2017 in Photos: A Look at the Middle Months (2025)

Afghan policemen try to rescue four-year-old Ali Ahmad at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and ISIS gunmen at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 25, 2017. The boy survived, and is now back with his family, but still suffers nightmares, his father said. Ali Ahmad was with his grandfather in the Imam Zaman mosque on Friday when at least two attackers in police uniforms stormed in, one exploding a suicide-bomb vest and the other firing indiscriminately at the hundreds of worshipers inside. His grandfather was among at least 20 killed. Sayed Bashir, Ali's father, was nearby but not in the mosque when the initial blast was heard and immediately ran to check on his family. "Right after the explosion I thought everything was finished," he said. "I called my father's mobile phone number and my son answered and said: 'They killed grandpa.' He wanted me to bring the car and get him. We were running everywhere in search of my son but the police were stopping us and didn't let us get too close." Bashir called the number again and was speaking to Ali when another explosion went off. "I lost hope. I said to myself that everything was finished. I tried the number again but it was switched off." In fact, Ali had run behind the mosque, disregarding the policeman frantically signalling to him in the courtyard. #

Omar Sobhani / Reuters

A man is dwarfed by The Broad museum as he walks in downtown Los Angeles on May 22, 2017. The contemporary art museum was founded by philanthropist Eli Broad in 2015. #

Jae C. Hong / AP

In a photo taken two weeks before his death, singer Chris Cornell of Soundgarden performs on stage at The Fox Theater on May 3, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia. On May 18, the 52-year-old was found dead in his hotel room in Detroit. He committed suicide by hanging only hours after playing a show. #

Paul R. Giunta / Getty

A Syrian government forces's MiG-23 fighter-bomber drops a payload during a reported airstrike in the rebel-held area of Qabun, east of the capital Damascus, on May 6, 2017. #

Amer Almohibany / AFP / Getty

French CRS riot police officers are engulfed in flames as they face protesters during a march for the annual May Day workers's rally in Paris on May 1, 2017. #

Zakaria Abdelkafi / AFP / Getty

Anti-government protesters work together to aim a giant slingshot holding a glass bottle of fecal matter at security forces blocking their march from reaching the Supreme Court in Caracas, Venezuela, on May 10, 2017. #

Ariana Cubillos / AP

Pupy, an African elephant, stands in the doorway of his enclosure at the former city zoo now known as Eco Parque in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 12, 2017. A year ago the 140-year old Buenos Aires zoo closed its doors and was transformed into a park. The first director decided that the animals should be housed in buildings that reflected their countries of origin. A replica of a Hindu temple was built for the Asian elephants. #

Natacha Pisarenko / AP

A horse from the Republican Guard rears up as newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron waves from a military vehicle while riding on the Champs Elysees avenue towards the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, on May 14, 2017. #

Michel Euler / AP

Refugees and migrants swim towards a rescue craft as a rescue crew member of the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) Phoenix vessel pulls a man on board after a wooden boat bound for Italy carrying more than 500 people capsized on May 24, 2017, off Lampedusa, Italy. #

Chris McGrath / Getty

Greek choreographer and dancer Katerina Soldatou performs above the Corinth Canal as part of the "Greece Has Soul" project on May 30, 2017 in Corinth. #

Valerie Gache / AFP / Getty

Flames and smoke billow as firefighters deal with a serious fire in the Grenfell Tower apartment block on Latimer Road in West London, England, on June 14, 2017. The blaze is thought to have started accidentally in an appliance on the fourth floor, but spread rapidly, authorities believe, due to the flammable cladding on the building's exterior. More than 70 people died in the fire and another 74 were hospitalized. A lengthy criminal investigation is still underway, with no charges filed yet. #

Toby Melville / Reuters

A wildfire is reflected in a stream near Penela, Portugal, on June 18, 2017. A wildfire in central Portugal killed at least 25 people and injured 16 others, most of them burning to death in their cars, the government said on June 18, 2017. Several hundred firefighters and 160 vehicles were dispatched late on June 17 to tackle the blaze, which broke out in the afternoon in the municipality of Pedrogao Grande before spreading fast across several fronts. #

Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP / Getty

A beluga whale plays with tourists as they visit Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, on June 18, 2017. #

Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty

Iraqi army personnel drop leaflets from an aircraft flying over the old city of Mosul, Iraq, on June 18, 2017. #

Ahmed Saad / Reuters

Rescue workers pull a rescue dog across a river at the site of a landslide in the village of Xinmo, Mao County, Sichuan Province, China, on June 25, 2017. #

Reuters

Civilians trying to flee get undressed to be checked for explosives after suicide bombers exploded themselves, as Iraqi forces continued their advance against Islamic State group militants in the old city of Mosul, Iraq, on July 3, 2017. #

Felipe Dana / AP

Yi ethnic minority girls wait to participate in a traditional performance to celebrate the Torch Festival in Butuo County, Sichuan province, China, on July 18, 2017. #

Natalie Thomas / Reuters

Firefighters remove a United States flag as flames from the Wall Fire close in on a luxury home in Oroville, California, on July 8, 2017. #

Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty

A worker, known as a "tecchiaiolo," examines marble at the Cervaiole quarry on Monte Altissimo in the Apuan Alps in Tuscany, Italy, on July 18, 2017. #

