Greece's Apostolos Angelis (L) and Austria's Felix Leitner compete during the men's 20 km individual event of the IBU Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on February 14, 2024. (Photo by Joe Klamar/AFP Photo)

A United aircraft rolls over the highway to its parking position after landing at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, February 15, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Travellers wait in queue to test for COVID-19 at a train station in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, November 30, 2021. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

An owner poses with her Maine Coon cat in front of a mirror during a cat exhibition in Bishkek on April 19, 2015. Cat lovers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan took part in the exhibition. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP Photo)

Storm clouds gather over the scene outside the Jewish Community Center in Leawood, Kansas following a shooting, on April 13, 2014. (Photo by John Sleezer/Kansas City Star/MCT)

People cool off as they dance in a swimming pool in an event at a local restaurant during a heatwave on July 2, 2023 in Beijing, China. China's capital city and northern parts of the country have experienced unseasonably high temperatures in the last days, sometimes reaching more than 40 degrees celsius, causing local governments to issue heat warnings. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

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)

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)