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Received yesterday — 12 December 2025

The week around the world in 20 pictures

12 December 2025 at 14:35

Russian airstrikes on Kyiv, floods in Indonesia, the IDF in Gaza and the Nutcracker in Nairobi: the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

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© Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images

Families washed out of tents as flood waters course through Gaza

12 December 2025 at 10:26

Gaza has been hit by heavy rains and low temperatures, deepening the misery of most of its 2.2 million population who are living in tents after two years of Israeli bombardment. Thousands of homeless people have been washed out of their makeshift shelters and forced to seek emergency refuge

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

Received before yesterday

Britain threatened to cut off ICC funding over Netanyahu arrest warrant, claims prosecutor

11 December 2025 at 14:08

Karim Khan makes allegation in court submission while defending move to prosecute Israeli prime minister in 2024

The British government threatened to defund the international criminal court and leave the Rome statute that set it up if it pressed ahead with plans to issue an arrest warrant against Benjamin Netanyahu, the ICC’s prosecutor, has claimed.

Karim Khan made the allegation in a submission to the court defending his decision to prosecute Israel’s prime minister.

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© Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA

© Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA

© Photograph: Abir Sultan/EPA

Eurovision winner Nemo to return trophy in protest at Israel taking part in 2026

11 December 2025 at 13:38

‘Clear conflict’ between Eurovision ideals of ‘inclusion and dignity for all’ and decision to let Israel compete, says 2024 winner

Nemo, the Swiss singer who won the 2024 Eurovision song contest, has said they are handing back their trophy in protest over Israel’s participation in next year’s event.

The 26-year-old, the first non-binary winner of the contest, said on Thursday there was “a clear conflict” between the Eurovision ideals of “unity, inclusion and dignity for all” and the decision to allow Israel to compete.

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© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images

I used to report from the West Bank. Twenty years after my last visit, I was shocked by how much worse it is today

11 December 2025 at 00:00

Among the many people I met, there was a pervasive feeling of hopelessness and a sense that resistance is slowly becoming a memory

In November, Israeli flags suddenly appeared beside a highway in the Palestinian West Bank. More than 1,000, placed about 30 yards apart on both sides of the road, stretching for roughly 10 miles. They were planted south of Nablus, close to Palestinian villages regularly targeted by extremist Israeli settlers. I saw the flags on my way to visit those villages, the morning after they were put up. Their message echoed the ubiquitous graffiti painted by settlers across the West Bank: “You have no future in Palestine.”

Compared with the 70,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza and more than 1,000 in the West Bank since October 2023, the flags amount to no more than a minor provocation. But they reflect how dominant Israel has become in the West Bank, land recognised under international law as belonging to the Palestinians. During the second intifada, the Palestinian uprising from 2000 to 2005, Israeli settlers would not have risked planting such flags, for fear of coming under fire from Palestinians. Not now.

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© Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Zain Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images

Bob Vylan to sue Ireland’s RTÉ for defamation over Glastonbury coverage

Legal action alleges Irish broadcaster defamed group by claiming they led antisemitic chants at festival in June

The British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan have launched defamation proceedings against the Irish broadcaster RTÉ over its coverage of their performance at Glastonbury.

The legal action alleges Ireland’s national broadcaster defamed the group by claiming they led antisemitic chants at the festival last June.

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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

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