As 2025 draws to a close, here's a look back at some of this year's stories, moments and images from around the world.
Climate change
William Gregorio and his son Yamry pose for a photograph on 12 August where their ancestral home used to stand - now submerged in seawater amid rising tides - in Pugad Island, Hagonoy, Philippines.
In the coastal communities of the Philippines, the water has been rising for years - a slow, relentless encroachment fuelled by melting ice sheets in Antarctica; the sinking of land from decades of unchecked groundwater extraction; and the swelling seas of a warming planet.
But residents say the sharpest surge came with large-scale reclamation and other human-made coastal developments, which have altered currents and forced the tide farther inland.
Now, even the gentlest tide can unleash deep floods, drowning streets and homes in minutes - a daily reminder of how human activity can accelerate a disaster already set in motion by climate change.
Devastating blaze
On Wednesday 26 November, a fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court complex in Hong Kong. The fire rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex and killed at least 160 people.
The residential blocks had been undergoing renovation work at the time and the high-rise towers had been wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh, and were layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
A number of people were arrested following the city's worst fire in nearly 80 years as authorities opened an investigation into possible corruption and the use of substandard materials during renovations.
A 71-year-old man reacts as the blaze takes hold, saying his wife is trapped inside the complex
Pope's death
The first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, died on Easter Monday at the age of 88.
Throughout his papacy, Francis championed the poor and vulnerable and emphasised love over doctrine.
On 26 April 2025, the pontiff was laid to rest following a funeral that was attended by religious and political leaders from across the world.
In this photo, scores of cardinals are pictured during the requiem mass in St Peter's Square in Vatican City.
War in Gaza
On 22 August, the United Nations officially confirmed a famine in Gaza, blaming "systematic obstruction" of aid by Israel during more than 22 months of war.
The Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Initiative (IPC) said famine was affecting 500,000 people in the Gaza governorate, which covers about a fifth of the Palestinian territory, including Gaza City.
UN agencies and aid groups had been warning for months of a looming famine in Gaza, where Israel had severely restricted aid and at times completely cut it off during its nearly two-year war with Hamas.
Israel was met with repeated calls from world leaders to lift the siege on Gaza.
Palestinian women and girls jostle to receive cooked rice from a charity kitchen in Gaza City on 23 August
On 10 October, a US-sponsored ceasefire began between Hamas and Israel.
Under the terms of the deal, Hamas committed to releasing the remaining 48 living and dead captives held in the territory.
By mid-December, all of the hostages had been released to Israel except for one body.
In exchange, Israel released nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in its custody and returned the bodies of hundreds of dead Palestinians.
The first phase of the truce also stipulated that significantly more aid enter Gaza.
Hostage Ziv Berman celebrates from a helicopter as he arrives at Chaim Sheba Medical Centre at Tel HaShomer on 13 October in Israel
Home at last
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams returned to Earth in a SpaceX capsule with a soft splashdown off Florida's coast in March - nine months after their faulty Boeing Starliner craft upended what was supposed to be a week-long stay on the International Space Station.
Mr Wilmore and Ms Williams, two veteran NASA astronauts and retired US Navy test pilots, had launched into space as Starliner's first crew in June 2024 for what was expected to be an eight-day test mission.
However, issues with Starliner's propulsion system led to lengthy delays to their return home, culminating in a NASA decision to fold them into its crew rotation schedule and return them on a SpaceX craft in March.
In this photo from NASA, support teams work on the SpaceX capsule shortly after it landed off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, on 18 March.
'Flower moon'
A 'flower moon' rising behind the Temple of Poseidon on 12 May in Cape Sunion, Greece.
May's full moon is nicknamed the 'flower moon' in homage to the many springtime blooms that appear at that time of year.
War in Ukraine
On 28 February 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky travelled to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss the war and a minerals deal but the meeting deteriorated with Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance berating Mr Zelensky on live television.
