Dubai, United Arab Emirates — From breaking news to defining human stories, 2025 unfolded across continents in images that reflected urgency, grief, hope, and resilience. In this special “Pictures of 2025” collection, Voice of Emiratespresents a visual record of the moments that shaped the year — from conflicts and crises to diplomacy and protests, and from sports and culture to discoveries and scenes of everyday life — as documented on the ground.
US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 28, 2025.. Zelensky on February 28 told Trump there should be “no compromises” with Russian President Vladimir Putin as the parties negotiate to end the war after Moscow’s invasion. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)
People gather by the rubble of destroyed buildings for a mass gathering for a communal iftar fast-breaking meal on the second day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in the area of al-Dahduh in Gaza City’s Tal al-Hawa district on March 2, 2025 amid the ongoing truce in the war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A whirling dervish stands in front of Turkish riot police officers during a rally in support of Istanbul’s arrested mayor in Istanbul Municipality, on March 23, 2025.. Istanbul’s newly-deposed mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was taken to a jail on the western outskirts of the megacity city on March 23, 2025 afternoon, the main CHP opposition party said. (Photo by YASIN AKGUL / AFP)
Natalia, 51, a mother of three, serving as a combat medic in the 24th Mechanized Brigade takes part in a field training exercise in an undisclosed location in the eastern region of Ukraine, on March 18, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
A Ukrainian rescuer takes a break at the site of a missile attack in Sumy, northeastern Ukraine, on April 13, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. Ukrainian authorities said two ballistic missiles hit the centre of the northeastern city, close to the Russian border, killed at least 34 people, as European and US leaders condemned one of the deadliest attacks in months. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
A tourist walks her dog as migrants board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Hardelot in Neufchatel-Hardelot, northern France on June 30, 2025.. In just a few hours on June 30, 2025, five boats loaded with dozens of migrants headed for England from the beaches of Hardelot and Equihen (Pas-de-Calais), following a complex and sometimes chaotic ballet with gendarme and emergency services, as observed by an AFP photographer. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
People swim in a lake on a hot summer day on the outskirts of Sloviansk, eastern Donetsk region, on July 13, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain’s French forward Ousmane Dembele celebrates with supporters after receiving the Ballon d’Or award at the end of the 2025 Ballon d’Or France Football award ceremony outside the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris on September 22, 2025. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)
This photograph taken on March 13, 2025 shows an Afghan shopkeeper adjusting women’s wigs placed on mannequins at his shop in Kabul.. Until Taliban authorities took power in Afghanistan women like Fatima were able to freely sell their hair to be made into wigs, bringing in crucial cash. Last year Taliban authorities imposed vice and virtue laws regulating everyday life for men and women, including banning sales of “any part of the human body” including hair. (Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP)
A boys mourns over the body of a loved one killed in overnight Israeli bombardment on northen Gaza, at the Ahli Arab Hospital, also known as the Maamadani (Baptist) Hospital, in Gaza City on April 3, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A boy with a motobike helmet walks amidst destroyed houses in shanty town of Cavani south district damaged by the cyclone Chido in the city of Mamoudzou, on the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, on January 2, 2025.. In Mayotte, two and a half weeks after the devastating cyclone, the shanty towns are reappearing. And with each hammer blow, François Bayrou’s promise to prevent the reconstruction of this precarious housing, where a third of the population lives, is being undermined. (Photo by JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP)
Naga Sadhus or Hindu holy men take a dip in Sangam, the confluence of Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers, during Shahi Snan or ‘royal bath’, to mark the Maha Kumbh Mela festival, in Prayagraj on January 14, 2025.. Vast crowds of Hindu pilgrims in India bathed in sacred waters as the Kumbh Mela festival opened on January 13, with organisers expecting 400 million people — the world’s largest gathering of humanity — to assemble over six weeks. (Photo by Idrees MOHAMMED / AFP)
This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on January 19, 2025, shortly before a ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas was implemented.. Mediator Qatar on January 19 confirmed the start of a truce between Israel and Hamas and said some of the initial three hostages to be freed hold foreign citizenship. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinians walk past tents lining the streets amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on February 18, 2025, as people return to northern parts of Gaza during a current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas.. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on February 17, that he was “committed” to US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza, which involves displacing more than two million inhabitants of the Palestinian territory. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Smokes and flames overwhelms a commercial area during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles County, California on January 8, 2025.. Terrified residents caught in blazing neighbourhoods, influencers ignoring the ban on drones and the frightening unpredictability of the wildfires are just some of what journalists covering the fires ravaging Los Angeles for AFP have had to manage.
