Students learn how to use an airsoft gun from Taiwanese military instructors at Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Senior High School in Kaohsiung on January 11, 2024. Kaohsiung City launched a national defence education program using digital technology for all its high school students. The program also promotes drug prevention in cooperation with the Taiwan defense ministry. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

A man dressed as a “Trapajon”, representing entities of nature, poses for a picture after taking part in the Vijanera Festival in Silio, northern Spain, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. The Vijanera masquerade, of pre-Roman origin, is the first carnival of the year in Europe symbolizing the triumph of good over evil and involving the participation of crowds of residents wearing different masks, animal skins and brightly colored clothing with its own complex function and symbolism and becoming the living example of the survival of archaic cults to nature. (Photo by Daniel Ochoa de Olza/AP Photo)

People take photos during the Loy Krathong festival which is held as a symbolic apology to the goddess of the river in Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 19, 2021. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

To produce the images that convey his fatalistic and ironic approach to life, tinged with hope, he needed the environment and knowledge of Mother Russia, oiled with a bit of bribery to certain circus trainers. Enter the Great Russian Bear, the personification of Russia for the last several centuries, onto center stage and into his studio. The bear is recognized as both brutish and cute – Misha was the mascot for the 1980 Olympic Games – and has remained a symbol of Russia since Tsarist times. In 2009 it is the symbol of the United Russia Party.

German carmaker Daimler's new Smart Fortwo car is seen on display during its world premiere in Berlin July 16, 2014. Daimler is betting that cooperation with Renault and the launch of models to tap growing demand for city cars may pave the way for its diminutive Smart brand to become profitable. Smart will add a new four-seater model to its lineup this year and upgrade the two-passenger Fortwo vehicle, raising hopes by the German group of boosting the brand's flagging sales. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

A silkmoth that has hatched out of its cocoon is seen at the Campoverde cooperative, Castelfranco Veneto, Italy June 4, 2015. Despite having wings, the adult moth cannot fly. Clusters of silkworms munch on piles of locally-grown mulberry leaves in a white marquee in Italy's northern Veneto region. They are nourishing hopes of a revival of Italy's 1,000 year-old silk industry. (Photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters)

Traditional dancers are seen at Ela Beach, near a venue of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 13 November 2018. The APEC summit brings together world leaders from its 21 member nations and is being hosted for the first time by Papua New Guinea. (Photo by Mast Irham/EPA/EFE)

Grace Sun, from Shenzhen China, poses for a picture outside Capital One Arena, ahead of a rally for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump the day before he is scheduled to be inaugurated for a second term, in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2025. “I think it's a very good thing between China and America”, said Sun. “I think cooperation will be better”. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)