"Singapore is in a very unique position because they face a lot of land constraints, so there are few ways for them to generate their own renewable energy. Singapore is pushing for integrated energy systems throughout ASEAN, so that renewable energy produced in other countries can be brought back to Singapore. There's a very distinct, coordinated effort for countries to come together to work on climate change and energy security in a way that I haven't really seen."
To heat the home, I wanted hydronic floor heating. This is a system that uses warm water in PEX to heat the home. However, hydronic systems are uncommon which makes it difficult to find an installer. I managed to get one quote and it was about $120,000. No thanks! I decided to take on the project myself. It took an immense amount of planning and a lot of labor, but I got it done for about $18,000.
"The specific barrier is capital," says Lisa George, global head of the Macquarie Group Foundation. "Without access to capital, it's very hard to get social mobility and educational mobility in life."
In late 2025, the United States shocked the world by suspending global health aid, leading experts to predict 700,000 additional deaths annually, primarily among children. This prompted the US to propose unusual bilateral health agreements with developing countries, which have drawn criticism for being exploitative.
The study frames each of the models as 'emerging strategies' that can either complement or serve as alternatives to well-known sustainability certification schemes such as Organic, Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance.
"Asia has more diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular patients than anywhere else in the world," Abrar Mir states, emphasizing the severity of the health crisis in the region.
Campaigner Aysha Hawcutt stated that residents were 'not anti-homes', but believed the Adlington plan was 'the wrong proposal in the wrong place'. She expressed pride in the community's resilience against the development threats.
Multinational firms are under rising pressure-from investors, regulators, and employees-to demonstrate positive societal impact in the places where they do business. With ESG-focused institutional investments projected to reach nearly $34 trillion this year and roughly 90% of large U.S. companies now disclosing ESG reports, these pressures are now a central part of corporate strategy.
Every city contains two transportation systems. One is the visible network of roads, rail lines, sidewalks, and bus routes mapped in planning documents. The other is the invisible geography of privilege and exclusion embedded within it: the neighborhoods that received highways instead of parks, the communities whose bus routes were cut, the sidewalks that abruptly end at the edge of a district.
Within the workplace, the content and conditions of work are largely controlled by employers who often have an interest in degrading the quality of work, both to increase productivity and to increase their control over employees in the workplace. Outside the workplace, employers have both an incentive and the power to undermine measures that would improve the quality of work through the political process.
I've always thought it would be good to acquire an old warehouse in every town throughout the land and convert it into low-rent community workspaces for artists, local charities and small businesses getting off the ground. A kind of people's WeWork. What would others do with a humungous, but not unlimited, pile of dosh to benefit society? Roland Freeman, West Yorkshire Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.
Cash transforms health when four particular conditions are met. Most U.S. cash-transfer pilots have lacked them. But one major American policy does come close: the federal food-assistance program SNAP. Its success offers a road map for what effective cash assistance can look like in this country, if we choose to build on it.
In places where inclusion is part of the infrastructure of their economy-supply chains, procurement processes, capital access, or business ownership-people thrive. Inclusive economies create more resilience by expanding the base of potential business owners who can build, own, innovate, and hire. They allow more opportunities for homeownership and investing in the longevity of communities. As our economy becomes increasingly stratified and volatile, we need as much resiliency as we can get.
But if you're innovating within your industry, it's a problem you should expect and prepare for because it means having to operate in two realities-the internal reality where you know the challenges in your industry and how you're going to solve them, and the external reality where nobody else has recognized the problem that needs to be solved. In a highly regulated industry like healthcare, safety, and stability create an inertia that often works against innovation.
Gareth Thomas, a former business minister, has tabled a 10-minute rule bill that would require banks to measure, disclose and improve how they serve underserved communities and smaller firms. The proposal mirrors the US Community Reinvestment Act, which obliges American banks to demonstrate how they support poorer areas and small enterprises. Thomas said the cost of living crisis had exposed deep weaknesses in access to affordable credit across the UK economy.
despite one person in six now using generative AI (genAI) tools, there exists what it described as a "widening divide." The adoption rate in nations that are situated in the region known as the Global North, a term used for developed nations regardless of their geographic location, is at 24.7% of the working age population, far higher than the 14.1% figure in the Global South, those countries either under development or least developed.
Three days after the student-led protests forced Hasina to resign, Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's only Nobel laureate, took over as the country's interim leader, tasked with stabilising a fractured country after one of its bloodiest upheavals that killed more than 1,400 people. Yunus, now 85, framed his mandate narrowly but ambitiously: restore a credible electoral process, and build consensus around reforms aimed at preventing a return to authoritarian rule by balancing power among different state institutions.
Asia's healthcare challenges include aging populations, rising disease, and strained infrastructure, but the crisis is better understood at the kitchen table, where families decide what conditions to treat, and what to ignore, according to their savings. While the APAC region makes up 60% of the world's population, the region accounts for a mere 22% of global healthcare spending. According to the World Health Organization, most developing Asian countries spend just 2-3% of GDP on health, and in many cases public
