Hopeful Images From 2024 (2025)

A young resident holds a rescued puffling before releasing it from a sea cliff in Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, on August 20, 2024. In August and September, an annual tradition brings entire families out to the streets and harbor of Vestmannaeyjar late at night, where they work to find and rescue misdirected young puffins, called pufflings. During their first flight, the pufflings can become confused in the darkness, flying from sea cliffs toward city lights rather than toward the moonlight, and ending up stranded on dangerous city streets. Once they are rescued, the pufflings are brought to either a beach or a cliff to be released into the sea. #

Micah Garen / Getty

Medalists from North Korea, China, and South Korea pose for a selfie during the medal ceremony after the Table Tennis Mixed Doubles Gold Medal match on day four of the 2024 Olympic Games at South Paris Arena. Team China won gold, North Korea took silver, and South Korea took the bronze medal. #

Yao Yingkang / Zhejiang Daily / VCG / Getty

Pensioners Ella and John from Parkdale Care Center enjoy a ride out with the Auchterarder Trishaw Project and their volunteers Gordon McLeay and Gail Robertson on October 2, 2024. The town of Auchterarder, Scotland, is helping its old and needy get out and about by cycling them around in "trishaw" bikes. Elderly residents are given day trips and fresh air in the pedaled three-wheelers with a front seated carriage. Volunteers take people from care homes for rides to tourist attractions and scenic spots as part of the group Cycling Without Age Scotland. #

Katielee Arrowsmith / SWNS / Reuters

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain holds a trophy as he celebrates with a group of ball kids after winning the Men's Singles Final match against Alexander Zverev of Germany on day 15 of the 2024 French Open, at Roland Garros, in Paris, France, on June 9, 2024. #

Clive Brunskill / Getty

A father plays with his child at sunset on Father's Day in Ankara, Turkey, on June 15, 2024. #

Ahmet Serdar Eser / Anadolu / Getty

Young people play in the waves at North Narrabeen on January 27, 2024, in Sydney, Australia. About 30 Indigenous children from Brewarrina, Weilmoringle, and Goodooga, in the far northwest of New South Wales, traveled to Sydney to participate in an event that is part of the Bush to Beach program, which gives Indigenous children the opportunity to learn and explore Sydney's beach culture. Bush to Beach is a charity dedicated to inspiring hope and promoting education for Aussie bush kids. This trip was a reward for school attendance and an opportunity for the kids to see that there is another world outside their community and help develop confidence and self-esteem, according to Bush to Beach co-founder Jack Cannons. #

Jenny Evans / Getty

Wendy Adriaens, the founder of De Passiehoeve, an animal-rescue farm where animals support people with autism, depression, anxiety, or drug problems, offers a hug to Blondie, a six-year-old female ostrich, in Kalmthout, Belgium, on March 8, 2024. #

Yves Herman / Reuters

Students play with colors ahead of the Holi festival outside Mata Sundri College in New Delhi, India, on March 21, 2024. #

Raj K Raj / Hindustan Times / Getty

A couple share a kiss in a nook of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, on March 29, 2024. #

Sean Gallup / Getty

A man embraces a horse at Oleksandr and Hanna Nikolenko's Rai ("Heaven") stable, which provides a psychological rehabilitation program for members of the military in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. #

Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy / Ukrinform / Future Publishing / Getty

A member of the Grupa Magnifica acrobatics club leaps for a photo on the beach at sunset in the town of Łeba, Poland, on August 6, 2024. #

Sergei Gapon / AFP / Getty

An Iberian lynx runs after being released in the Sierra de Arana mountain range, 40 kilometers from Granada, in Iznalloz, Spain, on February 20, 2024. Five Iberian lynx were released in a mountainous area of the Andalusian province of Granada as part of the LIFE LynxConnect project to repopulate this native species. #

Jorge Guerrero / AFP / Getty

Thousands of volunteers carry brooms and shovels, preparing to help clean areas affected by the floods of October 29 in Valencia, Spain. Towns such as Massanassa, Alfafar, and Benetusser welcomed the help of many volunteers to clear mud and debris from streets and homes, trying to return to normal as soon as possible, on November 2, 2024. #

Albert Llop / Reuters

Volunteers work to clear debris from a flood-affected street in Valencia on November 2, 2024. #

Albert Llop / Reuters

Children sled down a snow-covered slope on the Faraşin Plateau in Şırnak, Turkey on July 10, 2024. During the summer holidays, people play on the plateau where, in places, thick patches of snow can remain even into July. #

Bestami Bodruk / Anadolu / Getty

Turkish cousins Ramazan, Ahmet Çelik, and Yunus Feyzullah Bozdemir pose in a car with their farm animals in Kütahya, Turkey, on November 7, 2024. After graduating from university, Ramazan and Ahmet returned to their village during the COVID-19 pandemic and decided to pursue farming, considering it their ancestral profession. Through social-media posts, they also work to encourage other young people to embrace rural life. #

Sebnem Coskun / Anadolu / Getty

Volunteers with Better Beaches OBX place recycled Christmas trees on dunes to re-nourish the beach in Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, North Carolina, on January 23, 2024. The group works to maintain the Outer Banks beaches through dune stabilization and beach nourishment. Placing the Christmas Trees on the dunes reduces the number of trees going to the county landfill and helps reinforce the dunes. It takes 3 to 6 months for the trees to naturally bury themselves as sand blows down the shore. #

Allison Joyce / Anadolu / Getty

Revelers play with water during Songkran in Bangkok, Thailand, on April 14, 2024. #

Chalinee Thirasupa / Reuters

A couple kiss as they pose in front of an autumn yellow ginkgo tree, estimated to be 800 to 1,000 years old, in Bangye-ri, Wonju, South Korea, on November 12, 2024. #

Anthony Wallace / AFP / Getty

Dogs play in Central Park during the first snowfall in more than 700 days in Manhattan, New York City, on January 16, 2024. #

Andrew Kelly / Reuters

Musicians play as bathers run into (and out of) the chilly waters of English Bay while celebrating New Year's Day with a Polar Bear Swim in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on January 1, 2024. #

Chris Helgren / Reuters

Volunteers gather in a parking lot to help build beds for Sleep in Heavenly Peace, in Pace, Florida, on December 7, 2024. Sleep in Heavenly Peace is a national nonprofit organization that builds and delivers beds to needy children. #

John Blackie / Pensacola News Journal / USA Today Network / Reuters

Seven-year-old Naomi Fife holds kittens named Charizard, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Clover, in Louisville, Kentucky. Naomi has been awarded PETA Kids' Hero to Animals Award for taking care of shelter and foster animals. Naomi herself has spent time in the foster-care system and was adopted in 2020. She's volunteered at a local animal shelter since she was 3 and helped her family provide foster care to more than 70 kittens. #

Michael Clevenger / Courier-Journal / USA Today Network / Reuters

A woman swings on Venao Beach in Pedasi, Panama, on July 13, 2024. #

Matias Delacroix / AP