As the images that reach us from the Poland-Belarus border keep painting a desperate picture of institutional failure and geopolitical instability, the impression is that the situation will not be resolved anytime soon. In other news, Daniel Ortega’s tightened grip of power over Nicaragua, Qaddafi son’s candidacy for Libya’s presidency, US inflation at a 31-year high, further negotiations at the COP26 Summit and much much more. Find it all in this week’s #MondayBriefing.
Spotlight
While the immigration route to Europe that usually attracts the most media attention is the one that connects North-Africa to Southern Europe, there are times in which the escalation of circumstances shifts such focus. It must be kept in mind that immigration is a continuous process, and that the occasional lack of its coverage in news outlets does not necessarily imply a lack of newsworthy events, and the timing with which things appear on the news does not necessarily reflect the timing with which things happen. For instance, the Poland-Belarus migrant crisis, which has been at the center of mass media attention this week, started in June, when Belarusian president Aleksej Lukashenko reacted furiously to EU sanctions that had arisen after a forced diversion of a passenger jet to Belarusian territory that was followed with the arrest of a Belarusian dissident activist who was on that flight. Lukashenko responded to the sanctions by threatening to stop trying to prevent undocumented refugees from reaching the EU, which, as reported by the member states bordering with Belarus, notably Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, resulted in a sharp increase in attempts to illegally cross their borders. The situation escalated in the last few days, particularly on the border between nationalistic right-wing Poland and Belarus, where there has been an increase in military concentration accompanied by numerous reports of Polish police forcibly dealing with an ever-increasing number of attempts to jump over the barbed wire fences that separate the two countries.
As of right now, there are thousands of refugees camped in what is effectively a no-man’s land between the two borders, and they are living in conditions that, according to humanitarian organizations, border basic human rights. Their situation is being rendered even more serious by the recent stark decrease in temperatures, which, given the widespread scarcity of access to running hot water, makes the conditions of the migrants particularly desperate.
From a merely geopolitical viewpoint, it is hard to assess the situation given that there are many actors involved, as besides the Belarusian and the Polish governments, there is suspicion of a potential Russian involvement on Belarus’ side, which has so far been denied by Putin, who has however accused the EU of being responsible for the situation. The EU has pressured airlines not to let Afghan, Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni citizens fly to Minsk, to which Lukashenko responded by threatening to cut EU gas supplies.
It’s an unpredictable geopolitical situation that is hardly bound to be resolved soon. Meanwhile, conditions of migrants at the border keep worsening. You can find more information here.
Around the World
Negotiators stroke a climate deal, but it is not enough. Diplomats from nearly 200 countries reached a climate deal calling for governments to do more to tackle climate change. The deal will not on its own stop climate change and its success depends on governments’ willingness to do more. Many denounced it as insufficient.
The U.S. hid an airstrike that killed dozens of civilians in Syria. In 2019, during the last phases of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, a U.S. bombing killed dozens of civilians, even though drone recognition had shown they were not fighters. Some officers raised concerns, but at every step of the inquiry the military tried to hide the fact and never officially acknowledged it.
Qaddafi’s son to run for President of Libya. Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the former heir apparent of the deposed Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, filed his candidacy papers on Sunday for the election expected next month, following years of underground activity. He had come out of the shadows in May, when he gave a long and detailed interview to the New York Times in which he had expressed his intention to run for Libya’s general election that is scheduled for December, and now such intention was followed by a concrete step towards a potential comeback of the Qaddafi family at the head of Libya.
General Electric to split into three public companies. General Electric Co., once a symbol of American manufacturing, announced it would split into three public companies, breaking apart the more than century-old company due to the struggles it has had in recent years. The move is a culmination of a shrinking process that has been ongoing for the last few years.
Nicaragua vote: Ortega tightens grip on power in ‘pantomime election’. Preliminary results from the Nicaraguan general election suggest that incumbent President Daniel Ortega has won by a landslide. With almost all the votes counted, Mr. Ortega has secured close to 76% of the vote. The result is hardly surprising, as potential rivals had been systematically taken out of the race in the weeks prior to the election, the result serves as a reminder of the tight grip that Mr. Ortega is bound to keep having on Nicaragua in the coming years.
Trump White House records can be given to Capitol attack panel, judge rules. A federal judge in Washington has ruled that hundreds of pages of White House records from the Trump administration can be turned over to the House committee investigating the deadly 6 January attack on the Capitol, defying objections from Donald Trump. The decision, handed down late on Tuesday by the US district judge Tanya Chutkan, clears the way for the National Archives, the federal agency holding Trump’s White House materials, to start transmitting the records requested by Congress as early as Friday, though attorneys for Trump immediately vowed to appeal the ruling.
Google lost an appeal against a €2.4bn shopping fine. Google lost its appeal against a 2.42 billion euros fine over its shopping service. The ruling of the EU’s General Court marks a first major judicial victory in commissioner Vestager’s effort to rein in Big Tech.
US-China deal on emissions welcomed by global figures and climate experte. An unexpected agreement between the US and China to work together on cutting emissions has been broadly welcomed by leaders and climate experts. The world’s two biggest emitters appeared to put aside their differences at the Cop26 climate summit and on Wednesday unveiled a joint declaration that would see close cooperation on emissions cuts that scientists say are needed in the next 10 years to stay within 1.5C.
