In this September 10, 1977, file photo, from left, Hua Guofeng, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman and Mao Zedong's immediate successor; Ye Jianying, CCP vice chairman and future ceremonial head of state; Deng Xiaoping, no formal titles at the time but soon to emerge as paramount leader during the reform era; Li Xiannian, CCP vice chairman and future president; Wang Dongxing, head of the leadership bodyguard unit who helped topple the Gang of Four, view the body of later Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing. (Photo via AP Photo)

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)

People use large water guns to spray each other as they celebrate the annual Songkran festival in Bangkok, Thailand on April 14, 2025. Thailand celebrated the Thai traditional New Year, called Songkran in Thai and also known as ëthe water festivalí, on 13 April, with festivities going on on throughout the weekend. During Songkran, people celebrate the New Year by splashing water to each other as a sign of washing away sins and bad luck from the previous year. People across Thailand celebrate the New Year with parties and water related activities throughout the weekend. (Photo by Diego Azubel/Matrix Images)

South Korean workers are seen from a crane as they work on the 123rd floor during the framing completion ceremony of the 'Lotte World Tower' in Seoul, South Kora, 22 December 2015. The building's exterior was completed in a final height of 550 meters, and 123 floors. The ceremony came five years and two months after the construction of the building began and its opening will likely take place at the end of next year when the interior work is set to be completed, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported. The building is the highest in South Korea and the fifth highest in the world, according to Yonhap. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA)

Lush green rice terraces sprawl over 2,200 hectares of mountainside ready to be harvested. These stunning images, captured by photographer Saravut Whanset, show the incredible terraces throughout the course of the day, including at sunrise and sunset. Workers tend to the fields, with each terrace between 1 and 1.5 metres wide, while wooden huts stand on stilts on the mountainside. The beautiful panoramic pictures were taken in Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam, with the fields located at the foot of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, 1,000 metres above sea level. (Photo by Saravut Whanset/Solent News and Photo Agency)

A dhobi, or a washerman washes cloths on the banks of the River Gomti in Lucknow, India, Saturday, September 12, 2020. Dhobis are traditional laundry workers who wash clothes by hand and dry them in the sun, an occupation which has been in existence for generations. Most cities in India have a Dhobi Ghat, or washermen's area, where the city's pile of clothes is laundered. This practice is still popular in India, despite of modern technology. Around 1,000 families work in Lucknow's Dhobi Ghat. However, in light of the novel coronavirus, their wages have decreased drastically. With each family earning around US$100-200 per month. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

A health worker shows an empty syringe after inoculating a woman with AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine during the first day of a nationwide three-day vaccination drive at a school in Quezon city, Philippines on Monday, November 29, 2021. There has been no reported infection so far caused by the new variant in the Philippines, a Southeast Asian pandemic hotspot where COVID-19 cases have considerably dropped to below 1,000 each day in recent days, but the emergence of the Omicron variant has set off a new alarm. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that a growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilizations rather than face the hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing. Traditional contraceptives like condoms or birth control pills have virtually vanished from store shelves, pushing women towards the hard-to-reverse surgery. While no recent national statistics on sterilizations are available, doctors and health workers say demand for the procedure is growing. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)