Top 25 News Photos of 2023

A Palestinian man mourns as civil-defense teams and residents search for people trapped under the debris of a demolished building following Israeli air strikes that hit the Al-Shati refugee camp, in Gaza City, Gaza, on October 24, 2023. In early October, Israel declared war on Hamas following the surprise attacks by Hamas militants on October 7 that left 1,200 people dead in Israel and more than 200 taken hostage. In the weeks since, more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent hostilities, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and more than 1 million have been displaced. 

Sam Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange, departs from court in New York City on February 16, 2023. In November, a federal court jury found Bankman-Fried guilty on seven charges of conspiracy and fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced in March, and could face more than 100 years in prison. 

Miguel Angel and Aurelio Perez Montiel sit on horseback with an American flag at the Festival Monarca, which was held for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic, on September 24, 2023, in Perris, California. The festival celebrates Mexican Independence Day and the Day of the Mexican Cowboy and Cowgirl while honoring the local immigrant community. 

Tara Davis-Woodhall, of Team USA, celebrates after competing in the women's long-jump final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Center in Budapest, Hungary, on August 20, 2023. Davis-Woodhall won second place. 

Representative Justin Jones reenters the house chamber following his reinstatement, days after the Republican-majority Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel him and another Democratic member, Representative Justin Pearson, for their roles in a gun-control demonstration on the statehouse floor, at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 10, 2023. 

Many collapsed buildings are seen on February 6, 2023, in Hatay, Turkey, following an earthquake. On February 6, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey and northwestern Syria, collapsing thousands of buildings and killing nearly 60,000 people. 

Mesut Hançer holds the hand of his 15-year-old daughter, Irmak, who died in the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, close to the quake's epicenter, the day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck the country's southeast, on February 7, 2023. 

"Sphere" lights up for the first time in celebration of Independence Day on July 4, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The 366-foot-tall, 516-foot-wide venue features an Exosphere with a 580,000-square-foot display, the largest LED screen in the world, and opened to the public in September. 

A U.S. Air Force U-2 pilot takes a selfie while looking down at the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it floats over the central continental United States on February 3, 2023, in this photo released by the U.S. Air Force on February 22, 2023. The balloon was shot down by the Air Force off the coast of South Carolina. 

U.S. Air Force

On October 14, 2023, the moon passed in front of the sun, producing an annular solar eclipse. NASA’s EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera) imager aboard the orbiting DSCVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) caught this view of the event, as the moon’s shadow crossed North America. #

A rider gallops with a lance during the traditional San Juan festival in the town of Ciutadella, on the island of Menorca, Spain, on June 24, 2023. 

A man takes a photo of dead people strewn across a road following an attack by Hamas gunmen from the Gaza Strip, in the Sderot area of southern Israel on October 7, 2023. 

A missile explodes in Gaza City during an Israeli air strike on October 8, 2023, the day Israel formally declared war on Hamas. #

Injured people gather in Al-Shifa Hospital as Israeli attacks continue in Gaza City on October 23, 2023. According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, more than 6,000 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7. 

The Kibbutz Nir Oz resident Hadas Kalderon, whose children were taken hostage, and her mother and niece killed, breaks down in tears while looking through the burned-out home of her late mother, Rina Sutzkever, on October 30, 2023, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. In late November, Kalderon's children were released as part of a hostage-and-prisoner exchange that took place between Israel and Hamas, after they were held for nearly two months. 

Anti-war protesters raise their "bloody" hands behind U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on President Biden's $106 billion national-security supplemental-funding request to support Israel and Ukraine, as well as bolster border security, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on October 31, 2023.

A child in a school bus weeps while leaving the Covenant School following a mass shooting, in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27, 2023. Seven people, including the shooter, were killed in the attack. 

A large inflatable mannequin depicts the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama decorating the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton's flagship store on the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris, France, on January 13, 2023. 

Javier Milei, the presidential candidate from the Liberty Advances coalition, talks to supporters during a campaign rally in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 18, 2023, ahead of the general elections set for October 22. Milei went on to win the election, and will be inaugurated on December 10. 

A Ukrainian soldier carries a drone close to the front line near Avdiivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on February 17, 2023. Russia's occupying forces spent months fortifying positions they had seized across eastern Ukraine, and were met with a Ukrainian counteroffensive that has been slow and grueling, and has resulted in minimal gains so far. 
 

Tetiana holds her pet dogs, Tsatsa and Chunya, in her home, which was flooded after the Kakhovka dam blew up overnight, in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 6, 2023. Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and hydroelectric power station, located in a part of southern Ukraine that Russia controls. 

The hall of the historic Waiola Church and nearby Lahaina Hongwanji Mission are engulfed in flames along Wainee Street on August 8, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. Wind-driven wildfires burned across much of western Maui, destroying houses and killing approximately 100 people. 

Orange, yellow, and purple wildflowers paint the hills of the Tremblor Range at Carrizo Plain National Monument, near Santa Margarita, California, on April 25, 2023. After years of drought, heavy winter rains created an explosion of wildflowers known as a "superbloom" in Southern and Central California. 

A fireman gestures and holds a cat and two rabbits after rescuing them from a fire between the villages of Kiotari and Gennadi, on the Greek island of Rhodes, on July 24, 2023. For more than a week, wildfires raged across Rhodes at the peak of its tourism season, forcing tens of thousands of people to seek shelter or board evacuation flights.