Glacial lakes form where glaciers retreat and leave water-filled basins, often held back by moraines or ice dams. A study of 140 of Alaska's largest glacial lakes from 2018 to 2024 found they are expanding about 120% faster on average than from 1986 to 1999. Lakes at glacier toes grow fastest, often in deep depressions carved by glacial flow. Mapping those depressions suggests existing lakes in the region could grow about fourfold, by up to 4,250 square kilometers. Lakes that end in water also speed up the melting of glaciers, which shrink 23% to 56% faster than land-terminating ones. When an ice or moraine dam fails, the outburst flood can wipe out roads, hydropower stations and villages. Between 1985 and 2020 Alaska's ice-dammed lakes drained more than 1,150 times.

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.