbilisi (also called by its pre-1936 name of Tiflis) in the early 20th century was the seat of the Caucasus Viceroyalty, governing both the northern and the southern parts of the Caucasus.

GERMANY — This is NOT warmup calisthenics: Dortmund players celebrate after the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid at the Signal-Iduna Park in Dortmund, Germany, Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Dortmund won that match 4-2.

Dortmund will next play Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) in the semi-finals starting April 30. The other quarterfinal teams are still battling for a chance for the remaining semi-final spots. 

PHOENIX — Fans in the stands use eyes and hands to capture a ball: Chicago Cubs left fielder Ian Happ leaps in vain for a two-run home run hit by Arizona Diamondbacks’ Lourdes Gurriel Jr. during the third inning of a baseball game Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Phoenix. It was a close game, with the Diamondbacks winning 12-11 after 10 innings and returning a “favor” from their previous game, which the Cubs had won. On Tuesday, Chicago had four runs in the fifth inning and six runs in the seventh but failed to score at the top of the tenth.

Monday night, the Cubs broke a 2-2 tie in the 11th inning, beating Arizona 3-2.

SCRANTON — ‘Let them pay their fair share…’: President Joe Biden speaks at a campaign event, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Scranton, PA. Biden has begun three straight days of campaigning in Pennsylvania in his childhood hometown of Scranton. The Democratic president is using the working-class city of roughly 75,000 as the backdrop for his pitch for higher taxes on the wealthy. Pennsylvania’s primary election will be held next Tuesday, April 23.

Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden left his former house in Scranton after visiting with neighbors inside and shooting some campaign material. He accompanied and held hands with several students wearing apparel from St. Clare/St. Paul’s, a local Catholic school in the area.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bottomline — it’s all about money: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, left, Minister of Finance Shunichi Suzuki of Japan, center, and Minister of Economy and Finance Sangmok Choi of South Korea, right, arrive and take their seats for a trilateral meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department building, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Washington. According to a statement on the U.S. Treasury Department’s website, the three countries’ finance ministers affirmed their “commitment to utilize and coordinate our respective sanctions tools to impose costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine and target the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK’s) weapons program.” Yellen wrote, “We strongly condemn the DPRK’s exports to Russia, as well as Russia’s procurement of the DPRK’s ballistic missiles, in direct violation of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, and call upon them to immediately cease such activities.” DPRK is also known familiarly as North Korea.

Wednesday’s discussion builds on last August’s Trilateral Leaders’ Summit at Camp David and “affirms the importance of our relationship to our own economies and to the global economy,” reads the Treasury Department’s website.

VATICAN — When these people hug each other, they’re hugging God: Pope Francis is hugged by a nun at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Papal Audiences are held on Wednesdays if the Pope is in Rome, and they give pilgrims and visitors the chance to “see the Pope” and receive the Papal Blessing or Apostolic Blessing from the successor of the Apostle Peter during their visit. The Pope will do a greeting in each language, and special visiting groups, choirs, etc., from various countries will get a mention.

Pope Francis’ health has been a concern recently after he skipped a number of Holy Week events, particularly the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum.

CROATIA — Exemplary support and sense of order for Croatian democracy: Voters wait near a polling station in Zagreb, Croatia, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. Croatia is voting in a parliamentary election after a campaign that centered on a bitter rivalry between the president and prime minister of the small European Union and NATO member.

Croatia was part of Yugoslavia, which was carved up during World War II and joined NATO, along with Albania to its south, on April 1, 2009. Albania was not part of Yugoslavia but rather a neighboring country. Separating Albania from Croatia is the former region of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

MANHATTAN — Visiting a bodega, and the subject is not food: Former president Donald Trump talks with bodega owner Maad Ahmed, center, during a visit to his store, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in New York. The Republican presidential contender stopped by the Sanaa Convenient Store, formerly known as the Blue Moon Convenient Store, in Harlem to meet with the store’s co-owner, Maad Ahmed, and small business advocate Francisco Marte. This was the bodega where clerk Jose Alba infamously stabbed an ex-con to death in self-defense in 2022. Alba was initially charged with murder, which drew widespread outrage from the public. The New York Post reported on Wednesday that Trump was encouraging Ahmed to buy a gun to more effectively fight the ongoing crime against his bodega.

Ahmed said that although he has never voted, he will cast his ballot for Trump.

AMSTERDAM — Royals in the Netherlands, less publicized than those in Great Britain: Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia observe a minute of silence during a wreath-laying ceremony at the National Monument opposite the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Wednesday, April 17, 2024. The Netherlands and Spain have enjoyed positive diplomatic relations since 1648, with common values and interests, according to the Royal House of the Netherlands’ website. The two nations work closely together in many facets of society and have also made significant investments in green hydrogen to safeguard the future availability and affordability of energy. As of 2024, Europe has twelve sovereign monarchies, seven of which are kingdoms.

In addition to the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium, three Scandinavian nations — Denmark, Norway and Sweden — are monarchies and, in some ways, are more popular than the British royalty. The three principalities are Andorra, Liechtenstein and Monaco.