Inside AFP

Topshots of the Week (31 December 2022 - 6 January 2023)

 

Selection of some of the most striking photographs taken by AFP photojournalists this past week (31 December 2022 - 6 January 2023).

 

New Year's Eve fireworks light up the sky over the Sydney Opera House (L) and Harbour Bridge during the fireworks display in Sydney on January 1, 2023.
© David GRAY / AFP

The body of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lies in state at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, on January 3, 2023. Benedict, a conservative intellectual who in 2013 became the first pontiff in six centuries to resign, died on December 31, 2022, at the age of 95. Thousands of Catholics began paying their respects on January 2, 2023 to former pope Benedict XVI at St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, at the start of three days of lying-in-state before his funeral.
© Alberto PIZZOLI / AFP

Construction workers climb onto the roof of a destroyed church in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk region on January 4, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bohorodychne is a village in Donetsk region that came under heavy attack by Russian forces in June 2022, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On August 17, 2022 the Russian forces captured the village. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on September 12, 2022 that they took back the control over the village. A few resident came back to restore their destroyed houses and live in the village.
© Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP

The inflatable dinosaur known as "Saurian" is seen during "Saurian and the Witnesses of Outer Space" -the night parade of the French Plasticiens Volants company- on the inaugural day of the "Teatro a Mil" international festival, in front of La Moneda Presidential Palace in Santiago on January 3, 2023.
© Javier TORRES / AFP

A man wears a jersey of Brazilian football legend Pele as people queue to get in the Urbano Caldeira stadium, also known as Vila Belmiro, where a wake in his honour is being held, in Santos, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, on January 2, 2023. Brazilians bid a final farewell this week to football giant Pele, starting Monday with a 24-hour public wake at the stadium of his long-time team, Santos.
© Carl DE SOUZA / AFP

Children are silhouetted as they play against the backdrop of the last sunset of 2022, in Lahore on December 31, 2022.
© Arif ALI / AFP

Drivers barrel into standing water on Interstate 101 in San Francisco, California on January 4, 2023. A bomb cyclone smashed into California on January 4, 2023, bringing powerful winds and torrential rain that was expected to cause flooding in areas already saturated by consecutive storms.
© Josh EDELSON / AFP

Brazil's new President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (L) waves at supporters as he arrives with his wife First Lady Rosangela 'Janja' da Silva (2-L), new Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin (R) and his wife Maria Lucia Ribeiro Alckmin at Planalto Palace after their inauguration ceremony at the National Congress, in Brasilia, on January 1, 2023. Lula da Silva, a 77-year-old leftist who already served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2010, takes office for the third time with a grand inauguration in Brasilia.
© Carl DE SOUZA / AFP