World Press Photo announced the Photo of the Year of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest, awarding the world’s best photojournalism and documentary photography. 

World Press Photo of the Year of 2026

Separated by ICE

“Please understand we are coming here for a better opportunity, not just for ourselves, but for our children,” said Cocha, after her husband, Luis, was detained by ICE agents following an immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building.

Luis, an Ecuadorian migrant whom his family says has no criminal record, served as the household’s sole provider.

This photograph, taken inside one of the few US federal buildings where photographers were granted access, captures a harrowing moment: a family separated by the state.

What Carol Guzy has documented is not an isolated instance, but a policy indiscriminately applied to people who arrive for hearings in good faith.

Cocha and their three children – ages seven, 13, and 15 – were left inconsolable, facing immediate financial hardship and profound emotional trauma.

In a democracy, the camera’s presence in that hallway is an essential witness to a policy that has turned courthouses into sites of shattered lives.

Picture: Carol Guzy, ZUMA Press, iWitness, for Miami Herald

When Giants Fall

In 2025, the government of Zimbabwe authorized the culling (killing for the purpose of population control) of 50 elephants in the Savé Valley Conservancy.

This decision followed a 2024 cull of 200. Authorities say the growing population has surpassed what the land can sustain, worsening human-wildlife conflict as drought drives elephants searching for food and water into closer contact with people.

Wildlife organizations dispute claims of overpopulation and condemn culling. They have raised concerns including the fracturing of elephant social structures, and the trauma inflicted on surviving animals, which could increase aggression toward humans.

Professional hunters shoot a family of elephants identified for culling. Sango Wildlife Conservancy, Savé Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe, 23 October 2025.

Picture: Halden Krog

Joburg Ballet School

In apartheid South Africa, ballet was the preserve of white culture, inaccessible to people of color.

Today, the Joburg Ballet School offers subsidized training to children from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, with locations in Soweto, Alexandra, and Braamfontein.

Parents describe seeing their children learn ballet as something they never thought possible.

Young dancers from the Joburg Ballet School backstage at the Soweto Theatre during their year-end performance. Soweto, South Africa, 7 December 2025.

Picture: Ihsaan Haffejee, for GroundUp

Children Who Do Not Exist

Tens of thousands of Kenyan women migrate to Saudi Arabia for domestic work, where many endure abusive conditions, including passport confiscation and withheld wages.

While working there, Edith Magomere Ingasiani hid her pregnancy; unmarried women who give birth risk arrest.

She delivered her daughter Blessings alone in January 2016, raising her in the shadows for years.

When Edith tried to return home to Kenya, Blessings’ lack of documents trapped them in bureaucratic limbo.

In 2024, they finally made it back. “Home is always the answer,” she says. “It took eight years to get there.”

Edith Magomere Ingasiani and her daughter Blessings Iminza (9), at their home.

Blessings was born in Saudi Arabia without a birth certificate. Vihiga County, Kenya, 30 August 2025.

Picture: Kiana Hayeri, for The New York Times

Sudan’s War: A Nation Trapped

After a 2019 revolution overthrew decades of dictatorship, Sudan’s democratic hopes were crushed by a military coup in 2021.

Two years later, the army and paramilitary forces turned on each other, beginning a war that has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

As famine spreads and essential services collapse, foreign powers continue to fuel the conflict with weapons.

Over 13 million people have been displaced, and at least 150,000 killed.

The UN reports that civilian killings more than doubled in 2025 compared with the previous year.

Alhaja Abdallah, a displaced woman from Bara, shows her scars from a fire at Al-Mohad camp.

Paramilitary forces have set multiple displacement camps ablaze. El-Obeid, Sudan, 10 December 2025.

Picture: Abdulmonam Eassa, for Le Monde

Botanical Britain Runner-Up
The Algaeverse

Tbourida is a UNESCO-recognized Moroccan equestrian tradition dating back to the 16th century. Troupes gallop in unison, firing rifles in a choreographed performance of cavalry warfare.
 
