MANHATTAN — Ready for a rainy ride: Brooklyn Eagle staff member Suzanne Akceylan from South Brooklyn wears heavy gear for her first TD Five Borough Bike Tour, Sunday, May 5, 2024, a day that was also a bit chilly. “Although a bit clunky, the raincoat was comforting for a jubilant ride!,” she said as she joined more than 32,000 cyclists of all skill levels for the 40-mile charity bike ride that began in lower Manhattan with the finish line at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island.

Bike New York is a co-organizer of the tour, which helps fund free bike education programs and equip people with the skills needed to ride safely and confidently on city streets, according to the group’s website. 

FRANCE — The Olympic Torch arrives: A sailing crew waits for the arrival of Belem, the three-masted sailing ship that is carrying the Olympic flame, ahead of a welcoming ceremony at the old port in Marseille, southern France, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. The torch was lit in Greece last month, and then relay runners carried it around Greece before it left Athens aboard a three-mast ship named Belem, headed for Marseille.

As Belem arrives, a convoy of more than a thousand boats will accompany it in a parade around the Bay of Marseille. Torchbearers will carry the flame across Marseille the next day. The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will run from July 26 to Aug.11, 2024.

BELGRADE — This red carpet is quite short — but it’s SO wide: A duck with ducklings walks across a red carpet before a welcome ceremony for Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Serbia Palace in Belgrade, Serbia. Ducks seem impervious to the ceremony and pomp connected with diplomatic visits, such as the agreement that China’s President Xi and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić signed on Wednesday, May 8, to build a “shared future.” The Balkan country Serbia, a candidate to join the European Union, becomes the first in Europe to agree on such a document with Beijing.

Over recent years, China has invested billions of dollars into Serbia’s economy as part of its Belt and Road economic development program.

KALAMAZOO — Nature’s revenge — climate change enabling more extreme weather: Storm-damaged mobile homes are surrounded by debris at Pavilion Estates mobile home park just east of Kalamazoo, MI. Wednesday, May 8, 2024. A tornado ripped through the area on the evening of May 7, one of several reported in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio that night, after dozens of tornado warnings were issued for a region stretching to Kentucky. The Fox News affiliate in Kalamazoo reported that a “massive tornado” destroyed a FedEx shipping plant in Portage, Michigan.

Another storm system that wreaked havoc in Oklahoma is now barreling eastward toward Tennessee and the Carolinas.

GAZA STRIP — With shortages of fresh water, seawater is welcomed to bathe flocks: Palestinians wash their flock in the Mediterranean Sea at the beach in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. Israel and Lebanon, to the north, both comprise the Mediterranean’s eastern land border.

“Deir al-Balah,” which translates from the Arabic language as the “Monastery of the Date Palm,” was named in the 19th century after the grove of date palms that lay west of the city.

PARIS — A challenge turns things upside down: Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi flips after a challenge with PSG’s Marquinhos during the Champions League semifinal second leg soccer match between Paris Saint-Germain and Borussia Dortmund at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, France, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. 

Borussia Dortmund have advanced to the Champions League final after eliminating host team Paris-St. Germain’s 1-0 win in Tuesday’s semifinal second leg.

Dortmund will face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the finals, starting June 1.

KATHMANDU — Festival of bright colors and devotion to their cattle: A Nepalese police woman feeds a bull as Hindu devotees perform rituals at the Pashupatinath temple premises on Matatirtha Aunshi or Mother’s Day in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, May 8, 2024.

Matatirtha Aunshi is a day-long festival celebrated on the new moon that falls in the month of Baisakh, according to the Hindu lunar calendar.

The festival carries the universal theme of honoring mothers and motherhood. A key tradition is gifting one’s mother with sweets, clothes and other presents.

BRAZIL — Nature’s revenge — Manmade bridges and vehicles are no match: Cars sit on a submerged road in an area flooded by heavy rain in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, Wednesday, May 8, 2024. The death toll from the ongoing devastating floods rose on Wednesday to 100, authorities told CBS News. The flooding, now considered the worst natural calamity to hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul, has ravaged almost 400 municipalities, with hundreds of people injured, dozens still missing, and 160,000 forced from their homes.

Looting has also become a problem, and many residents want to stay to protect their homes rather than be evacuated to safe shelters, even though there is no potable water and electricity and internet are down.

LIMA — ‘May I have this dance?’: Brayan Ceballos, left, of Colombia’s Junior and Diego Dorregaray of Peru’s Universitario, battle for the ball during a Copa Libertadores Group D soccer match at the Monumental stadium in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The teams tied 1-1 in Tuesday’s Round 4 game. Estadio Monumental, in Lima, Peru, is home of Club Universitario de Deportes and opened in 2000 to replace the Estadio Teodoro Lolo Fernandez.

Built in accordance with FIFA’s manual of technical specifications for World Cup finals, this stadium has hosted some of the Peru national football team’s international matches, including FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

CHICAGO — In that hand, there is a glove; in that glove, there is a ball — OUT! San Diego Padres’ José Azocar gets caught between first and second bases and is tagged out at first by Chicago Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya during the seventh inning of a baseball game Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Chicago.

CHICAGO — Globally themed unrest continues to roil campuses and mobilize riot squads: Pro-Palestinian protesters chant at University of Chicago police while being kept from the university’s quad as the student encampment is dismantled Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Chicago.

MASSACHUSETTS — The face of grief, anger and retribution: Paul O’Keefe, brother of the late John O’Keefe, stares at Karen Read at her murder trial in Dedham Superior Court on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Dedham, MA. Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces several charges, including second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, in 2022.

PARIS — Getting ready for the big summer in Paris: A worker crosses the track as preparations continue at the Stade de France ahead of the Paris Olympics, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in Paris. The Paris Olympic games are set to begin in late July.

MANHATTAN — Tip to reporters, “Going back in now … naptime”: Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he returns to the courtroom after an afternoon break in his trial at Manhattan criminal court, Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in New York.