Winner, photojournalism. Elephant in the room, by Adam Oswell, Australia Zoo. Visitors watch a young elephant performing underwater. Oswell was disturbed by this scene, and organisations concerned with the welfare of captive elephants say performances like this encourage unnatural behaviour. In Thailand, there are now more elephants in captivity than in the wild. With the Covid pandemic causing tourism to collapse, elephant sanctuaries are becoming overwhelmed with animals that can no longer be looked after by their owners. (Photo by Adam Oswell/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

Young Christian Lebanese women, who are members of Kataeb Phalangist party, show their skill in handling arms while they train in a village between Christian-controlled eastern port of Jounieh and the Christian village of Zahle in the west Lebanon on September 9, 1976. The Lebanese civil war erupted in April 1975. (Photo by Erich Stering/AFP Photo)

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, a passenger jet that veered off a runway during take-off and caught fire is seen in the aftermath in Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in southwestern China's Chongqing Thursday, May 12, 2022. The Chinese passenger jet left the runway upon takeoff and caught fire in western China on Thursday morning, and several people were injured. (Photo by Liu Chan/Xinhua via AP Photo)

US Navy personnel walk on the flight deck aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) aircraft carrier during its port visit to Busan on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP Photo)

This spiky tenrec was spotted in Madagascar’s Mantadia National Park in the last decade of September 2025. Mostly nocturnal and rarely seen, it puffs out its spines when threatened. Spiky tenrecs are excellent swimmers — unlike most spiny mammals, some species of tenrec can forage in streams and rivers, using their spines for protection while hunting aquatic insects and small prey. (Photo by Dale Morris/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov, Expedition 40 flight engineer, attired in a Russian Orlan spacesuit, participates in a session of extravehicular activity (EVA) in support of science and maintenance on the International Space Station on August 18, 2014. During the five-hour, 11-minute spacewalk, Skvortsov and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev (out of frame) deployed a small science satellite, retrieved and installed experiment packages and inspected components on the exterior of the orbital laboratory. (Photo by NASA)

Vapour bounced off the wings of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II as it sped over the Welsh mountains at a swift 575mph on February 10, 2022. The jet was taking part in a low-level training exercise through the Mach Loop – a series of valleys in North Wales. (Photo by Thomas Winstone/News Images)