Holloways Beach resident Lisa Methven watches the storm across the Coral Sea as Cyclone Jasper approaches landfall in Cairns in far north Queensland on December 13, 2023. A tropical cyclone was building strength as it rolled towards northeastern Australia on December 13, with authorities warning “life-threatening” floods could swamp coastal regions for days. (Photo by Brian Cassey/AFP Photo)

A skater observes pancakes snow on the frozen Lake des Rousses in Les Rousses, central-eastern France, on January 1, 2025. This phenomenon forms when slushy ice in water clumps into round, pancake-like shapes due to waves or currents. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

An aerial view taken with a drone shows people walking past dried lava (L) from a previous volcanic eruption as they make their way to a location closer to watch the fresh volcano eruption near Grindavik, Reykjanes, Iceland, 17 July 2025. According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, a magma flow has begun at the Sundhnuk crater range on 16 July. (Photo by Jakob Vegerfors/EPA)

Sudanese cattle keepers from Dinka tribe Makal Maker (R) and Achiek Butich pose with the guns for their protection at their cattle camp in Mingkaman, Lakes State, South Sudan, on March 2, 2018. (Photo by Stefanie Glinski/AFP Photo)

A village girl, donning capes mostly of dried banana leaves and covered in mud, attends a mass in a bizarre annual ritual to venerate their patron saint, John the Baptist, Friday, June 24, 2016 at Bibiclat, Aliaga township, Nueva Ecija province in northern Philippines. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP 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.

A man from the Ogiek community harvests honey in Mount Elgon game reserve, where they have reached an agreement with the government allowing them to remain in their ancestral lands in western Kenya, April 26, 2016. (Photo by Katy Migiro/Reuters)

Chinese hostesses, who serve the delegates of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and National People's Congress, have souvenir photos taken in front of the Great Hall of the People during sessions of the CPPCC and NPC held in Beijing, China Tuesday, March 4, 2014. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)