Star Wars fan Mike Deguzman practices with a toy lightsaber after purchasing some new toys that went on sale at midnight in advance of the film “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in Times Square in the Manhattan borough of New York, September 4, 2015. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A Kimono-clad woman wearing a fashionable face mask poses for a photograph at Coming of Age Day celebration ceremony at Yokohama Arena after the government declared the second state of emergency for the capital and some prefectures, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan on January 11, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

Birds congregate by the ocean at sunrise, after California’s governor said he would impose some of the nation’s strictest stay-at-home orders in the coming days, as the global outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Santa Monica, California, U.S., December 4, 2020. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Check out this tornado spotted in Broward County, Florida on October 9, 2024, as Hurricane Milton closes in on the sunshine state. Florida Dept of Transport posted these striking images showing the menacing weather system forming some 252 miles away from Tampa, where the hurricane is expected to hit overnight. (Photo by FloridaDOT/The Mega Agency)

Swedish photographer Paul Hansen won the 2012 World Press Photo award Friday for newspaper Dagens Nyheter with a picture of two Palestinian children killed in an Israeli missile strike being carried to their funeral.

Photo: In this photo provided on Friday February 15, 2013 by World Press Photo, the 2013 World Press Photo of the year by Paul Hansen, Sweden, for Dagens Nyheter, shows two-year-old Suhaib Hijazi and her three-year-old brother Muhammad who were killed when their house was destroyed by an Israeli missile strike. Their father, Fouad, was also killed and their mother was put in intensive care. Fouad's brothers carry his children to the mosque for the burial ceremony as his body is carried behind on a stretcher in Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, November 20, 2012. (Photo by Paul Hansen/Dagens Nyheter/AP Photo)

A model in Mongolia costumes prepares backstage in Xiangshawan Desert, also called Sounding Sand Desert on July 18, 2013 in Ordos of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China. Xiangshawan is China's famous tourist resort in the desert. It is located along the middle section of Kubuqi Desert on the south tip of Dalate League under Ordos City. Sliding down from the 110-metre-high, 45-degree sand hill, running a course of 200 metres, the sands produce the sound of automobile engines, a natural phenomenon that nobody can explain. (Photo by Feng Li)

People cross a street against strong wind and heavy rainfall under the influence of Typhoon Haiyan, in Sanya, Hainan province November 10, 2013. One of the most powerful storms ever recorded killed at least 10,000 people in the central Philippines, a senior police official said on Sunday, with huge waves sweeping away entire coastal villages and devastating the region's main city. Despite weakening, the storm is likely to cause heavy rains, flooding, strong winds and mudslides as it makes its way north in the South China Sea. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)