This collection of images is taken from Agence France Presse, or AFP’s ‘Pictures of the Year 2016’ – a selection of the press agency’s most important and powerful photographs from the past year.
The news agency, which has photographers around the globe, chooses a selection of their most powerful, moving, shocking or fascinating images, offering a look back at the highlights – and lowlights – of the last 12 months.
Some of the photographs capture the most important events of the year, while others have been chosen because they encapsulate a particularly poignant, touching, or even funny moment.
The pictures span the worlds of news, politics, entertainment, and sport, covering events ranging from David Cameron’s resignation and the Donald Trump’s election victory, to the Olympics and the Euro 2016 football final.
It has been a turbulent year in many ways, which is reflected in pictures of the ongoing refugee crisis, and the battle to defeat Islamic State in the Middle East.
US President-elect Donald Trump arrives at the New York Hilton Midtown in New York on November 8. Trump stunned America and the world by winning the election against Hillary ClintonUS Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, as her husband and former President Bill Clinton looks on November 9Demonstrators protest against US President-elect Donald Trump in front of Trump Tower on November 12 following days of previous protests, even as Trump appeared to back away from the fiery rhetoric that propelled him to the White HouseDavid Cameron, pictured with his family, addresses the medal outside 10 Downing Street on July 13, before going to Buckingham Palace to tender his resignation to The Queen.Nigel Farage poses for photographers as he leaves a polling station on June 23, as Britain voted to leave the European Union.Cuban President Raul Castro (right) raises US President Barack Obama’s hand during a meeting at the Revolution Palace in Havana on March 21UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon (left) and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet (centre) look at Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (right) at the end of the signing ceremony of an historic peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in Cartagena, Colombia, on September 26Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (centre) greets supporters on her arrival at the Canoas air force base on September 6 after leaving the governmental palace in Brasilia on her way home to Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul stateTurkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is emotional after attending the funeral of a victim of the coup attempt in Istanbul on July 17.People take over a tank near the Fatih Sultan Mehmet bridge during clashes with military forces in Istanbul on July 16Police officers stand near a van, with its windscreen riddled with bullets, that ploughed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice on July 14.A man wrapped in a Belgian flag holds a candle as people gather at a makeshift memorial in front of Brussels’s Stock Exchange on Place de la Bourse on March 24, two days after a triple bomb attack on Brussels’ airport and Maelbeek metro station killed 31 people and wounded 300 othersPeople gather at a makeshift memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, on July 17, in tribute to the victims of the Bastille Day attack that left 84 dead.Jamaica’s Usain Bolt jokes with Canada’s Andre De Grasse after they crossed the finish line in the Men’s 200m Semifinal at the Rio Olympic Games on August 17.Portugal’s captain and forward Cristiano Ronaldo holds up the winners’ trophy in the Euro 2016 final football match between France and Portugal at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on July 10People watch from a terrace in the favela Mangueira as fireworks explode over the Maracana stadium during the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on August 5A mourner clutches a picture of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej after the hearse carrying the body of the late monarch passes the Grand Palace in Bangkok on October 14A photographer holds his picture of the Temple of Bel, taken on March 14, 2014, in front of the remains of the historic temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra on March 31. It was destroyed by Islamic State in September 2015.Omran, a four-year-old Syrian boy covered in dust and blood, was pictured in an ambulance after being rescued from the rubble of a building hit by an air strike in the rebel-held Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo on August 17Displaced Iraqis arrive at refugee camp on October 22 in the town of Qayyarah, south of Mosul, as an operation to recapture the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group takes placeIraqi families, who were displaced by the ongoing operation by Iraqi forces against the Islamic State group to retake the city of Mosul, are seen near Qayyarah, south of Mosul, on October 29A woman and her children stand in the ruins of battle-damaged house in the Kurdish town of Silopi, in southeastern Turkey, on January 19 as Turkey wages war against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)A child strapped with his mother walks with other migrants and refugees after crossing the Macedonian border into Serbia, near the village of Miratovac, on January 29Migrants and refugees wrapped in survival foil blankets rest next to rescue members aboard the Topaz Responder ship, run by Maltese NGO Moas and the Italian Red Cross, after a rescue operation early morning on November 5 off the coast of LibyaAfghan five-year-old and Lionel Messi fan Murtaza Ahmadi wears a plastic bag jersey as he plays football in Jaghori district of Ghazni province on January 29Indian bystanders watch as a wild elephant with a tranquillizer dart in its back side walks along a street in Siliguri on February 10. The adult male was tranqulised, captured and transported to a nearby forest.Men look at a destroyed building in the town of Portoviejo, Ecuador, on April 21, almost a week after a powerful earthquake hit the country which killed at least 570 peopleA boy sits during a tribute to the players of Brazilian team Chapecoense Rea at the club’s Arena Conda stadium in Chapeco, in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina on November 29. The players were killed in a plane accident in the Colombian mountainsA displaced Iraqi woman holds her cat, Lulu, as she waits for transport in the Iraqi Kurdish checkpoint village of Shaqouli, about 22 miles east of Mosul, on November 10
