📸 AROUND THE WORLD IN 2021

From politics to health, lifestyle and sports, the year 2021 has been quite an eventful one. Relive the moments that shaped this year through this selection of 117 pictures taken in different parts of the world. (Take note that some pictures may be upsetting to some viewers):

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JANUARY

On January 6, Richard Barnett, a supporter of US President Donald Trump sits inside the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi as he protests inside the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Demonstrators breeched security and entered the Capitol as Congress debated the 2020 presidential election Electoral Vote Certification. 

The same day, Trump's supporters, including a member of the QAnon conspiracy group, Jake Angeli aka Yellowstone Wolf (C), enter the US Capitol during the protests.

On January 9, Brazilian surfer Paulo Guido surfs on the Doce River in Governador Valadares, Brazil. With the arrival of the rainy season in Minas Gerais around that time, the level of the Doce River rises and favours the practice of the sport, as the state is not bathed by the sea.

On January 13, members of the National Guard rest in the Capitol Visitors Center on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, ahead of an expected House vote impeaching US President Donald Trump. The Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives opened debate on a historic second impeachment of Trump over his supporters' attack of the Capitol that left five dead. Lawmakers in the lower chamber were expected to vote for impeachment around 3:00 pm (2000 GMT) -- marking the formal opening of proceedings against the US leader.

That same day, an employee moves coffins, some marked with "infection risk" as others have "corona" scrawled in chalk, in the mourning hall of the crematorium in Meissen, eastern Germany, amid the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. As the crematorium struggled to cope with an explosion in deaths from the coronavirus pandemic in the region, coffins were stacked up to three high or even stored in hallways awaiting cremation. 

On January 17, children play in the Umm Jurn camp for the displaced, near the village of Kafr Uruq, in Syria's northern rebel-held Idlib province.

The following day, Opposition leader Alexei Navalny is escorted out of a police station in Khimki, outside Moscow, following the court ruling that ordered him jailed for 30 days. Kremlin critic Navalny had urged Russians to stage mass anti-government protests during a court hearing after his arrest on arrival in Moscow from Germany.

On January 20, former presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) sits in the bleachers on Capitol Hill before Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th US President at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. 

Three days later, Yemeni 10-year-old girl Ahmadia Abdo, who weighs ten kilograms due to acute malnutrition, sits on her bed at a camp for the internally displaced in the northern Hajjah Governorate in Yemen.

On January 25, a nurse takes care of a patient infected with COVID-19 in the intensive care unit of Lyon-Sud hospital in Pierre-Benite, France. Stubbornly high new rates for infections, hospitalisations and COVID deaths fuelled fears France would need another full lockdown, which would be the third, inflicting yet more devastation on businesses and daily lives. The day before, the president of the scientific council set up to advise the government on the pandemic had pleaded for a swift decision.

On January 29, people queue to refill their empty oxygen cylinders in Callao, Peru amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Relatives of people with COVID-19 were desperate for oxygen to keep their loved ones alive in Peru, where patients were dying for lack of oxygen. 

Two days later, a demonstrator representing a patient without oxygen participates in a protest against Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his management of the coronavirus disease crisis in Brasilia. At the time, the novel coronavirus had killed at least 2,219,793 people worldwide, including 223,945 in Brazil, since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

Elsewhere that day (January 31), thousands of Ultra-Orthodox Jews attend a funeral procession for the Head of the Brisk Yeshiva, Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, in Jerusalem. This followed his passing aged 99 due to months-long illness compounded by the coronavirus.

FEBRUARY

On February 2, a security dog barks after detecting migrants hidden under a lorry headed to Ireland, at the port of Cherbourg in northwestern France.

Four days later, French skipper Jeremie Beyou sails his Imoca 60 monohull "Charal" a few nautical miles before crossing the finish line placed 13th, of the Vendee Globe round-the-world solo sailing race off the coast of Les Sables-d'Olonne in western France.

On February 7, a murmuration of starlings flocks above the Jordan valley in the West Bank before landing to sleep along the border with Jordan.

On February 9, a healthcare worker attends to a patient at the Portimao Arena sports pavilion converted in a field hospital for COVID-19 patients at Portimao, in Portugal's Algarve region.

