The Week in Pictures: July 30 - Aug. 6, 2020 - NBC News

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The Week in Pictures: July 30 - Aug. 6
A cataclysmic explosion in Beirut, a destructive storm on the East Coast, raging wildfires in California, and more.

Updated Aug. 7, 2020 12:03 PM CDT

Isaias hits

A Philadelphia police officer rushes to help a stranded motorist on Aug. 4, 2020, in Philadelphia.

Tropical Storm Isaias spawned tornadoes and dumped rain during an inland march up the East Coast after making landfall as a hurricane along the North Carolina coast.

— Matt Slocum / AP

Beirut explosion

A giant mushroom cloud rises in Beirut on Aug. 4.

Two huge explosions rocked the Lebanese capital, wounding thousands of people, flattening much of a port, and shaking buildings across Beirut.

— Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images

Helping the wounded

People evacuate the wounded after the explosion in Beirut on Aug. 4.

— Hassan Ammar / AP

The scene of the explosion

A helicopter battles the fire at the port of Beirut on Aug. 4.

More than 150 people were killed by the explosion, according to the Ministry of Health, with 5,000 injured and some 250,000 homeless.

— AFP - Getty Images

Hiroshima anniversary

A mother and her daughters pray at the Students Peace Monument on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Aug. 6.

The atomic bomb instantly killed an estimated 70,000 people and thousands more in coming years from radiation effects. Three days later the United States dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki which ended World War II.

— Carl Court / Getty Images

French flamingo

A volunteer releases a flamingo chick in Aigues-Mortes, near Montpellier, France, on Aug. 5, during a tagging and controlling operation to monitor the evolution of the species.

— Christophe Simon / AFP - Getty Images

Dragon returns

The SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour spacecraft lands with NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on board in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 2.

The Demo-2 test flight for NASA's Commercial Crew Program is the first to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station and return them to Earth on board a commercially built and operated spacecraft.

Behnken and Hurley are returning after spending 64 days in space.

— Bill Ingals / NASA via AFP - Getty Images

Eid prayers

Muslims observe social distancing measures as they attend Eid al-Adha prayers at a mosque in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, on July 31.

Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice, is one of two major holy days observed by Muslims across the world.

— Juni Kriswanto / AFP - Getty Images

House call

A teacher wearing a biosecurity suit gives an in-home lesson in Cali, Colombia, on Aug. 4.

The "teacher at home" is being implemented by a local kindergarten.

— Luis Robayo / AFP - Getty Images

School protest

Demonstrators outside City Hall call for public school classes to be held remotely on Aug. 3 in Chicago.

The district announced on Aug. 5 that Chicago Public Schools will begin the school year in the fall with fully remote learning.

— Scott Olson / Getty Images

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First day of school

Paul Adamus, 7, waits at the school bus stop on Aug. 3, in Dallas, Ga.

As schools begin to start the new year, there's growing concern about how children can spread the virus.

— Brynn Anderson / AP

California wildfire

A firefighter watches a brush fire at the Apple Fire in Cherry Valley, Calif., on Aug. 1.

The Apple fire in Riverside County, about 75 miles east of Los Angeles, began July 31 and had forced around 8,000 people to evacuate, with more orders expected.

— Ringo H.W. Chiu / AP

Belgian beach

A woman sunbathes during a hot summer day at Zoute beach in Knokke-Heist, Belgium, on July 31.

— Francisco Seco / AP

"SOS"

An Australian Army ARH-90 Tiger Helicopter lands on uninhabited Pikelot Island in the Micronesia archipelago where three missing men were rescued on Aug. 2.

The three men, who had been missing for three days, were rescued after writing a giant SOS sign in the sand that was spotted from above, authorities say.

— Australian Department of Defence / via Reuters

Finish line crash

Dutch cyclist Dylan Groenewegen, center, crashes near the end of opening stage of the Tour of Poland race in Katowice on Aug. 5.

Groenewegen collided with fellow Dutch rider Fabio Jakobsen, not pictured, sending Jakobsen into the side barriers while sprinting for the finish line. Jakobsen was declared winner of the stage while Groenewegen has been disqualified.

Jakobsen, who was put in a medically-induced coma after the crash, is awake and in good condition, tour organizers said on Aug. 7.

— Szymon Gruchalski / AFP - Getty Images

Frankfurt feline

A cat goes for an early morning walk near subway rails in Frankfurt, Germany, on Aug. 4.

— Michael Probst / AP

French wildfire

A man uses a garden hose to drench his house as a wildfire approaches in La Couronne, near Marseille, France, on Aug. 4.

— Xavier Leoty / AFP - Getty Images

A mosque once again

Muslims gather for Eid al-Adha prayers inside Hagia Sophia, recently converted back to a mosque, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul on July 31.

Hagia Sophia was the Byzantine Empire’s main cathedral before it was changed into a mosque following the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul. Under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic in the 20th century, it was turned into a museum that attracts millions of tourists each year.

— AP

El Paso shooting anniversary

Twenty three lights shine as people in cars attend a drive-through luminaria remembrance on Aug. 2, the eve of the one year anniversary of the shootings at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.

The shootings, which targeted Latinos, left 23 people dead.

— Mario Tama / Getty Images

Philippines testing

A medical worker interviews a child queuing for free COVID-19 swab testing at a basketball court on Aug. 6 in Navotas city, Metro Manila, Philippines.

President Rodrigo Duterte reimposed a strict lockdown in the capital Manila and surrounding provinces as the country continues to struggle with rising coronavirus infections.

Duterte's move came after nearly 100 medical organizations representing 80,000 doctors and a million nurses called for tighter controls and warned that the country's health systems has been overwhelmed by the surge of cases and are close to collapsing as health workers fall ill or resign out of fear and exhaustion.

— Ezra Acayan / Getty Images

Wildfire plume

A firefighting airplane flies away from a pyrocumulus ash plume after making a retardant drop on a ridge as firefighters continue to battle the Apple fire near Banning, Calif., on Aug. 1.

— Josh Edelson / AFP - Getty Images

Blast aftermath

Damaged grain silos at Beirut port on Aug. 5.

Rescuers searched for survivors in Beirut in the morning after a cataclysmic explosion at the port sowed devastation across entire neighborhoods, killing more than 100 people, wounding thousands and plunging Lebanon deeper into crisis.

— AFP - Getty Images