Staff members from the Hoshinoya Tokyo hotel on Feb. 28 demonstrate the “Lantern Dining Experience,” where lanterns made by a shop in Kyoto are used to enclose diners for a mask-free dining experience, in Tokyo. Photo: Philip Fong/VCG

A passenger in a protective suit heads to board a train in Shanghai on May 17 as the city gradually eased strict Covid-19 restrictions. Photo: VCG

A girl uses a kerosene oil lamp to study during a power cut brought on by a fuel shortage in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on March 4. Photo: VCG

A Ukrainian soldier stands next to a Russian ballistic missile’s booster stage that landed in a field in Ukraine on April 25. Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba/VCG

Villagers residing in Thadacha Pada in India gather around a well to draw water on April 9. Many villages in the area are suffering from water shortages. Photo: Pratik Chorge/VCG

An elderly man sits at the site of a 7.0-magnitude earthquake in the Spera district of Khost province in Afghanistan on June 22. The earthquake killed more than 1,000 people in the country. Photo: Sardar Shafaq/VCG

In August, motorcyclists in Southwest China’s Chongqing were hailed as heroes for helping authorities control wildfires. Photo: The Paper

Residents take a dip in an inflatable pool to cool off outside their home in Leeds, the U.K., on July 19. Temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country that day. Photo: VCG

Robert Carter (right) and Ugo Cirri, dancers from the comedy drag ballet company Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, pose for pictures in the Italian Gardens of Kensington Gardens in London on Sept. 1. Photo: Alastair Grant/VCG

Ukrainian combat medic Oleksander carries his bride after their wedding ceremony in Lyman, Donetsk region, on Saturday. Ukrainian forces recaptured the area in October. Photo: Felipe Dana/VCG

Ye Liannü, 83, pats the one-armed monkey Xingxing at a temple in Ningbo, East China’s Zhejiang province, on Oct. 10. Photo: VCG

Children dress as Santa Claus celebrate Christmas at a school in Amritsar, India, on Saturday. Photo: Narinder Nanu/VCG

A child plays with a rabbit version of Beijing Winter Olympic mascot Bing Dwen Dwen in Beijing on Thursday. The mascot’s new look was released to welcome the upcoming Year of the Rabbit. Photo: VCG