Russia’s Asian Pivot – A New Angle for Foreign Diplomacy

Malaysia needs to look beyond the differences and uncertainties which characterise international conflict instead of seeing them as a negative aspect, and seize opportunities to establish global balance in this multipolar world, Abdul Haziq Kongid writes. Malaysia’s role as the ASEAN Chair in 2025 marks a pivotal moment for the region. By prioritising inclusivity, sustainability, economic diversification, and balanced leadership,…

Our Approach to Frontier AI

Our Open Source Approach Open source AI has the potential to unlock unprecedented technological progress. It levels the playing field, giving people access to powerful and often expensive technology for free, which enables competition and innovation that produce tools that benefit individuals, society and the economy. Open sourcing AI is…

Break Down Silos for Visibility Into Enterprise Risk

Frontiers Risk management in many organizations is hampered by disparate teams that don’t collaborate or share technology. Richard Chambers February 11, 2025 Reading Time: 8 min  Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series A. Richard Allen/theispot.com Companies today…

Navigating Permanent Establishment Risks in Cross-Border Employment

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:5 mins read

Quick Hits Tax connections: Establishing a PE can result in the obligation to file corporate taxes abroad. Local registration: Although PE is primarily a tax concept, it may coincide with requirements to register with local business authorities as a foreign entity conducting business in the country. Understanding ‘Permanent Establishment’ A…

Everything is now related…

  • Post category:Credit Agricole
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Tantalum, tungsten, tin and gold have long been classed as “conflict minerals”1. But they are an even greater source of conflict now that everyone knows the climate and technology transitions are impossible without them. Simply put, they are the foundation stone of promises of growth, and therefore a major political…

AI Pays Off: Survey Reveals Financial Industry’s Latest Technological Trends

  • Post category:NVIDIA
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The financial services industry is reaching an important milestone with AI, as organizations move beyond testing and experimentation to successful AI implementation, driving business results. NVIDIA’s fifth annual State of AI in Financial Services report shows how financial institutions have consolidated their AI efforts to focus on core applications, signaling…

Pioneering real-time translation tech saves charity rowers

Row4Ukraine is a charity awareness-driving mission designed to highlight the human cost of the war in Ukraine and raise funds for the rehabilitation of Ukrainian service personnel. The team comprised injured servicemen from the UK and Ukraine, working together to row 3,000 miles from Gran Canaria to Barbados in less…

Research reveals striking variations in pandemic recovery among U.S. school districts

A new report by researchers at Stanford and Harvard finds that while the average U.S. student still lags behind pre-pandemic achievement levels in reading and math, students in a number of school districts across the country have regained the ground they lost in both subjects.The analysis, which provides exclusive data…

Why a more competitive economy matters for monetary policy

11 February 2025By Marinela-Daniela Filip, Daphne Momferatou and Susana Parraga-Rodriguez At the heart of the euro area’s competitiveness challenges lies weak productivity growth. The ECB Blog looks at how this makes it more difficult to carry out monetary policy. While companies in the euro area are getting more productive, they…

DEI at Stake: Federal Groups Challenge Trump’s Efforts to Curb Inclusivity

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:10 mins read

Quick Hits A coalition of DEI advocates has initiated a legal challenge against President Trump’s executive orders to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, claiming they are unconstitutional and infringe on free speech rights. The lawsuit argues that the vague language of the executive orders creates uncertainty that could lead…

Oxford Martin School epilepsy programme launches innovative research centre

Researchers from academic institutions in Africa, South America, the United States, and Europe congregated to celebrate the launch and demonstrate their commitment to global epilepsy research and care.Based at Wolfson College within the University of Oxford, and generously supported by the BAND Foundation, the Centre for Global Epilepsy will address…

Investing in housing: Unlocking economic mobility for Black families and all Americans

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:49 mins read

At a glance Quality, affordable housing is out of reach for far too many Americans. This issue touches rural and urban households, young and old, poor and middle class, and households across racial groups. Housing, and where that housing is located, matters a lot. Housing significantly determines access to employment,…

