After three decades of annual UN climate summits, global emissions are still high and the world is on course to overshoot the 1.5°C warming threshold, so it is fair to ask what the talks have achieved. Their biggest success is the 2015 Paris Agreement, which brought more than 190 countries around shared goals and bent the projected warming curve downward: the trajectory is still dire, but better than it would have been without it. The talks also show that small states can matter: the Marshall Islands helped build the High Ambition Coalition that secured the 1.5°C goal, which Pacific nations call a matter of survival. The 2026 summit, COP31 in Turkey, is led by Australia's climate minister, and one proposal on the table is a '35 by 35' target of meeting 35% of final energy demand with electricity by 2035.

Indonesian Vice President Gibran Rakabuming Raka handed his resignation to parliament after questions were raised about his eligibility for office and his academic credentials. Gibran is the son of former president Joko Widodo, and his resignation came as Widodo publicly backed the president, Prabowo Subianto. Gibran had been elected vice president in 2024 as Prabowo's running mate. His candidacy was made possible by a 2023 Constitutional Court ruling on the minimum age for candidates, which was itself controversial. Parliament will now consider the resignation.

Angkor, near Siem Reap in northern Cambodia, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia between roughly the 9th and 15th centuries. At its height the city spread across about 3,000 square kilometres, making it the largest pre-industrial city on Earth by area. Its growth depended on water: huge reservoirs called barays, along with canals and embankments, stored monsoon rain and carried it to rice fields. That system let farmers harvest more than once a year and fed a very large population through the dry season. The temple complex of Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century, is the best-known monument and still stands at the heart of the park.