Year in Pictures 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump on the White House lawn in Washington on Nov. 2. At various points during the year, Trump battled with heads of state, NFL football players and business leaders who didn’t embrace his ideas. But one group was a steady target of his barbs: the media. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg

Demonstrators outside the White House on Nov. 8 express support for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who’s heading an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. By early December, Mueller had guilty pleas from Trump’s former national security adviser, former campaign chairman and former foreign policy adviser. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Teachers and their supporters crowd into the state Capitol building in Oklahoma City on April 3. A wave of strikes in the U.S. forced legislatures to give teachers raises and increase school spending. Photographer: Scott Heins/Bloomberg

Panels rotate on an election campaign billboard in Moscow in February. Russian President Vladimir Putin won re-election in a landslide in March despite the fact that he barely campaigned. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Members of the military police pose for a photograph in Rio de Janeiro after the election polls closed Oct. 28. The winner, Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing nationalist, promised to open the economy to private investment, strengthen ties to the U.S. and crack down on crime. Photographer: Lianne Milton/Bloomberg

Trump’s July visit to the U.K. was met by tens of thousands of protesters in London with a “Trump Baby” blimp. Protesters expressed outrage at the U.S. leader’s views on issues ranging from climate change and immigration to chlorinated chicken. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May gives a statement outside 10 Downing Street in London on Nov. 14. All year she fought a lonely battle to come up with a Brexit deal with the European Union that Parliament would approve. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Demonstrators dressed in “Handmaid’s Tale” costumes at a U.S. Senate office building Sept. 4. Using a metaphor from the dystopian novel, they silently protested attacks on women’s rights during the confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Farmers during a march in New Delhi on Nov. 30 carry human skulls and bones as a reminder of the high rates of suicide among agricultural workers. They protested in India’s capital to demand debt waivers and higher crop prices, underscoring challenges Prime Minister Narendra Modi faces before elections next year. Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg

An effigy of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte burned in Quezon City on July 23. Duterte vowed that human rights groups’ protests would not stop his “relentless” anti-drug campaign. Photographer: Carlo Gabuco/Bloomberg

Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, left, and Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s president, hold hands April 27 as they cross the northern side of the border of the Demilitarized Zone between the two nations. Kim was the first North Korean leader to set foot in South Korea since the end of fighting in the Korean War in 1953. Source: Inter-Korean Summit Press Corps/Pool via Bloomberg

Most Cubans did not have mobile internet access in January, when these club patrons used a Havana nightspot’s Wi-Fi. But on Dec. 6, the government finally allowed all citizens to buy contracts for access to 3G services. Photographer: Francesco Pistilli/Bloomberg

On June 23, one day before Saudi Arabia lifted its ban on women driving, practice on a driving simulator in Riyadh was worth memorializing. The ban was lifted as part of an effort to get more women into the workforce. Photographer: Maya Anwar/Bloomberg

Dockworkers at the port of Mombasa in Kenya on Sept. 1. China built a standard-gauge railway connecting the port to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, as part of its Belt and Road initiative, a global development project to link trade routes stretching from Asia to Africa and Europe. Photographer: Luis Tato/Bloomberg

An EcoEnergy technician carries a solar panel through a sunflower field in Sindh, Pakistan, on April 10. Rural Pakistanis are increasingly turning to renewable energy to circumvent the country’s notoriously unreliable power supply. Photographer: Asim Hafeez/Bloomberg

Workers process marijuana in Ontario on March 13. The legalization of cannabis in Canada on Oct. 17 created a major industry; some 149 pot companies valued at about C$52 billion ($39 billion) have already listed on Canadian stock exchanges. Photographer: James MacDonald/Bloomberg

A worker stands next to a promotion for the Colombo International Financial City project in Sri Lanka in March. The project, developed by Chinese companies as part of the Belt and Road trade route effort, has been dogged by worries about its legal structure, which will be separate from the rest of the country, and the strains it will place on the environment. Photographer: Atul Loke/Bloomberg

New homes under construction in Prosper, Texas, in November. The U.S. housing market cooled after years of soaring prices. Photographer: Laura Buckman/Bloomberg

