“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)

A photo taken on November 17, 2021 shows two glass recycling containers transformed as part of the new GAU project (Gallerie Urbane di Città Ideale, or Urban Galleries of the Ideal City), promoted by the cultural association Progetto Goldstein, in the Circonvallazione cornelia street of Rome. The project is transforming 34 containers for the separate collection of glass into artists' canvases with a special tribute to poet Dante and his Divine Comedy. (Photo by Tiziana Fabi/AFP Photo)

Serbian police officers of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit pose for a picture in their base outside Belgrade October 8, 2014. When the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, in August sparked sometimes violent protests, the response of police in camouflage gear and armoured vehicles wielding stun grenades and assault rifles seemed more like a combat operation than a public order measure. Some U.S. police departments have recently acquired U.S. military-surplus hardware from wars abroad, but there are many law enforcers around the world whose rules of engagement also allow the use of lethal force with relatively few restrictions. But for every regulation that gives police wide scope to use firearms, there is another code that sharply limits their use. In Serbia, police may use measures ranging from batons to special vehicles, water cannon and tear gas on groups of people who have gathered illegally and are behaving in a way that is violent or could cause violence, but they may use firearms only when life is endangered. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)

A person reacts on the “Swiftie Steps” ahead of a Taylor Swift concert, following the cancellation of three Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna because of a planned attack, at Wembley Stadium in London, Britain on August 15, 2024. (Photo by Toby Melville/Reuters)

People walk near an artwork depicting Pope Francis, following the death of the pontiff, in Rome, Italy, on April 22, 2025. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

A model poses during the annual World Bodypainting Festival in Poertschach, Austria, July 3, 2015. The event takes place from July 3 to 5 at lake Woerthersee in Austria's southern Carinthia province. (Photo by Heinz-Peter Bader/Reuters)

A mahout watches the Thai animation movie Kan Kluay with his elephant in Ayuthaya province, about 80km (49 miles) north of Bangkok June 5, 2006. The movie tells the story of a young Thai wild elephant who, while looking for his father, becomes the war elephant of the Thai King fighting against Burma and restored Thailand's ancient Ayuthaya empire that existed about 400 years ago. (Photo by Sukree Sukplang/Reuters)

Stanislav Fursov (top) and Ekaterina Simonova from Russia, who are representing the city of Moscow, dance during the Stage style final round at the Tango World Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 27, 2015. (Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)