BRICS’ Inclusive Rise and Misplaced Apprehension of the West

At a time when a group of countries relying on an aggressive and expansionist military alliance is pushing humanity towards unbearable destruction, the BRICS nations are striving to ensure a more just, democratic and participatory world order with а vision of delivering everyone general peace and security, shared benefits, and…

The looming advisor shortage in US wealth management

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:20 mins read

Following several years of economic crosscurrents and fluctuating performance, the US wealth management industry is entering 2025 from a position of strength, with solid fundamentals in place. Demand for its services continues to grow as Americans become wealthier and their needs become more complex—for example, because of greater reliance on…

The Case for Lean Cybersecurity Leadership

Frontiers Research Highlight More complex hierarchies can lead to overconfidence that exacerbates risk. Andrew Flostrand, Andrew Park, Dionysios Demetis, Jan Kietzmann, Leyland Pitt, and Ian McCarthy February 10, 2025 Reading Time: 7 min  Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in…

Acing a career in tech: Innovative program cuts through stereotypes

  • Post category:Microsoft
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Hassan recalls telling her that he needed six months to learn how to run a tech-training company on the model that she was proposing and to wind down his other businesses. And she said he would need to have his first paying customer within that same six months. Hassan, his…

What Investors Are Missing about Pfizer and Merck

This essay originally appeared in Fortune. With relevance to current life science companies, the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, often labelled “the father of modern medicine,” advised almost 3,000 years ago “healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.” That counsel rings especially true…

Beyond Tickets: How Plain is Transforming B2B Customer Support

  • Post category:Battery Ventures
  • Reading time:4 mins read

B2B customer support today is fragmented and inefficient. Sending an email about a technical issue often feels like tossing a message into the void. Chatbots promise real-time responses but force users out of their workflows, while support teams are overloaded by their inflexible ticketing systems, making it difficult for them…

Procuring AI Technology: Vendor Contracts

  • Post category:Logan & Partners
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an essential tool for businesses, offering automation, improved decision-making, and efficiency gains. However, acquiring AI solutions is different from purchasing traditional software. AI systems evolve, require vast amounts of data, and introduce unique risks, including regulatory compliance, liability concerns, and data protection challenges. Businesses in…

New York’s Paid Prenatal Leave: What NYC Employers Need to Know About the DCWP’s Proposed Amendments to the ESSTA Rules

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:3 mins read

Quick Hits New York State’s paid prenatal leave law, which went into effect on January 1, 2025, requires that employers provide employees twenty hours of paid leave per year to receive prenatal care. The NYSDOL recently released new guidance in the form of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) to…

Staying comfortable and current: CIRO continuing education rule proposals

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Late in December, the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (CIRO) proposed the first set of changes to its continuing education (CE) programs. In Phase 1 of the changes, CIRO has focused on proposed rule amendments determined to have minimal impact on firms and their approved persons. These changes are proposed for…

Government of Canada announces deferral in implementing increase to capital gains inclusion rate to Jan. 1, 2026

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:3 mins read

In response to increasing criticism in connection with capital gains tax increases announced in Federal Budget 2024 (effective Jun. 25, 2024), but never enacted into law, the Federal Government announced today that it is deferring the date on which the capital gains inclusion rate would increase to Jan. 1, 2026…

Study suggests physicians make better decisions with help of AI chatbots

Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots are getting pretty good at diagnosing some diseases, but how do chatbots do when the questions are less black-and-white? For example, how long before surgery should a patient stop taking prescribed blood thinners? Should a patient’s treatment protocol change if they’ve had adverse reactions to similar drugs…

Countdown to Chaos? The 540-Day EAD Extension in Legislative Crosshairs

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:7 mins read

If you have been following immigration news and are wondering how changes in Washington might affect your workforce, you are not alone. Senate Joint Resolution 8 (S.J. Res. 8) in the 119th Congress aims to undo a USCIS regulation that grants certain eligible applicants a 540-day automatic extension of their…

California Civil Rights Department Releases 2025 Pay Data Reporting Guidance—Adding New Race/Ethnicity Category

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Quick Hits California’s updated guidance adds a new racial/ethnicity category for the 2024 reports—”Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA). The deadline for filing the 2024 California pay reports is May 14, 2025, and the platform opened for new filings on February 3, 2025. California requires covered employers to file payroll…

