A woman walks depicting a scene from the Iranian national epic poem “Shahnameh” in Tehran on August 5, 2025. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

Wearing hats and dancing to Sodapop. As the popularity of “K-Pop Demon Hunters (K-Pop Demon Hunters)” spreads around the world, foreign tourists wearing hats and dancing to the K-Pop Demon Hunters song “Sodapop” are seen in Gwanghwamun, Seoul on the afternoon of the August 29, 2025. (Photo by Park Seong-won)

An aerial view of Syrian people flocked to the streets in the capital Damascus to celebrate US President Donald Trump's decision to lift sanctions in Damascus, Syria on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Amadeusz Mikolaj Swierk/Anadolu via Getty Images)

People use large water guns to spray each other as they celebrate the annual Songkran festival in Bangkok, Thailand on April 14, 2025. Thailand celebrated the Thai traditional New Year, called Songkran in Thai and also known as ëthe water festivalí, on 13 April, with festivities going on on throughout the weekend. During Songkran, people celebrate the New Year by splashing water to each other as a sign of washing away sins and bad luck from the previous year. People across Thailand celebrate the New Year with parties and water related activities throughout the weekend. (Photo by Diego Azubel/Matrix Images)

On the afternoon of the June 12, 2025, a couple wearing black dresses took wedding photos at Dadaepo Beach in Saha-gu, Busan. (Photo by Kim Dong-hwan)

“Hippo Chase”. As we approached the camp the Selinda Reserve of northern Botswana our boat passed by a hippo resting in the water. I turned around to look back at the boat's wake and saw the hippo charging after us! The hippo must've been tired from an all-nighter because he was angry. He rose way up out of the water three times trying to chase our boat! He was coming at us with such force that he created a wake of his own. Photo location: Selinda Reserve of northern Botswana. (Photo and caption by Curtis Simmons/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Double head vulture”. On the day of windy days during raptors migration some people in my country start to catch these tired raptors, so in this day we go to photograph some raptors and we saw these tow tired vultures, so we start to drag them away from the hunters until they reach a good hidden place, to make them safe until they start a new journey. Photo location: Kuwait. (Photo and caption by Mohd Khorshed/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Iraqi Kurdish refugees wait with children in Cukurca refugee camp in Turkey April 8, 1991. Reuters photographers have chronicled Kurdish refugee crises over the years. In 1991 Srdjan Zivulovic documented refugees in Cukurca who had escaped a military operation by Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq aimed at “Arabising” Kurdish areas in the north. Hundreds of thousands fled into Turkey and Iran. Images shot in recent months show familiar scenes as crowds of people flee Islamic State militants in Syria. There are as many as 30 million Kurds, spread through Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but tend to feel more loyalty to their Kurdishness, rather than their religion. (Photo by Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters)