University News

Associations on Display starts today! Get to know Tra i Leoni among other associations on February 26th!

Bocconi has announced a Covid-19 screening campaign involving all students residences on a voluntary basis, using rapid antigenic swab tests. This is part of the broader effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 on campus.

European News

The EU recorded over 450,000 excess deaths between March and November 2020. One exact year from the beginning of the pandemic has passed. A figure telling the gravity of what we are going through lays in the number of deaths in the EU.

COVID vaccine: EU to receive extra 350 million doses in 2021 from Pfizer and Moderna. As the vaccination campaign slowly proceeded in European countries, some good news came up as well. The EU was severely criticized for its Member States being behind other global players in terms of vaccinated population. Will the acquisition of additional doses, along with the completion of discussed necessary upgrades in European facilities of pharma companies, be enough to put the EU back on track in the fight against COVID?

The EU rejected calls to readmit Scotland to the Erasmus scheme. While Northern Ireland could retain participation in Erasmus thanks to Irish founding, there seems to be no room for Scotland and Wales to be readmitted in the program. As UdL said, the only possibility for the UK to rejoin Erasmus is to do it as a whole.

Rapper’s arrest sparks protests in Catalonia. On Tuesday night last week, protests broke out in Catalonia due to the arrest of rapper Pablo Hasel. The sentence of 9 months conviction was due to for supporting terrorism, and for  slander against the Spanish monarchy through his posts on social media. 

Macron affirmed that the US and EU should deliver 5% of their vaccines to poorer countries. According to French President, much of Occidental credibility will pass from the ability of Western Countries’ to share some of their doses with developing countries.

World News

Free sanitary products for all New Zealand schools to beat period poverty, Ardern announces. “Providing free period products at school is one way the government can directly address poverty, help increase school attendance, and make a positive impact on children’s well-being,” the PM affirmed in a statement.

Princess Latifa: UN to question UAE about Dubai ruler’s daughter. A video came out where Princess Latifa, the daughter of United Arab Emirate’s Prime Minister, accused her father of holding her hostage. The detention would be going on since 2018, when the Princess tried to flee the country. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said it would soon open an investigation.

Gunmen kill and abduct schoolchildren in Nigeria. Gunmen have killed a school pupil and abducted 27 other children in a night-time raid on their boarding school in north-central Nigeria. About 600 boys were asleep in their dormitories when the school in Kagara town was raided. The motive for the attack is unknown, but criminal gangs often carry out kidnappings randomly. The gunmen wore military uniforms and stormed the state-run boarding school for boys in huge numbers.

Dispute over Haiti presidency triggers unrest. Thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and other cities for renewed protests against the government. They are demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moïse. Haiti’s opposition says that Mr Moïse’s five-year term should have ended on 7 February 2021, but Mr Moïse, however, insists he has one more year to serve as he did not take office until 7 February 2017. The year-long delay was due to allegations on electoral fraud. 

Myanmar coup: roads blocked in Yangon as thousands protest. Dozens of vehicles are blocking key roads across Myanmar’s main city Yangon, in what appears to be a new tactic employed by protesters. It comes as tens of thousands of people gather downtown, in what organisers hope will be the biggest protest yet. The UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, also known as Burma, has warned of potential violence. Demonstrators are demanding the release of their elected leaders following the February 1st military coup.

Oil spill leads Israel to close beaches as it faces one of its “most severe ecological disasters”. Israeli authorities are trying to locate the source of a suspected oil spill that has been described as one of the most severe ecological disasters to hit the country, threatening wildlife, forcing beaches to close and prompting a mass cleanup. The extent of the pollution is so bad, Israel’s Ministry of Interior issued an advisory Sunday urging people to stay away from the country’s beaches.

Notizie italiane

Il governo Draghi ha ottenuto la fiducia. Dopo il Senato, anche la Camera vota la fiducia a Draghi con una notevole maggioranza composta da 535 voti a favore, 56 contrari e 5 astenuti. Dopo la conferma, il Presidente del Consiglio è già a lavoro sui progetti più incombenti per l’Italia, tra cui il Next Generation EU e la riforma del fisco.

La fronda anti-Draghi spacca il M5S: ribelli pronti a formare un nuovo gruppo. Dopo il voto sulla piattaforma Rousseau che aveva confermato la fiducia da parte del M5S al nascente governo con un maggioranza del 59.3%, il partito si è spaccato alla prova del voto di fiducia. 40 deputati del Movimento hanno votato contro la fiducia a Draghi, si sono astenuti o sono risultati assenti ingiustificati, andando incontro all’espulsione dal M5S.

Giorgia Meloni insultata dallo storico e docente universitario Giovanni Gozzini dell’Università di Siena. Nel contesto di un’intervista all’emittente radiofonica Controradio, Gozzini ha pesantemente insultato la leader di FdI. Nonostante siano arrivate le scuse del docente, l’Università di Siena ne ha preso le distanze e il mondo della politica ha rivolto solidarietà unanime a Meloni. 

Nel 2020, l’industria italiana dello spettacolo ha perso oltre 4 miliardi di Euro. Seppure i primi mesi del 2020 avessero dipinto un settore dello spettacolo in piena espansione, l’avvento del Covid ha decretato un durissimo stop per l’industria. I settori in assoluto più colpiti sono stati la musica, lo sport ed il ballo.