The week in pictures

May 8 — A man cycles past election posters on Sunday in Quezon City, on the eve of the vote for a new president in the Philippines. The run-up has been the most divisive presidential election in decades, with the prospect of a once unthinkable return to rule of the Marcos family.

May 8 — US First Lady Jill Biden greets Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, outside a public school in Uzhhorod. Biden travelled to Ukraine in an unannounced trip after visiting refugees in Romania and Slovakia in the latest show of support from the US.

May 8 — Buddhists gather under colourful lanterns as they celebrate the Buddha’s birthday at Jogyesa temple in Seoul, South Korea.

May 9 — Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a portrait of his father, war veteran Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin, as he takes part in the Immortal Regiment march on Victory Day, which marks the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2, in Moscow, Russia.

May 9 — A man watches a drone video of an attack on a Russian tank, at an exhibition of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, in the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv.

May 9 — People find shelter from shelling in a metro station, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.

May 10 — A worker plays badminton with a colleague next to closed shops in the nearly empty shopping area of the usually bustling Taikoo Li mall after many retail stores were closed to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 in Beijing, China. 

May 11 — Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos junior, son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, greets his supporters in Manila, the Philippines. Marcos cemented his family’s return to power by winning the presidential election, more than three decades after his father was ousted from power. He is expected to be sworn in on June 30.  

May 11 — Spot and his handler Rethabile Leetlala from Dwyka mining services at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The Boston Dynamics Spot Enterprise robot was showcased for the first time in SA for the African Mining Indaba 2022. 

May 11 — A boy rides a bicycle near the shell of a residential building in Mariupol on Wednesday. The city has been besieged by Russian troops and Ukraine has proposed that badly injured defenders in the Azovstal plant be swapped for Russian prisoners of war.

May 11 — National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) members protest at ArcelorMittal SA premises in Pretoria. The labour court granted the company an interim order prohibiting workers from striking for above-inflation wages this week.

May 11 — A man cools off under a water pipe on a hot summer day in New Delhi, India. Some parts of India have seen their highest average temperatures for March and April since the country began keeping records 122 years ago. 

May 12 — Migrants wait to disembark from a Spanish coast guard vessel, at the port of Arguineguin, in the island of Gran Canaria, Spain.

May 12 — Dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the Southeast Asian Games in My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi, Vietnam.

May 12 — People gather at the main bus station to catch a bus before curfew starts, after clashes in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed Ranil Wickremesinghe as new prime minister as he tried to defuse protests over his handling of a severe economic crisis 

May 12 — Rescue workers are seen at the site where an Airbus A319 plane of Tibet Airlines caught fire after an aborted take-off, at Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing, China.

May 12 — Astronomers of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, who produced the first image of a black hole, on Thursday revealed a new view of the massive object at the centre of the Messier 87 galaxy. The observations are key to explaining how the galaxy, located 55-million light years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core.