A young girl makes a face to entertain herself as she waits onstage with her parents for President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to speak at an event in support of Joining Forces at Fort Liberty in Fayetteville, N.C. on Friday, June 9, 2023. Families were ushered onstage hours before the start of the event, leaving ample time to wait.
Crowds enjoy a fireworks show in honor of America's 250th Anniversary from Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday, July 4, 2026.
Morning commuters ride replacement shuttle buses in Hicksville, N.Y. on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 amid ongoing strikes on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR). Workers are calling on the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) to increase wages.
Jacob, 5, gives his sister Gianna, 2, a kiss on the cheek while she naps on the couch on Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026 in Hicksville, N.Y. Jacob and Gianna lived without their mother, Stephanie, and older sister Ariana, 14, for more than a month after the two were detained in December 2025 and held at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. Stephanie and Arianna returned home this week, but their asylum case is still pending, and Stephanie must now wear an ankle monitor as part of ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP).
Sharron Bouqin places a bouquet of flowers on her grandparents' gravestone at Merry Oaks Cemetery in Chatham County, N.C. on Nov. 29, 2022. Sharron is the third generation of her family to call Merry Oaks home, a place she's seen gradually lost to the perils of urban economic development. The cemetery and baptist church she's attended since childhood are the last pillars left, but those too are slated to soon be demolished to make way for a new car manufacturing site.
Betty Connors, my grandmother, types on an old typewriter at her home in Raleigh, N.C. on April 21, 2022. Connors is gradually packing up her things — many of which she plans to give away — in preparation for a move to a retirement home.
Cindy West Rigsbee, left, and her daughter, Beth, right, share a moment together before bed on July 26, 2023. They’ve shared a bedroom for more than a decade. Cindy has served as Beth's primary caregiver for her entire life, ever since she was diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. Now, after Cindy received a stage four pancreatic cancer diagnosis, she worries what Beth's life will look like after she's gone.
A classroom at a school in San Juan, Puerto Rico stands abandoned in spring of 2023. More than half of Puerto Rico's public schools have closed their doors in the last 10 years. Government officials have justified the "consolidations," saying hurricane damage from Hurricane Maria and declining student enrollment necesitated them. In the years since, some schools have found new life as community centers, while others have been leased or sold. The majority of buildings, however, are slowly decomposing, left the same way they were on the last day of school, down to the date still written on the chalkboard.
A cowboy swings his lasso as he tries to rope a calf at the Silk Hope Pro Rodeo in Silk Hope, N.C. on June 24, 2023.
Wild parrots roost in the trees above Ina Coolbrith Park in San Francisco, Calif. on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 9, 2025. Mickaboo, a local parrot rescue organization, has gone to great lengths to save San Francisco’s wild parrots that have been poisoned by bromethalin. While some praise Mickaboo’s efforts, others question whether Mickaboo has gone too far.
Spain fans celebrate their World Cup win at a watch party in Central Park, New York on July 19, 2026.
Joey Chestnut, Major League Eating's top-ranked eater in the world, speaks with the media ahead of the 2026 Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July hot dog eating contest in Coney Island, Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday, July 4, 2026.