The World Burns
We generally like to keep things positive at M2. The daily news can be miserable, and we like to offer some respite from it. However, it is hard to ignore many of the subjects featured in this year’s internationally acclaimed World Press Photo Exhibition, which recently ran at Smith & Caughey’s in central Auckland.
Seen by millions of people in more than 60 cities each year, the 2026 World Press Photo Exhibition invites viewers to step outside the news cycle and think critically about important topics in our world.
Offering a powerful reflection of our world, the winners of the 2026 World Press Photo Contest illuminate the realities we face globally, marked by fracture, urgency and resilience. They reveal the overreach of power, the escalating climate crisis and the human cost of conflict, while bringing into focus stories of resistance, rebuilding, recovery and the dignity of those who persevere.
Tamer Hassan al-Shafei and his family break their Ramadan fast in the remains of their home. Food shortages meant only basics were served instead of the usual spread. Beit Lahia, Gaza Strip, 4 March 2025.
© Saher Alghorra, for The New York Times
Nepal’s Gen Z Uprising
Fire and smoke engulf Singha Durbar after protesters stormed and set the government complex alight during violent demonstrations. Kathmandu, Nepal, 9 September 2025.
A government ban of 26 social media platforms on 4 September 2025 was the breaking point for Nepal’s youth. On 8 September, thousands took to the streets, part of a generation of young people around the world refusing to accept systems that perpetuate corruption, unemployment and economic hardship. Within two days, 76 people had died, most of them young demonstrators killed by police. Thousands more were injured. On 9 September, following Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s resignation, protesters stormed and set fire to Singha Durbar, the historic complex at the heart of Nepal’s government.
© Narendra Shrestha, EPA Images
Witnessing Gaza
The Mushtaha Tower collapses in a military strike, amid hundreds of makeshift tents sheltering displaced Palestinians, as Israel’s offensive on Gaza City intensified. Gaza Strip, 5 September 2025.
In 2025, civilians in Gaza endured starvation, famine and relentless bombardment as the death toll surpassed 75,000 and Israeli authorities severely restricted the flow of humanitarian aid. A fragile ceasefire went into effect in October, allowing some aid to enter Gaza, but Israeli airstrikes continued and the humanitarian situation remains critical. Palestinian journalists, living through the reality they document, are the world’s few witnesses to what an independent UN Human Rights Commission inquiry has concluded is a genocide. Israel disputes this. The photographer worked under immense danger, driven by a refusal to let the world turn away. “Even when everything around me told me to stop, I couldn’t; silence would mean surrender.”
© Saher Alghorra, for The New York Times
When Giants Fall
Professional hunters shoot a family of elephants identified for culling. Sango Wildlife Conservancy, Savé Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe, 23 October 2025.
In 2025, the government of Zimbabwe authorised the culling (killing for the purpose of population control) of 50 elephants in the Savé Valley Conservancy. This followed a 2024 cull of 200. Authorities say the growing population has surpassed what the land can sustain, worsening human-wildlife conflict as drought drives elephants searching for food and water into closer contact with people. Wildlife organisations dispute claims of overpopulation and condemn culling. They have raised concerns about the fracturing of elephant social structures and the trauma inflicted on surviving animals, which could increase aggression towards humans.
© Halden Krog, for Daily Mail
Sudan’s War: A Nation Trapped
A group of soldiers passes through a damaged market in Sudan’s second most populous city, a site of continuous fighting since April 2023. Omdurman, Sudan, 25 October 2024.
© Abdulmonam Eassa, for Le Monde
Farīsāt: Gunpowder’s Daughters
A Tbourida festival in Sidi Rahal, Morocco, where only one of the performing troupes was made up of women. 8 August 2025.
