A French biologist and underwater photographer has been named the Natural History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2021.
Laurent Ballesta was selected as the winner of the competition for his “enigmatic image” Creation, which captures camouflage groupers exiting their milky cloud of eggs and sperm in Fakarava, French Polynesia.
Over the past five years, Mr Ballesta and his team dove into the lagoon day and night so they did not miss the annual spawning that takes place around the full moon in July.
His image was selected from more than 50,000 entries from 95 countries and was named the winner at a virtual awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum in central London.
“The image works on so many levels. It is surprising, energetic and intriguing, and has an otherworldly beauty,” said chairwoman of the judging panel, writer and editor Rosamund “Roz” Kidman Cox.
“It also captures a magical moment — a truly explosive creation of life — leaving the tail-end of the exodus of eggs hanging for a moment like a symbolic question mark.”
Meanwhile, Vidyun R Hebbar was named Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the ceremony.
The 10-year-old's colourful image, Dome home, features a tent spider in its web as a tuk-tuk passes.
The two winners were chosen from 19 categories in total which aim to celebrate the natural world.
Three new categories were introduced this year, including Oceans — The Bigger Picture and Wetlands — The Bigger Picture.
A total of 100 images from the competition will be on display at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum.
It opens on October 15 before touring across the UK and internationally.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Manchester United v Liverpool
Premier League, kick off 7.30pm (UAE)
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Company profile
Name: Thndr
Started: October 2020
Founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: pre-seed of $800,000
Funding stage: series A; $20 million
Investors: Tiger Global, Beco Capital, Prosus Ventures, Y Combinator, Global Ventures, Abdul Latif Jameel, Endure Capital, 4DX Ventures, Plus VC, Rabacap and MSA Capital
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The years Ramadan fell in May
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Key facilities
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Mica
Director: Ismael Ferroukhi
Stars: Zakaria Inan, Sabrina Ouazani
3 stars
Andor
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