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Fibrinogen discovery reshapes our understanding of how wounds heal

Scientists have redefined how the key blood‑clotting protein fibrinogen behaves when it contacts air, overturning two decades of scientific consensus on wound healing.It is the culmination of over a decade of international collaboration by Dr Richard Campbell of The University of Manchester, Professor Juan Ruso of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and Dr Natalia Hassan of the Metropolitan Technological University in Chile.The discovery could have far reaching…

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New Maryland DOL Resources Help Employers Prepare for FAMLI

Quick Hits Maryland’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance will soon take effect, with contributions commencing on January 1, 2027, and benefits starting no later than January 3, 2028. The MDOL’s FAMLI Division has released new guidance documents covering employer registration, equivalent private insurance plan (EPIP) options, and quarterly wage and hour reporting to help businesses prepare. Employers considering an EPIP must file a declaration of intent (DOI) between September 1…

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An Employer’s Guide to Filing a Declaration of Intent for a Maryland FAMLI Private Plan

Quick Hits Employers that wish to pursue an EPIP rather than participate in the FAMLI state plan must file a DOI between September 1 and November 15, 2026, in order to be exempt from making contributions to the state plan during the 2027 calendar year seeding period. The DOI process requires employer registration through the FAMLI Portal, a consultation with and attestation from a licensed insurance agent, and completion of…

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‘Say It Right’: Toponymical Prescriptivism and Identity Assertion

The existence of different names for the same geographical features across languages and cultures is a natural phenomenon, shaped by historical, social, and linguistic factors. Yet under certain circumstances, toponymical issues transcend linguistics, becoming a potent—and often explosive—element of domestic and foreign policy. We have previously addressed the “name correction” that Donald Trump initiated shortly after his return to the White House, exemplifying one of the two main scenarios for…

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California’s Updated AB 2321 Awaits Vote in State Senate

The bill was introduced in February 2026 by Assembly Member Liz Ortega (D–District 20), chair of the California State Assembly’s Committee on Labor and Employment, with Assembly Members Ash Kalra (D–District 25) and Alex Lee (D–District 24) signing on as coauthors. As introduced, the bill would have applied statewide, expanding the role of local district attorneys in investigating serious workplace injuries and fatalities across California. Since then, the bill has…

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Putting a Price on Climate Risk

Your recent work has focused on unpriced risk. Would you explain what that is?It’s a risk that’s apparent—it’s not hidden or unrealistic, it doesn’t require a black-swan event to be relevant—but for some reason, there’s a lag in pricing it. Maybe the data needed to price it is difficult. There might be significant cost to quantifying the risk. Or the complexity of the issue might be daunting.There is often unpriced…

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Stability and Security Threats in the South Caucasus: A View from Pakistan

The South Caucasus has entered a phase of de facto peace, but not yet one of settled security. The Armenia-Azerbaijan breakthrough and new connectivity plans offer a historic opportunity, while incomplete legal normalisation, unresolved border and humanitarian questions, corridor rivalries, Georgia's enduring conflicts, and spillover from surrounding wars keep the regional order fragile. Pakistan’s strategic partnership with Azerbaijan, newly established relations with Armenia, and growing engagement with the Eurasian Economic…

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Cal/OSHA Updates Draft Heat Illness Regulations to Align Indoor and Outdoor Rules

Quick Hits On August 14, 2026, Cal/OSHA released an updated draft of its heat illness regulations that aligns both the indoor and outdoor regulations to be more consistent in language and terminology. The draft outdoor regulation removes the exception which allowed industries other than agriculture, construction, landscaping, oil and gas extraction, and some transportation companies to be exempt from the high-heat procedures. The deadline for submitting comments is September 21,…

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‘No difference’ may be wrong conclusion, scientists warn

Researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Oxford and Arkansas are urging scientists to stop treating “non-significant” results as proof that nothing happened.The common statistical mistake, they warn in a new paper in PNAS on 10 08 26 – one of the world’s leading scientific journals - could be leading researchers to draw the wrong conclusions from their data.A p-value, which measures how surprising the observed data would be if there…

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The AI boom: rational enthusiasm or the next dot-com bubble?

