Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
Pilgrims from the island of Ventotene carry an inflatable crucifix to St. Peter’s Square at the end the weekly general audience in the Vatican on December 10, 2025. (Photo by TIZIANA FABI / AFP)Whirling dervishes perform during a ceremony marking the anniversary of the death of Sufi mystic, poet and founder of sufism, Jelaleddin Mevlana Rumi at Yenikapi Mevlihanesi in Istanbul on December 9, 2025. The dervishes are adepts of Sufism, a mystical form of Islam that preaches tolerance and a search for understanding. Those who whirl, like planets around the sun, turn dance into a form of prayer. Some say the whirling dervishes belong more to the central, conservative city of Konya, where the father of Sufism, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, lived in the 13th century, than to the cosmopolitan modern city. (Photo by Yasin AKGUL / AFP)Displaced residents rest as they take shelter at an evacuee center during clashes along the Thai-Cambodia border in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo Province on December 10, 2025. Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia spread to more parts of their contested border on December 9, forcing a mass exodus of civilians as the renewed hostilities derailed a US-brokered truce. (Photo by Lillian SUWANRUMPHA / AFP)A man dressed as Santa Claus waves his hand as he walks to perform ahead of Christmas in Kolkata, India, on December 10, 2025. (Photo by RUPAK DE CHOWDHURI / NurPhoto via AFP)Britain’s King Charles III (2nd L) speaks with Reverend Mark Birch (C) as they attend an Advent service at Westminster Abbey in central London on December 10, 2025. (Photo by Chris Jackson / POOL / AFP)Young piglets are seen at a farm in Zaragoza, Spain, 10 December 2025. Investigations continue at several farms and other spots to find out the origin of the swine fever outbreak in Spain. Picture: EPA/JAVIER BELVERA man loads a horse cart with sand as a rainbow emerges over Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, on December 10, 2025. Hamas said on December 9 that the Gaza ceasefire plan cannot proceed to its second phase as long as Israeli “violations” persist and called on mediators to pressure Israel to respect the agreement. The US-sponsored ceasefire, in effect since October 10, halted the war that began after Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. But it remains fragile as Israel and Hamas accuse each other almost daily of breaches. (Photo by BASHAR TALEB / AFP)Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal PIetro Parolin meets displaced persons at a centre in Naminawe, 30 km South West of Pemba, on December 9, 2025. Cardinal Parolin is in Mozambique to mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Southern African nation. Northern Mozambique has been battered by a bloody jihadist insurgency since late 2017. The group often referred to as “Al-Shabaab” by locals and authorities — despite no known link to the Somali jihadist group — seeks to impose Sharia law in Cabo Delgado, a neglected outpost that has become fertile ground for radical ideology. (Photo by Diego Menjíbar Reynés / AFP)A Kashmiri farmer plucks lotus stems on a cold winter morning, in the waters of Anchar lake in Srinagar on December 10, 2025. (Photo by Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP)A German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon flies during the mission start of the German NATO Air Policing contingent at the 22nd Tactical Airforce Base in Krolewo Malborskie village, northern Poland, 10 December 2025. Picture: EPA/Adam WarzawaRock band Kiss member Gene Simmons (C) arrives to testify before the US Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property at the US Capitol in Washington DC, USA, 09 December 2025. Simmons is testifying in support of the bipartisan American Music Fairness Act, during a hearing on ‘Balancing the Interests of Local Radio, Songwriters, and Performers in the Digital Age.’ Picture: EPA/WILL OLIVER