The same day, a local farmer walks in a swarm of desert locust in Meru, Kenya. The UN's food agency FAO worked with a variety of Kenyan security, logistics and charter companies who had expanded their operations to closely track swarms of locusts in East Africa, before dispatching teams to targeted areas to spray the insects with pesticides to prevent damage to crops and grazing areas. It had been over a year since the worst desert locust infestation in decades hit the region, and while another wave of the insects was spreading through Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya, the use of cutting edge technology and improved co-ordination was helping to crush the ravenous swarms and protect the livelihoods of thousands of farmers.

On February 12, a butterfly lands on Japan's Naomi Osaka as she plays against Tunisia's Ons Jabeur during their women's singles match on day five of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia.

Three days later, Doctor Akay Kaya (R) and nurse Yildiz Ayten from the Bahcesaray public hospital, arrive in the remote village of Guneyyamac in eastern Turkey, to vaccinate residents aged 65 or over with the Sinovac CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine. Turkey's population of more than 83 million is spread out across Europe and Asia and covers some seemingly impregnable terrain. The vaccination effort with China's CoronaVac jab kicked off with a bang in mid-January when Turkey innoculated more than a one million people in the first week. But it slowed down considerably when doctors left the big cities and tried to reach mountain places such as Imamli and Ozbeyli -- two ethnically Kurdish hamlets of a few hundred herders and farmers each.

On February 26, police march with a resident arrested during a crackdown on protesters holding rallies against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar. 

The following day, Humaira Mustapha, whose two daughters were kidnapped by gunmen at the Government Girls Secondary School, cries at her home, a day after the abduction of over 300 schoolgirls in Jangebe, a village in Zamfara State, northwest of Nigeria. The girls were snatched from dormitories by gunmen in the middle of the night in the third known mass kidnapping of students since December.

On February 28, the waning gibbous moon appears in the sky following the weekend's full "Snow Moon", near the Eiffel Tower in the French capital Paris.

MARCH

On March 4, medical personnel of Hospital del Mar take 72-year-old COVID-19 patient Marta Pascual back to the hospital after getting some fresh air by the sea, at the Barceloneta beach esplanade in Barcelona, Spain.

Six days later, a Syrian child poses atop a stack of neutralised shells at a metal scrapyard on the outskirts of Maaret Misrin town in the northwestern Idlib province. A Syrian family displaced from the village of Latamneh in Hama's northern countryside four years ago, had found a source of income in collecting and selling metal scrap, including unexploded ordnance shells and spent ammunition casings, a business all family participated in. 

On March 14, a protester holds onto the shirt of a fallen comrade during a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup, in Hlaing Tharyar township in Yangon, Myanmar.

Baikal, a 14-year-old Siberian tiger, undergoes dental surgery to cure an infection, at the Mulhouse Zoological and Botanical Park in France.

On March 21, Sunday hikers look at the lava flowing from the erupting Fagradalsfjall volcano some 40km west of the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. The weekend hikers took the opportunity to inspect the area where the volcano erupted, as a red cloud lit up the night sky and a no-fly zone was established in the area.

Three days later, the sun rises in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Christ the Redeemer would celebrate its 90th anniversary later in the day (in October) and was therefore receiving restoration work to ensure that it looked its best for the public and visiting tourists. 

APRIL

On April 9 in Saignelegier, Switzerland, a horse  is airlifted during a test by Swiss army forces on hoisting horses with a helicopter. The scientific project, carried out by the Vetsuisse faculty of veterinary medicine and the Swiss army veterinary service, aimed at transporting and rapidly evacuating injured horses to a medical veterinary infrastructure. 

Two days later, police officers take cover as they clash with protesters after an officer shot and killed a black man in Brooklyn Centre, Minneapolis, Minnesota in the US. Police fired teargas and flash bangs at the demonstrators, according to an AFP videojournalist at the scene.

On April 12, Yakel village chief Albi, and members of his family, hold a portrait of Britain's Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in the remote Pacific village of Vanuatu, as they worshipped Prince Philip as a living god. 

