Russia's Kamila Valieva performs during the Exhibition Gala at the Rostelecom Cup 2021 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating in Sochi on November 28, 2021. (Photo by Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP Photo)

A four-month-old snow fox cub named “Vesna” (“Spring”) leaps next to a Zoo employee at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, on August 6, 2013. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A protester from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) displays a placard from a bathtub as a people looks on during a demonstration to call on the public to eat more vegetables to save water, in Sao Paulo on August 2, 2016. (Photo by Cris Faga via ZUMA Wire)

Papier-mache sculptures, also known as “ninots”, burn during the “Nit de la Crema” (Fire Night) of the Fallas Festival in Valencia, eastern Spain, 19 March 2024. Fallas is a fortnight-long fiesta in which installations of parodic papier-mache, cardboard, and wooden sculptures are traditionally burnt every year on the last day of the event in the so-called “Crema” to end the festivities. (Photo by Biel Alino/EPA/EFE)

A period of relative stability has put the Iranian capital No1 on the list of world cities that have achieved biggest improvements in liveability over the past five years, as calculated by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The “most improved” top 10 contains some unexpected names. So, eg, the fourth place: Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Latest ranking: 128; Ranking five years ago: 131; Five-year index movement: 3.8%. Here: A supporter of Ivory Coast president Alassane Ouattara campaigns in a market in the city’s Koumassi quarter. (Photo by Sia Kambou/AFP Photo)

In Weronika Gęsicka’s unsettling images, American archive photography gets distorted into scenes that are both nightmarish yet somehow entirely plausible. Gęsicka is a guest artist at the Circulations festival for young European photographers, Paris, until 5 March. Here: “Untitled #5”. (Photo by Weronika Gęsicka/The Guardian)

French artist Gino rides the “Celestial Cyclo” tricycle built by him in Le Marais neighbourhood in Paris, France, August 15, 2015. (Photo by Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

Vietnamese dentist Tran Phuong Thao and her husband Tran Minh Hieu wearing protective masks, kiss at their wedding ceremony during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hanoi, Vietnam on January 28, 2021. (Photo by Kham via Reuters)