LUJAIN JO

Balloon sellers wait for customers near Al-Hamidiyeh Souq on New Years Eve, in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy)
A new year dawns on a Middle East torn by conflict and change
The streets were buzzing with excitement in Damascus as Syrians welcomed in a new year that seemed to many to bring a promise of a brighter future after the unexpected fall of Bashar Assad’s government weeks earlier.
 
Icons are seen inside St. George Melkite Catholic Church, that was destroyed by Israeli airstrike, in the town of Dardghaya in southern Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
In the ruins of a bombed-out church in Lebanon, there’s now a tiny Christmas tree
A Christmas tree stands among the fallen stones in the ruins of a Catholic church in southern Lebanon that was hit by an Israeli airstrike during the war with Hezbollah. It’s a small and modest tree.
 
Sierra Leonean migrant worker Isatta Bah, 24, smiles as she holds her daughter, Blessing, one year old, during an interview with The Associated Press while waiting to be repatriated back home, as they are sheltered at a former car dealership in Hazmieh, east of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Migrant workers in Lebanon are trying to return home after abuses and then war
Hundreds of migrant workers in Lebanon are waiting to be repatriated after the ceasefire ending the war between the Lebanon-based Hezbollah and Israel went into effect last month.
 
Displaced residents hug as they stand in front of the rubble of their destroyed house in Baalbek, eastern Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Family returns to their Lebanese city to find a crater where their 50-year-old home once stood
The Jawhari family gathered around a gaping crater where their family home once stood in eastern Lebanon, tears streaming as they tried to make sense of the destruction.
 
Lubnan Baalbaki speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at his house in Geitawi, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive
Lubnan Baalbaki, the conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched on his phone screen as the Israeli army destroyed his family home in southern Lebanon.
 
A Lebanese man points to the beach in Batroun, northern Lebanon, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, where Lebanese officials say a group of armed men landed on a coast north of Beirut and took away a ship captain and they're investigating whether Israel was involved. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Israeli forces capture senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon, Israeli military official says
An Israeli military official says Israeli naval forces have captured a senior Hezbollah operative in north Lebanon.
 
In this photo provided by Mashala Shelter, Hussein Hamza feeds dogs at his animal shelter in Kfour, south Lebanon in 2024. (Mashala Shelter via AP)
A man in south Lebanon cares for pets left behind as residents flee Israeli strikes
As Israeli airstrikes pummel southern Lebanon, most residents have fled their homes in fear. But Hussein Hamza is staying. His mission: to care for the animals left behind. He runs an animal shelter that houses 200 dogs in the village of Kfour.
 
Vivianne Robinson poses a photo, during 2024 Summer Olympics, in Paris, France, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. The Olympics superfan has attended seven Games over the span of 40 years. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Meet the Olympics superfan who spent her savings to get to her 7th Games
Covered with pins and adornments, Vivianne Robinson is hard to miss in the streets of Paris. The Olympics superfan has attended seven Summer Games over the span of 40 years. But this trip to Paris came at a hefty price.
 
Press agency photographer Christina Assi arrives for the Olympic torch relay at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Sunday, July 21, 2024, in Vincennes, outside Paris, France. Assi was struck by a tank shell on Oct. 13, 2023 while reporting clashes between the Israeli army and armed groups in southern Lebanon. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)
A Lebanese photojournalist, wounded in Israeli strike, carries Olympic torch to honor journalists
A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon has carried the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.
 
Lebanese security stand guard on a road that leads to the U.S. Embassy in Aukar, a northern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. A gunman was captured by Lebanese soldiers after attempting to attack the U.S. Embassy near Beirut on Wednesday, the military said. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Gunman captured after shootout outside US Embassy in Lebanon
The Lebanese military said that its solidiers shot and captured a gunman who attacked the U.S. embassy near Beirut after a shootout that injured an embassy security guard.
 
From left, Said Fadel, Samir al Borno, Abood Qassim, Rahaf Shamaly, Ahmed Haddad, Fares Anbar and Hamada Nasrallah of the Gaza Strip-based Sol Band pose for a photograph in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, May 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Palestinian band escapes horrors of war but members’ futures remain uncertain
They stroll Doha’s waterfront promenade and sing softly about children who are now free of pain. For the Palestinian group Sol Band, it seems surreal that weeks ago they were hiding from Israeli shelling.
 
