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China and the United States: the need for de-escalation

Following very high-level negotiations, notably involving US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and China’s Vice Premier with responsibility for the economy He Lifeng, said to be close to President Xi Jinping, the two countries said they were lowering their additional import tariffs for 90 days, from 145% to 30% for the US and from 125% to 10% for China. They also committed to continuing talks on their economic and trading relationship. US-China…

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How Europe’s TMT sector could become a global leader

McKinsey: How has Europe’s TMT sector performed compared to the United States and Asia? Ruben Schaubroeck: It’s no secret that Europe has lagged behind both America and Asia over the past years, and looking at different metrics, you can see that. If you look at, for example, total TMT market capitalization, Europe’s share has dropped from 30 percent to 7 percent, which represents an $8 trillion loss. Secondly, if you…

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Valdai Discussion Club and the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Hold a Russian-Uzbek Conference

On May 27, the Valdai Discussion Club, in partnership with the Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies (ISRS) under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, will hold a Russian-Uzbek conference. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Russia and Uzbekistan: Priority Areas of Cooperation”. The conference will be held at the Valdai Club headquarters in Moscow. The Institute for Strategic and Interregional Studies under the President of the Republic…

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Q5 Expands Leadership Team in Australia

As we celebrate a decade of local operations in Australia, we’re proud to announce several senior leadership appointments that reaffirm our long-term commitment to the region. Strengthening Our Leadership Team in Australia and New Zealand At Q5, we specialise in helping organisations thrive through periods of growth and transformation—whether that means optimising costs, redesigning structures, redefining roles, or building capabilities for the future. With a global presence across nine offices…

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Recent Canadian product liability case law highlights

*Content from this article is from the Case Law Compendium for the Defense Research Institute’s (DRI) Product liability Conference held February 2025. Canadian contributions by BLG’s Edona Vila and Robert Stefanelli. There have been several significant new developments in product liability cases across Canada in the past year. These decisions, arising from Ontario, Québec, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, provide important insights into how courts are deciding product liability matters.…

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Can AI Replace Human Debt Collectors?‌

When the home audio company Sonos released a disastrous update to its app last year, one of the agents fielding angry calls from customers was an multi-modal chatbot from the AI startup Sierra. Sonos is one of many companies that are using AI for customer service, taking advantage of the technology’s growing ability to successfully navigate unpredictable conversations with human beings. ‌ If AI can handle being on the receiving…

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Six steps to active listening

Stanford law Professor Norm Spaulding shares six tips for understanding what your conversation partner is trying to convey, inspired by advice from the nonprofit organization Center for Creative Leadership.1. Pay full attention“Being able to give full attention is just an incredible gift to humanize the person you’re communicating with, and that alone can sometimes have a de-escalating effect,” Spaulding said. To show you are paying attention, nonverbal cues also matter.…

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De-mystifying Strategic Workforce Planning

Join us for another ‘In Conversation with Q5’ podcast, where we debunk the myths and discuss what Strategic Workforce Planning really means, hearing from Hannah Buckley, Associate Partner at Q5, Jay Patel, Head of Strategic Workforce Planning at Q5 and Kyle Fitzgerald, Head of Q5 Analytics. Together, they break down the core theory, translate it into practical, real-world application, and share examples that illustrate how it works in action. We…

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North Carolina Bill Would Expand Workplace Violence Prevention Act

Quick Hits North Carolina is one of several states that have specific workplace violence prevention laws. North Carolina’s Workplace Violence Prevention Act, N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 95, Article 23 (WVPA) allows employers to pursue certain protections on behalf of their employees who face “unlawful conduct” (i.e., physical violence or threats thereof), including by obtaining civil no-contact orders, and to prevent discrimination and retaliation against employees who miss work because of…

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Cambridge researchers elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2025

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament…

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New Kansas Law Will Presume Nonsolicitation Agreements Enforceable

Quick Hits Kansas recently enacted a law to make certain written agreements not to solicit customers or employees “conclusively presumed” to be enforceable. The legislation applies to nonsolicitation agreements between businesses and their owners, which are limited to four years after the end of their business relationship, and agreements with employees, which are limited to two years following employment. The legislation will take effect on July 1, 2025. Kansas Senate…

