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The biodigester solution began as a means of managing food waste. In 2011 HECAF360 built a single-chamber, underground biodigester at Bir Hospital, Kathmandu. A culture of biogas has existed in Nepal for more than 40 years, according to a nationwide survey, which suggests 69% of the country's total energy demand is met by biomass energy. Homes and farms dispose of their animals' manure into small biodigesters on their land, which releases methane gas to fuel cooking.

At Bir hospital, methane released by digested food waste was piped into the staff tearoom. But Nakarmi faced a new challenge at Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital, where he installed a biodigester in 2016. "After Bir, hospitals we worked with had maternity services which produce placentas as well as food waste," he says. "We modified the biodigester to make it suitable for both types of waste."

Before hospital staff began adding waste, constructors put in cow dung to "seed" the chambers. This contains bacteria the mix needs to digest the hospital waste and generate methane. Hospital workers throw pathological and some food waste into the first underground chamber through an inlet above the ground. The majority of the hospital's food waste goes into the second inlet and chamber. "You feed placentas and some food to balance that carbon and nitrogen into the first chamber," says Stringer. "Food, which is much bulkier but doesn't need such a long residence time – because there's no potential for infection – is fed into the second."

The team trained hospital staff to segregate waste and ensure they only fed suitable organic materials into the digester. Staff also regularly pour water into the inlets to keep the mixture fluid. Gravity slowly moves it though the system. The digestate ends its passage by tipping out of the second chamber into a sewer, from where it safely washes away. By this time, any pathogens have died. "Most viruses can last maximum a week outside of the body," says Stringer. "There's no risk."

The methane gas produced by the biodigester at TUTH is piped out of the chambers into the staff room. It fuels a stove used for cooking, and has replaced some of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) the hospital used to buy. The biodigester in Tribhuvan produces 1.5 cubic metres a day of methane gas – the equivalent of five standard-size LPG gas cylinders. One cylinder is enough for a family of five to cook two meals a day for a month and costs about £15 ($20), according to Nakarmi.

By replacing the incinerator, 4.6 tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided in 2019, as well as all diesel fuel and methane gas emissions, the assessment estimates.

The event, scheduled for next week, will feature the construction of a sukkah as part of a "city of sukkahs" initiative by the Nachala movement, which is known for establishing illegal outposts in the West Bank.

Social Equality Minister May Golan, along with MKs Tally Gotliv, Osher Shkalim and Hanoch Milwidsky, confirmed to Haaretz that they will attend the event. The invitation also mentions that six other Likud MKs are expected to participate.

The Nachala movement stated that "the event is not just a theoretical conference, but a practical exercise and preparation for renewed settlement in Gaza." The movement added that "the return to settlement in Gaza is no longer just an idea but a process that is already in advanced stages, with government and public support."

Regardless of whether they are ‘self made’ or ‘second gen’, the ultra-rich have unique psychological profiles amongst the general populace. In my experience, both categories of billionaire are dominated by interminable existential crises — although each displays nuance when it comes to confrontation. The ‘self made’ have a tendency towards aggressive megalomania, while ‘second gens’ demur in favour of nihilistic hedonism.

My main observation is that for individuals born into extreme wealth, it is almost impossible to grasp anything about material or social reality. In Gatsby, Fitzgerald describes rich people as “clumsy” — instinctively “retreating into their money” to avoid ever facing the outcomes of their actions. This is certainly true for second gens. To inherit a condition of unjustifiable wealth means to never experience cause and effect. All external pressures are alleviated by capital: there are no consequences to missing a deadline, to not finishing a project, to dropping out or giving up. It is terrifically difficult to fail, in any normal sense.

When they travel, the ultra-rich do so through private means. The car takes them to the aerodrome, where the plane takes them to another aerodrome, where a car takes them to the destination (with perhaps a helicopter inserted somewhere). Every journey is bookended by identical Mercedes Vito Tourers (gloss black, tinted windows). Every flight is within the cosy confines of a Cessna Citation (or a King Air or Embraer). The amenities (even the menus) are identical in Marrakech, Monaco and the Maldives; in Como, St. Kitts, Zermatt and Oman. The ultra-rich never wait in line at a carousel or a customs table or a passport control. There are no accidental encounters. No unwelcome, unapproved or unsanitary humans enter their sight – no souls that could espouse a foreign view. The ultra-rich do not see anything they do not want to see. More accurately: these people simply do not see.

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After the war in Gaza started and there were all these civilian casualties, we saw Israel intentionally denying humanitarian aid to people who were starving. What should the response from people have been at that point?

That’s not something I can say because I don’t know what my own response should have been. I trusted no one and I trusted no report. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t see some pictures on television. The BBC has been appalling. It just showed you pictures, unbearable pictures, heartbreaking pictures of dying babies every night, but any war would look appalling if you just showed the suffering of the women and children.

So, I thought, Who am I to believe here? I read a lot of people; I believed some, and I didn’t believe others. It’s turned out very badly and the right-wing government of Benjamin Netanyahu is contemptible. I have no doubt about all that, but that didn’t mean that something didn’t need doing. There was no alternative to it. Israel had to try and get Hamas. I thought Netanyahu’s belief that he could wipe out Hamas was stupid. So I felt that this war had to be prosecuted. If a war is prosecuted, it will be ugly.

I asked you about the specific intentional denial of humanitarian aid, and your answer was something like “Well, I don’t know what to believe anymore when I read the news, so I can’t really comment on that.” Is that right?

Put quite like that it sounds as though what I said was stupid and ignorant. One got accounts and accounts and accounts and it was very hard to know what was the truth.

