Halloween, floods and fire: Photos of the week

2 November 2024

A selection of striking news photographs taken around the world this week.

US President Joe Biden, wearing a dark suit, leans down to playfully bite a baby's leg. The baby is dressed in a chicken costume and is being held by a woman with long brown hair wearing a maroon-coloured dress

Nathan Howard/REUTERS

US President Joe Biden playfully bites a baby during a trick-or-treaters celebration for Halloween at the White House in Washington DC.

Aerial images of a building which has the word Sedaví painted on the wall. To the right a street is piled full of cars and debris as three people look at the damage

David Ramos/Getty Images

Cars are piled high in the street, in the Sedaví area of Valencia. Torrential rains brought devastation to communities in eastern Spain as flash floods killed more than 200 people, swept away buildings and destroyed bridges.

A costumed woman wearing a mask performs a fire-dance. She is painted green and holds a metal metal frame of five flaming torches in each hand

Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Performers take part in a procession as part of the Samhuinn Fire Festival in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh. The festival is a modern take on an ancient Celtic festival, marking the transition between summer and winter, with fire-dancing, drumming, acrobatics and theatre performances.

A voter in a pink dress and straw hat casts her ballot as an electoral official sitting to the left and a Botswana Police officer in a yellow jacket uniform sitting on the right, look on. The voting box is on a small table in the centre of a tented polling station. October 30, 2024

Monirul BHUIYAN/AFP

A voter casts her ballot at a polling station in the Botswana capital Gaborone, during the country's general election.

Three children in red pinafore dress uniforms queue behind a child in a black and purple shawl as she receives an oral vaccination in Peshawar, Pakistan, 28 October 2024. An adult wearing a black dress and a yellow and white check shawl is putting the droplets into the child's mouth.

BILAWAL ARBAB/EPA

A child receives polio vaccine drops during a vaccination campaign in Peshawar, Pakistan. A nationwide anti-polio campaign aims to vaccinate 45 million children under five years old, across 71 districts.

A boy in a black t-shirt and white trousers and trainers, looks up and smiles. He is standing between the feet of a statue. The glass entrance doors of a building can be seen in the background

Esa Alexander/REUTERS

A boy plays at the feet of a statue of former President Nelson Mandela in Nelson Mandela Square, Sandton, Johannesburg.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Economic Secretary to the Treasury Tulip Siddiq, and Financial Secretary to the Treasury Spencer Livermore, pose for a photo as Reeves holds up her budget box outside number 11 Downing Street in London, Britain, 30 October 2024.

ANDY RAIN/EPA

Members of the Treasury stand alongside UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, as she holds up her Budget box in Downing Street. Reeves announced tax rises worth £40bn to fund the NHS and other public services, in Labour’s first Budget since 2010, after the party’s return to power in July’s general election.

Three swans are seen on a lake, one standing, two swimming. Mount Fuji is in the background. The sky is blue.

Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

Swans are seen in front of Japan's Mount Fuji on the beach of Lake Yamanakako. The mountain has yet to receive any snowfall this year, marking the latest date without snow since records began 130 years ago.

A person dressed as the Statue of Liberty pays for a hot dog at a hot dog cart. A man in glasses and a white t-shirt, holding a hot dog, stands to her right.

JUSTIN LANE/EPA

A woman dressed as the Statue of Liberty buys a hot dog near the 51st Annual Village Halloween Parade in New York. The annual parade passes through Greenwich Village, and claims to be the largest Halloween parade in the world.

An Ahmedabad night, firecrackers burst like stars, man and child look up

DIVYAKANT SOLANKI/EPA

People light firecrackers during the Diwali Festival in Ahmedabad, India. The Hindu festival of lights symbolises the victory of good over evil, and commemorates Lord Rama's return to his kingdom after completing a 14-year exile.

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