As the year comes to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of the most memorable events and images of 2018. Among the events covered in this essay (the second of a three-part photo summary of the year): Mexico elected a new president, World Cup fans cheered and cried, protests rocked Nicaragua, a new Ebola outbreak hit central Africa, lava destroyed neighborhoods in Hawaii, and much more. See also: “Top 25 News Photos of 2018” and 2018 in Photos: Part 1, and come back tomorrow for the last in this series, Part 3. The series will comprise 120 images in all. Warning: Some of the photos may contain graphic or objectionable content.
2018 in Photos: A Look at the Middle Months
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Read moreA ballerina watches a broadcast of the World Cup quarterfinal match between Russia and Croatia at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 7, 2018. #
Anton Vaganov / Reuters -
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Read moreThe Reuters journalist Kyaw Soe Oo, detained and handcuffed, carries his daughter Moe Thin Wai Zin as he arrives for a court hearing in Yangon, Burma (also known as Myanmar), on May 2, 2018. He is one of two Reuters journalists who have been jailed in Myanmar since December 2017 for reporting on attacks against the Rohingya carried out by Buddhist villagers and Myanmar armed forces in Rakhine state. In September, both Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone were found guilty of breaching Myanmar's Official Secrets Act and sentenced to seven years in prison. #
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Read moreFans dressed as Darth Vader and Chewbacca take a boat trip to the Skelligs on May 4, 2018, in Portmagee, Ireland. The first Star Wars festival took place against the backdrop of the famous Skellig Michael island, which was used extensively in Episode VII and Episode VIII of the popular science-fiction saga. The small fishing village of Portmagee, which is closest to the location, has seen a boom in tourism following the latest films. #
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Read moreAfter a rollover accident, the driver Nelson Rowe is rescued from his burning car by his fellow racer Callum Grant and a spectator during a Formula Ford race at Cadwell Park in Louth, England, on May 20, 2018. Rowe was unhurt and walked unaided to the ambulance. #
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Read moreSerena Williams clenches her fist after scoring a point against Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic during their first-round match at the French Open at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris on May 29, 2018. #
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Read moreDemonstrators fly Nicaraguan flags atop the Alexis Arguello monument during a march against Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, in Managua, Nicaragua, on May 30, 2018. #
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Read moreMahto in the Woods jumps over a small creek on foot while his cousin Jayden Lookinghorse jumps over on his horse on the Cheyenne River Reservation in Green Grass, South Dakota, on May 31, 2018. Stephanie Keith, a photographer for Reuters, spent time with the Lookinghorse family on a 400-mile horse ride from Green Grass to Fort Laramie, Wyoming, commemorating 150 years of the Fort Laramie peace treaty between the Sioux Nation and the U.S. government. #
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Read moreThe farmer Ash Whitney stands in the middle of a dried-up dam in a drought-affected paddock on his property located west of the town of Gunnedah in New South Wales, Australia, on June 3, 2018. "I have been here all my life, and this drought is feeling like it will be around a while," Whitney said. #
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This image may contain graphic or objectionable content.
