Mass protests were met with violence in several countries, Notre Dame Cathedral burned, a comic actor became president of Ukraine before getting embroiled in a U.S. domestic political dispute, while a teenager inspired action and sparked controversy with her warnings about climate change: Here are some of the images capturing the biggest stories of 2019.
2019: The Year In Photos
1
Macedonians demonstrate in front of the parliament building in Skopje on January 9. They were protesting a plan to rename the country as North Macedonia. The compromise with Greece, which took effect a month later, was seen as a key to the country's ambition to join NATO and the European Union. (epa-EFE/Georgi Licovski)
2
A girl from Anapra, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, touches hands through the border fence with a person in the United States, as priests from both countries said prayers for migrants and people of the area on February 26. The fence is one of several reinforced border barriers that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump wants to extend to create a wall on the border. (AFP/Herika Martinez)
3
A police officer fires rubber bullets during a protest against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas on January 23. (Reuters/Manaure Quintero)
4
An Iranian woman takes selfies during a ceremony to mark the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in Tehran on February 11. (Tasnim News/Vahid Ahmadi)
5
People are seen through the mesh covering a promotion point for Moldova's Socialist Party in Chisinau on February 23, a day before the country held parliamentary elections. The party won the most seats but was unable to form a coalition government in a year of political instability.
(AP/Vadim Ghirda)
(AP/Vadim Ghirda)
6
A soldier from a special "search battalion" of the Belarusian Defense Ministry takes part in the exhumation of a mass grave containing the remains of hundreds of people killed in a Jewish ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Brest in World War II. The photo was taken on February 26. The site was discovered during work on a construction project. (Reuters/Vasily Fedosenko).
7
U.S. President Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un following a summit meeting at a hotel in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27. (AFP/Saul Loeb)
8
Afghan villagers carry sheep along a flood-affected area in Kandahar Province on March 2. At least 20 people were killed by flash floods, the UN said, as heavy rains swept away homes and vehicles, damaging thousands of houses. (AFP/Javed Tanveer)
9
A car drives along a road created during the winter season to connect the banks of the ice-covered Yenisei River, south of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on March 3. (Reuters/Ilya Naymushin)
10
Mohammed Nadir (center) cries as he listens to a service for the victims of a mass shooting at the Al-Noor Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, which claimed 50 lives on March 15. (AFP/Anthony Wallace)
11
Ukrainian comic actor and presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelenskiy plays table tennis on March 31 as he visits his campaign headquarters following a presidential election in Kyiv, Ukraine. Zelenskiy was subsequently inaugurated as president in May after winning comfortably over the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko. (Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko)
12
Refugees and migrants protest near a camp in the village of Diavata, west of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, on April 6. (epa-EFE/Sotiris Barbarousis)
13
Pigeons fly in front of a large poster of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Bursa on April 7. (Reuters/Goran Tomasevic)
14
Roma children swing on tied clothes near their shelter at a camp in the village of Plemetina, Kosovo, on April 8, during International Roma Day celebrating Romany culture in Europe. (AFP/Armend Nimani)
15
The steeple and spire collapses as smoke and flames engulf Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on April 15. (AFP/Geoffroy Van der Hasselt)
16
Blood stains are seen on a statue of Jesus Christ after a bomb exploded at St. Sebastian's Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on Sunday, April 21. A series of explosions involving suicide bombers at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka killed 259 people on Easter Sunday. Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attacks. (AP)
17
Palestinians check the damage in a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5. (AFP/Said Khatib)
18
Ahmad Sayed Rahman, a five-year-old Afghan boy who lost his right leg when he was hit by a bullet in the cross fire of a battle, dances with his prosthetic leg at the International Committee of the Red Cross hospital for war victims and the disabled, in Kabul on May 7. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)
19
A detail of a dress worn to the opening ceremony of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in southern France on May 14. (Reuters/Regis Duvignau)
20
A man evacuates an injured child after a reported air strike by Syrian forces and their allies on the Syrian town of Maaret Al-Noman in the southern Idlib province on May 26. (AFP/Abdulaziz Ketaz)
21
Wildfire threatens the village of Melnichnaya Pad in the Irkutsk Region of Russia on May 27. Volunteers managed to stop the fire from spreading to a summer camp for children. (TASS/Kirill Shipitsin)
22
A woman takes part in a gay-pride parade in Bucharest, Romania, on June 22. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
23
Grounded Boeing 737 MAX aircraft are seen parked at Boeing Field in Seattle, Washington, on July 1. Aviation authorities halted flights of the aircraft model after design flaws were blamed for two deadly crashes. (Reuters/Lindsey Wasson)
24
Inga Kudracheva screams as her boyfriend Boris Kantorovich lies atop her while police try to detain him during an anti-government protest in Moscow on July 27. (AP Photo/Denis Sinyakov)
25
People hold up their cellphones as the names of the victims of a mass shooting are read during a memorial service on August 14, 2019, at Southwest University Park, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Jorge Salgado)
