Climate performance matters for bank credit in the euro area

10 November 2025By Petra Köhler-Ulbrich, Yuma Schuster and Nikoleta Tushteva Banks consider the climate performance of firms and buildings in their lending policies. The euro area bank lending survey shows that lower climate risks tend to improve credit conditions. Meanwhile, green investments increase loan demand from firms and households.Reducing a firm’s carbon emissions or improving the energy efficiency of a building can help businesses and households to get a loan…

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Expert Comment: The UK’s Autumn budget. Tax rises are coming; let’s design them well

The Chancellor will deliver the Autumn Budget on 26 November 2025. In a pre-Budget statement from Downing Street, Rachel Reeves talked about a Budget built on “fairness and opportunity” and declined to rule out tax increases. That messaging tracks weeks of reporting on a tougher fiscal outlook and the likelihood of additional revenue-raising measures. Financial coverage has highlighted a prospective downgrade to productivity by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which would punch…

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Who’s Driving Wedges in the Eurasian Transport Corridors?

The ire directed at Belgrade for not “harmonising” its policies with the EU underscores the fact that in the era of multi-polarisation, particularly in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, Brussels is unwilling to tolerate geopolitical dissonance, writes Aleksandar Mitić, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Belt and Road Studies at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in Belgrade, Serbia. Every Westerner who visits Chinese railway…

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Articles On: Chinese Economic Espionage, Cash-Secured Lending, Nvidia, Rare Earth, Oil, Starbucks, Shein, Supply Chain, Nexperia, Canada, Tariffs, and more

From Outside Assaults to Insider Threats: Chinese Economic Espionageby Darren E. Tromblayvia ITIF on November 3, 2025 How China Collateralizes: Inside a $400 Billion Cash-Secured Lending Systemby Anna Gelpern, Omar Haddad, et al.via Stanford Center on China’s Economy and Institutions on November 1, 2025 Nvidia's Huang doesn't buy the national security concerns over selling chips to Chinaby Tasmin Lockwoodvia CNBC on October 31, 2025 China to Suspend Some Rare-Earth Curbs…

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De-Dollarisation: The Path to the Future

Dmitry Birichevsky, Director of the Department of Economic Cooperation at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted the lack of functionality in the financial system created by the West after World War II and based on the dominance of the dollar, a fact recognized by the Bretton Woods institutions as well. He emphasized that Russia did not initiate de-dollarisation; the West itself is pushing it to abandon the dollar through…

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Three Wage-and-Hour Issues for Employers to Prioritize for 2026

Quick Hits Employers may want to prepare for 2026 by mapping exempt roles in Alaska, California, Maine, New York, and Washington to new salary thresholds and implementing adjustments aligned with effective dates. To avoid salary compression, employers may want to reconcile pay bands in the thirty-one states with higher minimum wages than federal law and ensure that any threshold multipliers are captured in exempt pay. Employers may also want to…

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Employers Won’t Be Fined for Incorrect Reporting of 2025 Tips and Overtime, Treasury Department and IRS Say

Quick Hits New guidance from the Treasury Department and IRS provides penalty relief to employers for tax year 2025 for failing to satisfy the new requirements for reporting cash tips and overtime compensation under 2025’s comprehensive budget bill. The guidance gives employers relief with respect to the transition period of the 2025 tax year to gather the correct information without penalty. The grace period does not extend beyond the 2025…

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Qualified investment regime overhaul: New opportunities for the investment fund industry

On Nov. 4, 2025 (Budget Day), the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne tabled the federal budget titled “Budget 2025: Canada Strong” (Budget 2025). Budget 2025 includes several notable tax changes, which are more fully described in our main budget analysis. This Insight focuses only on the proposed changes to the qualified investments regime that were announced in Budget 2025. The proposed changes arose from the consultation (Consultation) that was initiated by “Budget…

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Credit Ratings: How the ECB strives to properly account for climate risks

7 November 2025By Anamaria Piloiu, Oleg Reichmann and Florian ReschClimate risks affect credit ratings. And these, in turn, influence how banks can use securities as collateral to borrow money. This post takes a closer look at how the Eurosystem integrates climate change risks into its own collateral framework, through the credit risk channel.Central banks must prepare for the financial risks that come with rising temperatures and fast-evolving green policies. In…

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Discovery reveals ‘handbrake’ that controls cancer drug response

A world-first discovery, published in the journal Science, rewrites our understanding of how cells control the production of DNA’s building blocks - and how this process affects the response to widely used cancer and autoimmune drugs.The study, led by researchers from the University of Oxford in collaboration with scientists from the CeMM (Research Centre for Molecular Medicine), Austria focused on the enzyme NUDT5, known to have a role in cellular…

