Cambodia has about 18 million people and, Human Rights Watch says, US$18 billion in outstanding microloans. The average loan runs to over four times income per head. Dr David Whitehouse, writing for us, on debts that outlast the era that funded them.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/uks-era-of...

⏳is 🏃: Our Newsletter is out again!

🔎 Featuring:

✔️ @oucsgd.bsky.social annual lecture on care economy with Naila Kabeer

✔️ @deval-institute.bsky.social's book Evaluation, Democracy & Transformation

✔️ ALF's Knowledge for Action programme

➕ picks and opportunities

mailchi.mp/eadi/nl1octo...

Could an off-the-shelf gadget be an early-warning tool for wildfires?

Researchers @kings-sga.bsky.social converted a gadget into a scientific instrument that could offer a low-cost way for farmers & fire services to monitor wildfire risk & spot crop drought stress.

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/scienti...

Britain broke its wildfire record by August. Knowing which landscape is ready to burn means knowing the water in the leaves, and the usual test is oven-drying. Dr Luke Brown of King's and a colleague rebuilt a £70 window-tint meter. Total cost: £140.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/the-140-ga...

In 1857 yellow fever came into Lisbon by ship and killed 4.2 per cent of the city. Dr Sabrina Li of King's and colleagues mapped who died: the deaths followed elevation, wind direction and who worked near the port. Aedes aegypti is back on Madeira.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/when-lisbo...

What is nature's capacity to 'bounce-back' when species are lost?

A new study from @kings-sga.bsky.social & @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social found that ecosystems have less spare capacity than thought, raising concerns for food security, pollination & climate storage.

www.kcl.ac.uk/news/natures...

Open the capital account and the money follows, runs the advice. Across 27 emerging economies Dr Ewa Karwowski of King's finds it mostly leaves governments owing foreign investors. What pulls firms and households in is a financial centre at home.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/the-city-o...

Lithium was found under Ewoyaa in 2023. Residents were told to stop farming and building while the paperwork went through. Parliament then argued over the deal. Dr Clement Sefa-Nyarko of King's on what a missed season costs.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/time-on-ho...

World Habitat Day. New York tells residents to drink tap water in a heatwave. Its own utility still cuts off households over $500 in arrears. Lucy Everitt and Professor Katie Meehan of King's on the heat defence sitting in a billing office.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/new-york-c...

Bolivia exports gas and still ran out of fuel in 2025. In 2014 it held over $15bn in reserves. Gas is sold in dollars and fuel is bought in dollars, and Bolivia cannot print them. Dr Angus McNelly of King's on where the reserves went.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/bolivia-di...

You have seen the figure: 15,000 litres of water per kilogram of beef. About 94 per cent of it is rain falling on grass that would have grown anyway, says Professor Mark Mulligan of King's. The share pumped from rivers is the part that matters.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/the-proble...

In 2015 a tailings dam collapsed at Mariana, killing 19 and poisoning the Rio Doce to the Atlantic. The case ended up in a London courtroom, under Brazilian law, with 700,000 claimants. Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos of King's is following it.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/sovereignt...

World Heart Day. Retirement is meant to be the restful part. King's researchers followed 30,000 Europeans and found heart attack risk rises about 6 per cent in the two years after work ends, then fades. The usual risk factors explain none of it.
kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/retirement...

www.ailc-icla.org/events/inves...

Before the Somkhele mine, no household in the survey bought water. Now 38 per cent do, while the mine is licensed to draw up to 750,000 cubic metres a year from the same rivers. One detail from a report that counts what a community lost, and what it was paid. www.kcl.ac.uk/news/south-a...

Valuation is never neutral. Price a rural homestead by what rural land trades for and you see an asset and miss a livelihood. Our new post on the Somkhele report, and why the question of who counts the losses, and how, runs through climate politics. kingsglobalaffairs.substack.com/p/counting-w...

📰 Our newsletter just went out, featuring @idos-research.bsky.social's flagship book "Sustainable Futures at Stake", picks on #energy, our upcoming webinar, an call from our journal, and open student survey and more picks and opportunities from us and our members
mailchi.mp/eadi/nl2sept...

What the Somkhele mine took from 115 families, 2007-2018:
Land: 270 hectares, down to 68
Crop yields down 94 per cent
Livestock from 7,574 to 2,643
204 houses and rondavels
Graves relocated
Rivers cut off
15 medicinal plants out of reach

Compensation: R3.6 million. www.kcl.ac.uk/geography/as...

Congratulations to Professor Aditya Jain, Professor of Sustainable Work and Development, University of Nottingham & Professor Julia Gallagher, Professor of Politics and Development, @kings-sga.bsky.social for becoming @acadsocsciences.bsky.social fellows.
buff.ly/0q6DmDQ