The United States’ second-largest city has never faced a blaze of this scale, driven by an extreme autumn drought and fierce Santa Ana winds — the strongest since 2011 — that have turned dry hills into kindling, fuelling a relentless inferno that has raged for more than a week. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during the inaugural parade inside Capitol One Arena, in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)
People bathe in the Irrawaddy River in front of the collapsed Ava Bridge, also known as the Inwa Bridge, in Sagaing on April 2, 2025, as residential areas remain without electricity or running water five days after a major earthquake struck central Myanmar.. The shallow 7.7-magnitude earthquake on March 28 flattened buildings across Myanmar, killing nearly 3,000 people and making thousands more homeless. (Photo by Sai Aung MAIN / AFP)
People run for cover as a plume of smoke rises above tents at a camp for displaced Palestinians in northern Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during an Israeli strike on April 19, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
A worker cleans the lines of a cooling tower at an ice factory on a hot summer day in Karachi on May 29, 2025. (Photo by Asif HASSAN / AFP)
A protester jumps for safety as she emerges from a narrow alley while Kenya police officers strike her with whips and clubs during clashes in downtown Nairobi on June 25, 2025 during a planned day of protest marking the first anniversary of the storming of the parliament.. Marches in Kenya to mark a year since massive anti-government demos turned violent on Wednesday, with two killed and running battles between protesters and police, who flooded Nairobi’s streets with tear gas and sealed off government buildings with barbed wire. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)
This picture taken on June 24, 2025 and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 26, 2025 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (L), his daughter Kim Ju Ae (2nd L) and his wife Ri Sol Ju (3rd L) visiting the Wonsan Kalma coastal tourist area in Kangwon Province, North Korea.. North Korea opened a massive resort area on its east coast, state media said on July 2, with the tourism pet project of leader Kim Jong Un reportedly set to welcome Russian guests later this month.
Dubbed “North Korea’s Waikiki” by South Korean media, the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area can accommodate nearly 20,000 people, according to Pyongyang, which previously described it as “a world-class cultural resort”. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
An adult female Masai giraffe rears on its hind legs as it resists efforts by Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) rangers to guide it into a transportation crate using ropes during an exercise to translocate large herbivores from Kedong Ranch due to land subdivisions and corralling that have disrupted wildlife migratory routes in Naivasha, Nakuru County, on November 16, 2025.. Driven by two long ropes held by about twenty rangers, the blindfolded giraffe enters a tall trailer that is to transport it out of its natural habitat in the Rift Valley, which is deteriorating after having been resold. This is the first step in a meticulous relocation operation in the vast Kedong ranch, part of an ancestral corridor between Mount Longonot and Hell’s Gate Park, near the iconic Lake Naivasha. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
A motorcyclist stops to look at a burning home during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles county, California on January 8, 2025.. Terrified residents caught in blazing neighbourhoods, influencers ignoring the ban on drones and the frightening unpredictability of the wildfires are just some of what journalists covering the fires ravaging Los Angeles for AFP have had to manage.
The United States’ second-largest city has never faced a blaze of this scale, driven by an extreme autumn drought and fierce Santa Ana winds — the strongest since 2011 — that have turned dry hills into kindling, fuelling a relentless inferno that has raged for more than a week. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
People sit in the shade of a tent near camper vehicles parked by a backdrop of the Dubai skyline including Burj Khalifah, the world’s tallest structure, on January 31, 2025. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)
Scientists perform a necropsy on the 50,000-year-old baby mammoth nicknamed “Yana” at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk on March 27, 2025.. The carcass, which was dug up past summer near the Batagaika research station in the permafrost-covered region of Yakutia, weighs 180 kilograms (397 pounds) and is 120 centimetres (four feet) tall and 200 centimetres long. Yana’s “geological age”, meaning the period when she lived, was first estimated at 50,000 years, but later updated to “more than 130,000 years” following analysis of the permafrost layer where she was found, said Maxim Cheprasov, director of The Mammoth Museum at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk. (Photo by AFP)
An Afghan tailor stitches burqas inside a shop in Herat on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Mohsen KARIMI / AFP)
Israeli air defence systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv early on June 18, 2025.. Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on June 17, the fifth day of strikes in their most intense confrontation in history, fuelling fears of a drawn-out conflict that could engulf the Middle East. (Photo by Menahem Kahana / AFP)