ASC grants novel exemptive relief to permit a family office to act as dealer, adviser and investment fund manager

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:4 mins read

The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has granted exemptive relief to permit a family office to act as a dealer, adviser and investment fund manager for the family office and family members in an order granted to Paragon Capital Corp. Inc. (Paragon) in September 2024. Prior to the decision, an affiliate…

out-of-gas-how-the-conifer-razor-dispute-became-moot

  • Post category:BLG law firm
  • Reading time:5 mins read

The recent Court of Appeal decision in Conifer Energy Inc v Razor Energy Corp., 2025 ABCA 14, has brought to light important issues surrounding contractual obligations, insolvency law, and the operational complexities of the oil and gas industry. Here’s a breakdown of certain key developments and the legal ramifications that…

A new operating model for people management: More personal, more tech, more human

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:19 mins read

The way organizations manage their most important assets—their people—is ready for a fundamental transformation. New technologies, hybrid working practices, multigenerational workforces, heightened geopolitical risks, and other major disruptions are prompting leaders to rethink their methods for attracting, developing, and retaining employees. In the past year alone, for instance, we have…

How College Presidents Respond to Critiques of Higher Ed

This commentary originally appeared in Time. New survey data shows that Notre Dame’s legendary president Father Theodore Hesburgh’s wisdom for college presidents from 55 years ago is still relevant today.‌ “My basic principle is that you don't make decisions because they are easy; you don't make them because they are…

New study could lead to development of more drought-resistant corn

A corn plant knows how to find water in soil with the very tips of its roots, but some varieties, including many used for breeding high-yielding corn in the U.S., appear to have lost a portion of that ability, according to a Stanford-led study. With climate change increasing droughts, the…

Sharp Turns and Continuity in Donald Trump’s Policy

The first steps of US President Donald Trump have provoked a wave of comments, assumptions and guesses. However, according to Konstantin Khudoley, professor at the Faculty of International Relations at St. Petersburg State University, Trump’s policy, which undoubtedly differs from those of his predecessors, is not as unpredictable as it…

FY 2026 H-1B Cap Lottery Alert: Registration Period and Important Changes to USCIS Online System

  • Post category:Ogletree Deakins
  • Reading time:4 mins read

Quick Hits The fiscal year 2026 H-1B cap registration period will open at noon ET on Friday, March 7, 2025, and will remain open until noon ET on Monday, March 24, 2025. Prospective cap-subject H-1B petitioners and their representatives must use a USCIS organizational account online to register beneficiaries and…

Rewiring maintenance with gen AI

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:7 mins read

Modern machines are getting harder to maintain. Extra features, multiple sensors, advanced control systems, and sophisticated software all add cost and complexity to maintenance tasks. In industrial environments, that complexity is often compounded by the coexistence of equipment from different eras, different manufacturers, and different technology types.As the work involved…

The Outlines of a ‘Post-Spring’ Middle East

It is likely that Syria will again become a field of rivalry between the Arabian monarchies. Thus, in the Persian Gulf zone, there is a tendency to establish ties on the internal contour, but at the same time, competition on the external borders is intensifying. This trend is likely to…

How to get return to office right

  • Post category:McKinsey & Company
  • Reading time:18 mins read

Return to office (RTO) is on the rise. But in the words of talent expert and McKinsey Partner Bryan Hancock, “It doesn’t matter where you ask someone to be. What matters is what you do with them once they’re there.” On this episode of McKinsey Talks Talent, Hancock and McKinsey Senior…

Consumers Are Gaining the Right to Repair — Are You Ready?

Frontiers Research Highlight Manufacturers must begin to design for repairability and prepare for a more competitive services aftermarket. Jan Recker and Gerald C. Kane February 06, 2025 Reading Time: 5 min  Topics Frontiers An MIT SMR initiative exploring how technology is reshaping the practice of management. More in this series…

USCIS Removes COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement for Adjustment of Status Applicants

  • Post category:Seyfarth Shaw LLP
  • Reading time:4 mins read

By: Peace Ibe and Mia Batista In a significant policy update, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has officially waived the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for individuals applying for Adjustment of Status (AOS). Effective January 22, 2024, USCIS will no longer require applicants to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as part of…