Only 23% of the world's final energy, the energy that actually reaches factories and homes, arrives as electricity; the rest is fuel burned directly in cars, furnaces and boilers. At the UN climate summit COP31 in Turkey, the presidency launched a '35-by-35' pledge: lift electricity to 35% of final energy use by 2035. Electrification goes beyond swapping petrol cars for electric ones: it means replacing direct burning of fossil fuels in transport, buildings and industry with electricity, increasingly renewable. Analysts argue this matters because the world will probably overshoot 1.5°C of warming for at least a decade, peaking near 1.7°C in the 2040s, and removing carbon at scale isn't yet possible.

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.