Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that a growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilizations rather than face the hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing. Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing women towards the hard-to-reverse surgery. While no recent national statistics on sterilizations are available, doctors and health workers say demand for the procedure is growing. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

Residents carry their belongings during a fire at Tondo in Manila on November 24, 2024. Raging orange flames and thick black smoke billowed into the sky, as fire ripped through hundreds of houses in a closely built slum area of the Philippine capital Manila. (Photo by Jam Sta Rosa/AFP Photo)

A health worker wearing a protective suit is disinfected inside a portable tent outisee the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center during an enhanced community quarantine to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Manila, Philippines, Monday April 27, 2020. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Seattle Mariners center fielder Julio Rodríguez laughs as teammate Teoscar Hernández douses him as they celebrate a 9-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball game Friday, August 11, 2023, in Seattle. (Photo by Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo)

An Afghan refugee girl shows her younger brother a calf in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, February 6, 2015. (Photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photo)

Children run past used caskets at a crematorium facility in Manila on April 29, 2020. Most of the Philippines is under quarantine to contain the spread of the coronavirus that has infected over 7,000 people and killed at least 500 in the country. (Photo by Maria Tan/AFP Photo)

In this November 18, 2015 photo, 9-year-old Mahiro Takano, center, three-time Japan karate champion in her age group practices in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, north of Tokyo. Mahiro stars in singer Sia's latest music video "Alive", the just-released single from the singer's upcoming album. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

A Burmese monk feeds the seagulls at a Yangon river jetty February 8, 2012 in Yangon, Myanmar. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)