A Syrian boy sells balloons as the sun sets over the Mediterranean waterfront promenade in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, August 23, 2025. (Photo by Bilal Hussein/AP Photo)

Spectators in colourful attire cheer as the pack of riders (peloton) cycles by during the 14th stage of the 111th edition of the Tour de France cycling race, 151,9 km between Pau and Saint-Lary-Soulan Pla d'Adet, in the Pyrenees mountains in southwestern France, on July 13, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine Poujoulat/AFP Photo)

Ocean Rebellion demonstrators perform on the Albert Embankment, on the final day of the MEPC 82 meetings in London, UK on October 2, 2024. (Photo by Victoria Jones/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

American actress Nicola Peltz poses on the red carpet as she arrives for the world premiere of the movie “Transformers 4: Age of Extinction” in Hong Kong Thursday, June 19, 2014. The latest installment in the blockbuster series of “Transformers” films is making its world premier not in the usual entertainment hubs of Los Angeles or New York but in the wealthy Chinese metropolis of Hong Kong, the latest sign of Hollywood's increasing focus on China's booming film market. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

An alpaca chewing a leaf is pictured on November 18, 2014 in the zoo of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP Photo/DPA)

A military guard observes from a watch tower at the Combinado del Este prison during a media tour in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, April 9, 2013. Cuban authorities led foreign journalists through the maximum security prison, the largest in the Caribbean country that houses 3,000 prisoners. Cuba says they have 200 prisons across the country, including five that are maximum security. (Photo by Franklin Reyes/AP Photo)

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)

Adrienne Sipe (L) and Brooke Gilliam of Washington D.C. leap off a snow podium they made near the U.S. Capitol in Washington February 13, 2014. A deadly and intensifying winter storm packing heavy snow, sleet and rain pelted a huge swath of the U.S. East Coast on Thursday, grounding flights and shuttering schools and government offices. (Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)