With the world feeling more distant than ever, photographers were this year called on to translate their vision of the new humanity into images seen through their own eyes. Here: May. (Photo by Ami Vitale/2021 Lavazza Calendar)

When you think of the People's Liberation Army, you probably don't think of line dancing. But the Chinese military's latest online recruiting video makes a soldier's life look more fun than the macarena. The brief spot, posted last week on the website of the Ministry of National Defense and going viral, features tanks and fighter jets, as well as soldiers dancing in rows to a quirky hit tune by the Chopsticks Brothers called “Little Apple”. Its lyrics include, “You are my little dear little apple/I can never stop loving you”.

A person dressed as an astronaut walks past a man stopping traffic on a pedestrian crossing outside the Sydney Exhibition Centre September 13, 2014 where the science-fiction convention called “Oz Comic-Con” is currently being held. The two-day convention showcases “pop culture”, and includes appearances by actors from science-fiction movies and television shows. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A combination photo shows some of the colourful doors seen in Rabat's Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas, September 2014. UNESCO made Rabat a World Heritage Site two years ago and media and tour operators call it a “must-see destination”. But it seems the tourist hordes have yet to find out. While visitors are getting squeezed through the better-known sites of Marrakesh and Fez, the old part of Rabat - with its beautiful Medina and Kasbah of the Udayas - remains an almost unspoiled oasis of calm. Smaller and more compact, its labyrinths of streets, passages and dead ends are a treasure trove of shapes and colours, of moments begging to be caught by the photographer's lens. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A boy crawls under a cow during a religious ceremony celebrating the Tihar festival, also called Diwali, in Kathmandu, October 23, 2014. Hindus all over Nepal are celebrating the festival during which they worship cows, which are considered a maternal figure, and other animals. Also known as the festival of lights, devotees worship the goddess of wealth Laxmi by illuminating and decorating their homes using garlands, oil lamps, candles and colourful light bulbs. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

People leave a giant air purifier, which its inventor calls a “super tree”, in Lima's district of Jesus Maria November 24, 2014. In Peru's notoriously polluted capital Lima, local inventor Jorge Gutierrez, a retired naval engineer, is deploying the giant air purifiers that double as billboards to suck up carbon dioxide and dangerous levels of smog. (Photo by Mariana Bazo/Reuters)