What to Watch Out For This Week
President Trump has promised to bring legal action against alleged “voting frauds”, which may materialise this week as hinted by declarations made by Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer. It is important to notice, however, that no news outlet has been able to find any evidence whatsoever of such irregularities in voting, and the Trump administration has failed to bring any proof substantiating the claim. It is moreover unforeseeable whether he will finally concede the race to Joe Biden.
In Italy, some regions in the “yellow zone” are expected to join the pool of the “orange” ones, introducing new restrictions due to the worsening of the Covid-19 pandemic.
University News
TiL’s first event: “Fondare, dirigere e ripensare un giornale nel 2020”. The day we were waiting for finally arrived. On the 5th of November at 16:30 we held our first event on Microsoft Teams, moderated by Prof. Paola Dubini. We discussed the challenges faced by newspapers nowadays with three prominent guests: Stefano Feltri, editor of the newspaper “Domani”, Claudio Cerasa, editor of the daily newspaper “Il Foglio”, and Giorgio Dell’Arti, editor of “Anteprima.news”. This is only the start: we are already working on the next events!
No in-person lectures until the end of the semester. Rector Verona sent a message on You@b, informing students that all educational activities will be carried out remotely until the end of the semester. However, the Bocconi Campus will continue to remain open, in particular the Library and the canteen at the Pensionato residence hall, at least for now.
Ursula Von Der Leyen will be the guest speaker at this year’s academic opening ceremony. The President of the European Commission is going to intervene in video conference on the 28th of November. Distinguished guests attending the ceremony during past years include Sergio Mattarella in 2019, President of the Italian Republic, and Carlos Moedas in 2018, EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation.
World News
US Election 2020: Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States. In what has been described as a tight election, Joe Biden emerges victorious as the next US President, defeating Donald Trump. Despite the fact that the electoral race was off to a bumpy start, key states soon ‘turned blue’ and allowed Democrats to win the White House after 4 years of Republican government. This historical election managed to have one of the highest participation rates in the history of US elections, with Mr Biden receiving over 75 million votes and winning key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia and leading to the appointment of Kamala Harris as the first Black female Vice President.
Deadly attacks heighten fears of new European terror wave. The attack carried out by an ISIS operative in Vienna this week killed 4 and injured 22 and was the first such atrocity in Austria for a quarter of a century. Following similar incidents in France and Germany, this incident spreads fear of a resurgence in the wave of terrorist attacks across Europe. The UK responded by raising its terror alert as ‘severe’ and Germany’s head of domestic intelligence warned that extremists may be planning ‘copycat attacks’ in other EU countries.
All around Europe, new measures are being adopted to address the Covid-19 pandemic. The Italian government was not alone in adopting new measures to limit the spread of Covid-19 (more below in the Italian news section). British lawmakers have approved a new lockdown, effective since November 5th. The situation is reported to be critical also in France, where the health minister has “described hospitals filling and young people in critical care”, the NYT reports.
W.H.O. investigation on Covid-19 halted by China. Documents obtained by the New York Times show that, whilst sending a committee to China to investigate on the origins of Covid-19, W.H.O. leaders have largely bowed to Chinese pressures, negotiating terms that sidelined their own experts.
New Zealand’s Ardern vows to ‘crack on’ with new-look cabinet. New Zealand swore in its new cabinet on Friday, including five Maori MPs and the first openly gay deputy prime minister. As Jacinda Ardern’s government increased in popularity, collecting the largest Labour percentage of votes since the 1930s election, she is now faced with challenges such as the stabilization of the economy and environmentally-focused initiatives. The progressive-looking new cabinet will “overcome these challenges together” and will effectively be able to “crack on with it”, Ardern said in Wellington once the official members of cabinet were announced.
Ethiopia on the edge as conflict breaks out in Tigray. Several months of tensions between Ethiopia’s federal government and the northern Tigray regional state reached a tipping point on Wednesday. Martin Plaut, former BBC Africa editor, suggests that conflict broke out this week due to Ethiopia mending its relations with long-term rival Eritrea and because of the progressive erosion of the system of federalism, part of the current government’s political direction.
Earthquake hits Greece and Turkey, bringing deaths and floods. A 7.0 magnitude tremor was centred off Turkey’s Izmir province and north of the Greek island of Samos, destroying houses and killing at least 22 people. The quake was felt as far away as Athens and Istanbul, with the two neighbours sitting on fault lines and thus being accustomed to frequent earthquakes. In Izmir at least 20 building collapsed, while in Samos a mini-tsunami flooded the port and a number of buildings were damaged.
Notizie italiane
Si aggrava il bilancio di casi e morti da Covid-19. I contagi sono passati dai 22,253 di lunedì ai 32616 di domenica; i morti da 233 a 331.
Coprifuoco e zone rosse: il governo approva il nuovo DPCM per contenere la pandemia. Il Presidente del Consiglio ha firmato nella notte tra 2 e 3 novembre il decreto che fissa il coprifuoco alle 22 e individua i 21 parametri in base a cui restrizioni aggiuntive saranno applicate nelle regioni considerate zone gialle, arancioni o rosse. È in seguito reso noto che sono zona rossa Lombardia, Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta e Calabria; arancione Puglia e Sicilia; gialla le altre regioni.
È mancato Gigi Proietti. La scomparsa il 2 novembre, giorno del suo ottantesimo compleanno. L’attore stesso aveva spesso ironizzato sulla coincidenza di essere nato il giorno in cui si commemorano i defunti.
Bufera su Zuccatelli, neo commissario per la sanità calabrese. Giuseppe Zuccatelli, neo commissario per il piano di rientro della sanità calabrese in luogo di Saverio Cotticelli (rimosso in quanto non sapeva che toccasse a lui predisporre il piano anti-covid in Calabria), è stato immediatamente investito dalla bufera mediatica a causa di un video risalente a maggio in cui Zuccatelli dichiarava che le mascherine “non servissero a un c****” ai fini della prevenzione e che fosse necessario “baciarsi per 15 minuti con la lingua in bocca” per trasmettere il virus.
