Fri 29, December

photo: Reuters, AP

A glimpse into 2023

A visual timeline of some of the events that shaped the last 12 months. From the Israel-Hamas war to Russia’s grinding battles against Ukraine, 2023 has shown the dangers of armed conflicts breaking out into region-wide combat. It has revealed the human struggle – to protect loved ones, to navigate a warming planet, to escape strife and oppression, to survive nature’s capriciousness.

Hindu devotees crowd the Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, to take a holy dip on Mauni Amavasya or New Moon Day, the most auspicious day during the annual month-long Hindu religious fair 'Magh Mela' in Prayagraj, India, on January 21. [Satya Prakash/AP Photo] People line up at a government office that issues passports or travel permits to go to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, after China reopened its borders after almost three years, in Beijing, China, on January 9. [Yew Lun Tian/Reuters] Emergency workers clear the rubble after a Russian rocket hit a multi-storey building, leaving many people under debris in the southeastern city of Dnipro, Ukraine, on January 14. [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo] A man sleeps in front of a destroyed building in Kahramanmaras, southeastern Turkey, on February 13. Thousands, left homeless by a massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, packed into crowded tents or lined up in the streets for hot meals, while the desperate search for anyone still alive likely entered its last hours. [Khalil Hamra/AP Photo] People stand on a traffic light amid clashes on the 10th day of nationwide strikes and protests against the French government's pension reform in Paris, France, on March 28. [Nacho Doce/Reuters] Smoke rises from a building in Bakhmut, the site of long and fierce battles between Russian and Ukrainian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on April 26. [Libkos/AP Photo] Migrants and refugees reach for clothing handed out by volunteers as they wait between two border walls to apply for asylum on May 12. The US entered a new immigration enforcement era, ending three-year-old asylum restrictions. [Gregory Bull/AP Photo] Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla travel in the Gold State Coach from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace following their coronation ceremony in London, on May 6. [Alberto Pezzali/AP Photo] Rescuers work at the site of passenger train accident, in Balasore district, in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, on June 3. Rescuers waded through piles of debris and wreckage to pull out bodies and free people after two passenger trains derailed, killing more than 280 people. Hundreds of others were trapped inside more than a dozen mangled rail cars, in one of the country's deadliest train crashes in decades. [Arabinda Mahapatra/AP Photo] Streets are flooded in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 7, after the Kakhovka dam collapsed. [Libkos/AP Photo] A view of the village of Asklipieio, as a wildfire burns in the background, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, on July 26. [Nicolas Economou/Reuters] Arun Haryani holds up a model of LVM3 M4, the rocket that launched the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, on the eve of its moon landing, in Ahmedabad, India, on August 22. The Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission was the first to land at the moon's southern pole successfully, making India the fourth country to land on the moon. [Amit Dave/Reuters] Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un examine a rocket assembly hangar as they meet at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the far eastern Amur region, Russia, on September 13. [Artyom Geodakyan, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool via AP Photo] Afghans in Zenda Jan district, Herat province, Afghanistan, bury hundreds of people killed in an earthquake in early October. A series of earthquakes killed and injured thousands and levelled an untold number of homes. [Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo] A man sits on rubble as others search among the debris of buildings targeted by Israeli air strikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, the northern Gaza Strip, on November 1. [Abed Khaled/AP Photo] Amid the Israel-Gaza war, demonstrators march in solidarity with Palestinians in Dublin, Ireland, on November 11. [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters] Australian players celebrate with the trophy after beating India during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup final match in Ahmedabad, India, on November 19. [Aijaz Rahi/AP Photo] An installation of a scene of the Nativity of Christ with a figure symbolising baby Jesus lying amid the rubble, in reference to Gaza, inside an Evangelical Lutheran Church in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, on December 12. Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem were put on hold due to the continuing Israel-Gaza war. [Mahmoud Illean/AP Photo]

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