Historically excluded, female riders have fought for inclusion since Morocco’s 2004 family code reforms strengthened women’s legal rights.

Today, seven all-female troupes now ride among some 300.

These farīsāt (horsewomen) bear significant personal costs, funding their own horses, costumes, and gunpowder permits.

Their perseverance stands as a powerful claim to women’s rightful place in Moroccan cultural heritage.

Noura attempts to control her horse after firing, the most dangerous part of the performance.

Riders risk injury from gunpowder or falling and being trampled.

Sidi Rahal, Morocco, 8 August 2025.

Picture: Chantal Pinzi, Panos Pictures

Madagascar’s Gen Z Protests

In September 2025, students began protesting across Madagascar over failing public services, corruption, and economic hardship.

When President Andry Rajoelina dissolved his government but refused to resign, demonstrations intensified.

On 11 October, the CAPSAT military unit defected to join the protesters, the same force that had installed Rajoelina in a 2009 coup.

Days later, the military seized power, promising elections within two years.

In a pattern seen across Gen Z uprisings in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bulgaria, Madagascar’s youth forced regime change, but were excluded from shaping the political transition that followed.

Members of the CAPSAT military unit ride a pickup truck as protesters celebrate their arrival, following clashes between demonstrators and security forces. Antananarivo, Madagascar, 11 October 2025.

Picture: Luis Tato, Agence France-Presse

Moon Dust

More than 30,000 residents of Wadi El-Qamar, also known as Moon Valley, in western Alexandria, Egypt, live less than 15 meters from a cement factory that fills their homes with toxic dust.

Children are born with asthma. Families suffer from lung disease and irreversible respiratory damage. In 2016, the photographer – who lives nearby and has asthma himself – began documenting their stories and ongoing legal battles.

Awady, who was born with asthma, raises pigeons as a hobby. “Every day, I am afraid I won’t be able to play football again,” he says. Alexandria, Egypt, 14 February 2018.

Picture: Mohamed Mahdy, Arab Documentary Photography Program

Bondi Beach Terror Attack

During Bondi Beach’s 'Chanukah by the Sea,' a community event celebrating the Jewish holiday, two armed men motivated by ISIS ideology attacked participants, killing 15 people.

The first victims were Boris (69) and Sofia (61) Gurman, a Ukrainian-Jewish couple who had migrated to Australia decades earlier.

Dashcam footage revealed that Boris approached one of the attackers and successfully wrested a rifle away. Shortly after, Syrian-Australian shopkeeper Ahmed al-Ahmed charged the second gunman and disarmed him.

In their struggles against the gunmen, al-Ahmed was shot twice and wounded, and the Gurmans were killed.

According to authorities, these collective acts of defiance delayed the shooters and saved lives.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the mass shooting an antisemitic attack and the deadliest terrorist incident on Australian soil ever. The shooting has prompted a significant re-evaluation of public security and religious freedom protections in Australia.

Picture: Edwina Pickles, The Sydney Morning Herald

Mountain Resident of Wanglang

Recent population estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 pandas remain in the wild, and only a few dozen individuals live within Wanglang National Nature Reserve’s 323-square-kilometer territory.

This rare sighting was made possible through a pilot exchange program between the National Geographic Society and wildlife biologists, aimed at supporting wildlife monitoring efforts and fostering cross-cultural cooperation in conservation.

Established in 1965, Wanglang is one of China’s oldest wild panda nature reserves and today serves as a key site for education and scientific research collaboration within the larger Giant Panda National Park system.

A wild giant panda is captured by a camera trap in the Wanglang National Nature Reserve. Sichuan, China, 11 November 2025.

Picture: Rob G. Green, National Geographic Society, Henry Luce Foundation

A Desperate Plea

A massive fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po claimed 168 lives, becoming Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948.

