Through the lens: The Citizen’s Picture Editors select the best news photographs from South Africa and around the world.
We bring you a visual snapshot of the day’s news events, featuring a striking sculpture at a Johannesburg school drawing attention to the global plastic pollution crisis, Guatemala’s Fuego volcano erupting and forcing evacuations, and one of the largest migrant rescue operations ever recorded in the English Channel after a boat caught fire during an attempted crossing to Britain. These are some of the compelling images from around the world.
The Fuego volcano erupts 65 kilometers southwest of Guatemala City on August 3, 2026. On Monday, Guatemalan authorities declared a “danger” alert, the second-highest level, due to a powerful eruption of the Fuego volcano, and began evacuating nearby hamlets. (Photo by Johan ORDONEZ / AFP)
A sculpture of a tap pouring out plastic bottles decorates a wall outside Parkview Pre-Primary School with the message “Turn off the plastic tap”, 4 August 2026. The school regularly creates murals and sculptures under different social and environmental themes with the help of its pupils, with the latest installation highlighting the impact of plastic pollution. More than 11 million tonnes of plastic are estimated to enter the world’s oceans every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Picture: Michel Bega/The Citizen
Pallbearers carry a coffin during the memorial service of Nothabo Zandile Khumalo and her two daughters at The Brethren in Christ Church in Bulawayo on August 4, 2026. More than 2,000 people attended the funeral in Zimbabwe on August 4 of a woman and her two daughters murdered in their home in Britain last month allegedly by her husband. Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma, a British citizen of Zimbabwean heritage, was arrested in South Africa on July 10 and is facing extradition. The bodies of Nothabo Zandile Tshuma, 42, and her daughters Natalie, 15, and Nala, 5, arrived in Zimbabwe’s second city Bulawayo on August 3. (Photo by Zinyange Auntony / AFP)
Team Ukraine competes in the team free artistic swimming final event during the LEN European Aquatics Championships, at the Olympic Aquatics Centre in Saint-Denis, northeastern suburbs of Paris, on August 3, 2026. (Photo by Sébastien BOZON / AFP)
Pick Squad League members clean an area next to the Mabaleng sports grounds in Westbury, Johannesburg, 4 August 2026. Founded by Elroy Daniels, the Pick Squad aims to keep young people away from drugs and gangsterism through community initiatives. Picture: Nigel Sibanda/The Citizen
A woman pushes a cart past a road construction site in Hanoi on August 4, 2026. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
Colombian evangelical pastor Telmo Velazco walks amid rubble of buildings damaged by the June 24 earthquakes, in Caraballeda, Venezuela, on August 3, 2026. (Photo by Federico PARRA / AFP)
Swimmers compete in the men’s 10km open water swimming event during the LEN European Aquatics Championships, in the Seine River with the Eiffel Tower in the background in Paris, on August 4, 2026. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)
Adv Peter Serunye (Deputy Director Of Public Prosecutions (DDPP) with the Independent Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) testifies at the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry at Brigette Mabandla Judicial College on August 04, 2026 in Pretoria, South Africa. President Cyril Ramaphosa established the commission to investigate and report on the veracity, scope, and extent of the allegations made on 6 July 2025 by KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi that South Africa’s criminal justice system was compromised. (Photo by Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)
Bystanders watch a Royal Netherlands Air Force CH-47 Chinook helicopter collect water from the River Meuse in Geijsteren, to battle a wildfire sweeping through the Boschhuizerbergen nature reserve near Oostrum, in the Dutch municipality of Venray, south-eastern Netherlands on August 4, 2026. (Photo by Sem van der Wal / ANP / AFP)
Shia Muslim pilgrims attend a mourning ceremony at the shrine of Imam Hussein in Iraq’s central shrine city of Karbala on August 4, 2026, during the Arbaeen pilgrimage, which commemorates 40 days of mourning after the killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohamed, at the 7th-century battle of Karbala. Arbaeen, the world’s largest annual public gathering, marks one of the most significant events in the Shia Muslim calendar, during which pilgrims from Iraq and Iran flock to visit the holy shrines. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP)
Residents wade through a flooded street following heavy monsoon rains in Guwahati on August 4, 2026. (Photo by Biju BORO / AFP)
A general view shows a rainbow over the Garonne river and landmark Dome de la Grave following a thunderstorm in central Toulouse, southern France, on August 3, 2026. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)
Migrants wait after disembarking from a French rescue ship following their rescue at sea after their boat caught fire during an attempt to cross the English Channel from France to Britain, at the Port de Commerce in Boulogne-sur-Mer, northern France, on August 4, 2026. French and British vessels saved 157 migrants after their boat caught fire while trying to cross the Channel on August 4, authorities in both countries said. It is one of the largest such rescue operations reported since records began in 2018. (Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP)
Lotus root farmers transport freshly harvested shallow-water lotus roots in Yinjiayuan village, in Nantong, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, on August 3, 2026. (Photo by CN-STR / AFP)
Uno-X Mobility’s Norwegian rider Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset leads in Arbois during the 3rd (out of 9) stage of the fifth edition of the Women’s Tour de France cycling race, 156.5 km from Geneva to Poligny, in Poligny, central-eastern France on August 3, 2026. (Photo by NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)