“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)

Palestinian bedouin shepherds pull their lambs into the water to wash them, in Gaza City, on April 29, 2016. Every year before the beginning of the summer, shepherds wash their herds in the sea. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

Pakistani Rangers take part in the beating retreat ceremony at the India-Pakistan Wagah border post, about 35 km from Amritsar on March 9, 2022. (Photo by Narinder Nanu/AFP Photo)

Hannah Maule-ffinch, “Wild Swimmers”, 2020, Hinksey Lake, Oxfordshire. Category: People. The series Wild Swimmers explores how humans are strongest when coming together in the face of adversity. In this photo, Emma and Emma have an amazing bond and friendship, built through their daily ritual of cold swimming in often bracing conditions. (Photo by Hannah Maule-ffinch/Earth Photo 2022)

Smoke and flames rise following an Israeli air strike on Gaza City, 18 May 2021. Tensions have escalated in the region, following days of violent confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in Jerusalem, leading to the heaviest offensive in years. (Photo by Mohammed Saber/EPA/EFE)

Waiters pose at their terrace of their restaurant rue de Buci in Paris on June 2, 2020, as cafes and restaurants reopen in France, while the country eases lockdown measures taken to curb the spread of the COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus). (Photo by Martin Bureau/AFP Photo)

Visitors visit the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu province, September 26, 2024. By the end of August 2024, the 6,833 museums officially registered in China have received 940 million visitors. (Photo by CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images)

Believers offer tribute to Iemanja, the Goddess of the Sea of the Afro-American religion Umbanda, at Ramirez beach in Montevideo on February 2, 2025. (Photo by Eitan Abramovich/AFP Photo)