The Most Notable Photos From May 2016

The Sun rises between the ‘Meoto-Iwa’ or ‘Couple Rock,’ ahead of the Oshimenawahari ceremony at Futami Okitama Shrine in Ise, Japan. The Oshimenawahari ceremony is held three times a year to exchange the 35-meters-long heavy rope made of rice straw that connects the sacred Couple Rock. The Couple Rock serves as a gate to the Okitama Shrine, dedicated to the god Sarutahiko and goddess Ukanomitama from Japanese myth.

Students at Rutgers University attend the 250th anniversary commencement ceremony in New Brunswick, New Jersey. President Barack Obama was the first sitting president to speak at the school’s commencement.

A little child rides his toy bike towards Belgian prison officers demonstrating at the Saint-Gilles prison. Guards have been on strike for three weeks in a protest over pay cuts and working conditions in Brussels, Belgium.

Lightning is seen illuminating the night sky during a storm in Istanbul, Turkey.

Models pose against the backdrop of an old sandstone chapel during a fashion show on the waterfront of Sydney Harbor, during the Australian Fashion Week.

The Imam of al Thawrah Mosque in Cairo, Egypt, gives condolences to film director Osman Abu Laban, who lost four relatives in Thursday’s EgyptAir plane crash. The Airbus A320 plane was flying from Paris to Cairo when it disappeared early Thursday over the sea.

Volunteers of the Azov Civil Corps are shrouded in smoke from flares as they march in the center of Kiev, Ukraine, protesting against holding local elections in the occupied eastern territories of Ukraine. As part of an internationally brokered peace agreement, Ukraine must hold local elections in two eastern regions controlled by Russian-backed rebels, but there are major concerns about ensuring the vote takes place in a secure and safe atmosphere.

LED lights attached to pigeons leave light trails in the sky while they fly as part of the “Fly by Night” art installation by Duke Riley, above Brooklyn.

A pack of cyclists pedal onward during the eleventh stage of the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Italy cycling race, from Modena to Asolo.

Children with shaved heads look at rays at the Lotte World Aquarium in Seoul, South Korea. These 10 children chose to experience a monk’s life for two weeks as a part of program to celebrate Buddha’s upcoming 2,560th birthday on May 14.

Museum manager Jeff Bell places gender-neutral signs in the 21C Museum Hotel public restrooms in Durham, North Carolina. Debate over transgender bathroom access has spread nationwide as the U.S. Department of Justice countersues North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory for enforcing the provisions of House Bill 2 — a bill that dictates which bathrooms transgender individuals can use.

Russian soldiers march during the Victory Day parade at Red Square in Moscow marking the 71st anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

People walk past a mural on a restaurant wall in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius depicting U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing. Kestutis Girnius, associate professor of the Institute of International Relations and Political Science in Vilnius university, told AFP, “This graffiti expresses the fear of some Lithuanians that Donald Trump is likely to kowtow to Vladimir Putin and be indifferent to Lithuania’s security concerns.”

Turkish leftist demonstrators in Istanbul run with torches and EMEP flags during a demonstration on the anniversary of the execution of Deniz Gezmis (1947–1972), one of the founders of the People’s Liberation army of Turkey. Gezmis was sentenced to death and hanged in a Ankara jail on May 6, 1972.

Marine Staff Sgt. Clayton Walker surprises his daughter Cassidy after she sang the national anthem before the game between the Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies in Atlanta. Walker had returned home from an 11-month deployment overseas.

Forty-year-old Murat Sahin, who attempted to shoot prominent Turkish journalist Can Dundar, is caught by police outside a courthouse in Istanbul. Dundar, the editor-in-chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, was unharmed. Dundar is currently standing trial on espionage charges, accused of attempting to topple the government for publishing footage that purportedly shows Turkey’s state intelligence agency ferrying weapons into Syria in 2014.

A protester in a Guy Fawkes mask uses a water gun to spray the facade of the Public Revenue Office building with colored paint, during an anti-government protest in downtown Skopje, Macedonia. Protests have continued in the Balkan country almost every evening for nearly a month, after the country’s president pardoned dozens of politicians who were facing criminal proceedings for alleged involvement in a wiretapping scandal.

Refugees and migrants take part in a peaceful protest at a makeshift refugee camp in Idomeni, Greece. About 54,000 people are currently stranded in Greece, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europe.

A woman cradles her baby after her house was demolished by local authorities at a slum area in Chandigarh, India.

Activists clash with riot police near the U.S. embassy during a labor day rally in Manila, Philippines. Philippine presidential candidates have pledged to abolish the ‘End of Contract’ policy or contractual labor which is the process by which companies hire employees for less than six months to avoid being covered by the labor code requirement to regularize employment. At least 35 million workers out of 67.1 million are contractual workers according to government statistics.

A Kenya Wildlife Services ranger stands guard in front of illegal stockpiles of burning elephant tusks at the Nairobi National Park. Eleven giant pyres of tusks were set alight on Saturday as Kenya torched its vast ivory stockpile in a grand gesture aimed at shocking the world into stopping the slaughter of elephants. Lighting the fire in Nairobi’s national park, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta demanded a total ban on trade in ivory to end the “murderous” trafficking and prevent the extinction of elephants in the wild.

Christian Orthodox worshippers hold up candles lit from the “Holy Fire” as thousands gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City during the Orthodox Easter ceremonies. This ceremony has been celebrated in the same way for eleven centuries and is marked by the appearance of a “sacred fire” in the two cavities on either side of the Holy Sepulchre.

This digital composite image is a comparison between a London scene during the Blitz and present day at Pall Mall, to remember the 75th anniversary of the end of the Blitz in London. The Blitz aerial bombing offensive lasted for eight months during the early stages of the Second World War, including 57 consecutive nights of raids on the city of London. On the evening of May10th, 1941, the Luftwaffe mounted its last major bombing raid on London, bringing to an end a deadly campaign that killed over 20,000 people in the capital and left another 1.5 million Londoners homeless.