Tbourida is a UNESCO-recognised Moroccan equestrian tradition dating back to the 16th century. Troupes gallop in unison, firing rifles in a choreographed performance of cavalry warfare. Historically excluded, female riders have fought for inclusion since Morocco’s 2004 family code reforms strengthened women’s legal rights. Today, seven all-female troupes ride among approximately 300. These farīsāt (horsewomen) bear significant personal costs, funding their own horses, costumes and gunpowder permits. Their perseverance is a powerful assertion of women’s rightful place in Moroccan cultural heritage.
© Chantal Pinzi, Panos Pictures
A Desperate Plea
Mr Wong cries out in anguish as fire engulfs the Tai Po housing complex in Hong Kong that he calls home. Moments earlier, he exchanged final words over the phone with his wife, who was among the 168 victims trapped inside. Hong Kong, 26 November 2025.
A massive fire at the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in Tai Po claimed 168 lives, becoming Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948. While no official cause has been reported, investigations by Hong Kong authorities found that strong winds combined with dense bamboo scaffolding, construction netting and flammable polystyrene boards used for window insulation acted as deadly accelerants, trapping residents inside, blocking emergency exit routes and hindering the initial response.
© Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Ukraine
Ukrainian civilians, their identities concealed behind masks, assemble FPV drones in a basement factory. Both Ukraine and Russia now manufacture millions of battlefield drones a year. Central Ukraine, 6 September 2024.
A Ukrainian soldier, known by the call sign “Ara,” uses his partially amputated arm to steady a drone being fitted with a grenade. Wounded in 2022, he now trains recruits in drone operations. Donetsk region, Ukraine, 5 August 2024.
Ukraine’s battle against Russia’s full-scale invasion is reshaping modern combat. Hobby drones are being repurposed into remote-controlled weapons, and mass-produced first-person-view (FPV) drones are piloted from kilometres away with deadly precision. These developments have triggered an unrelenting drone arms race and turned vast areas of Ukraine into “kill zones”. Civilians are targeted and displaced, while soldiers spend most of their time in underground bunkers or basements, unable to be resupplied or casualty-evacuated. This story documents Ukraine’s efforts to advance its drone capabilities and the impact of Russian drone attacks on civilians and soldiers.
© David Guttenfelder, The New York Times
Spain
The Larouco wildfire, the worst in Galicia’s recorded history, burns through the night as flames reach O Courel, a mountain range of great biodiversity. Sierra de O Courel, Galicia, Spain, 19 August 2025.
A man fights a wildfire with a branch in Cualedro. When resources are stretched, residents use whatever is available to extinguish flames, including branches, farming tools, and water hoses. Ourense, Galicia, Spain, 15 August 2025.
In 2025, Europe experienced a record year for wildfires. More than 200,000 hectares burned across Galicia during Spain’s worst fire season in about three decades. The increasingly severe fires are attributed to drought and heat intensified by climate change, rural depopulation and short-sighted forest-management policies, including the widespread planting of highly flammable non-native species. Born in Ourense, the photographer grew up with the smell of smoke every summer and has documented Galician wildfires since 2011.
© Brais Lorenzo, EFE, Revista 5W, El País
Scam Hub Under Siege
On 21 November 2025, the Karen National Liberation Army captured Shunda Park, a massive cyber-scam compound in Myanmar’s Karen State. As the country’s civil war intensifies, lawless border regions have become hubs for a lucrative online scam industry. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world have been trafficked into Southeast Asia and forced into labour for these illegal enterprises. When rebel forces ousted the junta-allied militia guarding the park, thousands of workers from 30 nations were stranded in Myanmar.
A Karen National Liberation Army soldier patrols the Shunda Park compound. Approximately 900 Chinese workers remained barricaded there for weeks after the raid, fearing that returning home could lead to criminal prosecution by Chinese authorities. Min Let Pan, Myanmar, 5 December 2025.
© Jes Aznar, for The New York Times
Extramuros
Mehdi, of Algerian origin and originally from the Bosquets housing project in Montfermeil, competes in a street fight organised by CanalPourss, a local initiative that uses boxing to reduce violence. Marseille, France, 27 July 2024.