While no official cause has been reported, investigations by Hong Kong authorities found that bamboo scaffolding, construction netting, and flammable Styrofoam boards on windows acted as accelerants for the fire, trapping residents inside.

More than 2,000 firefighters were involved in rescue efforts, killing one and injuring twelve.

Mr Wong cries out in anguish as fire engulfs the Tai Po housing complex he calls home.

Moments earlier, he phoned his wife, who was trapped in the building, and they exchanged what would be their final words.

Hong Kong, 26 November 2025.

Picture: Tyrone Siu, Reuters

Wedding in the Flood

When Typhoon Wipha hit the Philippines and flooded Barasoain Church, Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar faced a difficult decision: should they cancel their wedding or proceed with the marriage?

The couple carried on despite high waters, a testament to love and resilience in the face of severe weather.

Located on a delta, Bulacan province is vulnerable to more frequent and extreme floods caused by aging drainage systems, dredging projects, overextraction of groundwater, and climate change.

Bride Jamaica Aguilar prepares to enter the flooded Barasoain Church for her wedding.

The Barasoain Church, a national landmark, is situated in a region where nearly 75% of the population is exposed to flooding hazards.

Malolos, Bulacan province, Philippines, 22 July 2025.

Picture: Aaron Favila, Associated Press

Scam Hub Under Siege

On 21 November 2025, the Karen National Liberation Army captured Shunda Park, a massive cyber-scam compound in Myanmar’s Karen State.

As the country’s civil war intensifies, lawless border regions have become hubs for a lucrative online scam industry.

Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have been trafficked into Southeast Asia and forced into labor for these illegal enterprises.

When rebel forces ousted the junta-allied militia guarding the park, thousands of workers from 30 nations were stranded in Myanmar.

A Karen National Liberation Army soldier patrols the Shunda Park compound.

Approximately 900 Chinese employees remained barricaded here for weeks after the raid, fearing that repatriation could lead to immediate arrest by Chinese authorities.

Min Let Pan, Myanmar, 5 December 2025.

Picture: Jes Aznar, for The New York Times

The Last Dolphin Hunters

Fanalei, a low-lying island in the Solomon Islands, stands at a crossroads between contested tradition and a changing economy.

For generations, dolphin hunting provided food and income, with dolphin teeth used as ritual currency for bride-price and other forms of local exchange.

Today, as rising sea levels displace the community and threaten its future, seaweed farming is providing an economic alternative to the seasonal hunt.

As seaweed farming expands, fewer people are available for the collective efforts upon which dolphin hunting depends.

This story captures a community reshaped by environmental pressure and shifting traditions.

A young man drags a dolphin toward the shore in Walande.

While Fanalei struggled this season, the larger sister community of Walande successfully landed a catch to share across the Surodo Lagoon.

Maramasike Island, 11 February 2025.

Picture: Matthew Abbott, Oculi, for The New York Times

Motherhood at 60

After the death of her only child, retired doctor Sheng Hailin sought in vitro fertilization treatment (IVF) and gave birth to twin girls named Zhizhi and Huihui at the age of 60.

This story follows Sheng Hailin’s family over 15 years, offering a portrait that is both extraordinary and mundane, but always filled with enduring love.

In China, Sheng Hailin is only one of many shīdú, parents who have lost their only child born during China’s one-child policy era. 

Zhizhi and Huihui attend dance training. The cost of the girls’ education and extracurricular activities placed a significant financial burden on the aging family.

Hefei, Anhui Province, China, 23 May 2021.

Picture: Wu Fang

Russian Attack on Kyiv

On 24 April 2025, Russia launched one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Hours after international peace negotiations stalled again, missiles and drones struck at least five residential neighborhoods, killing 13 people and wounding 90.

Russia’s intensifying air campaign continues to devastate life across the country, systematically targeting infrastructure, hospitals, and educational institutions.

By December 2025, at least 14,775 civilians had been killed since the invasion began.

