Winner, World Press Photo of the Year for 2017—An Assassination in Turkey: Mevlut Mert Altintas shouts after shooting and killing Andrei Karlov, right, the Russian ambassador to Turkey, at an art gallery in Ankara, Turkey, on December 19, 2016. Altıntaş, a 22-year-old off-duty police officer, also wounded three other people before being killed by officers in a shootout. #

Nature, First Prize, Singles—Caretta Caretta Trapped: A sea turtle entangled in a fishing net swims off the coast of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, on June 8, 2016. Sea turtles are considered a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Unattended fishing gear is responsible for many sea turtle deaths. #

Daily Life, First Prize, Singles—The Silent Victims Of A Forgotten War: At the hospital, Najiba holds her two-year-old nephew Shabir who was injured from a bomb blast in Kabul on March 29, 2016. Afghanistan has endured armed conflict since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded. Afghan civilians are at greater risk today than at any time since Taliban rule, which ended in 2001. According to UN statistics, in the first half of 2016 at least 1,600 people died, and more than 3,500 people were injured. Despite billions of dollars spent by the international community to stabilize the country, Afghanistan has seen little improvement in terms of overall stability and human security. #

Sports, First Prize, Singles—Grand National Steeplechase: Jockey Nina Carberry flies off her horse, Sir Des Champs, as they fall at The Chair fence during the Grand National steeplechase, during day three of the Grand National Meeting at Aintree Racecourse on April 9, 2016, in Liverpool, England. #

Daily Life, Second Prize, Stories—Out Of The Way: In Russia’s extreme north, century-long ways of life dominate the daily life of some of the most isolated parts of the desolate landscape. Modern civilization penetrates slowly and fragmentarily. There are no roads, and only one helicopter shuttle twice monthly. The residents’ ancestors can be traced back to hereditary hunters in a small settlement near Nizhnyaya Tunguska River, Russia, more than 300 years ago. #

Sports, Third Prize, Stories—Adaptive Athlete: Lindsay Hilton, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, can lift 100 pounds. Lindsay was born without arms and legs. She throws all of the weight around with the help of chains from a local hardware store, straps, and Velcro. Aside from weight lifting, Lindsay holds a passion for swimming, soccer, hockey and especially rugby. When asked what motivates her and whether or not she feels accomplished, Lindsay replies, “I don't feel like I've actually done anything because I don't want to be 'good for someone without arms and legs', I want to be good.” #

Contemporary Issues, First Prize, Singles—Taking A Stand In Baton Rouge: Lone activist Ieshia Evans stands her ground while offering her hands for arrest as she is charged by riot police during a protest against police brutality outside the Baton Rouge Police Department in Louisiana, USA, on 9 July 2016. Evans, a 28-year-old Pennsylvania nurse and mother of one, traveled to Baton Rouge to protest against the shooting of Alton Sterling. Sterling was a 37-year-old black man and father of five, who was shot at close range by two white police officers. The shooting, captured on a multitude of cell phone videos, aggravated the unrest coursing through the United States in previous years over the use of excessive force by police, particularly against black men. #

Long-Term Projects, Third Prize—Table Rock Nebraska: Cheerleaders Melissa Bernadt and Jennifer Burnedt prepare for the evening’s homecoming game. Table Rock is a small rural community in Nebraska, USA, shown in a series of photos from 1992 until March 2016. It hasn't really changed over the years. It's a place where nothing happens. Most people living in Table Rock spend their whole lives there. Some try living in bigger towns, but often return to raise their children in their hometown, where they feel safe and secure. #

Spot News, Third Prize, Stories—Mediterranean Migration: Two men panic and struggle in the water during their rescue. Their rubber boat was in distress and deflating quickly on one side, tipping many migrants in the water. They were quickly reached by rescue swimmers and brought to safety. The central Mediterranean migration route, between the coasts of Libya and Italy, remains busy. According to reports by the UNHCR, 5,000 people died while attempting to cross the Mediterranean in 2016. NGOs and charities such as Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) continue their efforts to patrol the patch of sea north of the Libyan coast, in the hope of rescuing refugees before the potential of drowning. The rescue team on board the MOAS’ Responder are there to mitigate loss of life at sea. Operating like a sea-born ambulance, they rush to assist and rescue refugee vessels in distress, provide medical assistance, and bring the refugees safely to Italy. #

Nature, Second Prize, Singles—Big Cat In My Backyard!: A wild leopard strolls through Sanjay Gandhi National Park, a protected area in the northern part of Mumbai city, India, on September 24, 2016. The leopard is on its nocturnal prowl in the adjacent human settlements in search of food, which in these areas is typically dogs or pigs. #

