A person is detained after a shooting incident of Slovak PM Robert Fico, after a Slovak government meeting in Handlova, Slovakia, on May 15, 2024. (Photo by Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters)

Some are in it just for the money, others to help buy a meal. Then there are those who trade for fun or to spend time among friends. Millions of investors – pensioners, security guards, high-school students – dominate China's stock markets, conducting about 80 percent of all trades. Retirees gather in brokerage houses dotted around China also to enjoy some company and savour the air conditioning on hot days. Some start as young as 13, trading from home with an eye on future careers in finance. Winning isn't guaranteed. This year, among the most turbulent in China's financial history, its stock markets more than doubled in the six months to May, only to crash amid concerns that growth in the country, which makes everything from cars to steel, is slowing faster than previously thought. (Photo by Aly Song/Reuters)

A Hindu holy man or Sadhu walks back to his ashram after taking a dip at Sangam, confluence of Ganges river, Yamuna river and mythical Saraswati river in Allahabad, India, Thursday, August 4, 2016. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

A kingfisher plunged into the water in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK in the first decade of June 2025, to grab a fish for lunch – but its prey twisted free in a last-second escape. (Photo by Alan Benson/Caters News Agency)

Wrestlers compete in the 63rd Historical Cali Oil Wrestling Tournament, held on June 29, 2025, in Bursa, Turkiye. The event, which featured over 800 wrestlers and served as the final rehearsal for the 664th Historical Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Festival, is on track to become a stage of the Oil Wrestling League, now in its third season. (Photo by Mustafa Yilmaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Supporters of Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez bring down an inflatable doll of Chavez during a commemoration of what would have been the leader's 68th birthday, at the 23 de Enero neighborhood in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, July 28, 2022. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A farmer arranges vegetable at a greenhouse on January 29, 2021 in Hukou County, Jiangxi Province of China. (Photo by Zhang Yu/VCG via Getty Images)