Recovery from Hurricane Harvey in Texas, the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, the World Bog Snorkeling Championships in Wales, devastating floods in Pakistan, pangolin smuggling in Thailand, wildflowers in bloom across the Atacama Desert in Chile, and much more.
Photos of the Week: 8/26–9/1
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Afghan policemen try to rescue four-year-old Ali Ahmad at the site of a suicide attack followed by a clash between Afghan forces and ISIS gunmen at a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 25, 2017. The boy survived, and is now back with his family, but still suffers nightmares, his father said. Ali Ahmad was with his grandfather in the Imam Zaman mosque on Friday when at least two attackers in police uniforms stormed in, one exploding a suicide-bomb vest and the other firing indiscriminately at the hundreds of worshipers inside. His grandfather was among at least 20 killed. Sayed Bashir, Ali's father, was nearby but not in the mosque when the initial blast was heard and immediately ran to check on his family. "Right after the explosion I thought everything was finished," he said. "I called my father's mobile phone number and my son answered and said: 'They killed grandpa.' He wanted me to bring the car and get him. We were running everywhere in search of my son but the police were stopping us and didn't let us get too close." Bashir called the number again and was speaking to Ali when another explosion went off. "I lost hope. I said to myself that everything was finished. I tried the number again but it was switched off." In fact, Ali had run behind the mosque, disregarding the policeman frantically signalling to him in the courtyard. #
Omar Sobhani / Reuters -
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People catch a ride on a construction vehicle down a flooded street as they evacuate their homes after the area was inundated with flooding from Hurricane Harvey on August 28, 2017, in Houston, Texas. #
Joe Raedle / Getty -
A Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarian and security personnel back away from a tranquilized black rhino calf on August 30, 2017, after she appeared to prematurely overcome the sedative at the Nairobi National Park, during an identification-tagging exercise to ease the quick identification of resident rhinos during anti-poaching patrols. #
Tony Karumba / AFP / Getty -
An aerial view shows buses parked close together after dropping Muslim pilgrims off near Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma (Mount of Mercy), southeast of the Saudi holy city of Mecca, on Arafat Day, which is the climax of the Hajj pilgrimage, on August 31, 2017. #
Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty -
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Allie Chastka, a reenactor, poses for a portrait while covering her face with a black veil after the unveiling of a Confederate monument called "Unknown Alabama Confederate Soldiers" in the Confederate Veterans Memorial Park in Brantley, Alabama, on August 27, 2017. #
Brynn Anderson / AP -
A desert iguana rests near Amboy Crater at Mojave Trails National Monument on August 27, 2017, near Essex, California. The 1.6 million-acre monument was designated by President Barack Obama in February of 2016 and is one of six national monuments in California, out of a total of 27, that the Trump administration is considering for reduction or elimination. Mojave Trails is the result of the donations of more than 200,000 private acres to the federal government for conservation in perpetuity, the largest such land gift in U.S. history, and includes more than 350,000 acres of previously congressionally-designated wilderness. It includes desert mountains, sand dunes, volcanoes and lava flows, the longest remaining undeveloped stretch of Route 66, Native American trade routes, and World War II-era training camps. #
David McNew / Getty -
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A ram stands in an enclosure at the animal market in Brnica, Kosovo, on September 1, 2017. Muslims worldwide are celebrating Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of the Sacrifice, which commemorates the biblical story of Abraham and his readiness to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God, by sacrificial killing of sheep, goats, cows, or camels. #
Visar Kryeziu / AP -
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SPLA-IO (SPLA-In Opposition) rebels fire weapons during an assault on government SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) soldiers in the town of Kaya, South Sudan, on the border with Uganda, on August 26, 2017. #
Goran Tomasevic / Reuters -
A Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) aerobatic team performs at the ARMY 2017 International Military-Technical Forum at the Kubinka airbase outside Moscow, Russia, on August 27, 2017. #
Andrey Volkov / Reuters -
Lightning strikes off the coast of Montevideo, Uruguay, late on August 28, 2017. Following days of heavy rains, flooding in Uruguay has forced almost 900 people to flee their homes, authorities said on Monday. #
Mariana Suarez / AFP / Getty -
