Our Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world to bring you a visual snapshot of the day's events.
A college student has her face painted to spread awareness for first generation voters during an election campaign ahead of India’s upcoming national elections in Chennai on March 19, 2024. (Photo by R. Satish BABU / AFP)
Branches of cherry blossoms in peak bloom blow in the wind at the Tidal Basin around dawn, with the Thomas Jefferson Memorial seen behind, in Washington, DC, USA, 18 March 2024. Peak bloom, as defined when seventy percent of the cherry blossoms are open, is occuring this week. This year’s peak bloom, beginning the 17th of March, is tied for the second earliest in history and is seen as a reflection of warming temperatures. Picture: EPA-EFE/MICHAEL REYNOLDSA Thai performer kisses a crocodile’s mouth during a media preview performance as part of preparation to reopen Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo in Samut Prakan province, Thailand, 19 March 2024. Thailand’s famous tourist attraction Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo is scheduled to reopen to welcome tourists on 01 April 2024 after a temporary closure in 2020 due to the loss of visitors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in the zoo suffering financial loss and going into liquidation. The Samutprakan Crocodile Farm and Zoo established in 1950 claims to be Thailand’s first and the world’s largest crocodile farm with more than 60,000 freshwater and marine crocodiles offering crocodile shows to attract tourists as well as housing various other animal showcases including tigers, chimpanzees, elephants. Picture: EPA-EFE/RUNGROJ YONGRITGraves are seen at a cemetary at the Emei Township in Hsinchu on March 19, 2024. (Photo by Sam Yeh / AFP)A resident reacts during a fire in Damayang Lagi district in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, 19 March 2024. At least one person was injured as the fire reached Task Force Alpha level, according to the Bureau of Fire Protection. Authorities are investigating the cause of the blaze which spread through a still undetermined number of houses made of light materials. Picture: EPA-EFE/ROLEX DELA PENAThis picture taken from Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip shows Israeli army battle tank moving along the border with the Palestinian territory on March 19, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP)A man distributes free food to burqa-clad women and children waiting to break their fast, during the fasting month of Ramadan in Peshawar, Pakistan, 19 March 2024. The Muslims’ holy month of Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and it is believed that the revelation of the first verse in the Koran was during its last 10 nights. It is celebrated yearly by praying during the night time and abstaining from eating, drinking, and sexual acts during the period between sunrise and sunset. It is also a time for socializing, mainly in the evening after breaking the fast and a shift of all activities to late in the day in most countries. Picture: EPA-EFE/BILAWAL ARBABA man carrying buckets walks along a beach littered with piles of debris and plastic waste at the Kedonganan beach in Bali, Indonesia, 19 March 2024. Most of the trash ends up in the sea every rainy season due to the island’s lack of a centralized waste management system. Picture: EPA-EFE/MADE NAGI(L-R) Bangladeshi national Anishul Haque, and Rohingya Muhammad Amin and Habibul Basyar wait for the start of their trial in a Rohingya-related human trafficking case at the Jantho District Court, in Jantho, Aceh Besar, Indonesia, 19 March 2024. The three defendants are accused of smuggling 137 Rohingya refugees into Indonesia’s Blang Ulam Coast, Mesjid Raya District in December 2023. According to UNHCR, almost 1,500 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Aceh since the beginning of November 2023 in several waves of voyages headed to Indonesia and Malaysia. Picture: EPA-EFE/HOTLI SIMANJUNTAKGeneral Secretary of SAFTU Zwelenzima Vavi speaks on the second day of the Human Rights Conference held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Center in Boksburg, 19 March 2024. Picture: Neil McCartney / The CitizenArtist Alain Roche plays a piano concert while hanging from a crane, in Munich, Germany, 19 March 2024. Audience of the project ‘When The Sun Stands Still’ listened to the piano played, mixed with the sound of awakening nature. Over 40 highly sensitive microphones were placed in nature throughout Bavaria and Switzerland. The Audience listened to the performance through headphones facing east as the night sky turned to light. The duration and start time of the concerts are different every day: they are based on the Earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun. People can experince the concerts until 20 June 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/ANNA SZILAGYIPalestinians search for missing people under the rubble of the destroyed house of the Al Hajj family following an Israeli air strike, in Al Nusairat refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, 19 March 2024. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 10 members of the same family were killed and six remain trapped under the rubble following an overnight Israeli air strike. More than 31,500 Palestinians and over 1,300 Israelis have been killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), since Hamas militants launched an attack against Israel from the Gaza Strip on 07 October 2023, and the Israeli operations in Gaza and the West Bank which followed it. Picture: EPA-EFE/MOHAMMED SABERIndigenous people light candles during the wake of Carmelina Yule Pavi, in Toribio, Colombia, 18 March 2024. Indigenous leader Carmelina Yule Pavi, was injured in an attack by FARC dissidents in Toribio on 16 March. She subsequently passed away from her injuries on 17 March. Picture: EPA-EFE/Ernesto GuzmanArt handlers pose with the work ‘Sunday Afternoon’ by British artist L.S. Lowry at Christie’s auction house in London, Britain, 19 March 2024. The work has not been publicly displayed for 57 years and the auction house estimates it will fetch between four and six million pounds sterling. It will be auctioned at the Modern British and Irish Art evening sale on 20 March 2024. Picture: EPA-EFE/NEIL HALL
