Insights

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A Hard Day's Right: A Brit’s experience of Trump’s base

General Policy

Joe Armitage
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CPAC – the Conservative Political Action Conference – is a bewildering experience for a British immigrant to the US whose understanding of what constitutes ‘right-wing’ is completely unreflective of the Republican party’s most vocal and influential contingent. I expected sophisticated panel discussions espousing the virtues of supply-side economics and speeches…

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Evolutionary, not revolutionary: Thoughts on a potential second Trump term

General Policy

Erin Caddell
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The questions come in from across the country and around the globe: “Are you going to blow up the world?” “Trump can’t serve a third term… can he?!” “Is the Inflation Reduction Act toast?” And, perhaps the most thought-provoking: “If Trump wins a second term, would you recommend global investors underweight the US due to the political volatility likely to result?”

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International climate diplomacy: necessary but never adequate – assessing the value of COP28

Sustainability

Nick Rowley
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Only three weeks into 2024 and if the ongoing war in Ukraine; the horror and unpredictability of the Middle East situation; constant rumination on the impact of artificial intelligence or that this year will see 64 national elections involving almost half the world’s population hasn’t given you enough cause for concern, the global climate problem can oblige.

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Poland’s energy transition is accelerating: five opportunities for the incoming government that will be of interest to investors

Energy & Commodities

Katarzyna Nowacka
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Brussels sees the potential new Polish administration as good news for the progression of the EU Green Deal. The country’s existing strategic documents on energy transition have been unambitious despite ample renewables potential and unrealistic as production capacity continues to overtake targets. But the coalition of the three parties - the Civic Coalition (KO), the…

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General Politics

Thoughts on domestic policy implications of a second Trump presidency

General Politics

Erin Caddell
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What does all this mean for corporates and investors? We are sidestepping in this analysis the many social, foreign-policy and other thorny issues that a second Trump term would bring, which would likely overshadow the implications of such an event on corporates and investors with US interests. The future of US support for Ukraine, hot-button issues like public education…

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Biodiversity credits – the new wave of climate finance

Sustainability

Alice Brown
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Though there is growing momentum globally for governments and businesses to channel financial flows away from nature negative, and towards nature positive activities, we still have a way to go. 

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Changing faces: The differing approaches to regulating facial recognition technology in the UK and the EU

TMT

Poppy Woodcock
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Following recent UK government action on regulating artificial intelligence, there is one stark deviation from concurrent discussions in the European Union: the regulation of facial recognition and biometric technology.  

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Reading between the lines of the EU's payments reform package

Financial Services

David Song
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On June 28th, the European Commission published its long-awaited proposals on reforming the EU’s payments and open finance rules while also setting out further details on plans for a single currency package on the digital euro and the legal tender status for cash. These proposals and the timing of them are significant, particularly that proposals on seemingly different…

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General Politics

The Domino Effect: The global implications of changes to Section 230

General Politics

Ugonma Nwankwo
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Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is the key building block to internet governance and has shaped the growth of e-commerce, social media, search, and the other key services we use every day online. A change to the legal framework, potentially prompted by court decisions, could create major upheaval in how the internet and user-generated content is organized…

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The CMA: friend or foe for the UK gaming sector?

TMT

Josh Bates
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The future of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition has seen changing fortunes from week to week, with the unexpected move of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in blocking the deal followed weeks later by the European Commission’s granting its approval, albeit with remedies attached. With two such major players within the gaming sector involved in…

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Reflections from this year's Milken Institute's Global Conference held in Los Angeles, April 30 to May 3

General Policy

Erin Caddell
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The Milken Conference is an annual gathering of more than 3,500 financiers, corporate executives, policymakers, journalists, entertainment figures and others from around the world, held last week in Los Angeles for the first time since the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Global Counsel attended Milken to meet with clients who were in attendance, hear from the politicians…

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New in nuclear – financing the transition in Central and Eastern Europe

General Policy

Alexander van der Wusten
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While Germany is proceeding with its final phase-out of nuclear power, in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), interest in building new nuclear plants continues to grow. Particularly in Poland, which currently does not have any reactors producing electricity, but also countries like Czechia, which proposes to increase the share of nuclear power in its energy mix from the…

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US regional banking crisis and the need for deposit insurance

Financial Services

Erin Caddell
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Financial markets and the banking system breathed a sigh of relief on May 1st following news that First Republic, the troubled San Francisco-based lender that had hovered on the edge of failure for days, would be acquired by JPMorgan Chase, the nation’s largest bank, with funding and loss-sharing support provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC). The S&P…

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Social tariffs: a progressive solution to the UK’s energy affordability crisis?

Energy & Commodities

Jasbir Basi
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With wholesale gas prices falling, the retail energy market has shown signs of opening up. Last month Ovo launched the first tariff deal where customers can pay £225 less than the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee. 

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Unpacking the IPCC Synthesis Report and what it means for COP28

Sustainability

Lucy Cairns
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On March 20th, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its summary for policy makers of the Synthesis Report covering the latest research on climate change and its impacts. It condenses hundreds of pages into a digestible soundbite to inform policymakers and policymaking. The resounding call is for urgent and immediate action with current national…

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The old, the accelerated and the new: three ways of thinking about generative AI policy

TMT

Megan Stagman
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Platforms such as ChatGPT and DALL-E are revolutionising how we create, communicate, learn, and work, with millions of users globally leveraging the benefits. However, just as quickly as generative AI technologies entered the spotlight, so did concerns about how these tools could be used to cause harm. Policymakers across the globe are under pressure to ensure that…

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Implications of USG actions post-SVB collapse

General Policy

Erin Caddell
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In an extraordinary series of developments on March 12th, US policymakers – the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) – jointly announced that the federal government would protect all depositors of SVB Financial (ticker: SIVB). The parent company of Silicon Valley Bank, a major financier to the US venturebacked…

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General Politics

Global Month Ahead: G20 Meetings, China Two Sessions, and the UK Budget

General Politics

Jens Presthus
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Welcome back to the Global Month Ahead, Global Counsel's briefing on the events and stories that will define the month to come. This month, Health and Life Sciences Senior Associate Rosie Hill will hear from different members of the GC team to preview the month's stories before they are in the headlines.

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