2023 in pictures: A look back at the year’s biggest international news stories

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on May 5, that COVID-19 no longer represented a global health emergency.

“Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“I’ve accepted that advice. It’s therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency.”

The WHO does not declare the beginning or end of pandemics, although it did start using the term for COVID-19 in March 2020.

King Charles III is crowned