LBC's Year in Pictures: The most powerful images from around the world in 2025

JANUARY 3 - A swimmer braves freezing temperatures in Harlaw Reservoir in the Pentland Hills, Balerno, Edinburgh. For much of the UK, 2025 began with The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) issuing cold weather Amber health alerts, meaning a rise in deaths. Weather warnings were put in place for rain and wind across the UK, and the adverse weather put a dent New Year festivities, when the organisers of Edinburgh's Hogmanay street party cancelled the event on public safety grounds.

JANUARY 7 - A helicopter drops water as the Palisades Fire rages in Los Angeles, California, just one of a series of wildfires that tore through LA at the beginning of the year. The United States' second-largest city had never faced a blaze of this scale, driven by an extreme autumn drought and fierce Santa Ana winds (the strongest since 2011) that turned dry hills into kindling. It fuelled a relentless inferno that raged for almost the entire more of January, covered over 37,000 acres, and destroyed more than 16,000 structures destroyed.

JANUARY 19 - President-elect Donald Trump dances onstage as his favourite band, the Village People, perform during a rally the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term. The next day, Trump was sworn in as the 47th US president, with one of his first acts in power being to issue nearly 1,600 pardons in connection with the Capitol riots on 6 January 2021.

FEBRUARY 9 - Kendrick Lamar performs during Super Bowl LIX Chiefs vs Eagles Apple Music Halftime Show at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. His rap feud rival, Drake was reportedly trying to legally block the performance, as Kendrick largely used it to provoke him. Drake's ex-partners (Siza and Serena Williams) made surprise appearances during "Not Like Us," a massively popular diss track about the Canadian rapper.

FEBRUARY 10 - Farmers drive their tractors across Westminster Bridge during a demonstration to protest against changes to inheritance tax rules for land ownership. Despite several protests throughout the year, farmers will begin paying inheritance tax on their agricultural land and businesses at an effective rate of 20% from April, on property worth more than £1 million.

FEBRUARY 24 - A woman weeps at a makeshift memorial for fallen Ukrainian and foreign fighters on the Independence Square in Kyiv, on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since 2022, Western estimates suggest over 50,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the conflict.

MARCH 2 - Adrien Brody, winner of the Best Actor award for “The Brutalist”, Mikey Madison, winner of the Best Actress award for "Anora", Zoe Saldana winner of the Best Actress in a Supporting Role award for "Emilia Pérez" and Kieran Culkin winner of the Best Actor in a Supporting Role for "A Real Pain", pose in the press room during the 97th Annual Oscars in Hollywood

MARCH 25 - The sky is filled with colour from the aurora borealis, also known as the Northern Lights, at St Mary's lighthouse in Whitley.  There have been a significant increase in spectacular scenes like this in 2025 because the Sun is currently at what astronomers call the “maximum” of its 11-year cycle, known as the Solar Maximum, which is expected to last through to 2026, leading to more solar flares and charged particles hitting Earth's atmosphere, causing more frequent and intense displays.

MARCH 28 - People look at the collapsed Maha Myat Muni Pagoda following an earthquake in Mandalay, Myanmar. Myanmar declared a state of emergency and appealed for international aid after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the country, with tremors felt as far afield as China, India, Vietnam and Thailand. The death toll from the disaster surpassed 3600.

APRIL 6 - Students walk past a wall of bin bags piled along Dale Road in Selly Oak, Birmingham during the city's bin strike. A major incident was declared by Birmingham City Council after 17,000 tonnes of rubbish were left uncollected on the streets. Other local authorities were called upon to assist with clearing the backlog of rubbish, with some areas claiming to have bin walls 5-foot-high, but the stand off between refuse workers and the council remains ongoing.

APRIL 13 - Rory McIlroy celebrates winning the 2025 Masters Tournament after the playoff hole on the 18th green during the final round of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. McIlroy won the coveted green jacket after several notable "messes" at the Masters, most famously his 2011 collapse from a four-shot lead into a tie for 15th after a final round 80, a major meltdown featuring a triple-bogey on 10 and a double-bogey on 12, which derailed his first Grand Slam bid.

