The week in pictures

 October 2 — A woman climbs a hill with a child to see the Cumbre Vieja volcano as it continues to erupt in Tacande de Arriba on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain.

October 2 — A lone person crosses a street in Melbourne, Australia. Lockdown restrictions remained in place across the city and Victoria state as new Covid-19 cases emerged. Melbourne is now in its sixth lockdown. 

October  3 — President Cyril Ramaphosa speaks to Nongethini Dobo, 84, in KwaLanga during his visit to Nelson Mandela Bay on Sunday to woo voters ahead of the November 1 election. He was accompanied by Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane.

October 3  — Hyundai’s Ott Tänak and co-driver Martin Jarveoja fly past spectators during the World Rally Championship in Laukaa, Finland. The high-flying former champions finished second overall.

October 4 —  DA leader John Steenhuisen and Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Nqaba Bhanga walk through Helenvale, Gqeberha, accompanied by a band on Monday as the party launches its election manifesto for the metro.

October 4 — A supporter of British army veteran Dennis Hutchings stands outside Laganside court where Hutchings’ hearing for the 1974 Northern Ireland Troubles-related death of John Pat Cunningham took place, in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

October 4 — Japan’s newly elected Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is applauded after being chosen as the new prime minister, at the National Diet in Tokyo, Japan.

October 5 — Numsa members walk from Nangoza Jebe Hall in New Brighton to the Gqeberha city hall to hand over a memorandum on Tuesday as SA’s biggest metalworkers’ union launched an indefinite strike in the metals and engineering sector.

October 5 — Facebook whistle-blower Frances Haugen attends a  Senate subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, the US. Haugen told Congress that the social media giant puts profit before health and that it misled the public and shareholders about the harmful effects of its platforms on children.

October 5 — Spanish professional basketball player Pau Gasol shares a joke with his daughter Elisabet as he faces the media during a press conference to announce his retirement from basketball, at El Liceu de Barcelona theatre in Barcelona, Spain.

October 6 — German scientist Benjamin List, who shares the 2021 Nobel prize in chemistry together with David MacMillan, celebrates with supporters at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

October 6 — A Thai pro-democracy protester drags an effigy symbolising those who were killed at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand, on the 45th anniversary of the crackdown.  Thai state forces killed at least 40 student activists and injured many others. 

October 6  — The Klangwelle, or dancing water fountains, during a rehearsal for a benefit show in Bonn, Germany.

October 6 — Members of a Chinese opera troupe wearing protective masks prepare for a performance at a shrine during the annual vegetarian festival in Bangkok, Thailand.

October 7 — Workers affiliated to Cosatu attend a national day of action march in Rustenburg. The trade union called on its members to participate in a nationwide strike against measures to freeze wages in the private and public sectors and also to draw attention to high levels of unemployment in the country.

October 6 — Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu celebrates his 90th birthday at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Thursday. President Cyril Ramaphosa paid tribute, saying Tutu had provided moral and ethical guidance to the nation.  

October 7 — A citizen get vaccinated at the Lahla Umlenze pop-up vaccination site in Nomzamo informal settlement in Soweto. The site is part of the Gauteng government’s drive to increase the number of people vaccinated against Covid-19. 

 October 7 — Fans celebrate outside the stadium after Newcastle United announced that a Saudi-Arabian backed consortium had completed its purchase of the Premier League club, at St James’ Park in Newcastle, Britain.