Insights

Escalating conflict in West Asia has heightened Southeast Asia’s concerns over energy security due to heavy reliance on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gulf. The closure of key export routes and facilities, such as the Strait of Hormuz and Qatar's LNG exports, has driven prices higher and raised supply disruption risks. Major LNG importers like Singapore and Thailand face pressure to rethink their energy strategies to avoid dependence on volatile imports. Experts advocate for accelerating the shift to renewables and electrification, while countries like the Philippines pursue mixed approaches balancing LNG expansion with renewable incentives. The situation acts as a crucial wake-up call to strengthen domestic energy resilience across ASEAN.
Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand
‘Wake-up call’ for Asean energy security as Singapore, Thailand face Iran war's LNG risks
Digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) now permeate all stages of international migration, from pre-screening applications and border management to migrant integration. Governments, international organizations, and private providers employ digital platforms, biometric systems, and algorithms to manage migration more selectively and efficiently, reflecting political and economic priorities such as skilled labor shortages and security concerns. Migrants also use digital tools to access information and opportunities. This technological shift restructures migration by enabling new forms of digital labor mobility, altering power dynamics, and embedding migration within a global data economy. Challenges remain in aligning migration, foreign, development, and digital policies to ensure administrative efficiency without compromising data protection, equality, and human rights standards.
Latin America | Financial services, Health, ICT, Education
Algorithmic Migration
FinEquity plays a crucial role in advancing women's economic empowerment by fostering collaboration among over 8,600 stakeholders in financial inclusion. Despite funding cuts for gender-focused initiatives, FinEquity connects practitioners, policymakers, and funders to share knowledge and learn from local experiences, accelerating effective solutions. An independent evaluation highlights its impact on influencing strategies and providing a trusted space for diverse actors. Key focus areas include gender-intelligent financial services, data-driven policies, and leadership diversity, while also addressing emerging topics like AI and climate resilience. FinEquity continues to drive progress for gender-inclusive finance globally.
Financial services
FinEquity: Driving Collaboration to Make Financial Services Work Better for Women
The U.S. has reinstated government subsidies for full-fat dairy under the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, favoring traditional dairy producers but raising environmental and health concerns. Dairy subsidies lower cow milk prices, making plant-based alternatives more expensive despite their smaller carbon footprint and lower water use. These subsidies contribute to higher greenhouse gas emissions and obesity by promoting high-fat, less-healthy foods. Subsidies also cause mission drift, with farm products increasingly diverted from human consumption to animal feed and biofuels, deviating from original policy goals. This tension highlights unintended economic, environmental, and public health consequences of government subsidies.
4 Ways Government Subsidies Can Curdle
The conflict in the Middle East has rendered the UK's recent economic forecasts outdated, with potential shocks to global supply chains and energy prices unaccounted for. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warns the crisis could significantly impact inflation, growth, and government debt, which is already high at 95% of GDP by 2031, increasing vulnerability to external risks. Rising oil and gas prices, exacerbated by supply disruptions, threaten inflation and interest rate prospects, while global economic slowdowns risk reducing UK exports and tax revenues. Consequently, government spending plans, tax policies, and long-term reforms face increased pressure amid heightened uncertainty and geopolitical tensions.
Bahrain, United Kingdom | Financial services
Conflict in the Middle East makes official economic forecasts immediately out of date
Science education at the GCSE level plays a crucial role beyond teaching scientific facts; it cultivates transferable reasoning skills such as evaluating evidence, understanding uncertainty, and critical thinking. Research on over 8,000 UK pupils shows that strong performance in GCSE science predicts higher achievement not only in science subjects but also in humanities like history and English literature, outperforming traditional predictors like GCSE maths and English. These reasoning skills are essential in a post-truth society where judging evidence and expert disagreement is increasingly complex. Prioritizing science curricula that emphasize experimentation, argumentation, and understanding the nature of scientific knowledge could better prepare students for diverse academic and civic challenges.
Education
Why science GCSEs matter more than we think in a post‑truth age
Financial markets have quickly responded to rising tensions involving the US, Israel, and Iran, signaling increased geopolitical risk. A sharp rise in oil prices reflects fears of supply disruption through the critical Strait of Hormuz, implying higher economic risks such as inflation if sustained. Investors are also shifting to safe-haven assets like US Treasury bonds and gold, indicating anxiety about weaker economic growth. Equity markets show volatility, with declines suggesting concerns over how long the conflict might last and its impact on global trade and confidence. Together, these market moves signal caution but not yet a full-scale global crisis, acting as early warnings of potential prolonged instability.
