A commuter gestures to Boris Johnson as he rides across Vauxhall Bridge in London, England on November 19, 2015. The London mayor was opening a cycle superhighway. (Photo by John Stillwell/PA Wire)

U.S. Army Sgt. Patricia Foust receives a free Christmas tree on December 7, 2011 at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colorado. More than 600 soldiers and military families at the base chose trees as part of the annual Trees for Troops program. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Cars are piled up as flooding affects the area after heavy rains in Ensival, Verviers, Belgium, 15 July 2021. Heavy rains have caused widespread damage and flooding in parts of Belgium. (Photo by Stephanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A crustacean walks on a road after flooding went back in Schuld, Germany, Friday, July 16, 2021. Two days before the Ahr river went over the banks after strong rain falls causing severals deaths and hundreds of people missing. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

The space shuttle Atlantis lifts off from launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida May 14, 2010. (Photo by Pierre Ducharme/Reuters)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Farmers harvest lotus loots in a pond on July 21, 2025 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province of China. Lotus root harvest season is in full swing in Nantong as farmers work to harvest and transport fresh lotus roots to meet market demand. (Photo by Zhai Huiyong/VCG via Getty Images)

Commuters wear protective face masks as they walk through a subway station, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wednesday, December 1, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Brazil joined the widening circle of countries to report cases of the omicron variant. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)