Photos of the Week: Screeching Championship, Direct Democracy, Victory Plunge
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Carl Court / Getty
A competitor poses for photographers near the finish line of the Maldon Mud Race on April 26, 2026, in Maldon, England. More than 350 runners took part in the annual race, tackling the mud of the Blackwater Estuary over a 400-yard (366-meter) course. Many competitors run in costume, and aim to raise as much money as possible for charity.
Ted Shaffrey / AP
A giant statue of Nipper the dog, a trademark symbol long used by the electronics and communications company RCA, sits atop a building in the warehouse district of Albany, New York, on April 21, 2026.
Lisi Niesner / Reuters
Robotic dogs with silicone heads modeled after Kim Jong Un and Jeff Bezos, move about in the interactive art installation “Beeple. Regular Animals” by the artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann), at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany, on April 30, 2026.
Jakub Porzycki / Jakub Porzycki / Reuters
A curious kitten checks out the photographer in Marrakesh, Morocco, on April 25, 2026.
Petr David Josek / AP
Corgis compete during the Czech Corgi Run in Prague, Czech Republic, on April 25, 2026.
Sarah Stier / Getty
Nelly Korda and her caddie Jason McDede jump into Poppie'’s Pond after winning the Chevron Championship 2026 at Memorial Park Golf Course on April 26, 2026, in Houston, Texas.
Hussein Faleh / AFP / Getty
An aerial photograph of a local fishing boat in the Iraqi Hawizeh Marsh in Maysan province, southern Iraq, after water returned due to rainfall following a long period of drought, on April 26, 2026.
Ahn Young-joon / AP
A worker adjusts lanterns for an upcoming celebration of Buddha’s birthday at Jogye temple in Seoul, South Korea, on April 24, 2026.
Toby Shepheard / AFP / Getty
Runners pass by the first mile marker in the 2026 London Marathon in London, England, on April 26, 2026.
Devi Rahman / AFP / Getty
This aerial photograph shows colorful houses in Butuh village, popularly known as Nepal Van Java, or Nepal of Java, for its resemblance to hillside villages in Nepal, on the slopes of Mount Sumbing in Magelang, Central Java, on April 27, 2026.
David Gray / AFP / Getty
A sailboat passes a rainbow in front of North Head on Sydney Harbour on April 24, 2026.
Hussein Faleh / AFP / Getty
An Basra Oil Company employee inspects the Nahr Bin Umar Oil and Gas Field on the outskirts of the southern Iraqi city of Basra on April 29, 2026.
Bram Van De Biezen / ANP / AFP / Getty
A wildfire rages on a military training ground near ‘t Harde, Netherlands, on April 29, 2026.
Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters
A plane flies as lightning flashes in the night sky during a thunderstorm above Lalitpur, Nepal, on April 24, 2026.
Emrah Gurel / AP
The full moon sets behind Beyazit Tower in Istanbul, Turkey, on April 30, 2026.
Dan Kitwood / Getty
An inflatable boat carrying migrants crosses the English Channel after leaving northern France on April 27, 2026, near Dover, England.
Odd Andersen / AFP / Getty
Andrea Bunar, a Deutsche Post delivery staff member, maneuvers her vessel as she makes the season-opening delivery tour of the Spreewald barge postal-delivery service on April 29, 2026. Mail delivery by barge has a 129-year-old tradition in Germany’s Spreewald region. Every week, hundreds of letters and parcels are delivered along the river; many of the 65 households in Lehde do not have a direct road connection.
Alper Tuydes / Anadolu / Getty
A heron flies near Gölyazı village on the shores of Lake Uluabat, which has risen due to heavy rainfall during the winter months in the Nilüfer district of Bursa, Turkey, on April 23, 2026.
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty
Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney (left) poses with highland cow Cairistiona at High Airyolland, as he campaigns ahead of the Holyrood Election on April 30, 2026, in Newton Stewart, Scotland.
Yves Herman / Reuters
A competitor takes part in the sixth edition of the European seagull screeching championship, in which contestants compete either solo or as part of a group and are judged by a jury for vocal skills and performance, in De Panne, Belgium, on April 26, 2026.
Charlie Riedel / AP
Kyle Isbel, with the Kansas City Royals, is tagged out by the Los Angeles Angels shortstop Zach Neto after getting caught off-base during the seventh inning of a game in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 25, 2026.
Charles McQuillan / Getty
Elizabeth Campbell is photographed wearing a homemade space suit beside a lunar module created by the artist Deby McKnight on April 27, 2026, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. McKnight has transformed her home in east Belfast into a lunar-landing site, inviting 100 women to re-create the historic moonwalk to address the historical lack of female astronauts on the moon. Participants in the art project, including 90-year-old Betty Campbell, wear custom-made space suits and step off a DIY lunar lander onto a genuine piece of lunar meteorite.
Josep Lago / AFP / Getty
The researcher Akshayakumar Kompa holds a new plastic-like biomaterial derived from shrimp shells, created at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia in Barcelona, on April 24, 2026. Researchers say that this new material, developed from shrimp shells and reinforced with nickel, mimics the functional properties of plastic while offering high resistance to water, and that it is possibly part of a new era of biological materials capable of replacing single-use plastics with natural, sustainable alternatives.
George Chan / Getty
A person holds a sign reading “Thank you” during the Anzac Day parade in Sydney, Australia, on April 25, 2026. Anzac Day is a national holiday in Australia, traditionally marked by a dawn service held during the time of the original Gallipoli landing in 1915, and commemorated with ceremonies and parades throughout the day.
Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty
Citizens vote by raising their hands during the Landsgemeinde, a traditional public, non-secret ballot conducted by majority rule, in Appenzell, Switzerland, on April 26, 2026. The open-air gathering, held annually, allows eligible citizens to decide cantonal laws and policies directly, preserving one of Switzerland’s oldest forms of direct democracy.
Hassan Ammar / AP
Sidra Mohamad Saadeh, age 13, who was displaced following Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, plays with a dog named Rocky in a public space along the Beirut waterfront at sunset in Lebanon, on April 29, 2026.
Wakil Kohsar / AFP / Getty
A parkour athlete performs a stunt off the back of a vehicle in the sandy mountainside at the Sayad area of Reg-e-Rawan in Kapisa province, Afghanistan, on April 24, 2026. Hundreds of visitors travel each weekend to Reg-e-Rawan—“the moving sands” in Dari—to practice parkour or tumble down the steep sand slopes.
Michael Probst / AP
People ride their bikes through rapeseed fields on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, on April 30, 2026.