Patients from Rady Children's Hospital hug a bottlenose dolphin after being invited to swim and interact with dolphins at Sea World in San Diego, California August 27, 2015. Sea World has hosted Dolphin Interaction Program for seven years. It was started by dolphin trainer Joy Soto who battled and overcame non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

General views of atmosphere during the Regatta Storica during the 72nd Venice Film Festival on September 7, 2015 in Venice, Italy. (Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

Despite any political differences between the United States and Russia, the space agencies of the two countries continue their cooperative work in Earth's orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Apart from the research being done in microgravity, ISS crew members continue to send back amazing images of our home world, photographed from low Earth orbit. Gathered here are recent images of Earth from aboard the ISS, and from a handful of other NASA satellites.

BAZ-69092-012 special wheeled chassis. Exhibition of military vehicles at Bronnitsy test range (a town in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 54.5 kilometers (33.9 mi) southeast of central Moscow). Juny 10, 2011. (Photo by Vitaly Kuzmin)

Judson Huss (8 May 1942 – 25 July 2008), born Clifford Judson Huss, was an American-born painter and sculptor of fantastic art. Photo: Judson Huss – “Summer” (please click to enlarge).

North Kenya, Liboi. A young Somali refugee crosses a field filled with marabous storks in July 1992. (Photo by Jean-Claude Coutausse)

“The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the “death strip”) that contained anti-vehicle trenches, “fakir beds” and other defenses. The Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the “will of the people” in building a socialist state in East Germany. However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period”. – Wikipedia

Photo: West Berlin policemen and East German Volkspolizei face each other across the border in Berlin, circa 1955. (Photo by Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)