A selection of powerful news photographs taken around the world this week.
It has been a very eventful week across the world, from the release of Donald Trump’s police mugshot after his arrest as he fights multiple criminal cases at the same time as running to regain the White House in next year’s election, to the passing of Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group that led a mutiny against Russia’s army, to the wildfires spreading across the continent, and in the same vein, the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg that brought the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates in one bloc.
These are our selection of striking news images recorded in various regions around the globe this week.
A volunteer carries an icon from a burning monastery as a wildfire spreads in Acharnes, north of Athens, on August 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)
A picture taken on August 22, 2023 shows lightning over Mecca’s clock tower in Saudi Arabia. – Fierce storms closed schools on August 23 the desert kingdom’s Mecca region, home to the holy Grand Mosque which was lashed by heavy rains and wind overnight, witnesses said. (Photo by Hammad Al-Huthali / AFP)
A woman wearing traditional Ukrainian clothes poses for photographs in front of a destroyed Russian armored military vehicle displayed in main street Khreshchatyk Street on Ukraines Independence Day in Kyiv, on August 24, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Roman Pilipey / AFP)
A member of private mercenary group Wagner pays tribute to Yevgeny Prigozhin (L) and Dmitry Utkin, a shadowy figure who managed Wagner’s operations and allegedly served in Russian military intelligence, at the makeshift memorial in front of the PMC Wagner office in Novosibirsk, on August 24, 2023. – Russian state-run news agencies on August 23, 2023 said that Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group that led a mutiny against Russia’s army in June, was on the list of passengers of a plane that crashed near the village of Kuzhenkino in the Tver region. (Photo by Vladimir NIKOLAYEV / AFP)
Delegates attend the plenary session as Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his remarks virtually during the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on August 23, 2023. (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA / POOL / AFP)
Former US president Donald Trump was photographed for a police mug shot after his arrest on August 24 at the Fulton County Jail in Georgia, multiple US media outlets reported citing local officials. (Photo by – / FULTON COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE / AFP)
Spain’s players and officials celebrate with the trophy after winning the Australia and New Zealand 2023 Women’s World Cup final football match between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney on August 20, 2023. (Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)
Niger’s Army sergeant and artist Maman Sani Maigochi performs as supporters of Niger’s National Concil of Sefeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) gather at Place de la Concertation in Niamey on August 20, 2023. (Photo by – / AFP)
Children gather to fill their containers amidst a shortage of water and soaring temperatures at a makeshift camp for people who fled fighting between Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government forces, in the village of Hays in Yemen’s western province of Hodeida, on August 22, 2023. (Photo by Khaled ziad / AFP)
A man walks past a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a railway station in Seoul on August 24, 2023. – North Korea’s latest attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit has ended in failure, state media said on August 24, just months after Pyongyang’s first launch crashed into the ocean shortly after blast off. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
A Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane drops water over a house during a wildfire spreading in Acharnes, north of Athens, on August 23, 2023. – Greek firefighters on August 23, 2023 struggled to contain uncontrolled fires throughout the country for a fifth day, several of them bordering an acrid, smoke-filled Athens. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)
The Panamanian government denied on August 22, 2023, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, who on the eve said that the Panama Canal was closed due to lack of water. “The Panama Canal keeps its operations and free transit open to facilitate mobility and world trade,” the Panamanian Ministry of the Presidency said in its account on the social network X (formerly Twitter). (Photo by Luis ACOSTA / AFP)
Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on August 24 despite angry opposition from China and local fishermen. (Photo by STR / JIJI PRESS / AFP)
A photo shows flames burning vegetation during a wildfire near Prodromos, 100km northeast from Athens, on August 21, 2023. (Photo by Spyros BAKALIS / AFP)
Tourists hold umbrellas as they visit the Taj Mahal amid heavy rainfall in Agra on August 22, 2023. (Photo by Pawan SHARMA / AFP)
A forest burns behind the Parthenon ancient temple on top of the Acropolis hill as wildfire rages on the outskirts of Athens on August 22, 2023. – Eighteen suspected migrants were found dead in a Greece forest fire near the Turkish border as scores of firefighters battled to contain the second deadly wave of blazes to hit the country in a month. (Photo by Aris MESSINIS / AFP)
