A Soyuz MS-11 rocket carrying Russian, American and Canadian astronauts takes off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on December 3, 2018 before reached orbit later, the first manned mission since a failed launch in October. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP Photo)

The British Ecological Society has announced the winners of its annual photography competition, Capturing Ecology. Taken by international ecologists and students, the winning images will be exhibited at the society’s joint annual meeting in Ghent in December. Here: Overall runner-up; Toucan, Mark Tatchell. (Photo by Mark Tatchell/British Ecological Society)

Qian Hao's imported Pekingese dog, Mixiu, runs in a park in Beijing, China, February 8, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

People take pictures of the sun rising next to the buildings of the banking district in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, December 28, 2019. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Emmy Award-winning American news anchor Lauren Sanchez attends the Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Saloon on May 19, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Broadimage/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Thai Yoga enthusiast performs during a mass yoga exercise in Bangkok, Thailand, 16 June 2019. Hundreds of Thai and foreign Yoga enthusiasts took part in the mass Yoga exercise organized by the Indian embassy to mark the International Day of Yoga which annually celebrated on 21 June. (Photo by Rungroj Yongrit/EPA/EFE)

A man reacts as he tries to extinguish a burning Christmas tree at Festival Walk mall in Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong, November 12, 2019. Anti-government protesters smashed windows and set fires in the mall on Tuesday, including to a big Christmas tree. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

The civilised world lies on its knees, a sickness wracking its body. The affliction causes a necrotising of tissues so perfectly uniform in distribution that victims take on the appearance of corpses long before death occurs due to organ failure or secondary infections. ...