APRIL 16: Susan Smith (left) and Marion Calder, directors of 'For Women Scotland' speak to the media outside the Supreme Court in London after a landmark ruling that "the terms 'woman' and 'sex' in the Equality Act 2010 refer to a biological woman and biological sex." The ruling put an end to a long-running legal dispute between the activist group 'For Women Scotland' and the Scottish government over whether trans people with gender recognition certificates (GRC) identifying their gender as female were considered as having the sex of a woman.

APRIL 25 - Nuns read through the Osservatore Romano newspaper a day prior to the late Pope Francis's funeral, in Rome. Pope Francis, who died on April 21 aged 88, lay in state for three days ahead his funeral in St. Peter's Square, which was attended by a plethora of world leaders.

MAY 5 - Veterans and members of the armed forces gather at Buckingham Palace to view the flypast featuring the Royal Air Force's Red Arrows, current, and historic military aircraft to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day. To mark 80 years since the end of the Second World War in Europe, four days of commemorative events took place across the UK and round the world.

MAY 6 - King Charles III and Queen Camilla unveil their official Coronation State Portraits during a visit to The National Gallery in London to mark the second anniversary of their Coronation. The King was painted by Peter Kuhfeld, having known Charles for more than 40 years, while the Queen was painted by Paul S. Benney.

MAY 8 - Cardinal Robert Prevost addresses crowds for the first time as the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, on the main central loggia balcony overlooking St Peter's Square in Vatican City. White smoke was seen over the Vatican earlier that evening as the Conclave of Cardinals took just two days to elect the new the 267th Supreme Pontiff after the death of Pope Francis on Easter Monday.

JUNE 8 - A demonstrator rides a bicycle past burning vehicles as protesters clash with law enforcement near the federal building during a protest in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, California. US President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 troops on June 7 to handle escalating protests against immigration enforcement raids in the Los Angeles area, a move the state's governor termed "purposefully inflammatory." Federal agents clashed with angry crowds in a Los Angeles suburb, shooting flash-bang grenades and shutting part of a freeway amid raids on undocumented migrants, reports said.

JUNE 13 - Forensic experts search for evidence at the Air India Plane crash site, the morning after Flight 171, which was en route to London from Ahmedabad in western India, crashed into a building just 32 seconds after taking off. 260 people lost their lives in the tragedy, which left a sole survivor, Viswashkumar Ramesh, who was miraculously able to walk away from the wreckage.

JUNE 18 - The Israeli Iron Dome air defense system intercepts missiles during an Iranian attack on Tel Aviv, Israel. From 13 June. Israel launched a series of strikes against Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile sites, and energy facilities, stating its aim was to stop Iran developing a nuclear weapon. In response, Iran launched missiles and drones against Israel. Most of Iran’s missiles and drones against Israel were intercepted.

JULY 13 - Italy's Jannik Sinner kisses his winner's trophy following his victory against Spain's Carlos Alcaraz at the end of their men's singles final tennis match at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships at The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon. Wimbledon 2025 saw record attendance, the controversial introduction of automated line judges, and record first-round upsets (23 seeded players out).

JULY 27 - Chloe Kelly celebrates after scoring England's winning penalty during the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Final match against Spain in Basel, Switzerland. The Lionesses defeated the world champions to bring the European trophy home for a second time in a row.

JULY 30 - Kelly Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne and Jack Osbourne stop to view tributes to the late Ozzy Osbourne from fans at Black Sabbath Bench and Bridge as his funeral cortege travels through his home city of Birmingham. Fans lined the procession route in their thousands to honour the rockstar, who had performed his final gig, a "Back to the Beginning" benefit show with Black Sabbath at Villa Park, just 3 weeks earlier.

AUGUST 11 - A man dives into Hathersage open-air swimming pool, at Hope Valley in the Peak District, Derbyshire as temperatures soared over 30C in large parts of the country. The Met Office confirmed that summer 2025 was officially the hottest on record for the United Kingdom. The highest temperature of the summer was 35.8C, recorded at Faversham in Kent on July 1.

