[ SPOT NEWS ] This is a category for non-COVID-19 single photographs of breaking news or events in which no planning was possible. Each participant is allowed to enter up to 10 images. The images must be taken in 2019 or 2020.

Judges for Spot News
Abir Abdullah
Nariman El Mofty
Bryan van der Beek
Shiho Fukada
Wonsuk Choi

First Place

Danish Siddiqui

Reuters
India
A group of men chanting pro-Hindu slogans, beat Mohammad Zubair, 37, who is Muslim, during protests sparked by a new citizenship law in New Delhi, India, February 24, 2020. Zubair was on his way home from a local mosque when he came across a large Hindu crowd. "They saw I was alone, they saw my cap, beard, clothes and saw me as a Muslim," Zubair said. "They just started attacking, shouting slogans. What kind of humanity is this?" It had been a winter of protests in India with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets against a new citizenship law that many felt discriminated against the country's Muslim minorities. Violent protests between people supporting citizenship law and the ones against it turned into full blown communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. Dozens were killed and hundreds were injured. Tensions have been growing between members of India's two dominant religions after a Hindu Nationalist government was formed in 2014.

Second Place

Hassan Ammar

AP
Lebanon
Hoda Kinno, 11, is evacuated by her uncle Mustafa on Aug. 4, 2020, shortly after a massive explosion at the port in Beirut, Lebanon. The Kinno family from Syria’s Aleppo region was devastated in the wake of the explosion — Hoda suffered a broken neck and other injuries and her sister Sedra, 15, died in the explosion. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Third Place

SL Shanth Kumar

The Times of India
India
Rescue workers pull a survivor from the rubble of a collapsed building which crashed after incessant rains in Mumbai, In a huge class divide in Mumbai the lower middle class unable to pay high rents and maintain the buildings they live in are forced to stay in old crumbling structures. Every year due to the incessant rain Mumbai receives, a number of buildings collapse just not killing many but also destroying the lives of survivors. Inspite of this people continue to live in these kind of buildings continuing life like nothing happened. In this image photojournalist captures the res silent will of a survivor to stay alive after being trapped under 8 feet of rubble for over 8 hours, highlighting the the human spirit that never gives up.

Award of Excellence

Chan Long Hei

Independent
Hong Kong
Protesters use graffiti to deface an emblem of Hong Kong during their occupation in the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong on July 1, 2019.

Award of Excellence

Ahmad Hasaballah

IMAGESLIVE
Palestine
May 5, 2019 – Gaza City, Gaza Strip, 05 May 2019. Close relatives prepare for the funeral of 14-months-old Saba Mahmoud Abu Arar, who lost her life in an Israeli airstrike that hit her home in the al-Zaytoun neighbourhood on the east of Gaza City on Saturday. Seba died immediately during the attack, while her pregnant mother was seriously wounded and died later in the evening. The airstrike took place as Israel was carrying out an intensive aerial offensive on the Gaza strip following the launching of several rockets from Gaza into Israel.

Award of Excellence

Anas Alkharboutli

DPA
Syria
A Syrian man mourns over the body of a boy, killed in an airstrike, allegedly carried out by Russian and Syrian forces in the town of Sarmin.