Ranger trainees and trainee dogs simulate an ambush against rhino poachers at the Paramount Group Anti-Poaching training and K9 (canine) academy on November 26, 2014 in Magaliesberg, South Africa. One of the largest of its kind in Africa, the Academy will address the ever increasing need for training of Conservation Officers in anti poaching activities, wildlife contraband detection, specialist K9 solutions and Ranger K9 handler training – all of which have proven success rates in combatting and apprehending poachers and their activities. (Photo by Gianluigi Guercia/AFP Photo)

Sculpture by Danger Dave titled “Damien Hirst Looking for Sharks” is seen on September 13, 2021 in Currumbin, Australia. SWELL Sculpture Festival is an annual exhibition that features 65 large-scale sculptures installed along Currumbin Beach on the Gold Coast in Queensland. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

An Abyssinian cat befriends a judge during a two-day international cat exhibition organized by the World Cat Federation (WCF) in Budapest, Hungary, 18 January 2025. (Photo by Zoltán Balogh/EPA/EFE)

Chelsea Haardt #9, Melissa Margulies #2 and Ogom Chijindu #6 of the Los Angeles Temptation wait for the start of the Lingerie Football League's Lingerie Bowl IX against the Philadelphia Passion at the Orleans Arena February 5, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, rescue a boy from the rubble following a reported barrel bomb attack on the Bab al- Nairab neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on November 24, 2016. (Photo by Ameer Alhalbi/AFP Photo)

Only the most intrepid urban explorers cross the tattered ruins of the old Iron Curtain to endure the excessive bureaucracy, military paranoia and freezing winds of the East to hunt for the ghosts of an empire. Rebecca Litchfield is one who couldn’t resist the haunting allure of the ruins of the Soviet Union.

An Iraqi special forces soldier shot dead an Islamic State suicide bomber in Mosul, Iraq March 3, 2017. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)

A person dressed up as Spider-Man sits next to the cabs as taxi drivers hold a protest against taxi-hailing apps such as Uber, Cabify and Didi at Angel de la Independencia monument, in Mexico City, Mexico, October 12, 2020. (Photo by Edgard Garrido/Reuters)