A traffic police officer directs traffic in Mohe City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, December 29, 2019. Temperatures in Mohe, “north pole” of China, often stand at below minus 40 degrees Celsius in winter mornings. Photo by Yang Siqi/Xinhua News Agency/Alamy Live News)

An internally displaced Afghan girl plays outside her shelter, amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 7, 2020. (Photo by Mohammad Ismail/Reuters)

Students with torches protest against the alleged encroachment of Nepal border by India in far west of Nepal, during the 49th day of a lockdown imposed by the government amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Kathmandu, Nepal on May 11, 2020. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

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)

Joseph Fons holding a Pride Flag, runs in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court ruled that a federal law banning workplace discrimination also covers sexual orientation, in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 15, 2020. (Photo by Tom Brenner/Reuters)

Swimmers known as the Lido Ladies pose by the pool during sunrise at Charlton Lido in Hornfair Park, London on December 2, 2020, on its first day of reopening after the second national lockdown ended and England enters a strengthened tiered system of regional coronavirus restrictions. (Photo by Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

The rusty emblem of the Soviet Union is seen over the ghost town of Pripyat close to the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Ukraine, Thursday, April 15, 2021. The vast and empty Chernobyl Exclusion Zone around the site of the world’s worst nuclear accident is a baleful monument to human mistakes. Yet 35 years after a power plant reactor exploded, Ukrainians also look to it for inspiration, solace and income. (Photo by Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

People have fun on an alley through Christmas lights in downtown Chisinau, Moldova, 23 December 2021. Traditionally, people from former countries of the Soviet Union, still celebrate Christmas on two occasions, on 25 December and 07 January. (Photo by Dumitru Doru/EPA/EFE)