World Press Photo of the Year 2016

A wounded Syrian girl cries at a make-shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following reported air strikes by regime forces, on August 12, 2015. At least 27 civilians were killed in Syrian government air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus according to a monitoring group. AFP PHOTO / ABD DOUMANY

— AFP PICTURES OF THE YEAR 2015 — A wounded Syrian girl looks on at a make shift hospital in the rebel-held area of Douma, east of the capital Damascus, following shelling and air raids by Syrian government forces on August 22, 2015. At least 20 civilians and wounded or trapped 200 in Douma, a monitoring group said, just six days after regime air strikes killed more than 100 people and sparked international condemnation of one of the bloodiest government attacks in Syria’s war. AFP PHOTO / ABD DOUMANY

Adam Abdel, age 7, was badly burned when a bomb, dropped on February 12 by a Sudanese government’s Antonov plane, landed next to his family’s home in Burgu, Central Darfur, Sudan, February 27, 2015.

Whale Whisperers. Divers observe and surround a humpback whale and her newborn calf whilst they swim around Roca Partida in the Revillagigedo Islands, Mexico, 28 January 2015. Anuar Patjane Floriuk

4—Gumda, Nepal. Friday, May 08, 2015: Bishnu Gurung (3L) weeps as the body of her daughter, Rejina Gurung, 3, (unseen), is recovered from the rubble of her earthquake destroyed home, on May 8, 2015 in the village of Gumda, Nepal. Neighbors discovered the body of the small girl in the collapsed entrance of the Gurung family home, ending a 13 day search for Rejina in the remote mountainous village of Gumda in Gorkha district. On the 25th of April, just before noon local time, as farmers were out in fields and people at home or work, a devastating earthquake struck Nepal, killing over 8,000 people and injuring more than 21,000 according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Homes, buildings and temples in Kathmandu were destroyed in the 7.8 magnitude quake, which left over 2.8 million people homeless, but it was the mountainous districts away from the capital that were the hardest hit. Villagers pulled the bodies of their loved ones from the rubble by hand and the wails of grieving families echoed through the mountains, as mothers were left to bury their own children. Over the following weeks and months, villagers picked through ruins desperate to recover whatever personal possessions they could find and salvage any building materials that could be reused. Despite relief teams arriving from all over the world in the days after the quake hit, thousands of residents living in remote hillside villages were left to fend for themselves, as rescuers struggled to reach all those affected. Multiple aftershocks, widespread damage and fear kept tourists away from the country known for its searing Himalayan peaks, damaging a vital climbing and trekking industry and compounding the recovery effort in the face of a disaster from which the people of Nepal continue to battle to recover.

A ‘Maya’ girl sits in an altar during the traditional celebration of ‘Las Mayas’ on the streets of the small village of Colmenar Viejo, near Madrid, Spain Saturday, May 2, 2015. The festivity of ‘Las Mayas’ comes from pagan rites and dates from at least the medieval age, appearing in ancient documents. It takes place every year in the beginning of May and celebrates the arrival of the spring. A girl between 7 and 11years is chosen as ‘Maya’ and should sit still, serious, and quiet for a couple of hours in an altar on the street decorated with flowers and plants, afterwards they walk to the church with their family where they attend a ceremony. Not more than four, or five girls are chosen as a Maya each year.

North Korean children perform at the Pyongyang Kyongsang Kindergarten. Photo by David Guttenfelder

After spending two days and two nights sailing on the Mediterranean Sea on the deck of the M.S.F. (Médecins Sans Frontières – Doctors Without Borders) search and rescue ship Bourbon Argos, rescued migrants – still wrapped in their emergency blankets – catch sight of the Italian coast for the first time soon after dawn. 23 August 2015 In 2015 the ever-increasing number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea on unseaworthy vessels towards Europe led to an unprecedented crisis. Nearly 120 thousand people have reached Italy in the first 8 months of the year. While the European governments struggled to deal with the influx, the death toll in the Mediterranean reached record numbers. Early in May the international medical relief organization Médecins Sans Frontières (M.S.F.) joined in the search and rescue operations led in the Mediterranean Sea and launched three ships at different stages: the Phoenix (run by the Migrant Offshore Aid Station), the Bourbon Argos and Dignity.

Chinese men pull a tricycle in a neighborhood next to a coal-fired power plant in Shanxi, China. Photo: Kevin Frayer

Runaway talibes stand on the bank of Senegal river, in Saint Louis city, north of Senegal, May 20, 2015. Saint Louis is known as Talibe city. A city with small proportions compared to Dakar but with a large number of Talibes. Due to that many of them choose the streets instead of Daaras.

Homeless veteran Darlene Matthews has been living in her car for over two years while she waits for a housing voucher from the VA. She joined the US Army in 1976 and was sent to Fort McLellan, Alabama. “I was going to join this all women’s army and there would be no sexual problems but I joined and there were sexual problems.” She was beyond horrified when she discovered that it wasn’t a safe place and instead full of “illegal punishments and all this sexual stuff. The whole atmosphere was abusive.” Her life spiraled down after she got out of the military and found herself very depressed. She joined the military to escape a chaotic abusive home life and was forced back into it when she was discharged. She has been fighting with the VA for benefits including housing vouchers but has been living in her car in the parking lot of a mortuary next to a graveyard. “It’s like being in a fun house and every door gets slammed in your face every time you try to leave. I feel like giving up sometimes, and nobody would care.”

Howie calls these “his and hers” chairs. He sits beside Laurel, his wife of thirty-four years, as they get their weekly chemotherapy treatments, side by side at Oncologist Dr. Barry Boyd’s office. Greenwich, Connecticut. January, 2013.

Krigen och osäkerheten, framförallt i mellanöstern tvingar alltfler på flykt mot säkerheten i Europa. Innan november var slut passerade antalet asylsökande som anlände 1 miljon. En fjärdedel av flyktingarna är Syrier. Samtidigt som skyddsbehoven ökar stängs alltfler dörrar. Sedan Turkiet fått 27 miljarder kronor av EU patrullerar den turkiska kustbevakningen allt oftare. I praktiken går den svenska gränsen här, i vattnet mellan Grekland och Turkiet. För att undvika upptäckt och att fängslas i Turkiet tar sig alltfler båtar över under skydd av mörkret. Frivilliga hjälparbetare möter de ofta nedkylda flyktingarna på den grekiska ön Lesbos

Sunbather oblivious to the ominous shelf cloud approaching – on Bondi beach. A massive “cloud tsunami” looms over Sydney in a spectacular weather event seen only a few times a year. The enormous shelf cloud rolled in from the sea, turning the sky almost black and bringing violent thunderstorms in its wake.

Colima Volcano in Mexico shows a powerful night explosion with lightning, ballystics and some incandescent rockfalls. Photo taken on dec. 13 at 22:24 hours, 12.5 km away from the crater near a lagoon named Carrizalillos on Comala municipality in the state of Colima. Colima Volcano had a period of enormous activity on july of 2015, at least 700 inhabitants were evacuated from their settlements. The volcano mantains activity with 3 to 6 explosions by day. Lightning on Colima Volcano explosions became common on last months. This particular lightning is more than 600 meters long, so the big light made clear some details of the south portion of volcano. It’s an 8 seconds shot, time enough to catch the explosion and the lightning. Photo: Sergio Velasco

A city in northern China shrouded in haze, Tianjin, China. Photo: Zhang Lei