In January, the first major prisoner exchange of 2024 took place: more than two hundred Ukrainian heroes returned home. European allies then managed to break Orban and finally resolve the issue of a 50-billion-dollar financial aid package for Ukraine. See this and more in Zaborona’s traditional photoselection by Pavlo Bishko. Every Friday, he gathers photos taken by photographers around the world to show what has already become a tragic reminder, an eloquent warning, or a hope for a future without wars and suffering.
The “Polar Bears” dive into the icy waters of the Pò river during the Turin’s 123rd Winter River Plunge on January 28, 2024 in Turin, Italy. The first Winter River Plunge in the Po was born in 1899, a tradition that celebrates its 123rd edition and the “Polar Bears” return to dive into the icy waters of the longest Italian river. Photo: Stefano Guidi/Getty Images
An anti-bullfighting protestor holds a sign in front of riot police during a protest against bullfights outside the Monumental Plaza de Toros Mexico in Mexico City, on January 28, 2024. Activists protested on Sunday against a resumption of bullfighting in Mexico City, after the Supreme Court revoked an earlier suspension. Photo: RODRIGO OROPEZA/AFP via Getty Images
A picture taken from southern Israel from a position along the border with the Gaza Strip shows the wife of an Israeli soldier carrying her child past a tank, as she visits her husband upon his return from a mission in the Palestinian territory on January 28, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. Photo: MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images
The mother of Muhammad Ayman Ghazawi and Basel Ayman Ghazawi, two of three Palestinian men who were killed when undercover Israeli agents raided the Ibn Sina hospital in the city of Jenin, mourns during their funeral in the occupied West Bank city on January 30, 2024. Israeli forces shot dead three Palestinians at the hospital early on January 30, the Palestinian health ministry said, while the army said the three belonged to a Hamas “terrorist cell”. The operation is the first such deadly incursion in years. Photo: ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images
Pope Francis meets with American filmmaker Martin Scorsese during an audience at his studio of the Paul VI Hall on January 31, 2024 in Vatican City, Vatican. Scorsese is currently working on a film about Jesus based on the novel by Japanese writer Shasaku Endo. The inspiration, the director told the American press, came precisely from Pope Francis and from the appeal made to the art world: “I responded in the only way I know how: by imagining and writing a script for a film about Jesus”. Photo: Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images
This aerial photograph shows a destroyed bridge and houses in the village of Bohorodychne, Donetsk region, on January 27, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Bohorodychne is a village in the Donetsk region that came under heavy attack by Russian forces in June 2022, and captured on August 17, 2022. The Armed Forces of Ukraine announced on September 12, 2022, that they had taken back control over the village. Photo: ROMAN PILIPEY/AFP via Getty Images
Activists from Greenpeace swim with banners that read: “Climate money now!” and “Socially just climate protection now!” in the Spree River near the Reichstag as they demand more money for climate-friendly social investments in the new federal budget on January 30, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. The Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, is debating the new budget, which had to be radically curtailed following a Constitutional Court ruling late last year, in the Reichstag starting today. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Guizer Jarl Richard Moar poses with members of the Up Helly Aa ‘Jarl Squad’, before parading through the streets of in Lerwick, Shetland Islands on January 31, 2024 before the Up Helly Aa festival later in the day. Up Helly Aa celebrates the influence of the Scandinavian Vikings in the Shetland Islands and culminates with up to 1,000 ‘guizers’ (men in costume) throwing flaming torches into their Viking longboat and setting it alight later in the evening. Photo: ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images
LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers is fouled by Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors with one second left in double overtime at Chase Center on January 27, 2024 in San Francisco, California. James made both of the free throws and the Lakers won by one point. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
Firemen extinguish a fire in the Makadara area of Nairobi on January 30, 2024. A huge fire broke in the evening of January 30, 2024 in the area of Makadara, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi. At least two people have been severely injured and big areas of property destroyed according to Kenya Red Cross. Photo: LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images
A woman and a sheep walk along a road near black smoke billowing from a burning caravan on the A9 autoroute occupied by farmers and winegrowers from Narbonne and the surrounding areas during a protest against taxation and declining income, near the Croix Sud toll booth in Narbonne on January 26, 2024, as part of a nationwide day of protests called by several farmers unions on pay, tax and regulations. Farmers have fumed at what they say is a squeeze on purchase prices for produce by supermarket and industrial buyers, as well as complex environmental regulations. But the last straw for many was the phasing out of a tax break on the GNL diesel for farm equipment. Photo: ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images
This image grab taken from AFPTV footage shows two environmental activists from the collective dubbed “Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Retaliation) gesturing as they stand in front of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” (La Joconde) painting after hurling soup at the artwork, at the Louvre museum in Paris, on January 28, 2024. Two protesters on January 28, 2024 hurled soup at the bullet-proof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” in Paris, demanding the right to “healthy and sustainable food”, an AFP journalist said. It is the latest attack on the masterpiece in the French capital’s Louvre museum, after someone threw a custard pie at it in May 2022, but it’s thick glass casing ensured it came to no harm. Photo: DAVID CANTINIAUX/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
Indian school children throws rose flower petals over a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi to pay their tribute on the death anniversary of the Indian founding father, in Chennai on January 30, 2024. The death anniversary of Gandhi, who is widely known in India as Bapu (father), is also observed as Martyrs’ Day in the country. Photo: R.SATISH BABU/AFP via Getty Images
Aerial view of flock of sheep crossing an ice lake to an island in the middle of the lake for enough grass in winter on February 1, 2024 in Lhoka, Xizang of China. Photo: Tang Fangxiao/VCG via Getty Images
Rescuers retrieve the carcass of a stranded fin whale in Christchurch on January 29, 2024. The whale, which had been stranded off the coast of Moncks Bay, New Zeland, on January 28, died in the early morning. Photo: SANKA VIDANAGAMA/AFP via Getty Images
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (L), European Council President Charles Michel, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (3rdR), Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz attend a multilateral meeting on the sidelines of a European Council meeting at the European headquarters in Brussels, on February 1, 2024. EU leaders are to gather in Brussels on February 1, 2024, for a meeting of the European Council, where they will discuss aid to Ukraine as the war nears its second anniversary. Photo: LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP via Getty Images
A sex worker holds a banner with a picture of Argentina’s President Javier Milei in front of the Congress while lawmakers debate the government’s ‘omnibus bill’ of economic reforms in Buenos Aires on February 1, 2024. Argentina’s Congress resumes debate on President Javier Milei’s controversial ultra-liberal reform package after a tense day that left four people arrested during incidents between protesters and security forces outside parliament. Photo: JUAN MABROMATA/AFP via Getty Images
A sea lion rests surrounded by seagulls at the beach in Mejillones fishermen’s cove, Antofagasta Region, Chile, on January 25, 2024. Photo: RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP via Getty Images
NASA’s Space Shuttle Endeavour is transported to the site of the future Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center in Los Angeles, California, during the final phase of “Go for Stack” on January 26, 2024. Endeavour will be placed in a launch position exhibit with its booster rockets and external tank at the space center. Photo: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images