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)

Far from the fancy throngs who gather at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance every year, another collection of car enthusiasts strive to cough up the worst cars imaginable. The Concours d'Lemons gathers the Edsels, Yugos and Azteks of yesteryear to give the freaky and foul their day in the sun. Photo: The 1973 Electra-King three-wheeler, the dead evolutionary branch of today's electric cars. (Photo by Robert Kerian/Yahoo Autos)

A man walks past a mural along a street in New Delhi on June 30, 2023. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

Alexander Levine crosses the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge during the marathon in New York on November 3, 2024. (Photo by Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters)

Soldiers take a selfie on the plateform at a metro station in Ho Chi Minh City on December 22, 2024. Thousands of selfie-taking Ho Chi Minh City residents crammed into train carriages on December 22, as the traffic-clogged business hub celebrated the opening of its first-ever metro line after years of delays. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP Photo)

Spanish model Lorena Duran attends the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Launch Party at Hard Rock Hotel New York on May 15, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by TheStewartofNY/Getty Images)

American TV personality and model Brooke Burke is seen on the beach on July 29, 2025 in Malibu, California. (Photo by Michael Simon/GC Images)

A parrot stuck on a roof for three days greeted firefighters sent to its aid on August 13, 2018 with a four-letter tirade. Jessie, the multi-lingual Macaw, flipped the bird after escaping from her owner's home in Edmonton, north London, UK. When she could not be lured down from a neighbour's roof, firefighters were called out and told to tell the bird “I love you” – to which Jessie replied “I love you back”. But she then ruffled her would-be rescuers' feathers by telling them to “f**k off” before flying off to another nearby rooftop. The foul-mouthed pet also speaks Turkish and Greek according to its owner, but had its own choice words in English for the rescue team. As Jessie wasn't injured, the firefighters, who had been called in by the RSPCA, left her on her perch. The parrot was later reunited with its owner. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)