Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he bids the last farewell to his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during the funeral ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 23 September 1999 (reissued 30 August 2022). According to a Moscow Central Clinical Hospital statement, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. As a supporter of the de-Stalinization programs of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the United States and withdrew the Soviet Union from the Soviet-Afghan war. His policies created freedom of speech and press, and decentralized fiscal policy planning and execution to increase efficiency. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, overseeing Russia’s transition from one party rule to fragile democracy. (Photo by Sergey Chirikov/EPA/EFE)

Residents watch the ocean waves crash into the water front, after the passage of Hurricane Irma, in Cuba, Sunday, September 10, 2017. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Kashmiri residents are evacuated in a tractor from their flooded neighborhood in Srinagar, India, Sunday, September 7, 2014. (Photo by Dar Yasin/AP Photo)

A woman walks up a stairway painted in the rainbow colors in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, July 11, 2020. Romania reported 698 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the highest level since the pandemic reached the country in February. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A Kurdish girl wears her relative's assault rifle and ammunition belt as she waits at the Iraqi Kurdish Shaqouli checkpoint, some 35 kilometres east of Mosul, on November 10, 2016. Since the start of the Mosul offensive the Kurds have moved their border some 10 kms closer to Iraq's second city, marking it out with a line in the sand. (Photo by Odd Andersen/AFP Photo)

A Ukranian soldier hugs his wife in the city of Irpin, north of Kyiv, on March 10, 2022. Russian forces on March 10, 2022 rolled their armoured vehicles up to the northeastern edge of Kyiv, edging closer in their attempts to encircle the Ukrainian capital. Kyiv's northwest suburbs such as Irpin and Bucha have been enduring shellfire and bombardments for more than a week, prompting a mass evacuation effort. (Photo by Aris Messinis/AFP Photo)

Migrants try to board an overcrowded train as they leave the city at the Jammu Tawi railway station in Jammu on May 10, 2025, amid the ongoing border tensions between India and Pakistan after the Kashmir tourist attack. Pakistan and India on May 10 stepped up missile, drone and artillery attacks in a fourth straight day of conflict, as the US urged both sides to restore dialogue to “avoid miscalculation”. (Photo by Money Sharma/AFP Photo)

French artist Gino rides the “Celestial Cyclo” tricycle built by him in Le Marais neighbourhood in Paris, France, August 15, 2015. (Photo by Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)