It was a year dominated by news of political appointments and departures, controversial policies for migrant families, sports victories and devastating natural disasters. In between, there were countless stories of individuals and moments, captured by a photographer's eye. Of the two million images WSJ editors looked through this year, these are the most striking photos of the year.
January
heiko junge/EPA/Shutterstock
A "Super Blue Blood Moon" over Longyearbyen, Norway, on Jan. 31.
Rohingya refugee children sit inside a classroom at the Kutupalong refugee camp, near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on Jan. 4.
tyrone siu/Reuters
brendan mcdermid/Reuters
This group of women you so heartlessly abused over such a long period of time—are now a force, and you are nothing…. The tables have turned, Larry. We are here, we have our voices and we are not going anywhere.”
— Gymnast Aly Raisman speaks at the Jan. 19 sentencing hearing for Larry Nassar, a former team USA Gymnastics doctor who pleaded guilty in November 2017 to sexual-assault charges.
Protesters clash with police outside parliament in Athens, Greece, Jan. 12. The protesters oppose planned changes to Greek strike laws and rampant real-estate auctions.
Angelos Tzortzinis/Zuma Press
Inside Bitcoin Asic Hosting, which has roughly 350 cryptocurrency-mining machines at its headquarters in East Wenatchee, Wash., on Jan. 29.
Sofia Jaramillo for WSJ
A man gathers with other mourners Jan. 29 where authorities say at least four people were shot to death the day before, in Reading, Pa.
Matt Rourke/AP
Emergency personnel carry a woman rescued from a collapsed house after a mudslide in Montecito, Calif., Jan. 9.
Kenneth Song/Santa Barbara News-Press/REUTERS
Venezuela still holds the world’s largest reserves of crude oil, according to BP. But a close look at its decaying oil industry shows it will struggle to get those reserves out of the ground anytime soon, deepening the country’s economic contraction.
Fabiola Ferrero for WSJ
Several female Gelada baboons, also known as the bleeding-heart baboons, cuddle with their offspring to stay warm at the Wilhelma zoo in Stuttgart, Germany, Jan. 3.
Sebastian Gollnow/Zuma Press
A press worker at Cornell Forge in Chicago. With the help of tax incentives, the company plans to add three or more robots this year at a cost of at least $1.5 million.
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David Kasnic for WSJ
President Trump looks on as the Landwehr Fribourg band leaves the stage during the World Economic Forum on Jan. 26, in Davos, Switzerland.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Rafael Nadal of Spain in action against Diego Schwartzman of Argentina during their fourth round match on day seven of the Australian Open tennis tournament, in Melbourne, Australia, Jan. 21.
LUKAS COCH/EPA/Shutterstock
February
leah millis/Reuters
Hope Hicks, then-White House communications director, leaves the U.S. Capitol after attending the House Intelligence Committee closed- door meeting in Washington, Feb. 27, where she declined to answer questions about her work as one of President Trump’s most trusted advisers.
A Tesla roadster launched from SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket with a dummy driver named 'Starman' heads towards Mars, Feb. 8.
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spacex/Getty
More than 300 child soldiers have been released in South Sudan's war-torn region of Yambio under a program to help reintegrate them into society. Here, newly released child soldiers wait for their registration, Feb. 7.
stefanie glinski/AFP/Getty
A damaged building after a 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked Taiwan on Feb. 7.
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Reuters
The Philadelphia Eagles win their first Super Bowl in franchise history, beating the New England Patriots 41-33 in Minneapolis, Feb. 4.
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chris wattie/Reuters
Rui Soares with his children Fedelina Soares, 4 years old, and Cristian Soares, 1., on Feb. 9. When his son was born, Mr. Soares took the full 16 weeks of parental leave offered by his company, with the support of his wife and his managers.
Kholood Eid for WSJ
Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14. The gunman killed 17 people.
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Joel Auerbach/AP
Joe Raedle/Getty
She was whispering, hiding…. She’s 14 years old and she had to see multiple dead bodies.…It’s something that you hear about all the time, and you never think it will happen to you.”
— Security expert Joel Leffler, who was on a business trip in Dallas when he reached his 14-year-old daughter, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on the phone.
After almost a year in prison, Lee Jae-yong, Samsung's de facto head, walks free Feb. 5 after an appeals court cut his sentence for his involvement in a government corruption scandal.
