Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
Police personnel use batons to disperse demonstrators during a protest march in Patna on July 22, 2026 demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over alleged NEET exam irregularities. The protests, led by the social media-driven Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) movement, have emerged as one of the biggest challenges to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government since his re-election in 2024. (Photo by Sachin KUMAR / AFP)Ballerina Candice Desilets, centre, is greeted by Russian School of Ballet (RSB) senior dancers Zuri Erasmus, left, and Barbara Gomez as she arrives at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, after becoming the first South African to graduate from the prestigious Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, Russia. Desilets began training at RSB in 2016 at just 10 years old. She made history in 2022 as the first South African dancer to be accepted into the Academy, and now, in 2026, has become the first graduate. Picture: Michel Bega/The CitizenA staff support helicopter lands on The Ellipse near the White House, before US President Donald Trump arrives to board Marine One, in Washington, DC, on July 22, 2026. President Trump will travel to Dover Air Force Base to attend a dignified transfer before heading to Marietta, Georgia to speak. (Photo by Ken Cedeno / AFP)A man rides a bicycle past a mural covered with photographs of missing persons while a screen on the Stock Exchange building displays currency exchange rates in Mexico City on July 21, 2026. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)This handout photograph taken and released on July 22, 2026 by the Vatican press office Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV during his visit to the Sanctuary of the Holy Trinity in Vallepietra. (Photo by Handout / VATICAN MEDIA / AFP)Passengers stand on an elevated S-Bahn station operated by German railway giant Deutsche Bahn as a yellow S-Bahn city train drives by, with the TV Tower (Fernsehturm) in the background in Berlin, on a cloudy chilly summer day on July 22, 2026. (Photo by John MACDOUGALL / AFP)Members of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) picket outside the Parktonian Hotel in Johannesburg on 22 July 2026, demanding that the company pay outstanding provident fund contributions allegedly deducted from employees’ salaries but not paid to the fund since October 2025. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The CitizenFirefighters walk along a smoldering hill as Little Fire burns in Pleasanton, California on July 21, 2026. (Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP)Alpecin – Premier Tech team’s Belgian rider Jasper Philipsen celebrates after winning the 17th stage of the 113th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 174,7 km between Chambéry and Voiron in the French Alps, on July 22, 2026. (Photo by Gonzalo Fuentes / POOL / AFP)The Gravity-1 commercial rocket launches from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center carrying nine satellites to their designated orbits, at sea off the coast of Shanghai in eastern China on July 22, 2026. (Photo by CNS / AFP)US film composer and singer-songwriter Danny Elfman’s hands are seen as he attends the premiere of HBO Max’s comedy series “Stuart Fails to Save the Universe” at The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on July 21, 2026. (Photo by Chris DELMAS / AFP)US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (R) salute as a US Army carry team carries the flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad, 28, of Ozone Park, New York, during a dignified transfer solemn event for US service members killed during operations in the Middle East, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on July 22, 2026. According to the US Department of Defense, Rampersad is believed to have been killed in action on July 17 during an enemy attack at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)A CalFire helicopter crosses the sun on its way to make a water drop on Little Fire in Pleasanton, California on July 21, 2026. (Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP)
