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)

In this Wednesday, July 20, 2016 photo, a child carries kettles through a flooded street with a woman in Tianjin, China. China says dozens of people have died or gone missing since Monday in massive floods across the country's north. (Photo by Chinatopix via AP Photo)

A moto-taxi driver takes two passengers past a burning barricade set up by people protesting fuel shortages in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, September 16, 2019. Haiti was at a standstill Monday with no public transportation available and closed banks, government offices, and schools amid street protests due to a fuel crisis. (Photo by Dieu Nalio Chery/AP Photo)

Ireland's Lucy Mulhall (L) tackles USA's Ilona Maher during the World Rugby Women's Sevens series match between Ireland and the United States at the Allianz Stadium in Sydney on January 29, 2023. (Photo by Jeremy N.G./AFP Photo)

People stand next to a ship, containing tonnes of hazardous mercury-mixed oil, as it was allowed to anchor at Gadani ship-breaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan, 28 May 2021. Authorities have launched an investigation into the anchoring of a ship at the Gadani shipbreaking yard despite Interpol's warning that the ship contains dangerous chemicals. (Photo by Rehan Khan/EPA/EFE)

A body laying in the street is covered as police block the area around the site of a shooting in Halle an der Saale, eastern Germany, on October 9, 2019. At least two people were killed in a shooting on a street in the German city of Halle, police said, adding that the perpetrators were on the run. “Early indications show that two people were killed in Halle. Several shots were fired. The suspected perpetrators fled in a car”, said police on Twitter, urging residents in the area to stay indoors. (Photo by Sebastian Willnow/dpa/AFP Photo)

A cosplayer dressed as a “remote worker” with “corporate slave” written on his glasses poses for a photo on New Year's Eve at Comiket, the largest comic market that had been postponed for two years because of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Tokyo, Japan December 31, 2021. (Photo by Androniki Christodoulou/Reuters)

A woman jumps over a puddle of rainwater in north London on August 2, 2023. Met Office has issued a yellow severe weather weather for heavy downpours, strong winds and thunderstorms throughout today in London, and in many other parts of England and Wales. (Photo by Dinendra Haria/London News Pictures)