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Striking photojournalism from around the world in 2019

A selection of the best photographs taken by news agency photographers around the world this year.

News imageMark Evans / Getty Images An aerial view as a farmer feeds his sheep in Louth, Australia in February. Local communities in the Darling River area are facing drought and clean water shortages as debate grows over the alleged mismanagement of the Murray-Darling Basin.Mark Evans / Getty Images
A farmer feeds his sheep in Louth, Australia, in February. Large parts of eastern Australia endured severe drought for months, crippling farming communities.
News imageDanish Siddiqui / reuters Devotees throw turmeric powder as an offering to the shepherd god Khandoba as others carry a palanquin during 'Somvati Amavasya' at a temple in Jejuri, India, 4 February 2019.Danish Siddiqui / reuters
Devotees throw turmeric powder as an offering to the shepherd god Khandoba as others carry a palanquin during Somvati Amavasya, at a temple in Jejuri, India, in February.
News imageYasuyoshi Chiba / AFP Enia Joaquin Luis, 11, wakes up beside her sister Luisa, 6, under plastic sheets to protect themselves from rain at a shelter in Buzi, Mozambique, following Cyclone Idai in March.Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP
Enia Joaquin Luis, 11, wakes up beside her sister Luisa, six, under plastic sheets protecting them from rain, at a shelter in Buzi. Cyclone Idai struck the coast of Mozambique on 14 March, causing devastation and heavy loss of life. The UN said 1.7 million people in the country lived in the path of the cyclone, with a further 920,000 people affected in Malawi and many thousands more in Zimbabwe.
News imageHagen Hopkins / Getty Images New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a mosque-goer at the Kilbirnie Mosque in Wellington, following the mass shooting attacks on two mosques in Christchurch in 15 March 2019.Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs a woman at the Kilbirnie Mosque, in Wellington, following mass shooting attacks in Christchurch. Fifty people died on 15 March when a white supremacist attacked two mosques while livestreaming on Facebook.
News imageMicah Garen / Getty Images Kurdish families celebrate Nowruz, Kurdish New Year in the mountainous area around on Akre in Iraq. The festival in March marks the Persian New Year, as well as the vernal equinox and is celebrated by diverse communities across western and central Asia.Micah Garen / Getty Images
Kurdish families celebrate Nowruz, in the mountainous area around on Akre in Iraq. The festival, in March, marks the Persian New Year as well as the vernal equinox and is celebrated by diverse communities across western and central Asia.
News imageBehrouz Mehri / AFP Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is escorted out of the Tokyo Detention House in April following his release on bail for multiple charges of financial misconduct.Behrouz Mehri / AFP
Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn is escorted out of the Tokyo Detention House in April following his release on bail for multiple charges of financial misconduct. Ghosn's lawyers have accused the Japanese government of conspiring against him, along with prosecutors and Nissan executives.
News imageDrew Angerer / Getty Images Jesus Tavarez and Juan De La O kiss on the steps that are covered in rainbow colours for Pride Month at Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park in New York City in June.Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Jesus Tavarez and Juan De La O kiss on steps covered in rainbow colours for Pride Month at Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, in June. Hundreds of thousands of people attended this year's World Pride in New York City. A march on 30 March, one of the largest LGBT celebrations, took place 50 years after the Stonewall riots in the city, which helped energise the fight for gay equality.
News imageGeoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP The spire of the landmark Notre-Dame Cathedral collapses as the cathedral is engulfed in flames in Paris on 15 April 2019.Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt / AFP
The spire of Notre-Dame de Paris collapses as the cathedral is engulfed in flames, on 15 April. The main structure - including the two bell towers - was saved as firefighters worked through the night. President Emmanuel Macron set a five-year deadline for completing the restoration.
News imageCarl Court / Getty Images Coffins are carried to a grave during a mass funeral at St Sebastian's Church on 23 April in Negombo, Sri Lanka.Carl Court / Getty Images
Coffins are carried to a grave during a mass funeral at St Sebastian's Church on 23 April in Negombo, Sri Lanka. A wave of bombings targeting churches and hotels left more than 250 people dead and many more injured. The bombers struck on Easter Sunday in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa.
News imageCourtesy Lana H Haroun Alaa Salah, gestures (as people film her on their mobile phones) during a protest, along a bridge in Khartoum, Sudan, demanding Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to step down, 8 April 2019.Courtesy Lana H Haroun
Student Alaa Salah, 22, was nicknamed The Nubian Queen after a video of her leading chants against former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir went viral in April.
News imageKevin Lamarque / Reuters President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas, 30 June 2019.Kevin Lamarque / Reuters
President Trump met the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, at the demarcation line between North and South Korea on 30 June. The two men shook hands, with Mr Kim saying he had never expected to meet the president at this place. Mr Trump then crossed over into North Korea, the first US President to do so.
