The week in photos: December 6-12, 2025

MANILA, Philippines – Tennis sensation Alex Eala and volleyball star Bryan Bagunas led their fellow Filipino athletes in the opening ceremony of the the 33rd edition of the Southeast Asian Games at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 9.

Close to 1,200 athletes make up the country’s biggest delegation ever for the biennial showpiece hosted by Thailand for the seventh time. The Philippines is aiming to improve on its 2023 medal haul, where it finished fifth overall and collected a total of 260 medals: 58 golds, 86 silvers, and 116 bronzes.

On December 10, a day after the formal opening, Cambodia pulled out of the SEA Games citing “safety reasons” following escalated border conflict with host Thailand. Fighting erupted between Thailand and Cambodia on December 8, the second major flare-up between them this year, derailing a fragile truce brokered in July by US President Donald Trump.

In other news, members of civil society groups and the church filed a plunder complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte with the Office of the Ombudsman on December 12. The groups hinged their complaint on Duterte’s alleged misuse of her confidential funds as vice president and when she was Department of Education secretary.

Catch more stories in these photos from the week that was:

A giant figure of the devil holding an effigy depicting the head of US President Donald Trump burns during the annual celebration of the ‘Burning of the Devil,’ a festival associated with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception that honors the city’s patron saint and marks the beginning of the Christmas season, in Colonia Arrivillaga, Guatemala City, Guatemala, on December 7, 2025. PHOTO BY CRISTINA CHIQUIN/REUTERS

Runners dressed as Santa Claus take part in the annual 5km Santa Dash in Liverpool, Britain, on December 7, 2025. PHOTO BY TEMILADE ADELAJA/REUTERS

A voter checks on the candidates at a polling station in Tai Po during the Legislative Council general election in Hong Kong on December 7, 2025. PHOTO BY LAM YIK/REUTERS

A photo of John Lennon lies on the Imagine mosaic on the 45th anniversary of Lennon’s death in the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park in New York City on December 8, 2025. PHOTO BY KYLIE COOPER/REUTERS

Pope Leo XIV arrives for the Immaculate Conception celebration prayer near the Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, on December 8, 2025. PHOTO BY GUGLIELMO MANGLAPANE/REUTERS

Greek farmers, protesting over the delayed payment of European Union subsidies, hurl stones amid tear gas at the Heraklion International Airport, in Heraklion, Crete island, Greece, on December 8, 2025. PHOTO BY STEFANOS RAPANIS/REUTERS

People walk along Postigo de San Martin street decorated with Christmas lights, inspired by the Netflix’s TV show ‘Stranger Things’ in Madrid, Spain, on December 8, 2025. PHOTO BY ANA BELTRAN/REUTERS

A flyboard performer during the Southeast Asian Games opening ceremony at Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand, on December 9, 2025. PHOTO BY PATIPAT JANTHONG/REUTERS

The Philippines’ contingent, led by flagbearers Bryan Bagunas, Alex Eala, and placard bearer Anntonia Porsild, during the 33rd Southeast Asian Games parade of nations at the opening ceremony at Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 9, 2025 PHOTO BY CHALINEE THIRASUPA/REUTERS

Colombian singer Shakira performs during her ‘Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour’ concert at Jose Amalfitani stadium, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 9, 2025. PHOTO BY AGUSTIN MARCARIAN/REUTERS

Fisherfolk calling for polluters to pay for damages filed a class action suit seeking to hold liable the shipowner, charterer, insurer, as well as intergovernmental organizations over the ‘environmental catastrophe brought by the Mindoro oil spill,’ at the Regional Trial Court in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro, on December 9, 2025. PHOTO BY CENTER FOR ENERGY, ECOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT

Activists pull an effigy depicting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as they march to protest near the presidential palace on Human Rights Day in Manila on December 10, 2025. PHOTO BY ELOISA LOPEZ/REUTERS

Wicha Chamdam, 53, stands inside his bedroom during an interview with Reuters at his damaged house amid deadly clashes between Thailand and Cambodia along a disputed border area in Sa Kaeo province, Thailand, on December 10, 2025. PHOTO BY ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA/REUTERS

Police officers burry a coffin of an unidentified victim of the recent flash floods and landslides, during a mass funeral in Padang, West Sumatra province, Indonesia, on December 10, 2025. PHOTO BY WILLY KURNIAWAN/REUTERS

The Colosseum is illuminated during a special light installation after Italy won a place on UNESCO’s cultural heritage list for its culinary traditions, in Rome, Italy, on December 10, 2025. PHOTO BY REMO CASILLI/REUTERS

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado reacts from a balcony of Grand Hotel after her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado, accepted the award on her behalf, in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2025. PHOTO BY LEONHARD FOEGER/REUTERS

Father Robert Reyes, former finance undersecretary Cielo Magno, and Father Flavie Villanueva lead the filing of a plunder complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte at the Office of the Ombudsman on December 12, 2025. PHOTO BY JIRE CARREON/RAPPLER

Aleah Finnegan of the Philippines is seen in action during the women’s apparatus balance beam finals, of the Southeast Asian Games, at Thammasat University Rangsit Campus, Pathum Thani, Thailand, on December 12, 2025. PHOTO BY PATIPAT JANTHONG/REUTERS

Members of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity hold the Oblation Run inside the University of the Philippines-Manila campus during the fraternity’s 100th anniversary on December 12, 2025. PHOTO BY RAPPLER

– with reports from Reuters/Rappler.com