April 2025 was the worst month for child casualties in nearly three years.

Picture: Evgeniy Maloletka, Associated Press

Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 and 15-17 Years Winner
Feathery Pillow

Germany’s care homes are facing two crises: staff shortages and loneliness.

A 2023 study found that one in five residents aged 80 and older describe themselves as “severely lonely.”

This reality has prompted trials of social robots like Emma, developed by a Munich-based startup.

Waltraud, a resident of Haus im Wiesengrund in Albershausen, had her doubts but over time formed a bond with Emma.

“When she tells her jokes, that’s really good. That’s my kind of humor,” says Waltraud, though she emphasizes that human contact is always preferable.

Waltraud talks with Emma, a social robot that recognizes faces and remembers past conversations.

Though skeptical at first, Waltraud says she felt connected to Emma over time. Albershausen, Germany, 3 July 2025.

Picture: Paula Hornickel

Polar Bear on Sperm Whale

Polar bears are primarily seal predators, but as ice retreats in the summer and hunting becomes harder, they increasingly rely on opportunistic scavenging.

Near Svalbard, the ice-free season has lengthened by 20 weeks in the last 30 years. Sperm whales typically avoid ice-covered polar waters, so this carcass was a rare sight.

Scientists speculate that after dying, the male sperm whale drifted north, carried by winds and currents.

The photographer spent two days observing the scene from a small boat, capturing it by drone to reveal a scale difficult to grasp from sea level. 

A female polar bear feeds on a sperm whale carcass in the polar pack ice north of the Norwegian archipelago, Svalbard. 82° North, International Waters, 8 July 2025.

Picture: Roie Galitz

Burned Land

2025 was a record year for wildfires in Europe. More than 200,000 hectares burned across Galicia during Spain’s worst fire season in about three decades.

The increasingly severe fires in this region are attributed to drought and heat intensified by climate change, rural depopulation, and shortsighted forest management policies, including the widespread planting of highly flammable non-native species.

Born in Ourense, the photographer grew up with the smell of smoke every summer and has documented Galician wildfires since 2011.

The Larouco wildfire, the worst in Galicia’s recorded history, burns through the night as flames reach O Courel – a mountain range of great biodiversity.

Sierra de O Courel, Galicia, Spain, 19 August 2025.

Picture: Brais Lorenzo, EFE, Revista 5W, El País

Drone Wars

Ukraine’s battle against the Russian invasion is reshaping modern combat.

Hobby drones are being repurposed into remote-controlled weapons, and mass-produced first-person-view (FPV) drones are piloted from kilometers away with deadly precision.

These developments have triggered an unrelenting drone arms race and turned vast areas of Ukraine into “kill zones”.

Civilians are targeted and displaced, and soldiers spend most of their time in underground bunkers or basements, unable to be resupplied or casualty-evacuated.

This story documents Ukraine's efforts to advance its drone capabilities, and the impact of Russian drone attacks on civilians.

A Ukrainian soldier, known by the call sign “Ara,” uses his partially amputated arm to steady a drone being fitted with a grenade.

Wounded in 2022, he now trains recruits in drone operations. Donetsk region, Ukraine, 5 August 2024.

Picture: David Guttenfelder, The New York Times

Engla Louise

Engla Louise, a former dancer, has lived with severe anorexia nervosa since she was ten years old.

At 46, she weighs less than 25 kilograms and has been tube-fed since 2019.

Researchers increasingly describe anorexia as a disease of both body and mind.

Its causes – not fully understood – are thought to involve neurobiological, genetic, and environmental factors.

After decades of treatment, Engla Louise is now considered therapy-resistant and receives palliative care at home.

This project aims to broaden the discussion about care for people living with severe eating disorders.

Engla Louise gathers lilacs from the Linköping Garden Society park beside her home.

Being surrounded by beauty is important to her.

Linköping, Sweden, 14 May 2025.