On April 16, a patient uses a new non-invasive technology that can reduce the need of intubation at the COVID-19 area of the Centenario Hospital in Sao Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul state, southern Brazil. It is an individually controlled breathing bubble. The impermeable, transparent, sealed and inflatable bubble has respiratory connections that allow pulmonary oxygenation, reducing the patient's effort without the need for sedation.

Four days later, people react as the verdict is announced in the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The sacked police officer was convicted of murder and manslaughter in the death of African-American George Floyd in a case that roiled the United States for almost a year, laying bare deep racial divisions.

On April 26, a patient breathes with the help of oxygen provided by a Gurdwara, a place of worship for Sikhs, outside a parked car along the roadside amid the coronavirus pandemic in Ghaziabad, India.

The same day, a man prays next to a burning pyre of a victim who died of COVID-19 at a cremation ground in New Delhi.

Still in India, burning pyres of victims who lost their lives due to the coronavirus are seen at a cremation ground in New Delhi. 

On April 29, this aerial view catches a gravedigger walking among COVID-19 victims' graves at the Nossa Senhora Aparecida cemetery in Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil. At the time, Brazil, with a population of 212,000,000 people, had surpassed the 400,000 COVID-19 deaths mark, and was second in number only to the US.

Exactly one week later, Israeli security forces take cover on the ground as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, into the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon. Israel and Hamas exchanged heavy fire in a dramatic escalation between the bitter foes sparked by unrest at Jerusalem's flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. 

On May 12, heavy smoke and fire rise from Al-Sharouk tower as it collapses after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City.

Two days later, the Israeli Iron Dome missile defence system (L) intercepts rockets (R) fired by the Hamas movement towards southern Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip as seen in the sky above the Gaza Strip overnight. As the violence intensified, Israel said it was carrying out an attack "in the Gaza Strip" although it later clarified there were no boots on the ground. 

On May 15, smoke billows as an air bomb is dropped on the Jala Tower during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement. Israeli air strikes pounded the Gaza Strip, killing 10 members of an extended family and demolishing a key media building, while Palestinian militants launched rockets in return amid violence in the West Bank. Israel's air force targeted the 13-floor Jala Tower housing Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television and the Associated Press news agency.

Four days later, migants climb a sea wall in the northern town of Fnideq after attempting to cross the border from Morocco to Spain's North African enclave of Ceuta. Spain stepped up diplomatic pressure on Rabat as its prime minister flew into Ceuta, vowing to "restore order" in the North African enclave after a record 8,000 migrants reached its beaches from Morocco. 

On May 20, a young Palestinian girl sits in front of her home, damaged by Israeli bombardment, in Gaza City. Israel and the Palestinians were mired in their worst conflict in years as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with air strikes and artillery, while Hamas militants fired rockets into the Jewish state.

This general view taken on May 22 from Tchegera Island outsoide Goma on the lake Kivu in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo shows flame spewing from the Nyiragongo volcano. The famous Nyiragongo volcano, near the city of Goma, in the eastern part of the vast country, suddenly became active. Strong emanations of glowing light coming out of the crater were visible from Goma, while a smell of sulfur was perceptible in the city, located on the southern flank of the volcano, on the shores of Lake Kivu.

The same day, Goma residents are seen leaving the city following the sudden activity of the Nyiragongo volcano.

On May 25, Palestinians sit in a tent that has been set up at the ruins of a building destroyed in recent Israeli air strikes, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. A ceasefire was eventually reached after 11 days of deadly violence between Israel and the Hamas movement, which runs Gaza. The ceasefire stopped Israel's devastating bombardment on the overcrowded Palestinian coastal enclave which, according to the Gaza health ministry, killed 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people. Meanwhile, rockets from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Israeli soldier.

The same day, US President Joe Biden speaks to the press as he departs the White House in Washington, DC.

On May 27, Palestinian Muslim worshippers pray near the rubble of a destroyed mosque in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

JUNE

On the first day of June, here is an aerial view of the Heroes 19 de Julio cemetery in Comas, on the northern outskirts of Lima, Peru. At the end of May, Peru more than doubled its official coronavirus death toll, becoming the country with the highest COVID-19 mortality per capita anywhere in the world at the time. The World Health Organization voiced deep concern at the COVID-19 situation in South America, warning that outbreaks in the already hard-hit region were once again worsening.

