Author: The News

Over the last two decades, all countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), committing themselves (in Article 25) to ensure the right without discrimination to health care for people with disabilities. Many countries in the region have also passed national laws reinforcing that pledge.     Yet, many countries also still struggle to provide adequate, accessible, and high-quality health care for people with disabilities. While countries like Brazil and Mexico have made important strides in that direction, others lag behind, particularly in ensuring accessible health infrastructure and…

As of today: Figure 1: GDP (bold black), GDPNow adjusted for gold imports, 4/24 (light blue square), GS, 4/24 (red triangle)), Wells Fargo, 4/25 (pink +), NY Fed, 4/25 (purple square), St. Louis Fed, 4/25 (red circle), WSJ April survey mean (tan line), all in bn.Ch.2017$ SAAR. Source: BEA, Atlanta Fed, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, NY Fed, St. Louis Fed, WSJ April survey, and author’s calculations. This entry was posted on April 26, 2025 by Menzie Chinn. Source link

The pretraining efficiency and generalization of large language models (LLMs) are significantly influenced by the quality and diversity of the underlying training corpus. Traditional data curation pipelines often treat quality and diversity as separate objectives, applying quality filtering followed by domain balancing. This sequential optimization overlooks the complex interdependencies between these factors. High-quality datasets frequently exhibit domain biases, while diversified datasets may compromise quality. In the context of fixed training budgets, there is a critical need to simultaneously optimize for both dimensions to maximize model performance. However, defining and jointly optimizing quality and diversity remain non-trivial challenges. ByteDance Introduces QuaDMix…

Knowing how to get financed for a business can be a total game-changer – whether you’re launching something new, expanding operations, or simply keeping things running smoothly. The right business loan at the right time can open doors you didn’t think possible.But the application process can be overwhelming. Between choosing the right type of loan, figuring out what lenders are looking for, and gathering stacks of documents, it’s enough to make any business owner pause.That’s why we’ve put together this step-by-step guide, taking the guesswork out of applying for a business loan. We’ll walk you through the process, from understanding your options…

Developing more sustainable products for the building industry and expanding supply chains of such products.Raised £9 million so far; almost close to the goal of low-carbon construction.Adaptavate, a UK-based company developing carbon-negative construction materials, has recently raised £2.7 million in funding through a pre-Series A investment round to scale up their low-carbon building technology.The funding round saw top investors from Asia and Europe and some existing investors participating, reinforcing trust in the company’s climate change mitigating technology.The proceeds will support Adaptavate’s “Project Crystal,” an initiative to build an industrial demonstration facility. Through the facility, their objective is to show how…

  What are the key payments modernisation priorities across EMEA in 2025? Which areas are considered critical for modernisation? How are investment priorities diverging between regions? Is macroeconomic uncertainty fuelling different innovation and spending focus areas? How does the regulatory landscape across EMEA affect the modernisation efforts of organisations? What are the emerging payment trends and themes that financial institutions are focusing on?   The world of payments is increasingly diversified, with new technologies, new payment rails and schemes, regulatory updates, and rising fraud all battling for priority when it comes to modernisation. While payments…

Critical Hub for Logical Thinking Identified Researchers have identified that the right frontal lobe plays a critical role in logical thinking and problem-solving. Using lesion-deficit mapping in 247 patients with brain injuries, they found that damage to this area leads to significantly more reasoning errors. Two new cognitive tests developed for the study accurately detected reasoning impairments that traditional assessments might miss. These findings could improve clinical diagnosis and treatment for patients with right frontal brain damage. ….[READ] Source link

Leer en Español Centre-right Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa secured a decisive re-election victory in the 13 April runoff vote, defeating leftist Revolución Ciudadana (RC) candidate Luisa González with 56% of the vote. The margin of victory significantly exceeded poll projections, signaling widespread public support for Noboa’s security-focused and market-oriented platform. Below is an analysis of the economic and political impact, plus our Consensus Forecasts for Ecuador and the wider region.    Contested result: González has refused to concede, citing irregularities during the vote and calling for a recount: On the eve of the runoff, Ecuador declared a state of emergency in…

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has made changes to the 2025 SBA loan application requirements, and both borrowers and lenders need to understand what’s required to stay compliant and move forward quickly. Whether you’re working on a 7(a) loan application or a 504 loan application, new procedural notices from SBA affect which documents and information must be submitted and when. Staying ahead of the 2025 SBA loan application requirements can help avoid delays and confusion for both borrowers and lenders. Below, we break down what is new, what you will need to prepare, and how CDC Small Business Finance…

Instant payments are becoming significantly more attractive for US banks finds RedCompass Labs, the payments experts, as it finds that 84 per cent of US banks say the new $10million Real-Time Payment (RTP) network limit and $500,000 FedNow cap are a good thing. The results, published in a new report, Pushing the Limits: US Instant Payments in 2025, based on responses from 300 senior payments professionals at US banks, suggest larger transaction limits are helping to boost instant payment demand. Nearly half (47 per cent) of US banks now experience overwhelming corporate demand, more than triple the 16 per cent from…