Picture: Sanna Sjöswärd, for Corren

Extramuros

In the peripheral neighborhoods of France’s banlieues, migrant families navigate postcolonial legacies, higher rates of unemployment, and structural inequality.

France’s integration system requires migrants to culturally assimilate while prejudice persists, leaving communities caught between exclusion and belonging.

Yet these communities are also spaces of creativity and resilience that shape contemporary French culture.

Documenting his friends and family, the photographer – born to Cambodian refugees – portrays lives in which community and solidarity are the clearest markers of identity.

Young men gather on a rooftop in the Briques Rouges, one of Verneuil-sur-Seine’s largest social housing projects. France, 21 July 2023.

Picture: William Keo, La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Die Zeit

Columbia University Pro-Palestine Protests

Facing intense political pressure to limit pro-Palestine demonstrations, many US universities became focal points in a national conflict over free speech and institutional independence.

At Columbia University, the Trump administration suspended $400 million in federal funding to force a crackdown on campus protests, causing severe administrative upheaval.

The students were caught in this institutional crossfire, but many members of the graduating class of 2025 as well as alumni chose to exercise their first amendment rights in protests and demonstrations.

Barnard College alumna Jesse Pearce is arrested outside Columbia University’s commencement ceremony.

Along with current students, alumni protested the institution’s ongoing financial ties to Israel.

New York City, New York, United States, 21 May 2025.

Picture: Alex Kent, for The New York Times

Portland Protests ICE

In 2025, the Trump administration shifted its immigration enforcement from the border to the US interior, aiming for 3,000 arrests per day and abandoning protections for schools, hospitals, courthouses, and places of worship.

In response, Portland, a “sanctuary city” that prohibits its own state and local law forces to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, became a flashpoint for resistance.

During the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations in June, localized protests escalated into nightly clashes outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies clash with demonstrators outside an ICE processing center.

The intense summer protests centered on opposing the administration’s escalating mass-deportation agenda.

Portland, Oregon, United States, 24 June 2025.

Picture: Jan Sonnenmair

The Trials of the Achi Women

For four decades, a group of Indigenous Maya Achi women in Rabinal lived in the same communities as the men who had raped them, sometimes as neighbors.

Guatemala’s civil war led to the genocide of thousands of Maya Achi people by the military and local state-backed paramilitary forces, who used sexual violence as a systematic weapon to subjugate Indigenous communities.

In 2011, 36 women broke their silence, launching and winning a 14-year legal battle against their abusers.

Their collective resilience is transforming a legacy of wartime impunity into a historic victory for justice.

Doña Paulina Ixpatá Alvarado stands with other Achi women outside a Guatemala City court.

That afternoon, three ex-civil defense patrollers were found guilty of rape and crimes against humanity and sentenced to 40 years in prison each.

Guatemala City, Guatemala, 30 May 2025.

Picture: Victor J. Blue, for The New York Times Magazine

Los Angeles on Fire

In January 2025, severe drought and 100-mph (roughly 160-kph) Santa Ana winds fueled 14 devastating wildfires across Los Angeles, destroying over 18,000 buildings and displacing 200,000 residents.

While officials reported 31 direct fatalities, public health studies estimate 440 excess deaths linked to toxic smoke and disrupted medical care.

In the disaster's aftermath, a stark wealth divide has defined recovery efforts, with lower-income residents facing displacement while wealthier communities leverage private resources to rebuild.

A senior center resident evacuates as the Eaton Fire approaches.

Wildfires release massive amounts of toxic particles and carbon monoxide, causing severe respiratory issues that linger for weeks. Altadena, California, United States, 7 January 2025.

Picture: Carol Guzy, ZUMA Press, iWitness, for Miami Herald

Tanner’s Song

Diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer at age 25, Tanner Martin and his wife, Shay, raced to build a family despite a terminal prognosis.

This intimate story documents the final months of Tanner’s life, culminating in the birth of his daughter, AmyLou, just 41 days before his death at age 30.

