A woman fills her basket with marigold flowers, used to make garlands and offer prayers, as she plucks them before selling to the market for the Tihar festival, also called Diwali, in Kathmandu, Nepal on October 25, 2019. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

A spinning top is seen on a hand during a performance at Sanxia old street in New Taipei City, Taiwan May 8, 2016. Taiwan's ancient folk art of spinning tops is kept alive by a group of enthusiasts who perform intricate tricks with the toys at a temple in Taipei, the capital. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Soldier boys at Fort Dix, N.J., learn something about guns during their working hours, as they show their girlfriends at a camp dance, December 13, 1940. In front row, playing with the coin amusement gun, from left: Pvt. Tom D'Amato of West Orange; Rose Sinkewicz, behind gun site, of Trenton; Julia Ivans of Trenton, and Pvt. Vernon Landers of Kearney. Back row: Pvts. William Sargent and William Corlies of Philadelphia. (Photo by AP Photo)

UK-based photographer Thom Atkinson’s series Soldiers’ Inventories – an attempt to explore “the mythology surrounding Britain’s relationship with war”.

A woman poses for a photo next to lotus flowers in West lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 09 June 2025.. Lotus flowers bloom from late May to August in Vietnam and are commonly found growing in the muddy waters of lakes and ponds across the country. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA)

Tens of thousands of HIV positive prostitutes in the slums of Lagos to ensure a rapid spread of the epidemic. “If you arrive by car, you can smell the HIV virus outside”, joked my driver as we are on track to Badia a criminal slums of Lagos. Badia is a corruption of “Bad Area”. Nigerians have a lack of everything, except black humor. The poor West African country Nigeria, with a population of 140 million people, after India and South Africa the highest number of people with HIV / AIDS. (Photo by Ton Koene/Exclusivepix Media)

Stones collected and categorised by shape (fish) are seen at the home workshop of Luigi Lineri in Zevio, near Verona, Italy, June 10, 2016. Luigi Lineri's home workshop is covered in stones – tens of thousands of them. They resemble animal heads, human faces and other forms, and the artist and poet believes may have been shaped by prehistoric humans. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

The British Ecological Society has announced the winners of its annual photography competition, Capturing Ecology. Taken by international ecologists and students, the winning images will be exhibited at the society’s joint annual meeting in Ghent in December. Here: Overall runner-up; Toucan, Mark Tatchell. (Photo by Mark Tatchell/British Ecological Society)