On June 9, Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts after falling on the court while playing against Italy's Matteo Berrettini during their men's singles quarter-final tennis match on Day 11 of The Roland Garros 2021 French Open tennis tournament in Paris, France.

On June 11, a ranger from the Virunga National Park climbs the slopes of the Nyiragongo volcano, north of Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu. Three weeks after Nyiragongo's May 22 eruption, which caused the death of about 30 people and the evacuation of nearly half a million residents of Goma, volcanologists from the Goma Volcanological Observatory climbed to the top of the crater to assess volcanic activity. 

The following day, a demonstrator falls as they are hit by water cannon during clashes with riot police amid protests against the government of Colombian President Ivan Duque in Bogota. Dozens of people were killed in protests that erupted around the country on April 28, initially against a tax hike that would have mostly affected the middle classes, but which morphed into a major anti-government movement. 

On June 15, exhausted grave diggers rest in between funerals at a cemetery designated for COVID-19 victims in Bandung, as infection numbers soared in Indonesia.

The following week, an injured resident of Togoga, a village about 20km west of Mekele, arrives on a stretcher to the Ayder referral hospital in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia, on June 23, a day after a deadly airstrike on a market in Ethiopia's war-torn northern Tigray region, where a seven-month-old conflict surged again. Witnesses and medical personnel said dozens were killed or wounded at the busy market in Togoga town, as ballot counting was underway across much of the rest of the country following June 21's national election.

On June 24, Lem Lem Hailemariam (bottom), 40, who had her knee fractured  in her town Togoga in the deadly airstrike on a market, breast feeds her three-month-old child as she receives medical treatment at the entrance hall of the Ayder referral hospital in Mekele.

On June 26, people try to catch offerings thrown by Tengger tribe people off the summit of the active Mount Bromo volcano in Probolinggo, East Java province, during the Yadnya Kasada festival to seek blessings from the main deity by presenting offerings of rice, fruit, livestock and other items. 

Two days later, search and rescue teams look for possible survivors in the partially collapsed 12-storey Champlain Towers South condo building in Surfside, Florida.

On June 30, a bolt of lightning crosses the sky as people look at buildings displaying a light show on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing.

JULY

On July 2, health workers cross the Camana River to inoculate elderly citizens with doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, in Arequipa, southern Peru.

The same day, wounded captive Ethiopian soldiers arrive on a truck at the Mekele Rehabilitation Centre in Mekele, the capital of Tigray region, Ethiopia.

Here, people react as captive Ethiopian soldiers walk towards Mekele Rehabilitation Centre.

According to Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) fighters, more than 7,000 captive Ethiopian soldiers had walked from Abdi Eshir, about 75 km southwest of Mekele, for four days.

The captive Ethiopian soldiers included females.

On July 8, migrants are pulled across the Rio Grande by human smugglers while crossing the US-Mexico border on rafts in Roma, Texas. Republican lawmakers slammed President Joe Biden for reversing the programmes of his predecessor Donald Trump, including his "remain in Mexico" policy, which had forced thousands of asylum seekers from Central America to stay south of the US border until their claims were processed.

Two days later, Argentina's Lionel Messi is thrown into the air by teammates after winning the Conmebol 2021 Copa America football tournament final match against Brazil at Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Argentina won 1-0.

On July 11, a man is arrested during a demonstration against the government of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana. Thousands of Cubans took part in rare protests against the communist government, marching through a town chanting "Down with the dictatorship" and "We want liberty."

On July 13, children stand under a tree on the site of a future camp for Eritrean refugees, in a rural area near the village of Dabat, 70 kilometres northeast from the city of Gondar, Ethiopia.

That very day, a suspected looter gestures to unseen South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers asking help for a man (foreground) who was allegedly wounded by rubber bullets shot by Jabulani Mall security personnel in Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg. South Africa's army said that it was deploying troops to two provinces, including its economic hub of Johannesburg, to help police tackle deadly violence and looting as unrest sparked by the jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma entered its fourth day. 

On July 15, cars are seen piled up by the water at a roundabout in the Belgian city of Verviers, after heavy rains and floods lashed western Europe, killing at least two people in Belgium.