His experience puts a human face on a staggering global trend: people born in 1990 now face a 200 to 300% increased risk of some early-onset cancers compared to previous generations.

Tanner cradles AmyLou two days after her birth. Too weak to stand, Tanner held his daughter on his lap while Shay filmed a father-daughter dance for their daughter’s future wedding. American Fork, Utah, United States, 17 May 2025.

Picture: Jahi Chikwendiu, The Washington Post

Mexico, A Changing Climate

Mexico is especially vulnerable to climate extremes, with 52% of its territory situated in arid or semi-arid zones.

Over the last two decades, environmental disasters have internally displaced approximately 2.7 million people, a figure projected to reach up to 8 million by 2050.

This project documents the enormous cost of these changes on a human scale: from the rapid erosion of Tabasco’s coastlines, where sea levels are rising three times faster than the global average, to the systemic water scarcities in Monterrey and the State of Mexico, where renewable water availability has plummeted by 81% since 1950.

A portion of Enrique’s catch. Fishing is becoming increasingly difficult in the area as beaches erode and changing conditions in the sea drive fish species elsewhere, transforming the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico.

Las Barrancas, Veracruz, Mexico, 12 March 2025.

Picture: César Rodríguez, Norwegian Red Cross, SNCA, The New York Times

A Territory of Hope

Millions of Brazilians lack safe and affordable housing, with a national shortage of 5.9 million homes forcing approximately 16.4 million people into informal settlements.

In the city of Colombo, the Parque dos Lagos occupation is home to 200 families living without official access to water, sewage disposal, or electricity.

This project examines the struggle for land regularization, the legal process of converting informal possession into property rights.

For Sandra Mara Siqueira and these communities, legal tenure is the essential gateway to credit, permanence, and dignity.

Sandra Mara Siqueira rests with her grandchildren, Micael, Davi, Ana Flávia, and Vitória.

Living in the Parque dos Lagos occupation since 2013, the family seeks land regularization to guarantee access to basic infrastructure.

Colombo, Paraná, Brazil, 15 November 2025.

Picture: Priscila Ribeiro

Funeral for “The Four of Malvinas”

Ecuador’s militarized crackdown on transnational gangs has transformed vulnerable communities into targets for state violence.

In December 2024, four Afro-Ecuadorian boys – aged 11 to 15 – disappeared after a neighborhood football practice in Guayaquil.

The government initially denied involvement, then attempted to label the children as criminals.

The discovery of their burned remains near an air force base shattered the Las Malvinas community and exposed the dangers of security policies that racially profile and criminalize marginalized youth.

Picture: Santiago Arcos, for Reuters

Milei’s Argentina

Police detain Father Jorge “Chueco” Romero during a pensioners’ protest. Members of the “Opción por los Pobres” (Option for the Poor) clergy have joined weekly demonstrations against pension freezes and cuts to essential medical coverage.

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 14 May 2025.

In Argentina, aggressive austerity measures aimed at curbing 200% inflation have plunged the nation's older people into a desperate struggle for survival.

With the minimum pension hovering around $300 – less than half the estimated basic cost of living – many retirees are forced to ration food and forgo essential medical treatments.

Every Wednesday, pensioners gather outside the National Congress to protest low pensions and cuts to free medication programs.

These demonstrations are frequently met with heavily militarized police responses, drawing international condemnation.

Picture: Tadeo Bourbon, for Revista Mu

Those Who Carry the Dead

In October 2025, a massive police operation targeting the Comando Vermelho criminal syndicate unfolded in Rio de Janeiro’s Complexo do Alemão and Penha favelas.

Deploying a record 2,500 local and military officers, the raid was the deadliest police operation in Brazilian history.

Of the 122 who were killed, the vast majority were Afro-Brazilians.

In the aftermath, authorities failed to deploy forensic teams, forcing the community to bear the physical and emotional weight of carrying their own dead.

