British-American actress Anya Taylor-Joy sticks out her tongue as she poses during a photocall for the film “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 16, 2024. (Photo by Christophe Simon/AFP Photo)

Split-view of a killer whale at sunrise off the coast of Northern Norway. At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to pollution of the oceans, a new study says. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Science)

Yakutsk, with a population of around 270,000, holds its own title: that of the coldest city on Earth. Here: Frost-encrusted house in the city centre. (Photo by Amos Chapple/Courtesy Images/RFE/RL)

Darryl Horner jnr riding Flying Agent (bottom R) races away to defeat Steven Pateman riding Bit of a Lad in Race 6, the 3yb Scotty Stewart Brierly Steeplechase, on Brierly Day during the Warrnambool Jumps Carnival at Warrnambool Racing Club on May 04, 2021 in Warrnambool, Australia. (Photo by Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images)

One-day-old baby giraffe calf Gus looks at the camera at Noah's Ark farm on May 12, 2017 in Bristol, England. The baby giraffe was born yesterday at the zoo farm in North Somerset. In the wild, populations of giraffes are suffering from a continuing decline, with 97,500 estimated in Africa in 2015. Since 1985 the total giraffe population has fallen by 35%. New arrival Gus joins brothers George, 4 and Geoffrey, 2. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

A general view of the residential area is pictured during dusk at Jodhpur in Rajasthan, April 5, 2015. Jodhpur, also known as the blue city in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan, which residents say originally, was used to show where the highest caste of priestly Hindus live, who wanted to set them apart from the rest of the population. Later the rest of the population followed suit. Another reason for the city to be blue is to keep the buildings cool during the summers, local residents said. (Photo by Adnan Abidi/Reuters)

A Thai veterinarian sterilizes a monkey in a bid to control the birth rate of the monkey population in Hua Hin city, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Thailand, 15 July 2017. (Photo by Narong Sangnak/EPA/EFE)

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.