The Week in Pictures: Oct. 17 - 24 2019, NBC News

源济

Vines surround a burning building as the Kincade Fire burns through Jimtown in  Sonoma County, Calif., on Oct. 24, 2019.

A fast-moving, wind-whipped Northern California wildfire grew early Thursday in dangerous fire conditions that led the state's largest utility company to shut off power to almost a half-million people in an attempt to avoid disasters.

— Noah Berger / AP

Protesters wave flags during a demonstration against tax increases and official corruption in Tripoli, Lebanon, on Oct. 22.

Lebanon has been swept by unprecedented protests against a political class accused of plundering state resources for personal gain, bringing turmoil to the streets of a nation already in deep economic crisis.

— Ibrahim Chalhoub / AFP - Getty Images

Rep. Elijah Cummings' casket is carried into Statuary Hall to lie in state during a memorial ceremony on Capitol Hill on Oct. 24.

Cummings was hailed as the "North Star" for fellow House Democrats as congressional leaders and colleagues paid tribute to him at a Capitol ceremony Thursday.

— Melina Mara / Getty Images Pool

Jane Fonda gives a thumbs up with hands cuffed in front of her during her weekly "Fire Drill Fridays" protest in Washington on Oct. 18 to advocate for urgent action to slow climate change.

Fonda has returned to civil disobedience after a nearly half-century break, inspired by the climate activism of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

— Sarah Silbiger / Reuters

Gymnast Simone Biles performs a flip before throwing the ceremonial first pitch at game two of the World Series between the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals in Houston on Oct. 23.

— Tim Warner / Getty Images

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves from 10 Downing Street in central London on Oct. 23.

Johnson won one vote and lost another in Parliament on Tuesday, a result that inches him closer to his goal of leading Britain out of the European Union — but effectively guarantees it won’t happen on the scheduled date of Oct. 31.

— Tolga Akmen / AFP - Getty Images

Maribel Morales consoles her son Henry Ramirez, a member of Primera Iglesia Dallas, as they survey severe damage to the church after a tornado tore through Dallas on Oct. 20.

Tens of thousands of Dallas residents woke up to no power on Monday after a tornado plowed a long path through the north of the city, leaving power outages and scenes of destruction in its wake.

— Jeffrey McWhorter / AP

Embers and smoke spread over a hillside during the Kincade fire near Geyserville, Calif., on Oct. 24.

It was not immediately clear what caused the Kincade Fire. But the risk for wildfires has been high this week as humidity levels dipped and gusty winds up to 70 mph whipped across the region.

— Josh Edelson / AFP - Getty Images

House Republicans speak to reporters after Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper arrived to testify at a closed-door deposition by the House Intelligence, House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Reform Committees on Capitol Hill on Oct. 23.

Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing U.S. policy regarding Ukraine, testified in front of House impeachment investigators on Wednesday after a five-hour delay caused by a group of House Republicans who stormed the secure room where the deposition was taking place.

— Calros Jasso / Reuters

Ramba rests after arriving at the Brazilian Elephant Sanctuary in the Chapada dos Guimaraes municipality of Mato Grosso state, Brazil, on Oct. 18.

The Asian elephant that spent decades performing in South American circuses has started a new life in an open-air sanctuary in Brazil, after travelling thousands of miles by plane and truck from a Chilean zoo. The elephant, estimated to be more than 52 years old, worked in circuses in Argentina and Chile before being rescued by activists in 2012.

— Rogerio Florentino / AFP - Getty Images

:
Anti-government demonstrators clash with police as they protest against cost of living increases in Santiago, Chile, on Oct. 20.

At least 16 people have died in protests that started over a hike in public transport costs, prompting a weekend of riots, looting and a declaration of a state of emergency by President Sebastian Pinera.

— Marcelo Hernandez / Getty Images

A lab rat drives a "RatCar" in exchange for Froot Loops on Oct. 1.

A University of Richmond study has found that learning to drive their own tiny cars lowered the rat's stress levels. The study not only advances our understanding of how sophisticated rat brains are, but could help in developing new non-pharmaceutical forms of treatment for mental illness, according to study author Kelly Lambert.

— University of Richmond / AFP - Getty Images

A man looks at a thunderstorm above the Mediterranean sea in Nice, France, on Oct. 23.

— Valery Hache / AFP - Getty Images

Late Spanish dictator Francisco Franco's relatives carry his coffin after the exhumation at The Valle de los Caidos (The Valley of the Fallen) in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain, on Oct. 24.

Spain on Thursday began exhuming the remains of Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco from his grandiose mausoleum outside Madrid so he can be reburied in a small family crypt elsewhere.

The government-ordered, closed-door operation Thursday satisfies a decades-old desire of many in Spain who considered the vainglorious mausoleum that Franco built an affront to the tens of thousands who died in Spain's Civil War and his subsequent regime and to Spain's standing as a modern democratic state.

— Juan Carlos Hidalgo / Reuters Pool