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Ahn Young-joon/AP
Queen Elizabeth II (center) sits with Anna Wintour (right), the editor of Vogue magazine, and Caroline Rush (left), chief executive of the British Fashion Council, as they view Richard Quinn's runway show Feb. 20 before presenting him with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.
Yui Mok/Zuma Press
Snowboarder Shaun White celebrates after winning Olympic gold in the men's halfpipe final during the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games, Feb. 14.
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David G. Mcintyre/Zuma Press
March
amer almohibany/AFP/Getty
A wounded Syrian man waits for treatment March 13 at a makeshift clinic during Syrian government airstrikes on Zamalka, near Syria's capital of Damascus.
Emma Gonzalez, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, listens during the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., on March 24.
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jim watson/AFP/Getty
Some 40,000 people have come to the middle of one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, the Saharan outpost of Tchibarakaten, searching for treasure. Seidou, 32, left, has been here for two months, collecting pulverized rock and weathering an incessant wave of dust. Ibrahim, 23, makes the equivalent of a little over $460 a month crushing rock.
Mackenzie Knowles-Coursin for WSJ
Law-enforcement personnel investigate the site where a man blew himself up on the side of a highway north of Austin on March 21. Police believe the man carried out a string of package bombings in Austin over a few weeks in March.
Loren Elliott/Reuters
A former Russian spy, Sergei Skripal, 66 years old, and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve agent, in a targeted attack in Salisbury, England. Members of the emergency services afix a tent on March 8 over the bench where Mr. Skripal and his daughter were found in critical condition several days before.
ben stansall/AFP/Getty
Fabiola Ferrero for WSJ
They tell me, ‘Mommy, please, I’m hungry, I want to eat….’ I voted swearing at the government.”
— July Castellano, 40, a mother of five in Los Valles del Tuy, Venezuela, who didn’t want to vote for anyone in last year’s elections in Venezuela, but feared food would be withheld if she abstained.
A friend speaks against police brutality at the scene where Saheed Vassell, 34 years old, was shot by four New York Police Department officers in Brooklyn on April 4.
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Byron Smith for WSJ
Najin (left) and her daughter Fatu, the last two female northern white rhinos, lie in their enclosure at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, Kenya, March 7.
baz ratner/Reuters
A Vietnamese soldier keeps watch in front of U.S. aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson after its arrival at a port in Danang, Vietnam, on March 5.
Reuters
Devereux Pretty of the Calder Cannons Australian football club competes for the ball during the TAC Cup match between Calder and Eastern Ranges on March 29.
Getty
President Trump holds a chart of military hardware sales as he welcomes Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office at the White House, March 20.
jonathan ernst/Reuters
The audience watches the horses in the first race of the final day of the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire, England, March 16.
glyn kirk/AFP/Getty
April
Mohammed Talatene/Zuma Press
A veiled Palestinian woman stands in front of burning tires during clashes against Israeli soldiers in the South of Gaza Strip, April 6.
Notre Dame's Arike Ogunbowale (#24) celebrates with teammate Jessica Shepard (#23) after sinking a 3-point basket to defeat Mississippi State 61-58 in the final of the women's NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament on April 1.
Tony Dejak/AP
Michael Cohen, President Trump's former personal attorney, takes a call in New York City on April 13. Following FBI raids on his home, office and hotel room, the Department of Justice announced they were placing him under criminal investigation.
Yana Paskova/Getty
Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Environment Subcommittee on April 26 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
AP
Panic just ensues…. Now the entire plane is shaking. Air was being sucked out of the cabin. People started screaming.”
— Marty Martinez, a Dallas businessman who was aboard the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia Airport after an engine broke apart April 17. One person was killed.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) and South Korean President Moon Jae-in (right) embrace after signing the Panmunjom Declaration for Peace, Prosperity and Unification of the Korean Peninsula during the Inter-Korean Summit on April 27 in Panmunjom, South Korea.
Getty
Adult-film actress Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, passes through a security screening as she arrives at federal court in New York on April 16.
shannon stapleton/Reuters
President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House, April 24. Trump said the partnership he forged with Macron at the start of his presidency was a testament to the 'enduring friendship that binds our two nations.'
Pablo Martinez/AP
In this image made from video released by the Syrian Civil Defense, a medical worker treats a toddler following an alleged poison-gas attack in the opposition-held town of Douma, in eastern Ghouta April 7.
Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets/Zuma Press
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before an April 10 joint hearing of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill, where he was grilled over the company’s handling of user privacy.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty
May
danny lawson/AFP/Getty
Meghan Markle walks down the aisle in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, on May 19 during her wedding to Britain's Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
marco garcia/Reuters
The lava doesn’t chase you down the road like in the movies…. It moves slow. You can see where the real threat is.”
