Narendra Shrestha / EPA ImagesWest, Central, and South Asia, Singles—Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising: Fire and smoke engulf Singha Durbar after protesters stormed and set the government complex alight during violent demonstrations in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 9, 2025. Story: A government ban of 26 social-media platforms on September 4, 2025 was the breaking point for Nepal’s youth. On September 8, thousands flooded the streets, part of a generation of young people around the world refusing to accept systems that perpetuate corruption, unemployment, and economic hardship. Within two days, 76 people were dead, most of them young demonstrators killed by police. Thousands more were injured. On September 9, following Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation, protesters stormed and set fire to Singha Durbar, the historic complex at the center of Nepal’s government.Ihsaan Haffejee, for GroundUpAfrica, Singles—Joburg Ballet School: Young dancers from the Joburg Ballet School backstage at the Soweto Theatre during their year-end performance in Soweto, South Africa, on December 7, 2025. Story: In apartheid South Africa, ballet was the preserve of white culture, inaccessible to people of color. Today, the Joburg Ballet School offers subsidized training to children from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, with locations in Soweto, Alexandra, and Braamfontein. Parents describe seeing their children learn ballet as something they never thought possible.Yasir Iqbal / Outlook India MagazineWest, Central, and South Asia, Singles—A Daughter’s Grief in Kashmir: Sanam Bashir (21) collapses with grief at her mother’s funeral. Nargis Begum (45) died from shrapnel wounds after a mortar shell struck while the two were fleeing their home in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, India, on May 9, 2025. Story: The Kashmir region has been contested between India and Pakistan since the 1947 partition of British India, a territorial dispute that has fueled decades of conflict. On April 22, 2025, an attack on tourists in Pahalgam killed 26 people. India blamed Pakistan-backed militant groups and responded with strikes on May 7. Four days of intense cross-border shelling, drone attacks, and air strikes followed. Thousands of civilians were displaced, dozens were killed, and homes and infrastructure along the Line of Control (the de facto border) were destroyed. Widespread international pressure secured a cease-fire on May 10, averting further escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals.David Guttenfelder / The New York TimesEurope, Stories—Drone Wars: A soldier from Ukraine’s 93rd Brigade scans for Russian FPV drones while speeding through Kostyantynivka, a strategic gateway to Ukraine’s last major defensive belt in Donetsk, in Kostyantynivka, Ukraine, on June 19, 2025. Story: Ukraine’s battle against the Russian invasion is reshaping modern combat. Hobby drones are being repurposed into remote-controlled weapons, and mass-produced first-person-view (FPV) drones are piloted from kilometers away with deadly precision. These developments have triggered an unrelenting drone arms race and turned large areas of Ukraine into “kill zones.” Civilians are targeted and displaced, and soldiers spend most of their time in underground bunkers or basements, unable to be resupplied or casualty-evacuated. This story documents Ukraine’s efforts to advance its drone capabilities, and the impact of Russian drone attacks on civilians.Paula HornickelEurope, Singles—Emma the Social Robot: Waltraud talks with Emma, a social robot that recognizes faces and remembers past conversations, in Albershausen, Germany, on July 3, 2025. Although skeptical at first, Waltraud says that she felt connected to Emma over time. Story: Germany’s care homes are facing two crises: staff shortages and loneliness. A 2023 study found that one in five residents aged 80 and older describe themselves as “severely lonely.” This reality has prompted trials of social robots such as Emma, developed by a Munich-based start-up. Waltraud, a resident of Haus im Wiesengrund in Albershausen, had her doubts but over time formed a bond with Emma. “When she tells her jokes, that’s really good. That’s my kind of humor,” says Waltraud, though she emphasizes that human contact is always preferable.Matthew Abbott, Oculi, for The New York TimesAsia-Pacific and Oceania, Stories—The Last Dolphin Hunters: A young man drags a dolphin toward the shore in Walande. Although Fanalei struggled this season, the larger sister community of Walande successfully landed a catch to share across the Surodo Lagoon, on Maramasike Island, on February 11, 2025. Story: Fanalei, a low-lying island in the Solomon Islands, stands at a crossroads between contested tradition and a changing economy. For generations, dolphin hunting provided food and income, with dolphin teeth used as ritual currency for bride-price and other forms of local exchange. Today, as rising sea levels displace the community and threaten its future, seaweed farming is providing an economic alternative to the seasonal hunt. As seaweed farming expands, fewer people are available for the collective efforts upon which dolphin hunting