Dancing robots, a 14-metre pope and Cop31: Tuesday in pictures

A 14-metre (46ft) statue of Pope Leo XIV was unveiled in the Peruvian port of Callao on Tuesday, commissioned for the pontiff's six-day visit to the country starting Wednesday. The Guardian's picture editors selected it among the day's defining images from around the world.

The giant sculpture marks a homecoming of sorts. Leo spent 20 years working for the Roman Catholic church in Peru, and the statue landed days before his arrival. He is on a 12-day tour of Latin America; a crowd already gathered at Callao's Metropolitan Cathedral awaiting his visit, in a photograph by Matias Martin Campaya for EPA.

Paolo Aguilar's image for EPA shows the unveiling in the port city. It's the clearest example of how the trip is being staged: art at monumental scale, timed to the itinerary.

What did Cop31 produce on day two?

Greta Thunberg spoke to the media at Cop31, the UN climate summit co-hosted by Turkey and Australia. The 23-year-old Swedish activist said the world was 'still speeding in the wrong direction' in the climate crisis. Murad Sezer photographed her for Reuters.

Outside the venue, activists demonstrated against fossil fuels on the summit's second day, in an image by Burak Kara for Getty Images. The protest and the podium message pointed the same way: frustration with the pace of action.

What else made the frame?

• London. A boulder carved with David Attenborough's face was unveiled on Arctic Sunrise, a Greenpeace icebreaker moored on the Thames. The ship has deployed boulder barriers to stop trawler fishing in a protected area of the North Sea. Suzanne Plunkett shot it for Reuters.
• Seoul. Politicians from the ruling Democratic party chanted slogans accusing the opposition People Power party of blocking an investigation into claims the previous administration targeted opponents with fabricated allegations. Yonhap/EPA captured the scene.
• Washington. Abdul El-Sayed and his wife, Sarah Jukaku, arrived at the Capitol as Congress returned following a sweeping Democratic victory in the midterm elections. El-Sayed is the first Muslim to win a US Senate seat. J Scott Applewhite photographed them for AP.
• Istanbul. Construction workers held a minute of silence marking the 88th anniversary of the death of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey. Kadir Arslan shot it for Anadolu/Getty Images.
• Hollywood. Former basketball star Angel McCoughtry arrived for Ebony Power 100 at the Hollywood Palladium, an event honouring black achievement and how black people tell their own stories. Richard Shotwell took the picture for AP.
• Near Seoul. Humanoid robots demonstrated physical AI (machines that sense and act in the physical world), including dance, at an event run by the Galaxy Corporation, an entertainment-focused technology company. Jeon Heon-Kyun photographed it for EPA.

The harder images

Two photographs carried the day's gravest news. Displaced Palestinians gathered at a makeshift distribution point for cooked meals amid severe food shortages in the camp; Hassan Jedi shot it for Anadolu/Getty Images.

In south-eastern Bulgaria, wrecked vehicles lay piled on the Trakia motorway after crashes in thick fog. Eleven people died and dozens were injured in collisions on both sides of the road, with up to 50 cars and lorries involved. Svoboden Glas/Mihail Dinev photographed the wreckage for AFP/Getty Images.

What does the selection tell us?

Taken together, the day's pictures split neatly into two registers: planned spectacle — a papal statue, a carved boulder, dancing robots — and events no one scheduled. The pope's Latin America tour continues through the week, which means the monumental staging in Callao is likely a preview, not a one-off.