A woman wearing a face mask rides a bicycle with a child, following an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China on February 8, 2021. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

The picture dated July 8, 2023 shows the Typhoon performing at the RAF Waddington Families Day in Lincolnshire, UK. A number of iconic planes took to the skies in the action-packed day for service personnel and their friends and families. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

Escorts of city prince Stefan I on their way to the key transfer for carnival in Maastricht, Netherlands on February 18, 2023. City prince Stefan I symbolically gains power over the city for three days. (Photo by Hollandse Hoogte/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

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)

“The Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya is a waterfall located in southern Africa on the Zambezi River between the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe. A famous feature is a naturally formed pool known as the Devil's Pool, near the edge of the falls, accessed via Livingstone Island in Zambia. When the river flow is at a certain level, usually during the months of September to December, a rock barrier forms a pool with little current; some people swim in the pool. Occasional deaths have been reported when people slip over the edge of the rock barrier”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Devil's Pool – Victoria Falls, Zambia. (Photo by Siena College Study Abroad)

The Zammitt Family. “A portrait of the Zammitt family at their western Sydney home, with their dogs, Benji and Beau. Brian Zammitt (second from left) is the head of his booming family business, BAMS Hygiene Management, one of Australia’s leading deep cleaning companies, which specialises in disinfecting workplaces and locations contaminated with Covid-19. His wife, Sandra, and daughters Natalie and Louisa all play key frontline roles in the business”. (Photo by John Janson-Moore/Australia’s National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022)

Waxwings in Balham south London on December 31, 2023. There has been a huge influx of this erruptive species this year. This probably due to severe storms and a shortage of food in their native Scandinavia in the Autumn. (Photo by Jack Hill/The Times)

A love story with two log choppers. “In 1993, I was working on a project about life in the Olomouc region of Czechoslovakia. One day, I came to the village of Dlouhá Loučka-Křivá and went into a courtyard where I saw two old people, a husband and wife, sawing firewood for winter. They were working quietly, concentrating. I watched them fetch a beam from a wrecked barn, but they didn’t discuss how they planned to carry it to the saw. The woman faced one way, the man the other. When they realised, the woman eventually turned and followed her husband. The picture I took is the picture of many relationships – when each partner wants something different, but they have to come to an agreement, pull together eventually”. (Photo by Jindrich Streit)