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, of the Philippines, holds a sign reading "demilitarize for climate justice" at a demonstration at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Activists say their voices are stifled by increasing rules and restrictions at COP28 climate talks
This year’s United Nations climate talks may have seen record numbers registered to attend, but activists who have spent years demonstrating at the annual event say their space to voice their demands is shrinking year on year.
 
FILE - In this photo provided by Reuters, Issam Abdallah, a videographer for the news agency, poses for a selfie while working in Maras, Turkey, Feb. 11, 2023. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, a watchdog group advocating for press freedom said Sunday, Oct. 29, that the strikes that hit a group of journalists in southern Lebanon earlier this month, killing Abdallah, were targeted rather than accidental and that the journalists were clearly identified as press. (Issam Abdallah/Reuters via AP, File)
Watchdog group says attack that killed videographer ‘explicitly targeted’ Lebanon journalists
A watchdog group advocating for press freedom has said that the strikes that hit a group of journalists in southern Lebanon earlier this month, killing one, were targeted rather than accidental and that the journalists were clearly identified as press.
 
Family members embrace freed American Emad Shargi after he and four fellow detainees were released in a prisoner swap deal between U.S and Iran, as he arrives at Davison Army Airfield, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023 at Fort Belvoir, Va. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)
Americans released by Iran arrive home, tearfully embrace their loved ones and declare: ‘Freedom!’
The Americans released by Iran after being detained for years have arrived back home and declared, “Freedom!” The former prisoners posed for a group photograph with their families at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, early Tuesday.
 
Family members embrace freed American Emad Shargi after he and four fellow detainees were released in a prisoner swap deal between U.S and Iran, as he arrives at Davison Army Airfield, Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023 at Fort Belvoir, Va. (Jonathan Ernst/Pool via AP)
Americans released by Iran arrive home, tearfully embrace their loved ones and declare: ‘Freedom!’
The Americans released by Iran after being detained for years have arrived back home and declared, “Freedom!” The former prisoners posed for a group photograph with their families at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, early Tuesday.
 
From left, Morad Tahbaz, Siamak Namazi, and Emad Sharghi walk away arm in arm from a Qatar Airways flight that brought them out of Tehran and to Doha, Qatar, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. Five prisoners sought by the U.S. in a swap with Iran were freed Monday and headed home as part of a deal that saw nearly $6 billion in Iranian assets unfrozen. (AP Photo/Lujain Jo)
Five Americans detained in Iran walk free, released in deal for frozen Iranian assets
Americans held for years in Iranian custody walked arm-in-arm off a plane into freedom. Monday’s release was part of a painstakingly negotiated deal between the United States and Iran. The U.S.
 
Relatives of victims of the deadly 2020 Beirut port explosion react as they hold portraits of loved ones to mark the third anniversary of the massive blast, outside the port of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023. Hundreds of people marched in the Lebanese capital Friday to mark the 3rd anniversary of Beirut's deadly port blast with some calling on the international community to help in the investigation. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
3 years after Beirut port blast, intrigue foils an investigation and even the death toll is disputed
Three years after Beirut’s massive port explosion, attempts to prosecute those responsible are mired in political intrigue and the death toll remains disputed. Many Lebanese have less faith than ever in their disintegrating state institutions.
 
Cleaners line up in front of pilgrims after they cast stones at a pillar in the symbolic stoning of the devil, the last rite of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in Mina near the holly city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. It takes tens of thousands of cleaners, security personnel, medics and others to make the annual Hajj pilgrimage possible for 1.8 million faithful from around the world. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
This year’s Hajj was held in sweltering heat, and for those serving pilgrims there was little relief
Hundreds of thousands of Muslim pilgrims have walked in the footsteps of the prophets beneath a sweltering sun as contracted cleaners in lime-green jumpsuits held out matching plastic bags to collect their empty water bottles.
 
Pilgrims cast stones at a pillar in the symbolic stoning of the devil, the last rite of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in Mina near the holly city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, June 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
Muslim pilgrims take part in symbolic stoning of the devil as Hajj pilgrimage winds down
Muslim pilgrims are casting stones at pillars representing the devil during the final days of the annual Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.