Insights

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Haugen comes to Europe – will she change the course of tech regulation?

TMT

Conan D'Arcy
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In 2013, the revelations of Edward Snowden catapulted online privacy and surveillance to the top of the political agenda. The Cambridge Analytica scandal five years later had a seismic impact on online political campaigning. The testimony of Frances Haugen, the “Facebook whistle-blower”, is now being seen as a similar inflexion point for online content moderation and…

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Will capacity constraints scupper the UK Government’s vision for post Brexit medical devices regulation?

Health and Life Sciences

Mark Loughridge
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In September, the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) issued its long-anticipated consultation on the UK’s post Brexit medical devices regime. For all the early talk of substantial divergence from existing EU rules, the UK Government is in fact proposing greater regulatory alignment and a focus on pathways so far not offered by other major…

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General Politics

Feeding the nation: shaping the first national food strategy in a generation

General Politics

Johnny Luk
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In 1947, Clement Atlee was UK prime minister, the UK’s NHS was yet to be established and the Second World War still scarred the landscape, with rationing in force. That was the last time England’s food and drink policy underwent major reform, with that year’s Agriculture Act.

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Reviving the multilateral trading system

Trade & Manufacturing

Peter Mandelson
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Digital in-conversation with Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General, WTO; and Peter Mandelson, Chairman, Global Counsel, discussing potential solutions to the many challenges the World Trade Organisation and the multilateral trading system are facing.

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Does the EU need a revamped critical raw materials strategy?

Energy & Commodities

Giovanni Scomparin
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The ‘Fit for 55’ package released by the European Commission in July will mandate EU member states to boost renewable energy deployment, upgrade the EU clean vehicle charging infrastructure and phase out internal combustion engine vehicles. Reaching these targets will require a sizeable ― indeed unprecedented ― amount of critical raw materials (CRMs). This has already…

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UK Plc can't ignore the reputational risks of inflation

Financial Services

Lilah Howson-Smith
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UK businesses should be concerned by energy price spikes being experienced in Britain, not just because of the impact on their bottom lines, but also because of the reputational issues that come from skyrocketing prices. The UK government ignores the rising cost of living crisis at its peril, but crucially so does business. With the gas price hike in the domestic market,…

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E-commerce talks on the WTO chopping block

Trade & Manufacturing

Alexander Bobroske
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As WTO negotiators return after the summer hiatus, minds are inevitably starting to focus on the agenda for the 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12). For e-commerce negotiators, the WTO’s most important conference will be seen as an opportunity to agree upon the remaining low-hanging fruit and create momentum to work out the more challenging chapters. But will e-commerce…

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Is the UK’s defensiveness towards Chinese tech investment about to spill over into genomics?

Health and Life Sciences

Harry Bell
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There are signs that it might be. In its Made in China 2025 plan the Chinese government identified health tech, including genomics, as an area of strategic focus. This has been reiterated in the “Healthy China 2030” plan. As is often the case, an emphasis on healthcare from the government has spiked Chinese investment in the domestic industry, but with prices in China…

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General Politics

Biden baulks on carried interest — might UK policymakers take a different approach?

General Politics

Matt Bevington
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Announcing his American Families Plan in April, President Biden pledged “to close the carried interest loophole so that hedge fund partners will pay ordinary income rates on their income just like every other worker”. Yet the draft reconciliation bill that appeared from Congressional Democrats on Thursday included a range of new taxes on high earners but replaced Biden’s…

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Will regulators use DWS to send a message about overexaggerated ESG claims?

Sustainability

Ben Bassett
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The increase in sustainable fund flows in recent years has rapidly outpaced ESG regulation. Trillions of dollars are now held in products which are marketed as integrating environmental, social and governance issues into their investment process. At the end of the second quarter in 2021, assets held by sustainable funds reached $2.25 trillion, more than tripling since…

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Russia, going for green?

Sustainability

Frederick Michell
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When President Vladimir Putin declared in 2020 that climate change was a critical, manmade threat to Russia, he took many observers by surprise. Until then, climate change in Russia was often spoken of as a potential positive, given its frozen northern land and sea. But with COP26 approaching, Russia appears to be relatively serious about its route map for its low carbon…

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Rapid Afghan collapse pierces Biden’s pledge of competence, threatening ambitious domestic agenda

General Policy

Erin Caddell
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The scenes last week of hundreds of Afghan people converging on Kabul airport attempting to escape a nation rapidly falling into the hands of the Taliban has sparked comparisons to the fall of Saigon in 1975 at the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam - an ignominious end to a protracted US military action in a faraway land. But while the implications of the bungled US…

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Unpacking the IPCC report

Sustainability

Charley Roberts
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Last week the IPCC released the first part of its sixth assessment report outlining the most up to date evidence on the physical progress of climate change. The headline feature of the report is an even more urgent tone than ever before – the alarming statistics picked up from the report are that warming is happening even faster than expected, and the unprecedented nature…

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Digital Yuan's Currency Statecraft

Financial Services

Genevieve Ding
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China, the pioneer of paper money, is poised to shape the future of finance once more with the People’s Bank of China’s (PBOC) accelerated push to launch the world’s first major central bank digital currency (CBDC). A CBDC is a digital tender of a country’s fiat currency that typically utilises permissioned blockchain networks to privilege network access and activities to…

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South Africa’s week of unrest – a bellwether for more pandemic protests?

General Policy

Isabelle Trick
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One month ago, South Africa experienced the most severe unrest since the end of Apartheid in 1994. It left more than 330 dead, 40,000 businesses looted, burnt, or vandalised, and caused at least $3.4 bn in economic damage. The government was forced to deploy 25,000 troops to regain control. The circumstances in South Africa were unique. However, South Africa’s week of…

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China’s domestic struggle to internationalise the RMB

Financial Services

Jens Presthus
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Internationalisation of the Ren Min Bi (RMB) has again become a hot topic. Not just in western media, which often depicts it as a looming existential threat to the dollar-based global economy, but also within China. However, China is currently not in a position where it can remove capital controls – the minimum requirement for making the RMB an international currency –…

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Chinese regulation: rational or erratic?

General Policy

Jens Presthus
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In the last 12 months, we have seen countless Chinese companies caught in the crossfire of regulatory change in China – with significant financial impact. 

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General Politics

The political battles over the EU's recovery fund may be just beginning

General Politics

Maarten Lemstra
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Last week the ECOFIN committee endorsed the Commissions' positive assessment of the first batch of twelve national recovery plans. However, while the approval of recovery plans will be relatively straightforward (with the notable exception of Hungary), the disbursement phase will be a crucial moment to watch for political battles to occur. Key political choices lie ahead…

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