Photography

Lt. Col. Manuel E. Lichtenstein interacts with children in southern Italy, 1945.

American World War II doctor in Italy captures scenes of wartime beyond the front lines 

History

Lt. Col. Manuel E. Lichtenstein was a doctor in southern Italy during World War II. He met with top generals and won prestigious awards. Stories about his three harrowing years there were passed down in his family. But an old box of photos he took — of simple moments with everyday people — reveal a different view of life during wartime, away from the front lines.

Cartagena's historical center is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and contains some of the best preserved examples of 18th century military architecture in the Caribbean. The city's walls were built with slave labor.

Where The World has been in 2021 — the year in pictures

Photography
Newly trained female officers from the Afghan National Army sit in front seats as a new batch of officers attend their graduation ceremony at National Army's training center in Kabul on Sept. 23, 2010. 

Two decades of war and daily life in Afghanistan

Afghanistan
A crowd of survivors are shown standing and sitting on a bridge with several damaged buildings in the distance.

The only known photos from Hiroshima taken on Aug. 6, 1945

Photography
Several people on motorbikes and wearing helmets are shown riding in front of an ambulance.

PHOTOS: Bikers clear Indonesian streets for ambulances

Seeing The News
A boat with its sails up is shown at the horizon line during golden hour as a large orange moon is shown behind it.

Earth’s shadow creeps across moon ahead of super blood moon

Environment

Wednesday night offers a rare cosmic event known as a super blood moon.

Humpback whales undergo one of the longest migrations of any mammal on Earth — over 6,000 miles.

A NatGeo documentary reveals ‘Secrets of the Whales’

National Geographic has released “Secrets of the Whales,” a video documentary miniseries that seeks to unravel the secrets of whale behavior and understand whale cultures of orcas, humpbacks, narwhals, belugas and sperm whales.

In this Jan. 29, 2011 file photo, anti-government protesters gather in Tahrir Square, Cairo, Egypt.

Photos: Arab uprisings began with quest for freedom and led to repression, wars

Photography

What started as a series of idealistic revolutions turned into dashed dreams of democracy and revival of authoritarian governance. The decade since has seen yet more instability and violence. 

Pilgrims are shown from above around the cube-like Kaaba in Mecca walking on specified lines and carrying colored umbrellas.

PHOTOS: Very different, symbolic hajj in Saudi Arabia amid the coronavirus

Religion

Muslim pilgrims, donning face masks and moving in small groups after days in isolation, began arriving at Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Wednesday for the start of a historically unique and scaled-down hajj experience reshaped by the coronavirus pandemic.

Abandoned snow-covered buildings

‘I am a hostage of the north’: Trapped in a post-Gulag Arctic city

Development

Many Russians in the far north have been waiting for more than two decades to be resettled in lower latitudes. They are caught between Moscow’s grand plans for Arctic development and an exodus of aging Soviet workers longing to see flowers rather than blizzards in the springtime.