Insights

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Jostling for position – Is there substance to the Africa summits?

General Policy

Isabelle Trick
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In late November, China’s flagship Africa summit, the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) took place in Senegal. In 2022, the EU, the US, Russia, and Japan have all planned major Africa-focused summits. This clustering of Africa + 1 summits has given rise to debates about whether we are witnessing a new intensification of foreign interest in the continent. But is…

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Regulating the metaverse

TMT

Conan D'Arcy
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“The metaverse will present new markets and a range of different businesses. There will be a marketplace where someone may have a dominant position.” The comment this week from European Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager marks a remarkable transformation in the metaverse from being a concept few in Brussels had heard of four months ago to an emerging priority in…

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Waste policy: no longer kicked to the kerb

Sustainability

Charley Roberts
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The covid-19 pandemic has created a hidden problem: the sheer volume of waste generated in response to the health crisis. The environmental cost of covid-19 has been enormous, with an estimated 25,000 tonnes of covid-19 PPE alone having entered the ocean. 

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US data brokers on notice as Congress and regulators sharpen their focus on sector

TMT

Miranda Lutz
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Online clicks and webpage visits have been tracked for decades; now data collection has leapt from the screen to the physical world. In 2020, there were more than 11 bn connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices, from appliances to wearable health monitors. That figure is projected to more than double to 27 bn by 2025, according to IoT Analytics. Each one of these devices…

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Global Counsel Holiday Reading List 2021

General Policy

Global Counsel Holiday Reading List 2021
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At the end of each year, the Global Counsel team has a tradition of sharing among ourselves a selection of our favourite articles (or podcasts) from the past year for Christmas consumption. We also share the list with our network in what has become a staple of GC holiday communications. 

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General Politics

Any post-Frost return to ‘diplomacy’ will still leave UK business to fend for themselves in Brussels

General Politics

Tom White
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This week’s anniversary of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement provides a moment for firms to review operational adaptation to Brexit, planned and revised at speed as ‘no deal’ was (partially) avoided last Christmas Eve. However, Lord Frost’s dramatic resignation – and signs that power over EU relations could trickle back from Downing Street to the Foreign Office – is…

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General Politics

Politics on the pitch – how policymakers are using football to advance their agendas

General Politics

Nick Hendrix
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Football and politics have never been entirely separate, but recent developments in the EU and UK have highlighted the utility of the beautiful game to lawmakers and legislators. The European Super League (ESL) exposed a fissure between football’s stakeholders and shareholders and served as a catalyst for politicians to intervene. This culminated in the adoption of the EU…

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Then there were six, again, but time to look to the future

General Policy

Geoffrey Norris
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In the aftermath of the largest energy company failure yet, attention in the UK is slowly shifting from the circumstances of Bulb’s administration, to what can be done by the government and regulator. Ultimately, this specific collapse must be seen in the context of the last 5 years, where the prevailing policy wisdom within the UK government has been that customers were…

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General Politics

Reviewing the UK’s G7 Presidency: building back better?

General Politics

Jon Garvie
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G7 foreign and development ministers will meet this weekend in Liverpool, alongside their ASEAN counterparts. It may be the UK presidency’s final opportunity to draw together the many initiatives which have sprouted under the banner of “build back better”.  The foreign secretary Liz Truss framed the meeting in characteristically ambitious terms, declaring that “I…

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COP26: game changing or just changing the game?

Sustainability

Charley Roberts
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After almost two years of build-up, COP26 finally took place during the first two weeks of November. The expectations were high and the media attention significant – both positive and negative. Amidst the flurry of pledges, side agreements and negotiated texts, it is challenging to decipher whether COP26 was ‘a success’ and what it means for global (and local) climate…

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Bloomberg’s bandwagon rolls into Singapore

General Policy

Benjamin Wegg-Prosser
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Singapore hosted its first major international conference last week since the start of the pandemic.  After aborting the mini-Davos, which they had planned for last August, this event was an even bigger deal. With Hong Kong closed off to international travellers and now a more challenging environment politically for global businesses, the Singaporeans know they have…

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The new “Scamdemic” – how is the UK government tackling emerging financial scams?

Financial Services

Leanne Gaffney-Berkeley
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The covid-19 pandemic has seen a rapid rise in new and sophisticated types of financial scams in the UK, typically targeting ordinary consumers. People are more likely to be the victim of financial fraud than of any other crime – not just including the vulnerable and elderly – with more than two thirds of people in the UK (36 million) being targeted by a scammer in the…

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Could the EU 2021 Banking Package get stuck in the middle?

Financial Services

Damien Sohet
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The long-awaited package of EU banking reforms presented by the European Commission on October 27th faces a basic challenge of reconciling demands for safeguarding of EU banking competitiveness and upholding the EU’s international commitments. The proposal was fated to face criticism from the outset. The commission, however, has sought to avoid a political stalemate by…

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Notes from Lisbon: the Politics of the Web Summit

TMT

Jack Keevill
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The Web Summit is done and dusted for 2021. At a mere 40,000 attendees packed into the waterfront Altice Arena in Lisbon, it may have been much smaller than its pre-pandemic peak. But it has lost none of the glitz that made it a highlight of the global tech calendar, and this year its organisers carefully navigated the choppiest waters of European – and global – tech…

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General Politics

Republican wins in state elections move US policy to the right, imperil reconciliation bill

General Politics

Ben Bassett
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The November 2nd US election results represented a wake-up call to President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders, and will push near-term policy in Congress toward the moderate end of the spectrum. Tuesday’s gubernatorial races were the most impactful. In Virginia, Republican newcomer Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe by a two-point margin in a state in…

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General Politics

The privatisation playbook – looking at Uzbekistan and Ukraine

General Politics

Alexander van der Wusten
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The practically uncontested victory in Uzbekistan of incumbent president Shavkat Mirziyoyev on October 24 with 90% of the vote means the country is likely to further open its economy to foreign investors, a course steadfastly pursued since he came to power in 2016. This includes an ambitious privatisation programme, which was announced in 2020, soon stalled because of…

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Beyond the great vaccine divide: how African leaders are tackling vaccine hesitancy to capitalise on new supplies

General Policy

Ed King
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The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook highlights how the “great vaccine divide” continues to impede Africa’s recovery. Undelivered donation pledges, the launch of boosters, India’s export ban and an overreliance on the global vaccination initiative COVAX culminated in half of the continent vaccinating less than 2% of their population. This is well below the World Health…

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General Politics

Has the EU-Polish rule of law standoff reached a tipping point?

General Politics

Anikó Zsebik
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For several years tensions around the conduct of the PiS government have buffeted bilateral relations between Warsaw and Brussels and other members of the European Council without quite reaching breaking point. In part this is because both sides have tiptoed around pushing it there. However, in the wake of the Polish Constitutional Court’s (PCC) ruling on the supremacy of…

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