Growing cities, overuse of fertilizers and factory wastewater have degraded China's water supplies to the extent that half the nation's rivers and lakes are severely polluted. China aims to spend $850 billion to improve filthy water supplies over the next decade, but even such huge outlays may do little to reverse damage caused by decades of pollution and overuse in Beijing's push for rapid economic growth. Photo: Fishermen row a boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui province, June 19, 2009. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

Andrew Parkinson, animal behaviour category winner: Crepuscular Contentment, Derbyshire. “In 15 years of working with badgers I’ve never seen a badger sit out in the open to have a scratch. I was sat concealed behind a tree and downwind so it was especially nice that the badger had his back to me, demonstrating just how inconspicuous and inconsequential my presence was”. (Photo by Andrew Parkinson/British Wildlife Photography Awards 2017)

A Gnawa traditional group performs in the city of Essaouira on December 14, 2019, to celebrate the decision of adding the Gnawa culture to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Gnawa culture, a centuries-old Moroccan practice rooted in music, African rituals and Sufi traditions, was added to UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity earlier in the week. Gnawa refers to a “set of musical productions, fraternal practices and therapeutic rituals where the secular mixes with the sacred”, according to the nomination submitted by Morocco. Often dressed in colourful outfits, Gnawa musicians play the guenbri, a type of lute with three strings, accompanied by steel castanets called krakebs. (Photo by Fadel Senna/AFP Photo)

Zulu maidens dance during the memorial service for King Goodwill Zwelithini in Nongoma, South Africa, March 18, 2021. King Goodwill Zwelithini died on March 12, 2021 in the eastern city of Durban, aged 72, after weeks of treatment for a diabetes-related illness. (Photo by Phill Magakoe/Pool via Reuters)

If the most popular foods of Rio de Janeiro have one thing in common, it is their informality. You can find fine restaurants in the city, but they do not set Rio apart from other places. What does set it apart, and what invariably brings its residents, known as "Cariocas," together is the unpretentious food they eat in bright, loud, crowded bars and restaurants, on busy street corners, or after a day at the beach. Here: A view of traditional bolinhos de bacalhau (fried codfish balls) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 7, 2016. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

An image produced by the Hubble telescope of the perfectly “edge-on” galaxy, or NGC 4013, March 1, 2001. This new Hubble picture reveals, with great detail, huge clouds of dust and gas extending along, as well as far above, the galaxy's main disk. NGC 4013 is a spiral galaxy, similar to the Milky Way, lying some 55 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major. Viewed face-on, it would look like a nearly circular pinwheel, but NGC 4013 happens to be seen edge-on from our vantage point. Even at 55 million light-years, the galaxy is larger than Hubble's field of view, and the image shows only a little more than half of the object, albeit with unprecedented detail. (Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers)

A Sri Lankan Christian girl wears a Santa hair band and a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus as she arrives at a church to attend the Christmas mass in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, December 25, 2020. (Photo by Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo)

American singer, dancer, and media personality Ashley Roberts seen leaving Glamour Women Of The Year Awards at Outernet on November 08, 2022 in London, England. (Photo by (Photo by TOT/The Mega Agency)