Children eat watermelons to meet the “beginning of autumn” at a kindergarten in Handan, China on August 7, 2015. Chinese tradition to eat watermelons or peaches before that day symbolises “biting away summer”. The solar term ‘beginning of autumn’ falls on 8 August this year. (Photo by Xinhua/REX Shutterstock)

First responders work at the site of a deadly bus crash, in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on February 10, 2025. (Photo by Josue Decavele/Reuters)

Disguised revellers parade on the occasion of the Cortege during the Carnival in Basel, Switzerland, February 17, 2016. (Photo by Georgios Kefalas/EPA)

Hindu devotees (not pictured) touch a child with their feet as part of a ritual to bless him during a religious procession held to mark the Gajan festival in Kolkata, India, April 13, 2018. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Tens of thousands of HIV positive prostitutes in the slums of Lagos to ensure a rapid spread of the epidemic. “If you arrive by car, you can smell the HIV virus outside”, joked my driver as we are on track to Badia a criminal slums of Lagos. Badia is a corruption of “Bad Area”. Nigerians have a lack of everything, except black humor. The poor West African country Nigeria, with a population of 140 million people, after India and South Africa the highest number of people with HIV / AIDS. (Photo by Ton Koene/Exclusivepix Media)

Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

A woman holds an elderly woman on her back to cross a flooded street after a heavy rain in Shenyang, Liaoning province on July 14, 2017. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

An Indian Hindu devotee pours milk on a snake as an offering during the annual Nag Panchami festival, dedicated to the worship of snakes outside the Nagvasuki temple, in Allahabad, on July 28, 2017. Officially the snake charmers' profession is banned in India, but many in the country offered prayers and milk blessings to cobras and other deadly serpents on July 28 in an annual tribute. The 800,000 charmers and their young apprentices come to the fore for the Nag Panchami festival which dates back several centuries. (Photo by Sanjay Kanojia/AFP Photo)