Mount Agung's eruption is seen next to a Balinese temple at Kubu sub-district in Karangasem Regency on Indonesia's resort island of Bali on November 26, 2017. Indonesia authorities raised the alert for the rumbling volcano to highest level on Monday and closed the international airport on tourist island of Bali stranding thousands of travelers. (Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP Photo)

Members of the samba school of the Grupo Especial Independencia Tricolor participate in the carnival celebration at the Anhembi sambodrome in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 09 February 2018. (Photo by Sebastiao Moreira/EPA/EFE)

A young woman wearing a t-shirt reading “p*ssy Power” takes part in a rally, demonstrating against gender violence and calling for gender parity on March 8, 2018 in Milan, Italy. International Women's Day is a global day observed on March 8 every year, celebrating the social and political achievements of women. (Photo by Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images)

Kim Kardashian west and Madonna backstage at MDNA SKIN hosts Madonna and Kim Kardashian West for a beauty conversation at YouTube Space LA on March 6, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Madonna's MDNA SKIN)

English actor Emma D’Arcy, English film and television director of Argentine origin, and former storyboard artist Miguel Sapochnik, and Australian actress Milly Alcock pose with the award for Best Television Series in Drama for “House of the Dragon” at the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, California, U.S., January 10, 2023. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)

A Saudi woman shops for Ramadan decorations to mark the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan in a local market in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on March 22, 2023. (Photo by Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)