A Gaza mass wedding and a Durbar horse procession: celebrating the agency photographers of 2025

Members of the Mahogany Blue Baby Dolls march in the 25th Anniversary Satchmo Salute second line parade honouring the jazz legend Louis Armstrong, in New Orleans, Louisiana, 3 August.

A firefighting helicopter drops water on the Sunset wildfire in the Hollywood Hills as evacuations are ordered in Los Angeles, California, 8 January.

Beachfront homes destroyed by the Palisades fire in Malibu, California, 15 January.

Federal agents block people protesting against an ICE immigration raid at a cannabis farm near Camarillo, California, 10 July.

Ukrainian servicemen of the 59th brigade mobile air defence unit fire a Soviet-made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin autocannon towards a Russian drone during an air attack near Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region, 19 July.

People swim in a lake on a hot summer day on the outskirts of Sloviansk, eastern Donetsk region, 13 July.

Relatives, friends and others mourn at the coffins of Myroslava Kopcha and Artur Vilchynskyi, two Ukrainian soldiers of the Barracuda air reconnaissance unit killed in action in the Chernihiv region, during a funeral ceremony at St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv, 28 November.

Attenders pose with classic cars exhibited during the Isimi Festival 2025 at the Isimi Lagos Wellness and Polo country estate in Epe, Lagos State, 29 November.

Members of the royal guard ride in the Durbar horse procession in Dutse, 1 April 2025.

A hiker leads a group along a rocky path on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, June. The group organises hikes in a city where, despite being ringed by verdant hills, public trails are virtually nonexistent.

People stand on top of rubble as they watch and celebrate a mass wedding ceremony in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, 2 December.

The Israeli captive Arbel Yehoud, held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since 7 October 2023, is escorted by fighters as she is handed over to the Red Cross on 30 January.

A table, surrounded by the rubble of destroyed homes and buildings, for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, on the first day of Ramadan in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, 1 March.

Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City with their belongings along the coastal road in Nuseirat, toward the southern Gaza Strip, 19 September.

Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin, 15 August, at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Republican members of Congress reach to shake hands with the speaker of the house, Mike Johnson, after he signed Trump’s bill of tax breaks and spending cuts in Washington DC, 3 July.

Tymofii Lifyrynko, 11, waits out an air raid alarm in an underground shelter in Shostka, Ukraine, 16 October.

The National Guard patrols in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, Washington, 28 November.

Einav Zangauker, the mother of the hostage Matan Zangauker, after the announcement that Israel and Hamas had agreed on the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire, in Tel Aviv, Israel, 9 October.

Israeli soldiers exit a tunnel underneath the European hospital in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip, 8 June.

Protesters are sprayed with water as police try to disperse them, after families of hostages called for a nationwide strike to demand the return of all hostages and an end to the war in Gaza, in Jerusalem, 17 August.

A man crosses a muddy street where cars are piled up after being swept away in the floods brought on by Typhoon Kalmaegi in Bacayan, Cebu City, Philippines, 5 November.

Filipino Catholic devotees surround the carriage carrying the statue of the Black Nazarene as its annual procession begins on its feast day in Manila, Philippines, 9 January.

A boy sleeps on sacks of garbage along the polluted Pasig River on World Environment Day in Manila, Philippines, 5 June.

Afghan migrants cross the Torkham border in Afghanistan, after the government of Pakistan intensified its forced deportation drive, 15 September.

A family rebuild their home in the destroyed neighbourhood of Jobar, on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, 16 April.

The tail of a plane that crashed shortly after take-off sticks out of a medical college hostel in Ahmedabad, India, 12 June.

Children engage with an ANP policeman of the Police District 11 in Kabul, Afghanistan, 17 September.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, after their delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, 5 December.

Members of the Malagasy army ride on a pickup truck to secure the area around Lake Anosy after protests calling for the resignation of the president, Andry Rajoelina, in Antananarivo, Madagascar, 11 October.

Youths push the casket of Boniface Kariuki, a street hawker who died days after he was shot by Kenyan police during nationwide protests against police conduct and government policies, before his funeral in Nairobi, 11 July.

Protesters run for cover at a protest outside the police headquarters over the death of the blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody, in Nairobi, Kenya, 12 June.

Inline roller hockey players, some from the Kenyan ice hockey national team, gather to practice and teach junior players who cannot afford ice-rink time at a car park in downtown Nairobi, 26 January.

People attempt to cross the Channel from northern France to reach Britain, 25 August.

The body of Guy Illouz, taken hostage alive from the Nova festival during the deadly 7 October 2023 attack and returned to Israel as part of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, is carried during his funeral in Israel, 15 October.

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, stands next to his wife, Victoria, after delivering his keynote speech at the Labour party’s annual conference in Liverpool, 30 September.

A bomb disposal robot works by the body of an attacker at the scene of an incident in which a car was driven at pedestrians and people were stabbed outside a synagogue in north Manchester, 2 October.

Hannah Botterman, Rosie Galligan, Zoe Harrison, Jess Breach and Maddie Feaunati celebrate with the Women’s Rugby World Cup trophy inside the dressing room after England’s victory in the final against Canada at the Allianz Stadium, London, 27 September.

Hannah Newbrook competes in the Aquatics GB Diving Championships in Smethwick, UK, 7 June.

Jess Shaw of England in action during the Netball Horizon Series match between England Vitality Roses and New Zealand Silver Ferns at the AO Arena, Manchester, 19 November.

A protester wearing a police flak jacket shouts slogans at the Singha Durbar, the seat of Nepal’s government ministries and offices, during a demonstration against a social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, 9 September.

Police secure the site of a building set on fire by a pro-monarchist group during a protest in Kathmandu, Nepal, 28 March.

Monks play badminton in front of a monastery at Kagbeni, in the Mustang region, about 300 miles west of Kathmandu, 17 April.

Protesters celebrate at the Singha Durbar after it was set on fire during a demonstration against a social media ban and corruption in Kathmandu, Nepal, 9 September.