Buildings in Lujiazui financial district are seen shrouded in fog amid an orange alert for heavy fog in Shanghai, China on January 31, 2024. (Photo by Xihao Jiang/Reuters)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A man jumps over a puddle outside Victoria Station, as heavy rain falls, in London, Monday June 20, 2016. Monday marks the Summer Solstice – the longest day of the year and the astronomical change of seasons when days are longest and nights are shortest in the Northern Hemisphere. (Photo by Lauren Hurley/PA Wire via AP Photo)

Jolon Clinton, 15, (L), and her sister, Halcy, 17, take photos of a fissure near their home on the outskirts of Pahoa during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano in Hawaii, U.S., May 14, 2018. (Photo by Terray Sylvester/Reuters)

Fans of the Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura enjoy their showo at the main stage of Rock in Rio festival 2019 at the Olympic Park, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 4, 2019. The week-long Rock in Rio festival started September 27, with international stars as headliners, over 700,000 spectators and social actions including the preservation of the Amazon. (Photo by Mauro Pimentel/AFP Photo)

A ballet dancer poses in a giant plastic bubble as she entertains Christmas shoppers in Melbourne on December 13, 2020. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

In this Sunday June 13, 1988 file photo West German police officers arrest an English soccer hooligan who sticks out his tongue. Rioting broke out between some 100 hooligans and the police in downtown Stuttgart, West Germany following the European Soccer Championships match between England and Ireland. England was defeated by Ireland 0-1. (Photo by Kraufmann/AP Photo/File)

Wind gusts, blowing down King Street, twist umbrellas during Hurricane Ian in Charleston, S.C., on Friday, September 30, 2022. (Photo by Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier via AP Photo)