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A five-year review of women’s representation in healthcare

The healthcare industry has long been a leader when it comes to women’s representation in the workforce. It has proved to be an attractive destination for the roughly 40 percent of US STEM college graduates who are women. In fact, in the United States, nursing is the largest healthcare profession, and 88 percent of nurses are women. And while women in healthcare have found it tough to climb the career…

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Alzheimer’s ‘resilience signature’ predicts who will develop dementia – and how fast

Not long ago, Alzheimer’s disease could only be formally diagnosed after a person’s death, when a post-mortem examination of the brain revealed the buildup of amyloid plaques and tau tangles – hallmarks of the condition first described by Alois Alzheimer more than a century ago. Thanks to remarkable clinical advances over the past decade, brain scans and blood tests can now reveal the presence of these disease biomarkers in living…

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Scientists define the ingredients for finding natural clean hydrogen

In the modern world, a reliable supply of hydrogen gas is vital for the function of society. Fertiliser produced from hydrogen contributes to the food supply of half the global population, and hydrogen is also a key energy component in many roadmaps to a carbon neutral future, essential if we are to prevent the worst predictions of climate change.Today, hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons, with waste gases contributing to 2.4%…

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Staying Ahead of Market Shifts: Six Signals That Matter

Market uncertainty has become a structural feature of the operating environment. Interest rates, input costs, labour dynamics, and geopolitical alignments are shifting simultaneously, often in divergent and unpredictable ways. These developments are compressing decision-making windows and increasing the financial consequences of delayed responses.  In this context, effective leadership depends not on prediction, but on early and accurate interpretation of change. The ability to distinguish signal from noise — and to…

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Nanterre Court of Justice Issues First Decision About Introduction of AI in the Workplace in France

Quick Hits For the first time, a French court has ruled on the implementation of AI processes within a company, emphasizing the necessity of works council consultation even during experimental phases. The Nanterre Court of Justice determined that the deployment of AI applications in a pilot phase required prior consultation with the works council, leading to the suspension of the project and a fine for the company. The ruling highlights…

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Oxford team catalogues chimpanzee forest first aid

Oxford University researchers, alongside a local team of scientists studying chimpanzees in Budongo Forest, Uganda, have observed that these primates don’t just treat their own injuries, but care for others, too — information which could shed light on how our ancestors first began treating wounds and using medicines.Our research helps illuminate the evolutionary roots of human medicine and healthcare systems. By documenting how chimpanzees identify and utilize medicinal plants and…

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Iran and the Issue of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an important document, which everyone celebrates but mostly ignores, has both Article 16, which clearly defines the defence of the natural family, and Article 18, which determines the right to freedom of religion and its public manifestation, Misa Djurkovic writes. In late April, Iran hosted its first conference dedicated to the Eastern Approach to Human Rights. My colleague Stevan Gajić and I were the…

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Does Pacific Mean ‘Peaceful’? Prospects for the Asia-Pacific in the Context of the Confrontation Between the US and China

On May 16, 2025, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion titled “Security in the Asia-Pacific: Between Deterrence and Cooperation”. Moderator Timofei Bordachev, noted that although Eastern Europe currently remains the centre of geopolitical tension, the Asia-Pacific, where the interests of the most important global players converge, also periodically produces alarming news and trends, including those related to the strategic competition between the US and China, as well as the…

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Chris Lindauer named Paul A. Violich Director of Women’s Swimming

Chris Lindauer has been named Paul A. Violich Director of Women’s Swimming, as announced by interim athletics director and chief operating officer Alden Mitchell on Thursday afternoon. Lindauer becomes the eighth head coach in program history, taking the helm of the NCAA’s most decorated women’s swimming and diving program, which boasts 12 national titles and 25 conference championships. Stanford remains the only women’s swimming and diving program to never finish outside the…

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Articles On: Tariffs, Vietnam, Nvidia, Taiwan, Trade War, Fentanyl, Antibiotics, and EU-China Relations

