The past 12 months have been an eventful time for news stories, from the unpredictable and tumultuous U.S. presidential election, to continued war and terror in the Middle East and refugees fleeing to Europe, to a historic World Series win for the Chicago Cubs, ongoing protests demanding racial justice in the U.S., the Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, and so much more. Today, we present the Top 25 News Photos of 2016—and starting tomorrow will be presenting part one of a more comprehensive series, 2016: The Year in Photos, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Warning, some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Top 25 News Photos of 2016
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A demonstrator protesting the shooting death of Alton Sterling is detained by law enforcement near the headquarters of the Baton Rouge Police Department in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on July 9. On July 5, Sterling was shot by Baton Rouge police officers several times while being held on the ground outside a convenience store. The incident was caught on video and sparked numerous protests. #
Jonathan Bachman / Reuters -
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers a speech during the evening session on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention on July 21, at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. Trump had just received the number of votes needed to secure the party's nomination. #
John Moore / Getty -
The Chicago Cubs celebrate after Game 7 of the Major League Baseball World Series against the Cleveland Indians Thursday, November 3, in Cleveland. The Cubs won 8-7 in 10 innings to win the series 4-3, ending a 108-year World Series championship drought. #
Gene J. Puskar / AP -
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A Turkish gendarme places the body of a migrant child into a transport bag on beach in Canakkale's Bademli district on January 30, after at least 33 migrants drowned when their boat sank in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece. The migrants, from Myanmar, Afghanistan and Syria, had set sail from the Canakkale province to reach the nearby Greek island of Lesbos. #
Ozan Kose / AFP / Getty -
Air Force One carrying U.S. President Barack Obama and his family flies over a neighborhood of Havana, Cuba, as it approaches the runway to land at Havana's international airport on March 20. Obama was the first President to visit the island nation in 88 years. #
Alberto Reyes / Reuters -
An injured woman looks on as another speaks on her mobile phone following twin blasts at Brussels airport in Zaventem on March 22, as part of coordinated attacks claimed by ISIS militants at the city's airport and in a Metro train. Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights and European railways froze links with Brussels after a series of bombs blasts killed 32 people and injured another 300 in the city's airport and a metro train, sparking a broad security response. Belgium locked down the capital, home to the headquarters of the European Union and NATO, and imposed its highest level of security alert after the explosions. #
Ketevan Kardava / AFP / Getty -
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Britain's Thomas Daley competes in the Men's 10m Platform Semifinal during the diving event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 20, 2016. #
Francois-Xavier Marit / AFP / Getty -
Jennelyn Olayres, 26, cradles the body of her partner Michael Siaron, who was killed on a street by a vigilante group, according to police, in a spate of drug related killings in Pasay city, Metro Manila, Philippines, on July 23. Siaron was killed by suspected vigilantes acting on President Rodrigo Duterte's call to kill all the country's drug dealers. A sign written on cardboard found near the body reads "Pusher Ako", which translates to "I am a drug pusher." #
Czar Dancel / Reuters -
A male chimpanzee named Chacha screams after escaping from nearby Yagiyama Zoological Park as a man tries to capture him on the power lines at a residential area in Sendai, northern Japan, on April 14. The chimp was eventually caught after being shot with a tranquilizer gun and falling from the power lines. #
Kyodo / Reuters -
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Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the presumptive nominee, arrives to speak during her California primary night rally held in Brooklyn, New York, on June 7. While Clinton made history, becoming the first female presidential nominee of a Major U.S. political party, she later lost the general election in November. #
Lucas Jackson / Reuters -
Smoke and flames from raging wildfires erupt behind a car on the highway near Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, on May 7. A massive fire began near Fort McMurray on May 1, eventually burning nearly 1.5 million acres, and destroying 2,400 houses and other buildings. #
Mark Blinch / Reuters -
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Jan Durica of Slovakia and Artem Dzyuba of Russia battle for possession during the UEFA EURO 2016 Group B match between Russia and Slovakia at Stade Pierre-Mauroy on June 15 in Lille, France. #
Mike Hewitt / Getty -
Some migrants swim away from a capsizing boat, while others scramble to the higher points, before a rescue operation by Italian navy ships "Bettica" and "Bergamini" off the coast of Libya on May 25. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that nearly 350,000 refugees attempted to cross the Mediterranean this year, and about 4,700 lost their lives on the way, making 2016 the deadliest year for crossings to date. #
Marina Militare / Reuters -
Embers from a wildfire smolder along Lytle Creek Road near Keenbrook, California, on August 17. Firefighters had at least established a foothold of control of the blaze the day after it broke out for unknown reasons in the Cajon Pass near Interstate 15, the vital artery between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Five years of drought turned the state's wildlands into a tinder box, with eight fires burning at the time, from Shasta County in the far north to Camp Pendleton just north of San Diego. #
Noah Berger / AP -
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A woman wipes the tears of an honor guard as he stands next to the coffin of police officer Kadir Cihan Karagozlu, who was killed in a car bomb attack on a police bus, at Fatih mosque in Istanbul, Turkey, June 8. #
Murad Sezer / Reuters -
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds Kellen Campbell of Denver, right, and Evelyn Keane, of Castle Rock, Colorado, during a campaign rally on July 29, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. #
Evan Vucci / AP -
A protester uses a tennis racket to return a tear gas canister during a demonstration to protest the government's proposed labor law reforms in Nantes, France, on June 2. #
Stephane Mahe / Reuters -
President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump shake hands following their meeting in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on November 10, two days after Trump had won the election. #
Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP -
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A giant panda cub falls from the stage while 23 giant pandas born in 2016 lie on a display at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, on September 29. #
China Daily / Reuters -
When U.S.-backed forces seized Souad Hamidi's village in northern Syria from ISIS militants, the 19-year-old swiftly tore off the niqab she had been forced to wear since 2014 and smiled. "I felt liberated," Hamidi said after swapping her black face-covering veil for a red head scarf. "They made us wear it against our will so I removed it that way to spite them." #
Rodi Said / Reuters -
Syrian civil defense volunteers and rescuers remove a baby from under the rubble of a destroyed building following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighborhood of al-Kalasa in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, on April 28. Despite a partial ceasefire attempted early in the year, the complex Syrian Civil War continued throughout 2016, now approaching six years of conflict, leaving entire cities in rubble, thousands dead, and even more driven from their homes. #
Ameer Alhalbi / AFP / Getty -
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