2022 in pictures: A look back

The year was dominated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. In the early hours of February 24, Putin's troops invaded the former Soviet republic and the long-simmering conflict quickly escalated into all-out war. By December, the conflict had claimed the lives of at least 6,755 Ukrainian civilians, according to UN figures. Some 8 million Ukrainians have fled the country.

Following a Russian attack on a maternity clinic in Mariupol, this injured pregnant woman was carried from the rubble. She, and her baby, did not survive. The March attack is considered a war crime, as were the killings in Kyiv's suburb of Bucha. Ukrainian officials said more than 400 bodies were found there after Russian troops withdrew — almost all of them civilians. Moscow denies the massacre.

Shouting the words "Woman, life, freedom!" thousands of protesters have spoken out against the repressive regime in the Islamic Republic. The protests were triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, 22, who died in police custody in September after allegedly violating Iran's strict dress code for women. At Amini's funeral, many women removed their headscarves — kicking off a nationwide revolt.

In late June, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the ruling that had guaranteed a federal right to abortion for 49 years. Several right-leaning states immediately banned or severely restricted the procedure. The decision sparked massive criticism and protests in Washington and across the US. "American women today have less freedom than their mothers," said top Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

At the Academy Awards in March, actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage after the comedian and host made a joke about the appearance of Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The actress, who has a shaved head, has a rare condition that causes hair loss. Smith later apologized for the attack, but has been banned from the Oscars ceremony for a decade.

Spring saw India and Pakistan suffer through an unprecedented heat wave, with temperatures regularly hovering around 50 degrees Celsius (more than 120 Fahrenheit). In August, the region was then submerged by devastating monsoon-fueled floods. Pakistan was hit particularly hard; at one point a third of the country was underwater. The extreme weather has been blamed on human-caused climate change.

It was hard to ignore the effects of climate change in 2022. In Europe, persistent drought and dryness resulted in destructive forest fires in many countries, as seen here in southwestern France. The drought was the continent's worst in nearly 500 years and caused tens of thousands of heat-related deaths. Major rivers like the Rhine and the Loir partly dried up in some places.

Since the summer, climate activists with groups like Last Generation and Extinction Rebellion have chosen to fight back instead of resigning themselves to inaction. They've made headlines by demonstrating in the streets, pouring tomato sauce on works of art and gluing themselves to streets and airport runways to paralyze traffic — as seen here at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport in early November.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope entered service in July, looking back to a time just after the Big Bang some 13 billion years ago. It began sending home stunning images like this star-studded shot of peaks and valleys — actually the outer edge of an early star-forming region in the Carina Nebula, known as the Cosmic Cliffs. The tallest "peaks" in this image are about 7 light-years high.

On September 8, Britain's Queen Elizabeth II died at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, marking the end of an era. The 96-year-old had just celebrated her Platinum Jubilee after sitting on the throne for seven decades, longer than any king or queen before her. Her death triggered mourning worldwide, including at the Sydney Opera House in Australia, one of 15 countries where she was head of state.

Even as the FIFA World Cup got underway in late November, it was still unclear how many foreign workers lost their lives during the construction and refurbishment of eight stadiums for the world's premier football tournament. The choice to host the event in the Gulf state was divisive: it doesn't have free elections nor an independent media, homosexuality is illegal and women's rights are limited.

Since the Taliban took back power in August 2021, the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan has greatly deteriorated. More than half of the country's population no longer has enough to eat, like this woman begging with her child in the snow. The situation for women and girls is especially bad; they are discriminated against in all areas of life and can no longer attend schools and universities.

The pandemic continued to keep the world on edge in 2022. Though restrictions and protective measures were scaled back in many countries, the Chinese population continued to suffer under Beijing's rigorous zero-COVID strategy. Entire apartment blocks were sealed off, and infected people — even infants — were placed in quarantine camps. After massive protests, the government eased off in December.

In mid-November, the global population hit 8 billion for the first time. Most of those people — just under 60% — live in Asia, including this woman enjoying the Holi Festival of Colors in Ahmedabad, India, earlier this year. But population growth has been slowing around the world: women are having fewer children, and life expectancy has also fallen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.