Supermarket tomatoes taste worse than heirlooms because breeding for yield, shelf life and disease resistance reshaped their chemistry. Modern varieties generally have lower sugar-to-acid ratios, fewer desirable aroma compounds and more of the volatiles linked to poorer taste. A study of 558 tomato varieties and wild relatives linked flavor chemistry to 337 genetic associations. One newly characterised gene, Sl-LIP100, codes for a lipase enzyme that helps produce fresh, green, fruity aromas. Its beneficial version arose in Ecuador and was common in early cultivated tomatoes, but breeders partly lost it. Gene-editing experiments confirmed that changing the gene shifts flavor-compound production.

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.