On a collision course: Eyecatchers of the week

Image: Handout / OWEN KANG / AFP
 A newly married Taiwanese couple, Iris Hsueh and her fiance Ian Ciou, pose for a photograph in front of a garbage hill in Puli, Nantou County, Taiwan, on October 14, 2023. The environment-conscious bride wanted to show her guests the trash hill to discourage them from generating it.

Image: Hector RETAMAL / AFP
Visitors walk next to a giant sculpture at the 2023 World Science Fiction Convention in Chengdu, China, on October 21, 2023. According to the China Science Fiction Research Center, the output value of China's science fiction industry, including publications, films and others, totalled 87.75 billion yuan (about $12 billion) in 2022.

Image: China Coast Guard/Handout via REUTERS
A China Coast Guard vessel (right) blocks and collides with a Philippine supply boat in the disputed waters of the South China Sea in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on October 22, 2023. The Philippine boat was on its re-supply runs to an outpost on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands, a hotly contested region where Beijing deploys ships to assert its claims over almost the entire sea.

Image: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / AFP
Winegrowers destroy bottles of wine from a truck during a roadblock demonstration to protest against imports of Spanish wine on the motorway close to the Spanish border, Le Boulou, France, on October 19, 2023. Winegrowers in southern France have called for demonstrations to demand economic support for the regional wine industry, which has endured a trying vintage amid difficult climatic conditions.

Image: Jason Redmond / AFP
Agility's bipedal robots in the testing phase move containers during a mobile-manipulation demonstration at Amazon's "Delivering the Future" event at the company's BFI1 Fulfillment Center, Robotics Research and Development Hub in Sumner, Washington on October 18, 2023. Agility became one of the first recipients of Amazon's $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund in April last year, indicating Amazon's keen interest in the company's potential.

Image: Simon Wohlfahrt / AFP
Participants paddle in hollowed-out giant pumpkins during the Pumpkin Regatta in Kasterlee, Belgium, on October 22, 2023. "Every year, we begin with little pumpkins, and each year, we harvest the seeds from the larger pumpkins and combine them to create ever-larger pumpkins." Gert Peeters, the organiser and pumpkin patch owner, was quoted as saying.

Image: RAUL ARBOLEDA / AFP
Mexico's Arantxa Chavez competes during the women's 1m platform springboard diving event of the Pan Am Games Santiago 2023, at the Aquatics Centre in National Stadium, Santiago, Chile, on October 22, 2023. The stadium was a dark reminder of the time it had been used for the internment and torture of prisoners after the military coup, which brought hard-line dictator Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile. The 19th edition of the most important multisport event of the Americas featured more than 6,000 of the continent's best athletes competing across 38 sports with qualification to the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics on the line.

Image: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP
British-US author Salman Rushdie gestures as he addresses a press conference at The Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on October 20, 2023. It marked a rare public appearance for Rushdie, who survived a knife attack, losing his eye, while on stage in New York State in August 2022. Rushdie said that if authors are only allowed to write characters that mirror themselves and their own experiences, "the art of the novel ceases to exist".  
 
Image: MOHAMMED ADNAN / AFP
The family of a Palestinian child killed in an Israeli air strike mourn outside a hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023. Thousands of families are flocking to Gaza's overwhelmed hospitals, seeking refuge from seemingly endless Israeli army shelling as it builds up to a potential ground offensive sparked by a deadly attack by Hamas militants in southern Israel on October 7.

Image: Valery HACHE / AFP
A man looks out into the Mediterranean Sea on the "Promenade des Anglais" in the French Riviera city of Nice on October 19, 2023. The tourism brochures declare that suncream, sunglasses, and hats are an absolute must, even in the early spring and late autumn.