Despite any political differences between the United States and Russia, the space agencies of the two countries continue their cooperative work in Earth's orbit, aboard the International Space Station. Apart from the research being done in microgravity, ISS crew members continue to send back amazing images of our home world, photographed from low Earth orbit. Gathered here are recent images of Earth from aboard the ISS, and from a handful of other NASA satellites.

North Korea has closed its borders in fear of the spread of the Ebola virus. But at a time when the secretive state was still welcoming tourists, former aid worker Andrew Macleod made the journey to the repressive nation. Andrew's holiday snaps and camera footage provide a unique insight into the reclusive country, where he came across deserted motorways, metro stations plastered with propaganda and attractive border guards. Here: a female traffic police officer in the snow in February 2013, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo by Andrew Macleod/Barcroft Media)

Technicians check a CRH high-speed train at Shanghai Hongqiao High-speed train base on December 28, 2011 in Shanghai, China. China's railway stations have started today to sell tickets for the 2012 Spring Festival travel season scheduled to run between January 8th and February 16th, centred around the Chinese New Year which this year falls on January 23rd. (Photo by ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images)

Policemen take pictures of the Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft while it is transported from an assembling hangar to its launch pad at the Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, July 20, 2015. The Soyuz is scheduled to blast off with Kjell Lindgren of the U.S., Kimiya Yui of Japan and Oleg Kononenko of Russia to the International Space Station on July 23, 2015. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

Tom Nevins guts a feral pig sow during hunting on Silver Plains Station on October 8, 2011 outside of Coen, Australia. Feral pigs are recognised as environmental and agricultural pests reported to have a population of up to 23.5 million over around half of Australia. The Cooktown Hog Hunt is held annually with this year's hunting window open from registration at 2pm on Friday to the end of weigh in at 2pm on Sunday afternoon. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

An opposition supporter gestures with a knife during clashes with police in Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya on October 26, 2017. Kenyans trickled into polling stations today for a repeat election that has polarised the nation, amid sporadic clashes as supporters of opposition leader ignored his call to stay away and tried to block voting. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

Jonny Joo, 23, visits derelict malls, stations, towers and other places because they remind him of Silent Hill – a psychological horror video game which was made into a film. “When I first started exploring places, so many would remind me of the game. It was a world I was kind of obsessed with because of how dark and eerie it looked”, Joo said. His book, titled “Empty Spaces”, will feature 116 images and is being released this week. Photo: A glass-walled corridor at Cleveland's abandoned aquarium in Ohio. (Photo by Jonny Joo/Barcroft Media)

Qiandao Lake (Chinese: 千島湖, lit. Thousand Island Lake), a man-made lake located in Chun'an County, Zhejiang, China, formed after the completion of the Xin'an River hydroelectric station in 1959. 1,078 large islands dot the lake and a few thousand smaller ones are scattered across it. The lake covers an area of 573 km² and has a storage capacity of 17.8 km³. The islands in the lake cover about 86 km²