“What did I know about Chechnya before last week? For someone who grew up in the 1990s the very word Chechnya meant a string of grainy images on TV showing people in battered camouflage outfits, shooting at each other amid destruction and ruin. Fear, wahhabis, Shamil Basayev, terrorism, mountains: these were the words that used to spring to my mind when someone mentioned Chechnya”. – Maxim Shemetov. Photo: Special forces officers stand guard during a government-organised event marking Chechen language day in the centre of the Chechen capital Grozny April 25, 2013. (Photo by Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)

Metropolitan Police patrol as people party at the Soho district, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions ease, in London, United Kingdom on April 16, 2021. Pubs and Restaurants are expecting good business tonight being the first Friday night after Coronavirus lockdown rules were relaxed to allow outside dining and drinking. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Dancers perform on stage during the Crazy Horse Paris “Forever Crazy” Media Call at The MasterCard Theatres at Marina Bay Sands on October 11, 2017 in Singapore. Forever Crazy consists of a series of highly aesthetic and visual tableaus presented by a classically trained dancers clad only in textured lighting and projection. The show runs from 11 October 2017 till 22 October 2017 in Singapore. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)

Brain-on-a-chip. Dazzling in green and magenta this image shows the nerve fibres (in green) produced by neural stem cells (in magenta) as they grow on a synthetic gel. Captured by a technique known as confocal microscopy, the image is part of research shedding light on how tinkering with the environment can affect the way in which nerve fibres grow. (Photo by Collin Edington and Iris Lee/Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Wellcome Images)

A Christmas Tree goes up in flames in a controlled-setting demonstration by the Glendale Fire Department on December 13, 2023, in Glendale, California. Firefighters showed how quickly a dried-out tree can ignite. According to the National Fire Protection Administration, Christmas trees account for hundreds of fires each year, often ignited by shorts in electrical lights or open flames from candles, lighters or matches. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP Photo)

Jorge, an immigrant from Mexico, exits a subway station dressed as the Sesame Street character Elmo in Times Square, New York July 30, 2014. Elmo and Cookie Monster have long delighted young viewers on TV's “Sesame Street”, but the recent antics of New York street performers dressed as the beloved characters have drawn the ire of city officials and now the show's producers. Sesame Workshop, which owns the rights to Big Bird, Ernie and the assorted puppet monsters on the 45-year-old program, said on July 29, 2014 it was drafting plans to stop performers who dress up as the characters from appearing in Times Square, where they pose for photos with tourists and then demand tips. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)

Lagoon Master. These amazing pictures of nebula thousands of light years from Earth have been captured by an amateur astronomer Dr. Dennis Roscoe snapped the beautiful celestial formations from his own personal observatory. His telescope looks into deep space at the nebula, which show both the birth and death of stars, like our very own Sun. (Photo by Dennis Roscoe/Caters News)

Brian Anderson has been taking images of Glasgow for 20 years, spotlighting both the light and dark side of life. Brian, 40, said: “Glasgow is full of character. It’s a nice city, it’s a crazy city and I want to show all that”. Photo: Police look on as a man tries to break up brawling women in Queen Street. (Photo by Brian Anderson)