In the peripheral neighbourhoods of France’s banlieues, migrant families navigate postcolonial legacies, higher rates of unemployment and structural inequality. France’s integration system requires migrants to culturally assimilate while prejudice persists, leaving communities caught between exclusion and belonging. Yet these communities are also spaces of creativity and resilience that shape contemporary French culture. Documenting his friends and family, the photographer, born to Cambodian refugees, portrays lives in which community and solidarity are the clearest markers of identity.
© William Keo, La Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Die Zeit
Portland Protests ICE
Officers from the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies clash with demonstrators outside an ICE processing centre. The intense summer protests centred on opposition to the administration’s escalating mass-deportation agenda. Portland, Oregon, United States, 24 June 2025.
In 2025, the Trump administration shifted immigration enforcement from the border to the US interior, aiming for 3,000 arrests per day and abandoning protections for schools, hospitals, courthouses and places of worship. In response, Portland, a “sanctuary city” where state and local law-enforcement agencies are prohibited from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, became a flashpoint for resistance. During the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations in June, localised protests escalated into nightly clashes outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility.
© Jan Sonnenmair
Los Angeles on Fire
The Palisades Fire ravages a neighbourhood amid high winds. The Los Angeles wildfires inflicted between $28 billion and $53.8 billion in property damage, disrupting thousands of local businesses. Los Angeles, California, United States, 7 January 2025.
In January 2025, severe drought and Santa Ana winds reaching 100 mph (roughly 160 km/h) fuelled 14 devastating wildfires across the Los Angeles metropolitan area and San Diego County, destroying more than 18,000 homes and businesses and displacing 200,000 residents. While officials reported 31 direct fatalities, a public-health study estimated approximately 440 excess deaths linked to toxic smoke and disrupted medical care. In the disaster’s aftermath, a stark wealth divide has defined recovery efforts, with lower-income residents facing displacement while wealthier communities draw on private resources to rebuild.
© Ethan Swope, for Associated Press
Milei’s Argentina
Police detain Father Jorge “Chueco” Romero during a pensioners’ protest. Members of the “Option for the Poor” clergy have joined weekly demonstrations against pension freezes and cuts to essential medical coverage. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 14 May 2025.
Since taking office in 2023, President Javier Milei has implemented aggressive austerity measures aimed at stabilising an economy facing annual inflation of more than 200%. These policies have pushed many of the country’s older people into a desperate struggle for survival. With the minimum monthly pension hovering around US$300, less than half the estimated basic cost of living, many retirees are forced to ration food and forgo essential medical treatment. Every Wednesday, pensioners gather outside the National Congress to protest low pensions and cuts to free medication programmes. These demonstrations are frequently met with heavily militarised police responses, drawing international condemnation.
© Tadeo Bourbon, for Revista Mu
Manacillos: A Return to Life
Eider Calimeño is one of 33 men who act as Matachín, committing themselves to participate in the Fiesta de los Manacillos. This ancestral responsibility is passed down through the male line and honours deceased or displaced ancestors. Juntas, Buenaventura, Colombia, 29 March 2024.
Two people carry an exhausted Manacillo. Tradition dictates that Manacillos cannot sleep for the first 48 hours of the festival; those who fall asleep are ritualistically whipped. Juntas, Buenaventura, Colombia, 19 April 2025.
Juntas is an Afro-descendant community deep in the Colombian Pacific rainforest, accessible only by an eight- to ten-hour boat journey up the Yurumanguí River. Settled by descendants of enslaved Africans brought to the region in the 17th century, the community faces threats from illegal mining, logging and armed conflict. Fiesta de los Manacillos is a traditional ritual enacted during Holy Week that blends Catholicism with African spiritual traditions. More than a celebration, the festival is a homecoming for the diaspora and a profound affirmation of cultural resilience.