stories
2019 in photos: Meduza’s picks These images from Russia and around the world capture the year
Source: Meduza
Several thousand people march in an unpermitted rally for free elections in Moscow on July 27, 2019.
Evgeny Feldman for Meduza
Sri Lankan soldiers examine St. Sebastian's Church after a bombing during Easter services kills dozens of people. A series of similar attacks across the country claims the lives of roughly 160 people, including several dozen foreigners. April 21, 2019.
AFP / Scanpix / LETA
A member of Russia’s Aerial Forest Protection Service parachutes into the taiga during firefighting efforts in the Krasnoyarsk region. Wildfires across Siberia and Russia’s Far East damage 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres). July 31, 2019.
Aerial Forest Protection Service / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
Locals in Achinsk, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, watch as a stockpile of military ammunition explodes near the town of Kamenka. August 5, 2019.
Dmitry Dub / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Guatemalan migrant Lety Pérez embraces her son, Anthony, while pleading with a Mexican National Guard member to let them cross into the United States, near Juárez, Mexico. July 22, 2019.
Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Protesters against plans to build St. Catherine’s Church in the center of Yekaterinburg (in one of the city’s few remaining public spaces) tear down the fencing around the construction site. May 14, 2019.
Marina Moldavskaya / TASS / Scanpix / LETA
An apartment building in Magnitogorsk after a gas explosion. January 1, 2019.
Andrey Serebryakov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A security guard helps evacuates the “Dusit” hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, during a terrorist attack on January 15, 2019.
Baz Ratner / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
An oil tanker attacked in the Gulf of Oman in waters between Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. June 13, 2019.
ISNA / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Passengers from Ural Airlines Flight A321 after an emergency landing in a cornfield not far from Moscow’s Zhukovsky International Airport on August 15, 2019. The successful landing became known as the “Miracle on the Cornfield,” in a nod to a controlled ditching after a bird strike in the Hudson River, about a decade earlier.
Galina Eliseeva / TASS / Scanpix / LETA
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange heads to court after his arrest in London. April 11, 2019.
Hannah McKay / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Members of the Lisu people, a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group in China, gather wild honey in the mountains of Yunnan. May 11, 2019.
Kevin Frayer / Getty Images
A woman in the Indian city of Mumbai as rescue workers look for survivors in a collapsed building. July 16, 2019.
Prashant Waydande / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Thousands of Venezuelans Santiago, Chile, arrive at Plaza Baquedano to demonstrate their support for opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president against Nicolas Maduro on January 23, 2019.
Sebastian Vivallo Onate / Agencia Makro / Getty Images
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un rides a white horse to the sacred Paektu Mountain at the border between North Korea and China. October 16, 2019.
KCNA / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg meets Pope Francis on April 17, 2019.
Vatican Media / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A protester in Hong Kong uses a tennis racket to deflect tear-gas grenades fired by the police on August 25, 2019.
Chris McGrath / Getty Images
Oppositionists carrying copies of the Russian Constitution march on Red Square in support of Konstantin Kotov, a local activist sentenced to four years in prison for repeatedly attending peaceful unpermitted protests. October 13, 2019.
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn is carried on a palanquin through the streets outside the Grand Palace for the public to pay homage during the second day of his coronation ceremony in Bangkok. It’s the country’s first coronation in 70 years. May 5, 2019.
Wason Wanichor / AP / Scanpix / LETA
A naturally occurring ice disk forms on the Presumpscot River in Westbrook, Maine. Scientists say these disks spin in the water because melting generates a vortex that induces the rotation of a floating object. January 14, 2019.
Tina Radel / City of Westbrook / AP / Scanpix / LETA
People in Paris pray in the street while watching the Notre Dame Cathedral burn. April 15, 2019.
Yoan Valat / EPA / Scanpix / LETA
President Donald Trump presents fast food at the White House to be served to the Clemson Tigers football team to celebrate their national championship. January 14, 2019.
Chris Kleponis / Getty Images
Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, convicted of plotting terrorist attacks in Russia, steps out from a plane in Kyiv after Russia and Ukraine exchange dozens of prisoners. September 7, 2019.
Gleb Garanich / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Special forces in the Republic of Georgia shove protesters away from the parliament building amid public outrage about a visit to Tbilisi from Russian lawmakers. June 21, 2019.
Irakli Gedenidze / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Homes destroyed by flooding in Tulun, in Russia’s Irkutsk region. July 2, 2019.
Svetlana Latynina / TASS / Scanpix / LETA
Alexey Minyailo, previously a suspect in the felony allegations against Moscow’s summer protesters, is arrested in court after throwing a rose at three other “Moscow case” suspects still on trial. December 6, 2019.
Evgeny Feldman for Meduza
Iraqi Kurds in the city of Aqrah celebrate Nowruz, the Kurdish New Year. March 20, 2019.
