A Ukrainian serviceman kisses his partner at the train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Thursday, March 23, 2023. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)

Taliban fighters relax in a makeshift checkpoint in Wardak province, Afghanistan, Thursday June 22, 2023. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Carrion crows sit on poles around a field on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, early Monday, June 26, 2023. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Police officers check documents of a man in central Moscow, Russia, Sunday, June 25, 2023. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Fashionistas wait for the start of Johannesburg Fashion Week 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, November 8, 2023. (Photo by Jerome Delay/AP Photo)

A girl competes in a hobby horsing competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, April 21, 2024. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Trees are consumed by the Bridge Fire near Wrightwood, Calif., Wednesday, September 11, 2024. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Anand Varma, a U.S. photographer working for the National Geographic, won the First Prize in the Nature Category, Stories, of the 2015 World Press Photo contest with his series of pictures, which includes this one of spores of a fungus landing on an ant, penetrating its exoskeleton and entering its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree, in this picture taken January 22, 2014 and released by the World Press Photo on February 12, 2015. (Photo by Anand Varma/Reuters/National Geographic/World Press Photo)