By Washington Post Staff | Aug 12, 2022
A record amount of rain fell over South Korea, including in the capital, Seoul, inundating city streets; electoral commission officials count votes at a polling station during Kenya’s general election; President Biden signs the Chips and Science Act, one of the federal government’s largest industrial development programs; visitors pass by the site of a lightning strike on a tree in Washington, D.C.’s Lafayette Square that killed three people. See 12 of the week’s most interesting images from around the world, as selected by Washington Post photo editors.
People gather on the Moyka River for the annual costumed "Fontanka" stand-up paddleboard festival. (Dmitri Lovetsky/AP)
A bridge is submerged by torrential rain from the previous day near the Han River.
Migrants swim near their overturned wooden boat during a rescue operation by the Spanish nongovernmental organization Open Arms on the Mediterranean Sea. Dozens of migrants from Eritrea and Sudan were rescued. (Francisco Seco/AP)
Mayflies swarm by a boat on the Danube River after sunset. The insects disappeared from the big rivers of central Europe due to water pollution over the past 40 years, but they started to return around 2012 as a result of better water quality.
Ferenc Isza/AFP/Getty Images
Ferenc Isza/AFP/Getty Images
A supermoon, also known as the sturgeon moon, rises behind Coit Tower as seen from Sausalito, Calif.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle/AP
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle/AP
Electoral commission officials count votes inside the Mathare Social Hall polling station after the closing of the polls during the country's general election.
Senators and other supporters applaud as President Biden signs the Chips and Science Act into law on the South Lawn of the White House. The legislation provides $52 billion in subsidies to the semiconductor industry, kicking off what will be one of the largest industrial development programs the federal government has ever administered. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
An Asian elephant cools off at a zoo on World Elephant Day.
Aug. 9 | Notre Dame de la Garenne, France
Veterinarians examine an ailing beluga whale that was stranded in the River Seine. Despite a massive operation to return the whale to the sea, the local prefecture announced Aug. 10 that the beluga had died.
Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images
Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images
The shadow of a hot-air balloon moves over fields during the mass launch at the annual Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. (Toby Melville/Reuters)
A lightning bolt lands just behind farm buildings at dusk. (Michael S. Williamson/Washington Post)
Visitors pass by a makeshift shrine at the site of a lightning strike in Lafayette Square on Aug. 4 that killed three of four people huddled together under a tree. The blast killed a retired couple from Wisconsin and a bank official from California. A woman raising money for refugees was badly wounded but survived. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)
A little bike ride, a volcanic eruption in Iceland and more of the week’s best photos
In photos and videos: Seoul’s dramatic scenes of floods
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Photo editing by Troy Witcher, Dee Swann, Stephen Cook and Kenneth Dickerman