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)

North Koreans perform during a mass game of “The Land of the People” at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2019. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

Belarusian beauty designers attend an annual national contest in Minsk, Belarus on November 7, 2019. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

Street artist Irony’s mural of a young woman on Jamaica Street in Liverpool, UK on September 22, 2019. The city has recently been transformed with bold murals painted by local artists on walls and buildings. Recognisable faces including those of the Beatles, Jürgen Klopp and Stephen Hawking. (Photo by Peter Byrne/PA Wire Press Association)

Twenty-four-year-old Maryam Aghayee makes hyper-realistic baby dolls acting as surrogates for some Iranian families who are apprehensive of having more children. “It has been about three or four months since I started this work”, says Maryam in Tehran, Iran on October 7, 2020. “After making my second doll, many orders have been coming in. The second doll was much more realistic than the previous one. After making my second doll, I said that from now on I can take customer orders. I did not intend to start a business from the beginning because it was a hobby, but after the second doll, the demand for these kinds of dolls increased, customers want to have such dolls”. (Photo by Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

A bronze statue of late singer Ella Fitzgerald is seen wearing a hat and protective face mask, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, outside the Metro-North Railroad Station Plaza in Yonkers, New York, U.S., November 17, 2020. (Photo by Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)

A fireworks display decorates the night sky to celebrate the New Year, as crowds of people look on, at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea, early Friday, January 1, 2021. (Photo by Jon Chol Jin/AP Photo)

People walk as snow falls in a main street in Jerusalem, 17 February 2021. Israeli Forecasters and the Meteorological Service ex​pect snow fall in Jerusalem. (Photo by Abir Sultan/EPA/EFE)