WTO chief warns US bilateral tariff deals could put trade principle at riskby Leo Lewisvia Financial Times on May 15, 2025 VIDEO – The REAL Reason the US Is Betting on Tariffsby Phil Andrewsvia Maxinomics on January 8, 2025 Shein to set up huge Vietnam warehouse in US tariff hedge, sources sayby Francesco Guarasciovia Reuters on May 15, 2025 Nvidia modifies H20 chip for China to overcome US export controls,…

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Scientists track down mutation that makes orange cats orange

Many an orange cat-affiliated human will vouch for their cat’s, let’s say, specialness. But now scientists have confirmed that there is, in fact, something unique about ginger-hued domestic felines. In a new study, Stanford Medicine researchers have discovered the long-posited but elusive genetic mutation that makes orange cats orange – and it appears to occur in no other mammal.The finding adds to our understanding of how subtle genetic changes give…

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From protection to promotion: The new age of industrial policy

Expanding tariffs may be capturing the headlines, but industrial-policy measures are on the rise as well. Governments have long implemented subsidies, incentives, and other interventions in domestic economies to support employment, critical manufacturing, and other national priorities. However, as the establishment of the World Trade Organization and the expansion of global trade made free-market and free-trade policies the global norm, many countries put less emphasis on supporting domestic industries. The…

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Regulators Pause Mental Health Parity Rules Enforcement

Quick Hits A federal judge recently paused litigation over the 2024 mental health parity regulations focused on nonquantified treatment limitations. The Trump administration is considering rescinding or adjusting the rules. The federal agencies will not enforce the 2024 rules in the short term. On May 12, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed to stay a lawsuit brought by the ERISA Industry Committee to block the…

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The new economics of enterprise technology in an AI world

Enterprise technology spending in the United States has been growing by 8 percent per year on average since 2022. This surge is not surprising, given the increasing role technology plays in how businesses function and create value. The issue lies in what companies are getting for that spend, and the track record on that score is mixed. While analysis linking tech spend to labor productivity is notoriously inexact, labor productivity…

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What’s Next for Bangladesh after the Monsoon Revolution?‌‌

How would you characterize the political and economic situation in Bangladesh today, several months after the Monsoon Revolution? ‌ The key word is “uncertainty.” The previous government was increasingly autocratic and centralized a lot of power, and then the revolution was led by students who weren’t politicians or administrators. It was a very decentralized revolution; established opposition parties really did not play a frontline role in toppling the government. This…

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Food expert David Lobell dishes on lab-grown meat

No feathers, no farms – just science on a plate. By suspending chicken cells in a gel and using a specialized device to turn them into chunks of edible tissue, researchers in Japan have recently succeeded in producing chicken nuggets – without the chicken. At 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) wide and 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) thick, the square of chicken is believed to be the largest single piece of lab-grown…

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The BRICS+ and the Ummah

There can be no true multipolar transition – and no successful de-dollarisation – without the Ummah: a two-billion-strong social and political force poised to play a central role in the ongoing great power competition, Emmanuel Pietrobon writes. The BRICS+ alliance has come to include more and more Muslims. It is no coincidence, but a predictable inevitability: there can be no Multipolar Transition without the Ummah. Energy-rich, strategic autonomy-hungry, and fiercely…

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Missouri Legislature Passes Bill to Repeal Earned Paid Sick Time Law

Quick Hits The Missouri paid sick time statute requires Missouri employers to provide earned paid sick time, starting May 1, 2025. On May 14, 2025, the Missouri General Assembly passed HB-567, which would repeal the paid sick time statute. If signed by the governor, the law will be repealed effective August 28, 2025. Proposition A, which Missouri voters passed via a ballot measure on November 5, 2024, includes a provision…

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GLP-1s are boosting demand for medical aesthetics

The rapid adoption of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists is changing the life sciences landscape, with ripple effects extending well beyond cardiometabolic and obesity care. Global prescriptions of GLP-1 agonist therapies grew at a remarkable rate of roughly 38 percent annually between 2022 and 2024—sales are forecast to reach $100 billion by 2030. This growth has prompted interest in the downstream effects across healthcare and life sciences. In the medical aesthetics…

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Stanford names SEQ for donor gift

