Xiren Wang, Lili Wat, and Sitong Chen join the pageant’s opening routine, dancing to “The Boys”, a song by K-Pop group «Girls’ Generation». While the women come from a range of professional backgrounds – including economics, nursing, and acting – every contestant is looking for her big break into the entertainment industry. Most contestants said they would prefer to have a career in the U.S. but would go wherever the opportunity lies. (Photo and caption by John Brecher/Sahra Vang Nguyen/NBC News)

People dressed in traditional costumes sing Christmas carols as they gather to celebrate Orthodox Christmas at a compound of the National Architecture museum in Kyiv, Ukraine on January 7, 2022. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

This photo taken on July 19, 2020 shows a security guard looking at his smartphone while water is released from the Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydropower project on the Yangtze river, to relieve flood pressure in Yichang, central China's Hubei province. Rising waters across central and eastern China have left over 140 people dead or missing, and floods have affected almost 24 million since the start of July, according to the ministry of emergency management. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

A model wears a creation as part of the Mugler Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2023 collection presented in Paris, Thursday, January 26, 2023. (Photo by Thibault Camus/AP Photo)

Handout photo provided by ParalympicsGB of Piers Gilliver competing in the Individual Sabre A - Men event during day six of the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. (Photo by ParalympicsGB/PA Wire)

Police officers intervene as a man attempts to hang himself during a protest to oppose the sharing of river water with a neighboring state, in Bengaluru, India on September 26, 2023. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A fisherman sorts his fishing net at Kedonganan beach in Bali, Indonesia, 08 November 2024. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on 05 November 2024 has issued a policy that will grant debt relief to fishermen and farmers, by canceling non-performing loans for micro, small, and medium enterprises in the fisheries, agriculture and maritime sectors. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)