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Flowers bloom at the Huasco region of the Atacama desert, 600 km north of Santiago, Chile, on August 26, 2017. In years of very heavy seasonal rains, a natural phenomenon known as the Desert in Bloom occurs, allowing the seeds of some 200 desert plants to germinate suddenly about two months after the precipitation. #
Martin Bernetti / AFP / Getty -
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A photographer is attacked by masked demonstrators in Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park during a cancelled No Marxism in America rally and counter-protest in Berkeley, California, on August 27, 2017. #
Stephen Lam / Reuters -
A Thai customs official displays one of 136 pangolins and 992 lbs (450 kg) of pangolin scales it seized, estimated to be worth over 2.5 million baht (USD $75,278), during a press conference at the Customs Department headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, on August 31, 2017. Officials had received a tip-off that there would be an attempt to smuggle pangolins from Malaysia. #
Sakchai Lalit / AP -
Smoke and flames rise during clashes between joint forces of Iraqi army and Shi'ite Popular Mobilization Forces fighting Islamic State militants in Tal Afar, Iraq, on August 26, 2017. #
Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters -
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A discarded helicopter hanging on a wire is used for training Ukrainian servicemen at the Yavoriv training center on August 29, 2017, in Starychi, Ukraine. The center, located near the Polish border in western Ukraine, is the largest in Europe. #
Pierre Crom / Getty -
African migrants stand on the deck of the Aquarius vessel of "SOS Mediterranee" and MSF (Doctors Without Borders) NGOs, in the Mediterranean Sea, southwest of Malta, on August 31, 2017. 265 people rescued from the sea during previous days were being transferred to Italy. #
Darko Bandic / AP -
A protester is detained by two German police officers after he and others tried to reach a rail track in order to block it, in the Rhineland mines region west of Cologne on August 26, 2017, near the German village of Rath. The track serves as a main route for trains carrying coal to the power plants. Protesters seeking to bring attention to the impact of coal on climate change converged on the region for two days of disruptive disobedience. #
Omer Messinger / Getty -
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Bombs dropped by U.S. Air Force B-1B bombers, F-35 stealth fighter jets, and South Korean F-15 fighter jets hit a simulated target as they fly above South Korea, on August 31, 2017. The United States flew some of its most advanced warplanes in bombing drills with ally South Korea on Thursday, a clear warning after North Korea launched a midrange ballistic missile designed to carry nuclear bombs over Japan earlier this week, South Korea's military said. #
South Korea Defense Ministry via AP -
Female panda Huan Huan holds her cub inside her enclosure at the Beauval Zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, France, on August 28, 2017. Nine-year-old Huan Huan gave birth to twins on August 4, 2017, but one died soon afterwards. Breeding pandas is notoriously difficult and this is the first time a cub has been born in France. #
Guillaume Souvant / AFP / Getty -
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Pakistani commuters travel on a flooded street following heavy rainfall in Karachi, Pakistan, on August 31, 2017. Monsoon rains in Pakistan's port city of Karachi left at least eight people dead in flood-related mishaps, officials said Thursday. The destruction came on the heels of days-long downpours in neighboring India that especially caused havoc in Mumbai. #
Shakil Adil / AP -
People stand around the world's highest sand castle before a judge from Guinness World Records confirmed the new record height of 16.68 meters, in Duisburg, Germany, on September 1, 2017. #
Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters -
A man carries Buthaina Muhammad Mansour, believed to be four or five years old, rescued from the site of a Saudi-led airstrike that killed eight of her family members in Sanaa, Yemen, on August 25, 2017. #
Khaled Abdullah / Reuters -
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Competitors swim during the World Bog Snorkeling Championships 2017 on August 27, 2017, in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales. The competition draws competitors from all over the world and is now in its 32nd year. #
Matthew Horwood / Getty -
An aerial view shows thousands of Muslim pilgrims gathering on Mount Arafat, also known as Jabal al-Rahma (Mount of Mercy), southeast of the Saudi holy city of Mecca, on Arafat Day, which is the climax of the Hajj pilgrimage, on August 31, 2017. #
Karim Sahib / AFP / Getty -
Debris and flood-damaged possessions are left on the curb as people begin the process of cleaning up the damage to their property after torrential rains caused widespread flooding during Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey on September 1, 2017, in Houston, Texas. #
Scott Olson / Getty -
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A mountain sheep stands on rocks above the Chamonix valley in the famous "Couloir du Goûter", known as the best way to climb atop the Mont-Blanc peak, on August 27, 2017, near Saint-Gervais, France. #
Philippe Desmazes / AFP / Getty
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