--- description: From the first same-sex marriage in France and memorials in Moore, Okla. to an epic Hobbit battle reenactment and a dinosaur taking the field during a soccer match, TIME presents the best pictures of the week. title: TIME's Best Pictures of the Week: May 24 - May 31 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71cef76cd2bc0243/6987a5a30b72e339056e0581/03722982.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LightBox](/tag/time-section-lightbox/) ## LightBox Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Pictures of the Week: May 24 - May 31 by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 31, 2013 2:39 PM CUT  May 29, 2013\. A Palestinian girl plays with her brothers inside their family's home on a hot day in Bait Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. May 29, 2013\. A Palestinian girl plays with her brothers inside their family's home on a hot day in Bait Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip.Ali Ali—EPA by [Phil Bicker](/author/phil-bicker/) ## Phil Bicker Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 31, 2013 2:39 PM CUT From the first same-sex marriage in France and memorials in Moore, Okla. to an epic Hobbit battle reenactment and a dinosaur taking the field during a soccer match, TIME presents the best pictures of the week.  May 25, 2013\. Stephanie Salinas visits a makeshift memorial with toys and crosses at the Plaza Towers elementary school in memory of the seven children who died during the devastating tornado, in Moore, Okla. Jewel Samad—AFP/Getty Images  May 28, 2013\. Israeli soldiers of the Home Front Command rescue unit wear protective gear during a drill in Azur, near Tel Aviv, Israel. Ariel Schalit—AP  May 25, 2013\. Graduating cadets listen at the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA) during the 215 commencement ceremony in West Point, New York. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel delivered the commencement speech for the class of 2013. Dennis Van Tine—Abaca USA  May 25, 2013\. Fans dressed as characters from the Tolkien classic The Hobbit, take part in the reenactment of a battle in a forest near the village of Doksy, northern Czech Republic. Read the photographer's full backstory on the image here. Michal Cizek—AFP/Getty Images  May 24, 2013\. Tribal people and farmers from the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand take part in a prayer ritual believed to bring rain, outside the Hindu Lord Shiva temple in Ranchi. Rajesh Kumar—Reuters  May 28, 2013\. An aerial view shows a train passing through a flooded area near Hildesheim, central Germany. Julian Stratenschulte—AFP/Getty Images  May 25, 2013\. Relatives of one of 17 children who died after a gas cylinder exploded on a school bus mourn over his coffin on the outskirts of Gujrat, 100 miles (170 km) southeast of Islamabad. Faisal Mahmood—Reuters  May 27, 2013\. Nicole Zupp carries a stuffed monkey prize on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights on the first weekend of New Jersey beaches re-opening to the public. Kena Betancur—Getty Images  May 24, 2013\. Kiev school graduates play in a fountain in Independence Square, a tradition celebrating the "Last Bell." Ukrafoto/Ukrainian News/Demotix/Corbis  May 24, 2013\. An animal tamer holds lion cubs during a photo shoot at Circus Krone in Darmstadt, Germany. Fredrik Von Erichsen—AFP/Getty Images  May 24, 2013\. Dawn breaks over the rubble that used to be homes, in this case a door propped up and marked with a street number, left earlier in the week when a tornado hit Moore, Okla. Brennan Linsley—AP  May 24, 2013\. Afghan policemen take position at the site of a clash between Afghan security forces and Taliban fighters in Kabul. Massoud Hossaini—AFP/Getty Images  May 24, 2013\. A wounded Afghan policeman is carried away from the site of an explosion in Kabul. Omar Sobhani—Reuters  May 24, 2013\. Orthodox nuns attend a service to mark the Day of St. Cyril and Methodius, founders of the Cyrillic alphabet, inside the Cathedral of the Assumption, Cathedral Square in the Kremlin in Moscow. Alexander Zemlianichenko—AP  May 24, 2013\. Tribal people and farmers from the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand take part in a prayer ritual believed to bring rain, outside the Hindu Lord Shiva temple in Ranchi. Rajesh Kumar—Reuters  May 24, 2013\. A Bangladeshi family member of a missing garment worker places roses on the barbed wire fence as she pays tribute to the victims at the site of the nine-story building collapse in Savar. Munir Uz Zaman—AFP/Getty Images  May 24, 2013\. Ukrainian students play in a fountain during a gathering of school graduates at Independence Square in Kiev as they mark "Last Bell" celebrating the day they leave school. Sergei Supinsky—AFP/Getty Images  May 25, 2013\. A tiger leaping to reach a suspended piece of meat during feeding time in their enclosure at the Shanghai Wildlife Zoo. AFP/Getty Images  May 25, 2013\. A base-jumper jumps off the Maintower as part of the sky scraper festival in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Nicolas Armer—AFP/Getty Images  May 25, 2013\. San Francisco Giants' Angel Pagan, center, celebrates with Marco Scutaro, left, and Andres Torres after hitting an inside the park two-run home run off of Colorado Rockies pitcher Rafael Betancourt during the 10th inning of a baseball game in San Francisco. Jeff Chiu—AP  May 25, 2013\. The body of a pickup truck is wrapped around a tree trunk after being thrown there by by a tornado in Moore, Okla. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  May 25, 2013\. An opposition supporter masks his face to hide his identity late as protesters clashed with police in the Kodjoviakope neighborhood of Lome, Togo. Authorities have banned all protests in the capital after violent clashes this week. Daniel Hayduk—AFP/Getty Images  May 26, 2013\. A protester throws a cobblestone at the police at the end of the demonstration against same sex marriage in Paris. Etienne Laurent—EPA  May 26, 2013\. Members of a funeral home carry the coffin with the remains of Saint Mother Laura Montoya to her tomb during a ceremony for the 139th anniversary of her birth at the convent where she lived in Medellin, Antioquia department, Colombia. Raul Arboleda—AFP/Getty Images  May 26, 2013\. Pope Francis blesses the faithful at the end of mass during his pastoral visit to "Saints Elisabetta and Zaccaria" Parish in Rome. Tony Gentile—Reuters  May 26, 2013\. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) soldiers take cover from the rain under a C-130 military aircraft while waiting for the arrival of seven coffins of dead soldiers at the Villamor Airbase in Manila. Noel Celis—AFP/Getty Images  May 27, 2013\. Marine Lt. Col. Cal Worth salutes as he visits the grave site of a fallen comrade during a Memorial Day visit to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Pete Marovich—EPA  May 26, 2013\. Memorial day fireworks explode over a house damaged by the May 20 afternoon tornado in Moore, Okla. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  May 26, 2013\. Lights shine on the tops of crosses making up a memorial outside the Plaza Towers elementary school where seven children died and several students and teachers were injured by the May 20 afternoon tornado in Moore, Okla. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  May 26, 2013\. Mourners visit a chain link fence that has been made into a memorial outside the Plaza Towers elementary school where seven children died and several students and teachers were injured by the May 20 afternoon tornado in Moore, Okla. Lucas Jackson—Reuters  May 26, 2013\. A sheep belonging to people of the Uighur ethnic minority load jump off a truck as herders bring their livestock for sale at the Sunday livestock market in Kashgar, western edge of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. How Hwee Young—EPA  May 26, 2013\. Members of the Black Hebrews community dance as they mark the Shavuot harvest festival in the city of Dimoana, southern Israel. Abir Sultan—EPA  May 27, 2013\. An elderly Indian widow hangs clothes to dry inside her small living quarter at an Ashram in Varanasi, India. Rajesh Kumar Singh—AP  May 27, 2013\. Contestants in the men's race chase a replica Double Gloucester Cheese down the steep gradient of Cooper's Hill during the annual Bank Holiday tradition of cheese-rolling in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, England. Matt Cardy—Getty Images  May 27, 2013\. Competitors run and tumble down Coopers Hill in pursuit of a fake foam round Double Gloucester cheese during the annual cheese rolling and wake near the village of Brockworth near Gloucester in western England. Carl Court—AFP/Getty Images  May 28, 2013\. Members of the French Republican Guard perform for Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall at their headquarters in Paris. Chris Jackson—Getty Images  May 28,2013\. Chinese honor guards prepare for the arrival of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Wang Zhao—AFP/Getty Images  May 28, 2013\. A view of an installation as part of the "S.A.C.R.E.D" exhibition by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei during the 55th La Biennale of Venice, in the church of Sant'Antonin in Venice. Stefano Rellandini—Reuters  May 28, 2013\. A Bahraini girl is carried by her mother during the funeral of Sayed Omran Sayed Hameed in the village of Karzakkan, south of Manama. Hameed, 26, died at hospital after developing respiratory complications and his relatives claim that his death is due to the inhalation of poisonous tear gas that riot police used during a protest in May of 2013. Mohammed Al-Shaikh—AFP/Getty Images  May 28, 2013\. Palestinian Bedouin children play with the laundry at Al Jabal village in the East Jerusalem area of Al-Eizariya. Abir Sultan—EPA  May 28, 2013\. The sleeping infant, who had been rescued from the sewer pipe in a residential building, is seen at a hospital in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, east China. Zhong Cheng Jh—Imaginechina  May 29, 2013\. A man swims in the polluted waters of river Yamuna on a hot day in New Delhi. Mansi Thapliyal—Reuters  May 29, 2013\. A band member carries a light prior to a wedding procession in