Sports, Second Prize, Singles—The Dive: Gaël Monfils of France dives for a forehand in his fourth round match against Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, during the 2016 Australian Open at Melbourne Park, Australia, on January 25, 2016. #

General News, Third Prize, Singles—Life Inside The Philippines' Most Overcrowded Jail: Scenes from Quezon City Jail, one of the Philippines' most overcrowded prisons. Conditions are getting worse as police wage an unprecedented war on crime. There are 3,800 inmates at the jail, which was built six decades ago to house 800, and they engage in a relentless contest for space. Men take turns to sleep on the cracked cement floor of an open-air basketball court, the steps of staircases, underneath beds and hammocks made out of old blankets. #

Sports, Second Prize, Stories—Youth Chess Tournaments: A chess player expresses his emotions during a game of chess. Chess, for some, represents a world full of strong emotions, adrenaline and stress. This series focuses especially on the 'youth' tournaments held across several cities in the Czech Republic in 2016. The youth tournaments aim to motivate young people, replacing electronic devices with real-world interpersonal communication and entertainment. #

Contemporary Issues, First Prize, Stories—Standing Rock: Riot police clear marchers from a secondary road outside a Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) worker camp using rubber bullets, pepper spray, tasers and arrests. In other incidents they've employed militarized vehicles, water canons, tear gas and have been accused of using percussion grenades. For nearly 10 months, members of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and their allies camped out in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline crossing their territory and threatening their water supply. The estimated $3.78 billion project, backed by Energy Transfer Partners, is nearly complete, covering almost 1,172 miles. In military vehicles and body armor, police used tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, and water cannons against the protesters, and have been accused of inhumane treatment of arrestees. #

General News, Third Prize, Stories—We Are Not Taking Any Prisoners: Fighters of Libyan forces affiliated with the Tripoli government walk around a gigantic chandelier of the conference room in Ouagadougou Congress Complex. Sirte, Libya, is one of the three self-proclaimed capitals of the so-called Islamic State, along with Raqqa in Syria and Mosul in Iraq. It was the first of the three to fall, with an offensive launched by the Libyan government in May 2016. It took seven months of fighting, 500 American airstrikes, the lives of 700 Libyan soldiers and more than 3,000 injured Libyan soldiers to finally declare the city free. #

Nature, Second Prize, Stories—Pandas Gone Wild: In a large forested enclosure of the Wolong Reserve, panda keepers Ma Li and Liu Xiaoqiang listen for radio signals from a collared panda training to be released to the wild. Tracking can tell them how the cub is faring in the rougher terrain up the mountain. As conservation icons go, nothing quite beats the giant panda. Instantly recognizable worldwide and adored by billions, the giant panda is a virtual brand whose resemblance to anything wild is as tenuous as it is rare. Like many endangered species, giant pandas have declined as a growing human population has seized wild lands for human uses. The Chinese have spent the past quarter of a century perfecting breeding methods, building a captive population and protecting habitat. The giant panda was recently taken off the world endangered species list—a minor miracle, due to the unique efforts of Chinese zoologists and conservationists. #

Contemporary Issues, Second Prize, Stories—Victims Of The Zika Virus: Adriana Cordeiro Soares, 30, bathes her son João Miguel, 3 months old, who was born with microcephaly caused by the Zika virus, in her house in the rural area of São Vicente do Seridó. In September of 2015, babies in Brazil began to be born with microcephaly and other malformations, and in April of 2016 the link between the Zika virus and these malformations was confirmed. Northeastern Brazil, where most of the Zika cases of microcephaly were reported, is one of the poorest regions in the country, and lacks an adequate health system. Many children with microcephaly often live hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest health center and spend hours traveling in order to receive medical and physical therapy. Most come from poor households and receive little governmental support. #

General News, First Prize, Stories—They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals: Heavy rain pours as police operatives investigate inside an alley where a victim, Romeo Joel Torres Fontanilla (37) was killed by two unidentified gunmen riding motorcycles in the early morning in Manila, Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines began his anti-drug campaign when he took office on June 30, 2016. Since then, more than 2,000 people have been slain at the hands of the police alone. Beyond those killed in official drug operations, the Philippine National Police have counted more than 3,500 unsolved homicides since July 1. The victims, suspected users and pushers, are not afforded any semblance of due process. #

Contemporary Issues, Third Prize, Singles—The Libyan Migrant Trap: Two Nigerian refugees cry and embrace in a detention center for refugees in Surman, Libya, on August 17, 2016. The detention center houses hundreds of women escaping precarious conditions. Many claim they are regularly beaten or sexually assaulted, and receive insufficient amounts of food and water at the center. Most of these women were attempting to reach Europe by being smuggled across the Mediterranean in boats setting sail from neighboring Sabratah. #