The world’s longest sea link, connecting Zhuhai in mainland China with Macau and Hong Kong, opened Oct. 24, part of the effort to bring the capitalist regions closer to China and its one-party state. Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg

A man climbs a section of a U.S.-Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on Nov. 18. President Trump wants to build a wall along the entire southern border to prevent people from entering the U.S. illegally. Photographer: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg

Central American refugees and asylum-seekers ride a freight train in Oaxaca state, Mexico, on April 1. The Trump administration wants to make it harder for refugees to gain asylum in the U.S. Photographer: Jordi Ruiz Cirera/Bloomberg

Venezuelan migrants sit at a new refugee center in Bogota on Nov. 13. One million Venezuelans have migrated to Colombia after fleeing a collapsed economy that has led to mass starvation. Photographer: Nicolo Filippo Rosso/Bloomberg

A boat passes through Wallace, North Carolina, on Sept. 21 after Hurricane Florence brought record floods. Climate change is making warm water, the fuel for storms, more abundant, and rising sea levels are making storm surges more destructive. Photographer: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

A woman holds a child as they sleep in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Sept. 12, after being evacuated before Hurricane Florence made landfall Sept. 14. A total of 1.7 million people in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia were warned to flee coastal areas. Photographer: Callaghan O’Hare/Bloomberg

Sheriff’s officers remove the remains of a victim of the Camp Fire in Magalia, California, on Nov. 15. The fire, which killed 86 people and burned more than 18,000 structures, was the state’s worst blaze ever. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

Sacks of recycled green polyethylene terephthalate flakes sit in Gimpo, South Korea, in April. Global recycling markets were upended when China, as part of an anti-pollution crackdown, announced it would stop importing most used plastic and paper. One reason: Too many imported recyclables were contaminated, sometimes with hazardous substances like lead and mercury. Photographer: Jean Chung/Bloomberg

A customer pushes a shopping cart past an empty meat counter at a grocery in Caracas in January. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro ordered stores to slash food prices to put a lid on hyperinflation. Goods were in perpetual short supply as producers struggled to cover costs. Photographer: Carlos Becerra/Bloomberg

Water surrounds a mosque following a tsunami in Palu, Indonesia, on Oct. 9. The death toll from the magnitude-7.4 earthquake and tsunami topped 1,200. Photographer: Putu Sayoga/Bloomberg

Pedestrians wear face masks in Beijing on Nov. 14. The city’s air quality deteriorated after curbs on polluting industrial production appeared to be eased to shore up economic growth. Photographer: Giulia Marchi/Bloomberg

Residents pass in front of damaged buildings in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, in November. More than a year after brutal fighting that liberated the city ended, and a devastating air campaign that mostly flattened it, much of the city lies in ruins. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Kia vehicles bound for export are driven onto a roll-on/roll-off carrier cargo ship at the port of Pyeongtaek, South Korea, in January. Three South Korean car brands, Genesis, Kia and Hyundai, took the top three spots in J.D. Power’s closely watched annual study of new-car quality. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

On Feb. 12, travelers push their way through the railway station in Shanghai. China’s growing middle class resulted in almost 400 million people — more than the U.S. population — traveling by train over the Lunar New Year holiday. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

An automated transport robot moves between shelves at an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Kolbaskowo, Poland, in February. Amazon’s automation push this year wasn’t limited to warehouses: White-collar workers who used to make inventory decisions were replaced by software that predicts what shoppers want and how much to charge for it. Photographer: Bartek Sadowski/Bloomberg

Robotic arms weld automobile panels on the production line at the Kia Motors Corp. plant in Zilina, Slovakia, in May. Kia churned out about 1,400 new cars every working day there. Photographer: Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

A worker blasts the cast iron seams lining the newly excavated underground rail tunnels at the Lefortovo metro station in Moscow on April 17. The Russian capital opened 15 new metro stations this year, part of an effort to modernize the city and improve transportation. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

