Mass protests were met with violence in several countries, Notre Dame Cathedral burned, a comic actor became president of Ukraine before getting embroiled in a U.S. domestic political dispute, while a teenager inspired action and sparked controversy with her warnings about climate change: Here are some of the images capturing the biggest stories of 2019.
2019: The Year In Photos

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Palestinians check the damage in a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes on Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on May 5. (AFP/Said Khatib)

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Ahmad Sayed Rahman, a five-year-old Afghan boy who lost his right leg when he was hit by a bullet in the crossfire of a battle, dances with his prosthetic leg at the International Committee of the Red Cross hospital for war victims and the disabled, in Kabul on May 7. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)

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Detail of a dress worn to the opening ceremony of the 72nd Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France on May 14. (Reuters/Regis Duvignau)

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A man evacuates an injured child after a reported air strike by Syrian forces and their allies on the Syrian town of Maaret Al-Noman in the southern Idlib province on May 26. (AFP/Abdulaziz Ketaz)