Pictures of the week: Freezing storms hit the US, festive traditions and a line of baby panda cubs

The Independent’s picture editors bring you the best photography from all corners of the planet

Panda keepers hold cubs while posing for photos ahead of the new year at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, China's southwestern Sichuan province (AFP/Getty)

Each week the picture editors at The Independent sort through hundreds of thousands images sent into us by photography agencies from all around the world.

These are some of the most eye-catching and the most striking images from culture, news, politics, sport and lifestyle.

You can also keep up with the latest photography making headlines via our Instagram.

(AP)

Children play on a digital art installation titled "Rapidly Rotating Bouncing Spheres in the Caterpillar House", at the newly-opened "teamLab Massless" museum in Beijing.

(AFP/Getty)

A penguin (Manchot Royal) walks at the basement located on the Kerguelen Island, also known as the Desolation Islands, a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic.

(AFP/Getty)

A ground crew member organises unclaimed luggage at LA airport during a storm which caused the cancellations of thousands of flights across the US.

(SWNS)

A flooded road leading to Muchelney, Somerset.

(AFP/Getty)

Folk performers take part in the opening ceremony of the annual Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Festival in Songyuan, in northeast China’s Jilin province.

(Reuters)

Swimmers participate in the annual Christmas winter swimming competition in the Vltava river in Prague, Czech Republic.

(AFP/Getty)

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama waves during his first day of teaching session at the Kalachakra Ground in Bodhgaya.

(Reuters)

An excavator works at the entrance to a desert cliff excavation overseen by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Muraba'at Cave near the Dead Sea, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

(EPA)

The Christ the Redeemer statue is illuminated with the colors of the national flag in tribute to Pele, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

(AFP/Getty)

People walk past a New Year decoration Kremlin Star, bearing a Z letter, a tactical insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine, at the Gorky Park in Moscow.

(Reuters)

Dancers perform during an annual slum party in Oworonshoki, Lagos, Nigeria.

(AFP/Getty)

A person walks by homes covered in ice at the waterfront community of Crystal Beach in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada.

(AFP/Getty)

Britain's King Charles III flanked by Britain's Camilla, Queen Consort waves to members of the public as he arrives for the Royal Family's traditional Christmas Day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham, Norfolk.

(PA)

Passengers look at notice boards at Euston train station in London following a strike by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association.

(PA)

Bathers take part on the annual Boxing Day Swim at Tynemouth Longsands.

(EPA)

Residents take shelter inside a metro station during an air raid alert in Kyiv, Ukraine.

(AFP/Getty)

Photographers record a confetti test run in preparation for the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, New York City.

(AFP/Getty)

A boy pushes his bicycle along a street during snowfall in Kabul.

(AFP/Getty)

France’s Coralie Frasse-Sombet competes during the first run of the giant slalom during the FIS Alpine Skiing Women’s World Cup in Semmering, Austria.

(AFP/Getty)

Tourists takes a selfie at the Horseshoe Falls in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

(AP)

Workers remove the monument to Russian Catherine II, also known as the "Monument to the Founders of Odesa" in Odesa, Ukraine.

(PA)

Swimmers take part in the Blackroot Pool Xmas day swim at Sutton Park, Birmingham.