The pair accused Mr Zelensky of being ungrateful for US aid provided since Russia's invasion three years prior.
The hostile confrontation marked a turning point in Kyiv-Washington relations, which had been warm under former US president Joe Biden, and raised fears that Mr Trump would cut off US military support.
Relations thawed between the US and Ukraine as the year went on and efforts to secure a peace deal gathered pace, instigated by the US. But while high-level talks continue between Russia, the US, Ukraine and Europe, fighting has continued along the front line.
Almost nightly missile and drone strikes on key Ukrainian cities continue while Moscow has been saying it is on the verge of seizing the ruined city of Pokrovsk, its biggest prize in nearly two years.
The US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said that, together, Russia and Ukraine have suffered more than two million casualties, including dead and wounded since the war began.
In this photo, members of Ukraine's 18th Sloviansk Brigade anti-drone unit work to intercept Russian drones on 20 August in the Donetsk region of Ukraine
Storm Éowyn
Storm Éowyn struck Ireland in late January, bringing record-breaking gusts of 183km/h. It caused widespread damage and transport disruption, and left around 790,000 homes and businesses without power - some for weeks.
In this photo, we see the roof of a house in Conamara which was torn off by the severe winds. In the heavy rain that followed, the ceiling gave way, flooding the property and complicating the task of salvaging anything.
The house which was built 120 years ago would have weathered many a storm over the years in its position on the Atlantic coast. In one night, the home was destroyed.
US wildfire
In January 2025, the California city of Altadena was ravaged by a violent wildfire that reduced hundreds of homes and businesses to ashes as violent winds gusted up to 160km/h.
More than 100,000 people were told to flee their homes in Altadena, behind the mountains north of Los Angeles, as the seasonal Santa Ana winds reached an intensity not seen since 2011, according to meteorologists.
In this striking photo, a person turns on a garden hose in an effort to save a neighbouring home from catching fire on 8 January in Altadena.
Swiss landslide
On 28 May, the picturesque village of Blatten in Switzerland was buried when a deluge of ice, mud and rock crashed down the mountain, engulfing some 90% of the village.
Its 300 residents had already been evacuated earlier in May after part of the mountain behind the Birch Glacier began to crumble, nevertheless one man died in the landslide.
In this picture taken on 3 June, rubble and ice fill part of the Loetschental valley six days after the landslide.
The incident revived concern about the impact of rising temperatures on Alpine permafrost which has long frozen gravel and boulders in place, creating new mountain hazards.
'Miracle' survivor
On 12 June, an Air India plane crashed into a medical college shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad Airport.
242 people were on board. One man survived.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. But it began losing height seconds after take-off and erupted into a fireball as it crashed into buildings below.
Viswash Kumar Ramesh had been sitting near an emergency exit of the plane and managed to jump out after it crashed.
A preliminary report into the incident from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau found both of the plane's fuel switches moved to the "cut-off" position "immediately" after take-off, stopping fuel supply to the engine.
Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, pictured here in England on 27 October, said it was a miracle he was still alive but that the death of his brother in the crash had taken all his happiness
Citywest protests
Violent protests broke out at an accommodation centre for international protection applicants at Citywest in Co Dublin on 20 October.
The protests followed the alleged sexual assault of a 10-year-old girl near the accommodation centre.
Around 2,000 people turned up at the protest but shortly afterwards masked men threw missiles and fireworks at gardaí, vandalised the Luas stop, and a garda van was set on fire.
Trillion-dollar man?
Between heading up the Department of Government Efficiency for US President Donald Trump at the start of the year to securing a Tesla shareholder vote in November that could see the world's richest man handed a trillion-dollar payout, Elon Musk has never been far from the headlines.
Here he is pictured on 30 March arriving for a town hall meeting wearing a cheese hat at the KI Convention Centre in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Taking a stand
A woman waves an Indonesian flag as she confronts riot police officers during a protest outside Indonesian parliament buildings, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 28 August.