Ukrainian servicemen of the 59th brigade mobile air defence unit fire a Soviet made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon towards a Russian drone from a sunflower field, during an air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region on July 19, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. Russia’s deadly Geran drones, based on the Iranian technology, have been wreaking havoc on Ukraine since the beginning of the war three years ago. But since May 2025, they became more, with hundreds of drones now harassing cities and killing civilians almost daily. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
Tourists sit on the beach as the smoke from wildfires raging in the Aude department is seen from the Mediterranean coast in Banyuls-sur-Mer, southwestern France, on August 5, 2025.. A fire that broke out on August 5, 2025 afternoon in Ribaute (Aude) has burned 4,000 hectares of forest and scrubland in just a few hours before reaching the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, where houses were burned down. (Photo by OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE / AFP)
US President Donald Trump (R) reaches out to shake hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin as they pose on a podium on the tarmac after arrival at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 15, 2025.. Putin is in Alaska at the invitation of Trump in his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion of Ukraine that has killed tens of thousands of people. (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
This aerial view shows people standing near a flow of lava from the Mount Etna volcano (Torre del Filosofo – Etna Sud) on August 28, 2025. The Etna volcanic eruption started on August 10 and remained active the last weeks. (Photo by Giuseppe Distefano / AFP)
A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest outside the Parliament in Kathmandu on September 8, 2025, condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government.. Nepal police on September 8 opened fire, killing at least 17 people as thousands of young protesters took to the streets of Kathmandu demanding the government lift a social media ban and tackle corruption. (Photo by PRABIN RANABHAT / AFP)
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk with his son X Æ A-Xii join US President Donald Trump as he signs executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, February 11, 2025.. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tapped by President Donald Trump to lead federal cost-cutting efforts, said the United States would go “bankrupt” without budget cuts. Musk leads the efforts under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and was speaking at the White House with Trump, who has in recent weeks unleashed a flurry of orders aimed at slashing federal spending. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
A Ukrainian member an Azov Brigade drone team – callsign Sava, 21 – launches a surveillance drone towards Russian positions, in the direction of Toretsk, eastern Donetsk region, on February 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. The Azov Battalion became a household name in Ukraine weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022 for its last-ditch defence of the southern city of Mariupol. It held out in bunkers beneath the city’s sprawling metal works before surrendering to the Russian forces that had laid a brutal siege to the city, with most of the Azov fighters captured in the siege still in captivity. Since Mariupol, it is one of Ukraine’s most celebrated and respected units, deployed to turn the tide of events in the most difficult areas of the front line. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
Women react as a Ukrainian police officer shows them in a plastic bag the body of a killed person at the site of a missile attack in Izyum, Kharkiv region, on February 4, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. A Russian missile attack on February 4, 2025 on the Ukrainian city of Izyum, briefly occupied by Russia in 2022, killed five people and wounded three dozen more, officials said. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
A general view of the melting Lewis Glacier in Mount Kenya National Park on March 7, 2025.. Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak, is home to rapidly shrinking glaciers that are vital for nearby ecosystems and communities. Lewis Glacier, the most studied, has lost over 90% of its mass since 1934, according to the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS). This dramatic loss is driven by rising temperatures and declining rainfall, both tied by experts to global climate change. The glaciers’ disappearance threatens water sources for millions, impacting farming, hydroelectric power, and biodiversity. The loss also endangers local economies that depend on agriculture and ecotourism tied to the mountain’s unique ecosystem. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)
A student in hazmat suit moves around a taxidermied giraffe at the “crime scene” set up in the warehouse of the Wildlife Forensic Academy in the Buffelsfontein Game and Nature Reserve near Cape Town, on April 16, 2025.. The crime scene was carefully set up by the Wildlife Forensic Academy, a training centre that aims to fight poaching by teaching investigation skills to rangers, conservation officers, law enforcement and students. Set inside a sunny warehouse in a private game reserve an hour north of Cape Town, the academy recreates poaching scenarios featuring taxidermied victims like “Frikkie”, the rhino who was poached a few years ago. By teaching how to protect a crime scene, find and collect evidence and later present a testimony in front of a court, they hope to strengthen prosecution of wildlife crime across Africa. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
Protesters clash with riot police during an anti-government demonstration in Lima on September 20, 2025. (Photo by Ernesto BENAVIDES / AFP)
US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk (R) speak before departing the White House on his way to his South Florida home in Mar-a-Lago in Florida on March 14, 2025.. Trump is spending the weekend at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
