In this photograph taken on October 4, 2016, an Afghan baker prepares bread at his shop as he waits for customers in Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province. For years Helmand was the centerpiece of the Western military intervention in Afghanistan only for it to slip deeper into a quagmire of instability, with almost the entire southern province teetering on the verge of collapse. Intensified fighting has killed hundreds and forced thousands to flee to besieged capital Lashkar Gah, sparking a humanitarian crisis as the city – one of the last government- held enclaves – risks falling to the Taliban' s repeated ferocious assaults. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

A view shows a damaged road after floods caused by torrential rain, in Kumamura, Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, July 8, 2020. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A Palestinian holding a weapon takes cover between buildings amid clashes with Israeli troops during an Israeli raid in Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on June 13, 2023. (Photo by Raneen Sawafta/Reuters)

People light fireworks to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in New Delhi, India on November 12, 2023. (Photo by Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters)

In more “raccoons are getting more like us” news, a drunk raccoon was found in a liquor store in Virginia, US in the first decade of December 2025. The animal had got into the shop via some loose ceiling tiles, knocked bottles of spirits off the shelves, lapped up the contents and passed out in the toilets. Once it had sobered up, it was released back into the wild – no doubt with a crashing hangover. (Photo by AP Photo)

A rebel fighter carries his weapon as he moves through a hole in a wall in the old city of Aleppo near the frontline against forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad December 28, 2014. (Photo by Jalal Al-Mamo/Reuters)

Jenifer Lopez, 12, watches television at her home in Havana January 9, 2015. (Photo by Alexandre Meneghini/Reuters)

Friends and relatives mourn by the coffin during the wake for Florjohn Cruz, who was killed in a police drugs buy-bust operation, in Manila, Philippines late October 20, 2016. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)