17 August 2026By Malin Andersson, Johannes Breckenfelder, Stefano Corradin, Kalin Nikolov and Maria Antonietta Viola The rise of AI has driven a blistering rally in the tech sector, bringing stock market valuations to levels last seen during the dot-com bubble. Although AI is reshaping the economy, do today’s high valuations bear the risk of an abrupt and painful setback in the euro area? Valuations on the US stock market, as…

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Saving the Yen, or the Dollar?

This last possibility became real with the recent weakness of the yen, prompted by many factors including rises in US interest rates in the wake of the post-pandemic inflationary tide, the requirements of the carry trade – borrowing cheaply in yen to engage in leveraged speculation on US markets, which requires yen to remain cheap even after Japan transitioned to positive interest rates – and by rising inflation making critical…

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Updating membership criteria? What Ontario not-for-profits should know

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice’s decision in Barrie & District Association of Realtors v Information Technology Systems Ontario, 2025 ONSC 3388, confirms that Ontario not-for-profit corporations may update their membership criteria, even where the changes could affect an existing member’s ability to remain a member. The decision is useful for boards because it explains when courts will defer to internal governance decisions under the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010…

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Federal Financial Institutions Legislative and Regulatory Reporter – May 2026

The Reporter provides a monthly summary of Canadian federal legislative and regulatory developments of relevance to federally regulated financial institutions. It does not address Canadian provincial financial services legislative and regulatory developments. In addition, purely technical and administrative changes (such as changes to reporting forms) are not covered. May 2026 Published Title and Brief Summary Status (if applicable) Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) May 21, 2026 Draft…

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Federal Financial Institutions Legislative and Regulatory Reporter – June 2026

The Reporter provides a monthly summary of Canadian federal legislative and regulatory developments of relevance to federally regulated financial institutions. It does not address Canadian provincial financial services legislative and regulatory developments. In addition, purely technical and administrative changes (such as changes to reporting forms) are not covered. June 2026 Published Title and Brief Summary Status (if applicable) Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) June 25, 2026 Streamlined…

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  • Reading time:22 mins read
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EEOC Hearing on EEO-1 Rescission: Most Speakers Urge Retention or Reform

Quick Hits The EEOC held a hearing that drew testimony from a broad range of stakeholders on the Commission’s proposal to rescind the EEO-1 through EEO-6 information collections and related recordkeeping and record preservation requirements. Both employer-side and employee-side speakers warned that eliminating standardized reporting may not reduce employers’ overall data obligations; the same information may still be sought through investigations, subpoenas, and litigation. Employer groups underscored that the proposal…

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How Cooling the Planet with Geoengineering Would Upend Climate Economics

Climate scientists and policymakers have long warned of a dangerous threshold: If global temperatures rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages, we risk devastating consequences, including severe flooding, heat waves, and drought. Yet surpassing that grim marker now seems almost inevitable.One potential way to keep the harms of climate change at bay is geoengineering—deliberate intervention in the Earth’s climate system. The most widely studied form of geoengineering, called…

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Do government subsidies drive global imbalances?

14 August 2026By Maria Grazia Attinasi, Lukas Boeckelmann, Isabella Moder, Til Pommer and Tajda SpitalWidening global imbalances draw attention to policies shaping international trade. Using firm-level data, the ECB blog compares government support in China, the United States and the euro area. We find that subsidies drive Chinese exports in strategically important sectors.Concerns about imbalances in the flow of goods and money have recently resurfaced.[1] The main cause of global…

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What Cyprus Leadership Teams Should Demand from Marketing Measurement in 2026

A practical framework for turning marketing reports into better commercial decisions By Themis Christou | Co-Founder, Uveler Marketing Marketing measurement should help a leadership team decide what to fund, what to fix and what to stop. Too often, it does none of those things. Executives receive dashboards filled with impressions, clicks, engagement rates and channel summaries, yet still cannot answer a basic commercial question: is marketing creating profitable demand? This…

