“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 fisherman carries his catch to sell on the beach in Libreville, Gabon, February 3, 2017. (Photo by Mike Hutchings/Reuters)

A dragon dance takes place at Stonehenge, Wiltshire, where people celebrate the Chinese Moon Festival, or Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most cherished traditional festivals in Chinese culture, symbolising family reunions, gratitude, and the appreciation of the full moon on Sunday, September 15, 2024. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

In this May 3, 2016 photo provided by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, a deer with its head caught in the globe from a lighting fixture over its head stands in the woods in Centereach, N.Y. The deer was able to extricate itself with the help of Environmental Conservation Officer, Jeff Hull. Hull wrestled with the deer for a while and the globe shook free in the process. (Photo by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation via AP Photo)

Icelandic horses graze on a meadow at a stud farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, September 1, 2025. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Masquerade performers participate in the annual Badagry cultural festival near the old slave port in Badagry, on the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria August 27, 2016. (Photo by Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters)

Participants from a North Korea military band perform during the Spasskaya Tower international military music festival in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Friday, August 23, 2019. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

Hindu married women offer prayers and tie a thread around a banyan tree during the festival of Vat Purnima amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mumbai, India, June 24, 2021. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)