War, peace and the terrifying power of nature: These are the pictures that defined 2025

2025 was a year scarred by war as the illusory prospect of peace slipped in and out of focus.

Nature showed the height of its terrifying power as extreme weather baked, flooded and pounded major cities, robbing the resources that fuel them.

Meanwhile sporting stars triumphed, a singer orbited, a prince felt the depth of his disgrace, and a new pope emerged.

These are the images that defined 2025.

Donald Trump greets Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, 15 August.

People embrace after a Russian missile hit a multi-storey apartment block in Kyiv, Ukraine, 17 June.

Palestinians wait to receive food from a charity food kitchen after a global hunger monitor said Gaza City and the surrounding areas were officially suffering from a famine, 28 August.

Displaced Palestinians flee northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, 17 September.

Israel's Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, 13 June.

Pope Leo XIV appears on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican after his election, 8 May.

England's Zoe Aldcroft lifts the Women's Rugby World Cup 2025 trophy after winning the final, 27 September.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, then Prince Andrew, stands next to the Prince and Princess of Wales as they leave Westminster Cathedral in London at the end of the Requiem Mass on the day of the funeral of the Duchess of Kent, 16 September.

Katy Perry (second left) prepares to sing in space, as she and five other women get ready for a mission on board Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin rocket, 14 April.

A migrant swims to board an inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the English Channel to reach Britain from Calais, France, 25 August.

A protester raises his fist during a demonstration near the Gare du Nord train station in Paris as part of a protest movement called Bloquons Tout (Let's Block Everything), 10 September.

Police officers use pepper spray on a demonstrator wearing dervish clothes during a protest on the day Istanbul's mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was jailed, in Istanbul, Turkey, 23 March.

Burned buildings in Malibu in the aftermath of the Palisades fire in Los Angeles, California, 8 January.

A low-flying tanker drops retardant during the Great Fire in the Sierra National Forest, California, 26 August.

Smoke rises from a wildfire over fields surrounding the village of Torrefeta i Florejacs, near Lleida, Spain, 1 July.

Large waves as Storm Eowyn arrives in Porthcawl, Wales, 24 January.

The Woodhead Reservoir near Tintwistle in Derbyshire was left dry after a prolonged period without rain, 16 June.

Water from the overflowing Tawi River flooded a temple of the Hindu elephant god Ganesh following heavy rain in Jammu, in the Indian controlled state of Jammu and Kashmir, 26 August.

A damaged church after Hurricane Melissa in Lacovia, Jamaica, 31 October.

Dolphins swim past as teams work around the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft shortly after it landed in the water off the coast of Tallahassee, Florida, 18 March.

The rear of an Air India plane after it crashed in Ahmedabad, India, 12 June.

A minibus taxi was set on fire after media reports of the killing of a driver the previous day amid violence between online taxi operations and minibus taxi owners in Soweto, South Africa, 14 August.

A bus and a car stuck in a huge hole that opened in a road following unprecedented rainfall in Odesa, Ukraine, 1 October.

Diana Loginova, an 18-year-old street musician performing under the name Naoko, who was detained after publicly singing a song banned by the Russian government as "extremist", 16 October.

A damaged Buddhist statue lies inside a pagoda following an earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar, 3 April.

By Daniel Daukes, picture editor, and Samuel Osborne, news reporter