Business

Empty office desk and chairs

Two hundred U.K. companies sign up for permanent four-day working week

Two hundred U.K. companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent Britain’s working week. Together, the companies employ more than 5,000 people, with charities, marketing, and technology firms among the best-represented. Supporters say the four-day week is a useful way of attracting and retaining employees while improving productivity by creating the same output over fewer hours and fostering a more fulfilled, happy, and engaged workforce.

New York

New York City to get a $3 billion, 80,000-acre offshore wind farm

New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. A turbine-laden 80,000-acre plot of Atlantic Ocean – which is nearly half the size of NYC – could generate 810 MW if running efficiently at its designed capacity. That is around 3.19 TWh per year or roughly 6% of NYC’s overall consumption. Empire Wind 1 will be the first offshore wind project to connect directly to NYC’s electrical grid.

Dongying floating solar farm

China activates world’s largest offshore floating solar installation

China’s state-owned CHN Energy has begun generating electricity at a 1 gigawatt offshore floating solar park, 5 miles off the coast of the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The park can generate 1.78 billion kilowatt-hours of power each year — enough to meet the energy needs of 2.6 million city dwellers. The offshore floating solar installation consists of 2,934 PV platforms installed using large-scale steel truss platforms affixed to foundations made of pilings.

Blood cells under microscope

Danish scientists design new form of insulin that automatically switches itself on and off

For decades, researchers have been working to develop a system that can automatically adjust insulin activity based on the amount of glucose in a person’s blood. Now, Rita Slaaby, a principal scientist at pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Bagsværd, Denmark, and her colleagues engineered an insulin molecule with a switch that turns its activity on and off in response to glucose levels in the blood. In animals, this ‘smart’ insulin reduces high blood-sugar concentrations effectively while preventing levels from dropping too low.

Virus up close

‘Gamechanger’ HIV prevention drug to be made available cheaply in 120 countries

Gilead Sciences says it has signed agreements with six manufacturers to make and sell generic lenacapavir in 120 “high-incidence, resource-limited” countries. Lenacapavir, given as a twice-yearly injection, has shown strong results for HIV prevention. It stopped infection in a trial involving girls and women in South Africa and Uganda, and offered almost complete protection in a second trial that mainly involved men across Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, South Africa, Thailand, and the U.S.

World Health Organization approves first mpox diagnostic test for emergency use

Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is an infectious disease caused by the monkeypox virus. A global outbreak first emerged in May 2022 which WHO said constituted a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of alarm under international health law. Africa has seen an unprecedented increase and expansion in mpox cases this year, with transmission mainly centered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO said early diagnosis is critical as it enables timely treatment and care, as well as control of the virus. A new test from Abbott Molecular now makes that much more possible.

Neurons inside human brain

Synapse-restoring pill set for human trials as novel schizophrenia treatment

Spinogenix is the American company behind the once-a-day pill that restored lost nerve cell connections in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Having been granted approval from the Australia Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC), it is now actively enrolling participants for its Phase 2 clinical trial to evaluate the safety, effectiveness, tolerability, and pharmacodynamics of once-a-day SPG302 as a treatment for schizophrenia.

ING headquarters

Dutch bank ING to ditch climate laggards as clients

Dutch bank ING will dump large clients it believes are not making sufficient progress on reducing their climate impact, in the latest sign of divergence between European and US banks over the risks of global warming. Chief executive Steven van Rijswijk said ING had put its clients on notice that it would either restrict or stop providing finance to companies that fail to address their carbon footprint on a case-by-case basis. Van Rijswijk said ING had assessed 2,000 of its largest clients based on their publicly available climate transition plans and other data. Companies had until 2026 to make sufficient progress, he said.   

Uber driver in a car

Women and transgender people in Pakistan get a ride-sharing service for protection

In an effort to increase protection for trans people, a Pakistani business has launched a ride-share service that will be available only to women and trans people. Called SheDrives, the service was launched last weekend and seeks to protect trans people from discrimination and harassment, says Ammaz Farooqi, the company’s chief executive. It currently operates only in the second-largest city of Lahore, but Farooqi said that expansion is possible.

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