An opposition activist clashes with the police during a march against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro held on May Day, in Caracas on May 1, 2017. Security forces in riot vans blocked off central Caracas Monday as Venezuela braced for pro- and anti- government May Day protests one month after a wave of deadly political unrest erupted. (Photo by Federico Parra/AFP Photo)

Karsten Thielker, a Pulitzer Prize-winning German photographer with The Associated Press who covered human suffering in conflict zones around the globe, has died at the age of 54. Thielker died on October 3 in Berlin of esophageal cancer, his wife Janna Ressel said. Here: A wounded Russian soldier, who has been evacuated with his comrades, weeps in a helicopter on his way out of Grozny on Friday, February 3, 1995, as the fighting in the Chechen capital continues. The massive Russian force that invaded Chechnya has taken very heavy losses against a small but determined guerrilla force. (Photo by Karsten Thielker/AP Photo/File)

Female Afghan National Police (ANP) officers aim their weapons during a drill at a training centre near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on December 11, 2012. (Photo by Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters/File Photo)

A Secret Service police officer wrestles a protester to the ground after she ran towards a motorcade on its way to the LA Convention Center where North and South American leaders are gathered for the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, June 8, 2022. (Photo by Apu Gomes/AFP Photo)

Visitors outside the venue for Seoul fashion week in Seoul, South Korea on September 3, 2024. (Photo by Lee Jin-man/AP Photo)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

Female members of the Hammer tribe from the village of Turmi, situated in southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border, dance as part of a ritual called the “bull jumping ceremony” that takes place during the passage of a young boy to adulthood, in Turmi, Ethiopia, 25 September 2019. (Photo by Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA/EFE)