A brown bear waits for food at the zoo in Madrid, Spain on July 30, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Sanz/Pacific Press/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Revellers get into the spirit of the 40th annual Zomercarnaval – summer carnival – in Rotterdam on July 28, 2024. The two-day event is such in integral part of Netherlands tradition it was added to Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list last year. (Phoot by James Petermeier/ZUMA Press Wire)

Tanzania, 1964. A touching moment between primatologist and National Geographic grantee Jane Goodall and young chimpanzee Flint at Tanzania's Gombe Stream Reserve. (Photo by Hugo van Lawick via National Geographic)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

“Early morning in Mandawa, rural Rajasthan: it was the morning of Diwali and the streets were swept by smiling women in brightly coloured sarees as I took an early morning cup of chai. Celebrations started later, when darkness fell”. (Photo by Hamish Scott-Brown/Guardian Witness)

A female participant of the Bela Negara – “defend the nation” – programme applies camouflage face paint on another participant's face at a training centre in Rumpin, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia June 2, 2016. (Photo by Darren Whiteside/Reuters)

Beyonce and Jay-Z leave Rihanna's 3rd Annual Diamond Ball at Cipriani Wall Street on September 14, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by James Devaney/GC Images)

In this January 24, 2017 photo, boxer Idamerys Moreno wraps a bandage on her hand before a training session at a sports center in Havana, Cuba. Boxing has long been an athletic engine for Cuba, which has won 72 Olympic medals in that category but women are not allowed to box. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)