Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
Murder accused Ndodana Tshuma appears at Johannesburg Magistrates Court, 12 July 2026, for the possession of an unlicensed firearm he was found with when he was arrested in Kensington. The case was postponed to the 22nd of July pending the state verification of his legal status in South Africa. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The CitizenResidents sing Christian worship songs amid the rubble of the Obras del Poder Popular (OPP) building in Caraballeda, La Guaira state, Venezuela, on July 12, 2026, following twin earthquakes that struck the region. The twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela on June 24 had left nearly 4,500 people dead as of July 12, while much of the affected population continued to live in camps, according to official figures. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)People view the blooming corpse flowers, Ordorysseus (R) and Odora (L), on display at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California on July 13, 2026, with each bloom remaining at its most spectacular for only about 24 hours before beginning to fade. The rare plant Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, or titan arum, is native to Sumatran rainforests in Indonesia and celebrated in the plant kingdom for its tall phallic structure and smell of rotting flesh which is emitted during its brief 24-48 hour bloom. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP)Ukrainian rescuers work to extinguish a fire at a damaged residential building following a Russian drone strike late night in Zaporizhzhia on July 12, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Darya NAZAROVA / AFP)State Security Agency (SSA) Deputy Director-General (DDG), Loyiso Jafta testifies at the Khampepe Commission Of Inquiry at Sci-Bono Discovery Centre on July 13, 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The inquiry was established to investigate allegations of political interference in the investigations of apartheid era crimes. (Photo by Gallo Images/Luba Lesolle)Demonstrators protest a federal law enforcement involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine on July 13, 2026. A shooting on Monday involving US immigration agents killed a man identified by rights groups as a 26-year-old Colombian man, an incident likely to fuel more criticism of the Trump administrations deportation drive. The shooting happened in Biddeford, a town of 22,000 people in the northern state of Maine and comes a week after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot dead a Mexican man in Texas. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP)Relief personnel conduct a flood rescue drill during monsoon season as a precautionary measure at the Ravi river in Lahore on July 13, 2026. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)Western lowland gorilla munches a piece of fruit-flavoured ice at a zoo in Ramat Gan as temperatures reach 30 degrees Celsius on July 13, 2026. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)New students take part in a ceremony on the first day of elementary school in Darul Imarah on outskirts of the Banda Aceh on July 13, 2026. (Photo by CHAIDEER MAHYUDDIN / AFP)A closed hotel is seen in Altenahr near the Ahr river in Mayschoss, western Germany, on July 13, 2026, five years after the dramatic floods of July 14 and 15, 2021 in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia. More than 180 people lost their lives in severe floods that pummelled western Germany in mid-July 2021, raising questions about whether enough was done to forewarn residents. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP)A Canadair CL-415 of the French civil security performs watter-scooping maneuvers by skimming across the Seine river in Chartrettes, in the Paris’ Ile-de-France region on July 13, 2026, following the forest fire in Fontainebleau Forest. The fire that broke out on July 12 and swept through 800 hectares of the Fontainebleau forest, southeast of Paris, “could” have been “deliberately started,” France’s Interior Minister stated at the scene on July 13, 2026. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP)A worker cuts the grass at the Dallas Stadium in Arlington on July 12, 2026, ahead of the 2026 World Cup football tournament semi-final match between France and Spain on July 14. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)Orange men carrying Lambeg drums march in the Parade in the coastal village of Glenarm, on the north-east coast of Northern Ireland on July 13, 2026, during celebrations of the battle of the Boyne in 1690, when the Protestant King William of Orange defeated the Catholic King James. (Photo by Paul Faith / AFP)A cygnet is measured and checked before being released during the annual “Swan Upping” on the River Thames in Windsor, west of London, on July 13, 2026. Swan Upping is the annual census of the swan population on stretches of the River Thames and dates from the 12th century. (Photo by CARLOS JASSO / AFP)