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Syrian Debt: How the Bank of Russia Won a War No One Noticed

On August 9, 2026, Syria and Russia signed a memorandum of understanding which resolved the fate of Russian military bases in Khmeimim and Tartus. The bases will be converted into joint training centres, and control of the civilian infrastructure will be transferred to Damascus. News reports have heralded a “compromise” and a “new chapter”. This is all true, but it’s not the whole truth, as, in our view, the truth…

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The future DNA of work: building the conditions for organisational performance

Why high-performing organisations will be built by design, not by chance. The future of work isn’t being shaped by technology alone. As AI, demographic change and evolving workforce expectations transform organisations, leaders must rethink operating models, culture, leadership and capability together.  Download the full insights below to explore how organisations can create the conditions for sustainable organisational performance in an increasingly complex and fast-changing world. Reading time: 6 minutes  Every organisation is asking the same questions.…

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CTA Endgame: FinCEN Final Rule Closes the BOI Chapter for Most US Companies

After years of rulemakings, filing deadlines, court challenges, injunctions, extensions, and client alerts, the Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”) appears to have reached its conclusion for most US businesses. On August 11, 2026, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) released a final rule adopting, with limited changes, the March 2025 interim final rule narrowing the CTA’s BOI reporting requirements. Most importantly, the final rule permanently removes BOI reporting requirements for US…

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Hurricane Season 2026: Key Considerations for Employers

Quick Hits The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts below-normal hurricane activity for 2026 but emphasizes that employers should prepare before storms threaten. Federal wage and hour rules are not suspended during natural disasters. Airport closures, flight cancellations, and ground stops can strand traveling employees and trigger unexpected wage obligations. Although NOAA forecasts a below-normal hurricane season—with a 55 percent chance of below-normal activity and only a 10 percent…

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Trump Administration Issues Executive Orders on Birthright Citizenship and Birth Tourism

Quick Hits On August 6, 2026, President Trump issued two executive orders aimed at limiting birthright citizenship under certain circumstances and ending “birth tourism.” The first executive order expands the recognized exceptions to birthright citizenship, narrowing who qualifies for U.S. citizenship at birth. The second executive order directs the State Department and DHS to deny or revoke nonimmigrant visas when there is reason to believe the purpose of travel is…

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America in the Hormuz Trap

The military strategy of the US administration has reached an impasse. The chaotic alternation of military strikes and ceasefires has had no effect whatsoever on Iran’s firmly stated determination to pursue its objectives. The Hormuz trap, at least for the time being, provides the necessary conditions for it to do so, writes Alexander Maryasov. The escalation of US armed aggression against Iran, accompanied by the serious weakening of regional pro-Iranian…

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Is your organisation fit for your strategy?

Your organisation has changed. Just not in the way your strategy needed. Many organisations have become better at strategy but still struggle to turn ambition into results. The problem may lie in how the organisation itself is designed. We explore why traditional restructuring falls short, how organisational systems constrain performance, and how leaders can diagnose what really needs to change. Reading time: 6 minutes For many organisations today, strategy is…

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OMB Extends Disability Self-ID Form for Covered Federal Contractors to July 2029

Quick Hits The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), has renewed Form CC-305, which invites applicants and employees of covered contractors to identify their disability status through July 31, 2029. The renewal means covered contractors subject to Section 503 self-identification requirements should continue using the OMB-approved form bearing the new expiration date. On July 16, 2026, OMB approved Form CC-305 (Voluntary…

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Rare Ventures, a First-of-its-kind Platform for Accelerating Rare Disease Therapies, Launches in Pittsburgh

Developing treatments for rare diseases presents many challenges: small patient populations, fragmented data and long, complex paths to new therapies. But rare doesn’t mean few. More than 400 million people worldwide live with a rare disease, yet about 95% of the 10,000+ rare diseases don’t have an approved treatment.To help change that, Carnegie Mellon University is a founding partner in a Pittsburgh-based partnership that brings together leaders in medicine, biotechnology…

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DHS Proposes Rule to Eliminate 60-Day Grace Period for Certain Nonimmigrants

