An eight-week-old sea otter rescued from Seldovia, Alaska, peaks out of his enclosure at Shedd Aquarium Wednesday, December 6, 2023, in Chicago. The otter was found alone and malnourished and was taken to the Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, Alaska, which contacted Shedd, and the Chicago aquarium was able to take the otter in. He will remain quarantined for a few months while he learns to groom and eat solid foods before being introduced to Shedd's five other sea otters. (Photo by Erin Hooley/AP Photo)

Supporters of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro take part in a rally in support of the government in Caracas, Venezuela on May 20, 2019. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

Policemen detain topless activists of women's rights group Femen, who stage a performance during a protest against Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the government while marking the Day of Dignity and Freedom near the presidential administration headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine November 21, 2017. (Photo by Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters)

Vendors warm themselves as they light a bonfire at a market during a nationwide power outage, in Muzaffarabad on January 23, 2023. A massive power breakdown in Pakistan on January 23 affected most of the country's more than 220 million people, including in the mega cities of Karachi and Lahore. (Photo by Sajjad Qayyum/AFP Photo)

A vervet monkey passes in front of a woman on the shores of lake Naivasha, Kenya January 24, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A nun checks her mobile phone as she lies near a victim laid on a ladder following an earthquake in Amatrice Italy, Wednesday, August 24, 2016. The magnitude 6 quake struck at 3:36 a.m. (01:36 GMT) and was felt across a broad swath of central Italy, including Rome where residents of the capital felt a long swaying followed by aftershocks. (Photo by Massimo Percossi/ANSA via AP Photo)

Nine years ago, Tom Carter traveled from San Francisco to China, responding to a job posting that turned out to be a scam. He managed to find another job as a teacher, and saved enough money to embark on a 56,000 km trip through all of China's 33 provinces that lasted two years. Carrying a camera – just a a 4-megapixel point-and-shoot – Carter captured some amazing images of the widely varying landscape, people, and architecture across the nation. Photo: Buddhist pilgrim family from Sichuan. (Photo by Tom Carter via The Atlantic)