The following day, two members of SAPS chase and shoot rubber bullets at two suspected looters outside a warehouse storing alcohol in Durban, in the midst of an ongoing alcohol ban after protestors clashed with police following a week of unrest in South Africa. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that those behind the riots and violence that had shaken the country and claimed 212 lives in the past week had sought to foment an "insurrection".

On July 23, a worker is seen during clearing work in front of the destroyed building of the country guest house 'Jaegerstuebchen' in Laach, part of the municipality of Mayschoss, district of Ahrweiler, western Germany, about a week after heavy rain and floods caused major damage in the Ahr region. In mid-July, western Europe was hit by devastating floods after torrential rains that ravaged entire villages and left at least 209 people dead in Germany and Belgium, as well as dozens missing. The flooding also caused damage in Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

On July 24, a home burns as flames from the Dixie fire tear through the Indian Falls neighborhood of unincorporated Plumas County, California. The Dixie fire, which started only a few miles from the origin of the deadly Camp fire, churned through more than 185,000 acres and continued to burn towards rural communities.

Five days later, dark smoke drifts over a hotel complex during a massive forest fire which engulfed a Mediterranean resort region on Turkey's southern coast near the town of Manavgat. At least three people were reported dead on July 29, and more than 100 injured as firefighters battled blazes engulfing the Mediterranean resort region. Officials also launched an investigation into suspicions that the fires that broke out in four locations to the east of the tourist hotspot Antalya were the result of arson.

On July 30, a child wades through a flooded area using a makeshift raft at Maulovir Para, Cox's Bazar, after monsoon floods and landslides cut off more than 300,000 people in villages across southeast Bangladesh and killed at least 20 people including six Rohingya refugees. 

The same day, Uganda's Stephen Kissa is seen competing in the men's 10,000m final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

AUGUST

On the first day of August, the giant panda Huan Huan, which means "Happy" in Chinese, and her twin cubs are seen inside their enclosure after she gave birth at Beauval Zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, Central France. Huan Huan, the female panda lent by China to the ZooParc de Beauval (Loir-et-Cher), gave birth to two twins in good health and their arrival enriched the panda family of Beauval, already strong of their father Yuan Zi and their big brother Yuan Meng, born on August 4, 2017.

On August 3, USA's Simone Biles gets ready to compete in the artistic gymnastics women's balance beam final of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics Centre in Tokyo.

Three days later, people board a ferry prior to an evacuation as a wildfire approaches the seaside village of Limni, on the island of Evia, Greece.

On August 8, a local resident gestures as he holds an empty water hose during an attempt to extinguish forest fires approaching the village of Pefki on Evia (Euboea) island, Greece's second largest island. Hundreds of Greek firefighters fought desperately to control wildfires on the island of Evia that had charred vast areas of pine forest, destroyed homes and forced tourists and locals to flee. Greece and Turkey had been battling devastating fires for nearly two weeks as the region suffered its worst heatwave in decades, which experts linked to climate change.

On August 11, Paris Saint-Germain's Argentinian forward Lionel Messi salutes supporters gathered outside the Parc des Princes stadium after his first official press conference as PSG player in the French capital Paris. The 34-year-old superstar signed a two-year deal with PSG on August 10, with the option of an additional year. He was to wear the number 30, the number he had when he began his professional career at Spain's Barcelona football club.

A day later, this aerial picture shows people queueing to receive the Sinovac COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine in Jakarta, Indonesia.

On August 14, Iraqi Shiites take part in a mourning ritual in which a cleric retells the story of the seventh-century slaying of Prophet Mohammed's grandson Imam Hussein, during the month of Muharram leading up to the mourning day of Ashura, in the southern city of Basra. The Shiite commemoration of Ashura consists of a ten-day mourning period starting on the first day of Muharram.

The following day, Afghan migrants rest while waiting for transport by smugglers after crossing the Iran-Turkish border in Tatvan, on the western shores of Lake Van, eastern Turkey. The chaos in Afghanistan sparked by the gains of territory by the Taliban including the takeover of the capital Kabul raised fresh alarm over an influx of migrants into Turkey through the Iranian border. Turkey, which shares a 534 kilometre (331 miles) border with Iran, beefed up its frontier and started building a 243 kilometre wall in a bid to prevent any passage of illegal migrants. 