AUGUST 15 - US President Donald Trump greets Russian President Vladimir Putin on the tarmac after they arrived at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska for peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. The red carpet was rolled out for Putin, who was making his first visit to a Western country since he ordered the 2022 invasion. Despite Trump insisting that "great progress" was made in the talks, nothing of substance was unveiled.

AUGUST 21 - Palestinian women and children hold out their empty pots in front of a charity kitchen in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip. Famine was officially declared in areas of the Gaza on August 22, by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed global hunger monitor. This was the first time the IPC had confirmed a famine outside of Africa since its establishment in 2004.

SEPTEMBER 10 - American right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University, moments before he was shot in the neck and killed. 22-year-old Tyler Robinson turned himself in to authorities after an extensive manhunt following Kirk's shooting, which left both sides of the political spectrum shaken. Robinson faces several charges, and could face the death penalty if convicted. He has not yet entered a plea.

SEPTEMBER 13 - Protesters wave Union Jack and St George's England flags during the "Unite The Kingdom" rally on Westminster Bridge by the Houses of Parliament in London. Far-right activist Tommy Robinson (also known as Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) invited supporters to hold the rally in central London following weeks of unresr outside hotels housing migrants in the summer.

SEPTEMBER 17 - Donald Trump reviews the guard of honour during the ceremonial welcome as part of the State visit by the President of the United States of America in Windsor, England. President Trump visited England from Sept. 16-18 on his second UK state visit, with the previous one taking place in 2019 during his first presidential term.

OCTOBER 2 - Members of the Jewish community comfort each other near to the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall, Manchester, where two people died in an anti-semitic attack. Melvin Cravitz died from multiple knife wounds inflicted by terrorist Jihad Al-Shamie, and Adrian Daulby died from a single gunshot wound to the chest fired by an armed police officer scrambled to the scene.

OCTOBER 10 - Thousands of displaced Palestinians began to trek home along Al-Rashid road towards Gaza City after Israeli forces declared a ceasefire and withdrew from some positions. The results of the ceasefire have seen all surviving hostages returned and hundreds of Palestinian prisoners released.

OCTOBER 17 - New York Mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani hosts a "Reverse Town Hall" with New York union workers. The 34-year old democrat, who started the year as practically a political unknown, stormed ahead in the polls to triumph over former mayor Andrew Cuomo in November's election, and has even seemed to win the support of Donald Trump, despite openly accusing the president of being a “fascist” and a “despot”. Mamdani will officially take office on New Year's day.

NOVEMBER 11 - A Tower of London Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) holds a lantern at a display of ceramic poppies as the Tower marks Armistice Day. 30,000 ceramic poppies were displayed at the Tower, which was bombed during the Blitz, with 2025 marking 80 years since the end of the second world war.

NOVEMBER 25 - A pedestrian walks past a sign for a street originally named after former prince Andrew, with the title of "prince" blackened out, along a road in the town of Carrickfergus, County Antrim in Northern Ireland. Residents living in roads named after the disgraced former royal have been calling for their addresses to be renamed after he was stripped of his titles due to his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

NOVEMBER 26 - Wong, 71, reacts after saying his wife is trapped inside Wang Fuk Court during a major fire, in Tai Po, Hong Kong, China. Flames ripped through the 31-floor residential high-rises, home to 4,000 people, with almost 800 fire fighters sent to try and contain the inferno. At least 159 people are now known to have died in the tower block fire, authorities say.

DECEMBER 18 - The King sported a frothy moustache after he had tasted a pint of Guinness during his visit to officially open the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in London. Charles also had a go at pulling a pint of the black stuff, and was complemented by brewery staff on "the perfect" pull. The Guinness Open Gate Brewery, a £73 million investment, contains a microbrewery, visitor experience, restaurants, shops, and events space.

DECEMBER 19 - After a week of mourning and healing following the attack on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach which claimed 15 lives, members of the Bondi community paddled and swum into the ocean to form a circle to honour victims, survivors and first responders of the shootings. The government is moving to tighten gun laws across the country.