Iraqi Christians gather for prayer on the outskirts of Qaraqosh in preparation for the pope's arrival. The pontiff urged them to forgive ISIS extremists who destroyed their churches and much of the traditionally Christian town.
Hafiza, 70, gazes out the window of the small home near Faizabad where she took refuge after the Taliban seized her village in 2019. When one of her four sons joined the Taliban, Hafiza begged his commander to let him come home. “You’ve given two sons to the government and one to [anti-Taliban] militia,” she says he replied. “This one will be ours.”
The New Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Mobile, Alabama, held its first in-person service since the pandemic began on Easter Sunday. Pastor Clinton Johnson began and ended the service by encouraging his congregation to get vaccinated. “The virus will kill you; the vaccine won’t,” he said.
A crowd at George Floyd Square in Minneapolis celebrates after hearing the guilty verdict of former police officer Derek Chauvin on April 20. The verdict came nearly a year after Floyd’s death sparked an international outcry against police brutality.
Phoenician seafarers once ruled ancient Sidon, now the third largest city in Lebanon. The small Mediterranean country was an economic success story in the 1990s but now faces one of the worst financial crises in centuries, according to the World Bank.
After spending the past year rehearsing virtually, members of the Sharyland High School varsity mariachi band in Mission, Texas, perform in-person for the first time on September 16—Mexican Independence Day. The daylong marathon of performances at multiple schools was exhausting, but members were elated to finally play together for real-life audiences.
On August 30, firefighters with the Santa Clara fire unit try to protect structures on the Echo Summit, a mountainous part of California east of Sacramento. Intense heat and dried-out underbrush create conditions for larger, more frequent wildfires.
Berlin, Germany's reunified capital, is one of the world's top destinations for clubbing.
In the city of Jeremie, old colonial buildings collapsed during Haiti’s latest 7.2 magnitude earthquake. But the devastation was worse in the rural areas.