Micah Garen / Getty Images
The flooded city of Tulun in Russia’s Irkutsk region, where high waters caused some of the worst damage this summer, killing more than 20 people. July 2, 2019.
Alexey Golovshchikov / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew signs the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine at St. George Patriarchal Cathedral. January 5, 2019.
Ozan Kose / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
![Demonstrators march in Moscow against domestic violence and in support of the <a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2019/06/27/it-was-their-lives-or-his" target="_blank">Khachaturyan sisters</a>, who are accused of murdering their abusive father. Their sign reads, “Don’t wait until [you’ve suffered] the fate of the Khachaturyan sisters. Build the movement against domestic violence!” August 31, 2019.](/impro/9bsZU8kwm9mkULNweV0IWeAV-51mfm0fQj5Y71zKvjU/resizing_type:fit/width:325/height:0/enlarge:1/quality:80/aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWR1/emEuaW8vaW1hZ2Uv/YXR0YWNobWVudHMv/aW1hZ2VzLzAwNC84/NjkvMjczL29yaWdp/bmFsL3dPd1FIRzFY/RzFyQmhDanRibVdR/VlEuanBlZw.jpeg)
Demonstrators march in Moscow against domestic violence and in support of the Khachaturyan sisters, who are accused of murdering their abusive father. Their sign reads, “Don’t wait until [you’ve suffered] the fate of the Khachaturyan sisters. Build the movement against domestic violence!” August 31, 2019.
Tatyana Makeeva / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Huskies pull scientists through waters standing on a 1.2-meter-thick (4-foot-thick) ice sheet in Inglefield Bredning in northwest Greenland. June 13, 2019.
Steffen Olsen / Danish Meteorological Institute / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
British Prime Minister Theresa May announces her resignation on May 24, 2019.
Toby Melville / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Fourteen submariners are buried after dying in a fire aboard the “Losharik” deep-diving nuclear-powered submarine. July 6, 2019.
Olga Maltseva / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
A controlled explosion on June 28, 2019, demolishes the Ponte Morandi viaduct in Genoa. In August 2018, a section collapsed during a rainstorm and killed 43 people.
Riccardo Giordano / IPA / SIPA / Scanpix / LETA
American actor Ezra Miller at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala on May 6, 2019.
Andrew Kelly / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
The remains of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 that caught fire when landing at Moscow Sheremetevo Airport on May 5, 2019, killing 41 people.
“Moskva” news agency / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe dries to a trickle after the worst drought in a century. December 4, 2019.
Mike Hutchings / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
A fire destroys the Notre Dame Cathedral’s spire and most of the roof, but the building’s stone vaulted ceiling prevents extensive damage to the interior. Officials have found no evidence of arson, and investigators think a short-circuit or cigarette butt could have started the fire.
Veronique de Viguerie / Getty Images
Britain's Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, accompanied by Meghan's mother, Doria Ragland, show their newborn baby son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, to Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle. May 8, 2019.
Chris Allerton / SussexRoyal / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Anti-government protesters in the Chilean capital of Santiago use lasers against riot police. November 1, 2019.
Pablo Sanhueza / Reuters / Scanpix / LETA
Volodymyr Zelensky embraces his wife after seeing the first exit polls in Ukraine’s runoff presidential election, which show that he will win the Ukrainian presidency. April 21, 2019.
Sergey Gapon / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk stands in front of the shattered windows of the newly unveiled all-electric battery-powered Tesla's Cybertruck at Tesla Design Center in Hawthorne, California.
Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
A room in the flooded Gritti Palace, which has played host to royals and celebrities over the decades.
Marco Bertorello / AFP / Scanpix / LETA
Police officers and National Guard troops in Moscow disperse a march in support of Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov on June 12, 2019.
Evgeny Feldman for Meduza
The first image of a black hole, from the galaxy Messier 87. Several billion times more massive than the sun, the region of spacetime unleashes a violent jet of energy some 5,000 light-years into space. April 10, 2019.
Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration
The “50 Let Pobedy” Arktika-class nuclear-powered icebreaker makes its way through the waters of the Gulf of Ob in Russia’s Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. April 3, 2019.
Lev Fedoseev / TASS
The Radio City Music Hall during a mass power outage in New York City. July 13, 2019.
David Dee Delgado / Getty Images
A makeshift memorial honoring late Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz, who was assassinated at a charity event by a recently released prison inmate. January 16, 2019.
Wojciech Strozyk / AP / Scanpix / LETA
Meduza special correspondent Ivan Golunov after being released from house arrest on June 11, 2019.
Evgeny Feldman for Meduza
Photo Editors: Sasha Gorokhova, Michael Stavtsev
Photo Director: Valeriy Gorokhov