Week in Pictures
The Week in Pictures: July 21 - 28
Santas gather in Copenhagan, wildfires rage in Portugal, divers fly high and more of the week's best pictures.
Mail Rail train driver Penelope Veck drives through the underground eastbound Mount Pleasant Sorting Office station on July 28 in London. The Postal Museum is now open to the public and features artifacts from 500 years of postal history. Mail Rail, which opens September 4, is a 1 kilometer long section of the underground railway network, which was built to transport letters and parcels between 1927 and 2003.
A supporter of Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faints after the Supreme Court's decision to disqualify Sharif in Lahore, Pakistan on July 28.
Pakistan's prime minister stepped down on Friday, hours after the country's Supreme Court disqualified him from office in dramatic developments that have plunged the nuclear-armed nation into another major crisis. The court panel, in a unanimous decision, said Sharif was disqualified for not remaining "truthful and honest" in the face of the evidence against him.
The landmark ruling threw Pakistan, which is battling a stubborn militancy, into political disarray and triggered questions over who will succeed Sharif as prime minister — and even questions on who is leading the country at the moment.
Palestinian Muslims bow in prayer inside the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in the old city of Jerusalem on July 27. Palestinians ended a boycott and entered the sensitive Jerusalem holy site, which includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, for the first time in two weeks after Israel removed controversial security measures there, potentially ending a crisis that sparked deadly unrest.
White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his attorney Abbe Lowell arrive on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 25 to meet behind closed doors before the House Intelligence Committee on the investigation into possible collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.
An anti-government activist prepares to throw a Molotov cocktail at members of the National Guard during a 48-hour general strike called by the opposition in Caracas, Venezuela on July 26. Venezuelans began blocking off deserted streets Wednesday as the opposition launched a 48-hour general strike aimed at thwarting embattled President Nicolas Maduro's controversial plans to rewrite the country's constitution.
People buy food and other staple goods inside a supermarket in Caracas, Venezuela on July 25.
PHOTOS:In Venezuela, Upheaval Shows No Signs of Slowing Down
Firefighters work to put out a forest fire next to the village of Macao, near Castelo Branco, Portugal on July 26.
More than 2,300 firefighters with more than 700 vehicles are battling 13 blazes. The flames are being driven by powerful winds across steep hillsides of dense pine and eucalyptus forest, generating huge clouds of smoke, therefore making visibility too poor to use water-dropping aircraft.
The worst-hit areas are in the center of Portugal, 125 miles northeast of Lisbon. Portugal's peak fire season, which usually occurs after July 1, began early this year amid a severe drought. Last month, 64 people died in a wildfire.
People gather to watch as the Hoa Binh hydroelectric power plant releases water after heavy rainfall caused by tropical storm Talas in Hoa Binh province, about 70 kilometers from Hanoi, Vietnam on July 22.
The Hoa Binh hydroelectric power plant has opened flood gates for five days, in order to balance the stream flow and protect local reservoirs, as well as downstream rivers. This is the first time in the past 21 years that the Hoa Binh hydroelectric power plant had to open 3 out of 5 flood gates, as the dam water levels were over five meters above the limit, according to media reports.
Tourists evacuate the beach as smoke fills the sky above a burning hillside in Bormes-les-Mimosas, France on July 26.
PHOTOS: Tourist Flee the Beach as Fires Rage in French Riviera
Workers watch as molten steel is transferred from a furnace during production at the Chollima Steel Complex, southwest of Pyongyang, North Korea on July 22.
The Chollima Steel Complex has around 8,000 staff and is one of the biggest in North Korea, operating in a sector vital to the economy of the isolated, sanctions-hit country. The steel plant was first built in 1939 when Korea was a Japanese colony and authorities concentrated industrial development in the northern part of the country, regarding the south as an agricultural breadbasket.
Chaewoon Kim of South Korea competes during the Rhythmic Gymnastics Women's Individual Hoop Qualification of The World Games at Centennial Hall on July 21 in Wroclaw, Poland.
