Through the lens: The Citizen’s Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
We bring you a visual snapshot of the day’s news events, featuring a fire at a tyre business during an anti-illegal immigration protest in Durban, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate illuminated in the colours of the Israeli flag to mark the third anniversary of the October 7 attacks, Proteas cricketer Wiaan Mulder during a training session in Durban, and skulls crafted using traditional papier-mâché techniques at a market in Mexico City. These are some of the compelling images from South Africa and around the world.
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Members of the public and South African Police Service (SAPS) try to extinguish a fire after a tyre business owned by foreigner nationals was set alight during an anti-illegal immigration demonstration held near the Department of Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre along Che Guevara Road in Durban, on October 8, 2026. The group is calling for tougher action against illegal immigration and the deportation of undocumented foreign nationals. The protest in Durban comes amid months of demonstrations against irregular migration where tens of thousands have fled the country. (Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL / AFP)
DA mayoral candidates Cilliers Brink, Helen Zille and Khathutshelo Rasilingwane and community members march to Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre in Pretoria, 7 October 2026, to demand decisive action against gender-based violence in South Africa. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen
A protester with a Palestinian flag stands in front of a banner with the names of children that has been killed in Gaza during a demonstration outside the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre on October 07, 2026 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The demonstration was organized by South African Jews for a Free Palestine (SAJFP) to protest against the institution for what the group states is a failure to acknowledge genocide against Palestinians and apply its principles consistently to all victims. (Photo by Gallo Images/Alet Pretorius).
Orthodox Jews, members of an organization that opposes the State of Israel, join pro Palestine demonstrators for an anti-Israel protest in New York, on October 7, 2026. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)
People gather for a vigil in the Puerta del Sol after learning that Maricarmen Abascal, the 87-year-old pensioner whose eviction triggered nationwide protests over Spain’s chronic housing crisis and a political debate that culminated in early elections, had died in hospital in Madrid on October 7, 2026. Abascal became a symbol of Spain’s housing market on September 23 when she was evicted from her life-long Madrid home on a stretcher after the real estate firm that owned the apartment drastically hiked the rent. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)
The Rietvlei Dam and Water Treatment Plant are seen 8 October 2026, during a site visit by the Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Jack Bloom. The visit highlighted how pollution upstream affects the water available to communities downstream. The facility has been unable to operate for the past year due to poor water quality arriving to the dam. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen
Wiaan Mulder during the South African men’s national team training session at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead Stadium on October 8, 2026 in Durban, South Africa. (Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Fans of South Korean K-pop group BTS queue ahead of a concert at San Marcos Stadium in Lima on October 7, 2026. (Photo by Connie FRANCE / AFP)
Protesters set fire to makeshift Israeli flags during a pro-Palestinian demonstration organised by the “Moroccan Front for Support of Palestine and Against Normalisation with Israel” outside Morocco’s parliament headquarters in Rabat on October 7, 2026, on the third anniversary of Hamas’ 2023 attacks against Israel known as “Operation Aqsa Flood”. (Photo by Abdel Majid BZIOUAT / AFP)
Skulls made using a traditional papier-mache technique are seen at the Jamaica Market in Mexico City on October 7, 2026. (Photo by Alfredo ESTRELLA / AFP)
Police personnel try to stop supporters of India’s Congress party during a protest in Srinagar on October 8, 2026 against the country’s Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, calling for his resignation over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. (Photo by Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP)
Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the Israeli flag
in Berlin on October 7, 2026, the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. (Photo by Tobias SCHWARZ / AFP)
TOPSHOT – This photograph shows a view of the ancient Roman aqueduct bridge “Pont du Gard”, in Vers-Pont-du-Gard, southern France on October 7, 2026. (Photo by Gabriel BOUYS / AFP)
A protester throws back a tear gas canister fired by police during a demonstration of high-school students in Bordeaux, on October 8, 2026, as part of a nationwide protest movement over learning conditions. Since late September, pupils have barred the entrances to hundreds of schools, complaining of teacher absences, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings ill-adapted to rising temperatures, among other grievances. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)
A pedestrian leashes a dog whose coat has been dyed using multiple colours on a street corner in central Paris on October 8, 2026. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP)
Supporters react as US President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas, on October 7, 2026. Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton is in a close race with Democratic candidate James Talarico for one of Texas’ US Senate seats. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Demonstrators take part in a march in support of the Palestinian people, life and dignity in Bogota on October 7, 2026. (Photo by Raul ARBOLEDA / AFP)
Visitors take photos in a field of pink muhly grass during the peak blooming period at a scenic area in Fuyang, in China’s eastern Anhui province on October 7, 2026. (Photo by CN-STR / AFP)
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