Our world in photos: May 22
Brooklyn Eagle Staff
May 22, 2025
ROME — Thoughts about the Conclave abound in every corner — even in a parking garage where the fingers of Adam and God are about to have a spark plug connection: A reproduction of Michelangelo’s painting “The Creation of Adam” can be seen in a parking garage on May 6, 2025.
The Conclave to elect a new pope begins on April 7 at the Vatican, the ecclesiastical city-state within Italy’s capital city. It is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. Rome time (10:30 a.m. Eastern Time) with a solemn Eucharistic celebration featuring the votive Mass pro eligendo Romano Pontifice (Mass for the election of the Roman Pontiff).
SAN FRANCISCO — An impending renovation? Will it be a new prison, or will it be Mar-a-Lago West? People take photos of Alcatraz Island from a ferry on May 5, 2025. President Trump announced plans to reopen the island prison, which has been shut down since March 1963. However, many say this would be a costly endeavor; MSNBC called the plan “cruel and reactionary.”
Originally a fortress during the 19th century, Alcatraz is a 22-acre island in the San Francisco Bay that was originally determined to be unfit as a federal penitentiary.
SUDAN — Here’s what happens when groups opposing a government have access to arms: Smoke billows after drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) targeted the northern port in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan, May 6, 2025. U.S. aid and diplomatic support for Sudan continues, even as the rebellious RSF wages war. Most of the RSF’s soldiers are Janjaweed militias which previously fought on behalf of the Sudanese government.
During Biblical times, Sudan was known as the Land of Cush (a Hebrew word). Cushites were the people who occupied this region that stretched from southern Egypt to Ethiopia.
BERLIN — Peaceful, deferential transition is possible when politicians know how to behave: Leader of the Christian Democrats Friedrich Merz is congratulated by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz after being elected new chancellor at the German federal parliament, Bundestag, at the Reichstag building in Germany on May 6, 2025.
Merz became the first postwar candidate in Germany to fail a win on the first ballot. The Conservative leader’s landmark loss during the first round of voting threatened the pledge of stability that he had pledged in forming the new government.
DUMBO — A piece of Brooklyn history: The late Jane Walentas leads restored carousel ponies to their famous waterside home under the Brooklyn Bridge tower, aided by her son Jed. Years later, on May 6, 2025, the street in front of the carousel was renamed Jane Walentas Way to honor her enduring legacy to the community.
City Councilmember Lincoln Restler said, “Jane Walentas’ restoration of Jane’s Carousel stands as one of Brooklyn’s most cherished landmarks,” speaking of her “lasting legacy as an artist and community builder.”
MOSCOW — ‘Until the real soldiers get here from Ukraine …,’ actual parade is May 9: Moscow students dressed in the fashion of the middle of the last century and Soviet-style uniform perform “Victory Waltz” as a part of Victory Day celebration in front of a model of the main Soviet order, the Order of Victory at the historical gate of VDNKh, The Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy in Russia, May 6, 2025.
The Order of Victory, which is the highest and most expensive medal of honor in Russia, was bestowed on American General Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 5, 1945, “for extraordinary successes in conducting large-scope military operations that resulted in the victory of the United Nations over Hitler’s Germany.” Eisenhower was later elected the 34th President in 1952.
FIFTH AVENUE, MANHATTAN — Only a few miles from Brooklyn: Jamie Singer Soros, who grew up in Brooklyn Heights and attended St. Ann’s, shown here with her husband, Robert Soros, attending The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating the opening of the “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibition in New York, on May 5, 2025.
The couple, whose wedding was the result of some creative reinvention during the pandemic, got married at the Glass House in Connecticut in October 2020.
NEW DELHI — ‘This is diplomacy, man, just wait, wait, wait …’: Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, second left, with three Indian defense chiefs, Army General Upendra Dwivedi, third right; Naval Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi, second right; Air Force Air Chief Marshal A P Singh, right; and Indian Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan, left, wait for the arrival of Japan’s Defense Minister General Nakatani in India, May 5, 2025.
The two leaders agreed to work toward establishing a consultation body between their respective defense authorities. Japan’s Nakatani said that “given our shared principles of pursuing a peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific based on the rule of law, it is increasingly important for both countries to cooperate and strengthen their coordination.”