Stanford is naming its Science and Engineering Quad to honor a philanthropist who is helping to advance the science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) fields as well as the science of extending the human health span, or staying healthier for longer.Robert Rosenkranz will fund a number of new, distinguished professorships that will be used to recognize, attract, and/or retain highly accomplished STEM faculty. The gift resulting from Rosenkranz’s commitment is…

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Dangerous Navigation: Incidents with the Oil Tanker Fleet and the Consequences for Russia

It is obvious that Russian companies organizing the transportation of Russian oil with the involvement of both domestic and foreign ship owners will have to invest in additional measures to ensure fleet insurance, its environmental and physical safety, aimed at countering the above-described steps of unfriendly countries, including possible new sabotage operations against ships, Evgeny Tipailov and Ivan Angulo write. In the first months of 2025, the world media was…

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Seyfarth to Sponsor and Present at 2025 Masters Conference

Seyfarth Shaw is proud to sponsor the 2025 Masters Conference, a premier boutique legal event hosted in cities across the U.S., as well as in Toronto and London. The  conference will be held on Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at Seyfarth’s Chicago office and will feature keynote presentations, panel discussions, workshops, and networking opportunities. Topics will include eDiscovery, Artificial Intelligence, Information and Data Governance, Legal Project Management, Forensics and Investigations, Knowledge…

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New York State Bill Would Ban Employer Inquiries About Salary Expectations

Quick Hits A bill in the New York State Assembly would prohibit employers from inquiring about applicants’ salary expectations. The bill also would prohibit employers from refusing to interview, hire, or promote workers based on their stated salary expectations. New York law already prohibits employers from asking for an applicant’s salary history. The bill, 2025-A1289, would also prohibit employers from relying on pay expectations that the applicant voluntarily shares in…

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4 Essential Positive Workplace Training Topics (Excerpt from For Dummies)

I’m just going to jump right in here and say that training alone won’t fix toxic behavior or turn around your toxic workplace. If it could, we’d all be ordering workshops like takeout. When positive workplace training topics are done right as part of a broader and more intentional culture strategy, however, it can be a catalyst. Training offers tools, vernacular, confidence, connections, and the opportunity to shift old patterns.…

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Franco-Polish Rapprochement: A Well-Forgotten Past

Having signed a "big" treaty with Poland in Nancy, France is continuing to establish special ties with other individual EU member states while at the same time expecting to rely on Brussels in a long-term confrontation with Russia, writes Alexey Chikhachev, Associate Professor of the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University and leading expert at the Centre for Strategic Studies at…

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The Cambridge view on memory

What is a memory?Is it a distinct pattern of brain activity, a blueprint for future behaviour, or a skill that we can improve with a little training? Probably all these things and more, argues Jon Simons, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology and Head of the School of the Biological Sciences. Jon’s Memory Lab studies all aspects of memory. They invite volunteers to complete memory tasks online,…

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Colombia’s response to unfavourable investment arbitration: Renegotiate the bilateral investment treaty

In November 2024, an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal ordered Colombia to pay Telefónica — a Spanish telecommunications company — US$380 million in damages. This was because the tribunal found that Colombia had violated the fair and equitable treatment requirement in the 2005 Colombia-Spain bilateral investment treaty (BIT). The following month, Colombia filed an application for annulment of the award, as permitted by ICSID rules. The application…

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Heartbeat of health: Reimagining the healthcare workforce of the future

At a glance A global healthcare worker shortage of at least ten million is expected by 2030. Closing that shortage could avert 189 million years of life lost to early death and disability and boost the global economy by $1.1 trillion. While known supply-side interventions that enable the workforce to grow, thrive, and stay can add about 5.6 million healthcare workers, this is not enough to close the gap. Closing…

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Oxford receives £8.4 million gift to establish new Professorship and Centre for Global Primary Care

A generous gift of over £8.4 million from the Fondation Docteur Sadok Besrour will establish the new Dr Sadok Besrour Professorship of Global Primary Care and a dedicated Besrour Centre for Global Primary Care at the University of Oxford.Housed in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences (NDPCHS), internationally recognised for its research into health systems and community-based care, the new Centre will focus on improving access to high-quality,…

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