Ukrainian serviceman fires with a heavy machine gun during a combat with Russia-backed separatists on the front line near Gorlivka, Donetsk Region on September 28, 2019. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP Photo)

A female member of the Ahbab Al-Mustafa Battalion holds a gun as she undergoes military training in Aleppo's Salaheddine district, June 24, 2013. (Photo by Muzaffar Salman/Reuters)

Model Amber Rose attends the Maxim Hot 100 Party at the Hollywood Palladium on July 30, 2016 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

A girl shoots a gun armed with blanks at an weapon exhibition during a military show in St.Petersburg, Russia, Saturday, October 14, 2017. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A demonstrator holds a rose and shouts slogans in front of a riot policeman during an unauthorized march called by secondary students to protest against government education reforms in Valparaiso, Chile, May 26, 2016. (Photo by Rodrigo Garrido/Reuters)

Citizens are making memories under plum trees in full bloom at Gijang Plum Orchard in Gijang-gun, Busan on March 16, 2025. (Photo by Kim Dong-hwan)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)