Volunteers ran Sompasauna — a free public sauna in Helsinki’s Kalasatama neighbourhood — for a decade. When construction projects forced them out in 2021, the sauna community held a last session at the old site during midsummer, then rebuilt the sauna in Verkkosaari. On the sauna’s final day a naked bather played a farewell tune.

A person wearing a green dress and barefoot is about to kick a soccer ball on a dry grassy field. In the background, there are mountains and a group of people.

A women’s football group in Marakwet, Kenya, meets weekly to practise and hopes to face a women’s team from neighbouring West Pokot. These communities have a history of conflict over grazing land and cattle raiding. In Kenya’s North Rift region, sports tournaments are used deliberately to bridge divides and build trust among groups that have fought each other. Sports Photo of the Year 2024

In near-zero visibility, goalkeeper Anna Koivunen plays from midfield during a fogbound match at Myyrmäki football stadium, Helsinki, 30 October 2020. HJK were beaten 3–0 by Tikkurilan Palloseura as TiPS went top of the National League.

Two police officers are arresting a woman on a city street during sunset. The woman is on her knees and being held by her arms by the officers. There are police vehicles parked on the road and people standing and walking in the background.

On 20 June 2021, Extinction Rebellion activists blocked Mannerheimintie outside Finland’s parliament to demand stronger climate action. When protesters returned to the main street, police removed and detained about 117 people. News Photo of the Year 2021

A person dressed in dark clothing and a face mask climbing a street sign pole at night, holding onto a sign that reads 'TÖÖLÖ' with a parking symbol, with a dark sky and raindrops or snowflakes falling.

A demonstrator climbs a street sign in Töölö during the Helsinki Without Nazis counter-demonstration on Finland’s Independence Day. The protest confronts a torch-lit far-right procession setting off from Töölöntori market square. Independence Day parades in Töölö have become an annual flashpoint between far‑​right and anti‑​fascist groups.

Person standing in the rain at night, illuminated by blue and red lights, with visible water droplets and vehicles in the background.

A participant leads chants through a megaphone and dances at the same Helsinki without Nazis rally. Finnish media estimated that 700 people joined the far‑​right 612 march, while 2 000–​3 000 people attended the counter‑demonstration.

People gathered in a backyard on a sunny day, with some sitting around a table and others standing. A man is adjusting a large grey umbrella while others look on. In the background, children are playing with a soccer ball near trees and a construction crane is visible in the sky.

Liisa Joustie celebrates her birthday at Vallila’s allotment garden in Helsinki during a heatwave on 4 July 2021. A sudden gust of wind nearly blew over the parasol. The summer of 2021 was Finland’s hottest in over 80 years.

The photograph depicts a cityscape at dusk or dawn with a building emitting black smoke from its roof. Green neon letters spell 'SOK' on the roof, and there is a smaller sign that reads 'S-Pankki'. A crane is spraying water or foam on the building, possibly from a fire truck. Streetlights illuminate the scene, and a few people are visible near an ATM or kiosk at the bottom left.

Firefighters aim hoses at the attic of the Meira coffee roastery in Helsinki on 20 December 2021. A fire broke out in the top floor and required hours to extinguish because the wooden roof structure was hard to access.

ARE YOU BORED YET

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ARE YOU BORED YET 〰️

Silhouetted people talking in a restaurant or banquet room with a large window, tables set with glasses, cutlery, and colorful folded napkins.

Festival staff prepare for the Midnight Sun Film Festival’s opening dinner in Sodankylä, Finland. The reception brings together municipal officials, visiting filmmakers and guests before the first screenings begin in the municipality of around 8,000 residents.

Person falling on the large blue inflatable surface of a bouncy house or trampoline at an outdoor event, with chairs and tables in the background.

Workers prepare the main screening tent for the Midnight Sun Film Festival the day before the programme begins.

Habiibo Iidow Kerow weaves branches into the frame of a buush, a dome-shaped shelter made from scavenged wood and covered with cloth and plastic in Baidoa, Somalia. Baidoa is home to more than 650,000 internally displaced people living across more than 600 camps, driven from their homes by drought, floods and conflict.

A newborn baby wearing a pink hat is being cradled and fed by an adult, with the adult's hand supporting the baby's head.

Xabiibo Osman Ali, 19, holds baby Falhado inside her family’s shelter at an internally displaced people’s camp in Baidoa. The newborn was found abandoned at the camp gate and brought to Ali. ‘I promised to take care of her.’

Two people walking towards a small illuminated shop at night with dark surroundings.

On 22 January 2023, a generator-powered kiosk in central Kyiv waits for customers. Repeated Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have forced residents and businesses to rely on diesel generators, with electricity available only for a few hours each day.

A woman sitting at a desk in a dimly lit room, studying with a phone and notebook, with a bright lamp, a potted plant, and a window showing a cityscape at dusk.

Fifteen-year-old Karina Bykova, residing in a high-rise in Chernihiv, Northern Ukraine, faces daily power outages, leading to darkness and cold at home, with the water supply often cut off. ‘After school, I have about three hours to do my homework before it gets dark, and then I just sleep.’

Oleksander Grianyk, principal of Kharkiv School Number 62, stands in the damaged lobby, recounting the night of April 8, 2022, when the school in Piatyhatky was heavily bombed.

Four children playing jump rope outdoors on a paved surface, with one girl jumping and others standing around, in a concrete area with a building and a tent in the background.

Children play skipping rope in the courtyard of a school in Aleppo, Syria. After the February 2023 earthquake, the school was turned into emergency accommodation for families who had lost their homes. In Aleppo alone, more than 72,000 families were left without housing.

A photograph of Bashar al-Assad hangs in front of a window of a school in rural Raqqa. In areas under government control in Syria, it's inescapable to encounter images of the autocratic leader.

ENOUGH ALREADY

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ENOUGH ALREADY 〰️

A man wearing a leather jacket, plaid shirt, jeans, and hiking boots lying on a bed in a small room with a TV, remote, and colorful blankets.

Finnish MP Teuvo Hakkarainen lies on the bed of his apartment in Helsinki on 1 September 2018. Hakkarainen’s housing arrangements made national headlines after it emerged that his Helsinki apartment was formally registered as a sauna. Finnish MPs receive varying expense compensation based on their primary residence and whether they maintain a second home in the Helsinki metropolitan area. News Photo of the Year 2018