Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

People collect fish on the beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Da Nang, Vietnam on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Kham via Reuters)

Russian cadet preparing before the International Kremlin Cadet Ball in Moscow, Russia 12 December 2017. More than 1500 students from all Russian cadets school attend in Cadet Ball. (Photo by Yuri Kochetkov/EPA/EFE)

Employee Jenny Forgie works on an orchid display at Kew Gardens in London, Thursday, February 8, 2018. The 23rd annual Orchid Festival is the first one with a Thailand theme, 66 volunteers worked on the 6,950 exhibited orchids. The festival is open from Feb. 10, 2018 until March 11, 2018. (Photo by Frank Augstein/AP Photo)

Leslie Cliff and his wife Violet, English figure skating pair. Olympic games of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), 1936. (Photo by Roger Viollet Collection/Getty Images)

Model Heidi Klum in front of Concorde jet after arriving for Victoria's Secret fashion show at Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2000. (Photo by Marion Curtis/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

In this April 20, 2018, file aerial photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, advection fog drifts across skyscrapers on the waterfront in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province. Chinese leaders have long been sensitive about their communist country’s international image. Now, they are battling back, investing in diplomacy and a courtship of hearts and minds, just as the United States digs in on the Trump administration’s “America First” mindset. (Photo by Lu Hui/Xinhua via AP Photo/File)

A Chinkara gazelle fawn rests in the plumage of a peacock at an animal rescue center on a hot summer day in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India, Thursday, May 23, 2024. (Photo by Dinesh Gupta/AP Photo)