depends. This story captures a community reshaped by environmental pressure and shifting traditions.Chantal Pinzi / Panos PicturesAfrica, Stories—Farīsāt: Gunpowder’s Daughters: Noura attempts to control her horse after firing, the most dangerous part of the performance, in Sidi Rahal, Morocco, on August 8, 2025. Riders risk injury from gunpowder or falling and being trampled. Story: Tbourida is a UNESCO-recognized Moroccan equestrian tradition dating back to the 16th century. Troupes gallop in unison, firing rifles in a choreographed performance of cavalry warfare. Historically excluded, female riders have fought for inclusion since Morocco’s 2004 family-code reforms strengthened women’s legal rights. Today, seven all-female troupes ride among some 300. These farīsāt (“horsewomen”) bear significant personal costs, funding their own horses, costumes, and gunpowder permits. Their perseverance stands as a powerful claim to women’s rightful place in Moroccan cultural heritage.Brais Lorenzo / EFE / Revista 5W / El PaísEurope, Stories—Burned Land: The Larouco wildfire, the worst in Galicia’s recorded history, burns through the night as flames reach O Courel, a mountain range of great biodiversity, in Sierra de O Courel, Galicia, Spain, on August 19, 2025. Story: 2025 was a record year for wildfires in Europe. More than 200,000 hectares burned across Galicia during Spain’s worst fire season in about three decades. The increasingly severe fires in this region are attributed to drought and heat intensified by climate change, rural depopulation, and shortsighted forest-management policies, including the widespread planting of highly flammable non-native species. Born in Ourense, the photographer grew up with the smell of smoke every summer and has documented Galician wildfires since 2011.Edwina Pickles / The Sydney Morning HeraldAsia-Pacific and Oceania, Singles—Bondi Beach Terror Attack: An overwhelmed police officer leans over near the bodies of Boris (69) and Sofia (61) Gurman, in Sydney, Australia, on December 14, 2025. During the Bondi Beach Terror Attack, the couple was killed while attempting to disarm one of the shooters. Story: During Bondi Beach’s “Chanukah by the Sea,” a community event celebrating the Jewish holiday, two armed men motivated by ISIS ideology attacked participants, killing 15 people. The victims included 10-year-old Matilda and the 87-year-old Ukrainian Holocaust survivor Alexander Kleytman. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the mass shooting an anti-Semitic attack and the deadliest terrorist incident on Australian soil ever. The shooting has prompted a significant reevaluation of public security and religious-freedom protections in Australia.Rob G. Green / National Geographic Society / Henry Luce FoundationAsia-Pacific and Oceania, Singles—Mountain Resident of Wanglang: A wild giant panda is captured by a camera trap in the Wanglang National Nature Reserve, in Sichuan, China, on November 11, 2025. Story: Recent population estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 pandas remain in the wild, and only a few dozen individuals live within Wanglang National Nature Reserve’s 323-square-kilometer territory. This rare sighting was made possible through a pilot exchange program between the National Geographic Society and wildlife biologists, aimed at supporting wildlife-monitoring efforts and fostering cross-cultural cooperation in conservation.Tyrone Siu / ReutersAsia-Pacific and Oceania, Singles—A Desperate Plea: Mr. Wong cries out in anguish as fire engulfs the Tai Po housing complex he calls home, in Hong Kong, on November 26, 2025. Moments earlier, he phoned his wife, who was trapped in the building, and they exchanged what would be their final words. Story: A massive fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po claimed 168 lives, becoming Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948. Although no official cause has been reported, investigations by Hong Kong authorities found that bamboo scaffolding, construction netting, and flammable Styrofoam boards on windows acted as accelerants for the fire, trapping residents inside. More than 2,000 firefighters were involved in rescue efforts; one was killed, and 12 were injured.Ferley A. OspinaSouth America, Stories—Name the Absence: Valeria (5) plays behind a curtain at her aunt’s house, in Los Patios, Norte de Santander, Colombia, on September 10, 2025. She is raised solely by her mother. In her region, 30 percent of households are headed exclusively by women. Story: Colombia has the world’s highest rate of single mothers. The photographer and his family experience this reality not as a statistic but as a “recurring wound.” In 1999, Ferley Ospina’s father was murdered in the border region of Norte de Santander, forcing him to flee with his mother. Photographing the women in his extended family, Ospina seeks to understand the “weight of absence” and the systemic and personal impact of “growing up incomplete.”Carol Guzy / ZUMA Press / iWitness, for Miami HeraldNorth and Central America, Stories—ICE Arrests at New York Court: Masked federal officers wait outside courtrooms holding target photographs, in New York City, New York, on July 8, 2025. Although ICE claims that masks protect the