Nichole Ayers / NASAOn July 3, 2025, NASA astronaut Nichole Ayers captured an amazing image of a sprite, a rarely photographed weather phenomenon, as the International Space Station passed above a storm over Mexico. Ayers wrote: “Sprites are TLEs, or Transient Luminous Events, that happen above the clouds and are triggered by intense electrical activity in the thunderstorms below.”Wang Jian / VCG / GettyTourists take photos of the illuminated Chaoran Tower on the first day of the May Day holiday in Jinan, Shandong province, China, on May 1, 2025.Franco Origlia / GettyPope Leo XIV leads the Regina Caeli prayer in St. Peter’s Square on May 11, 2025 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Leo (formerly Robert Francis Prevost) was elected to the papacy on May 8 following the death of Pope Francis on April 21.Andre Penner / APGeese stained blue swim in the Tulipas stream after a truck accidentally spilled chemical dye into the water in Jundiai, Brazil, on May 16, 2025.Kunga Sherpa / APMountaineers form a long queue as they approach the summit of Mount Everest in Nepal, on May 18, 2025.Michael Swensen / GettyLesly Karen Cornett stands in a doorway in her destroyed house on May 18, 2025, in Sunshine Hills, outside of London, Kentucky. She and her husband took shelter in their bathtub and were fortunate to only receive a few cuts. A tornado struck the neighborhood of Sunshine Hills just after midnight on May 17, 2025.Luis Robayo / AFP / GettyA woman wearing a protective helmet poses outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 21, 2025, during a protest called by pensioners against the economic measures of President Javier Milei’s government and demanding an increase in their pensions.Alexandre Agrusti / AFP / GettyThis photograph shows the remaining buildings of the village of Blatten, in the Swiss Alps, buried by a landslide, on May 29, 2025. Blatten residents were evacuated the previous week after several smaller landslides. Rising floodwater from the blocked Lonza River inundated the few surviving buildings and threatened downstream villages.Asif Hassan / AFP / GettyA worker cleans the lines of a cooling tower at an ice factory on a hot summer day in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 29, 2025.Matias Delacroix / APA scientist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute captured a bat for research in Gamboa, Panama, on June 1, 2025.Jehad Alshrafi / APThick smoke and flames erupt from an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, on June 1, 2025.Maxar / DigitalGlobe / GettyA satellite view of the aftermath of a coordinated drone strike shows destroyed Russian Tu-95 bombers on the tarmac at Belaya Air Base, in Russia’s Irkutsk Oblast. The image reveals significant blast damage and charred aircraft remains. Ukraine claims to have damaged or destroyed 40 large Russian aircraft in the attack.Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP / GettyOleksandr Zavnenko, an amputee and Ukrainian veteran of the fight against Russia’s invasion, dances on prosthetic legs with his wife, Maria, a professional choreographer, in Lviv, on June 4, 2025.Ringo Chiu / AFP / GettyPolice officers stand in line outside the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, in front of Barbara Kruger’s artwork Untitled (Questions), in Los Angeles, as police clashed with protesters nearby, on June 8, 2025.Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP / GettyL.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputies fire a nonlethal weapon at a man after he threw a can at them following a protest against federal immigration operations near L.A. City Hall, on June 11, 2025. Protests against Donald Trump’s harsh immigration policies spread on June 11 across the United States despite a military-backed crackdown in Los Angeles and threats by the hard-right Republican president to use “heavy force.”Adnan Abidi / ReutersA person walks past debris at a crash site after an Air India aircraft, bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed during takeoff from an airport in Ahmedabad, India, on June 12, 2025.Patrick Smith / GettyRory McIlroy of Northern Ireland throws his club on the 12th hole during the second round of the 125th U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club on June 13, 2025, in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.Menahem Kahana / AFP / GettyIsraeli air-defense systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the city of Tel Aviv early on June 18, 2025. Israel and Iran exchanged fire again on June 17, the fifth day of strikes in their most intense confrontation in history, fueling fears of a drawn-out conflict that could engulf the Middle East.Olga Fedorova / APNew York City Comptroller Brad Lander is placed under arrest by ICE and FBI agents outside federal immigration court on June 17, 2025, in New York City.Jim Vondruska / GettySearch-and-rescue workers dig through debris looking for any survivors or remains of people swept up in the flash flooding on July 6, 2025, in Hunt, Texas. Heavy rainfall in central Texas set off flash floods, causing the Guadalupe River to rise 26 feet in less than an hour and reportedly killing more than 130 people—including many girls at a summer camp.Nathan Howard / Bloomberg / GettyAn aerial view of an Amazon Web Services data center situated beside a residential development in Haymarket, Virginia, on July 9, 2025. Total power usage in the U.S. is expected to climb 2.15 percent in 2026, spurred largely by a 5 percent spike from commercial users because of the expansion of data centers, according to a U.S. Energy Department report released in June.CFoto / Future Publishing / GettyAn overview of part of the site of a 450,000-kilowatt integrated solar, thermal, and storage project in the Gobi Desert in Bayingolin Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, China, on July 8, 2025.Michael Chow / The Arizona Republic / USA Today / ReutersThe Dragon Bravo fire burns on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, as seen from the South Rim on July 14, 2025. The wildfire in Arizona grew rapidly over the previous weekend, destroying the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of other structures along the canyon’s North Rim.Lindsey Wasson / APGolden State Valkyries center Temi Fagbenle loses the ball against Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor and guard Erica Wheeler, during the first half of a WNBA basketball game in Seattle on July 16, 2025.Aaron Favila / APDespite flooding caused by heavy monsoon rains, Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar decided to stick to their planned wedding date, and held the ceremony inside a flooded church in Malolos, Bulacan province, Philippines, on July 22, 2025.Thanassis Stavrakis / APA man uses a motorcycle to carry a sheep to safety, during a wildfire in Patras, Greece, on August 13, 2025.Indranil Mukherjee / AFP / GettyAbandoned buses, discontinued from active service, stand overgrown with creeper vines and other vegetation at a bus depot in Mumbai, India, on July 26, 2025.Charly Triballeau / AFP / GettyA woman and her child arrive at a hearing as federal agents patrol the hallways outside of a courtroom at New York Federal Plaza Immigration Court at the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York City on August 20, 2025.Rebecca Blackwell, File / Rebecca Blackwell / APPeople take pictures in front of a sign reading “Alligator Alcatraz” as passersby, some opposed, some in support, visit the entrance to an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades on August 28, 2025, in Collier County, Florida.Vadim Ghirda / APAviation buffs observe a Eurofighter Typhoon German Air Force combat aircraft fly by during a show of military and acrobatic aviation on Caraiman Peak, in Bușteni, Romania, on August 26, 2025.Richard Tsong-Taatarii / The Minnesota Star Tribune / GettyA parent runs toward the school during an active-shooter situation at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, on August 27, 2025.Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos / GettyRescuers attend to a victim outside a residential building hit by a Russian missile on August 28, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. The strike hit between the third and fourth floors of a five-story house, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko. At least four people were reported killed, with 20 injured, as emergency services continued operations.
