Photos of the Week: Ox Racing, Bat Research, Smart Whale

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A memorial made of life-sized silhouette cutouts of soldiers standing in a field of flowers

Gareth Fuller / PA Images / Getty

Dawn breaks over the Standing With Giants silhouettes, which create the “For Your Tomorrow” installation at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, France, a day before the 81st anniversary of D-Day, on June 6, 2025. The 1,475 statues honor each of the servicemen who fell on D-Day, and stand in the shadows of the memorial overlooking Gold Beach, where many of them landed 81 years ago.

A large statue of an angel, made from the metal and blades of old knives, holding its upturned hands out.

Ian Forsyth / Getty

The sculpture Knife Angel is installed in Newton Aycliffe’s town center mall on May 31, 2025, in England. The Knife Angel’s arrival in Newton Aycliffe is meant to coincide with the Durham police force’s monthlong initiative to raise awareness of knife crime. The 27-foot (eight-meter) sculpture was created by artist Alfie Bradley and the British Ironwork Centre, and is made of 100,000 blunted blades surrendered during knife amnesties held by police forces across the country.

A performer holds a flaming sword while spitting a fireball.

Ma Bin / VCG / Getty

A folk artist spits fire during the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, on June 1, 2025, in Tacheng, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.

People take photos of a glowing reddish aurora in the night sky.

Sanka Vidanagama / AFP / Getty

People take photos of the aurora australis, also known as the southern lights, as it glows on the horizon over Lake Ellesmere in Lincoln, on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand, on June 1, 2025.

A surfer on a foil board rides a wave.

Nic Bothma / Reuters

The South African big-wave surfer Jacques Theron rides a foil board on a wave at an offshore reef known as Dungeons, in Cape Town, South Africa, on June 1, 2025.

A person rides in an innertube, floating down a river with a small dog on their lap.

Valdrin Xhemaj / Reuters

A sports enthusiast and his dog compete during Bunar Fest, a tire festival, navigating rocky obstacles while floating on an inner tube in the chilly Lumbardhi River, in Kosovo, on June 1, 2025.

A police officer in dress uniform leans down to kiss his dog, as it stands on its hind legs, during a ceremony.

Lionel Bonaventure / AFP / Getty

A French gendarme kisses his dog during a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the National Canine Training Center of the Gendarmerie, in Gramat, France, on June 5, 2025.

A man walks on two prosthetic legs while holding his wife in his arms, during a dance inside a grand foyer.

Yuriy Dyachyshyn / AFP / Getty

Oleksandr Zavnenko, an amputee and Ukrainian veteran of the fight against Russia’s invasion, dances on prosthetic legs with his wife, Maria, a professional choreographer, in Lviv, on June 4, 2025.

A pack of cyclists rides past the Colosseum in Rome.

Luca Bettini / AFP / Getty

During the 21st stage of the 108th Giro d'Italia cycling race, the peloton rides past the Colosseum, in Rome, on June 1, 2025.

A man holds a full beer mug above a crowd of eager festival-goers, who reach up for it.

Daniel Karmann / DPA / Getty

Florian Janik, lord mayor of Erlangen, in Bavaria, Germany, distributes the first mugs of free beer after the traditional barrel tapping at the Erlangen Bergkirchweih festival, on June 5, 2025.

A large crowd of festival-goers throw hundreds of tomatoes at each other.

Diego Cuevas / Getty

People throw tomatoes during the Gran Tomatina Colombiana, on June 1, 2025, in Sutamarchán, Colombia. Similar to the event held in Buñol, Spain, the festival hosts thousands of people who gather to be part of a celebration that includes parades, music, and the well-known tomato battle.

Children and parents playfully splash while walking on a path turned into a long wading pool.

Yan Xin / VCG / Getty

Children accompanied by their parents splash in a water path set up during the Dragon Boat Festival, also known as Duanwu Festival, in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, China, on June 1, 2025.

Two people ride on the backs of oxen as they race in front of a crowd.

Peter Kneffel / DPA / Getty

The oxen Simmerl (left) and Ferdinand (right), with their respective riders, Leonhard Wagner and Vroni Stürzer, race at the first Hadorfer Ochsenrennen oxen race, in Hadorf, in southern Germany.

A very small baby deer sits in a plastic tub atop a scale.

