When science fiction writer Neal Stephenson dreamed of the metaverse—a term he coined in his 1992 novel Snow Crash—he envisioned a long city street that’s “always garish and brilliant, like Las Vegas freed from constraints of physics and finance.”While Las Vegas certainly isn’t known for its constraints, Stephenson believed a…
It is difficult to find any similarities between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in this heated electoral race. But there is one area in which there is a surprising amount of agreement: the need for the federal government to play an active role in encouraging investment in U.S. manufacturing. This…
Positive news is emerging from various sources, suggesting the global economy might be turning a corner, though substantial risks remain. Central banks face a challenging balancing act between managing inflation and promoting growth, which led to divergent actions this month. Several banks cut rates to boost the economy in September,…
International politics seems to finally have lost its ability to pursue linear development. This, of course, is extremely sad from the point of view of the average person. However, if we look at what is happening beyond our expectations, whether they are genuine or not, then what is happening can…
The 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club will be held on November 4–7, 2024 in Sochi, at the Polyana 1389 hotel complex. The name of this year’s event is “Lasting Peace on What Basis? Common Security and Equal Opportunities for Development in the 21st Century”. According to the…
The goal of the conference, which will bring together 140 participants from 50 countries, is to offer non-Western ideas for solving global problems, to make it clear that the leading developed countries do not have a monopoly on formulating the goals and methods of development. The discussions will cover all…
The Cambridge-GSK Translational Immunology Collaboration (CG-TIC) combines University and GSK expertise in the science of the immune system, AI and clinical development with access to patients and their data provided by Cambridge University Hospitals. GSK is investing more than £50 million in CG-TIC, further strengthening Cambridge’s position as Europe’s leading…
Seyfarth Synopsis: Out with the old and in with the new. Governor Newsom recently signed new laws which extend and clarify employees’ available reasons for use of California paid sick leave. There are expanded unpaid leave protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, or qualifying acts of violence,…
Purchasing an annuity could provide you with a regular income throughout retirement. And rising annuity rates could help your pension savings go further. An annuity is something you buy, often with the money saved in your pension, which then provides a guaranteed income. The annuity rate offered affects the income…
Classic board game Monopoly hit shelves in 1935 and has been causing family arguments ever since. As the real estate game was loosely based on property values at the time it was launched it provides some interesting insights into how the market has changed over the last nine decades. The…
On October 18, on the eve of the BRICS summit in Kazan, the Valdai Club hosted a presentation of a report titled “BRICS+ Energy: A Mover for the New World Order.” Ivan Timofeev, the moderator of the discussion, noted that although the BRICS agenda is quite broad, energy occupies a…
Did you know that top athletes are coached on their “sixth sense” as part of their training? Proprioception is your body’s sense of where it is in space. It’s what allows footballers to score a goal without looking down at the ball or gymnasts to orient themselves in the air…
The tantalizing vision for global payments has long been that they’d be safe, simple, quick, inexpensive, and ubiquitous. This promise has come closer with each new technological advance. However, instant payments have ushered in the Decoupled Era, a term coined in last year’s Global Payments Report. In this environment, payments…
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has officially announced that the After Final Consideration Pilot Program 2.0 (AFCP 2.0) will soon be laid to rest. In a notice dated October 1, 2024, the USPTO confirmed that the program will end on December 14, 2024. Despite being extended numerous times…
Quick Hits Certain requirements of the amended NYDFS cybersecurity regulations will take effect on November 1, 2024. Covered entities may need to update their policies and procedures, including with respect to corporate governance, encryption, incident response and business continuity plans, system testing, and employee training. On March 1, 2017, the…
New research and real-life case studies have recently revealed that it’s possible to slow – and even reverse – your biological age. Read on to discover more about how your biological age is measured, and six simple steps you could incorporate into your routine to enhance your life. What is…
This commentary originally appeared in Time. Just as the elimination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah a month ago catalyzed new opportunities for Mideast peace, the death of long-elusive Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar Thursday turbocharges the transformation of the Middle East towards a more secure and prosperous future. To appreciate the…
Over the past decade, the telecom industry has faced one daunting challenge after another. Telcos have endured relentless competitive pressure from fast-moving technology companies that entered their core sectors of communications, connectivity, and data transport. In the hopes of igniting revenue growth, telcos have sought to reinvent themselves. They have…
Learning through experience requires us to shift from the purely intellectual to a more holistic engagement. I try to create that shift by opening each of my leadership classes with some form of art—a poem, a piece of music or a visual work. It’s a way of helping my students,…
On October 20, the newly elected President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, who had previously served as the country's Minister of Defence, will officially take office. Already in the period between the elections and the inauguration, Prabowo has demonstrated a great deal of diplomatic activity. He conducted a series of international…
