In South Asia, a region facing rapid economic growth, immense population pressure, and high climate vulnerability, the circular economy (CE) has become a critical imperative for sustainable development. This study provides a comparative overview of the CE landscape across eight South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The analysis reveals the CE transition is nascent region-wide, though India has advanced its policy landscape through a comprehensive suite of rules and missions and Pakistan is developing a national policy. The primary focus remains on waste management, evidenced by programs like Bhutan’s ‘Zero Waste by 2030’ vision, the Maldives’ Single-Use Plastic Phase-Out Plan, and Sri Lanka’s Clean Sri Lanka Programme. While Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) is emerging for plastics and e-waste in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, a significant “policy-practice gap” persists, undermined by weak enforcement and governance fragmented across priority sectors like plastics, food systems, and textiles. Most major CE initiatives are catalyzed by international development partners, with regional programs playing a key role in funding innovation. Finally, while the informal sector is the backbone of material recovery, ensuring a just transition that improves working conditions and secures livelihoods remains a critical challenge. The absence of a cohesive regional framework limits collaboration. Scaling the circular economy in South Asia requires integrated national strategies, prioritizing a just transition for the informal sector, and establishing a regional platform for policy harmonization to create self-sustaining system through multi-sectoral involvement, including the business sector.

Clean technologies are transforming Europe’s economy, energy system and industrial base at unprecedented speed. Across the continent, households are adopting new technologies, businesses are investing in the industries of the future, and new patterns of production, trade and competitiveness are taking shape. This Atlas offers a comprehensive map of Europe’s clean-tech transformation, tracking adoption, manufacturing, investment and trade trends across key sectors. Combining a pan-European perspective with detailed country profiles, it reveals how the transition is unfolding on the ground and how Europe compares with global competitors such as China and the United States. An essential guide to understanding one of the most profound economic and industrial shifts of our time. The European Clean Tech Atlas will be launched at Bruegel’s Annual Meetings 2026 in Session 2a, 'Mapping Europe’s clean energy and industrial transformation', which will explore how the clean energy transition is reshaping Europe’s industrial geography and where new opportunities are emerging.

You are invited to have your say on how Australia implements the United Nations High Seas Biodiversity Treaty (also known as the BBNJ Agreement). This includes our domestic implementing legislation, the High Seas Biodiversity Act 2026(external link). The treaty aims to protect marine life in the high seas. These are ocean areas outside Australia’s national waters. The treaty will: support new marine protected areas help assess environmental impacts of activities at sea promote the sustainable use of marine resources support international cooperation through training and technology sharing. Once the treaty is in force, Australia will join more than 90 countries working together to protect the world's ocean. A healthy ocean supports jobs, food security and wildlife. Your feedback will help shape Australia's approach to implementing the treaty and legislation. Have Your Say Visit our consultation hub now to read the draft standards and provide your feedback. Review the High Seas Biodiversity Act 2026(external link) Take our survey(external link) and submit your feedback by 5pm Monday 28 September 2026. Read more High seas biodiversity United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction(external link)

Abstract The Kondo lattice model, as one of the most fundamental models in condensed matter physics, has been employed to describe a wide range of quantum materials. Discovering new phases on the Kondo lattice and unveiling their mechanisms are crucial to the understanding of strongly correlated systems. Here, in a layered Kondo magnet USbTe, we observe a spin-textured nematic state and visualize a heavy electronic liquid-crystal phase. Employing scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS), we visualize a tetragonal symmetry breaking of heavy electronic states around the Fermi level, which coincides with the formation of heavy quasi-particles driven by band hybridization. Remarkably, using spin-polarized STM, we demonstrate that the nematic state is spin-polarized, which not only suggests its intrinsically electronic nature but also represents the unique magnetic texture of nematic heavy fermions. Our findings unveil a novel correlation-mediated order whose mechanism is inherently tied to Kondo-lattice physics. The observation of heavy nematic states enriches the phase diagram of correlated systems and provides a rare platform to explore the interplay of Kondo physics, spontaneous symmetry breaking, and quantum criticality.