A worker inspects cannabis plants in Gatineau, Quebec, in October, days before legal sales of marijuana for recreational use began in Canada. But the nation’s suppliers couldn’t keep up with demand, and many stores ran out the first week. Photographer: Chris Roussakis/Bloomberg

The Natural Gas Liquids facility among desert dunes in an oil field in Shaybah, Saudi Arabia, in October. Saudi Aramco aims to become a global refiner and chemical maker as part of the country’s economic diversification push. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Photovoltaic panels at the Golmud Solar Park in Qinghai province in China in July. China has emerged as a global leader in clean power investment after it spent $127 billion on renewable energy in 2017. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

A worker stands on bundles of aluminum ingots at a stockyard in Wuxi, China, in August. The U.S. and China imposed fresh tariffs on each other’s goods in the middle of trade talks. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

DJ Koh, smartphone chief at Samsung Electronics Co., at the launch of the Galaxy Note 9 in New York on Aug. 9. Samsung’s large-screen device was meant to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPhones over the holidays; Samsung plans to introduce an even larger, foldable screen in 2019. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg

Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, in London on March 7. In his first full year essentially running the country for his father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Prince Mohammed’s supporters praised his boldness in pushing his conservative nation into the modern age. His critics accused him of being dictatorial and reckless. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

A demonstrator holds a photograph of journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the White House on Oct. 19. Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2; many believe it was ordered by Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On Nov. 20, President Trump said he would stand by Saudi Arabia regardless of whether the crown prince ordered the death. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Mahathir Mohamad at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters in Putrajaya on July 10. Mahathir, 92, won elections on May 9, ending the six-decade rule of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s party. As part of his effort to restore the rule of law, the new prime minister put safeguards in place to prevent graft by requiring his cabinet to declare their wealth and refuse gifts more valuable than perishable food and flowers. Photographer: Rahman Roslan/Bloomberg

Democratic Representative-elects Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, from New York, left, Abby Finkenauer, from Iowa, center right, and Abigail Spanberger, from Virginia, stand before a group photo with newly elected members of the 116th Congress outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 14. With one race still undecided, Democrats gained 40 seats to have a majority in the House that begins work in January, and a record 102 women will serve. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

In January, Chika Kako was promoted to the No. 2 job at the luxury Lexus division of Toyota Motor Corp., becoming the only woman among the automaker’s top 53 managers. On Feb. 15, she is shown a seat by Akihiro Fukutome, managing officer, left, Yu Nishimura, managing officer, second from right, and Simon Humphries, executive general manager, at a media roundtable in Nagoya, Japan. Photographer: Shiho Fukada/Bloomberg

Adult-film actress Stormy Daniels leaves a federal court in New York on April 16. Daniels claims she had sex with Donald Trump in 2006 and took a $130,000 hush payment shortly before the 2016 election from lawyer Michael Cohen. On Dec. 11, she was ordered to pay $292,000 in attorney fees and $1,000 in sanctions to Trump after she unsuccessfully sued him for defamation. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s nominee for associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, is sworn in during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington on Sept. 27. Kavanaugh angrily, tearfully and “unequivocally” denied sexually assaulting Christine Blasey Ford, after she told senators that she was “one hundred percent” certain that he was the one who attacked her when they were teenagers. Photographer: Tom Williams/Pool via Bloomberg

Emmerson Mnangagwa at a business club meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe, in January. Mnangagwa declared victory in the disputed presidential election in August, nine months after a coup forced former President Robert Mugabe to step down after almost two decades of misrule. Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, winner of Mexico’s presidential election, waves during a rally at Zocalo square in Mexico City on July 1. He took office Dec. 1 and has pledged to root out corruption, reduce violence, stop energy deals that aren’t good for the nation and spur growth in impoverished areas. Photographer: Cesar Rodriguez/Bloomberg

Demonstrators wearing yellow vests (gilets jaunes) protest in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Dec. 8. After more than a month of protests and blockades, President Emmanuel Macron tried to limit the economic damage with a package to boost the minimum wage, scrap taxes on overtime and raise pensions. Photographer: Anita Pouchard Serra/Bloomberg