Let’s say that two entrepreneurs, a man and a woman, co-found a startup and raise venture capital. But the business struggles, and they shut it down and go their separate ways. Eventually, each of them independently forms a new business. Do these entrepreneurs have the same chance of getting venture…
We are pleased to invite you to our upcoming webinar series, "Winning Combinations: Exploring Synergies with Government Contracts Law." This series of 30-minute webinars will explore the intersections between government contracts law and related Seyfarth practice areas, focusing on key topics such as cybersecurity, False Claims Act, white collar & investigations,…
Economic data suggesting some developed countries, including the US, could fall into a recession continued to affect investment markets in September 2024. Read on to discover other factors that may have affected the performance of your investments. UK Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows inflation remained stable…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is shifting in tech-enabling operational transformations? This is clearly the age of AI. With the rapid advances in generative AI, it has become very easy to consume AI, and therefore companies are making significant investments over the last few years in the…
The retailer is using immersive commerce — a form of online shopping that combines VR with 3D visualizations and gamification — to connect with the next generation of shoppers. Mary Lacity and Remko Van Hoek October 17, 2024 Reading Time: 9 min Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images Retailers must…
The creation of Sign Language View in Teams One shortfall of this new way of working, however, was the existing captioning solutions. It was painful for my Deaf peers and I to have to turn on captions with each call. Every time, you had to look for and prioritize the…
As partisan vitriol flies in the final month before the US presidential election, a new study offers insight into the question of why people share political misinformation.Even when a news article would flatter their political party, people tend to expect that sharing true information on social media would benefit their…
More than 70% of Brits think Inheritance Tax (IHT) is unfair, according to a poll carried out by Tax Policy Associates in 2023. You might consider how other countries handle taxing assets when you pass away to be “fairer”, read on to find out more. Over the last few months,…
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.What is causing so many consumer product leaders to rethink their products and portfolios? Jan Henrich: Renovating and innovating the existing portfolio has never been more important than it is these days. First, consumer discretionary spending is tightening. Second, passing on inflation costs…
You already know that a strong culture leads to engaged employees, lower turnover, and a healthier bottom line, but convincing leadership? That’s a different story. It’s exhausting pushing for changes that are dismissed as “soft skills” or shot down because they don’t offer an immediate ROI. Sound familiar? You’re not…
Eurasia, a region of immense geopolitical significance due to its strategic location and abundant natural resources, has always been a focus of global interest. The Russia-Ukraine conflict that erupted in February 2022 has further underscored the evolving dynamics of Eurasian geopolitics. A key driver of these changes is the growing…
Farmers worldwide are navigating challenges such as increased input prices, extreme weather events, and commodity price volatility. Given the current macroeconomic environment, the priority for farmers today is improving productivity, whether through agriculture technologies (agtech) for improving operations, biological products, or sustainable practices. This report offers insights for organizations collaborating…
Sam Falconer/theispot.com Nowadays, deploying artificial intelligence no longer guarantees a competitive edge. What truly sets companies apart is access to diverse, extensive, high-quality data that enhances their AI system’s performance compared with that of their competitors. But concerns over data privacy can limit the use of unique, relevant data for…
Thursday, November 7, 20242:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CDT12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. MDT11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT About the Program Seyfarth’s Pioneers and Pathfinders virtual roundtable series has tackled critical topics intended to help our clients navigate the implications of generative AI and…
We are excited to announce the general availability of the new Azure Cobalt 100 Virtual Machines (VMs). These VMs run on Microsoft’s first fully custom Arm-based Cobalt 100 CPU and represent a significant milestone in our end-to-end approach to building cloud infrastructure. Today we are announcing the general availability of…
By Shadrack Kwasa | 15 Oct, 2024 For profesionnal investors INTRODUCTION Inflation has weighed heavily on investment markets for a prolonged period. Central Banks have waged a war against inflation and victory appears imminent as we have seen the most recent inflation readings signalling inflation is coming under control. This…
Medtech value creation has been a story of haves and have-nots in recent years. Since 2019, the top value creators have outpaced the S&P 500, while the rest of the industry has struggled (Exhibit 1). Industry and capital market volatility during the COVID-19 pandemic masked the differences in performance between…
The UK’s new Labour government published its highly anticipated Employment Rights Bill last week. In total, the draft Bill contains 28 stand-alone employment law reforms (including many of the changes that we outlined in our blog post earlier this year - see Significant UK Labor Law Reforms on the Horizon).…
Construction contractors undergoing compliance reviews after October 1, 2024, will be required to comply with expanded initial data and document requests contained in the revised letter. Contractors on a recent Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL)—a courtesy notification from OFCCP listing contractors selected for compliance evaluation—that have not yet been scheduled…
Brian Kenny: In her 2013 blog post titled, “Welcome to the Unicorn Club,” venture capitalist, Aileen Lee, coined a term that has come to define the benchmark for investors the world over. Unicorns, that is privately held startups that are valued at $1 billion or more, are more common today…
