Molayem ART Magazine International Art Magazine
The death of Brazilian football legend Pelé, the winter storm across the US, Russian attacks in Ukraine, migrants at the US-Mexico border and tributes to Vivienne Westwood – the most striking images this week
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Matamoros, Mexico
Asylum-seeking migrants, mostly from Venezuela, camp in a park by the Rio Grande in Matamoros on the day after the Covid-era Title 42 US migration restrictions were set to end – until the supreme court ruled to permit the policy to temporarily stay in place. Since it began in 2020, Title 42 has been used more than 2.5m times to expel asylum seekers from the US – many repeatedly. At the request of several Republican-led states, including Arizona and Texas, the US supreme court this week once again extended the 21 December deadline to end Title 42.
Photograph: Go Nakamura/Reuters
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Bakhmut, Ukraine
Raphael Karapitian, 45, a Ukrainian serviceman with the Dnipro-1 Special Tasks Patrol Police regiment, walks past a Christmas tree in the trenches at the frontline in Bakhmut on Christmas Eve. Like Russians, Ukrainians previously celebrated Christmas on 7 January, but the country’s Orthodox church announced in November that celebrations could from now on be held on 25 December, underscoring the rift with Russian culture and tradition in the wake of the invasion.
Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
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Kabul, Afghanistan
A Taliban fighter stands guard as a woman walks past him in Kabul. The UN announced this week that some ‘time-critical’ programmes in Afghanistan have temporarily stopped and warned many other activities will also likely need to be paused as a result of a ban by the Taliban-led administration on women aid workers. UN aid chief Martin Griffiths, the heads of UN agencies and several aid groups said in a joint statement that women’s ‘participation in aid delivery is not negotiable and must continue’, calling on authorities to reverse the decision.
Photograph: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP
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Buffalo, New York, US
Vehicles are abandoned in heavy snowfall in downtown Buffalo, New York. The human toll of the winter blast which gripped much of the US last week has continued to mount. Since the ‘blizzard of the century’ swept through multiple parts of the nation last week, at least 60 people have died countrywide, and details have trickled out about the heartbreak their families are enduring. In Buffalo alone the death toll has climbed to 37, as rescue workers continue to clear snow-filled roads as part of their search-and-rescue operations.
Photograph: Joed Viera/AFP/Getty Images
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Maryinka, Ukraine
A cat walks on top of a net as a Ukrainian soldier takes position during fighting with Russian forces near Maryinka. Russia launched a large round of missile attacks across Ukraine this week, as Moscow rejected a Ukrainian peace plan and kept up its attacks on the country’s infrastructure.
Photograph: Libkos/AP
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Mariupol, Ukraine
The destroyed theatre is fenced off.
Photograph: Pavel Klimov/Reuters
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Chennai, India
People pour milk in the waters of the Bay of Bengal as they pay homage to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, during a prayer ceremony at Nochikuppam beach in Chennai to mark the 18th anniversary of the tragedy.
Photograph: Idrees Mohammed/EPA/EFE
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Laweueng, Indonesia
A Rohingya refugee bathes at a temporary shelter after arriving by boat in Laweueng. Rohingya refugees received emergency medical treatment after a boat carrying nearly 200 people came ashore in Indonesia this week in the fourth such landing in the country in recent months. The boat, which had been adrift for more than a month, washed up on the Indonesian island of Aceh early this week.
Photograph: Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP
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Dolyna, Ukraine
Caesar, a 50-year-old Russian who joined the Freedom of Russia Legion to fight on the side of Ukraine, stands in front of a destroyed monastery in Dolyna. The volunteer legion formed in March 2022 with defectors from the Russian armed forces and Russian and Belarusian volunteers.
Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP/Getty Images
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Mitrovica, Kosovo
A road barricade set up in the divided town. Serbian armed forces were on ‘the highest level’ of alert, said the defence minister, Miloš Vučević, highlighting the Balkan country’s increasingly strained relations with neighbouring Kosovo over recent shootings and blockades. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to recognise this declaration and encouraged Kosovo’s 120,000 ethnic Serbs to defy Pristina’s authority – especially in the north, where ethnic Serbs make up the majority.
Photograph: Florion Goga/Reuters
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Zhengzhou, China
A multi-vehicle collision on Zhengxin Huanghe bridge. One person was killed after more than 200 vehicles were involved in a pile-up in heavy fog, according to rescuers and the CCTV state broadcaster.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Bakhmut, Ukraine
Smoke billows after Russian attacks on the outskirts of Bakhmut. Since the Kremlin’s advance in eastern Ukraine ground to a halt over the summer and the Russian army was forced to retreat from Kherson after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive, Moscow’s strategy has pivoted towards targeting Ukrainian infrastructure, to inflict maximum pain on the population over the cold winter.
Photograph: Libkos/AP
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Niagara Falls, New York
An aerial view of the partially frozen Niagara Falls. Across the US, a winter storm caused massive disruption amid plunging temperatures, blizzard conditions and ferocious winds. Power outages hit numerous states, frigid air struck usually warm states such as Florida and thousands of flights were cancelled or delayed causing widespread travel chaos. It was dubbed a ‘once in a generation’ weather event by forecasters.
Photograph: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
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Hadera, Israel
Sandbar sharks swim next to a snorkeler in the Mediterranean Sea near the hot water outlet of the Orot Rabin power plant in the northern city of Hadera. In recent years a group of dusky sharks and sandbar sharks have appeared every winter in the warm, shallow waters in front of the power station. The phenomenon attracts people looking for a rare opportunity to closely examine the wild animal.
Photograph: Ariel Schalit/AP
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Donetsk, Ukraine
Ukrainian serviceman Dmytro, 20, emerges from an underground bunker in the Donetsk region.
Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
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Ontario, Canada
Houses along the shores of Lake Erie remain covered in ice following a winter storm that swept through much of Ontario.
Photograph: Nick Iwanyshyn/AP
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Pidie, Indonesia
Rohingya refugees stand in line to receive aid at a temporary shelter at Pidie in Aceh province.
Photograph: Nova Wahyudi/Antara Foto/Reuters
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Kandahar, Afghanistan
A burqa-clad Afghan woman walks through a street in Kandahar.
Photograph: Naveed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images
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London, England
A woman and two young boys view flowers and tributes outside the home and studio of Vivienne Westwood following her death this week in London. The designer captured the energy and iconoclastic spirit of punk and gave it a visual expression. Her clothes were an explainer to the world about what punk was. Bondage trousers were a two-fingered salute to polite society. Safety pins were a celebration of anarchy and flux. Costume-y historical flourishes were a rejection of the establishment narrative that capitalism was the route to progress for everyone.
Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The Christ the Redeemer statue is lit in the colours of the Brazilian national flag to honour Pelé. Pelé, the Brazilian virtuoso whose skill and athleticism ensured he was universally regarded as one of football’s greatest players, died at the age of 82. His Instagram page stated: ‘Inspiration and love marked the journey of King Pelé, who peacefully passed away today. On his journey, Edson enchanted the world with his genius in sport, stopped a war, carried out social works all over the world and spread what he most believed to be the cure for all our problems: love.’
Photograph: Bruna Prado/AP