Suspects sit with their heads bowed to protect their identities.

Authorities targeted over 50 individuals in the operation, but only a few of these were arrested and none were killed.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 28 October 2025.

Picture: Eduardo Anizelli, Folha de S.Paulo

Manacillos: A Return to Life

Juntas is an Afro-descendant community deep in the Colombian Pacific rainforest, accessible only by a ten-hour boat journey up the Yurumanguí River. Settled by descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the region in the 1700s, the community faces threats from illegal mining, logging, and armed conflict.

Fiesta de los Manacillos is a traditional ritual enacted by the community during Holy Week activities that blends Catholicism with African spiritual traditions.

More than just a celebration, the festival is a homecoming for a diaspora, representing a profound affirmation of cultural resilience. 

Eider Calimeño is one of 33 men who act as Matachín: those who commit to participating in the Manacillos.

This responsibility is inherited from close male relatives and honors deceased or displaced ancestors.

Juntas, Buenaventura, Colombia, 29 March 2024.

Picture: Ever Andrés Mercado Puentes

Name the Absence

Colombia has the world’s highest rate of single mothers.

The photographer and his family experience this reality not as a statistic but as a “recurring wound.” In 1999, Ferley Ospina’s father was murdered in the border region of Norte de Santander, forcing him to flee with his mother.

Photographing the women in his extended family, Ospina seeks to understand the “weight of absence” and the systemic and personal impact of “growing up incomplete.”

Valeria (5) plays behind a curtain at her aunt’s house. She is raised solely by her mother. In her region, 30% of households are headed exclusively by women.

Los Patios, Norte de Santander, Colombia, 10 September 2025.

Picture: Ferley A. Ospina

The Human Cost of Agrotoxins

In 1996, Argentina approved genetically modified, herbicide-resistant soybeans paired with glyphosate-based herbicides, a policy adopted without independent research.

In three decades, pesticide use skyrocketed from 40 million to 580 million liters annually.

Today, 60% of Argentina’s cultivated land is sprayed, affecting 14 million people. Despite independent studies linking exposure to increased risks of cancer and congenital malformations, regulations continue to loosen even as agrochemical usage moves closer to human settlements.

This project documents the human cost of an economic model that prioritizes agro-industrial profit over the lives of its rural citizens.

Anita Sosa, born with hydrocephalus and spina bifida, plays with her sister.

Doctors attributed her condition to pesticides used in the soybean fields that surround her town of 3,000 inhabitants.

Chaco, Argentina, 29 November 2014.

Picture: Pablo E. Piovano, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, Philip Jones Griffiths Foundation, Lawen.doc

Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising

A government ban of 26 social media platforms on 4 September 2025 was the breaking point for Nepal’s youth.

On 8 September, thousands took to the streets, part of a generation of young people around the world refusing to accept systems that perpetuate corruption, unemployment, and economic hardship.

Within two days, 76 people were dead, most of them young demonstrators killed by police.

Thousands more were injured.

On 9 September, following Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation, protesters stormed and set fire to Singha Durbar, the historic complex at the heart of Nepal’s government.

Fire and smoke engulf Singha Durbar after protesters stormed and set the government complex alight during violent demonstrations. Kathmandu, Nepal, 9 September 2025.

Picture: Narendra Shrestha, EPA Images

Aid Emergency in Gaza

In 2025, famine took hold amid what a UN Commission has concluded is a genocide in Gaza, which Israel disputes.

Israeli authorities imposed a complete aid blockade in March, a tactic described by humanitarian organizations as the weaponization of starvation.

The UN reports that between 27 May and 31 July at least 1,373 Palestinians seeking food were killed at or near aid distribution sites.

Despite a ceasefire agreement in October, more than 75% of the population still face hunger and malnutrition.

The photographer was born in Gaza and has documented life there since 1997.