Alessandro Bianchi / Reuters

A polar bear stands on a patch of ice in the Franklin Strait in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on July 22, 2017. While some polar bears are expected to follow the retreating ice northward, others will head south, where they will come into greater contact with humans, encounters that are unlikely to end well for the bears. #

David Goldman / AP

Riot police arrest an opposition activist during clashes following a march towards the Supreme Court of Justice in an offensive against President Maduro and his call for Constituent Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 22, 2017. The legislative power, controlled by the opposition, appointed a parallel supreme court in a public session claiming that the Supreme Court judges had been illegally appointed by the parliament's former pro-government majority. #

Juan Barreto / AFP / Getty

Canada's Marissa Papaconstantinou makes her way to the finish line after recovering from a fall in the Women's 200-meter T44 Final during the IAAF World ParaAthletics Championships in London, England, on July 23, 2017. #

Peter Cziborra / Reuters

Smoke fills the sky above a burning hillside as tourists relax on the beach in Bormes-les-Mimosas in the Var department, France, on July 26, 2017. #

Jean-Paul Pelissier / Reuters

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft carrying the crew consisting of Paolo Nespoli of Italy, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Russia and Randy Bresnik of the United States blasts off to the International Space Station from the launchpad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on July 28, 2017. #

Shamil Zhumatov / Reuters

Dominic Geraghty's dog Edward sleeps in his waistcoat after descending Croagh Patrick holy mountain during an annual Catholic pilgrimage near Lecanvey, Ireland, on July 30, 2017. #

Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters

A rare white moose is seen in Gunnarskog, Varmland, Sweden, on July 31, 2017. #

Tommy Pedersen / TT News Agency / Reuters

A woman pretends to ride a bike in Underwater Park in Pula, Croatia, on August 1, 2017. #

Antonio Bronic / Reuters

The shadow of an internally displaced girl who fled Raqqa is cast at the water point in a camp in Ain Issa, north of Raqqa, Syria, on August 12, 2017. #

Zohra Bensemra / Reuters

A woman gestures as she mourns the death of a protester in Mathare, Nairobi, Kenya, on August 9, 2017. Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga were protesting an election, alleging vote-rigging, and clashed with police in several locations. #

Thomas Mukoya / Reuters

A man seeking safety walks with his hands in the air through a thick cloud of tear gas toward riot police, as they clash with protesters throwing rocks in the Kawangware slum of Nairobi, Kenya on August 10, 2017. International observers urged Kenyans to be patient as they awaited final election results following opposition allegations of vote-rigging, but clashes between police and protesters again erupted in Nairobi. #

Ben Curtis / AP

Manchester United's Marouane Fellaini, during the UEFA Super Cup final soccer match between Real Madrid and Manchester United, at Philip II Arena in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, on August 8, 2017. #

Boris Grdanoski / AP

White nationalists carry torches on the grounds of the University of Virginia, on the eve of a planned "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11, 2017. #

Stringer / Alejandro Alvarez / NEWS2SHARE

Rinki Singh, 31, holds a photo of her daughter Aarushi, 6, who died in the intensive care unit of the Baba Raghav Das hospital in the Gorakhpur district of India, on August 14, 2017. At least 64 children died over six days at a government hospital in northern India that suffered oxygen shortages, officials said on August 12. Authorities have launched an inquiry into the causes of the oxygen disruption but denied reports that it had caused the deaths at the Baba Raghav Das hospital in Gorakhpur. #

Cathal McNaughton / Reuters

As millions of people across the United States experienced a total eclipse as the umbra, or moon’s shadow passed over them, only six people witnessed the umbra from space on August 21, 2017. Viewing the eclipse from orbit were NASA’s Randy Bresnik, Jack Fischer and Peggy Whitson, the European Space Agency’s Paolo Nespoli, and Roscosmos’s Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy. The space station crossed the path of the eclipse three times as it orbited above the continental United States at an altitude of 250 miles. #

NASA

The total solar eclipse, viewed from Charleston, South Carolina, on August 21, 2017. The Associated Press reported that the eclipse was the "most-observed and most-photographed eclipse in history." #

Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty

Police wearing riot gear guard a statue of a Confederate soldier nicknamed Silent Sam on the campus of the University of North Carolina during a demonstration for its removal in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on August 22, 2017. #

Jonathan Drake / Reuters

Eddie Ladd and Gwyn Emberton perform as Dylan and Caitlin Thomas in Caitlin at the Lauriston Hall in Edinburgh, Scotland, on August 25, 2017. #

Mary Turner / Reuters

People are rescued from floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey on an air boat in Dickinson, Texas, on August 27, 2017. Harvey was one of the costliest disasters to ever hit the U.S., with damage estimates as high as $200 billion, following days of torrential rain and record flooding. #

Rick Wilking / Reuters

Larry Koser Jr., seated in a kayak floating at cabinet height in his kitchen, calls his wife looking for important papers and heirlooms inside his father's house after it was flooded by heavy rains from Hurricane Harvey on August 29, 2017, in the Bear Creek neighborhood of west Houston. The neighborhood flooded after water was released from nearby Addicks Reservoir. #

Erich Schlegel / Getty

A cat tries to find dry ground around an apartment complex after it was inundated with water following Hurricane Harvey on August 30, 2017, in Houston, Texas. #

Scott Olson / Getty