Europe Battles to Stem Covid Wave: The Political Week in Photos

As the number of Covid-19 deaths passed 100,000 in Germany and infections rose across Europe, governments tightened restrictions to slow the worsening pandemic. 

President Joe Biden’s administration announced a release from the U.S.’s emergency oil reserves, in tandem with several of the world’s biggest consumers, in a bid to bring down fuel prices and tame surging inflation in the run-up to the holiday shopping season.

In Germany, Olaf Scholz looks set to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor after forging an unprecedented alliance that aims to revamp Europe’s largest economy by tackling climate change and promoting digital technologies.

And in Chile, the first round of the presidential election appeared to halt a two-year shift to the political left.

These were among the topics of this week’s most compelling political images.