Financial services
What oil, stocks and bonds are telling us about the Iran conflict and how long it might last
The Fraunhofer Institute is launching the Chip AI research and innovation center in Heilbronn in 2026 to advance AI chip design, supported by the Dieter Schwarz Foundation. The center combines Fraunhofer IAF’s expertise in efficient CMOS chip development and AI-assisted design automation with Fraunhofer IIS’s focus on neuromorphic hardware and spiking neural networks for energy-efficient edge AI applications. This initiative aims to strengthen Germany’s high-tech capabilities by creating innovative, secure, and efficient AI chips, fostering technological sovereignty, and collaborating closely with the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI) in Heilbronn.
Education
AI Chip Design From Heilbronn
On 6 February 2026, dockworkers across 21 Mediterranean ports coordinated strikes to protest the militarization of civilian ports and arms shipments linked to the Gaza conflict, opposing the EU’s expanded defense spending dubbed the "war economy." The actions, involving unions from countries including Italy, France, Greece, Turkey, Spain, and Morocco, selectively blocked ships carrying military cargo without halting commercial trade, emphasizing labor's strategic role in geopolitical issues. This strike continues a historical pattern of dockworker activism against the use of civilian infrastructure for military purposes, highlighting vulnerabilities in Europe's maritime supply chains and raising questions about control over critical infrastructure and its political implications.
Mediterranean dockworkers are striking to protest against war
Efforts to strengthen evidence-based policymaking at the World Bank have primarily focused on increasing the supply of knowledge through better data, research, and analytics. Despite these investments, high-quality evidence often fails to influence policy decisions, lending priorities, or reforms within the Bank and its partner countries. The key issue is the lack of demand for knowledge: effective evidence-based policy arises when decision-makers both want and are rewarded for using knowledge, highlighting the need for institutional changes that encourage the desire for understanding alongside the capacity to generate it.
Financial services, Education
The World Bank Doesn’t Need to Generate More Knowledge. It Needs to Want It.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s February 2026 visit to China underscored Germany’s cautious balancing act between economic engagement and "de-risking" amid growing geopolitical tensions. Despite a joint statement with China, the visit yielded few concrete results, reflecting European doubts about reconciling industrial growth and environmental goals. The high-profile visit included a showcase of Unitree Robotics, whose quadruped robots have military applications linked to the Chinese PLA, highlighting challenges in managing dual-use technology. Berlin’s measured approach exemplifies Europe’s broader dilemma of maintaining economic ties with China while addressing security concerns and U.S. pressures, without disrupting key industrial and climate ambitions.
Financial services
Europe’s China Dilemma: Friedrich Merz’s Visit As an Illustration
The Off Broadway play "Data" explores the ethical dilemmas faced by employees of a tech company developing a predictive algorithm for tracking immigrants, reflecting real-world concerns about A.I.-driven authoritarianism. The play highlights how data narratives are controlled by powerful interests and warns of the potential for such technology to undermine democracy. Its portrayal of advanced predictive algorithms parallels recent developments in A.I. that surpass human forecasting abilities, underscoring the timely and prophetic nature of its themes.
He Studied Cognitive Science at Stanford. Then He Wrote a Startling Play About A.I. Authoritarianism.
Generative and agentic AI influence human learning incentives and the long-term evolution of society’s information ecosystem by altering how general, community-level knowledge and individual, context-specific knowledge are combined in decision-making. Agentic AI provides context-specific recommendations that substitute human effort, which can improve immediate decision quality but risk eroding incentives for producing general knowledge, potentially causing a knowledge-collapse where collective knowledge disappears. Welfare outcomes depend non-monotonically on AI accuracy, suggesting an optimal level of agentic AI precision. Enhanced capacity for aggregating and sharing general knowledge boosts welfare and resilience to knowledge collapse.
Education
AI, Human Cognition and Knowledge Collapse
AI agents act as "aeroplanes for the mind," accelerating human capabilities far beyond traditional tools like computers, which Steve Jobs famously likened to bicycles for the mind. Unlike bicycles that improved efficiency without mimicking nature, AI offers unprecedented speed but carries greater risks and complexity, requiring careful management. Scientists stand to gain significantly from AI, as it can enhance exploration and discovery in research, though navigating the unknown also brings challenges and potential failures. Ensuring responsible use of AI by researchers is crucial to harness its full potential safely.
