An American flag is visible in the windows of the cupola aboard the International Space Station. Thanks to a bill passed by Texas legislators in 1997 that put in place technical voting procedure for astronauts – nearly all of whom live in Texas – they have the ability to vote from space through specially designed absentee ballots. To preserve the integrity of the secret vote, the ballot is encrypted and only accessible by the astronaut and the county clerk responsible for casting the ballot. (Photo by NASA)

A model displays a creation by designers members of the Carabobo Sostenible program who present a collection made of corn cob husks, plastic, and paper in front of the facade of the Virgen del Carmen church in the town of Mariara, Carabobo state, Venezuela, on August 3, 2023. (Photo by Juan Carlos Hernandez/AFP Photo)

A Christmas Tree goes up in flames in a controlled-setting demonstration by the Glendale Fire Department on December 13, 2023, in Glendale, California. Firefighters showed how quickly a dried-out tree can ignite. According to the National Fire Protection Administration, Christmas trees account for hundreds of fires each year, often ignited by shorts in electrical lights or open flames from candles, lighters or matches. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP Photo)

A man holds a Savannah monitor in the petting zoo “La Casita del Avestruz” (The ostrich's little house), in Caracas, Venezuela on January 28, 2024. (Photo by Gaby Oraa/Reuters)

A picture taken with a drone shows a huge work of art created with various flowers and flowering plants in Jacobsdorf, Germany, 29 July 2024. Artist Michael Uy has transformed a piece of fallow land into an insect paradise for bees, bumblebees and butterflies. Using plants, the artist has planted and sown oversized images in the shape of a shell and a winding path of life on a large meadow in Jacobsdorf. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/EPA/EFE)

A guard dog in the suburbs of Yakutsk, Russia, considered to be the coldest city in the world, January 2014. (Photo by Amos Chapple/REX Features)

An animation artist has thrown a group of Disney characters into the real world – and it's not pretty. Jeff Hong, from New York, has taken the childhood favourites and turned their lives upside down. In a series of nightmarish pictures on his Tumblr, the cartoons who once lived happily ever after are now facing up to reality. And judging from these images they're not adjusting well. Photo: Beauty is everything for this belle of the ball. (Photo by Jeff Hong)

A picture made available 26 April 2016 shows a tiger playing in the water with a trainer nicknamed “Super Tiger Man” at the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province, Thailand, 24 April 2016. The site known in Thai as “Wat Pa Luangta Maha Bua Yannasampanno” has been the focus of a dispute with the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) after the DNP asked in 2015 that the temple hands over its 147 tigers since it was not licensed to keep them. The temple has requested for a zoo license according to its managing director. (Photo by Diego Azubel/EPA)