U.S. Inflation Hit 31-Year High in October as Consumer Prices Jump 6.2%. U.S. inflation hit 6.2% in October, the highest value in three decades. It was the fifth month in a row of inflation above 5%. A complex series of factors are driving this inflationary surge, both from the demand- and the supply-side. President Biden’s spending projects are accused to risk contributing to this trend.
Elon Musk Sold around $5 billion in Tesla stock. Elon Musk sold about $5 billion in Tesla Inc. shares this week as he exercised stock options that he received as part of his compensation package, according to regulatory filings made public late Wednesday. He sold many of those shares the same day to cover tax withholding obligations, according to the filings.
F.W. de Klerk, former South African President who dismantled apartheid, died at 85. F.W. de Klerk, who as president of South Africa dismantled the apartheid system that he and his ancestors had helped put in place, died at his home near Cape Town on Thursday. He was 85. His death was confirmed by the F.W. de Klerk Foundation, which said in a statement that he had been receiving treatment for cancer.
Italian News
Spiagge, il Consiglio di Stato azzera tutte le concessioni balneari dal 2024. Dal 2024 le concessioni balneari potranno essere assegnate solo tramite una gara alla quale potranno unicamente partecipare I proprietari attuali. Lo ha deciso il Consiglio di Stato per consentire alla Pubblica Amministrazione di «intraprendere sin d’ora le operazioni funzionali all’indizione di procedure di gara». Dunque, tutte le concessioni demaniali al 31/12 2023 dovranno considerarsi prive di effetto.
La mega raccolta di coperte per i senzatetto di Milano. La Croce Rossa insieme a tre punti vendita Ikea del milanese ha organizzato un’iniziativa solidale per raccogliere coperte da donare ai senzatetto per affrontare I mesi più freddi dell’anno. L’invito a donare è estso a tutti I cittadini che possono partecipare dando coperte, piumoni e trapunte.
Manovra 2022: sgravi casa, limiti sulle villette, nuovo reddito, tasse, scuole. Cosa cambia. La bozza della Legge di Bilancio contiene 219 articoli. Tra le misure introdotte figurano i finanziamenti per la manutenzione di strade e scuole, i fondi per nuove infrastrutture per la mobilità sostenibile, lo sconto di 2 mila euro sull’affitto per gli under 31 che vanno a vivere da soli, la proroga delle agevolazioni per l’acquisto della prima casa per i giovani. Nel testo si parla anche di reddito di cittadinanza e pensioni.
Come cambia Milano: il murale nel quartiere Certosa racconta il passaggio dall’industria al polo dell’innovazione. Il murale lungo 57 metri racconta l’evoluzione di via Certosa a Milano, che si sta trasformando da polo produttivo a distretto dell’innovazione. Esso si intitola “Quando la città cambia, tu guarda I suoi colori” ed è stato realizzato sulla parete esterna del corporate campus La Forgiatura, rappresentando graficamente alcuni elemente architettonici del quartiere ed altri elementi della città in movimento.
Bocconi News
The University informed the students this week that December exams are going to be held with the same modalities of the first partial session in October: therefore, there will be three possibilities to take an exam in presence (either on paper, on the student PC or hybrid mode). In the same way, there will be some categories of students that are going to be excused from in presence exams and will be able to attend them online
The student representatives in the Undergraduate School have been able to obtain that for the July 2022 graduation session the deadline for uploading the exchange transcript will be exceptionally extended to July 12th, 2022 rather than having it in June.
In the run up to having the greatest number of vaccinated students back on campus, the university has informed that even all those students that have received a non-EMA approved vaccine for their first and second shot, can request an EMA-approved vaccine for the booster dose through a process that is detailed in the You@B agenda
The ECOL (European Common Online Learning) project returns in Spring 2022: thanks to this innovative project of which Bocconi is promoter together with 7 others European schools, the aim is to offer an international experience at home, which allows students to take one optional undergraduate course, fully taught online. Registrations to take part will be open from November 18th to the 22nd. More information is available on the Bocconi website.
Long Read
Are liberals as liberal as they say? An analysis conducted by Johnny Harris and Binyamin Appelbaum shows that “blue states” in the U.S., where Democrats are in power, often fail to adopt progressive and inclusive policy. One example is housing: in states like California live many rich liberals who are against changing zoning laws to favour cheaper housing, because this would reduce the value of their houses. Another case is education, where liberals fail to provide equal quality for everyone.
You can find the whole analysis on the New York Times’s website.
In Case You Missed it
On the TiL Rundown column, Fernando Crupi examined how the job quit rate was affected by the pandemic.
Andrew Crossley wrote about the recently leaked Pandora Papers, which contain 11.9 million confidential files that reveal the underground financial dealings of past and present world leaders, public officials and billionaires.
L’associazione studentesca bocconiana Keiron ha pubblicato un articolo sulle questioni legali conesse all’uso dei droni.
Paolina Beatrice Mazza ha analizzato come gli stati e i processi mentali influenzano la prestazione sportiva.
Cansu Süt interviewed Harvard Business School professor and Bocconi alumnus Marco Tabellini.
L’associazione studentesca Bocconi Students against Organized Crime ha pubblicato un articolo sulla ‘Ndrangheta, sodalizio di matrice calabrese che è una delle mafie più potenti del mondo.
Shelby Carter identified the reasons why Facebook started operating under the name of Metaverse.
Santiago Ferrer wrote about the globalization strategy of NBA.
