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)

Construction workers walk past a mural in Phnom Penh on September 6, 2022. (Photo by Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP Photo)

Afghans pass a clothing storein Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, October 12, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Halabisaz/AP Photo)

A journalist (R) is attacked by residents who are trying to prevent migrants from disembarking on the Greek island of Lesbos, on March 1, 2020. The United Nation called on March 1 for calm and urged states to refrain from “excessive” force, as thousands of migrants have flooded to Turkey's border with Greece in a bid to enter the EU. A massive influx of migrants swelled along the border over the weekend after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to open its frontier to Europe as tensions mount over its deepening conflict in Syria. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

Wildlife category, open shortlist. “Buffaloes and stars”. This picture, taken at Zimanga game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, used an in-camera multiple exposure, with the first lit for the buffaloes and the second focused on the stars. (Photo and caption by Andreas Hemb/2017 Sony World Photography Awards)

A woman dressed as an angel takes a break from greeting children at a public library in Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on December 23, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya Savilov/AFP Photo)

Breath at sunset, captures a sea turtle at a dive site called Black Rock. Kāʻanapali, Hawaiʻi, August 2013. (Photo by Christopher Doherty/Smithsonian.com)

Women jump into the water during a traditional New Year bath in the Adriatic sea in Portoroz, Slovenia on January 1, 2018. (Photo by Jure Makovec/AFP Photo)