So you’re saying the idea that twelve hundred Israelis were killed and now forty-two thousand Gazans have been killed—that comparing the two in itself is not any sort of argument?

Well, all right, Isaac, what’s the figure you’d choose?

I was just trying to clarify what you meant.

I don’t know how you do the mathematics of this, and I’m not going to say the “mathematics of revenge” because, while of course there was an element of revenge, and you wanted it not to be revenge, you didn’t want it to be a punishment either. I hated that word—“punishment.” I think the justification for what Israel did was to try to make sure that this never happened again. And I think in the attempt to make sure that this never happened again, the numbers were going to inevitably have to be high. If you’re a terrorist, you do hide yourself in schools and hospitals. So if the Israelis are going to get you, they’re going to have to attack those things.

Why should this be a matter of numbers? I’m not saying that the media should underestimate the number of Palestinian children killed. It’s a question of whether you choose to lead every story with children killed. Forty-five children were killed today. Thirty children were killed today. Fifteen children were killed today. It became an obsession. It became, and still is.

What should be the lead story on days when lots of children are killed?

I’m not talking about those days. This was every single night. I’m telling you I saw a dead baby every single night. You couldn’t look at a child, pictures of a child being killed every single night without thinking this is making my people, my kin, out to be child murderers. I’ve got two options for you. I can believe it’s true. O.K., it’s true. It’s true. That’s what we do. That’s what the Israelis, not us, but the Israelis, do. But we feel a kinship with the Israelis. That’s what they do. And so maybe there we are again. Maybe everything that they said about us in 1200 and 1300 was true. This is what the Jews do—kill children. I’m not going to buy it. I’m not going to buy it.

Howard, I think maybe we’re in a bit of a worrisome place if you see photos of dead children on television and your first thought is, They’re trying to make me, a Jew, hate my people.

As horrific details about Oct. 7 spread last year, higher-ups at media companies debated whether they should join the chorus of corporations releasing statements condemning the attack.

[...]Ultimately, the company’s statement pleased no one. Condé was one of the only news media companies to explicitly condemn Hamas in its statement. But some staff leaked to the New York Post their complaints that it didn’t go far enough. “People are pissed because it was a terrorist attack and Stan’s note is like, ‘Oh, both sides are being hurt,’” a Condé Nast insider told the Post, referring to a memo sent by the company’s head of human resources.

As the war intensified after Oct. 7, [Teen Vogue] ran sympathetic pieces pointing out the impact of military action on Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and how the conflict was playing out in the 2024 presidential campaign. It chronicled the crackdown on anti-Israel protests across college campuses in the US, as well as the celebrities who have come out in support of the Palestinians or a general ceasefire.

Teen Vogue’s pro-Palestinian bent has particularly irritated the talent booking side of the business, which has taken issue with some of the writing and told other staff within the company that it is damaging relationships with celebrities. Earlier this year, Vogue entertainment director Sergio Kletnoy sent an email to Wintour, CEO Roger Lynch and Duncan that was deeply critical of Teen Vogue’s writing about Gaza. In February, Siri Garber, the president of Platform Public Relations, a Hollywood PR agency that represents celebrities who have been on Teen Vogue covers, sent a private letter to Condé Nast criticizing Teen Vogue’s coverage.

Dachshunds are famed for their sausage shape, but their extra-long backs and extra-short legs can create crippling strain on their spines. This animal welfare bill would ban what it calls “torture breeding” — the breeding of animals with structural disabilities — not just of dachshunds with bad backs, but German shepherds with bad hips or French bulldogs with breathing problems.

Dachshund owners say they’ve got the problem under control, and that a breeding ban, rather than helping, could doom the dachshund. More than 18,000 people have signed a petition against the bill, and the national dachshund club has mounted a pressure campaign on legislators.

The bill isn’t just about dog breeding. It is meant to protect all kinds of animals in places from livestock farms to circuses to slaughterhouses. Germany already has one of the world’s strongest animal welfare laws, with animal protection written into its national constitution. Some 90% of Germans support stronger legal protections for animal welfare. That makes the debate more complicated than a simple for or against.

Cyprus has outstripped all other EU member states in embracing hot-water solar systems, with an estimated 93.5 % of households exploiting the alternative energy form for domestic needs.

The solar thermal systems not only collected solar energy as heat – usually generated through electricity and the burning of fossil fuels – they were extremely cost-effective and had helped spawn an entire industry, he explains.

“It’s been great for low-income families and then there’s the jobs: so many have been generated,” the MP says. “There are the local manufacturers who produce the parts and then all the people who are trained to install them. It’s big business.”

In his role as environment commissioner, Theopemptou pushed hard to make the solar systems obligatory on all newly constructed residential and commercial buildings – a move instituted by Israel back in the 1970s.

I spend a lot of time listening to young and adult men in workplaces, schools, online and beyond. Among the questions I often ask is what gives them purpose. The young men who can’t answer seem to be the most lost, spending too much time online, often sunk in despair or filling their hours with looksmaxxing (the online and influenced-fueled trend of maximizing physique and looks), porn or another pursuit that fills their time but not their soul.

For those who can cite a purpose, the list usually centers on a few things. One is friendship—breaking the often emotionally superficial ways that boys are taught to interact with, finding someone who understands and connects with them.Another is a job or vocation that brings a sense of connection, completion and accomplishment—not easy to find in a warehouse, delivery job or an untenable hourly wage at a fast-food joint. Employers who truly care about keeping young men and women have figured out they need to offer more.

But the topic that makes men’s eyes shine when they talk about purpose, is caring for someone. Caring for an elderly parent. Caring for a spouse or intimate partner. Caring about their children or those in their household. Caring about the clients or patients they serve in a care-focused profession.