First place: The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 9, 2023, leaving widespread destruction in the Rimal area.
Attribution: WAFA
Second place: Baby cape fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus) sleeping at Cape cross, Namibia.
Attribution: Giles Laurent
Third place: A gigantic jet [a kind of upper-atmospheric lightning] photographed from the International Space Station by astronaut Nichole Ayers.
How can anyone win a prize for a photo of an uninhabitable, left-over pile of rubble? How about a photo of a bustling market place, children playing, buyers price-negotiating with shopkeepers, in some far away, exotic place, for instance Gaza? Whatyarsaying? Oops.