identity of agents and their families, critics argue that the practice erodes accountability and public trust. Story: In 2025, shifts in U.S. immigration policy transformed courthouses into focal points for mass-deportation efforts by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Masked ICE agents detained undocumented migrants immediately following their hearings, often leading to deeply traumatic family separations. These aggressive tactics, coupled with severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the 10th-floor holding facility in the Jacob Javits Federal Building, in New York, prompted fierce public protests, class-action lawsuits, and the arrest of local elected officials demanding accountability.César Rodríguez / Norwegian Red Cross / SNCA / The New York TimesNorth and Central America, Long-Term Projects—Mexico, A Changing Climate: A child runs up to the second floor of a partially submerged home, in Chalco, State of Mexico, Mexico, on August 19, 2024. The 2024 floods affected 7,000 residents. Many families lost personal belongings such as photographs and other cherished items. Story: Mexico is especially vulnerable to climate extremes, with 52 percent of its territory situated in arid or semiarid zones. Over the past two decades, environmental disasters have internally displaced approximately 2.7 million people, a figure projected to reach up to 8 million by 2050. This project documents the enormous cost of those changes on a human scale: from the rapid erosion of Tabasco’s coastlines, where sea levels are rising three times faster than the global average, to the systemic water scarcities in Monterrey and the State of Mexico, where renewable water availability has plummeted by 81 percent since 1950.Evgeniy Maloletka / Associated PressEurope, Singles—Russian Attack on Kyiv: Valeria Syniuk (65) sits near her badly damaged home, in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 24, 2025. She was asleep when a Russian missile destroyed the building opposite hers. Story: On April 24, 2025, Russia launched one of the deadliest attacks on Kyiv since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Hours after international peace negotiations stalled again, missiles and drones struck at least five residential neighborhoods, killing 13 people and wounding 90. Russia’s intensifying air campaign, which systematically targets infrastructure, hospitals, and educational institutions, continues to devastate life across the country.Ethan Swope / Associated PressNorth and Central America, Stories—Los Angeles on Fire: The Palisades Fire ravages a neighborhood amid high winds, in Los Angeles, California, United States, on January 7, 2025. The Los Angeles blazes inflicted $28 billion to $53.8 billion in property damage, disrupting thousands of local businesses. Story: In January 2025, severe drought and 100-mph (roughly 160-kph) Santa Ana winds fueled 14 devastating wildfires across Los Angeles, destroying more than 18,000 buildings and displacing 200,000 residents. Although officials reported 31 direct fatalities, public-health studies estimate 440 excess deaths linked to toxic smoke and disrupted medical care. In the disaster’s aftermath, a stark wealth divide has defined recovery efforts, with lower-income residents facing displacement while wealthier communities leverage private resources to rebuild.Aaron Favila / Associated PressAsia-Pacific and Oceania, Stories—Wedding in the Flood: The bride Jamaica Aguilar prepares to enter the flooded Barasoain Church for her wedding. The Barasoain Church, a national landmark, is situated in a region where nearly 75 percent of the population is exposed to flooding hazards. Story: When Typhoon Wipha hit the Philippines and flooded Barasoain Church, Jade Rick Verdillo and Jamaica Aguilar faced a difficult decision: Should they cancel their wedding or proceed with the marriage? The couple carried on despite high waters, a testament to love and resilience in the face of severe weather. Located on a delta, Bulacan province is vulnerable to more frequent and extreme floods caused by aging drainage systems, dredging projects, overextraction of groundwater, and climate change.Saher Alghorra / The New York TimesWest, Central, and South Asia, Stories—Witnessing Gaza: Tamer Hassan al-Shafei and his family break their Ramadan fast in the remains of their home, in Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, on March 4, 2025. Food shortages meant that only basics were served instead of the usual spread. Story: In 2025, civilians in Gaza endured starvation, famine, and relentless bombardment as the death toll surpassed 75,000 and Israeli authorities severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid. A cease-fire agreement reached in October has yet to bring meaningful relief. Palestinian journalists—who are living through the reality they document—are the world’s few witnesses to what a United Nations commission has concluded is a genocide. Israel disputes this. The photographer worked under immense danger, driven by a refusal to let the world turn away: “Even when everything around me told me to stop, I couldn’t—silence would mean surrender.”
Be sure to visit the World Press Photo site to see all of the winning and honored images.
