Julian Rodriguez, of Everson, Wash., holds his two-gram packet of recreational marijuana outside Top Shelf Cannabis, Tuesday, July 8, 2014, in Bellingham, Wash., on the first day of legal sales in the state. (Photo by Ted S. Warren/AP Photo)

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)

Children dressed as Santa Clause play with a soccer ball as they celebrate at their school ahead of Christmas in Chennai on December 23, 2021. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A girl carries breads on her head as she walks in the snow, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, February 8, 2022. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

Danab Brigade commandos and other first responders rush to evacuate passengers from a Jubba Airlines aircraft that crash-landed on July 18, 2022, at Mogadishu International Airport, Mogadishu, Somalia. (Photo by Maj. Cain Claxton/U.S. Army via AP Photo)

An Afghan girl jumps off the wall of a small cemetery in Kandahar on July 29, 2022. (Photo by Daniel Leal/AFP Photo)

Sunrise at Rockford Common in the New Forest, UK where the heather is in bloom on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Steve Hogan/Picture Exclusive)

American rapper Megan Thee Stallion in the last decade of October 2024 shows off her itty bitty top on Instagram. (Photo by theestallion/Instagram)