General News, Second Prize, Stories—Iraq's Battle To Reclaim Its Cities: A family flees the fighting in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, as oil fields burned in Qayyara, Iraq. More than two years after the Islamic State first blitzed across Iraq in 2014, Iraqi security forces are scrambling to evict the militant group from Mosul, its last major stronghold in the country. The campaign has displaced nearly 70,000 Iraqis, and may uproot hundreds of thousands more. With an escalating number of civilians caught up in the battle, some military officials are second-guessing their initial strategy. #

Daily Life, Second Prize, Singles—Sweat Makes Champions: Four students of a gymnastics school in Xuzhou, China, do toe-pressure training for 30 minutes in the afternoon. #

Spot News, Third Prize, Singles—Battle For Mosul: A car bomb explodes next to Iraqi special forces armored vehicles as they advance towards Islamic State-held territory in Mosul, Iraq, on November 16, 2016. The Iraqi Special Operations Forces, also known as the Golden Division, is the Iraqi unit that leads the fight against the Islamic State with the support of the airstrikes of the Coalition Forces. They were the first forces to enter the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in November of 2016. #

Sports, First Prize, Stories—Boys Will be Boys: Muddy York Rugby Football Club players Michael Smith, left, Devin McCarney, center, and Jean Paul Markides are photographed during a rehearsal for their performance at the annual team fundraiser drag show on November 5, 2016, in Toronto, Ontario. Fundraisers, along with sponsorships, play a major role for the team's season budget. Each player pays an annual fee to the club that covers the uniforms, practice facilities and Rugby Ontario fees. Muddy York helps players who can't afford the payment, with an exemption. Gay athletes have somehow nearly always encountered resistance, controversy, discrimination, and often humiliation from the sports community. Stereotypes have typically, and falsely, defined the performance of the athletes as well as their suitability to a specific discipline. Discomfort in the locker room pushed a few of Toronto's gay rugby players to form the city’s first gay-friendly rugby team. Established in 2003, Muddy York RFC primarily competes against “straight” teams in the Toronto Rugby Union. The Muddy York team unconsciously started the process of describing and deconstructing the idea of performance within masculinity. #

Contemporary Issues, Third Prize, Stories—Copacabana Palace: Edilane and three of her seven children (at the time the photo was taken) rest on a mattress on the floor. She will soon give birth to a son. Despite all her problems and struggles on how to feed her kids, she is still positive about her life. Recently she was able to build up a very small and basic Internet store inside the buildings. Out of approximately 10 old computers, she can make one for the store. This represents some $5 daily. “Copacabana Palace”, an ironically named series of condominiums in Brazil, houses more than 300 homeless families. Built more than 30 years ago, construction on this complex was never finished and has since become squatted. A lack of fresh water, electricity, or a working sewage system means residents here often face serious health problems. Most of the people here come from favela communities, some of whom may have been offered social housing as part of governmental rehousing schemes that they don't feel safe enough to occupy due to the presence of drug-gang families. According to official statistics from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, it is estimated that there are 1.8 million homeless people in Brazil. #

Sports, Third Prize, Singles—Rio's Golden Smile: Usain Bolt of Jamaica smiles as he looks back at his competition, while winning the 100-meter semi-final sprint, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Bolt is regarded as the fastest human ever timed. He is the first person to hold both the 100-meter and 200-meter world records since fully automatic time became mandatory. #

Nature, Third Prize, Stories—Now You See Me: Buffaloes at the drinking station. These photos combine a well-known natural phenomenon: the starry sky and portraits of wild animals not visible to the naked eye. The series needed very accurate planning, research and preparation as the photos were made with remote control, and no modification was possible while capturing the photos. #

Spot News, First Prize, Singles—Pakistan Bomb Blast: Lawyers help their injured colleagues after a bomb explosion in Quetta, Pakistan, on August 8, 2016. Seventy people were killed when a bomb exploded outside a civil hospital where a crowd of lawyers and journalists had gathered to mourn Bilal Anwar Kasi, a senior lawyer who had been assassinated hours earlier. #

Daily Life, Third Prize, Singles—China’s Wild West: An Uyghur woman carries money in her stockings, a common practice. Uyghur women, while Muslim, typically do not adhere to the conservative dress code that women in neighboring countries follow. On this train from Kashgar, you see a lesser known side of China. Most of the passengers are Uyghur, a Chinese minority who live mostly in the west. One of the longest train journeys in the world—2,910 miles (4,683 kilometers)—runs across China from Hong Kong to Urumqi, made up of 18 wagons, traveling over 160 kilometers per hour. China is transformed with every mile, from verdant jungle and arid steppe to the Taklamakan desert, the second largest shifting-sand desert in the world in the Southern branch of the Silk Road, China. #

