Our world in photos: January 23
Brooklyn Eagle Staff
January 23, 2025
SARAJEVO — Trolley buses take a rest in their neat ‘holding pen’: An aerial view of parked trolley buses during heavy snowfall in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. Trams in Sarajevo were launched originally in 1885, with horses serving as the motion force. These tramways were test lines for routes through the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the Siege of 1992-1995, the tramways were damaged.
Just three years ago, Stadler got the contract to revitalize Sarajevo’s tramway system. The new trolleys began rolling out in 2023 and earlier in 2024.
JERUSALEM — An oft-forgotten word in all conflict since the beginning of civilization — mourning: Relatives and friends of First Sgt. Hillel Diener, who was killed on Monday, Dec. 23 in combat in the Gaza Strip, mourns during his funeral at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. Diener was killed along with two other soldiers from the Shimshon Battalion of the Kfir Brigade during operational activity in the northern Gaza Strip: Captain Ilay Gavriel Atedgi, 22, from Kiryat Motzkin, and Staff Sergeant Netanel Pessach, 21, from Elazar.
Diener’s grandfather, Itzik Shadmi, told Kan Reshet Bet radio in Israel about Hillel’s strong desire to participate in the war, reports Israel National News’ website.
SERBIA — Like a cardinal in the snow, invoking the Christmas season by simply wearing bright colors: A man walks through a snow covered park during a snowfall, in Belgrade, Serbia, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. However, as most Serbians are Orthodox Christian, they will not celebrate Christmas Eve until Jan. 6, the day commemorating the Three Kings’ visit to the infant Jesus. The Serbian Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar.
As Dec. 24 and 25 will still be Advent in the Orthodox calendar, many Serbians will be fasting from meat, dairy and other foods.
CALIFORNIA — Nature’s revenge, angry ocean: A building floats in the ocean after a wharf partially collapsed Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. A major storm that hit the California coast with hurricane-force winds and waves up to 60 feet, causing the collapse, the Associated Press reported. The collapse threw three people into the Pacific Ocean.
Although the storm caused deaths along the coast, the three persons on the wharf all survived without critical injury, the Associated Press reported. Two people were rescued by lifeguards and a third swam to safety.
SIBERIA — Melting permafrost turns up old treasures: In this photo released by the Mammoth Museum at the Russian North-Eastern Federal University on Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, University’s Scientists show the remains of a 50,000-year-old baby mammoth uncovered by melting permafrost in Russia’s Siberia.
A mammoth is defined as as a now-extinct genus/species Aelephantid Mammuthus, which lived from the late Miocene epoch into the Holocene until about four millennia ago.
SYRIA — Is there no end to the fighting — two Syrian factions squabble over a torched Christmas tree: A Syrian Christian man holds up a cross and shouts slogans in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, during a protest march after a Christmas tree was set on fire in Hamah city on Sunday. Although Syria’s Christian minorities had hoped for brighter Christmas festivities after the dictator Bashar al-Assad was overthrown, tensions exist between the Christian and Muslim groups in that nation bordering both Lebanon to its west and Israel to the South.
Although the Syrian constitution guarantees freedom of religion to Christians, policies have relegated them out of certain opportunities. Many Syrian Christians are Antiochian Orthodox; over the past 125 years they emigrated to the U.S., including to Brooklyn where Syrian congregations were established.
BOSNIA — Wearing makeup, dressed in bright colors, she’s probably headed to a holiday celebration: A woman walks through the park during heavy snowfall in Sarajevo, Bosnia, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024. As in many parts of the Balkans, the Eastern Orthodox Church is the most dominant Christian denomination and celebrates Christmas from Jan. 6-7.
However, Sarajevo also has a Catholic community which marks the western (Latin Rite) date of Dec. 25.
BRAZIL — After gifts are distributed, here’s what Santa does to relax: A young Amazonian resident strikes a ball towards Jorge Barroso, dressed as Santa Claus, who gave the ball to the boy after Barroso arrived on a boat to distribute Christmas gifts to children, in Iranduba, Brazil, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024. As Brazil sits on the equator and much of South America’s largest nation is in the southern hemisphere, Christmas falls during the summer. So Brazilian customs blend both seasons.
For example, the “Ceia de Natal” on Christmas Eve emphasizes tropical flavors with dishes like roasted turkey, ham and bacalhau, representing the country’s diverse culinary influences. And, of course, one can find the barbecue and beach celebrations of Christmas.
