A robot named Nia from Beijing Qingfei Technologies Co. Ltd greets visitors to the Zhongguancun Forum at the Zhongguancun International Innovation Center in Beijing, China, Friday, March 28, 2025. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Jasmine Paolini hits a forehand during her first-round US Open match on Sunday, August 24, 2025 at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Ray Giubilo)

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)

Space shuttle Atlantis launches from pad 39A on July 8, 2011 at the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The launch of Atlantis, STS-135, is the final flight of the shuttle program, a 12-day mission to the International Space Station. (Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images)

Porcelain Black performs during the ' I Am Still Music' Tour at the Wells Fargo Center on March 26, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Carlos Boozer #5 of the Chicago Bulls grabs a rebound next to David West #30 of the New Orleans Hornets at the United Center on March 7, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls defeated the Hornets 85-77.

Adam Ghiggio from Australia poses next to mutant mannequins which are lined up to be used as displays for the new video game “Rage” at the Los Angeles Convention Center on June 5, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. The Electronic Entertainment Expo officially starts on Tuesday. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)