In this photo taken on Friday, July 14, 2017, a student at a paramilitary camp for children calls the rank to attention outside Kiev, Ukraine. As the deadly conflict in eastern Ukraine entered its third year, some parents in Ukraine are anxious to make sure their children are ready to fight it, instead of swimming and playing volleyball. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Is it a leaf? Is it tree bark? No, it’s the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Cleverly disguised as a rotting leaf, Madagascar’s camouflage king has red eyes, pointy horns and a taste for night hunting: it’s nature’s most devilish deceiver. The twisted body and veiny skin echo the detail of a dry leaf, which ensures the gecko blends in with its forest home. The mottled tail appears to have sections missing, as though it has withered over time. This mini-monster epitomises survival of the fittest, having adapted gradually to become today’s extraordinary leaf impersonator. (Photo by Thomas Marent/ARDEA)

A Palestinian boy, who was displaced by Israel's military offensive with his family on south Gaza, holds a cat as he attempts to return to his home in north Gaza through an Israeli checkpoint, in the central Gaza Strip, on April 15, 2024. (Photo by Ramadan Abed/Reuters)

An aerial photo shows a general view of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, in Shanghai on October 9, 2024. (Photo by Jade Gao/AFP Photo)

Apples are collected from an orchard in Somerset. UK for the cider company on August 20, 2025. Thatchers, marking its earliest harvest in more than 120 years thanks to a hot summer. (Photo by Brad Wakefield)

A pupil arrives on the first day of school at Yas American Academy in Abu Dhabi in the last decade of August 2025. (Photo by Victor Besa/The National)

A machine assembles powder, cartridges and bullets tips together to make 300 AAC Blackouts at Barnes Bullets in Mona, Utah, January 6, 2015. (Photo by George Frey/Reuters)

M42 Subtle V1 cropped. One of the most well-known astronomical objects in our universe is the Orion Nebula and this image depicts the wider region of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex that is its home. This complex also includes another popular target for astrophotographers, the Horsehead Nebula, as well as Barnard’s Loop and the Running Man Nebula, which can be seen to the left of this photograph. (Photo by Patrick Gilliland)