Associated Press photographer Wong Maye-E tries to get her North Korean subjects to open up as much as is possible in an authoritarian country with no tolerance for dissent and great distrust of foreigners. She has taken dozens of portraits of North Koreans over the past three years, often after breaking the ice by taking photos with an instant camera and sharing them. Her question for everyone she photographs: What is your motto? Their answers reflect both their varied lives and the government that looms incessantly over all of them. (Photo by Wong Maye-E/AP Photo)

A falla damaged by yesterday's heavy rains is pictured during the Fallas festival in Valencia on September 2, 2021. In Valencia, yesterday's deluge of water disturbed the organization of the Fallas, the major festival in the region featuring parades of floats and giant cardboard sculptures, postponed from March to September due to the pandemic. (Photo by Jose Jordan/AFP Photo)

Shiite Muslims gather, albeit in fewer numbers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at the Imam Ali shrine in the central Iraqi holy city of Najaf late on May 16, 2020, to mark Lailat al-Qadr, a night in the holy month of Ramadan during which the Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed in the seventh century. Worshippers placed copies of the Koran on their heads to convey veneration during the overnight prayers in a centuries-old ritual, as they pleaded to God to rid them of the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Haidar Hamdani/AFP Photo)

A cyclist rides the path around Lake Harriet on Memorial Day in Minneapolis on Monday, May 25, 2020. The area around the Lake Harriet Bandshell was busy but not crowded on Memorial Day evening. (Photo by Jeff Wheeler/Star Tribune via AP Photo)

Drag performer Maxi Shield chats to her online audience on May 18, 2020 in Sydney, Australia. Drag performer Maxi Shield started hosting a live instagram chat show “Maxi's Couch Potato” as a way to keep performing and connected with fans on social media after perfomance venues were closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Photo by Don Arnold/Getty Images)

A resident receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a rural village on December 01, 2021 in Aringay, La Union province, Philippines. The Philippines is rushing to vaccinate its population as it mulls making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory and amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country, which has just approved booster shots for its adult population, launched a three-day national vaccination holiday on November 29 to December 1 with the goal of vaccinating at least nine million additional people. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Battersea Power Station Ice Rink in London, United Kingdom on November 13, 2022. Running until 8th Jan. 2023, a large outdoor ice-rink outside the power station and next to the riverside brings in festive Christmas fun with vivid illumination. (Photo by Guy Corbishley/Alamy Live News)

Members of Uganda Soft Ground Wrestling perform for attendees during the third day of Nyege Nyege Festival in Jinja, on November 16, 2024. The four-day popular Nyege Nyege Festival in Jinja, Uganda, gathers over 10,000 revelers and artists from across Africa for a celebration of music and culture, though it has faced criticism from some religious leaders who view it as morally controversial. (Photo by Badru Katumba/AFP Photo)