A girl competes during a Hobby horsing competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Several dozen kids, 48 girls and one boy, from first-graders to teenagers gathered in a gymnasium in northern St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, for a hobby horsing competition. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Model Jennifer Hawkins showcases designs by Yeojin Bae on the catwalk at the Myer A/W 2012 Collection Launch on March 1, 2012 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Students play in their school yard on the first day of the new school term at a primary school in Baghdad, October 18, 2015. (Photo by Ahmed Saad/Reuters)

A playground burns in a residential neighbourhood during the Eaton fire in Pasadena on January 7, 2025. (Photo by Josh Edelson/AFP Photo)

British singer of Kosovar descent Dua Lipa looked incredible as she flaunted her figure in a tiny bikini early July 2025. (Photo by Instagram)

A small series by illustration Alex Solis remembering those things that used to rule the world.

A bully greenfinch (left) got its comeuppance when a small but fiery dunnock (right) defended itself with its talons in Suffolk, United Kingdom on April 18, 2022. The smaller bird was perched peacefully before the finch burst onto the scene and aggressively squared up to the dunnock. But as the finch tried to peck at the dunnock, the small brown bird expertly used its foot to slam its mouth shut. (Photo by Paul Sawer/Solent News & Photo Agency)