A devotee of the Chinese Ban Tha Rue shrine walks with guns pierced through his cheeks during a procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand, October 17, 2015. The festival, featuring face-piercing, spirit mediums and strict vegetarianism celebrates the local Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

This photo taken on February 1, 2018 shows a worker trimming the skin imperfections of a silicone doll at a factory of EXDOLL, a firm based in the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian. With China facing a massive gender gap and a greying population, a company wants to hook up lonely men and retirees with a new kind of companion: “Smart” sеx dolls that can talk, play music and turn on dishwashers. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

The worst drought in 40 years has a cruel grip on Somalia. A struggling young government and militant violence have compounded to bring crisis to 6.7 million lives. The town of Baidoa is facing some of the harshest conditions. Surrounded by territory controlled by al-Shabaab militants and amid ongoing attacks, 160,000 people have had to leave their farms and are surviving in camps where hunger, thirst and cholera await them. (Photo by Peter Caton/Mercy Corps)

A patient solves a rubik's cube at a temporary hospital converted from “Wuhan Livingroom” in central China's Hubei Province on February 10, 2020. In face of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, Wuhan authorities have transformed public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into temporary hospitals. The hospitals have a large capacity of treating patients with mild symptoms and play an important role in isolating the source of infection and cutting off the routes of infection during epidemic prevention. The first batch of patients was hospitalized on Feb. 5. (Photo by Chine Nouvelle/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Mayu adjusts Koiku’s kimono, as Koiku wears a protective face mask while posing for a photograph, before they work at a party where they will entertain with other geisha at Japanese luxury restaurant Asada in Tokyo, Japan, June 23, 2020. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Shooting star by Tony Wu, US/Japan. Winner, underwater. The electrifying reproductive dance of a giant sea star. As the surrounding water filled with sperm and eggs from spawning sea stars, Wu faced several challenges. Stuck in a small, enclosed bay with only a macro lens for photographing small subjects, he backed up to squeeze the undulating sea star into his field of view. The dancing posture of spawning sea stars rising and swaying may help release eggs and sperm, or may help sweep the eggs and sperm into the currents where they fertilise together in the water. Kinko Bay, Japan. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Fighting Infections (single image) | Fighting Pandemic by Sudipto Das. “It’s exhausting. A tram conductor in Kolkata, India, wears protective clothing from head to toe even in the heat of a summer afternoon. This was when restrictions were easing after India’s first Covid-19 lockdown – public transport was running, but staff were advised to suit up like this. We’ve all grown used to saluting the efforts of healthcare workers, but plenty of other people in public-facing jobs have performed gruelling duties too to keep people safe”. (Photo by Sudipto Das/Wellcome Photography Prize 2021)

In this Friday, August 9, 2019, file photo, Pakistan Rangers soldiers face Indian Border Security Force soldiers at a daily closing ceremony on the Indian side of the Attari-Wagah border. India's recent clampdown has a long history in Kashmir and the conflict has existed since the late 1940s, when India and Pakistan won independence from the British empire and began fighting over rival claims to the Muslim-majority territory. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three subsequent wars over Kashmir, and each administers a portion of the region. India has long seen the Kashmiri struggle for self-determination as Islamabad's proxy war against New Delhi. (Photo by Prabhjot Gill/AP Photo/File)