The Flow Country in northern Scotland is Europe's largest blanket bog: about 1,900 square kilometres of soggy, treeless land covered in mosses, grasses and heather, and home to more than 30 species of sphagnum moss. It looks bleak but is one of the planet's great carbon stores. The ground is so waterlogged that microbes cannot fully break down dead plants, so they pile up as spongy peat, in places more than eight metres thick and accumulating for over 9,000 years. Globally, peatlands cover about 3 percent of land but hold more than 600 gigatons of carbon, roughly twice as much as all the world's forests. The Flow Country became the first peatland of its kind to win UNESCO World Heritage status.

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.