Zion National Park in southwestern Utah sits where three distinct landscape regions meet: the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin and the Mojave Desert. That junction, combined with four life zones ranging from desert to coniferous forest, supports a surprising range of plants and animals, including 289 bird species, 75 mammal species and 32 reptile species. Its signature Zion Canyon runs about 15 miles long and up to 2,640 feet deep, with reddish and tan walls of Navajo Sandstone cut by the North Fork of the Virgin River. The park also contains slot canyons and natural arches, and it drew nearly five million visitors in 2025. Human presence goes back roughly 8,000 years, with Basketmaker Ancestral Puebloan groups followed by Southern Paiute peoples, and Mormon settlers arrived in the late 1850s and early 1860s.

Israeli reports also say the cabinet directed the military to prepare for a possible new attack on Iran.

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.