A selection of striking news photographs taken around the world this week.
JEROME BROUILLET/AFP
Brazil’s Gabriel Medina emerges triumphantly from a huge barrel wave in the men’s surfing round three, during the Paris Olympic Games, in Teahupo’o, on the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti. He received a record-breaking 9.9 single-wave score.
Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
An election supervisor calls for the National Guard to allow access to a polling station in Caracas. The US secretary of state said there was “overwhelming evidence” that Venezuela’s opposition won the presidential election. The electoral council, which is government-controlled, said President Maduro won the election, for a third term.
Jane Barlow/PA Media
A piper plays the Highland Rave during a preview of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.
Xue Jinlong/VCG/Getty Images
Villagers harvest water chestnuts in Huaian, in the Chinese province of Jiangsu.
Getty Images
Riot police hold back protesters near a burning police vehicle after disorder broke out in Southport, northern England. False rumours about the identity of the 17-year-old suspect in a deadly stabbing attack in the town sparked a violent protest.
Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS
A woman reacts as it rains during the funeral procession of assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, Iran.
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Three Americans who were freed in a prisoner swap with Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, have arrived back in the US. After touching down at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, Mr Gershkovich, Alsu Kurmasheva and Paul Whelan emerged to cheers from those on the tarmac.
ANDY RAIN/EPA
Former BBC news presenter Huw Edwards leaves Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London after pleading guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.
PHILIP FONG/AFP
Visitors walk in the sunflower fields at Kasai Rinkai Park in Tokyo. Japan’s weather agency says the country had its hottest July since records began 126 years ago.
SYLVAIN THOMAS/AFP
A white rhinoceros calf and its mother Nola at Lunaret Zoo in Montpellier, France. The calf, an endangered species, is the first of its kind born at the zoo.
JEROME BROUILLET/AFP
Gaby Oraa/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jane Barlow/PA Media
Xue Jinlong/VCG/Getty Images
Getty Images
Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ANDY RAIN/EPA
PHILIP FONG/AFP
SYLVAIN THOMAS/AFP