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California Senate Bill 464 Sharpens State’s Pay Reporting Teeth

Quick Hits Beginning on January 1, 2026, employers and labor contractors will be required to separately collect and store any demographic information for California pay reporting so that the information is separate from employees’ personnel records. As of January 1, 2026, when requested by California’s Civil Rights Department, courts will be required to impose civil penalties of $100 per employee for the first failure and $200 per employee for a…

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BLG Calgary lawyers share insights for general counsel from business, the bench and government

A conversation with Melinda Park, Marina Paperny and Sonya Savage In October, BLG and the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) Alberta hosted an engaging session titled: Boardroom Evolution: Strategy, Law and Governance in 2025, drawing on the diverse perspectives of BLG leaders, Melinda Park K.C., Hon. Marina Paperny K.C., and Hon. Sonya Savage K.C., moderated by Makiko Hata, Assistant General Counsel, ATB Financial. The panel explored timely issues shaping Alberta and beyond,…

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How Gambling Is Transforming the Experience of Sports

Is the prevalence of sports betting changing the way people experience watching sports?Sports betting can certainly change how people experience sports. Interestingly, we have some research that says the money is not necessarily even the key to these effects. For example, there has been an explosion in fantasy football participation among fans. These activities fundamentally change the way that fans view sports. Their excitement is not driven by teams winning…

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Climate policy strengthens globally, despite unprecedented contestation in the US and Europe

Nations and companies have made ambitious climate pledges, but to prevent catastrophic climate change what matters is concrete, implemented, enforceable rules. That's what we're surveying.Co-lead Professor Thomas Hale, Blavatnik School of GovernmentThe granular survey of 37 major countries’ climate-related laws and regulations, compiled by Oxford University researchers and dozens of leading global law firms, gives the most detailed view yet of how climate policy is developing at a time of unprecedented…

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AI Spam and the Crisis of Digital Trust: How Synthetic Media Change Political Visuality

A telling example of the influence of generative materials was the Iran-Israel conflict of 2025. In the first hours after the situation had escalated, realistic images of destruction generated by neural networks began appearing online. Generative images of downed fighter jets and bombers, as well as videos of the aftermath of missile strikes, were widely shared. They garnered millions of views, creating a pseudo-witness effect. Users quickly picked up such…

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Mass Dismissal Notification Failures Render Collective Redundancies Invalid, European Court of Justice Rules

Quick Hits The ECJ issued two decisions finding dismissals are invalid if prior mass dismissal notification requirements under EU Directive 98/59/EC and national law are not met. In the two German cases involving collective redundancies, the ECJ found that insufficient or incomplete mass dismissal notifications to the competent public authority led to the invalidity of dismissals. The ECJ ruled that proper mass dismissal notifications and compliance with the consultation requirements…

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Alberta doubles down on data centre mandate

The Government of Alberta has reaffirmed its commitment to its Artificial Intelligence & Data Centre Strategy (Strategy), doubling down on its ambition to make Alberta a leading North American hub for AI and AI infrastructure by leveraging Alberta’s strengths in power capacity, sustainable cooling, provincial wide fibre-optic, and economic growth. To advance implementation, the Province has committed to several initiatives, including modernizing regulatory frameworks, establishing a purpose-built data centre concierge,…

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Island reptiles face extinction before they are even studied, warns new global review

Ricardo Rocha with a Príncipe Green Snake (Hapsidophrys principis), endemic to Principe Island. Photo credit: Patricia Guedes. Although islands make up less than 7% of the Earth’s surface, they harbour a disproportionate share of the planet’s biodiversity. Out of the roughly 12,000 known reptile species, around one-third are confined to islands - including iconic species such as the Galapagos tortoise and Komodo Dragon. These isolated ecosystems act as natural laboratories…

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6 Steps to Build a Business Case for Culture Change

If you’re reading this, you’re probably standing in the middle of an impossible tug-of-war. Leadership wants data. Employees want meaning. And somehow, you’re supposed to turn feelings, trust, and respect into metrics that fit on a slide deck. But here’s the truth: culture doesn’t “just happen.” It’s built intentionally through organizational behavior, individual behavior, and leadership team behavior. And when it’s ignored, it shows up everywhere: turnover reports, exit interviews,…

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Oxford scientists capture genome’s structure in unprecedented detail

Using a new technique called MCC ultra, the team mapped the human genome down to a single base pair, unlocking how genes are controlled, or, how the body decides which genes to turn on or off at the right time, in the right cells. This breakthrough gives scientists a powerful new way to understand how genetic differences lead to disease and opens up fresh routes for drug discovery.‘For the first…

