AFP 1 | Roman PILIPEY
UKRAINE
A Ukrainian military vehicle drives from the direction of the border with Russia carrying blindfolded men in Russian military uniforms, in the Sumy region, on August 13, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On August 6, 2024, Ukraine launched a surprise offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk, capturing over two dozen towns and villages in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian territory since World War II. Ukraine's military chief Oleksandr Syrsky told the Ukrainian President in a video posted on August 12, 2024, that his troops now control about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory and are continuing "offensive operations".
AFP 2 | Omar AL-QATTAA
GAZA STRIP
A man takes cover behind a column as an explosion propagates smoke and dust during an Israeli strike which reportedly targeted a school in the Zeitoun district on the outskirts of Gaza City, on September 1, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group.
AFP 3 | Jack GUEZ
ISRAEL
People take cover behind vehicles under a bridge along the side of a highway in Tel Aviv on October 1, 2024. Air raid sirens sounded in central Israel on October 1, the military said, a day after the army launched ground operations into southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah positions. "Sirens sounded in central Israel," the military said, without providing details of the areas that were affected.
AFP 4 | Christophe SIMON
FRANCE
Gisele Pelicot poses in Avignon, on October 23, 2024, during the trial of her former partner accused of drugging her for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France. A court in the French southern town of Avignon is trying Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree, for repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a decade. Fifty other men, aged between 26 and 74, are also on trial for alleged involvement, in a case that has horrified France. The court proceedings, which run until December, are open to the public at the request of Dominique Pelicot's ex-wife and victim.
AFP 5 | Jose JORDAN
SPAIN
Pedestrians stand next to piled up cars following deadly floods in Sedavi, south of Valencia, eastern Spain, on October 30, 2024. Floods triggered by torrential rains in Spain's eastern Valencia region have left at least 70 people dead, rescue services said on October 30.
AFP 6 | Sameer AL-DOUMY
SYRIA
People look through documents at the Saydnaya prison in Damascus on December 11, 2024. After Assad's overthrow, thousands flocked to Saydnaya prison hoping to find loved ones who disappeared in government jails. Saydnaya is believed to have several underground levels sealed behind airtight gates.
AFP 7 | Aris MESSINIS
SYRIA
A man walks past a defaced portrait of ousted president Bashar al-Assad in the town of Adra on the northeast outskirts of Damascus on December 16, 2024. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar al-Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria.
AFP 8 | Valery HACHE
SAUDI ARABIA
A driver competes in stage 2B of the 47th Dakar Rally between Bisha and Bisha, on January 6, 2025.
AFP 9 | Josh EDELSON
USA
Firefighters work the scene as an apartment building burns during the Eaton fire in the Altadena area of Los Angeles county, California on January 8, 2025. At least five people are now known to have died in wildfires raging around Los Angeles, with more deaths feared, law enforcement said January 8, as terrifying blazes leveled whole streets, torching cars and houses in minutes. More than 1,000 buildings have burned in multiple wildfires that have erupted around America's second biggest city, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.
AFP 10 | Angela WEISS
USA
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.
AFP 11 | Sothy TANG CHHIN
CAMBODIA
Workers collect discarded items in a landfill on the outskirts of Phnom Penh on January 30, 2025.
AFP 12 | Saul LOEB
USA
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 and Trump openly clashed in the White House on February 28 at a meeting where they were due to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine's mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia. "You're not acting at all thankful. It's not a nice thing," Trump said. "It’s going to be very hard to do business like this," he added.
AFP 13 | Sameer AL-DOUMY
FRANCE
Migrants board a smuggler's boat in an attempt to cross the English Channel, off the beach of Gravelines, north of France, on March 26, 2025.
AFP 14 | Marco LONGARI
SOUTH AFRICA
Khumo Maake, an activist with Check Mate, an organization calling for the mandatory ID checks on dating apps, performs as activists carry placards during a demonstration calling for gender-based violence and femicide to be declared a national disaster, in Pretoria on April 11, 2025.
AFP 15 | Jeff PACHOUD
VATICAN
Nuns walk on St Peter's Square, in front of St Peter's Basilica (seen in the background), in The Vatican, on May 7, 2025.
AFP 16 | Bashar TALEB
GAZA STRIP
Displaced Palestinians gather to collect portions of cooked food at a charity distribution point in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 19, 2025. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on May 19 that Israel will "take control" of the whole of Gaza, as the military pressed a newly intensified campaign in the war-ravaged territory. After Israel announced it would let limited aid into Gaza, the head of the World Health Organization issued a stark warning on the humanitarian crisis in the territory, saying that "two million people are starving".
AFP 17 | Thibaud MORITZ
FRANCE
Paris Saint-Germain's players light smoke flares as they 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.
AFP 18 | Roman PILIPEY
UKRAINE
Ukrainian doctor Ihor Kolodka (C) stands amid the rubble of the destroyed building of Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital following a Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 8, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia launched more than 40 missiles at several cities across Ukraine on July 8, 2024 in an attack that killed at least 20 people and smashed into a children's hospital in Kyiv, officials said.
AFP 19 | Jerome BROUILLET
FRANCE (POLYNESIA)
Brazil's Gabriel Medina reacts after catching a large wave in the 5th heat of the men's surfing round 3, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Teahupo'o, on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti, on July 29, 2024.
AFP 20 | Luis TATO
KENYA
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 presented the 2025-2026 budget statement in downtown Nairobi on June 12, 2025. Kenyan police fired teargas at protesters angered by the killing, threatening to overshadow the government's attempts to pass the budget without unrest.