As 2017 draws to a close, we take a look at powerful photos from around the world that tell some of the year’s most important stories.
Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, known as Abu Omar, 70, sits amid the rubble in his bedroom while listening to music on his gramophone in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria.
Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
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Mohammed Mohiedin Anis, known as Abu Omar, 70, sits amid the rubble in his bedroom while listening to music on his gramophone in the formerly rebel-held al-Shaar neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria.
Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
The toll of Syria’s civil war
The war between Syrian rebels and government forces began in 2011 and has displaced millions and left hundreds of thousands dead. Much of Aleppo — Syria’s centuries-old city known as its economic capital and celebrated for its beauty, history and culture — lay in ruins after years of fighting. After President Bashar Assad’s military recaptured the city in late 2016, residents including 70-year-old Mohammed Mohiedin Anis returned and found homes damaged or destroyed. “He played one of his favorite songs,” AFP photographer Joseph Eid told Time magazine — a recording by Syrian singer Mohamed Dia al-Din. “He is so attached to his past and to the things that he always cherished and loved, and without them he will lose his identity,” Eid said. “That’s why he insists on staying and getting back his life again.”
The agony of a stateless people
In August, Rohingya Muslims began fleeing in large numbers from Myanmar to Bangladesh. By year’s end, more than 600,000 had crossed into Bangladesh, where many now live in temporary camps. A Myanmar army crackdown, which followed an August attack by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar police posts and an army base, led to the mass departure of people recognized nowhere as citizens. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein called Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and has suggested that the Myanmar military may be guilty of genocide against the Muslim minority group.
Syrian refugee girls (from left) Shahd Alamar, 8, Lana Alkhawaja, 9, Maya Alamar, 4, Amal Sakkal, 8, and Hala Alhalaby, 8, play in a hallway at the former prison of Bijlmerbajes in Amsterdam.
Muhammed Muheisen/AP
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Muhammed Muheisen/AP
Syrian refugee girls (from left) Shahd Alamar, 8, Lana Alkhawaja, 9, Maya Alamar, 4, Amal Sakkal, 8, and Hala Alhalaby, 8, play in a hallway at the former prison of Bijlmerbajes in Amsterdam.
Muhammed Muheisen/AP
Starting new lives
More than 2.5 million people applied for asylum in European Union countries in 2015 and 2016. Even as many European nations tightened their borders in 2017, migrants continued to arrive. In the Netherlands, 34,000 migrants applied for asylum between November 2016 and October 2017. For some, empty prisons became temporary homes, part of a government effort to shelter newcomers awaiting word on their status. “If a country has no prisoners to put in jail,” a Syrian refugee in the Netherlands told Associated Press photographer Muhammed Muheisen, “it means this is the safest country that I want to be living in.”
Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga speaks at a rally in October in Kisumu, Kenya.
Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images
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Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga speaks at a rally in October in Kisumu, Kenya.
Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images
A disputed election
Kenya was thrown into political turmoil with two elections. President Uhuru Kenyatta’s October reelection — with 98 percent of the vote — was rejected by opposition leader Raila Odinga, who boycotted the polls. The October election followed an Aug. 8 vote that Odinga had challenged and the country’s Supreme Court had ruled unconstitutional. Election-related violence resulted in dozens of deaths. The court upheld Kenyatta’s October win, and he was inaugurated in November.
Flowers and tributes were left in Manchester’s St. Ann’s Square honoring the memories of those who died in May’s terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
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Flowers and tributes were left in Manchester’s St. Ann’s Square honoring the memories of those who died in May’s terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena.
Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Terrorism in Britain
Twenty-two concert-goers, some of them children, were killed in a suicide attack claimed by ISIS following a performance by Ariana Grande at Britain’s Manchester Arena in May. It was not the only terrorist attack the U.K. sustained in 2017: Others targeted a London mosque and an Underground station, and took place on Westminster Bridge and London Bridge.
A pro-independence demonstrator lies on a Catalan flag on Sept. 20 in Barcelona.
Armando Gallardo
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Armando Gallardo
A pro-independence demonstrator lies on a Catalan flag on Sept. 20 in Barcelona.
Armando Gallardo
Catalonia’s independence bid
A showdown between Madrid and Catalonia’s regional government roiled Spain. The central government dismissed Catalonia’s parliament in October, just as the region declared independence. Fearing arrest, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont fled to Belgium and for now, remains in exile. By year’s end, pro-independence parties were back in charge in Catalonia, and tensions looked likely to continue. Meanwhile, Catalans remain divided over whether to split from Spain.
The battle for Mosul
In February, Iraqi troops launched an operation to liberate the western part of Mosul, the last area of the city to remain under ISIS control. ISIS had seized the Iraqi city in 2014, and government forces took back east Mosul in January. The west was finally liberated in July. Thousands of civilians were killed in the battle and much now lies in ruins. Some feared that “recapturing Mosul will be the end of one battle but the beginning of another,” observes freelance photographer Tommy Trenchard, who covered the fight to retake the city.
Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening session of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People on Oct. 18 in Beijing.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
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Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at the opening session of the 19th Communist Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People on Oct. 18 in Beijing.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Xi ascendant
Chinese President Xi Jinping touted “a new era” for China as he opened the 19th national congress of the Communist Party in October. “We are closer than any time in history to realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he said. The congress helped cement Xi’s own power, unmatched by any Chinese leader in years: It gave him a second term as president, formally enshrined his theories in the constitution and approved a new leadership lineup that omitted any clear successor.
President Trump, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (center) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (left) place their hands on an illuminated globe as First Lady Melania Trump watches during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh in May.
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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President Trump, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (center) and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (left) place their hands on an illuminated globe as First Lady Melania Trump watches during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh in May.
Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The ‘glowing orb’
As President Trump made his first overseas trip as president in May, the image of him and the leaders of Egypt and Saudi Arabia laying hands on a large glass sphere lit up social media around the world. Speculation about the object — dubbed the “glowing orb” by both the Washington Post and New York Times — ranged from the stuff of science fiction to fables, fantasy and comic book creations. It was, in the end, a world globe. The event at which it was featured was the inauguration of a Saudi center to fight extremism.
Members of Zimbabwe’s parliament celebrate in Harare after Robert Mugabe’s resignation on Nov. 21.
Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
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Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
Members of Zimbabwe’s parliament celebrate in Harare after Robert Mugabe’s resignation on Nov. 21.
Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images
An authoritarian era ends
When Zimbabwe’s military turned against President Robert Mugabe and placed him under house arrest in November, it marked the demise of a ruler who had kept a firm grip on power for 37 years. Mugabe, 93, hung on awhile longer; for nearly a week during his house arrest, he ignored calls to step down. When he finally resigned on Nov. 21, many Zimbabweans, including those in his own party, were euphoric. Mugabe’s successor, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has promised economic revival and a “new and unfolding democracy.” Questions remain about the role of Zimbabwe’s military.
This picture taken on July 4, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrating a successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14.
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This picture taken on July 4, and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on July 5, shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un celebrating a successful test-fire of the intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14.
STR/AFP/Getty Images
North Korea’s tests
North Korea advanced its weapons capability, carrying out nuclear and missile tests throughout the year. In January, Kim Jong Un announced that his country had “entered the final stage of preparation for the test launch of intercontinental ballistic missile.” In July, that launch took place. President Trump vowed to respond with “fire and fury like the world has never seen.” But the world continues to grapple with the threat of North Korea’s nukes.
Afghan police gesture to four-year-old Ali Ahmad on Aug. 25 after a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul.
Omar Sobhani/Reuters
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Omar Sobhani/Reuters
Afghan police gesture to four-year-old Ali Ahmad on Aug. 25 after a suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul.
Omar Sobhani/Reuters
Afghanistan’s uncertainty
Violence continued unabated in Afghanistan, which entered its 37th year of conflict. The U.N. documented more than 8,000 civilian casualties in the first nine months of 2017, many attributable to attacks by the Taliban and Afghanistan’s Islamic State affiliate.
When ISIS terrorists attacked the Imam Zaman Shiite mosque in Kabul in August, police made frantic efforts to protect a young boy they saw standing alone in the courtyard. “He had been playing while his grandfather was praying inside when the attack happened and he seemed completely confused by the sound of gunshots and police shouting,” Reuters photographer Omar Sobhani later recalled. The child’s grandfather was killed. The boy “was not able to decide whether the policemen who were calling him were really police or [ISIS],” a relative told Afghanistan’s TOLO News. “By Allah’s help, finally policemen rescued him and took him out.”
Anti-government protesters aim a giant slingshot with a glass bottle containing fecal matter at security forces in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 10.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
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Ariana Cubillos/AP
Anti-government protesters aim a giant slingshot with a glass bottle containing fecal matter at security forces in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 10.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
Venezuela’s turmoil
A collapsed economy, severe food shortages and the jailing of opposition leaders were among the hallmarks of a tumultuous year in Venezuela. President Nicolas Maduro and his socialist government were targets of huge protests. By year’s end, the protests had largely dissipated but the country’s problems had not.
(Left) A portrait of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, hangs at Windsor Castle. (Right) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement at Kensington Palace on Nov. 27.
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(Left) A portrait of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, hangs at Windsor Castle. (Right) Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their engagement at Kensington Palace on Nov. 27.
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A royal spouse retires and another joins the family
Britain’s Prince Philip announced in May that he would be retiring from public life in August, at age 96. He and Queen Elizabeth celebrated their 70th anniversary on Nov. 20. A week later, a new royal engagement was announced: Prince Harry, 33, and American actress Meghan Markle, 36, declared their intention to marry in 2018.
Article source: https://www.npr.org/2017/12/30/571913934/the-photos-that-tell-some-of-2017s-biggest-international-stories?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news