New Delhi. Anindito Mukherjee—Reuters  May 29, 2013\. Soldiers from the Special Operations Battalion of the Federal District demonstrate to the media their new armored vehicles and tactics, at its headquarters in Sector South Police in Brasília, Brazil. Ueslei Marcelino—Reuters  May 28, 2013\. A Palestinian worker holds a pot made out of kneaded mud, in one of the largest pottery workshops in the Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 29, 2013\. A Palestinian girl plays with her brothers inside their family's home on a hot day in Bait Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip. Ali Ali—EPA  May 29, 2013\. Firefighters with flares in front of the Mossos d'Esquadra in Spain. Approximately 400 firefighters from the Government protested in front of the autonomous Catalonia Parliament to criticize the lack of staff and resources in the face of this summer's forest campaign. Claudio Perrone—Demotix/Corbis  May 29, 2013\. Photographers take pictures of the launch of Soyuz-FG rocket booster with Soyuz TMA-09M space ship carrying a new crew to the International Space Station, ISS, as it blasted off at the Russian-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Mikhail Metzel—AP  May 29, 2013\. Afghan defense personnel inspect the scene following a suicide attack in Bazarak district, Panjshir province. Shah Marai—AFP/Getty Images  May 29, 2013\. Afghan security forces gather the dead bodies of insurgents after a suicide attack in Bazarak district, Panjshir province. Shah Marai—AFP/Getty Images  May 29, 2013\. Smoke rises from the International Red Cross building after a gun battle between security forces and an insurgent, in Jalalabad east of Kabul. Rahmat Gul—AP  May 28, 2013\. A fire truck passes by a wildfire north of Santa Barbara near Santa Ynez, California. Joe Klamar—AFP/Getty Images  May 29, 2013\. Displaced residents immerse themselves in massive mud deposits from the mud volcano in Sidoarjo village, located on Indonesia's eastern Java island to dramatize their sufferings during a protest marking the seventh year of the disaster. Juni Kriswanto—AFP/Getty Images  May 29, 2013\. A giant rubber duck created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman is seen from the window of a star ferry along Hong Kong's Victoria Habour. Vincent Yu—AP  May 29, 2013\. Vincent Autin, left, and Bruno Boileau, hold their hands, during their civil wedding at Montpelier City Hall. Bruno Boileau, 30, from Paris and Vincent Autin, 40, are the first same-sex couple to marry in France, since French government voted a new law legalizing same-sex marriage. Claude Paris—AP  May 29, 2013\. Osvaldo Sanchez, of Bakersfield, Calif., waits for his turn during the third round of the National Spelling Bee in Oxon Hill, Md. Sanchez spelled the word "oligarchic" correctly. Evan Vucci—AP  May 30, 2013\. Girls throw flower petals before the Blessed Sacrament during a Corpus Christi procession in Gora Kalwaria near Warsaw, Poland. Kacper Pempel—Reuters  30 May 2013\. Women dressed in traditional costumes wait for holy communion on the occasion of the Feast of Corpus Christi in Appenzell, Switzerland. Ennio Leanza—EPA  May 29, 2013\. The sun shines down 42nd Street at sunset during the biannual occurrence named "Manhattanhenge" in New York, when the setting sun aligns itself with the city's street grid. Gary Hershorn—Reuters  May 26, 2013\. A Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur costume runs on the field as young boys play an exhibition soccer match during halftime of the MLS soccer game between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders FC in Carson, California. The dinosaur was on the field to promote the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Danny Moloshok—Reuters ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3799967/pictures-of-the-week-may-24-may-31/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3799967/pictures-of-the-week-may-24-may-31/"},"headline":"Pictures of the Week: May 24 - May 31","datePublished":"2013-05-31T14:39:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:40:46.750Z","description":"From the first same-sex marriage in France and memorials in Moore, Okla. to an epic Hobbit battle reenactment and a dinosaur taking the field during a soccer match, TIME presents the best pictures of the week.","url":"https://time.com/3799967/pictures-of-the-week-may-24-may-31/","keywords":["LightBox","Gay Marriage","Soccer","tornado","closeup"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71cef76cd2bc0243/6987a5a30b72e339056e0581/03722982.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Phil Bicker","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/phil-bicker/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt71cef76cd2bc0243/6987a5a30b72e339056e0581/03722982.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Gaza heat","caption":"Gaza heat","creditText":"Ali Ali—EPA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-lightbox/","name":"LightBox"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3799967/pictures-of-the-week-may-24-may-31/","name":"Pictures of the Week: May 24 - May 31"}}]}] ```