The Week in Pictures: Oct. 24 - 31 2019, NBC News

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Government handouts

President Donald Trump and the first lady hand out Halloween candy to a little girl at the White House on Oct. 28, 2019.

— Nicholas Kamm / AFP - Getty Images

Wildfires rage on

A firefighter sprays water as embers threaten a house as the Hillside fire burns through San Bernardino on Oct. 31.

New blazes continue to drive thousands of people from their homes in California.

— Noah Berger / AP

Hong Kong Halloween

Riot police walk past a protester on Halloween in Hong Kong on Oct. 31.

Hong Kong police fired tear gas to try to break up anti-government protests in the densely populated district of Mong Kok on the Kowloon peninsula on Thursday, away from demonstrations expected on Hong Kong island coinciding with Halloween celebrations.

— Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

ISIS suspects

Men suspected of being affiliated with ISIS sit in a prison cell in Hasakeh, Syria, on Oct. 26.

Kurdish sources say around 12,000 ISIS fighters, including Syrians, Iraqis and foreigners from 54 countries, are being held in Kurdish-run prisons in northern Syria.

— Fadel Senna / AFP - Getty Images

Another step toward impeachment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announces the final vote count on a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry on Oct. 31.

The House passed a resolution on Thursday approving procedures for its impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, opening a new and public phase of the investigation.

The vote, 232 to 196, was largely along party lines and Republicans objected, alleging that the Democratic inquiry is a farce that has been improperly conducted behind closed doors. House Democrats are now expected to begin holding public hearings in the next few weeks to present testimony against Trump.

— Win McNamee / Getty Images

Nationals on top

The Washington Nationals celebrate their World Series victory in Houston on Oct. 30.

The Nationals captured the franchise's first World Series title by defeating the mighty Houston Astros, 6-2, in Game 7.

— David J. Phillip / AP

Boris on the move

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is driven into the Houses of Parliament in London on Oct. 28.

Britain is headed for its first December nationwide elections in almost 100 years in a contest shaping up to be a toxic brawl centered around Brexit.

The Dec. 12 poll is being billed as an extraordinary vote, one in which the winner will not only govern for a few years but could also hold the power to set Britain's geopolitical course for decades to come.

— Leon Neal / Getty Images

Crash victims

John Hamilton, vice president and chief engineer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Boeing Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg look back at family members holding photographs of Boeing 737 MAX crash victims on Capitol Hill on Oct. 29.

Hamilton and Muilenburg testified before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on aviation safety and the grounded 737 MAX after two deadly 737 MAX crashes killed 346 people.

— Sarah Silbiger / Reuters

Approaching flames

A wildfire burns near a residential subdivision in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Oct. 24.

— Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP

Animal rescue

Robyn Phipps, left, and Laura Horvitz help rescue goats from a ranch threatened by the Easy fire near the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., on Oct. 30.

— Frederic J. Brown / AFP - Getty Images

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Bolshevik anniversary

Children attend a flower-laying ceremony at Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow on Oct. 29.

The event is part of the upcoming anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution during which Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Communist government came to power.

— Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP - Getty Images

In the Situation Room

President Donald Trump monitors developments in the Situation Room as U.S. Special Operations forces close in on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's compound in Syria on Oct. 26.

Trump is joined by, from left, National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien, Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director for Special Operations on the Joint Staff.

— Shealah Craighead / The White House via Getty Images

Raid's aftermath

The site hit by helicopter gunfire following an American-led raid targeting ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Barisha, Syria, on Oct. 27.

The Islamic State militant group named a new leader Abu Ibrahim Hashimi al-Quraishi Thursday to succeed  al-Baghdadi, the first time ISIS acknowledged his death.

— Omar Haj Kadour / AFP - Getty Images

Mourning from afar

Le Minh Tuan, father of 30-year old Le Van Ha, feared to be among the 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain, cries while holding Ha's son outside their house in Vietnam's Nghe An province on Oct. 27.

U.K. police charged truck driver Maurice Robinson, 25, of Northern Ireland, with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people. In addition to manslaughter and trafficking, he also faces charges for conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and money laundering.

— Nhac Nguyen / AFP - Getty Images

Last climb up Ayers Rock

Tourists climb Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia, on Oct. 25.

Nature seemed to be siding with indigenous Australians' demand for Uluru to be respected as a sacred site on Friday when high winds threatened to prematurely end the generations-old tradition of climbing the sandstone monolith.

The ascent was permanently closed to climbers late in the afternoon, while those already on the rock had until sunset to find their way down.

— Lukas Coch / AAP via Reuters

Young smoker

A three-year-old girl smokes a cigar during the Saint Simon celebrations in San Andres Itzapa, Guatemala, on Oct. 28.

— Orlando Estrada / AFP - Getty Images

Bangkok strike

Lightning hits a building in Bangkok on Oct. 27.

— Mladen Antonov / AFP - Getty Images

Pumpkin hideout

Meerkats inspect a pumpkin in their enclosure at the zoo in Hanover, Germany, on Oct. 24.

— Sina Schuldt / AFP - Getty Images

Scottish foliage

People walk on the bridge over the river Garry, in Pitlochry, Scotland, Britain on Oct. 26.

— Russell Cheyne / Reuters

Burning tree

Embers fly off a tree as the Kincade fire burns in Kellogg, Calif., on Oct. 29.

— Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Zuma Press