A U.S. Navy F18 fighter jet takes off from aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson during a FONOPS (Freedom of Navigation Operation Patrol) in South China Sea, March 3, 2017. The U.S. military took journalists Friday to the carrier on routine patrol off the disputed South China Sea, sending a signal to China and American allies of its resolve to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight in one of the world's security hotspots. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

The Arcaid awards highlight the best architectural photographs of the year – pictures of everything from giant arenas to tiny huts. The shortlisted photographs will be exhibited at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin, from 16 to 18 November, with an overall winner announced during the event’s gala dinner. Here: The stage for Haduwa Arts & Culture Institute, Ghana. Architect: (applied) Foreign Affairs. Nominated in the Sense of Place category. The open-air auditorium of this arts institute in Apam, Ghana, is built from ultra-strong curved bamboo. (Photo by Julien Lanoo)

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from historic launch pad 39-A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, February 6, 2018. The world' s most powerful rocket, SpaceX' s Falcon Heavy, blasted off Tuesday on its highly anticipated maiden test flight, carrying CEO Elon Musk' s cherry red Tesla roadster to an orbit near Mars. Screams and cheers erupted at Cape Canaveral, Florida as the massive rocket fired its 27 engines and rumbled into the blue sky over the same NASA launchpad that served as a base for the US missions to Moon four decades ago. (Photo by Thom Baur/Reuters)

Director Taro Kambe directs as he watches acting with VR headset during a rehearsal for ROCKET's 3D virtual reality adult film at the company's studio in Tokyo, Japan, July 31, 2017. Japan is the world's second biggest virtual reality market after the United States and the adult entertainment industry and gaming sector are turning to VR as a new way to distribute content. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Celebrities including singer Nicole Scherzinger and actor Simon Pegg have been snapped by top photographer Rankin for an Oxfam campaign. All in all, a dozen well-known faces have been captured in various poses to highlight the charity's Lift Lives for Good campaign. The fundraising drive, launched at the start of the year, aims to shine a light on the work done by the charity to help poor people around the world. Photo: Undated handout photo issued by Oxfam of Caroline Flack who took part in a photo shoot with top photographer Rankin for Oxfam's Lift Lives for Good campaign. (Photo by Rankin/PA Wire)

Gers, traditional Mongolian tents, are seen on a hill in an area known as a ger district in Ulan Bator June 26, 2013. Approximately 60 percent of the population of Ulan Bator live in settlements known as ger districts and in many cases residents have limited access to basic services such as water and sanitation. According to a 2010 National Population Center census, every year between thirty and forty thousand people migrate from the countryside to the capital Ulan Bator. Ger districts in the city have been expanding rapidly in recent years. Mongolia is the world's least densely populated country, with 2.8 million people spread across an area around three times the size of France. (Photo by Carlos Barria/Reuters)