News in Pics, December 23: Best photos from around the world

Statues of Mexican artists Diego Rivera (L) and Frida Kahlo bear face masks reading

A rainbow is seen as it rains over the Chacao neighborhood with the iconic El Avila hill in the background, in Caracas. Credit: AFP

Intensive Care Unit Nurse Merlin Pambuan, 66, is cheered by hospital staff as she walks out of the hospital where she spent 8 months with Covid-19, at Dignity Health – St. Mary Medical Center, in Long Beach, California. Credit: Reuters

A police helicopter overflies agriculture workers blocking the Pan-American highway, in Ica, Peru on December 22, 2020, as they protest for a new farming law. Credit: AFP

A worker uses a chainsaw to carve a block of ice, while constructing ice structures at the site of the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival before its opening in Harbin, China. Credit: Reuters

Medical staff member Stephanie uses an endoscope to examine a patient in the Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Credit: AFP