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SJC Holds That Retention Bonuses Do Not Constitute ‘Wages’ Under the Massachusetts Wage Act

Quick Hits On October 22, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court concluded that a retention bonus is not a “wage” for purposes of the Massachusetts Wage Act, and that such bonuses are instead a form of additional, contingent compensation outside the ambit of the Wage Act. The court reasoned that the purpose of a retention agreement is to benefit the employer by securing the services of an employee through a…

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The China Summit Revealed the Limits of Trump’s Tariff War

This commentary originally appeared in Fortune. The views expressed are the authors’ own.While President Trump’s unorthodox deal making style has intentionally resembled a “bull in a china shop,” it was more like a placid cow in a field last week in China. The world collectively took a deep breath following the U.S.-China summit, as neither Trump nor Chinese president Xi Jinping escalated the ongoing trade war between the two nations.…

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City of Seattle Secures Preliminary Injunction on DEI and Gender Executive Orders

Quick Hits The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rejected federal agency positions that treat DEI-oriented, race-neutral, and transgender facility access as presumptively unlawful, noting that those interpretations conflicted with established precedent. The court criticized EO 14173’s “materiality” clause, which declared global compliance with all anti-discrimination laws per se material to False Claims Act payment, as boilerplate adopted without reasoned analysis, tailoring, or consideration of reliance interests.…

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Vladimir Putin’s Philosophy of Complexity

A strategic vision of international relations is of great importance to Russia. After all, in the context of a global crisis, all global players are locked in a state of zugzwang and prefer to play a tactical waiting game: who will make the first mistake or exhaust their resources? Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is already prepared, drawing on the philosophy of complexity, to outline the contours of a new, conciliar world…

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If Pain, Yes Gain – Part 135: New York City Expands Paid Safe & Sick Time Benefits

What You Need to Know: On September 25, 2025, the New York City Council approved a bill that expands the scope of New York City’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”). The bill was officially enacted on October 25, 2025 and will go into effect 120 days later, i.e., on February 22, 2026. The impending amendments make a variety of substantive changes to ESSTA, including: expanding reasons for use;…

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Poland: Pay Transparency Measures Employers Must Implement by 24 December 2025

Quick Hits The legislative goal in Poland mirrors the European Union’s Pay Transparency Directive’s core objectives: reducing gender‑based pay discrimination by making pay systems more transparent and comparable. Further measures covering employee information rights and gender pay gap reporting are expected by 7 June 2026 in line with the Directive’s implementation deadline. While legislation is still to be finalised, it is likely that noncompliance will result in administrative fines. New…

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Love at second sight: support for the euro before and after adoption

4 November 2025By Ferdinand Dreher and Nils HernborgMany Bulgarians are still hesitant about giving up the Lev on 1 January. Mixed feelings are not uncommon in countries adopting the euro. However, survey data show that support significantly increases once people start using the euro in their daily lives. When countries prepare to adopt the euro, public sentiment is often hesitant or split. People tend to worry about prices going up,…

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Global shift towards plant-based diets could reshape farming jobs and reduce labour costs worldwide, Oxford study finds

The global food system is under growing scrutiny for its environmental and health impacts. It contributes substantially to climate change, biodiversity loss, and diet-related disease, making its current trajectory unsustainable.  Rising public awareness of these costs is beginning to shift habits and policies alike: plant-based diets are gaining traction among consumers and governments seeking to address both climate and health imperatives.  Yet food systems are also social and economic lifelines,…

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Two Oxford researchers selected for a 2025 Schmidt Sciences AI2050 Research Fellowship

The Schmidt Sciences AI2050 programme funds researchers to pursue projects to help AI create immense benefits for humanity by 2050. Announced today, 28 academics will join the fourth cohort who will collectively receive more than $18 million in AI2050 fellowships.‘AI is underhyped, especially when it comes to its potential to benefit humanity,’ said Eric Schmidt, co-founder of Schmidt Sciences with his wife Wendy. ‘The AI2050 fellowship was established to turn that potential…

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Massachusetts Pay Transparency Law Takes Effect: What Employers Need to Know

As we previously reported, on July 31, 2024, Massachusetts enacted salary range transparency legislation (“An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency”) that imposes salary disclosure requirements on Massachusetts employers.  The Act took effect on October 29, 2025.   Employers with more than 25 employees in Massachusetts must now disclose salary range information on job postings and provide pay range information to current employees in certain circumstances.  Additionally, employers with more than…