Palestinians climb onto an aid truck as it enters the Gaza Strip via the Zikim Crossing in an attempt to get flour, during what the Israeli military called a “tactical suspension” in operations to allow humanitarian aid through. 27 July 2025.

Picture: Saber Nuraldin, EPA Images

A Daughter’s Grief in Kashmir

The Kashmir region has been contested between India and Pakistan since the 1947 partition of British India, a territorial dispute that has fueled decades of conflict.

On 22 April 2025, an attack on tourists in Pahalgam killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan-backed militant groups and responded with strikes on 7 May.

Four days of intense cross-border shelling, drone attacks, and airstrikes followed. Thousands of civilians were displaced, dozens killed, and homes and infrastructure along the Line of Control (the de facto border) were destroyed.

Widespread international pressure secured a ceasefire on 10 May, averting further escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

Sanam Bashir (21) collapses with grief at her mother’s funeral. Nargis Begum (45) died from shrapnel wounds after a mortar shell struck while the two were fleeing their home. Uri, Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, India, 9 May 2025.

Picture: Yasir Iqbal, Outlook India Magazine

“I’m Afraid”: Afghan Women Face US Aid Cuts

In Afghanistan’s remote Daikundi province, US aid cuts have left pregnant women without access to care, forcing many to give birth at home in a country with one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates.

The cuts have led to the suspension or closure of 422 health facilities nationwide, including small community clinics staffed by a single midwife, many of whom are now working without salary or supplies.

This crisis compounds an already critical situation under Taliban rule; girls are banned from education beyond primary school, preventing a new generation from training as health workers.

Gulshaman visits Fatemah, whose daughter Yasmin was born the previous day. Waras, Shahristan district, Daikundi province, Afghanistan, 27 July 2025.

Picture: Elise Blanchard, for TIME

A Syrian City Rebuilds, Still Divided

Long neglected by the Syrian state and one of the first cities to rise up in the 2011 revolution, Deir al-Zour endured years of siege, bombardment, and successive occupation by government forces, ISIS, and Kurdish-led fighters.

The conflict left around 75% of the city’s infrastructure damaged or destroyed. In 2025, the Euphrates River marked a divide; the government controlled one bank, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) the other, complicating daily movement, trade, and access to services.

For those who remained, and those who returned, rebuilding continued regardless.

A shepherd herds his flock of sheep on the banks of the Euphrates River. The river divides forces loyal to the new Syrian government and the SDF. Deir al-Zour, Syria, 21 August 2025.

Picture: Nicole Tung, VII Photo, for The New York Times

Witnessing Gaza

In 2025, civilians in Gaza endured starvation, famine, and relentless bombardment as the death toll surpassed 75,000 and Israeli authorities severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid.

A ceasefire agreement in October has yet to bring meaningful relief. Palestinian journalists – living through the reality they document – are the world’s few witnesses to what a UN Commission has concluded is a genocide. Israel disputes this.

The photographer worked under immense danger, driven by a refusal to let the world turn away. “Even when everything around me told me to stop, I couldn't – silence would mean surrender.”

Tamer Hassan al-Shafei and his family break their Ramadan fast in the remains of their home. Food shortages meant only basics were served instead of the usual spread. Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, 4 March 2025.

Picture: Saher Alghorra, for The New York Times

Hijacked Education

Across the world, war, extremism, and displacement deny children the right to education.

Schools are destroyed, teachers killed or forced to relocate, textbooks burned, and classrooms turned into barracks.

The UN estimates that 85 million of the 234 million school-age children affected by conflict worldwide have no access to education at all.

The consequences extend far beyond the classroom, impacting physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development. Since 2011, the photographer – son of a teacher and father of an 11-year-old – has documented this crisis across nine countries, from Western and South Asia, to Europe and South America.

Students walk to Miadad Primary School in Khartanai Village. Hundreds of children across Afghanistan travel long distances on foot to attend classes. Haska Meyna District, Afghanistan, 13 November 2025.

Picture: Diego Ibarra Sánchez