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)

Glam revellers have proudly shown off their vaccine passports as they glammed up for a night on the town on the first day of fresh Covid restrictions in Newcastle, United Kingdom on December 15, 2021. Brits donning festive gear decided to tear up nightclub dance floors and booze in pubs despite fears over the Omicron variant. (Photo by Newcastle New Projects)

A resident receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a rural village on December 01, 2021 in Aringay, La Union province, Philippines. The Philippines is rushing to vaccinate its population as it mulls making COVID-19 vaccination mandatory and amid the looming threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. The country, which has just approved booster shots for its adult population, launched a three-day national vaccination holiday on November 29 to December 1 with the goal of vaccinating at least nine million additional people. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Raissa Floriano whose father is hospitalized with CCOVID-19, cries during a protest amid the new coronavirus pandemic outside the 28 Agosto Hospital, in Manaus, Brazil, Thursday, January 14, 2021. Scores of COVID-19 patients in the Amazon rainforest's biggest city will be transferred out of state as the local health system collapses and dwindling stocks of oxygen tanks begin to falter. (Photo by Edmar Barros/AP Photos)

A Palestinian woman takes a picture of a member of the Israeli security forces as he takes her picture in a street in Jerusalem on December 16, 2017, as demonstrations continue to flare in the Middle East and elsewhere over the US president' s declaration of Jerusalem as Israel' s capital. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)

A woman searches for nails and other metal scraps from remains of burned houses that were gutted during a fire at a poor bayside village in the district of Tondo, Manila, Philippines on Friday, May 20, 2022. Investigators said about 300 families became homeless after the fire that happened Thursday night. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

“In 1967, Zhang Yaxin was 34 and working as a photojournalist at China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency when he was assigned to a top-secret government project. He was to be the official photographer of a new arts program led by Chairman Mao and his wife – the Model Operas. Though he was not to know it then, Zhang would spend the next seven years documenting the evolution of one of the most dramatic and elaborate attempts to redefine artistic sensibilities in modern art history”. – Chengcheng Jiang via TIME. Photo: Raid on the White Tiger Regiment, 1971. (Photo by Zhang Yaxin/Courtesy See+ Gallery, Beijing)

A woman walks up a stairway painted in the rainbow colors in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, July 11, 2020. Romania reported 698 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the highest level since the pandemic reached the country in February. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)