This year in photos – Highlights of the biggest stories of 2023

January

Following successive and severe winter storms, caused by atmospheric rivers — which are essentially “rivers” in the sky that release heavy rain — parts of the US state California were struck by three weeks of flooding that wrecked homes, leaving more than 500,000 people without power and thousands evacuated, and claiming at least 22 lives.

On January 9, President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for the state of California, ordering federal assistance to help in response efforts to ensure safety and public health.

February

The world witnessed its deadliest earthquakes in recent history when a 7.7 magnitude quake hit southern Türkiye near the border of Syria on February 6, followed by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake nine hours later, devastating Kahramanmaras and 11 other Turkish provinces.

Over 50,000 deaths were recorded, and local and international aid poured into the earthquake-hit regions to mitigate the crisis, which affected around 14 million people.

According to UN Development Programme Türkiye Resident Representative Louisa Vinton, the twin quakes were to be considered as “the largest earthquake disaster in Türkiye’s history and perhaps the largest natural disaster the country has ever faced.”

March

Scotland elected Humza Yousaf as head of the Scottish government, the first person of colour to serve as first minister, in March. The son of Asian immigrants of Muslim Pakistani heritage, Yousaf won 52 percent of the final votes, and now leads the Scottish National Party (SNP).

On March 27, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan congratulated Yousaf on his election as the new SNP leader. Khan posted on X, “As Scotland’s first ethnic minority First Minister, the significance of this moment cannot be understated. Scotland and London have much in common, and I look forward to working with you.”

His win to replace predecessor Nicola Sturgeon, who held the position for eight years, involved running on a platform dedicated to delivering Scottish independence, alleviating cost of living, rejoining the European Union, and transitioning to renewable energy, in addition to other campaign promises.

April

Following months of tension, a bloody power struggle between Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al Burhan and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commander Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Daglo pulled Sudan into a whirlwind of chaos and violence in mid-April over plans for a political transition and integration of the latter into the official Sudanese army.

UN data indicated that over six million people were displaced and forced to leave their homes due to the fighting between the army and paramilitary RSF.

More than 12,000 people have been killed in Sudan since the violence erupted, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement on December 7, adding that, “Sudan is now the country with the largest number of displaced people and the largest child displacement crisis in the world.”

May

After heading to the ballot boxes on May 14, Turkish citizens went back to the voting booths again on May 28 after none of the candidates received more than 50 percent of the votes needed to secure a win in the first round vote of the 2023 Turkish presidential elections.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election with 52.18 percent of the votes, and is now serving another five-year term. Erdogan has been president of Türkiye since 2014, retaining the presidency in 2018 following the first presidential election under the constitutional reform of 2017.

"We will embrace all 85 million people (in the country), regardless of their political views, origins or sect," pledged Erdogan in his inauguration ceremony after being sworn in as president in Ankara.

June

Five people were aboard a submersible that imploded during a dive to view the Titanic wreckage in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, on June 18.

Stockton Rush — founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the American tourism and expedition company that developed the vessel — was killed along with four other passengers: Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

Questions regarding the submersible’s safety and risk management arose following the implosion. However, Guillermo Sohnlein, who co-founded OceanGate with Rush in 2009, told Reuters, “Stockton was one of the most astute risk managers I'd ever met. He was very risk-averse. He was very keenly aware of the risks of operating in the deep ocean environment, and he was very committed to safety.”

July

July saw record-breaking heat waves in several places around the world — notably in the US Southwest, Mexico, China and around the Mediterranean — as well as three of Earth’s hottest days on record, from July 3 to 5.

Overall, July 2023 was hotter than any other month on record, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS).

GISS Director Gavin Schmidt said, “This July was not just warmer than any previous July — it was the warmest month in our record, which goes back to 1880”.

“The science is clear this isn’t normal. Alarming warming around the world is driven primarily by greenhouse gas emissions. And that rise in average temperatures is fueling dangerous extreme heat that people are experiencing here at home and worldwide,” he added.

August

A series of intense wildfires broke out across Hawaii in August, with Maui suffering ferocious and deadly flames that resulted in the deaths of 100 people in the island’s historical town of Lahaina.

The devastating blaze, which first advanced towards residents and tourists on the island on August 8, is considered the deadliest US wildfire in more than 100 years, with local officials claiming it to be the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history.

Residents said government inaction contributed to the loss of life after Maui County Emergency Management opted against using warning sirens, saying they would have been ineffective and confusing — a move that had prompted one of the agency’s administrators, Herman Andaya, to resign.

September

The bride and groom had just taken to the dance floor when a raging fire erupted in the reception hall of a wedding in northern Iraq, killing over 100 people in the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh on September 26.

A government investigation into the disaster said the tragedy resulted from “gross negligence” and a lack of safety measures, with Interior Minister Abdul Amir al Shammari saying the venue, designed for a total capacity of 400, had admitted 900 guests into the hall.

“Using flammable decoration helped the fire to spread quickly and transformed the hall to a fireball,” said Shammari.

October

Palestinian resistance group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on October 7 involving air, sea, and ground operations. Israel responded with catastrophic air strikes on Palestine’s Gaza.

On October 14, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said it “documented the killing of at least 14 Palestinians every hour on the eighth day" of Israel's military offensive in Gaza, which, by then, had included the “dropping of more than 6,000 bombs on the densely populated area with over two million residents.”

By the end of December (at the time of writing), Israel’s relentless, indiscriminate bombardment and “total blockade” of the Palestinian enclave had killed more than 20,000 people, most of them women and children.

November

The historic SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild – the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) strike officially ended on November 9, following a labour dispute that — combined with the 148-day Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike, which ended September 27 — cost the economy of Southern California an estimated $6.5 billion and the loss of 45,000 jobs.

As the US union for actors and performers, SAG-AFTRA reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is an association of Hollywood's largest studios and production companies, after actors walked off production sets for 118 days.

In an interview with The Associated Press, SAG-AFTRA’s executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said, “It’s an agreement that our members can be proud of. I’m certainly very proud of it”.

“We said we would only accept a fair, equitable and respectful deal, and that’s precisely what this deal is. So I think our members, as we are able to release more of the details of it, will look at them and say, now, this is something that was worth being on strike for.”

December

World leaders convened in Dubai for the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known as COP28, to discuss transitioning away from fossil fuels, among other climate crisis-related topics.

The UN negotiations are hosted by the United Arab Emirates, which is under increasing pressure and is facing growing division on the fate of oil, gas and coal, considered the main drivers behind the climate crisis.

At the culmination of the summit, COP28 president Sultan Al Jaber announced a historic deal to transition away from fossil fuels. However, after two weeks of relentless negotiations, the summit failed to produce an agreement on a regulatory framework for carbon credits, also known as carbon offsets.