— Gary Hoffeld, a resident who lives in a subdivision about 8 miles downwind of Leilani Estates near Pahoa, Hawaii, one of two rural areas ordered for evacuation as lava flowed quickly from Kilauea volcano.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on May 25. More than 80 women have accused the film producer of sexual harassment or assault.
shannon stapleton/Reuters
Teachers crowd the lobby of the Arizona Senate as the state legislature debates a budget negotiated by majority Republicans and GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, May 3. The budget gives teachers big raises but falls short of their demands for better school funding.
Matt York/AP
Senior White House Adviser Ivanka Trump and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in front of the dedication plaque at the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem on May 14.
ronen zvulun/Reuters
Mercy, 16 years old, weeps shortly after she witnessed the burial of members of her community in Aya Mbalom village. In Nigeria, clashes over dwindling supplies of farmland between mainly Christian farming communities and mainly Muslim herdsmen have left more than 1,500 dead.
Etinosa Osayimwen for WSJ
Russians hold up portraits of their relatives who fought in World War II during an Immortal Regiment march in Vladivostok on May 9.
Smityuk Yuri/Zuma Press
Iranian lawmakers burn two pieces of paper representing the U.S. flag and the nuclear deal, as they chant anti-U.S. slogans at the parliament in Tehran on May 9, after President Trump's nuclear deal withdrawal.
AP
A man naps on his shift selling melons ahead of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Karachi, Pakistan, on May 16.
shahzaib akber/epa/Shutterstock
A bird rests on the head of a white-tailed deer roaming free in San Jose Villanueva in El Salvador.
marvin recinos/AFP/Getty
June
alfredo estrella/AFP/Getty
Mexico's presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador waves to supporters at the closing rally of his campaign in Mexico City on June 27, ahead of the country's presidential election. He won with more than 53% of the vote.
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring a goal in the 2018 FIFA World Cup Group B football match against Spain on June 15.
Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS/Zuma Press
President Trump meets with North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un at the start of the historic U.S.-North Korea summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island in Singapore on June 12.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty
Hessah al-Ajaji drives down Riyadh's busy Tahlia Street after midnight on June 24 for the first time. Saudi women are in the driver's seat after the world's last remaining driving ban on women was lifted.
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Nariman El-Mofty/AP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel deliberates with President Trump on the sidelines of the G-7 summit on June 9.
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Jesco Denzel/Bundesregierung/Getty
In Sayanogorsk, Russia, Rusal has provided jobs for 7,000 people, and funded new sports facilities, hospitals and schools for the city of 45,000. But U.S. sanctions threaten the town's livelihood.
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Max Avdeev for WSJ
A woman is rescued from her car on June 19 after flash floods hit Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
murad sezer/Reuters
A resident looks out from a shelter for Yazidi women rescued from Islamic State captivity, in Dohuk, Iraq.
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Alexandra R. Howland for WSJ
Immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a "zero tolerance" policy by the Trump administration, walk in single file in their compound near the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, on June 18.
mike blake/Reuters
A victim of the June 3 Fuego Volcano in San Miguel Los Lotes, a village in Escuintla, Guatemala City, a day after the eruption killed dozens of people.
Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty
Adria Malcolm for WSJ
Angelica and Ruth had been among the thousands of people arriving monthly at legal U.S. border crossings and asking for the U.S. government to protect them.... Most won’t win, according to U.S. government data on asylum cases.
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Flames burn above Cache Creek Casino Resort in Capay, Calif. on June 30. Multiple fires across the dry American West were fueled by rising temperatures and gusty winds.
Noah Berger/AP
Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, moments before speaking at the Justice Department's Executive Officer for Immigration Review Annual Legal Training Program on June 11. He spoke about his intention to limit reasons for people to claim asylum in the U.S.
Alex Wong/Getty
July
Angelo Merendino/Getty
Workers take down the LeBron James banner from the Sherwin Williams building in Cleveland on July 3. The former Cavaliers star had announced he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers on a four-year, $154 million deal.
Frolickers enjoy warm temperatures on the shore of Lake Geneva, in Lutry, Switzerland in July.
valentin flauraud/EPA/Shutterstock
French President Emmanuel Macron celebrates a goal during France's 4-2 victory over Croatia in the FIFA World Cup 2018 Final on July 15.