Khumo Maake, an activist with Check Mate, an organization calling for the mandatory ID checks on dating apps, performs as activist carry placards during a demonstration calling for gender-based violence and femicide to be declared a national disaster, in Pretoria on April 11, 2025. (Photo by MARCO LONGARI / AFP)
Indigenous people from the Mayuruna ethnic group walk past a sumauma tree (Ceiba pentandra) during the Alvaraes Indigenous Intercultural Games and Dances at the Marajai Village in Alvaraes, Amazonas State, northern Brazil, on April 16, 2025.. With the slogan “Protecting Mother Earth,” the third edition of the event will feature the participation of 16 peoples from the region and will focus on the importance of demarcating indigenous lands, preserving nature and natural resources to avoid the climate crisis, and highlighting the importance of rescuing and preserving indigenous culture, keeping these traditions alive for future generations. (Photo by MICHAEL DANTAS / AFP)
Fireworks explode as Paris Saint-Germain’s players parade on a bus on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris on June 1, 2025, a day after PSG won the 2025 UEFA Champions League final football match against Inter Milan in Munich. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
A demonstrator punches in the face a member of the Argentine Federal Police during a protest called by retirees demanding an increase in pensions and against economic adjustment by the government of President Javier Milei in front of the National Congress in Buenos Aires on April 16, 2025. (Photo by LUIS ROBAYO / AFP)
People watch late Pope Francis’ funeral ceremony on a large screen in Via della Conciliazione street, near the Vatican in Rome on April 26, 2025.. Pope Francis, champion of the poor and the Church’s first Latin American leader, will be honoured April 26 with a funeral attended by world leaders and tens of thousands of Catholic faithful. The Argentine pontiff, who died on April 21, 2025, aged 88, sought to create a more open-minded Church during his 12-year papacy, and many emotional tributes have been made — with 250,000 people paying respects at his coffin in St Peter’s Basilica. (Photo by HENRY NICHOLLS / AFP)
People carrying sacks of flour walk along al-Rashid street in western Jabalia on June 17, 2025, after humanitarian aid trucks reportedly entered the northern Gaza Strip through the Israeli-controlled Zikim border crossing, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
Anna prepares throws a bouquet of flowers for the guests during her wedding ceremony with Pavlo Chornobai, a Ukrainian serviceman of the Azov Brigade, at a civil registry office in Sloviansk, the eastern Donetsk region, on April 25, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. The war gave a sense of urgency to the commitment of Ukrainian military couples, who see no point in waiting for a peace that looks like a mere mirage. Talks of ceasefire and peace plans, which have taken over Western capitals as US President Donald Trump pushes for a quick end to the conflict, feel far from the reality in Sloviansk, around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the front lines. Marriage can protect the partners of military personnel, as they receive social support and are guaranteed a call if their spouses are killed or wounded. “Don’t postpone love for later, that’s probably the most important thing. Don’t wait for the right moment,” Anna said. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
A firework explodes behind a police officer in riot gear during a protest in response to federal immigration operations in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles, on June 9, 2025.. President Donald Trump’s administration said on June 9 that it was sending 700 US Marines and thousands more National Guard troops to Los Angeles, sparking a furious response from California’s governor over the “deranged” deployment. Protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, broke out on June 6, triggered by immigration raids that resulted in dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members. (Photo by RONALDO SCHEMIDT / AFP)
Domestic tourists visit the beach at Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Wonsan, North Korea’s Kangwon Province on July 1, 2025.. North Korea opened a massive resort area on its east coast, state media said on July 2, with the tourism pet project of leader Kim Jong Un reportedly set to welcome Russian guests later this month. (Photo by KIM Won Jin / AFP)
Migrants try to board a smuggler’s boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel off the beach of Gravelines, northern France on August 12, 2025. (Photo by Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP)
The sun rises by the Eiffel Tower and the Sacre Coeur Basilica ontop of the Montmartre hill in Paris on July 1, 2025, as the city is on red alert for high temperatures, with the top of the Eiffel Tower shut, polluting traffic banned and speed restrictions in place as a searing heatwave gripped Europe.. Scientists say human-induced climate change is making such heatwave events more intense, frequent and widespread. Temperatures in France were expected to hit a peak today, according to the Meteo France weather agency, with the highest extreme heat warning in place in 16 departments across the country. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)
Yazan, a malnourished 2-year-old Palestinian boy, stands with his back turned in his family’s damaged home in the Al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, on July 23, 2025.. More than 100 aid organisations and human rights groups warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation” was spreading in Gaza, as the United States said its top envoy was heading to Europe for talks on a possible ceasefire and aid corridor. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A displaced woman rests by the roadside with her few belongings in Bulengo, near Goma, on February 17, 2025. (Photo by Jospin mwisha / AFP)
