April 3 - 9, 2026
This photo gallery, curated by photo editor Anne Marie Belgrave, highlights some of the most compelling images worldwide published by The Associated Press in the past week.
Click to Gallery
FILE - Rory McIlroy, right, runs with his daughter, Poppy, during par-3 contest ahead of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
FILE - Pope Leo XIV carries a lightweight, 1.5-meter (5-foot) wooden cross during the Via Crucis, the torchlit Good Friday Stations of the Cross procession at the Colosseum in Rome, Friday, April 3, 2026, which symbolically retraces Jesus Christ's steps to his crucifixion on Calvary in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE - Clownfish swim among sea anemones at the Magic Mountain dive site in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)
FILE - A visitor poses for photos with the "End of the Trail" Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Atlanta Braves pitcher Dylan Lee delivers during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
FILE - A gunman fires his gun as men carry the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, in Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during the priestly blessing on the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, largely empty due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - Orthodox priest Father Simeon, center left, with children and their parents, releases birds celebrating the Annunciation preceding the celebration of Orthodox Easter, in front of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the St. Tatiana Church near the Kremlin, in Moscow, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Christians take part in a Way of the Cross re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday during Holy Week in Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)
FILE - A young worshipper rests on a bench outside the nave of the cathedral during an Easter vigil at St. James Cathedral, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - Tourists visit the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, China, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
FILE - An Indigenous man wearing traditional face paint, feather headdress and piercing poses for a portrait during the opening of the "Acampamento Terra Livre," or Free Land Encampment, Brazil's largest annual Indigenous mobilization that focuses on land rights and environmental protection, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - An elephant seal lies on the shore at Kelp Point on the Falkland Islands, also known as Islas Malvinas, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)
FILE - Migrants run to board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
FILE - Motorists queue up outside a fuel pump in Dhaka, as Bangladesh tries to handle its energy crisis related to the Iran war, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu, File)
FILE - A man leans against an Iranian flag banner during a government-sponsored protest attended by medical workers against the U.S.-Israeli military campaign outside Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
FILE - A woman holds her dog as she walks past burned cars a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Yemeni soldiers patrol the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik, File)
FILE - Rory McIlroy, right, runs with his daughter, Poppy, during par-3 contest ahead of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
FILE - A pardoned prisoner hugs a family member outside La Lima penitentiary after his release in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
FILE - Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of three members of the Gershovich family, killed when an Iranian missile struck their building, during their funeral in Haifa, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - A woman and an injured man, center, are rescued by firefighters from a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - A woman walks past a mural in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump pretends to aim a sniper gun while speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - A man feeds birds on a street in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
FILE - Firefighters try to put out flames at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
See last week's top photos of the week
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FILE - Pope Leo XIV carries a lightweight, 1.5-meter (5-foot) wooden cross during the Via Crucis, the torchlit Good Friday Stations of the Cross procession at the Colosseum in Rome, Friday, April 3, 2026, which symbolically retraces Jesus Christ's steps to his crucifixion on Calvary in Jerusalem. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
FILE - Clownfish swim among sea anemones at the Magic Mountain dive site in Raja Ampat, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Claudia Rosel, File)
FILE - A visitor poses for photos with the "End of the Trail" Route 66 sign on the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - Atlanta Braves pitcher Dylan Lee delivers during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels, Tuesday, April 7, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope, File)
FILE - A gunman fires his gun as men carry the coffins with the bodies of Pierre Mouawad, an official with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party, and his wife during their funeral in Yahshush, in Lebanon, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during the priestly blessing on the Jewish holiday of Passover at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, largely empty due to restrictions linked to the Iran war, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg, File)
FILE - Orthodox priest Father Simeon, center left, with children and their parents, releases birds celebrating the Annunciation preceding the celebration of Orthodox Easter, in front of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the St. Tatiana Church near the Kremlin, in Moscow, on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
FILE - Christians take part in a Way of the Cross re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday during Holy Week in Kibera informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Samson Otieno, File)
FILE - A young worshipper rests on a bench outside the nave of the cathedral during an Easter vigil at St. James Cathedral, Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - Tourists visit the Yungang Grottoes in Datong, China, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
FILE - An Indigenous man wearing traditional face paint, feather headdress and piercing poses for a portrait during the opening of the "Acampamento Terra Livre," or Free Land Encampment, Brazil's largest annual Indigenous mobilization that focuses on land rights and environmental protection, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres, File)
FILE - An elephant seal lies on the shore at Kelp Point on the Falkland Islands, also known as Islas Malvinas, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan, File)
FILE - Migrants run to board a small boat in an attempt to reach Britain, Wednesday, April 8, 2026 in Malo-les-Bains, northern France. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
FILE - Motorists queue up outside a fuel pump in Dhaka, as Bangladesh tries to handle its energy crisis related to the Iran war, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu, File)
FILE - A man leans against an Iranian flag banner during a government-sponsored protest attended by medical workers against the U.S.-Israeli military campaign outside Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran, Iran, Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
FILE - A woman holds her dog as she walks past burned cars a day after an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - Yemeni soldiers patrol the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Yemen, Sunday, April 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik, File)
FILE - Rory McIlroy, right, runs with his daughter, Poppy, during par-3 contest ahead of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, File)
FILE - A pardoned prisoner hugs a family member outside La Lima penitentiary after his release in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa, File)
FILE - Mourners carry the flag-draped bodies of three members of the Gershovich family, killed when an Iranian missile struck their building, during their funeral in Haifa, Israel, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)
FILE - A woman and an injured man, center, are rescued by firefighters from a destroyed building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)
FILE - A woman walks past a mural in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump pretends to aim a sniper gun while speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - A man feeds birds on a street in Tel Aviv, Israel, after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty, File)
FILE - Firefighters try to put out flames at the site of an Israeli airstrike that struck an apartment building in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
HOUSTON (AP) — Drawing ever closer to Earth, the Artemis II astronauts tidied up their lunar cruiser for the upcoming “fireball” return and reflected on their historic journey around the moon, describing it as surreal and profound.
As the next-to-last day of their flight dawned Thursday, humanity's first lunar explorers in more than half a century were less than 150,000 miles (240,000 kilometers) from home with the odometer clicking down.
“We have to get back. There’s so much data that you’ve seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us. There are so many more pictures, so many more stories," said pilot Victor Glover, adding that "riding a fireball through the atmosphere is profound as well.”
Being cut off from all of humanity for nearly an hour while behind the moon was especially “surreal,” according to commander Reid Wiseman.
“There’s a lot that our brains have to process ... and it is a true gift," Wiseman said late Wednesday during the crew's first news conference since before liftoff.
While out of contact behind the moon Monday, Wiseman, Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen became the most distant humans ever, clocking in at a record 252,756 miles (406,771 kilometers) from Earth before heading back. As they emerged from behind the moon, they experienced a wondrous total solar eclipse as the orb blocked the sun from their perspective.
Launching from Florida on April 1 diminished the amount of illumination on the lunar far side, Glover noted, but the eclipse was the consolation prize “and it was one of the greatest gifts.”
While acknowledging anxiety over Friday's return, NASA Associate Administrator Amit Kshatriya said the crew's "expressions of love and devotion to family” have warmed hearts worldwide and served as “a great example of why we go and do these missions.”
”If you can’t take love to the stars, then what are we doing?" he said. "That’s why we send humans instead of robots sometimes, that’s why we have that firsthand witness.”
Friday's reentry and Pacific splashdown off the coast of San Diego — as dynamic and dangerous as liftoff — now topped everyone's minds. The recovery ship, USS John P. Murtha, was already at sea, with a squadron of military planes and helicopters poised to join the operation.
It's the first time that NASA and the Defense Department have teamed up for a lunar crew's reentry since Apollo 17 in 1972. Their Orion capsule will come screaming back, hitting the atmosphere at a predicted 34,965 feet (10,657 meters) per second — or 23,840 mph (38,367 kph) — not a record but still mind-bogglingly fast.
Flight director Jeff Radigan said the capsule must nail the reentry angle within a single degree.
“Let’s not beat around the bush. We have to hit that angle correctly — otherwise we’re not going to have a successful reentry,” he said.
Mission Control will be paying close attention to how the capsule's heat shield holds up. During the only other Orion test flight to the moon — in 2022 without a crew — the heat shield suffered considerably more damage than expected from the 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) of reentry.
Instead of replacing Artemis II's heat shield, which would have forced another lengthy delay, NASA tweaked the capsule's descent through the atmosphere to reduce the blisteringly hot exposure. Next year's Artemis III and beyond will fly with redesigned heat shields.
Artemis III will see astronauts practice docking their capsule with a lunar lander or two in orbit around Earth. Artemis IV in 2028 will attempt to land two astronauts near the moon's south pole, setting the stage for what NASA hopes will be a sustainable lunar base.
NASA officials have been loath to provide their risk assessment numbers for the nearly 10-day mission, acknowledging launch and entry as the biggest threats.
“We’re down to the wire now,” said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins. "We’re down to the end of the mission, and obviously getting the crew back home and getting them landed safely, is a significant part of the risk that’s still in front of us.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this image of the of Carroll Crater, a name suggested by the crew for Reid Wiseman late wife Carroll Taylor Wiseman on Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image from video provided by NASA shows the Artemis II crew, from left, Commander Reid Wiseman, mission specialist Christina Koch, pilot Victor Glover and Canadian astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen as they answer media questions during a video conference Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (NASA via AP)
In this image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew photographed the Moon's crater on Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA, astronaut and Artemis II Commander Reid Wiseman takes a moment during the seven-hour lunar observation period where the crew reported to the ground team their observations including color nuances, which will help enhance scientific understandings of the Moon on Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This image provided by NASA, the Artemis II crew captured this view the Moon and Earth are shown on Monday, April 6, 2026. (NASA via AP)