World Press Photo Contest 2015...1st place winners

From World Press photo.org
Here are my favorites from the 1st place award winners.

JON AND ALEX
18 May 2014
St. Petersburg, Russia
Jon, 21, and Alex, 25, a gay couple, during an intimate moment. Life for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people is becoming increasingly difficult in Russia. Sexual minorities face legal and social discrimination, harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups.

THE DARK HEART OF EUROPE
10 December 2014
Charleroi, Belgium
Gas supply tubes run along the houses built near the steel factories of Charleroi. Before the electric upgrade of the blast furnace, these tubes used to provide the energy needed for this operation.

Charleroi, a town near Brussels, has experienced the collapse of industrial manufacturing, rising unemployment, increasing immigration and outbreak of micro-criminality. The roads, once fresh and neat, appear today desolated and abandoned, industries are closing down, and vegetation grows in the old industrial districts.

ISTANBUL PROTEST
12 March 2014
Istanbul, Turkey
A young girl was wounded during clashes between riot police and protesters after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, a 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during anti-government protests. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters in the capital Ankara, while in Istanbul, crowds shouting anti-government slogans lit a huge fire as they made their way to a cemetery for the boy’s burial.

KITCHEN TABLE
26 August 2014
Donetsk, Ukraine
Damaged goods lie in a kitchen in downtown Donetsk. Ordinary workers, miners, teachers, pensioners, children, and elderly women and men are in the midst of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Artillery fire killed three people and wounded 10 on 26 August 2014

MINDSUCKERS
19 April 2012
An infected male sheep crab is feminized by a parasitic barnacle. It stops developing fighting claws, and its abdomen widens, providing a womb for the barnacle to fill with its brood pouch. Nurtured by the crab, the eggs hatch. Thousands of baby barnacles disperse to infect anew.

Parasites are often dismissed as vile, lowly bloodsuckers, but some of these creatures have evolved the incredible ability to manipulate the bodies and minds of their hosts. The enslaved hosts turn into bodyguards, feeding machines, and transport vessels for their parasite overlords.

CRIME WITHOUT PUNISHMENT
17 July 2014
The remains of a passenger from Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Under the baking July sun of eastern Ukraine, human remains lay spread over a large area as pro-Russian militiamen brandished their weapons to keep European observers away. A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 headed bearing 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down on 17 July 2014, apparently by a Russian-made missile.

A Very poignant view of the world today.
There are many,many more winners at the link provided these are just a few that I prefer.