Click the slideshow below to see the winning photographs:
Police surround demonstrators in Times Square during a protest march, June 4, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Demonstrators protest, June 4, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C., over the death of George Floyd. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) An American flag falls from its pole as police attempt to secure the area after protesters set fire to the department of corrections building, Aug. 24, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis. Protests have erupted following the police shooting of Jacob Blake a day earlier. (AP Photo/David Goldman) A protester, center, tries to stop others from attacking a police vehicle during a protest over the death of George Floyd in Los Angeles, May 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Demonstrators vandalize a car as they protest the death of George Floyd, May 31, 2020, near the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) New York police officers arrest a person inside a Balenciaga store, June 2, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) A Black Lives Matter protester burns a sign outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on July 21, 2020 in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) A demonstrator hides under a barrier as federal officers release tear gas during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse, July 29, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) Demonstrators are taken into custody after curfew in Minneapolis as protests continued following the death of George Floyd, May 31, 2020. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Protestors demonstrate outside of a burning fast food restaurant, May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A demonstrator stares at a National Guard solider as protests continue over the death of George Floyd, June 3, 2020, near the White House in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Police officers and protesters clash in Atlanta on May 29, 2020, during a protest in response to George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) A protester poses for photos next to a burning police vehicle in Los Angeles, May 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu) Protestors watch as police in riot gear walk down a residential street, May 28, 2020, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) A protester carries a U.S. flag upside down, a sign of distress, next to a burning building, May 28, 2020, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Agustina Cañamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the new coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2020. Even when it comes wrapped in plastic, a hug can convey tenderness and relief, love and devotion. The fear that gripped Agustina Cañamero during the 102 days she and her 84-year-old husband spent physically separated during Spain’s coronavirus outbreak dissolved the moment the couple embraced through a screen of plastic film. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Mortuary workers take off their protective clothing at the entrance of a building decorated with a Christmas tree after removing the body of person who allegedly died of COVID-19 in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Álvaro Puig Moreno watches television while eating a his Christmas Eve dinner at his home in Barcelona, Spain, Dec. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) A mortuary worker collects the ashes of a COVID-19 victim from an oven after the remains where cremated at Mémora mortuary in Girona, Spain, Nov. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) The body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 is covered with a sheet on her bed in a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) A woman pushes a cart with her belongings as she walks along an empty street in downtown Barcelona, Spain, March 21, 2020. While Spanish authorities tell the public that staying home is the best way to beat the coronavirus pandemic, some people are staying out because home has come to mean the streets of Madrid and Barcelona. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) The body of an elderly person is prepared inside a coffin for her funeral at a morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Francisco España, 60, spends time in front of the beach near the “Hospital del Mar” in Barcelona, Spain, Sept. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Residents look at the street through a window at the Icaria nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Wearing protective suits to prevent infection, mortuary workers move the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from an elevator after removing it from a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) A patient rests in a chair next to his bed at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Nurse Marta Fernandez holds up a tablet computer over the chest of 94-year-old Maria Teresa Argullos Bove so that she can speak to her sister, children and grandchildren from her hospital bed at the COVID-19 ward at the hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Leopoldo Roman, 85, lies in bed wearing a face mask as he waits for doctors during a home medical visit in Barcelona, Spain, April 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) A woman sits on her balcony in downtown Barcelona, Spain, May 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden, looks at nurse Alba Rodriguez as Ribas’ husband, Jose Marcos, 89, stands by in their home in Barcelona, Spain, March 30, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
The Pulitzer juries nominated five AP finalists, including the two winners:
Investigative reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, investigative reporting, for a series that exposed widespread abuse in the lucrative palm oil industry and traced the oil to major Western companies. Beijing-based reporter Dake Kang and AP staff, investigative reporting, for reporting that held China accountable for its early mishandling of COVID-19 and human rights violations against the Uyghurs. Photographers Hassan Ammar, Felipe Dana and Hussein Malla, breaking news photography, for images of the immediate aftermath of the Beirut port explosion that leveled part of the city.