Nature – first prize, stories. Pandemic Pigeons – A Love Story. The photographer’s daughter, Merel, cowers after Dollie flies past and perches on the balcony before entering the house in Vlaardingen in the Netherlands on 6 April 2020. “She’s still frightened when Dollie suddenly lands on the balcony railing. I hide my smile behind the camera, as I try to comfort her by saying they won’t hurt you. “I thought he was going to attack me”, she replies. As the nesting pigeons keep coming back to our place, slowly my girls have started to appreciate them – perhaps not as much as I do, but it’s a start”. (Photo by Jasper Doest/World Press Photo 2021)

Girls talk outside the Niavaran Palace in northern Tehran, capital of Iran, March 26, 2024. People visited the Niavaran Palace during the new year vacation of Nowruz, which falls on March 20 this year. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A Palestinian girl with her body painted by special effects makeup artist Alaa Abu Mustafa, 20, sits on a boat in the southern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2018. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A Palestinian rides with the body of an Israeli killed by Hamas militants in a kibbutz near the Gaza Strip fence in Gaza City, Saturday, October 7, 2023. (Photo by Abed Abu Reash/AP Photo)

A man steers with his legs while riding a motorcycle on a road in Vietnam's northern Hoa Binh province, outside Hanoi, October 15, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Kham)

A Sri Lankan leopard is pictured at a zoo in Dehiwala near Colombo on March 3, 2016, on World Wildlife Day. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Two baby orangutans play with each other at the wildlife department in Kuala Lumpur, Malayasia, October 19, 2015. The Malaysian wildlife department in July seized two baby Sumatran orangutans, found in duffel bags, from traffickers who were attempting to sell them to buyers in Malaysia. According to local media, the orangutans will be returned to Medan, Indonesia on Tuesday. The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be $8 billion a year worldwide, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring network. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)

Shane Baker of Minnesota poses for a photo with adult film actress Rachel Starr at the Pornhub booth at the 2017 AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on January 18, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)