The week around the world in 20 pictures

Staff escape through windows after a Russian jet-powered drone hit the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/ReutersFri 2 Oct 2026 13.03 EDTLast modified on Fri 2 Oct 2026 13.24 EDTTel Aviv, IsraelPassengers, who experienced an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia after an attempted attack on a flydubai plane, arrive at Ben Gurion airport. Capt Smit Machchhar, the Indian pilot who helped thwart the apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, said his faith and his desire to save his passengers allowed him to make a ‘last push’ to open the cockpit door as he fought for his lifePhotograph: Ariel Schalit/APJabaliya, GazaPalestinian children play football in a refugee camp amid the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. More than 2.1 million displaced people are living in tents and temporary shelters in Gaza, where about 82% of structures – roughly 200,000 buildings – have been damaged, with about two-thirds of those destroyed, according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UnrwaPhotograph: Mahmoud Abu Hamda/Anadolu/Getty ImagesJenin, West BankChildren play on heavy machinery parked along the roadside as Israelis march between the settlements of Ganim and Kadim on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. More than 60 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have been wiped off the map since October 2023 and 18 others have been partly displaced, according to the Israeli rights group B’Tselem. Nearly 5,000 people have been forced from their homes, almost half of them childrenPhotograph: Ilia Yefimovich/AFP/Getty ImagesMansouri, LebanonThe town of Mansouri, which sits in the Israeli-occupied buffer zone of southern Lebanon, is bombarded as the Israeli military said it was carrying out an operation to destroy alleged Hezbollah infrastructure such as tunnelsPhotograph: Adri Salido/Getty ImagesParis, FranceA police officer stands next to the burned entrance of Roger Verlomme secondary school following a blockade by protesting students in Paris. The French government is struggling to deal with its worst crisis in months after it was taken by surprise by the thousands of teenagers demonstrating outside schools across the country this weekPhotograph: Thomas Samson/AFP/Getty ImagesParis, FranceFrench gendarmes run amid clashes with high-school students near the Lycée Berthelot high school in Aubervilliers. Many school students protesting have accused the state of disengaging from secondary education, describing difficult conditions in classrooms with ceilings partially collapsing during class, leaks, cockroaches and buildings in disrepairPhotograph: Sarah Meyssonnier/ReutersKyiv, UkraineEmergency workers carry away a casualty from a building of the National Academy of Sciences hit by a Russian jet-powered drone. Anatoliy Zagorodny, the president of the national academy, said the blast struck while many staff members were inside. He said he did not know why Russia had targeted a leading centre of scientific research. ‘We are not connected with the military. This is an attack on science. It is terrorism,’ he saidPhotograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/ReutersKyiv, UkraineStaff escape through windows after a Russian jet-powered drone hit a building of the National Academy of Sciences. Flames tore through the historic building as people clambered out of first- and second-floor windows to escape, in dramatic scenes increasingly familiar in the heavily bombarded cityPhotograph: Gleb Garanich/ReutersKharkiv, UkraineA rescue dog searches a multistorey residential building hit by a Russian airstrike. Russia has signalled that its attacks on Ukraine could intensify, and US-brokered efforts to end the war show little sign of progressPhotograph: Sergey Kozlov/EPASofiivska Borshchahivka, UkraineOne man comforts another near the body of an acquaintance killed in a Russian drone strike on a wholesale food market. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, called on western countries to intensify their pressure on Russia. ‘Every Russian terrorist attack is a loss of life that could have been prevented if pressure on Russia had finally become total,’ he wrote on X this week. ‘The world must understand that terrorists will go further if they are not stopped here, in Ukraine. And we cannot turn a blind eye to such brutal strikes’Photograph: Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty ImagesBangkok, ThailandResidents wade through flood water on Phetchaburi Road. The city was hit by 300mm (12in) of rain at the weekend and all 50 of its districts were declared disaster zonesPhotograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPABangkok, ThailandPeople carry water bottles through flood waters in BangkokPhotograph: Patipat Janthong/ReutersPuerto San Carlos, MexicoA man crosses a flooded street after Hurricane Polo, the second-most intense Pacific hurricane on record. It brought high winds and heavy rains and resulted in seven deathsPhotograph: Eduardo Verdugo/APTehran, IranMissiles, air defence systems and unmanned aerial vehicles are displayed at Baharestan Square for Iran’s ‘sacred defence week’. The US military is dispatching a third aircraft carrier strike group to the Middle East, as Donald Trump warned new strikes against Iran could be on the horizonPhotograph: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty ImagesDelhi, IndiaExiled Tibetans shout slogans from a police vehicle after being detained during a protest outside the Chinese embassy on China’s National DayPhotograph: Manish Swarup/APGravelines, FranceA police officer patrols the beach at Petit-Fort-Philippe looking for migrants trying to cross the Channel. A Paris court this week jailed six ⁠men for manslaughter over the deaths of at least 27 people in the worst mass drowning on record from a small-boat crossing in the ChannelPhotograph: Hannah McKay/ReutersPortadown, Northern IrelandPeople gather at Garvaghy Road, a Catholic enclave in the largely Protestant town of Portadown, on the day members of the Orange Order were expected to march through the area for the Drumcree parade. Talks aimed at resolving the Drumcree parade dispute have broken up without agreement, with the Northern Ireland secretary, Chris Bryant, describing the situation as being between a ‘rock and a hard place’Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/ReutersTexas, USA SpaceX Starship takes off from its launch pad at Boca Chica Beach. SpaceX sent its enormous Starship rocket into Earth’s orbit for the first time on a milestone flight intended to pave the way for future missions to the moon and MarsPhotograph: Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesSicily, ItalyVisitors climb Mount Etna as smoke rises from its volcanic cone near Catania. Its eruption on Saturday sent ash plumes 14,000ft into the skyPhotograph: Roman Pilipey/AFP/Getty ImagesGalápagos, EcuadorA whale shark swims near Roca Redonda, a small islet north of Isabela Island in the Galápagos archipelago. It was spotted on a field expedition mounted by the Charles Darwin FoundationPhotograph: Carlos Espinosa/AFP/Getty Images