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Protesters in Moscow, volcano eruption and taekwondo match: World in Photos, July 29

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Three continents, three flashpoints — Moscow’s crackdown, a Java volcano, and Tokyo’s Olympic tune-up.

ABC News’ “World in Photos” roundup for July 29 stitches together three unrelated stories that landed in the same 48-hour news cycle: riot police beating protesters in central Moscow, a stratovolcano near Bandung blowing ash into the sky with no warning, and taekwondo athletes sparring in Tokyo as part of the run-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics. Each image tells its own story, but together they’re a snapshot of what made headlines worldwide that weekend.

• Russian riot police and National Guard troops detained at least 1,373 people in Moscow on Saturday, July 27, according to independent monitor OVD-Info — the largest mass arrest at a Russian rally in years, following the election commission’s move to disqualify opposition candidates from September’s Moscow City Duma race.
• Tangkuban Perahu, an active stratovolcano outside Bandung in West Java, erupted without warning on Friday, July 26, sending an ash column roughly 200 meters into the air and forcing evacuations and site closures across the weekend.
• Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was jailed ahead of the Moscow demonstration and hospitalized over the weekend after suspected exposure to a toxic chemical agent.

Moscow’s Crackdown on the Opposition

The trouble started when Russia’s election commission struck independent and opposition candidates from the ballot for September’s Moscow City Duma elections. That decision pushed demonstrators into the streets near Moscow City Hall and along Tverskaya Street and Trubnaya Square, where riot police and National Guard units responded with batons and mass detentions rather than any negotiation. OVD-Info and multiple news outlets put Saturday’s arrest count at 1,373 — a number that stood out even by the standards of Russian street politics, where crackdowns are routine but rarely land that many people in custody in a single day.

OVD-Info counted at least 1,373 detentions on July 27 — the largest mass arrest at a Russian rally in years.

Navalny, the country’s most prominent opposition figure, wasn’t even on the street when the beatings started — he was already behind bars, jailed ahead of the demonstration, before being hospitalized over the weekend following suspected exposure to a toxic chemical agent. For a fuller picture of how Moscow’s relationship with dissent fits into its broader standoff with the West, the same tensions run through why this is a “critical moment” for the US and Russia over Ukraine, and echo the kind of state pushback seen when protests against government coronavirus policy turned violent in Serbia around the same period.

Tangkuban Perahu Erupts Without Warning

Roughly 3,000 miles east, Tangkuban Perahu — a stratovolcano popular with tourists just outside Bandung — erupted on Friday, July 26, in what geologists classify as a phreatic eruption: a sudden, steam-driven blast rather than a slow-building lava event. The column of ash and smoke reached about 200 meters, coating parked cars, walkways and tourist facilities in gray dust within minutes. Authorities closed the site and evacuated visitors, and the shutdown carried through the weekend as officials assessed whether a second blast was likely.

Taekwondo Ahead of Tokyo 2020

The lighter note in the roundup came from Japan, where taekwondo competitors were caught mid-bout in footage tied to Olympic test events being staged in Tokyo. With the 2020 Summer Games less than a year out, these test competitions double as dry runs for venues, officials and broadcast logistics as much as they do for the athletes themselves.

Moscow’s demonstrators aren’t done — September’s City Duma election, the vote that triggered this entire crackdown, is still on the calendar, and the disqualified candidates haven’t dropped their fight to get back on the ballot.