Alexei Nikolsky/TASS/Zuma Press
A wounded man takes shelter in a market stall in Harare on Aug. 1. Protests in Zimbabwe's historic elections turned bloody after a man was shot dead during demonstrations over alleged vote fraud.
Marco Longari/AFP/Getty
Workers prepare to lift bundles of steel pipe with a crane at a stockyard on the outskirts of Shanghai on July 5. The U.S. and China slapped levies on $34 billion of each other’s exports, the first tangible shots in a trade battle that both sides are bracing to fight for months—if not years.
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Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News
royal thai army/EPA/Shutterstock
We’re not sure if this was a miracle, science or what…. All the 13 Wild Boars are now out of the cave.”
— The Thai Navy SEALs, as posted on their Facebook page the day the rescue of 13 members of the Thai soccer team was completed.
Wildfires raged through popular resort areas near Athens, killing or injuring scores of victims. It was Greece's deadliest fire season in more than a decade.
COSTAS BALTAS/REUTERS
Addis Ababa, the teeming capital, is a monument to Ethiopia’s paradoxical development: cranes, new construction and the continent’s first light railway stand alongside swelling slums for the city’s fast-growing population. Here, public housing projects lie on the city's outskirts.
Hilina Abebe for WSJ
Migrants disembark from a dinghy at "Del Canuelo" beach in southern Spain after they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from the coast of Morocco, July 27.
jon nazca/Reuters
Silvia, a 25-year-old mother from Guatemala, is reunited with her 3-year-old daughter Eyni on July 11 after being separated. The Trump administration had been separating families as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Melissa Golden for WSJ
A civilian eats his breakfast while Mexican soldiers and police guard a severed head, left as a message between cartel members in one of Acapulco's neighborhoods at the center of Mexico's long drug war.
Brian L. Frank for WSJ
August
Patrick Record/AP
King Bass, 6 years old (left), sits on his parents' car with his sister Princess, 5, watching the Holy Fire burn in Lake Elsinore, Calif. More than one-thousand firefighters battled to keep the raging Southern California forest fire from reaching foothill neighborhoods on Aug. 10.
Fauzy Chaniago/AP
A military paramedic tends to a boy who suffered a head injury from a magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Lombok Island, Indonesia. Among those killed was a 21-year-old air-traffic controller who stayed at his post when the quake struck to ensure a passenger jet that was preparing to take off safely departed.
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Russia’s third-class communal railroad cars, known as platzkarts, have melded together people, cuisine and customs from across Russia for decades. The platzkart’s future is threatened by President Vladimir Putin’s drive to modernize the country’s outdated infrastructure.
Max Avdeev for WSJ
President Trump at a political rally at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. on Aug. 2.
mandel ngan/AFP/Getty
A man wades through a flooded street with two pigs on Aug. 23, after Typhoon Rumbia struck a village in the city of Shouguang in eastern China.
china daily/Reuters
Adrienne Glusman cares for her mother, Hetty, at her assisted living facility in Hollywood, Fla. When Hetty was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, Adrienne's life gradually transformed from a job-hopping millennial in New York to a remote entrepreneur living in Miami Beach, Fla.
Jayme Gershen for WSJ
Alejandra Juarez, left, says goodbye to her children Pamela and Estela at the Orlando International Airport on Aug. 3. Juarez, the wife of a former Marine, is preparing to self-deport to Mexico in a move that would split up their family.
Red Huber/Orlando Sentinel/AP
A major four-lane-highway bridge plunged into a riverbed below on Aug. 14, killing dozens in the northern Italian port city of Genoa.
stefano rellandini/Reuters
Aretha Franklin lies in a gold casket during a public visitation in Detroit on Aug. 28. The Queen of Soul, who rose from her gospel roots to become a fixture in the 1960s music scene and beyond, died Aug. 16 at the age of 76.
Paul Sancya/AP
Monica Cecilia Abbott warms up prior to the playoff round match between Japan and the U.S. on day ten of the WBSC Women's Softball World Championship on Aug. 11 in Chiba, Japan.
Takashi Aoyama/Getty
Security personnel surround Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro during an incident as he was giving a speech in Caracas on Aug. 4. Drones armed with explosives had detonated nearby, but the leader was unharmed.
Xinhua/AP
Nur Khaleda, 6, stands outside her family's shelter at a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
Paula Bronstein for WSJ
A child eyes a cross in a church in the village of Letnica, Kosovo on Aug. 15, during a mass for Feast of the Black Madonna, for which thousands of pilgrims gather every year.
armend nimani/AFP/Getty
Farmers in New South Wales have been struggling to find feed for their livestock amid a severe drought that intensified in Australia when seasonal rains failed to arrive.
