Hotel staff demonstrates “Lantern Dining Experience”, which enables diners to enjoy meals while protecting themselves against the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Hoshinoya Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan, February 2, 2022. The lantern-shaped transparent partitions are created by Japan’s traditional craftsman and guests staying at the hotel who pay 30,000 yen (about 260 USD) as venue charge can invite others to dine with them under the partitions. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

The owner of the zoo Pierre Thivillon laughs next to a chimpanzee on May 17, 2021, at the zoological park of Saint-Martin-la-Plaine, two days ahead of its reopening as part of France's latest step toward the ending of its third nationwide Covid-19 lockdown. (Photo by Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP Photo)

An Afghan man cleans the his courtyard partially submerged in flood water following the flash floods after heavy rainfall in Guzara district of Herat province on March 13, 2024. (Photo by Mohsen Karimi/AFP Photo)

Farmers play with mud as they plant rice on “National Paddy Day of Nepal” in Dhading district on June 29, 2024. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

A police officer raises a baton at a man who, according to police, had broken the social distancing rule, outside a wine shop during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in New Delhi, India, May 4, 2020. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/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)

A worker collects water chestnuts from a pond on the outskirts of Ajmer on October 3, 2023. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

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)