The year 2021 comes to an end: Amazing memories from the middle months
After looking back at the early months, it’s time to revisit the big events across the world during the months of May to August. From the Israel-Hamas ties worsening in May to the Taliban takeover in August following the withdrawal of the US troops, this second part covers it all
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An overpass carrying a subway train collapsed in Mexico City on 4 May, killing 26 people and injuring dozens more. Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, called it “the most terrible accident we’ve ever had in the public transport system.” A preliminary investigation found that construction flaws led to the collapse. AFP
Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City. For several weeks up until that point, Jerusalem had seen repeated confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli police across the city. One of the main sources of growing unrest was the possible eviction of several Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. On 9 May, Israel’s Supreme Court postponed an appeal hearing on the decades-long legal case. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians escalated further on 10 May as Palestinian militants in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which in turn ramped up airstrikes across Gaza. The militants said they fired their rockets in response to the actions of Israeli police who fired stun grenades inside the mosque. AP
The Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system, left, intercepts rockets fired by Hamas toward southern Israel from Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip overnight on 14 May. Israel bombarded Gaza with artillery and airstrikes in response to a new barrage of rocket fire from the Hamas-run enclave. AFP
Men carry a dead child pulled from the rubble of a destroyed residential building in Gaza City following Israeli airstrikes on 16 May that flattened three buildings and killed at least two dozen people, according to medics. By 17 May, the United Nations estimated that Israeli airstrikes destroyed 94 buildings in Gaza, comprising 461 housing and commercial units, including the al-Jalaa Highrise, housing offices of the Associated Press and Al Jazeera and 60 condominiums. AP
A migrant is comforted by a member of the Spanish Red Cross at the Spanish enclave of Ceuta near the border of Morocco and Spain. Since the beginning of 2021, Moroccan police have arrested more than 12,000 people trying to leave the country using irregular forms of migration. According to their own reports, they have also dismantled 150 smuggling network. Many migrants from Morocco and also from other African countries seek to enter Spain by crossing either the Mediterranean to the north or the Atlantic to the west in a bid to reach Spain's Canary Islands. Others try to climb over border fortifications into the Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta in Morocco. AP
An aerial view shows debris engulfing buildings in Bushara village, Nyiragongo area, near Goma, in May after a volcanic eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, that sent thousands fleeing during the night in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Five people were killed in related accidents. AFP
Anti-government protesters angry over proposed tax increases on public services, fuel, wages and pensions clash with police in Madrid, Colombia, on the outskirts of Bogota. Protesters turned out in more than half of Colombia’s municipalities in May for mostly peaceful protest against the administration of President Iván Duque. But violence during some demonstrations has resulted in 26 people dead, including a police officer, and more than 800 people injured, according to government figures. The protests, which started on 28 April over proposed tax increases on public services, fuel, wages and pensions, morphed into a general demand for the government to pay longstanding debts to the most vulnerable in society, such as Indigenous and Afro Latino people. AP
Fashion can have an impact and Jill Biden showed this time and again. The first lady of the United States showed the word “love” on her blazer as she and her husband arrived in England for the G7 Summit. “We’re bringing love from America,” she said. AFP
Relatives and neighbors wail during the funeral of Waseem Ahmed, a policeman who was killed in a shootout, on the outskirts of Srinagar on 13 June. There has been a surge in violence in Kashmir, including a spate of suspected rebel attacks on civilians and a widespread crackdown by security forces, leaving at least 33 people dead in the heavily militarised region since early October. The fresh wave of killings by suspected rebels appear to be directed at non-Kashmiris, including migrant workers, and members of the minority Hindu and Sikh communities in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley. AP
A demonstrator falls as they are hit by water cannon during clashes with riot police amid ongoing protests against the government of Colombian president Ivan Duque in Bogota on 12 June. Dozens of people have been killed in protests that erupted around the country on 28 April 28, initially against a tax hike, but which morphed into a major anti-government movement. AFP
Health care worker Nazir Ahmed carries a cooler with vaccines and looks out from a hillock for Kashmiri shepherds to vaccinate in Tosamaidan, southwest of Srinagar. A unique feature of India's COVID-19 vaccine drive has been its ability to deliver the jabs to the most remote areas of the country. AP
An injured resident of Togoga, Ethiopia, arrives at a hospital in Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, after a government airstrike hit a Togoga market. There was international condemnation over the airstrike, which killed dozens of people as fighting intensified between Tigray's ruling party and forces aligned with Ethiopia's military. AFP
Debris is piled up after a 12-storey residential building partially collapsed in the South Florida community of Surfside on 24 June. Nearly 100 people were killed in the collapse. Firefighters ended their search for bodies at the site of the building on 23 July, after a month of painstaking work among the dangerous debris that was piled several stories high. AFP
Actors perform at the National Stadium in Beijing during a celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. AP
A bolt of lightning crosses the sky as people look at buildings displaying a light show on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party in Beijing on 30 June. AFP
Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic, carries Sirisha Bandla on his shoulders while celebrating their historic spaceflight on 11 July. Branson became the first billionaire to travel to space aboard a spacecraft he helped fund. Bandla became the second woman born in India to fly to space. Describing the visit into space as the "experience of a lifetime", Branson hoped it would usher in an era of lucrative space tourism. AFP
A destroyed house is pictured after floods caused major damage in Schuld near Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, western Germany, on 16 July. Torrential rain led to severe flooding and destruction across western Europe, wreaking havoc in parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, and leaving Germany reeling from its worst natural disaster in decades. AFP
A home burns as flames from the Dixie fire tear through the Indian Falls neighbourhood of unincorporated Plumas County, California on 24 July. The Dixie Fire would become the second largest in recorded state history, burning more than 963,000 acres. The fire started on 13 July and was fully contained on 25 October, according to fire officials. AFP
A local resident gestures as he holds an empty water hose during an attempt to extinguish forest fires approaching the village of Pefki on Evia (Euboea) island, Greece's second largest island, on 8 August. Hundreds of Greek firefighters fought desperately to control wildfires on the island of Evia that charred vast areas of pine forest, destroyed homes and forced tourists and locals to flee. Firefighters from more than 20 European countries joined forces to stop the progress of the fires. AFP
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on 16 August, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. AFP
In this still image taken from a video posted to social media, a baby is handed to American troops over the perimeter wall of the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Major James Stenger, a spokesman for the Marines, confirmed later to The New York Times that the baby received medical treatment and was reunited with their father at the airport. AFP
A man crawls away with a donated bag of rice after people in Vye Terre, Haiti, temporarily overtook a truck loaded with relief supplies. Haiti was devastated six days earlier by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. AP
A carry team moves a transfer case containing the remains of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. According to the Department of Defense, Hoover died in an attack at Afghanistan's Kabul airport, along with 12 other US service members. AP
People gather around the incinerated husk of a vehicle that was hit by a US drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ten members of one family — including seven children — were killed in the strike. In September, a US military investigation found that the vehicle targeted was likely not a threat associated with ISIS-K, according to General Frank McKenzie, the top general of US Central Command. McKenzie told reporters that the strike was a “mistake” and offered an apology. AFP
US Army Major General Chris Donahue, commanding general of the 82nd Airborne, boards a C-17 military transport plane to depart Kabul. He was the last US soldier to leave the country. AP
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