Joshua J Smith for WSJ
September
Andrew Carter/The News & Observer/AP
Robert Simmons, Jr. and his kitten Survivor are rescued from floodwaters after Hurricane Florence dumped several inches of rain in New Bern, N.C., Sept. 14.
Gunmen ambushed an Iranian military parade in Ahvaz on Sept. 22 and killed 25 people in a brazen attack that authorities in Tehran blamed on "terrorists" backed by Saudi Arabia, fueling tensions between the regional rivals.
Morteza Jaberian/Zuma Press
Senate Judiciary Committee member Senator Jeff Flake (R., Ariz.) speaks with colleagues after a hearing on the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, Sept. 28. Kavanaugh's nomination was put to a vote after a dramatic Senate hearing in which the judge denied sexual-assault allegations recounted by his accuser.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
Bill Cosby is taken away in handcuffs after he was sentenced to 3-to-10 years in state prison for aggravated indecent assault, Sept. 25.
Mark Makela/Press Pool
An aerial view of a landslide in Atsuma, Hokkaido, on Sept. 6 after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake.
jiji press/AFP/Getty
A fan's sunglasses during an NCAA college football game between Kansas and Rutgers, on Sept. 15 in Lawrence, Kansas.
Charlie Riedel/AP
A view of damage wrought by Typhoon Mangkhut on Sept. 17 in Hong Kong. The typhoon packed sustained winds as high as 170 miles an hour, equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane.
Lam Yik Fei/Getty
Cindy McCain weeps on the casket of Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), during a burial service on Sept. 2. Mr. McCain died of a brain tumor at the age of 81.
David Hume Kennerly/Press Pool
A boat carrying migrants was stranded in the Strait of Gibraltar before rescue efforts by Spain's Civil Guard and the Maritime Safety and Rescue Agency. Spain has seen a steady increase in arrivals of migrants this year and has overtaken Italy as the preferred destination for people desperate to reach the continent.
marcos moreno/AFP/Getty
Tennis player Serena Williams yells at chair umpire Carlos Ramos in the women's final against Naomi Osaka at the 2018 U.S. Open tournament in New York, Sept. 8. Ms. Osaka later defeated Ms. Williams in the controversial match.
danielle parhizkaran/Reuters
October
Jack Taylor/Getty
During Sotheby's Contemporary Art Sale on Oct. 5, the Banksy artwork "Girl With Balloon" shredded through the bottom of the frame as it was being sold. The buyer, who paid $1.4 million for the work, now titled "Love Is in the Bin," agreed to proceed with the sale.
Honduran migrants head in a caravan to the U.S. In late October, Mexico deployed hundreds of police, helicopters and boats along its southern border with Guatemala in a bid to halt the entry of about 1,500 mostly Honduran migrants, as the U.S. moved to beef up its own southern border.
guillermo arias/AFP/Getty
First Lady Melania Trump on safari in Nairobi, Oct. 5.
carlo allegri/Reuters
A man tries to hold back the press as Saudi investigators arrive at the Saudi Arabian consulate ahead of Turkish police, amid a growing backlash to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on Oct. 15 in Istanbul.
Chris McGrath/Getty
U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D., Texas) asks people to raise their hands if they have already voted during a Oct. 31 campaign stop in Waco, Texas. Incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) defeated Mr. O'Rourke in the November midterm elections.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty
Wayne Lawrence for WSJ
In the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton's winning margin on Milwaukee's majority-black north side dropped by 24,000 votes from Barack Obama's margin there four years before. Donald Trump won the state by 22,748 votes.
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Shoes that were found during the search for victims of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610. All 189 people on board the jetliner perished after it crashed shortly after takeoff Oct. 29.
bay ismoyo/AFP/Getty
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) leaves after delivering a floor speech on Oct. 5 to announce she will vote for the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate voted 51-49 in a procedural vote to advance the nomination.
Alex Wong/Getty
Rabbi Eli Wilansky lights a candle after the Oct. 27 mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue, in Pittsburgh. The shooting killed 11 people and injured six in what is considered the deadliest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history.
