A statue of a Japanese Akita dog named “Hachiko” wearing a face mask is seen near Shibuya Station Wednesday, April 8, 2020, in Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for Tokyo and six other prefectures to ramp up defenses against the spread of the new coronavirus. Hachiko has waited for his owner University of Tokyo Prof. Eizaburo Ueno at the same place by the station every afternoon, expecting him to return home for nearly 11 years even after Ueno's death at work. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

A woman wearing a protective mask is seen behind a girl dressed in a Plague Doctor Mask in Western-Ukrainian city of Lviv, Ukraine, 22 March 2020. Ukrainian Designer Anastasia Markovska sewed protective masks looking like Plague Doctor Masks, the traditional costume of Venice Carnival, for herself and her friends due to the ongoing pandemic of the COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. In Ukraine had been 47 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19, including three deaths and one recovery as Ukraine's Health Ministry announced. (Photo by Pavlo Palamarchuk/EPA/EFE)

Palestinians inspect a destroyed street after an Israeli strike in Gaza City, 13 May 2021. In response to days of violent confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in Jerusalem, various Palestinian militants factions in Gaza launched rocket attacks since 10 May that killed at least six Israelis to date. Gaza Strip's health ministry said that at least 65 Palestinians, including 13 children, were killed in the recent retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. Hamas confirmed the death of Bassem Issa, its Gaza City commander, during an airstrike. (Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA/EFE)

“Hey! I'm Thomas Shahan, an artist and macrophotographer from Oklahoma. In my spare time over the past few years, I've been shooting portraiture of local arthropods. Why would I devote countless hours to tramping through forests, fields and the like searching for insects and spiders? Well, despite some common beliefs, arthropods (members of the phylum Arthropoda – insects, spiders, crustaceans...) represent an endlessly varied, wildly beautiful and fascinating bunch of animals with surprisingly personable faces and behavior. Often, all it takes is simply inspecting their lives on a closer level to turn repulsion to reverence”. – Thomas Shahan

Photo: Adult Male Jumping Spider at Sunset – Phidippus mystaceus. (Photo by Thomas Shahan; Source: Flickr)

Highly commended birds : Crested guan by Tim Hunt (UK). ‘This photo shows a crested guan in the cloud forests of Costa Rica as it pauses while foraging on a lone branch. Due to the clouds that are so typical for this habitat, I could often only photograph the bird’s silhouette against a grey sky. But then, for a short moment only, the sun broke through the clouds, and I overexposed the image by over two stops in order to blow out the background and allow this beautifully marked bird to stand out’. (Photo by Tim Hunt/GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015)

From house breaking in Johannesburg to hippos on the loose in Tbilisi to rioters attacking a policewoman in Burundi, Reuters photographers tell the story behind some of the most iconic pictures of the year. Here: Protesters drag a female police officer accused of shooting a protester in the Buterere neighbourhood of Bujumbura, Burundi, May 12, 2015. Goran Tomasevic: Protesters started throwing stones at a group of police, who then started to run away. The policewoman in the photo, Medikintos Inabeza, 33, got left behind and then some protesters started to push her, saying that she had shot a female protestor in the stomach with an AK47 rifle. I didn't see anything of that. There were 5 or 10 protesters pushing the policewoman at first, then others came and joined in. Up to 20 or 30 protesters were surrounding her at one point. The protesters kicked and beat her very badly; I also saw a couple of knives. I thought they were going to kill her... (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Crowds look on as Xolo the Giant Dog, one of the giant Royal De Luxe street puppets taking part in Liverpool's World War I centenary commemorations, walks through the streets of Liverpool on July 25, 2014 in Liverpool, England. French street theatre company Royal de Luxe are putting on a show throughout the city as part of Liverpool's World War I centenary commemorations from July 23-27. The giant puppet grandmother has slept in the hall for two days as part of “Memories of August 1914”. As the giants tour the city the Little Girl Giant and her dog Xolo will meet up with the giant Grandmother telling the story of life leading up to World War One. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Former Division I volleyball star Kayla Simmons in the second decade of July 2023 wowed her fans in a stunning bikini snap on social media. Kayla has been called the world's sexiest volleyball star. (Photo by @kaylasimmmons/Instagram)