News imageDiana Sanchez / AFP People participate in the tenth annual tomato fightDiana Sanchez / AFP
The 10th annual tomato-fight festival, Tomatina, took place in Sutamarchan, Colombia, in June, to mark the end of the tomato harvest.
News imageChristopher Furlong / Getty Images Military re-enactors look on as 280 paratroopers take part in a parachute drop onto fields at Sannerville on 5 June 2019 at Sannerville, France.Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
Military re-enactors look on as 280 paratroops take part in a parachute drop on to fields at Sannerville, France. Veterans, families, visitors and military personnel gathered on 6 June to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings, which heralded the Allied advance towards Germany and victory in Europe 11 months later.
News imageJim Lo Scalzo / EPA Democratic Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley speak out in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, USA. 15 July 2019.Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA
The US House of Representatives voted to condemn President Donald Trump after, in a series of tweets in July, he said congresswomen Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley "originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe" and should "go back".
News imagePhilippe Wojazer / Reuters Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, Ivy-Fleur Boileau, Virgile Mouquet, Adelaide Charlier and Alicia Arquetoux - French activists from the Youth for Climate movement - attend the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, France, 23 July 2019.Philippe Wojazer / Reuters
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg and Ivy-Fleur Boileau, Virgile Mouquet, Adelaide Charlier and Alicia Arquetoux, from the Youth for Climate movement, attend the questions to the government session at the National Assembly in Paris, in July. Ms Thunberg later became Time magazine's youngest Person of the Year.
News imageIsaac Lawrence / AFP Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water cannons outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong, 15 September 2019.Isaac Lawrence / AFP
Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water cannon in Hong Kong in September. The protests started in June over a controversial extradition bill but evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the territory for more than six months.
News imagePaula Bronstein / Getty Images Afghans listen to speeches during the final campaign rally for presidential candiate Abdullah Abdullah in BamiyanPaula Bronstein / Getty Images
Afghans listen to speeches during the final campaign rally for presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah in Bamiyan. Low turnout was widely reported during Afghanistan's presidential poll as many voters were worried about security following threats from the Taliban.
News imageLOREN ELLIOTT / Reuters A destroyed house is seen in the wake of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, Bahamas, 8 September 2019.LOREN ELLIOTT / Reuters
A destroyed house is seen in the wake of Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbour, Great Abaco, Bahamas. The most powerful storm to hit the Bahamas since records began left widespread devastation, at least 43 dead and many more still missing days after the storm passed in September.
News imageDanish Ismail / Reuters A masked Kashmiri man with his head covered with barbed wire attends a protest in Srinagar in October following the scrapping of the special constitutional status for Kashmir by the Indian government.Danish Ismail / Reuters
A masked man with his head covered with barbed wire attends a protest in Srinagar in October, following the scrapping of the special constitutional status for Kashmir by the Indian government.
News imageJosh Edelson / AFP Fire-fighters work to control flames from a backfire during the Maria fire in Santa Paula, California on 1 November 2019.Josh Edelson / AFP
Firefighters work on a back-fire in an attempt to control the Maria fire, in Santa Paula, California, in November. Nearly 100,000 acres (400 sq km) have been burned by wildfires and thousands of people have had to leave their homes.
News imageUeslei Marcelino / REUTERS A man from the Guajajara community stands by a fire at a loggers campUeslei Marcelino / REUTERS
A man from the Guajajara community - a member of Guardians of the Forest, a group formed to combat logging gangs in the area - stands by a fire at a loggers' camp on Arariboia indigenous land near the city of Amarante, Maranhao state. Brazil's populist President Jair Bolsonaro has drawn intense domestic and international criticism for failing to protect the Guardians' territory in the eastern Amazon region.
News imageDelil Souleiman/AFP A woman covers her face against a background of smoke plumesDelil Souleiman/AFP
A woman covers her face by a road near the Syrian Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain, along the border with Turkey. Behind her, tyre fires have been lit to decrease visibility for Turkish warplanes. In October, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved against Kurdish forces after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of Syria's border region.
News imageVeronica G. Cardenas / Reuters A baby in front of the gates to the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros, MexicoVeronica G. Cardenas / Reuters
A Mexican one-year-old awaiting her turn to seek asylum in the US with her mother is seen in front of the gates to the Gateway International Bridge in Matamoros.

All Photographs copyright of the named photographers and agencies