A Palestinian boy holds a book as he sits in rubble of a house, following overnight Israeli strikes, at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on April 29, 2025.. Israel resumed its military campaign in the Gaza Strip on March 18. A ceasefire agreement that had largely halted the fighting for two months before that collapsed over disagreements between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, whose 2023 attack triggered the war. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
A group of protesters run for cover as a teargas canister is thrown toward them while they sit outside the Administration Police Service Headquarters during a protest over the death of Kenyan blogger Albert Ojwang, who died in police custody, as the government presents the 2025-2026 budget statement in downtown Nairobi on June 12, 2025.. Kenyan police fired teargas against protesters angry over a police killing on Thursday, threatening to overshadow the government’s attempts to pass a budget without sparking unrest. (Photo by Luis TATO / AFP)
A driver competes in stage 2B of the 47th Dakar Rally between Bisha and Bisha, on January 6, 2025. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, where hundreds of members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held, in Tecoluca, El Salvador on January 27, 2025.. The CECOT, the largest prison in Latin America and emblem of the war against gangs of the government of President Nayib Bukele, celebrates two years since it was inaugurated on February 1. (Photo by Marvin RECINOS / AFP)
A group of prospective police recruits, ready to be enrolled in the M23 controlled force, salute in the courtyard of a police station in Goma on February 6, 2025.. More than a week after the battle for the North Kivu provincial capital, the M23 on Wednesday appointed people to public positions. Goma now has two officials for many public posts — two mayors, two governors — which locals said has created confusion. The M23 administration is still in its embryonic stages and struggling to respond to daily problems in the war-wounded city. (Photo by Michel Lunanga / AFP)
Valentyna Guk stands on a roof of a heavily damaged building in the downtown of Kharkiv on March 7, 2025, amid the Russia invasion of Ukraine.. Valentyna Guk is a 21-year-old Ukrainian artist from Kharkiv who creates mosaics from broken glass. After the shelling, Valentyna collects interestingly shaped pieces of glass and then assembles them into separate mosaic forms, which she later hangs on the facades of buildings. In total, there are six of her mosaic works on the streets of Kharkiv and one in Izyum. (Photo by Ivan SAMOILOV / AFP)
Palestinian children wait for a meal at a charity kitchen in the Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2025.. The head of Gaza’s largest hospital said 21 children have died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days, amid a devastating assault by Israeli forces. (Photo by AFP)
A Palestinian woman standing in a doorway reacts as she watches the aftermath of an Israeli strike that hit Gaza City’s southern al-Zeitoun neighbourhood on August 8, 2025.. Israel’s military will “take control” of Gaza City under a new plan approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, touching off a wave of criticism Friday from both inside and outside the country. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)
A cameraman on a unicycle films athletes in action as they compete in the men’s 10000m final during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 14, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
A vehicle is seen on the edge of a hole in the ground after a road collapsed near a hospital in Bangkok on September 24, 2025.. A portion of a busy road in Thailand’s capital caved in early on September 24, leaving a hole dozens of meters deep in front of a main hospital and forcing people nearby to evacuate. (Photo by Chanakarn Laosarakham / AFP)
This picture taken from a position on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, shows the sun setting behind destroyed buildings in the Palestinian territory, on July 1, 2025. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)
A Ukrainian serviceman stands guard with a shotgun as his fellow soldiers install anti-drone nets over a road at an undisclosed location in the eastern Donetsk region on July 8, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman PILIPEY / AFP)
A protester walks amid the smoke of tear gas thrown by an anti-riot police officers during demonstration in Nantes, western France, on September 18, 2025, part of a day of nationwide strikes and protests called by unions over France’s national budget.. France is bracing for a day of nationwide protests on September 18, 2025, with a source close to the authorities saying some 800,000 people are expected to take to the streets. In a rare show of unity, trade unions have urged French people to strike in protest at the authorities’ “horror show” draft budget designed to reduce France’s ballooning debt. (Photo by Loic VENANCE / AFP)
Nuns walk on St Peter’s Square, near front of St Peter’s Basilica (seen rear), in The Vatican, on May 7, 2025. (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)
A church worker carries a portrait of the late Pope Francis during a memorial mass at the main cathedral at the El Zocalo Square in Mexico City on April 21, 2025.. Pope Francis died on April 21, 2025, aged 88, a day after making a much hoped-for appearance at Saint Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, the Vatican said in a statement. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)
