Darth Mykolaiovych Vader, who is dressed as the “Star Wars” character Darth Vader, poses for a picture as he dries his mask and helmet with a hairdryer in the bathroom of his apartments in Odessa, Ukraine, December 2, 2015. Darth Vader was bent on galactic domination, but his Ukrainian namesake enjoys more mundane pursuits: local politics, walking the family dog and a spot of embroidery. The Ukrainian citizen, who has changed his name to Darth Mykolaiovych Vader, ran for the post of local mayor in October, his political backers dressed as Stormtroopers. In his trademark black outfit, he is a regular sight around Odessa, a major port city on southern Ukraine's Black Sea coast. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

The Rio de Janeiro Olympics kick off on August 5 for some two weeks of competitive games drawing athletes as well as audiences from around the world. As they prepare to cover the event, Reuters photographers look back on their favourite pictures from past Olympics where they captured the action on the ground as well as the participants' tears and joy that followed. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

In this March, 2015 photo, a person sits at an upright piano that had been hauled up to Topanga Lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas, Calif. For a couple of days last week, a Southern California hilltop was alive with the sound of mystery. Hikers venturing to Topanga Lookout found a battered upright piano sitting on a graffiti-scrawled concrete slab with a panoramic view over the mountains between Calabasas and the Pacific Ocean. Turns out, the piano was used for a music video by Seattle-based artist Rachel Wong. The cinematographer, Michael Flotron, says he and four others used a dolly and rope to haul the 350-pound instrument a mile up the trail on Tuesday. After the shoot, it was too dark to get the piano back down. Flotron says people seem happy to leave it there. But if necessary, he'll haul the piano back down. (Photo by Michael Flotron/AP Photo)

Bride Katty Malang Mikunug with friends, takes a photo before the wedding on October 21, 2017 in Saguiaran in Lanao del Sur, southern Philippines. Paulo Mamayo Ambor, 22, a resident of Marawi who got displaced by the fighting between government troops and IS-inspired militants, weds Katty Malang Mikunug, 22, a resident of an adjacent town in Saguiaran. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte declared Marawi liberated, following the death of Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon and one of the Maute brothers, Omar Maute, after nearly five months of fierce urban battle inside the besieged city. The fighting started May 23, and left more than 1,000 people dead, whilst displacing at least 400,000 people. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)

A Palestinian fisherman casts his net as he stands along the beach in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 14, 2019. The Israeli government said late on June 12 that the fishing zone off the coast of Gaza had been closed, in retaliation for the launch of incendiary balloons from the Palestinian enclave. The move came after COGAT said on Tuesday it had reduced the extent of the fishing zone to six nautical miles offshore from 10 nautical miles, having downscaled it from 15 nautical miles a week ago. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP Photo)

Hamar women dance before a bull jumping ceremony in Ethiopia's southern Omo Valley region near Turmi on September 19, 2016. The Hamar are a Nilotic ethnic group in Ethiopia. The construction of the Gibe III dam, the third largest hydroelectric plant in Africa, and large areas of very “thirsty” cotton and sugar plantations and factories along the Omo river are impacting heavily on the lives of tribes living in the Omo Valley who depend on the river for their survival and way of life. (Photo by Carl De Souza/AFP Photo)

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

In this photograph taken on October 4, 2016, an Afghan baker prepares bread at his shop as he waits for customers in Lashkar Gah, the capital city of Helmand province. For years Helmand was the centerpiece of the Western military intervention in Afghanistan only for it to slip deeper into a quagmire of instability, with almost the entire southern province teetering on the verge of collapse. Intensified fighting has killed hundreds and forced thousands to flee to besieged capital Lashkar Gah, sparking a humanitarian crisis as the city – one of the last government- held enclaves – risks falling to the Taliban' s repeated ferocious assaults. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)