On August 16, a US soldier points his gun towards an Afghan passenger at the Kabul airport in Kabul, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the Taliban's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. 

The same day, Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul following the Taliban takeover.

Elsewhere, a polar bear is seen on ice floes in the British Channel in the Franz Josef Land archipelago.

On August 18, a Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul.

The following day, Afghan people sit inside a US military aircraft to leave Afghanistan, at the military airport in Kabul  after Taliban's military takeover of Afghanistan.

On August 24, friends and family members attend the funeral for a young earthquake victim in Marceline, Haiti. More than 2,200 Haitians were killed and while the survivors, mostly poor, had no choice but to resume their activities, the funeral processions that kept marching through the streets made omnipresent the drama in which the country was plunged on August 14.

The same day, indigenous men are seen during a protest outside the Supreme Court building in Brasilia. Over 1000 indigenous protestors took part in a week of protests organised by Articulacao dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil (Apib). The main focus of the protests was a forthcoming judgment at the Supreme Court (STF), which could define the future demarcation of Indigenous Lands. 

On August 26, this photo taken from a helicopter shows researcher Ninis Rosqvist at the peak of the southern summit of Kebnekaise in northern Sweden, as she uses equipment to take GPS measurements on the mountain’s height. In the Arctic in Sweden's far north, global warming is happening three times faster than in the rest of the world. Kebnekaise is home to Sweden's two highest peaks. The southern summit, which was the tallest, has shrunk as the glacier at its top is melting. 

On August 28, Japanese musician Manami Ito, who is also a qualified nurse and former Paralympic swimmer, plays the violin using her prosthetic arm during a photography session in Shizuoka. The Japanese musician enthralled a nation with her brief but showstealing performance at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Paralympics, and playing violin isn't even her day job.

Two days later, Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take part in a military training in Panjshir province.

SEPTEMBER

On September 12, Mercedes' British driver Lewis Hamilton (L) and Red Bull's Dutch driver Max Verstappen collide during the Italian Formula One Grand Prix at the Autodromo Nazionale circuit in Monza.

The following day, US socialite Kim Kardashian arrives for the 2021 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. This year's Met Gala had a distinctively youthful imprint, hosted by singer Billie Eilish, actor Timothee Chalamet, poet Amanda Gorman and tennis star Naomi Osaka, none of them older than 25. The 2021 theme was "In America: A Lexicon of Fashion."

Also on September 13, the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, is seen wrapped in silver-blue fabric as it was designed by the late artist Christo. Work began on wrapping the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in silvery-blue fabric as a posthumous tribute to the artist Christo, who had dreamt of the project for decades. Bulgarian-born Christo, a longtime Paris resident, had plans for sheathing the imposing war memorial at the top of the Champs-Elysees while renting an apartment near it in the 1960s.

Two days later, aerial view shows a deforested area of Amazonia rainforest in Labrea, Amazonas state, Brazil. The Amazon basin has, until recently, absorbed large amounts of humankind's ballooning carbon emissions, helping stave off the nightmare of unchecked climate change. But studies indicate the rainforest is hurtling toward a "tipping point," at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse. Already, the destruction is quickening, especially since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 in Brazil -- home to 60 percent of the Amazon -- with a push to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.

On September 16, a member of the Taliban sits inside the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul.

A member of the Yemeni security forces executes one of nine men, convicted of involvement in the assassination of Huthi political leader Saleh al-Sammad three years ago, at a public square in the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

On September 19, a US Border Patrol agent on horseback tries to stop a Haitian migrant from entering an encampment on the banks of the Rio Grande near the Acuna Del Rio International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. The US was keen on ramping up deportation flights for thousands of migrants who had flooded into the Texas border city of Del Rio, as authorities scrambled to alleviate a burgeoning crisis for President Joe Biden's administration.

The same day, Mount Cumbre Vieja erupts in El Paso, spewing out columns of smoke, ash and lava as seen from Los Llanos de Aridane on the Canary island of La Palma. The volcano erupted after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby. Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island and has erupted twice in the 20th century, first in 1949 then again in 1971.

