A perverse incentive is a rule that produces the opposite of its intended result. In healthcare, paying professionals and reimbursing insured patients for treatment, but not for prevention, means conditions can go unaddressed until they require costly care. Prevention would improve quality of life, yet it reduces future demand for treatment, so it is financially less attractive to the system. The result is a structure that rewards waiting rather than early action. Economists use this example to show how payment design shapes behaviour. The same logic appears in many fields, from policing to environmental policy.

Israeli reports also say the cabinet directed the military to prepare for a possible new attack on Iran.

Angkor, near Siem Reap in northern Cambodia, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which ruled much of mainland Southeast Asia between roughly the 9th and 15th centuries. At its height the city spread across about 3,000 square kilometres, making it the largest pre-industrial city on Earth by area. Its growth depended on water: huge reservoirs called barays, along with canals and embankments, stored monsoon rain and carried it to rice fields. That system let farmers harvest more than once a year and fed a very large population through the dry season. The temple complex of Angkor Wat, built in the early 12th century, is the best-known monument and still stands at the heart of the park.