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Trump’s Asian Tour: The Art of the Deal Returns

Mixing genres in the way only he can, Trump also orchestrated the signing of a “peace deal” between Cambodia and Thailand. Tensions between the two countries had flared again in July against a backdrop of political discord and border conflict, with clashes on the ground leaving at least 43 dead and displacing more than 300,000 people. Moreover, all three countries involved (Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, which had been acting as…

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Closed Borders Choke America’s Innovation Engine

Q: How did you come to focus on immigration?I did not start out intending to work on immigration policy. Before Yale, I had been an entrepreneur. After Yale, I was very lucky to land a fellowship in the Obama White House in the Office of Science and Technology Policy, helping develop a policy portfolio to enable startups to achieve greater growth. I thought I’d work on access to capital or…

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Expert Comment: Is the dollar’s dominance crumbling?

Dennis J. Snower. Credit: Global Solutions Initiative The world is edging toward a financial storm with few safe harbours in sight. What began as warnings about “the end of America’s exorbitant privilege” has become front-page news.The dollar’s dominance - long seen as unassailable - is now under real strain as global investors, central banks, and even US allies start hedging against a post-dollar world.In Washington, President Trump’s second term has…

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Scientists recreate cosmic ‘fireballs’ to probe mystery of missing gamma rays

Blazars are active galaxies powered by supermassive black holes that launch narrow, near-light-speed beams of particles and radiation towards Earth. These jets produce intense gamma-ray emission extending up to several teraelectronvolts (1 TeV = 1012/a trillion eV), which is detected by ground-based telescopes. As these TeV gamma rays propagate across intergalactic space, they scatter off the dim background light from stars, creating cascades of electron–positron pairs. The pairs should then…

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Jami Balint, Catherine Burns, and Robin Freeman Selected for 2025 Connect CRE Women in Real Estate Awards

Seyfarth Real Estate partners Jami Balint, Catherine Burns, and Robin Freeman have been named among the 2025 winners of the Connect CRE Women in Real Estate Awards. The awards highlight women in commercial real estate who have reached respected leadership positions and serve as mentors within the industry. This year’s honorees were selected from hundreds of submissions across the country, with recognition given to both national leaders and standout professionals…

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Eurasia in a Fragmented World. Valdai Club to Hold Its 16th Asian Conference in Partnership With Ankara Institute

From November 10 to 11, Turkey will host the 16th Asian Conference of the Valdai Discussion Club, organized in partnership with the Ankara Institute. Under the theme “Eurasia in a Fragmented World,” the event will be held in Istanbul. The Valdai Club continues to expand the geography of its Asian meetings. Throughout the history of its Asian Conferences, the Valdai Club has held them in Indonesia, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Uzbekistan,…

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Russia’s Role in Educational Cooperation With Central Asian Countries

The geography of educational cooperation among Central Asian countries is determined by their foreign policy interests and the lack of domestic resources to provide opportunities for higher education to their growing populations. Today, the Russian vector of educational cooperation is losing its priority as they diversify their foreign policy ties. As a result, Russia faces the challenge of intensifying and expanding its efforts to support Russian language learning, opening branches…

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Cybersecurity Awareness Month in Focus, Part III: The EU AI Act Is Here—What It Means for U.S. Employers

Quick Hits The EU AI Act took effect on August 1, 2024, and carries extraterritorial reach. U.S. employers can be covered even without a physical EU presence if AI outputs are intended to be used in the EU—e.g., recruiting EU candidates, evaluating EU-based workers or contractors, or deploying global HR tools used by EU teams. Several obligations have begun to take effect, with more phasing in through 2026–27. The European…

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Terumo completes acquisition of University of Oxford spinout OrganOx for a record $1.5bn

The company was founded in December 2008 by engineering Professor Constantin Coussios OBE FREng FMedSci and transplant surgeon Professor Peter Friend FMedSci through Oxford’s Institute of Biomedical Engineering and the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences.The acquisition marks the first exit under the pioneering partnership between the Department of Engineering Science and Technikos that led to the creation of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (IBME). Technikos, a specialist medical technology venture…

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Punitive Damages Reform May Be on the Horizon in Massachusetts – Here’s What Employers Should Know

On November 5, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments in a closely-watched wrongful death case that could reshape the landscape for punitive damage awards in the Commonwealth, including in employment cases under Chapter 151B.  Background on Fontaine v. Philip Morris In the underlying case, Fontaine v. Philip Morris USA Inc., Armand Fontaine brought a products liability suit against tobacco giant, Philip Morris and Demoulas Supermarkets on…

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