Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

Devotees wearing protective masks pray at a temple in Bangkok, Thailand, 19 June 2020. Thailand opened most businesses to enter the fourth phase of easing coronavirus restrictions after the number of coronavirus cases remains low. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

People collect fish on the beach during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Da Nang, Vietnam on May 6, 2020. (Photo by Kham via Reuters)

A woman wearing a face mask to help protect against the spread of the new coronavirus crosses a stream in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)

In this April 20, 2018, file aerial photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, advection fog drifts across skyscrapers on the waterfront in Qingdao in eastern China's Shandong Province. Chinese leaders have long been sensitive about their communist country’s international image. Now, they are battling back, investing in diplomacy and a courtship of hearts and minds, just as the United States digs in on the Trump administration’s “America First” mindset. (Photo by Lu Hui/Xinhua via AP Photo/File)

A dancer spits fire during a slum party at Oworonshoki district of Lagos, on November 27, 2021. In Oworonshoki, a poor district of Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital, an emerging artistic dance activists, Ennovate Dance House, is changing the narratives of the slum cummunity. The community which in the past was always in the bad news for cultism, violence and killings, suddenly is attracting tourist attention with a “Slum Party”, a yearly artistic dance festival being used by the group to give life and hope to the inhabitants. (Photo by Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP Photo)

Models showcase collection by designer Zhang Kejia during the 2021 Kunming Fashion Week on December 15, 2021 in Kunming, Yunnan Province of China. (Photo by Li Jiaxian/China News Service via Getty Images)

A protester scuffles with a member of Israeli security forces during a demonstration in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, on December 17, 2021. (Photo by Ahmad Gharabli/AFP Photo)