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)

American actress Anne Hathaway is seen at a film set for the AppleTV+ series, “WeCrashed” on June 11, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Pacific Coast News)

Eli Hanneman of Hawaii surfs in Heat 2 of the Round of 64 at the Ballito Pro on July 3, 2023 at Ballito, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa. (Photo by Pierre Tostee/World Surf League via Getty Images)

A boy dives into the water during training in Kyiv's Liko Diving School, July 3, 2024. According to Ukraine's first lady, more than 2 million children have fled the country. The departures have impacted various sports. (Photo by Alex Babenko/AP Photo)

Two life-size Victorian style dolls shocked Londoners morning December 3, 2015 as the creepy pair popped up at commuter hotspots across the capital to mark the launch of the world's first psychological theme park ride created by Derren Brown, coming to Thorpe Park Resort in 2016. (Photo by Matt Alexander/PA Wire)

Armed Syrian Turkmen villagers are seen near the northern Syrian village of Yamadi, near the Turkish-Syrian border, Syria, November 24, 2015. Turkey shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border on Tuesday saying it had repeatedly violated its air space, one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a NATO member country and Russia for half a century. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

It's a 30-day-old Echidna baby, known as a “puggle” – one of only 24 ever bred in captivity. The proud parents are Tippy and Pickle of Australia Zoo. The tiny baby, whose s*x has not yet been identified, hatched from a soft egg and will continue to develop and nurse inside Tippy's warm pouch. (Photo by Australia Zoo/Rex/Sipa Press)

Chinese women wear protective masks as they are dressed in traditional clothing from the Qing Dynasty era outside a park on March 29, 2020 in Beijing, China. A limited section of the iconic tourist site was re-opened to the public this week allowing a smaller number of visitors to reserve tickets online in advance and to enter after passing health screening. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)