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 woman wearing traditional Chinese costumes holds two snake figurines as she poses for a photo by Houhai Lake in Beijing on January 26, 2025, ahead of the Lunar New Year of the Snake which falls on January 29. (Photo by Pedro Pardo/AFP Photo)

An American white pelican takes flight on the island of Petatan in the municipality of Cojumatlan de Regules, Michoacan state, Mexico on February 23, 2024. The island becomes home to the pelicans during the winter, when they travel from the north of the United States and the south of Canada to the warmer waters of Lake Chapala in Mexico. The birds are a tourist attraction and people gather on the island's boardwalk to feed them and watch them fly. (Photo by Enrique Castro/AFP Photo)

Students of Rabindrabharati University apply colour dust or Gulal on each other during a celebration the festival of colour Holi in Kolkata, Eastern India, 23 March 2024. Holi, also known as the Festival of Colors, is an ancient Hindu festival symbolizing the victory of good over evil and marking the arrival of spring. It is observed with joyful gatherings during which revelers cover each other in colored powders. (Photo by Piyal Adhikary/EPA/EFE)

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)

Children in Hiroshima, Japan, wearing masks to combat the odour of death after the city was destroyed by the first atom bomb. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images). 1945

“The Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility (PUMA) is an experimental electrically powered road vehicle created by Segway and adopted by General Motors as a concept vehicle representing the future of urban transportation. It operates on two wheels placed side-by-side, a layout that differs in placement from motorcycles which instead have their two wheels placed at the front and rear”. – Wikipedia

The Project P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility) prototype is displayed for the media April 7, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Elvis Presley impersonator Sean Wright poses next to the Elvis Express train at Sydney's Central station before it departs for the 26th annual Elvis Festival being held in the New South Wales town of Parkes in Australia, January 11, 2018. (Photo by Daniel Munoz/Reuters)