A demonstration of SenseTime Group Ltd.’s pedestrian and vehicle recognition system at the company’s showroom in Beijing on June 15. China has made artificial intelligence technology an important strategic goal, because of its potential military and intelligence applications. Photographer: Gilles Sabrie/Bloomberg

A pilot, left, assists an attendee trying out a Boeing Co. F-15SG fighter jet simulator at the Singapore Airshow in February. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Kyla Jackson demonstrates the passenger controls in a Waymo autonomous vehicle that takes her to high school every day in Chandler, Arizona. The Jackson family volunteered to be part of Waymo’s Early Rider program in the Phoenix area, one of 25 test cities for the autonomous vehicle arm of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. Photographer: Caitlin O’Hara/Bloomberg

A Black Hornet Personal Reconnaissance System drone, manufactured by Flir Systems Inc., is demonstrated at a military exercise in Salisbury, U.K., on Dec. 12. Militaries all over the world are looking at drone technology, from Northrop Grumman Corp.’s monster spy plane Global Hawk to a small, battery-powered quadcopter from AeroLion Technologies Pte that can fly through underground tunnels without GPS. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

Crickets crawl in a climate-controlled growth room on the Siikonen family farm in Forssa, Finland, in June. To help resolve the world’s looming food crisis, in 2018 the farm produced about 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of crickets for edible protein, much of which is ground up for products from chocolate and crispbread to bar snacks and breakfast granola. Photographer: Roni Rekomaa/Bloomberg

“Sophia,” a humanoid robot by Hanson Robotics Inc., is carried on stage during the Rise conference in Hong Kong in July. Robots are increasingly supplementing humans in roles ranging from caring for the elderly to military battlefields. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

A model of EuropaCity, a 3.1 billion euro ($3.8 billion) shopping and leisure complex, is shown during an architectural presentation in Paris on April 4. According to the United Nations, 55 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, and the proportion is expected to increase, leading many nations to lay plans for cities of the future. Photographer: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg

An attendee takes pictures of a model of the Crew Dragon spacecraft at Space Exploration Technologies Corp. headquarters in Hawthorne, California, on Aug. 13. NASA astronauts will be the first to fly on the American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station on a mission scheduled for April 2019. Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg

A Tesla Model S electric vehicle is charged at a Supercharger station at night in Rubigen, Switzerland, in August. In the third quarter, Tesla’s Model 3 was one of the best-selling cars in the U.S. Photographer: Stefan Wermuth/Bloomberg

He Jiankui, the Chinese researcher who says he altered the genes of a pair of twin girls, attends a panel discussion at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing in Hong Kong on Nov. 28. He faced a global backlash after claiming to have produced the world’s first gene-edited babies in a bid to make them HIV-resistant. Photographer: Anthony Kwan/Bloomberg

The shadow of a man falls on a Persian carpet laid out at the rug bazaar in Tehran in January. Photographer: Ali Mohammadi/Bloomberg

A barge pumps brine from an evaporation pond in Golmud, China, in July. It’s used to produce potash fertilizers, potassium chloride and lithium carbonate. Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg

Skiers come down the mountain at Vail Ski Resort in Vail, Colorado, in March. Photographer: Daniel Brenner/Bloomberg

Visitors row boats past cherry trees in bloom at Chidorigafuchi moat at night in Tokyo on March 29. Photographer: Shiho Fukada/Bloomberg

A worker pumps shiraz grape juice into an open fermentation vat at Henschke Cellars in Eden Valley, Australia, in April. Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg

A hat sits atop a blue agave plant at the Jose Cuervo farm in Tequila, Mexico, in May. Photographer: Mauricio Palos/Bloomberg

A worker checks a hydro generator during contruction at a plant in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in June. Photographer: Vincent Mundy/Bloomberg

A tugboat guides a cargo ship into the Port of Long Beach in California in April. Photographer: Tim Rue/Bloomberg

Beef cattle gathered at a feedlot in Floresville, Texas, in May. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

A visitor passes in front of sand dunes at Monahans Sandhills State Park in Monahans, Texas, in June. Photographer: Callaghan O’Hare/Bloomberg