Demonstrators were protesting against what they said were exorbitant allowances for Indonesian politicians.
Bird's eye view
This picture taken on 13 November shows Australian farmer Ian Gardiner surrounded by sheep as he directs his dogs to move them on his property located on the outskirts of the north-central New South Wales town of Gunnedah.
Kirk memorial
US right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk was shot dead while speaking at a rally in Utah Valley University on 10 September.
Mr Kirk, aged 31, had helped amplify Republican President Donald Trump's agenda, galvanising conservative youth and rising to international prominence with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as race, gender and immigration.
The killing inflamed often acrimonious political divisions in the United States.
A memorial service, held in Arizona, drew an extraordinary level of attention and security, with the top brass of Mr Trump's administration joining tens of thousands in attendance, and some US media likening it to a state funeral.
Two women react at the memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, on 21 September
Congo unrest
Community members and health workers from the Congolese Red Cross look over a mass grave during the burial of 18 bodies at the Musigiko cemetery on 20 February in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 had swept into Bukavu days beforehand, taking control of the city with a population of around one million people in DRC's South Kivu Province.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the eastern part of the DRC were displaced as the rebel group made swift advances against Congolese pro-government forces in the weeks previous.
Deforestation
The biggest climate summit of the year - COP30 - was held in the Amazon city of Belém in Brazil in November.
It was attended by leaders from around the world, including Taoiseach Micheál Martin. However, one notable absence was the US with President Donald Trump saying the month previously that climate change was "the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world, in my opinion".
A deal struck at the summit aims to boost finance for poor nations coping with global warming, but omitted any mention of the fossil fuels driving it.
During the talks, countries had also criticised the exclusion of a roadmap for addressing climate-nature interdependence, particularly efforts to halt deforestation.
A tree stands in a deforested area in Maraba, Para state, Brazil, on 11 September
Surf's up
It could be mistaken for a skier descending a snow-covered mountain but this image shows Will Santana of Brazil during a surfing session at Praia do Norte on 28 January in Nazare, Portugal.
Out of hiding
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado said she planned to take her award back to Venezuela, but declined to say when she would return to her home country after leaving in great secrecy to receive the honour.
Ms Machado arrived in Oslo on 11 December but failed to reach the Norwegian capital in time for the prize ceremony held hours earlier.
The Venezuelan opposition leader had left Venezuela for Oslo in defiance of a decade-long travel ban imposed by authorities and after spending more than a year in hiding.
She had arrived in Oslo hours after the award was collected on her behalf by her daughter.
In this photo, Ms Machado greets supporters from a balcony of the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway.
Water festival
Women perform a traditional dance on the last day of 'Ngondo' on the banks of the Wouri River, in Douala, Cameroon, on 7 December.
The Ngondo is an annual water-centered festival held by the Sawa people at a beach on Wouri Bay in Douala.
The highlight of the festival is a ceremony of the jengu during which a devotee enters the water to visit the underwater kingdom, where water spirits similar to mermaids will grant good luck to their worshippers.
ICE raids
The US administration began a sweeping crackdown on immigration when Donald Trump returned to power at the beginning of the year.
Mr Trump was elected to a second term with broad support for his promise to clamp down on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants.
Raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been conducted around the country - primarily in cities run by Democrats.
The raids have seen groups of masked, armed men in unmarked cars and armoured vehicles target residential neighbourhoods and businesses, sparking protests.
US federal agents, including members of ICE, drag a man away after his immigration court hearing at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York on 24 July
Career high
On 13 April, Rory McIlroy ended his major drought by beating Justin Rose in a play-off to win the 89th Masters and complete a career grand slam.
The win made McIlroy the first player in a quarter century to complete the career grand slam and match the feats of Gene Sarazen (1935), Ben Hogan (1953), Gary Player (1965), Jack Nicklaus (1966) and Tiger Woods (2000).
In this photo, McIlroy falls to his knees in celebration after his win at Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia in the US.
