A woman is led aside as her partner is detained by Ukrainian security forces for being aggressive at an army checkpoint in the southeastern port city of Mariupol, on May 11, 2014. Residents’ attitudes appear to have hardened considerably with the deaths of dozens of pro-Russian activists in the city of Odessa this month and with reports that troops fired at a crowd in Mariupol last week. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

Football transfers are not cheap. To have a player strengthen their ranks, teams are willing to pay big money. The football transfer considered to be the most expensive in the sport's history was that of Gareth Bale leaving Tottenham to play at Real Madrid. The Spanish club paid not less than £86 million (about $133 million at today's exchange rates) to have the player among its own. But recent news suggest that this record might be broken this year. According to reports in the media, UK Premier League team Manchester United is willing to almost double that amount.

Members of the Uniao da Ilha do Governador Samba School perform during the first day of the Special Group Samba Schools parade of Carnival at the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 07 February 2016. (Photo by Luiz Eduardo Perez/EPA)

An Israeli missile is launched from the Iron Dome missile system in response to a rocket launch from the nearby Palestinian Gaza Strip, on March 12, 2012 near Ashdod, Israel. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

Bici Palermo Tuning – a group of teenagers from the Sicilian capital Palermo – spend anything up to €1,300 customising their bikes with car batteries and multiple speakers to develop thunderous sound systems. The police are not impressed. (Photo by Matteo de Mayda/Cosimo Bizzari/The Guardian)

An Indian woman reacts while performing yoga at a railway station on International Women's Day, organised by Heal-Station in association with Western Railway, in Mumbai, India, 08 March 2023. (Photo by Divyakant Solanki/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Saudi police officer receives emergency calls at a call center, ahead of the Hajj pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, August 6, 2019. The hajj occurs once a year during the Islamic lunar month of Dhul-Hijja, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar year. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)

“In 1967, Zhang Yaxin was 34 and working as a photojournalist at China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency when he was assigned to a top-secret government project. He was to be the official photographer of a new arts program led by Chairman Mao and his wife – the Model Operas. Though he was not to know it then, Zhang would spend the next seven years documenting the evolution of one of the most dramatic and elaborate attempts to redefine artistic sensibilities in modern art history”. – Chengcheng Jiang via TIME. Photo: Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971. (Photo by Zhang Yaxin/Courtesy See+ Gallery, Beijing)