Fast Facts We testified on the Department of Veterans' Affairs electronic health records modernization efforts before the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. It is based primarily on the following reports: Electronic Health Records: VA Making Incremental Improvements in New System but Needs Updated Cost Estimate and Schedule Electronic Health Records: VA Needs to Address Management Challenges with New System Electronic Health Records: VA Needs to Address Data Management Challenges for New System VA has addressed 4 of our 18 recommendations but still needs to fully address 14 recommendations, including 12 priority recommendations. A white building, the U.S. Capitol, with a dome and a flag on top and text saying GAO Testimony to Congress. Skip to Highlights Highlights What GAO Found After three unsuccessful attempts over two decades, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) undertook a fourth effort in 2017—the Electronic Health Record Modernization (EHRM) program—to modernize its legacy health information system. GAO has previously reported on the challenges VA has experienced with this effort. In these reports, GAO made 18 recommendations to improve cost estimating, schedule, program management, user adoption and satisfaction, and operational testing. GAO deemed 12 of these as priority recommendations because of their criticality to successful future deployments. As of August 2026, VA has not yet fully implemented 14 of the 18 recommendations. Implementation Status of GAO Electronic Health Record System-Related Recommendations to the Department of Veterans Affairs as of August 2026 Report Total number of recommendations Number of priority recommendations Implementation status of recommendations GAO-25-106874 (March 2025) 3 2 2 priority open (not implemented) 1 closed (implemented) GAO-23-106731 (May 2023) 10 10 6 priority open (not implemented) 4 priority open (partially implemented) GAO-22-103718 (February 2022) 2 0 1 open (not implemented) 1 closed (implemented) GAO-21-224 (February 2021) 2 0 2 closed (implemented) GAO-20-473 (June 2020) 1 0 1 open (not implemented) Source: GAO reports. I GAO-26-109393 In March 2025, GAO reported that VA had made improvements at five initial sites but noted that the department’s actions to address challenges had impacted the program’s total cost estimate and schedule. Accordingly, GAO made two priority recommendations to update the cost estimate and schedule. Senate and House Authorizing and Appropriations Committees subsequently sent a letter to VA requesting a detailed cost estimate and schedule before September 30, 2025. While VA has delivered a notional schedule to congressional committees, it has not provided a cost estimate or detailed documentation of its schedule necessary to determine the extent to which it is consistent with leading practices. In May 2023, GAO reported that users expressed dissatisfaction with the new system and VA did not adequately identify and address system issues. GAO made 10 priority recommendations to address user satisfaction, system trouble ticket, and independent operational assessment deficiencies. As of August 2026, VA has not yet fully addressed the 10 recommendations. Until VA fully implements the recommendations, future deployments risk prolonging management challenges like those experienced in the initial deployments and users will likely not be positioned to achieve optimal usage of the new electronic health record (EHR) system. Why GAO Did This Study VA depends on its EHR system to manage health care for its patients. Since 2017, the department’s EHRM program has undertaken efforts to replace its legacy EHR system with a modernized, commercial system. VA first deployed its new EHR system in 2020 and followed up with further deployments to four additional sites in 2022. However, in 2023, it halted future system deployments due to feedback from veterans and clinicians that the new system was not meeting expectations. In December 2024, VA announced plans to restart deployments beginning with four facilities in Michigan. The department plans for nine additional site deployments in 2026. VA plans to accelerate deployments to complete approximately 170 sites by 2031. GAO has previously designated VA health care as a High-Risk area for the federal government, in part due to its challenges implementing EHRM initiatives. GAO was asked to testify on its key prior reports and related recommendations to improve VA’s EHRM program. GAO summarized the results of five prior reports from June 2020 through March 2025 and followed up with VA on its actions to implement GAO’s recommendations. Recommendations GAO has made a total of 18 recommendations in prior reports to VA to improve its EHRM efforts, 12 of which GAO has deemed priority recommendations. As of August 2026, the department has fully implemented four of the 18 recommendations and partially implemented four priority recommendations, but has not fully addressed 10, including the remaining priority recommendations. Full Report View Full Report Online Highlights Page (1 page) Full Report (18 pages)

image: Medical AI products may be forming and amplifying healthcare bias against demographic subgroups. view more Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University The recent flood of Artificial Intelligence (AI) models and content has undoubtedly brought along an unwelcome bug from the human-made content it scrapes from: bias. AI has been noted to form, copy, and amplify harmful stereotypes of already marginalized groups. This phenomenon has far reaching effects as AI becomes a normal part of everyday life. Most worrying is that the prolific bias already circling healthcare settings may now be exacerbated by AI-driven decisions. These can have a direct impact on patient care and outcomes, underscoring the need for careful evaluation of potential biases. Therefore, a research group led by Dr. Shannon L. Walston at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Medicine conducted a scoping review to identify studies validating commercially available radiology AI products and to note trends when reporting on sex, age, and ethnic demographic subgroups. The team collected 545 studies on 252 products with reported demographic subgroup data. Trends were mapped using a regression analysis. Of the 545, only 77 studies validating 52 products were found to include demographic details and subgroup analysis results. When the Wilson Confidence Interval formula, which is used to calculate proportion, was applied to studies validating AI for tuberculosis detection, the researchers found that 67% of the reported datasets were at risk of being underpowered for sex subgroup analysis. This revealed that, despite the demand for improved demographics reporting to address the dangers of biased medical AI, performance reporting for demographic subgroups has not become more common. This finding exposes the need for effective, transparent reporting to confirm the safe and unbiased performance of these medical AI products across all patient subgroups. “This scoping review quantifies how fragmented the commercial validation landscape is, showing that reporting for both the demographics and per-subgroup performance is inadequate for estimating subgroup bias. This systemic problem requires effort from all stakeholders, from researchers to regulatory agencies, encouraging thorough reporting and commercial product validation to support physician and patient trust in medical AI products," stated Dr. Walston. The findings were published in European Radiology. ### About OMU Established in Osaka as one of the largest public universities in Japan, Osaka Metropolitan University is committed to shaping the future of society through the “Convergence of Knowledge” and the promotion of world-class research. For more research news, visit https://www.omu.ac.jp/en/ and follow us on social media: X, Instagram, LinkedIn. Journal European Radiology DOI 10.1007/s00330-026-12652-y Method of Research Systematic review Subject of Research People Article Title The current state of demographic subgroup reporting for commercially available AI for radiology: a scoping review Article Publication Date 12-Jun-2026 COI Statement The authors of this manuscript declare relationships with the following companies: Medical AI Promotion Institute, Inc.

New Environment Agency heat maps show where suspected waste crime is being reported, helping identify hotspots and target enforcement activity.