Steph Chambers/AP
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May dances as she takes the stage to give her keynote address on the fourth and final day of the Conservative Party Conference, in Birmingham, England, Oct. 3.
oli scarff/AFP/Getty
U.S. Border Patrol agents make arrests during a Dec. 10 protest by members of various faith groups in support of Central American asylum seekers who arrived in caravans.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Devastation left behind by Hurricane Michael on Oct. 12 in Mexico Beach, Fla. The storm made landfall on the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm.
Mark Wallheiser/Getty
Billy Elkins in a cattle-grazing pasture on his family's Rocking Chair Ranch in Snowflake, Ariz. Western ranchers are suffering one of the worst droughts in decades, and Mr. Elkins is liquidating half his herd of 1,000.
Caitlin O'Hara for WSJ
A SpaceX rocket launch is seen in the distance over the Golden Gate Bridge, near Sausalito, Calif., on Oct. 7.
Justin Borja/AP
Defense Department mail screeners, who wear protective suits daily, check packages at a facility near the Pentagon. Two letters were sent to the Pentagon that contained castor seeds, from which the poison ricin is derived.
Thomas Watkins/AFP/Getty
November
Marc Lester/AP
Vine Road, south of Wasilla, Alaska, was damaged after back-to-back earthquakes measuring magnitudes 7.0 and 5.7, Nov. 30.
Tallahassee mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum casts his ballot with his four-year-old twins Caroline, left, and Jackson on Election Day, Nov. 6.
Mark Wallheiser/Getty
At a makeshift encampment outside a Walmart store for people displaced by the Camp Fire that engulfed parts of Northern California, Havyn Cargill-Morris, Dakota Keltner, Atryna Sweet and Timothy Keltner rest in the back seat of a truck, Nov. 16.
John Locher/AP
Firefighters round up chickens that survived a fire that broke out on a farm in Karben, Germany, killing several thousand animals, Nov. 2.
Boris Roessler/Zuma Press
Mayra Hernandez left Honduras as part of the migrant caravan making its way to the U.S. She carries all her belongings in a bag on her head and in a backpack. The trip has taken a toll on the 36-year-old mother from Tegucigalpa—she has battled infection and a high fever.
Nadia Shira Cohen for WSJ
Ventura County Sheriff officers stand before a procession for the body of Sergeant Ron Helus, who died responding to a Nov. 7 mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Mike Blake/Reuters
Ten-year-old Ghazi Saleh lies on a hospital bed in Taez, Yemen, where war has raged. Barely breathing, he is starving and too weak to move or even cry.
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marzooq al-jabiry/AFP/Getty
The remains of a neighborhood in Paradise, Calif., on Nov. 15, after the historic Camp Fire blazed through the town.
josh edelson/AFP/Getty
A White House staff member reaches for the microphone held by CNN's Jim Acosta as he questions President Trump on Nov. 7, a day after the midterm elections. The White House took issue with Mr. Acosta's questioning and revoked his press credential—then reinstated it the following week as both sides geared up for a legal fight.
jonathan ernst/Reuters
Allen High School dancers wait to perform during halftime of a high school football game against Prosper High School, in Allen, Texas.
Cooper Neill for WSJ
A health worker waits to receive an unconfirmed Ebola patient at a treatment center in Bunia, Congo, on Nov. 7.
John Wessels/AP
December
francois guillot/AFP/Getty
Members of the 'yellow vests' movement protest on Nov. 24 near the Arc of Triomphe in Paris, angry over high fuel taxes and rising living costs.
Former U.S. President George W. Bush, top left, follows the casket bearing his father, former President George H. W. Bush, as a military honor guard carries it from the National Cathedral after a state funeral in Washington Dec. 5. He died Nov. 30 at age 94.
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Michael Reynolds/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
German Chancellor Angela Merkel after delivering a speech at the Christian Democratic Union party congress in Hamburg on Dec. 7. Mrs. Merkel will hand off leadership of her party after nearly two decades at the helm.
John MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty
Lynching is Latin America’s dark secret. The region has the world’s highest murder rate, and its highest rate of impunity. In Araioses, Brazil, a woman mourns her son, who was lynched after he killed a man during a drunken brawl over a motorbike.
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Tommaso Protti for WSJ
President Trump spars in front of the media with Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) on Dec. 11, threatening to shut down the government if Congress doesn’t fund his proposed border wall. Vice President Mike Pence looks on silently.
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Mark Wilson/Getty
An aerial photo shows a car making its way along a road through snow-covered woods near a wetland in Zaozhuang City, in China's Shandong Province, Dec. 11.
Gao Qimin/Xinhua/Zuma Press