Click to view imageRead moreHaitham Abu Sabla, a Palestinian protester, is hit in the face with a tear-gas canister fired by Israeli troops during a protest marking Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, at the Israel–Gaza border in the southern Gaza Strip on June 8, 2018. Photos of Sabla's shocking injury spread worldwide soon afterward. Sabla survived, but suffered serious damage to his upper jaw, teeth, and facial muscles, as well as extended intense exposure to the tear gas. #
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters -
Read moreThe North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, shakes hands with President Donald Trump at the start of their historic U.S.-North Korea summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa Island in Singapore on June 12, 2018. #
Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty -
Read moreRobin Burbano controls the ball as he balances on crutches during a game against El Empalme, part of the national soccer tournament for players with amputated limbs, in Quito, Ecuador, on June 9, 2018. The amputee game is just taking off in Ecuador, and it has gotten a big boost from the country's president, Lenín Moreno, a paraplegic who uses a wheelchair and who was a major force in promoting the rights of disabled individuals around the world when he served as the United Nations's envoy on disability and accessibility from 2013 to 2016. #
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Read moreRigobert Youmbi, from Cameroon, strikes a pose while wearing body paint in the Russian team's colors prior to the 2018 World Cup opening match between Russia and Saudi Arabia at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Russia, on June 14, 2018. #
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Read moreBrazilian soccer fans celebrate their team's first goal as they watch a live telecast of Brazil's World Cup match against Costa Rica in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 22, 2018. #
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Read moreThai soldiers relay electric cables deep into the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in Chiang Rai, Thailand, on June 26, 2018, during a rescue operation for a children's soccer team and its coach. Desperate parents led a prayer ceremony outside the flooded cave in northern Thailand, where the 12 children and their coach were trapped for 17 days. More than 10,000 people were mobilized in the rescue effort, and the world watched as all of those trapped were brought out safely. One rescue diver was killed during the operation. #
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Read moreOne of Mexico's presidential candidates, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, part of the coalition Juntos Haremos Historia, waves to supporters during the closing rally of his campaign at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on June 27, 2018, ahead of the July 1 presidential election. Obrador won the presidency in a landslide—by the widest margin in decades—setting up one of the most left-wing governments in Mexico's history. #
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Read moreAn aerial view of the demonstrators at the "Families Belong Together: Freedom for Immigrants March Los Angeles" at Los Angeles City Hall on June 30, 2018, in Los Angeles, California. #
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Read moreRohingya refugees crew a fishing boat from Shamlapur Beach heading out to the Bay of Bengal, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 21, 2018. The boat is unstable in rough seas, due to its shape. #
Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters -
Read moreFirefighters try to extinguish flames during a wildfire in the village of Kineta, near Athens, Greece, on July 24, 2018. Raging wildfires killed more than 80 people, including small children, and devoured homes and forests as terrified residents fled to the sea to escape the flames, authorities said. #
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Read moreAn officer on duty (right) attempts to knock down flames as the Ukrainian former serviceman Serhii Ulianov sets himself on fire while protesting against his dismissal from the armed forces in front of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine, on July 26, 2018. #
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Read morePresident Donald Trump views air-assault exercises at Fort Drum, New York, on August 13, 2018, before a signing ceremony for H.R. 5515, the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019. #
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Read moreOn June 28, 2018, a detained immigrant child watches a cartoon while awaiting the arrival of the first lady, Melania Trump, with other young detained immigrants at a U.S Customs and Border Protection immigration-detainee processing facility in Tucson, Arizona. #
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Read more"Steel beach." Sailors dive in to the Pacific Ocean, somewhere near Hawaii, on August 2 during a swim call aboard the Los Angeles–class submarine U.S.S. Olympia after a week-long RIMPAC naval-warfare exercise had just ended. #
FTCS (SS) Bob Nguyen / U.S. Navy -
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Read moreTeam Spain competes in the synchronized-swimming team free-routine final during day three of the European Championships Glasgow 2018 at Scotstoun Sports Campus in Glasgow, Scotland, on August 4, 2018. #
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Read moreActivists in favor of the legalization of abortion comfort one another outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on August 9, 2018, after senators rejected a bill to legalize abortion. Argentine senators voted against the bill, dashing the hopes of women's-rights groups after the legislation was approved by Congress's lower house in June. #
Eitan Abramovich / AFP / Getty -
Read moreMedical workers disinfect the coffin of a deceased Ebola patient inside an Ebola treatment center run by the Alliance for International Medical Action on August 13, 2018, in Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo. #
John Wessels / AFP / Getty -
Read moreItalian rescuers climb onto the rubble of the collapsed Morandi motorway bridge searching for victims and survivors in the northern port city of Genoa on August 14, 2018. At least 43 people were killed when the giant bridge collapsed in the deadliest bridge failure in Italy in several years. #
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Read morePolice stand guard after the Confederate statue known as Silent Sam was toppled by protesters at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on August 20, 2018. In December, the university released a proposal to construct a $5 million history-and-education center to house the controversial statue. #
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Read moreA volunteer member of the advance team for President Donald Trump blocks a camera as a photojournalist attempts to take a photo of a protester during a campaign rally at the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana, on August 30, 2018. #
Evan Vucci / AP
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