Performers ride on a train before the 40th annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade in the Brooklyn borough of New York, New York, USA, 18 June 2022. The annual event is one of the largest art parades in the country. (Photo by Yuki Iwamura/EPA/EFE)

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev as he bids the last farewell to his wife Raisa Gorbacheva during the funeral ceremony in Moscow, Russia, 23 September 1999 (reissued 30 August 2022). According to a Moscow Central Clinical Hospital statement, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has died at the age of 91. As a supporter of the de-Stalinization programs of his predecessor Nikita Khrushchev, Gorbachev initiated numerous reforms during his tenure. He signed a nuclear arms treaty with the United States and withdrew the Soviet Union from the Soviet-Afghan war. His policies created freedom of speech and press, and decentralized fiscal policy planning and execution to increase efficiency. Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union, overseeing Russia’s transition from one party rule to fragile democracy. (Photo by Sergey Chirikov/EPA/EFE)

Belgian Fran Vanhoutte celebrates as she crosses the finish line at the finals of the women's 500m +D speed skating event, at the World Games 2025, in Chenghdu, China, on Thursday 14 August 2025. This year, the World Games take place from 7 to 17 August. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Kieron Connolly’s new book of photographs of more than 100 once-busy and often elegant buildings gives an idea of how the world might look if humankind disappeared. Here: Bodie, Mono County, California. Gold was discovered at Bodie in 1859 (just after the initial California gold rush) and it went from mining camp to boomtown. Its decline began in 1880, when word spread of new boomtowns elsewhere. The Standard Consolidated Mine closed in 1913, and four years later the Bodie Railway was abandoned. By 1940 the population was down to 40. Today, Bodie is maintained in a state of arrested decay as a visitor attraction. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

A drone image shows decommissioned cruise ships being dismantled for scrap metal sales after the COVID-19 pandemic all but destroyed the industryat Aliaga ship-breaking yard in the Aegean port city of Izmir, western Turkey, October 2, 2020. (Photo by Umit Bektas/Reuters)

A worker roasts a row of pigs on bamboo poles at a roasting pit, in Manila, Philippines, December 21, 2020. (Photo by Lisa Marie David/Reuters)

UK Love Island’s star Maura Higgins, 30, stuns as she poses in revealing outfits in her latest photoshoot with brand Ego in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in April 2021. (Photo by EGO)

A snail slithers up a rain spattered window during stormy weather on the Isle of Portland, Fortuneswell, England on July 29, 2018. (Photo by Stuart Fretwell/Rex Features/Shutterstock)