Policemen guard Poland's Supreme Court as a protester lies on the pavement in Warsaw, Poland, on Thursday, April 22, 2021. A disputed disciplinary body within Poland's Supreme Court is examining a motion that could result in the arrest of a judge who has become a symbol of the fight for an independent judiciary. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

A 40-tonne humpback launching out of the water in an incredible breach in New South Wales, Australia on October 2022 in front of a sunset. The humpback whale can grow up to 56 feet long and typically covers 9,900 miles a year as it travels through the oceans of the world. Humpback whales are a species of Baleen whale, meaning they don't have teeth. Instead, they have baleen which helps them to filter feed. Their main source of food is krill or tiny bait fish. (Photo by Jodie Lowe/Media Drum Images)

Visitors enjoy a camel ride at Sea View beach in Karachi on June 16, 2023, after Cyclone Biparjoy made landfall. More than 180,000 people in the Indian state of Gujarat and Pakistan's neighbouring Sindh province fled the path of Biparjoy – which means “disaster” in Bengali – before it made landfall on June 15 evening. (Photo by Asif Hassan/AFP Photo)

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south, and Thailand to the west. Its population was estimated to be around 6.5 million in 2012. A third (33%) of the country's population lives below the international poverty line which means living on less than U.S. $1.25 per day.

“These incredible pictures capture the stunning moment waves roll on to a tropical beach. Photographers Nick Selway, 28, and pal CJ Kale, 35, position themselves in the magnificent Hawaiian water – and then wait for the waves to crash into their heads. Their only equipment are standard cameras – but a waterproof case means they do not need to sacrifice their cameras for their art”. (Photo by Nick Selway/CJ Kale)

A five-month-old cheetah seated in the back of a Land Cruiser growls at an outstretched hand after being taken from traffickers in Ethiopia and driven to Harirad, Somaliland, in 2020. This photo is part of the work of more than 100 artists in Why We Photograph Animals, a new collection of wildlife photography that aims to help understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki/Thames & Hudson)

The pelican, named “Ndagabar”, which means pelican in the local Wolof language, begins visiting the neighborhood in the early hours of the day in Saint-Louis, Senegal on November 02, 2024. The pelican, which 62-year-old retired fisherman Madiop Gueye, has been keeping in front of his house for five years, has become the center of both the neighborhood and the region, attracting the attention of both local and foreign tourists. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A 13-month-old chimp named Fumo carries a “Christmas present” of food treats in wrapping paper under his arm during a Christmas-themed feeding time at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo, December 9, 2014. Fumo, meaning “chief” or “spear” in Swahili, is one of the latest additions to the zoo's successful primate breeding program. (Photo by Jason Reed/Reuters)