Rolf Vennenbernd / DPA / Getty

A baby southern pudu named Adora sits in a box on a scale at the Cologne Zoo, in Germany, on June 5, 2025, weighing 1,325 grams. Southern pudus are considered one of the smallest deer species on Earth.

A cicada nymph climbs to the tip of a fern.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

A periodical cicada nymph climbs to the tip of a fern frond in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 16, 2025.

Racers stand in several very long and narrow boats, waiting for a race, beneath an elaborate carved dragon head.

VCG / Getty

People take part in a dragon-boat race during the Dragon Boat Festival in Tongren, Guizhou Province, China, on May 31, 2025.

An angry bat, caught in a net.

Matias Delacroix / AP

A scientist from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute captures a bat for research in Gamboa, Panama, on June 1, 2025.

Two police officers, wearing a mix of official tactical gear and civilian hoodies and face coverings

Scott Olson / Getty

Homeland Security officers prepare to transport immigrants who were taken into custody at the offices of a Homeland Security contractor, on June 4, 2025, in Chicago. About a dozen immigrants were taken into custody after reporting to appointments at BI Incorporated, a company that contracts with government agencies to provide electronic monitoring.

An elevated view of dozens of cars, including many cybertrucks, sitting in the parking lot of a closed mall.

Gregory Shamus / Getty

An aerial view of unsold Tesla vehicles sitting in a parking lot at the Hunter’s Square mall, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, on June 2, 2025. Dozens of Cybertrucks have been parked at the partially closed shopping center over the past week. According to a report, Tesla employees said that the “vehicles are sold and marked for delivery” and the shopping center was owned by the owner of a nearby Tesla service center. However, according to the City of Farmington Hills, “storage of vehicles is not a permitted use,” and the city is currently in the process of resolving the issue with the mall’s management.

An aerial view of a large spaceship-shaped building, seen in front of the Los Angeles skyline

Mario Tama / Getty

An aerial view as construction continues at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, in Los Angeles’s Exposition Park, on June 2, 2025. The spaceship-style 300,000-square-foot museum, which plans to open in 2026, following years of delays, was founded by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife, Mellody Hobson, and was designed by the architect Ma Yansong.

A person wearing protective gear leaps feet-first into the windshield of a moving vehicle during a demonstration.

AFP / Getty

Saudi Arabian security forces take part in a demonstration as people arrive for the annual hajj pilgrimage, in the city of Mecca, on May 31, 2025.

Thick smoke and flames erupt from an Israeli airstrike, as civilians run in a market the foreground.

Jehad Alshrafi / AP

Thick smoke and flames erupt from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, on June 1, 2025.

A satellite view of the charred remains of several large bomber aircraft, on an airfield

Maxar / DigitalGlobe / Getty

A satellite view of the aftermath of a coordinated drone strike shows destroyed Russian Tu-95 bombers on the tarmac at Belaya Air Base, in Russia’s Irkutsk Oblast. The image reveals significant blast damage and charred aircraft remains. Ukraine claims to have damaged or destroyed 40 large Russian aircraft in the attack.

A broad view across city buildings, with an erupting volcano in the background.

Fabrizio Villa / Getty

A volcanic plume rises from the southeast crater of Mount Etna, on June 2, 2025, in Catania, Italy.

A car drives on a road near a visible downpour of raing beneath a dark storm cloud.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

A car moves away from an approaching storm with a rain shaft during a Project ICECHIP operation studying hail and the hazards of severe thunderstorms, near Tipton, Oklahoma, on June 3, 2025.

A woman carrying her pet dog wades through a flooded street.

AFP / Getty

A woman carrying her pet dog wades through a flooded street in Imphal East, in the Indian state of Manipur, on June 1, 2025, following flash flooding and landslides caused by torrential monsoon rains over the previous two days.

A large whale sculpture made of daffodils floats in a lake near tall mountains.

Barbara Gindl / APA / AFP / Getty

A float with a whale sculpture titled Schlau Wal (“Smart Whale”), made of daffodil flowers, on the water during the daffodil festival Narzissenfest, in Altaussee, Austria, on June 1, 2025.

A person looks at a sausage roll that has been placed on a pillow under a glass display case, backdropped by the flag of the United Kingdom.

Joanna Chan / AP

Hannah Mundin, a colorist at Madame Tussauds London, looks toward the Greggs sausage-roll figure as it is unveiled at the waxwork attraction in London, on June 4, 2025, ahead of National Sausage Roll Day, on June 5.

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