Quick Hits DHS has proposed a rule to eliminate the sixty-day grace period afforded to certain nonimmigrants, such as E, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, and TN visa holders and their dependents. The full text of the proposed rule has not yet been published, and its exact details remain unknown. The rule is undergoing review by OMB before being published in the Federal Register for notice and comment. The sixty-day grace period…

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Major gaps in follow-up care after acute kidney injury, study finds

Despite national efforts to improve acute kidney injury (AKI) care, thousands of patients in England are missing vital follow-up care after leaving hospital, according to new research by The University of Manchester.The kidneys have a vital role in continuously clearing toxins from the body. AKI is a common clinical syndrome in which the kidneys stop working properly. It affects up to 1 in 5 people in hospital, usually as a…

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How can we manage our energy more intelligently at work?

2-minute read  When work gets busy, our instinct is often to push harder: focus more, apply more discipline, reach for another coffee. But what if sustainable productivity is less about willpower and more about understanding how our energy actually works?  That was at the heart of Q5’s webinar with Clemence Cleave and Julie Newman, exploring personal productivity and resilience through the lens of how our bodies and brains actually work.  Rethinking productivity and energy at…

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California Bill Links Security Guard Training to Workplace Violence Prevention

Quick Hits California SB 1203 would increase required initial security guard training from thirty-two hours to forty-two hours and require sixty hours of annual training. The bill would require eight hours of initial and annual training to focus on practicing de-escalation skills through in-person, interactive training. Employers would be required to pay for required training and compensate security guards for time spent completing the training. The proposed requirements may also…

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Who Trains Junior Employees in the Age of AI?

This commentary originally appeared in K. Sudhir’s Substack newsletter The Slow Part. The views expressed are the author’s own.Many senior people are noticing the same thing lately: their junior staff are doing better work than ever—cleaner drafts, faster models, fewer mistakes—because AI now handles the grinding first pass, the rough draft that used to eat a junior’s week. And then, often in the same breath, comes the hesitation: they’re not…

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Sexual role identities among gay and bisexual men vary by age and region

A new study has found that sexual role identities among men who have sex with men vary systematically by age and geographic region.Written by Dr Morten Thomsen, University of Oxford; Dr Francesco Rampazzo, The University of Manchester and Associate Member, University of Oxford; and Milan Kovačič; the paper argues that these labels are shaped by social and cultural contexts rather than being fixed or universal.The findings challenge assumptions that younger…

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Labour’s AI revolution risks making UK inequalities worse, study warns

Unequal benefits and risksResearchers Nathan Critch and Darcy Luke say years of short-term and fragmented policymaking by successive governments have left the UK with significant infrastructure and capacity gaps which could undermine Labour’s plans.The Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan includes plans to increase UK AI computing capacity twentyfold by 2030, develop AI Growth Zones, establish a National Data Library and expand the use of AI across government and the wider…

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Government’s Manchester led mental health digital innovation scheme launches

A University of Manchester led national initiative aims to connect people with lived experience, industry, researchers and the NHS to transform mental health innovation across the UK.The Mental Health Digital Innovation (MHDI) workstream has been launched as one arm of the UK Government’s Mental Health Goals Programme as a new national initiative designed to accelerate the infrastructure and development to support adoption of digital technologies that improve mental health outcomes…

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The Cold War: Legitimacy and Rules in Great Power Rivalry

As the uncertainty of the contemporary international landscape makes us look back on the Cold War-era international system with a certain admiration and nostalgia, it must be pointed out that the 1946-1991 epoch was no time of peace. Timofei Bordachev, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, explores the nature of the Soviet-American competition and its relevance for world affairs in our day and age. This year, 2026, marks the…

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Two More Down as the Bell Continues to Toll for TPS

Just hours after publication of our earlier alert, USCIS issued updated guidance confirming that Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for both Burma (Myanmar) and South Sudan is terminated effective August 7, 2026. USCIS stated that TPS-based Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) issued under categories A12 and C19 for beneficiaries from both countries are no longer valid, and employers must reverify affected employees who previously presented those documents. The announcements supersede all prior…

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