General News, First Prize, Singles—Offensive On Mosul: Iraqi Special Operations Forces search houses of Gogjali, an eastern district of Mosul, looking for Daesh members, equipment, and evidence on November 2, 2016. The Iraqi Special Operations Forces, also known as the Golden Division, is the Iraqi unit that leads the fight against the Islamic State with the support of the airstrikes of the Coalition Forces. They were the first forces to enter the Islamic State-held city of Mosul in November of 2016. #

People, Second Prize, Stories—Enfarinat: On December 28 each year, the “Floured War" takes place in Ibi in the province of Alicante, Spain. During the festival, the citizens are divided into two groups: the 'Enfarinat' (the floured) group simulates a coup d'etat and a second group tries to calm the rebellion. The teams play with flour, water, eggs and colored smoke bombs. The 200-year-old tradition is known as “Els Enfarinats”, marking the biblical Massacre of the Innocents by King Herod. #

Nature, First Prize, Stories—Rhino Wars: Care For Wild Africa is a donor-run organization that specializes in caring for wounded animals. They have a special focus on rhino and have taken in many rhino orphans from the poaching wars across South Africa at this time. Their latest orphan is Lulah, her mother was killed in Kruger National Park and when the rangers found her she was estimated to be one month old. Hyenas had attacked the tiny calf and chewed off her ears and parts of her nose, as well as a big bite off of her rear right leg. Lulah has a strong will to live and, despite fighting off infection in the wound, she is looking like she will survive. Lulah has a full-time caregiver, Dorota Ladosz, who is full-time staff. Dorota has an honors degree in both Animal Science and Wildlife Management. She lives full-time with Lulah at the time of this picture and sleeps with her in her enclosure. She maintains a constant watch on Lulah’s injuries and her temperature and feeds her at regular intervals. Lulah received surgery on this day and her wounds were cleaned out by Jan-Louis Ras, a surgeon who volunteers his services to Care for Wild Africa but actually usually works on humans. Infections in Lulah’s legs were cleaned out and her ears and the top of her head were dressed and disinfected. Care for Wild Africa has taken care of multiple rhino calves like this and today they have 27 survivors living on the property. #

People, Third Prize, Stories—Olympians: Folau Niua, Danny Berret, Martin Iosefo, and Garrett Bender will be part of the men's sevens US rugby team at the 2016 Rio Olympics and are photographed at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. A series of portraits of Olympic athletes from California headed to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The USA took more than 550 athletes to compete in 20 sports of the Summer Games. #

Long-Term Projects, First Prize—Black Days Of Ukraine: Civilians escape from a fire at a house destroyed by an air attack in the Luhanskaya village. Ordinary people became victims of the conflict between self-proclaimed republics and the official Ukrainian authorities from 2014 onward in the region of Donbass. Disaster came into their lives unexpectedly. These people were involved in the military confrontation against their will. They experienced the most terrible things: the death of their friends and relatives, destroyed homes and the ruined lives of thousands of people. #

Daily Life, First Prize, Stories—Cuba On The Edge Of Change: Members of the Ejercito Juvenil del Trabajo wait along the road to Santiago de Cuba at dawn for Fidel Castro’s caravan. Cuba declared nine days of mourning after Fidel Castro’s death, a period that culminated with his funeral. In December, days after Fidel Castro’s death, his ashes were taken into the countryside, on a route that retraced, in reverse, the steps of the revolution he led in 1959. Towns and villages along the route were emptied of residents as thousands tried to catch a glimpse of Castro’s remains. For many, the death of Fidel Castro felt like that of a father. In death, as in life, Fidel Castro demanded reverence. Cuba brims with life, a contrast drawn sharper amid its faded grandeur. From one end of the country to the other, thousands of Cubans waited to bid farewell to Fidel. #

Spot News, Second Prize, Stories—Rescued From the Rubble: Syrian men carrying babies make their way through the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported airstrike on the rebel-held Salihin neighborhood of Aleppo on September 11, 2016. Airstrikes killed dozens in rebel-held parts of Syria as the opposition considered whether to join a US-Russia truce deal due to take effect on September 12. Since 2012, Syria’s northern city of Aleppo has been divided between rebel and regime-held districts, but a devastating regime offensive launched in mid-October saw the rebels ousted from their iconic former stronghold. The army’s victory in Aleppo was marked by heavy shelling which destroyed all established hospitals in the area and much of the city was reduced to a wasteland by air and artillery attacks. #