On September 23, Haitian migrants queue to receive food at a shelter in Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila State, Mexico. At least 50 police vehicles carrying more than a hundred agents blocked the border crossing at the river that separates the Mexican city of Ciudad Acuña from the US.

The following day, men gather around bags containing heroin and hashish as they negotiate and check quality at a drug market on the outskirts of Kandahar. While their country's economy teetered on the brink of collapse, vendors at an opium market in southern Afghanistan said prices for their goods had skyrocketed since the Taliban takeover.

On September 26, Afghan girls step out of their respective classes, in a school in Kandahar.

That very day, Haitian migrants cross the jungle of the Darien Gap, near Acandi, Choco department, Colombia, heading to Panama, on their way trying to reach the US. From Acandi, they started on foot -- and armed with machetes, lanterns and tents -- the dangerous trek of at least five days to Panama through the Darien jungle, battling snakes, steep ravines, swollen rivers, tropical downpours and criminals often linked to drug trafficking.

On September 28, Chilean border police stand next to a Colombian migrant who fainted after being detained while crossing illegally from Peru alongside her mate and one other person, in Arica, Chile. Hundreds of migrants mainly from Venezuela and Haiti enter Chile by crossing illegally the border from Peru daily.

Elsewhere, the same day, Taliban fighters ride on paddle boats at Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul. "This is Afghanistan!" a Taliban fighter shouted on the pirate ship ride at a fairground in western Kabul, as his armed comrades cackled and whooped on board the rickety attraction.

OCTOBER

On October 3, the pack rides during the 118th edition of the Paris-Roubaix one-day classic cycling race, between Compiegne and Roubaix, northern France.

On October 10, a couple of astronauts from a team from Europe and Israel walk in spacesuits during a training mission for planet Mars at a site that simulates an off-site station at the Ramon Crater in Mitzpe Ramon in Israel's southern Negev desert. Six astronauts from Portugal, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Israel would be cut off from the world for a month, from October 4-31, only able leave their habitat in spacesuits as if they were on Mars. Their mission, the AMADEE-20 Mars simulation, would be carried out in a Martian terrestrial analog and directed by a dedicated Mission Support Center in Austria, to conduct experiments ahead of future human and robotic Mars exploration missions.

On October 14, fighters from Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movements take aim during clashes in the area of Tayouneh, in the southern suburb of the capital Beirut. Gunfire killed several people and wounded dozens at a Beirut rally organised by the Shiite Hezbollah and Amal movements to demand the dismissal of the Beirut blast lead investigator. The violence centred around Tayouneh, an area which lies at the crossroads of Shiite and Christian militia bastions that were battlegrounds in the civil conflict that ended three decades ago.

This picture taken on October 16 shows a drug addict getting his head shaved at a detoxification ward of the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul. With shaved heads, oversized tunics and the frightened gaze of hunted animals, the drug addicts rounded up by the Taliban braced for 45 days of painful and anxiety-ridden withdrawal.

On October 27, a man works at the Rhone Glacier partially covered with insulating foam to prevent it from melting due to global warming near Gletsch, Switzerland. Swiss glaciers lost 1% of their volume in 2021, despite heavy snow and a cool summer, due to climate change. "Although 2021 shows the lowest ice loss since 2013, no slowdown is in sight for glacier retreat", noted experts from the expert commission of the cryosphere measurement network of the Swiss Academy of Sciences.

NOVEMBER

On November 8, a devotee takes a dip in the waters of Yamuna river as part of rituals for the upcoming Hindu festival of Chhat puja amid foam created by pollution in the water in New Delhi, India.

The following day, members of a Kurdish family from Dohuk in Iraq are seen in a forest near the Polish-Belarus border while waiting for the border guard patrol, near Narewka, Poland. The three-generation family of 16 members with seven minors, including the youngest who was five months old, spent about 20 days in the forest and was pushed back to Belarus eight times. They claimed they were beaten and frightened with dogs by Belarusian soldiers.

On November 24, a migrant carries her children after being helped ashore from a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) lifeboat at a beach in Dungeness, on the south-east coast of England, after being rescued while crossing the English Channel. The past three years have seen a significant rise in attempted Channel crossings by migrants, despite warnings of the dangers in the busy shipping lane between northern France and southern England, which is subject to strong currents and low temperatures.