Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
Runners dressed as Santa Claus take part in the “Santa Run” Christmas race in Mexico City on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)
Chris Brown at the Chris Brown live show at FNB Stadium on December 14, 2024 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The tour marks the multi-talented musician’s first performance in the country in nearly a decade. (Photo by Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)Smoke billows after people looted and set fire at the Najha military housing complex in southeast Damascus on December 16, 2024. Islamist-led rebels took Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, ousting president Bashar al-Assad and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)Leader of the Umkhonto We Sizwe (MKP) party and former South African president Jacob Zuma waves to supporters during the party’s first anniversary celebrations at the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban on December 15, 2024. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP)Afrikaners led by Liam Richard May (2-L) attend a prayer session at the Voortrekker Monument during the annual Heritage Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa, 16 December 2024. May walked for two weeks from the city of Nelspruit to get to the monument for the celebrations, which was raised to commemorate the Afrikaaner Voortrekkers who left Cape Colony between 1835 and 1854 to escape British rule. South Africa marks Heritage Day on the 16th December with a public holiday. Picture: EPA-EFE/Kim LudbrookA performer prepares for a show during the holiday season at the all-human Circus Galassia in Johannesburg, South Africa, 16 December 2024. The circus focuses only on human entertainment, with performers assembled from all four corners of the globe, including acrobats and jugglers to clowns and daredevils. Picture: EPA-EFE/KIM LUDBROOKA layperson offers communion to Catholic faithful during a Misa de Gallo (dawn mass) in Las Pinas, Metro Manila, Philippines, 16 December 2024. Catholics traditionally attend nine straight dawn masses before Christmas Day on 25 December as an expression of religious faith. Picture: EPA-EFE/FRANCIS R. MALASIGAn aerial view shows thick smog from air pollution shrouding Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, on December 16, 2024. (Photo by Byambasuren BYAMBA-OCHIR / AFP)Members of the National Cadet Crops (NCC) shower flower petals during ‘Vijay Diwas’ (Victory Day) celebration, in Bangalore, India, 16 December 2024. Vijay Diwas is celebrated in India on 16 December to mark the Indian victory in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Picture: EPA-EFE/JAGADEESH NVA boy rides a bicycle by a ferris wheel and a Christmas tree set up in the French riviera city of Nice on December 15, 2025. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)A participant attends a donkey-cart race in Karachi, Pakistan, 15 December 2024. Donkey cart races have been a cultural mainstay in various regions of Pakistan, particularly in rural areas. They serve as a source of entertainment while also underscoring the vital role donkeys play in local logistics and transportation. Muhammad Arif was the winner of the race. Picture: EPA-EFE/SHAHZAIB AKBERSouth African Marijke Bezeidenhout (2nd left) and her partner Levis Cannon receive congratulations from prominent television personality Lenore Goss-Matjie (left) and Debbie Holmes, founder of the Heartsoles Foundation from the US during the annual South African National Dance Competition hosted by the SA Dance Foundation held in Durban over the weekend. Bezuidenhout and Cannon won the Latin Dance Professional category. Over 400 dancers took part from all over the country to showcase their talent and compete in the prestigious event that has become a cornerstone of the SA ballroom dance community and more importantly giving dancers the opportunity to also represent the country worldwide. Picture: Rajesh JantilalA man walks down a canyon in Maaloula, some 55 km from Damascus, Syria, 15 December 2024. The town of Maaloula, where Aramaic is still spoken, is one of the earliest centers of Christianity in the world. Christians account for about 10 percent of Syria’s population, with Muslims being the vast majority. Picture: EPA-EFE/ANTONIO PEDRO SANTOSThis photo taken on December 15, 2024 shows a worker checking on a production line of high-end threads in a factory in Zaozhuang, eastern China’s Shandong province. China’s retail sales growth weakened last month, official data showed on December 16, missing forecasts as demand remains muted in the world’s number two economy. (Photo by AFP)Members of Compagnie 1602 observe the bonfires in front of the Cathedrale Saint-Pierre in the old town of Geneva during the commemorative of the Fete de l’Escalade in Geneva, Switzerland, 15 December 2024. The ‘Fete de l’Escalade’ (from escalade, the act of scaling defensive walls) is an annual celebration held in december in Geneva’s old town, celebrating the defeat of the surprise attack by troops sent by Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, during the night of 11th to the 12th December 1602. Picture: EPA-EFE/SALVATORE DI NOLFIFirefighters battle a grassfire at Westgate Park in Melbourne, Australia 16 December 2024. Extreme heat warnings are in place for multiple states as a sweltering heatwave brings one of the hottest December days in years. Picture: EPA-EFE/DIEGO FEDELE
