NY TIMES LOOKS BACK AT YEAR 2021...SOMEWHAT DARKLY

The 12 best New York Times photos of the year

On Jan. 6, rioters attacked police officers, ransacked offices and sent lawmakers fleeing:

Jason Andrew for The New York Times

In subsequent days, as the House impeached Donald Trump for inciting an insurrection, National Guard troops protected the Capitol:

Erin Schaff/The New York Times

Doug Mills/The New York Times

More people died of Covid-19 in 2021 than in 2020, both in the U.S. and worldwide. Here, Maritza Cruz comforted her mother, María, after Maritza’s father, Felipe, died in a Los Angeles County I.C.U.:

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times Magazine

The invention and production of a Covid vaccine happened more quickly than virtually any prior vaccine. Here, a nurse in Munich filled syringes before vaccinating hospital employees:

Laetitia Vancon for The New York Times

The global economy continues to be disrupted by the pandemic. In Tan-Awan — a Philippine fishing town that once lured visitors with the promise of encountering whale sharks — tourism has slowed sharply:

Hannah Reyes Morales for The New York Times

The chaotic American withdrawal from Afghanistan left thousands of people desperate to escape as Taliban fighters retook the country:

Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

Women mourned at sunrise in Surfside, Fla., a few days after a building collapse killed 98 people:

Scott McIntyre for The New York Times

Simone Biles had been favored, but Sunisa Lee, a Hmong American teenager from Minnesota, won the gymnastics all-around Olympic Gold Medal in Tokyo:

Doug Mills/The New York Times

Vilma Iris Peraza, 28, and her two children, Adriana, 5, and Erick, 2, were among the migrants from Honduras whom U.S. officers took back to Mexico in March:

Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Huge wildfires, aggravated by climate change, burned across the West this summer and fall. Here, a firefighter worked to save a home in Meyers, Calif., near Lake Tahoe:

Max Whittaker for The New York Times

And finally, Zaila Avant-garde, 14, won the Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling murraya (a genus of tropical trees):

Scott McIntyre for The New York Times