Through the lens: The Citizen's Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
Members of the Zulu regiment known as the ‘Amabutho’ chant slogans as they march during a demonstration by the “March and March” movement marking an unofficial deadline set by citizen-led groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa, in Durban, on June 30, 2026. (Photo by Marco LONGARI / AFP)Soweto residents march through Soweto, 30 June 2026, protesting against undocumented immigrants during a nationwide anti-immigrant demonstration. Marches took place in major cities across South Africa as numerous organisations aligned with the “March and March” movement protested against the country’s large population of documented and undocumented foreign nationals. Although the movement had issued an ultimatum calling on foreign nationals to leave South Africa by 30 June, the government rejected the demand, dismissed calls for a shutdown, and declared 30 June a normal working day. Picture: Michel Bega/The CitizenProtesters gathered through Johannesburg CBD from Beyers Naudé Square to Hillbrow and Yeoville, 30 June 2026, for undocumented imigrants to leave the country. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/ The CitizenProtesters chant slogans as they march during a demonstration by the “March and March” and Operation Dudula movements marking an unofficial deadline set by citizen-led groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa, in Cape Town, on June 30, 2026. Thousands of demonstrators massed across South African cities on June 30, 2026, venting anger at undocumented foreign nationals as police mounted a major operation to head off looting and xenophobic violence that has claimed four lives.
The nationwide protests cap weeks of demonstrations called by a loose coalition of minor political parties and small citizen-led vigilante groups, which set an unofficial June 30 deadline for foreigners without residency papers to leave. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)Paraguayan fans react as they watch a live broadcast of the 2026 FIFA World Cup football match between Germany and Paraguay in Asuncion on June 29, 2026. (Photo by DANIEL DUARTE / AFP)A pedestrian carrying an umbrella looks on a as she wades through a flooded street during rainfall in Lagos, on June 30, 2026. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)Lightning flashes light up the sky above Ukraine’s capital Kyiv during a thunderstorm on June 29, 2026. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)Beatrice Kiarie, whose son Macmillan Kiarie, 30, is among the youths allegedly abducted, reacts during a protest against alleged police abductions in the Mathare informal settlement of Nairobi on June 30, 2026. Running battles erupted between locals and police in a Nairobi informal settlement on June 30, 2026 leaving one person dead and two wounded, AFP journalists saw, after the alleged abduction of two activists by security forces. Protests broke out in the Mathare informal settlement after planned demonstrations last week were prevented by a huge police deployment, which saw some activists detained and disappeared for days. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)A girl wades through floodwaters in Dhemaji on June 30, 2026. (Photo by Biju BORO / AFP)Police use water cannon to cool down people in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square during an extreme heat wave on June 30, 2026. Police and fire department vehicles sprayed water in the afternoon to relieve the high temperatures. The cooling initiative was well received by visitors, while a third-degree heat alert remains in effect nationwide and century-old heat (Photo by Attila KISBENEDEK / AFP)A helicopter flies over CMA-CGM container ship the ‘Notre Dame’, France’s largest container ship, as it approaches the northern port of Le Havre escorted by tugboats on June 29, 2026. With 400 meters long, 62 meters wide, and 75 meters high, the CMA CGM Notre-Dame is designed to carry up to 24,212 containers. (Photo by Alain JOCARD / AFP)An aircraft flies at sunrise in Buenos Aires on June 30, 2026. (Photo by Luis ROBAYO / AFP)
