A couple embraces at the railway station in Kramatorsk, on May 20, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergey Shestak/AFP Photo)

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

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)

A rainbow over the windmill in Lytham, Lancashire on May 17, 2022 at sunset after rain hit the region last night after the hottest day of the year. (Photo by Gregg Wolstenholme/Bav Media)

Residents gather to watch fireworks rehearsals ahead of the upcoming 100th anniversary of the founding of China's ruling Communist Party in Beijing on Tuesday, June 22, 2021. Chinese authorities have closed Beijing's central Tiananmen Square to the public, eight days ahead of a major celebration being planned to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Communist Party. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

A commuter holding his shoes rides on a tricyle through a flooded street, caused by a heavy downpour brought about by the southwest moonson, in Manila, Philippines on August 2, 2019. (Photo by Ted Aljibe/AFP Photo)

A moon light illuminates the sky through the clouds over a large line of grass between some home houses in the small village of Tafalla, northern Spain, Tuesday, May 1, 2018. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)

A young USA fan smiles ahead of the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup semifinal football match between USA and Jamaica on July 3, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Ricardo Arduengo/AFP Photo)