The week around the world in 20 pictures

Kramatorsk, Ukraine

Residents pass by the site of a Russian airstrike which destroyed a residential house in Kramatorsk. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged his allies to bring about ‘regime change’ in Russia. The Ukrainian president said he believed Russia could be ‘pushed’ to stop the war.

Photograph: Yevhen Titov/AP

Kyiv, Ukraine

A residential building heavily damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv. Russia launched one of its deadliest night assaults on Ukraine for months in the early hours of Tuesday, the day after Donald Trump said he was setting a new deadline of ‘10 or 12 days’ for Russia to make progress towards ending the war or face new sanctions.

Photograph: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

Pavlograd, Ukraine

Ukrainian servicemen of the 59th brigade mobile air defence unit fire a Soviet made ZU-23 anti-aircraft twin auto-cannon towards a Russian drone from a sunflower field, during an air attack near Pavlograd. Russia claimed on Thursday that it had captured the Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, a strategically important military hub in the eastern Donetsk region. President Zelenskyy called Moscow’s claim ‘Russian disinformation’, saying: ‘Ukrainian units are defending our positions.’

Photograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty Images

Bursa, Turkey

Firefighters and civilians battle a forest fire that broke out in the woodland area between the districts of Gursu and Kestel in Bursa. Thousands of people in Greece and Turkey have been forced to evacuate homes as firefighters in the countries battled to contain wildfires fanned by strong winds and searing heat.

Photograph: Sergen Sezgin/Anadolu/Getty Images

Kryoneri, Greece

Firefighters try to extinguish the fire of a burning house during a wildfire in Kryoneri, near Athens. As temperatures in south-eastern Europe exceeded 40ºC for a seventh straight day, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, praised rescue workers for waging ‘a titanic battle’ to bring blazes under control.

Photograph: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP/Getty Images

Israel

Israeli right-wing activists watch the northern Gaza Strip during a rally calling for the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. Aid workers this week said that Israel’s new measures for aid distribution – including daily humanitarian pauses, as well as airdropped aid and humanitarian corridors for UN aid trucks – fell far short of what was needed and access continues to be blocked amid the population’s spiralling famine.

Photograph: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

Photograph: Abdel Kareem Hana/AP

Gaza

Mourners carry the body of a Palestinian man who was killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel. More than 1,000 people have been shot, primarily by Israeli soldiers, while trying to get food from the private US Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and while waiting for aid trucks by border crossings.

Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP

Gaza

Internally displaced Palestinians carry bags of flour near a food distribution point in Zikim. As Gaza has slid into famine this summer, Israeli officials have variously denied the existence of mass starvation, claimed without evidence that Hamas steals and hoards aid, or blamed hunger on UN distribution failures, sharing pictures of aid pallets awaiting collection inside the border.

Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA

Silwad, West Bank

Palestinian children stand next to a burnt car after an attack by Israeli settlers in the village of Silwad near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Awdah Hathaleen, a Palestinian activist and journalist who helped make the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, was killed during an attack by Israeli settlers in the south Hebron hills, prompting a wave of condemnation of what was described as state impunity for Israeli settler violence.

Photograph: Ammar Awad/Reuters

Gravelines, France

A migrant tries to board a smuggler’s inflatable dinghy in an attempt to cross the Channel off the beach of Gravelines. Charities have warned of the increasing danger to asylum seekers posed by far-right protesters in England after small boat arrivals were moved from their usual landing place in Dover to further along the coast to avoid clashes.

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Cows stand in floodwaters at a farm in Buenos Aires province.

Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

Essaouira, Morocco

Goats climb and feed on an argan tree in Essaouira.

Photograph: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Cormet de Roseland, France

Cyclists speed around cows down the Cormet de Roseland pass during the 19th stage of the Tour de France which started in Albertville and finished in La Plagne.

Photograph: Mosa’ab Elshamy/AP

Paris, France

The peloton including Slovenia’s Tadej Pogacar, wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey, rides during the final stage of the Tour de France between Mantes-la-Ville and Paris.

Photograph: Thibault Camus/AP

Singapore

Cuba’s Jose Carlos Borges Sanchez and Talia de Jesus Joa Fernandez compete in the mixed duet free final during the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.

Photograph: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Basel, Switzerland

England’s Chloe Kelly celebrates after scoring during the penalty shootout at the end of the final against Spain at St Jakob-Park in Basel. Kelly wrote herself into the history books once again as she fired home the penalty to secure back-to-back titles for England, the Lionesses becoming the first England team to lift a trophy away from home.

Photograph: Florencia Tan Jun/UEFA/Getty Images

Tembisa, South Africa

Young ballet students Philasande Ngcobo and Yamihle Gwababa pose for a photograph outside the Mballet dance academy in Tembisa. The academy was created not just to teach ballet but to open doors in a community where resources are few and dreams often feel out of reach.

Photograph: Phill Magakoe/AFP/Getty Images

Ajmer, India

Participants perform a fire-breathing stunt as they take part in a religious procession during the Kanwar Yatra pilgrimage in the sacred month of Shravan.

Photograph: Himanshu Sharma/AFP/Getty Images

Aberdeen, Scotland

President Donald Trump, followed by a bagpiper band, raises his fist at the opening ceremony for his new golf course, near Aberdeen. With Trump’s use of his visit to Scotland to further his business interests already in the spotlight, Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney, faced significant criticism after announcing that his government was in talks to provide £180,000 of public funding for the Aberdeenshire resort as it hosts the 2025 Nexo championship on the DP World Tour next month.

Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP