“Basunga”. Basunga (3 weeks-old newborn with albinism) is happily sleeping with his cousin. For now, he does not yet realize the difficulties he will face to integrate into the Congolese society as a PWA. The success of his integration will greatly depends of how he accepts himself and his skin condition a and how educated he will be. Photo location: Kinshasa, Congo RDC. (Photo and caption by Patricia Willocq/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A devotee of Hindu goddess Kali performs a ritual during the “Bonalu” festival in Hyderabad, India, Sunday, July 28, 2019. Bonalu is a month-long Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

People swing dance while participating in the Mermaid Parade in Coney Island, Brookly, New York City, U.S., June 22, 2024. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

Sharni Edwards, 27, and Robyn Peoples, 26, a Belfast couple who are the first known same-s*x couple to get married in Northern Ireland, kiss after being married, in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland on February 11, 2020. (Photo by Phil Noble/Reuters)

Camila Hormazabal, a 24-year-old sеx worker, meets with a virtual customer in Concepcion, Chile on April 7, 2020. Hormazabal now offers sеxual services online after the nightclub where she had worked was closed due to the outbreak. With no way to pay her bills, Hormazabal switched to video calls conducted from her high-rise apartment bedroom, and asked her regulars to meet her online. She is one of the thousands of sеx workers worldwide left in a precarious position after the very intimacy that defines their work was thwarted by social distancing measures. (Photo by Juan Gonzalez/Reuters)

Guardian of the Mangroves – Overall Winner. Tanya Houppermans, Cuba. A curious American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) swims right up to Tanya, at Gardens of the Queen (Jardines De La Reina), an archipelago off the coast of Cuba. It has been strictly protected since 1996, and is one of the most untouched marine ecosystems in the world. ‍ “The healthy population of American crocodiles is down to the pristine condition of the mangroves and I wanted to capture close ups of this gentle giant in its natural habitat. I hope this image can illustrate that protecting areas like this is so critical”. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans/Mangrove Photographer of the Year)

Oil pools in a leaf on the beach following an oil slick at Tanjong Beach in Sentosa, Singapore on June 15, 2024. (Photo by Edgar Su/Reuters)

Fishermen repair brightly coloured nets before their next trip to the River Matla in West Bengal, India in the last decade of July 2025. (Photo by Avishek Das/Solent News & Photo Agency)