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The best photos of 2019

From a royal arrival to a departing prime minister, the images that sum up the year

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By James Ashford

last updated 28 December 2019

Image 1 of 12

Fire rips through the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex

A woman shouts at police officers as they advance towards protesters in Hong Kong

A Californian firefighter negotiates a locked gate

November — (Image credit: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

Headline news has provided plenty of fodder for The Week’s best photos of 2019.

The best photos of 2018 The year in pictures - 2017 The year in pictures - 2016

Brexit features prominently, with images of Remain and Leave backers squaring up to one another in the first image of the year. Theresa May is also pictured shedding a tear outside No. 10 as she announced her resignation as prime minister in July.

The photos depict a world continuing to be affected by terrorism, from the white nationalist attack on two New Zealand mosques that killed 51 worshippers in March, to the Islamist stabbing at London Bridge in November that claimed the lives of two young graduates involved in a prisoner reform scheme.

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International politics feature in the gallery, with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un pictured in February arriving for talks with US President Donald Trump in Vietnam. Later in the year, Trump is seen holding some scribbled notes denying a “quid pro quo” with Ukraine’s President Zelensky.

And the ongoing climate crisis couldn’t be ignored, with firefighters battling wildfires in California taking the October spot in the mini-portrait of 2019.

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James Ashford

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