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)

Carlos Bahia, dressed as Santa Claus, talks with boys at the Maresias beach, in the state of Sao Paulo December 9, 2014. In the Southern Hemisphere summer starts on December 1, so while countries in the north are experiencing a white Christmas with grey skies, those in the south are busy surfing and sunbathing in temperatures just shy of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). (Photo by Nacho Doce/Reuters)

“Lobsang and 66 fellow monks were imprisoned in 1959. When released 21 years later, he was one of only three survivors. While in prison his best friend, a rinpoche, died in his arms. Tensin was later discovered to be the reincarnation of that friend. Lobsang said there are so many characteristics of his old friend in the young boy”. (Photo and caption by Phil Borges)

Firefighters watch as an air tanker drops retardant while battling the Ferguson fire in the Stanislaus National Forest, near Yosemite National Park, California on July 21, 2018. A fire that claimed the life of one firefighter and injured two others near California's Yosemite national park has almost doubled in size in three days, authorities said Friday. (Photo by Noah Berger/AFP Photo)

Latvian cyclists have decided to show the automobilists just how absurd it is to have only a single occupant in a car. The car takes up an enormous amount of space on the road; however, everyone is so used to it that no one ever notices it. It’s not hard to guess the thoughts of automobilists, and how they cursed those cyclists for taking up so much space. However, they have only themselves to blame. If everyone rode only bicycles to work, then there would never be such a thing as a traffic jam, the air in the city would become cleaner, while people would live longer, healthier lives, since cycling is a wonderful way to use the extra fat on your belly as the “fuel” for your bike.

In this June 1, 2016 photo, Maria Arias stands near her kitchen as she puts on earrings while getting ready for school in Caracas, Venezuela. So many students have fainted from hunger at Maria's school that administrators told parents to keep their children home until they could find more food. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

Highly commended birds : Crested guan by Tim Hunt (UK). ‘This photo shows a crested guan in the cloud forests of Costa Rica as it pauses while foraging on a lone branch. Due to the clouds that are so typical for this habitat, I could often only photograph the bird’s silhouette against a grey sky. But then, for a short moment only, the sun broke through the clouds, and I overexposed the image by over two stops in order to blow out the background and allow this beautifully marked bird to stand out’. (Photo by Tim Hunt/GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015)

A woman buys bread at a bakery in Cairo, January 8, 2015. The successful roll-out so far of a new “smart card” system to distribute subsidised bread has been a major achievement for Egypt's government, saving money while earning praise from families who no longer have to wake early to fight for loaves. (Photo by Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)