Planned improvements to Rio’s favelas have meant increases in rent, forcing the poorest families into squatting in unoccupied buildings. Photographer Tariq Zaidi visits the Mangueira community favela, less than 1km from the showpiece Maracanã stadium, to see what life is like for the women living there. Here: Victoria, 12, at her home in Mangueira. (Photo by Tariq Zaidi/The Guardian)

The fourth annual BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition aims to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth, and encourages people to protect and conserve it. Here: “The Salmon Catchers”. Terrestrial Wildlife. To capture this view of a mother grizzly bear and her cub, photographer Peter Mather set up a camera trap on a log that he knew the bears tended to traverse while fishing for salmon, in the Yukon River watershed in Canada. (Photo by Peter Mather/BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition 2017)

A horse pulls a driving school car as other drivers push their vehicles behind during a demonstration by driving instructors in Belgrade, September 25, 1992. Due to gasoline shortage in the Yugoslav capital, driving instructors are staying away from work. (Photo by AP Photo)

Star Wars collector James Burns, 44, poses for a photograph with some of his collection in London December 2, 2015. He said “I've met so many wonderful people, all over the world. It's a wonderful community of likeminded people with an interest in Star Wars. There's nothing else like it”. (Photo by Paul Hackett/Reuters)

A group of tattooed women from the Muun tribe who inhabit the hills of the Arakan state. The design, known as the letter B-pattern, is common in the Mindat area. It is composed of dots, lines and occasionally circles, in February, 2015, in Myanmar, Burma. With spider webs, B-patterns and crossed lines painstakingly inked on their faces these stunning photographs show the tattooed women of Burma. French photographer Eric Lafforgue travelled to the Chin, Rakhine and Arakan states of northwestern Myanmar to capture the rare facial designs. (Photo by Eric Lafforgue/Barcroft Media)

In this March 3, 2015 photo, a group of California sea lions rest on a large bouy in the San Ignacio lagoon, in the Pacific Ocean, near Guerrero Negro, in Mexico's Baja California peninsula. (Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills/AP Photo)

A visitor poses with artist Joyce Pensato's artwork “Mickey for Micky” at the Frieze Art Fair in London, October 14, 2014. (Photo by Luke MacGregor/Reuters)

Extraordinary tales of everyday heroism have been illustrated beautifully by renowned US photographer Steve McCurry in the new 2015 Lavazza Calendar. The calendar which has been created in collaboration with the Slow Food movement, features twelve breathtaking pictures, capturing the spirit, strength and humanity of the Earth Defenders – women and men who protect their land and projects in Africa with passion and bravery. The proceeds from sales of the calendar and all donations will be contributed entirely to create 10,000 food gardens in African schools and villages by the end of 2016. (Photo by Steve McCurry/2015 Lavazza Calendar)