AI agents are ‘aeroplanes for the mind’: five ways to ensure that scientists are responsible pilots
Homestead farming in central India's Mandla district empowers Indigenous women, notably in Gond and Baiga communities, by shifting from traditional monocropping to diversified agroecological homestead models. Women now manage production and decision-making on their 400-500 sq m plots, cultivating multiple vegetable crops with organic practices such as bio-fertilizers, crop rotation, rainwater harvesting, and integrated livestock. This approach has increased production diversity by 350%, doubled dietary diversity, boosted nutrient-rich food consumption by 70%, and improved income through sales and poultry. Adoption of drip irrigation and water storage enables year-round farming, reducing reliance on erratic rainfall and markets. The model enhances nutrition, income, and women's confidence in sustainable farming.
Homestead farming is empowering Indigenous women in central India
The US has intensified military operations in the southern Caribbean, targeting Venezuelan oil resources under the guise of combatting drug cartels. In January 2026, US forces struck Caracas and captured President Nicolás Maduro, signaling a direct intervention to control Venezuela's oil reserves. The region, historically linked through Venezuela's PetroCaribe program offering favorable oil terms, has experienced destabilization due to US sanctions and political pressure, leading to economic crisis and mass migration. Trinidad and Tobago, hosting many Venezuelan migrants, has implemented increasingly harsh measures against them amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment. This militarization and political interference reflect a resurgence of petro-imperialism, with US interests prioritizing resource control over regional sovereignty and stability.
Trinidad and Tobago
The return of petro-imperialism
The UK’s record-wide trade deficit, especially in goods, significantly impacts household bills by linking global shocks directly to food and energy prices. The UK imports around 40% of its food and much of its energy, making these inelastic essentials vulnerable to international supply disruptions and price spikes. Currency fluctuations tied to the trade deficit further amplify inflationary pressures on imports. While the UK runs a surplus in services, this does not alleviate the cost pressures on households, particularly for lower-income groups who spend a larger share on essentials. The reliance on global supply chains prioritizes efficiency but reduces resilience, exposing households to rapid price volatility. Strengthening supply chain diversification and strategic reserves could improve resilience without sacrificing trade benefits.
Bahrain, Barbados, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe | Financial services
Why the UK’s trade deficit makes household bills so vulnerable to global shocks
Police forces are increasingly adopting AI tools to aid decision-making by analyzing large datasets beyond human capability, aiming to improve evidence-based policing over instinct alone. Examples in England include resource allocation tools and recidivism risk monitors. However, reliance on AI has led to significant issues, such as the West Midlands Police wrongly restricting Israeli football fans based on false AI-generated data, and biases in tools like Durham Constabulary’s Harm Assessment Risk Tool and the Metropolitan Police’s discredited Gang Matrix, disproportionately affecting marginalized groups. Effective AI use requires officers to critically assess AI outputs, blending experience with data insight, and mandates bias-awareness training, as emphasized by police leadership. The upcoming national predictive policing system raises urgent concerns about oversight and ethical deployment.
Will AI tools make better police officers?
Generative AI has quickly become integrated into everyday life, with many children encountering it through homework, entertainment, or social sharing. However, unsupervised use risks exposure to misinformation, emotionally risky content, and undermines learning by turning tasks into shortcuts. Adults should engage with children about AI use through curiosity rather than bans, respect age limits as safety signals, and encourage fact-checking due to AI’s tendency to hallucinate information. Boundaries are crucial, especially around sensitive topics, and children should avoid sharing personal data with AI. Finally, AI should support learning without replacing the cognitive effort necessary for skill development.
Education
Seven tips for talking to children and young people about generative AI
Growing AI influence is prompting many, especially Gen Z, to pursue “AI-proof” skilled trades for job stability, while professionals across fields seek to integrate AI tools to enhance productivity and career resilience. Building AI fluency through accessible online learning and leveraging domain expertise creates valuable interdisciplinary roles focused on managing and directing AI systems. Though AI reshapes workflows and automates routine tasks, human skills like critical thinking and empathy remain essential. Challenges include rapid change, potential job pathway narrowing, and ethical concerns. Career adaptability increasingly means integrating AI within existing fields rather than abandoning them.
Education
Time to retrain? How to future‑proof your career in the AI age

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