Inmates remain in a cell at the Counter-Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT) mega-prison, where hundreds of members of the MS-13 and 18 Street gangs are being held, during a humanitarian visit organized by the presidential commissioner for human rights and freedom of expression, Colombian Andrés Guzman Caballero, in Tecoluca, 74 km southeast of San Salvador, on August 21, 2023. (Photo by Marvin RECINOS / AFP)
A man evacuates horses during a wildfire in Chasia in the outskirts of Athens on August 22, 2023. – Greece’s fire brigade on August 22, 2023 ordered the evacuation of a district on Athens’ northwestern flank as firefighters battled a steadily growing wave of wildfires around the country, the second in a month. Tens of thousands of people have been urged to leave the district of Ano Liosia, while at the neighbouring community of Fyli an AFP journalist saw homes on fire. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP)
Aerial view of the flooded city of Cabrero in Chile’s central Bio Bio Region on August 21, 2023, after heavy rains caused the Laja River to overflow. (Photo by Guillermo SALGADO / AFP)
This photo shows a damaged building of the Moscow International Business Center (Moskva City) following a drone attack in Moscow on August 23, 2023. – A Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow damaged a building in a central business district, authorities said on August 23, in the sixth straight night of aerial attacks on Russia’s capital region. (Photo by NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)
Children cool off as they run through a public fountain in Colmar, eastern France, on August 21, 2023, as France experiences a late summer heatwave. – In the “hottest” episode of summer 2023 in France Météo-France has warned of an “intense and lasting” heat wave with 50 out of 96 departments in mainland France placed on orange vigilance saying “we could reach temperature levels never before seen in France”. The highest temperature ever recorded in France is 46 degrees in Verargues, in Herault, on June 28, 2019. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)
People carry the coffin and portrait of six-year-old Sophia Holynska, who died in a Russian missile strike on a drama theatre, during a funeral at Trinity Monastery in Chernigiv, on August 22, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. – On August 19, 2023, a Russian attack struck the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, with the regional governor saying that seven people had been killed and 148 injured. (Photo by Roman Pilipey / AFP)
This photograph shows an aerial view of the flooded Chanda Singh Wala village in Kasur district on August 22, 2023. – Around 100,000 people have been evacuated from flooded villages in Pakistan’s Punjab province, an emergency services representative said on August 23. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
Empty highways are seen in West Kelowna, British Columbia, on August 20, 2023 as people are asked by authorities to stay off the roads as Creek fire continues to burn. – With its lakes, mountains and endless rows of pine trees covered in a thick haze, the Canadian town of West Kelowna was on edge August 20, 2023 as residents either evacuated or prepared to do so. (Photo by Darren HULL / AFP)
US President Joe Biden and US First Lady Jill Biden participate in a blessing ceremony with the Lahaina elders at Moku’ula following wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii on August 21, 2023. – The Bidens are expected to meet with first responders, survivors, and local officials following deadly wildfires in Maui. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
US President Joe Biden is embraced by Hawaii Governor Josh Green (C) after delivering remarks as he visits an area devastated by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii on August 21, 2023. – The Bidens are expected to meet with first responders, survivors, and local officials following deadly wildfires in Maui. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)
Passers-by walk past two people enjoying the sun in a long chair in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on August 21, 2023, as the red heatwave vigilance is activated in four departments, a sign of a “long-lasting” episode that is also affecting 49 departments in a large southern half, still under orange vigilance. – Tens of millions of people in France sweated through a late summer heatwave on August 21, 2023, with record temperatures expected in the wine-growing Rhone valley region and a forest fire also blazing in the southeast. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)
In this aerial picture taken on August 21, 2023 vehicles drive through floodwaters following heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hilary in Thousand Palms, California. – Tropical Storm Hilary drenched Southern California with record rainfall, shutting down schools, roads and businesses before edging in on Nevada on August 21, 2023. California Governor Gavin Newsom had declared a state of emergency over much of the typically dry area, where flash flood warnings remained in effect until this morning. (Photo by JOSH EDELSON / AFP)
