This week’s Monday Briefing has the complex prerogative of summarizing one of the fullest weeks in recent times. From the tragic shipwreck in the English Channel, in which 27 migrants lost their lives, to the Omicron variant becoming a cause of concern, from the collapse of the Turkish lira to Germany’s new government, along with new Green Pass rules in Italy coming into effect on December 6^th.

Spotlight

While the migratory route that has attracted most media attention in the past few weeks is the one that connects the European Union with Eastern Europe, specifically the border between Belarus and Poland, the story that most caught our attention in this geopolitically and economically complex week is the story of yet another tragedy on yet another European migratory route.

On Wednesday afternoon, an inflatable boat carrying a group of migrants was shipwrecked in the English Channel while attempting to reach British shores from France, causing the death of 27 people, mostly Afghan and Iraqi, among whom were 5 women and a little girl. French authorities were alerted by the crew of a fishing boat who saw the remains of the disaster in the Doves-Calais strait. Two survivors are still in intensive care, and four alleged smugglers who were also on the boat have been taken in custody

To this day, it is unclear where exactly the boat was coming from and what specifically caused the accident, but according to the International Organization of Migration, the UN agency that takes care of migrations, it was the most significant loss of life to occur on this route since 2014, which is when the organization started collecting data.

In the past few weeks, the magnitude of the migratory flux between French and the United Kingdom has become increasingly worrying, and the French and British government, who on Wednesday have blamed each other for the responsibility of this tragedy, have yet to design a shared strategy for managing the situation. According to BBC News, more than 25,000 have attempted the journey in 2021 alone, tripling the figures of 2020, and the lack of a shared framework between France and England makes the situation particularly worrying.

Around the World

The Omicron variant upends the global pandemic response. First detected in Botswana, the new variant of Covid-19, which has been denominated Omicron by the WHO, has upended the global pandemic response as Britain, Israel and others announced new restrictions and 7 African countries were put on the blacklist by the US government.

Turkish lira in freefall as Erdogan vows victory in ‘economic war’. The Turkish lira suffered a historic downfall following President Erdogan’s praise for a recent interest rate cut and declaration of an “economic war of independence”. The currency, which is down more than 40 per cent against the dollar this year, plunged as much as 15 per cent on Tuesday — a drop that eclipsed even Turkey’s currency crisis of 2018 — and broke through the symbolic threshold of 13 to the dollar following the President’s. You can find a detailed analysis of the implications of such fall for the Turkish economy here.

Sweden’s first female prime minister resigns after less than 12 hours. The Green Party, which is part of the winning coalition that originally allowed first Swedish female prime minister Magdalena Andersson to win the vote of confidence that had granted her office, decided to leave the government as the Centre Party, also part of the same winning coalition, abstained in the parliament vote for the Coalition’s bill, de facto causing it to be rejected. The reason for such abstention was a perceived overallocation of budget on Leftist policies. Andersson’s resignation left the country in a period of political instability.

The U.S., China and other nations tapped their oil reserves. The U.S., China and other countries tapped their oil reserves in an attempt to reduce oil prices, which are high due to the increased demand related to the economic recovery. The move sparked backlash from the Opec.

Bulgaria Bus Crash Kills at Least 45. At least 45 people died when a bus caught fire and crashed on a highway in western Bulgaria on Tuesday, officials said. The bus had been carrying 52 people, including 12 children, when it swerved through the guardrail on a highway near the village of Bosnek, in western Bulgaria, around 2 a.m. local time, according to the Bulgarian Interior Ministry. The bus had Macedonian plates

Olaf Scholz to become Germany’s next chancellor after clinching coalition deal. Olaf Scholz unveiled the coalition agreement between the Social Democrats, Greens and liberals that will allow him to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor, promising the “biggest industrial modernisation of Germany in more than 100 years”. You can find more details regarding the implications of such “traffic light” coalition for the future of Germany and Europe here.

U.S. to Drop Colombian Rebel Group FARC From Terrorist List. The Biden administration will remove a former Colombian rebel group from a list of foreign terrorist organizations, a measure intended to demonstrate American support for a fragile peace agreement with the guerrillas in Colombia, said U.S. and congressional officials with knowledge of the coming announcement.

Ukraine has uncovered Russian-backed coup plot, says president. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the country’s intelligence had discovered a coup plot the instate a rich oligarch as the new ruler of the country as early as next week. Zelensky also claimed the plot was backed by Russia.

Ex-minister Nicolas Hulot accused of rape and sexual assault. A popular French environmentalist and former government minister faces new allegations of rape and sexual abuse after several woman came forward in a TV documentary to testify that he had assaulted them. The claims come four years after Nicolas Hulot, 66, was first accused of rape by the granddaughter of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand.

Italian News

È stato autorizzato il primo suicidio assistito in Italia. Mario è un nome di fantasia per indicare un uomo di 43 anni che è stato il primo paziente ad ottenere l’autorizzazione per il suicidio assistito. Il caso di cronaca ha richiamato l’attenzione di Bersani, il quale ha dichiarato la necessità di “un’assunzione di responsabilità dal punto di vista legislativo” per non rischiare di “finire come il ddl Zan”.

Green pass rafforzato: il governo ha deciso delle restrizioni per i non vaccinati. Il Consiglio dei ministri ha approvato all’unanimità un decreto che stabilisce delle restrizioni per le persone che non sono state vaccinate contro il coronavirus e che non sono guarite di recente, introducendo una versione “rafforzata” del Green Pass che dal 6 dicembre servirà per entrare in bar e ristoranti al chiuso, spettacoli, eventi sportivi e discoteche. Il decreto prevede poi che la versione “base” del Green Pass diventerà obbligatoria per salire sui mezzi pubblici locali. Le nuove regole del decreto entreranno in vigore il 6 dicembre e resteranno in vigore fino al 15 gennaio. Non è ancora chiaro come funzionerà il nuovo regime, che di fatto prevede due tipologie di Green Pass, dal punto di vista pratico e tecnologico.

È stato firmato il Trattato del Quirinale. Il Presidente del Consiglio Mario Draghi e il Presidente della Repubblica francese Emmanuel Macron hanno firmato il Trattato del Quirinale, un patto di alleanza rafforzato che prevede un coordinamento negli ambiti di affari esteri; sicurezza e difesa; spazio; affari europei; politiche migratorie; cooperazione economica, industriale e digitale; giovani, istruzione, università; cultura; cooperazione transfrontaliera e di polizia. Tra le misure previste, un vertice intergovernativo con cadenza annuale e la partecipazione di un membro del governo di un Paese al Consiglio dei ministri dell’altro, almeno una volta ogni tre mesi.

Trovato l’accordo sulla riforma fiscale. Le forze politiche di maggioranza hanno trovato un accordo sulla riforma fiscale. Le aliquote Irpef passeranno da 5 a 4, con la cancellazione di quella al 41% e alcuni tagli delle aliquote sulle fasce medie di reddito. A questo si aggiunge il taglio dell’Irap, per un importo totale della manovra che dovrebbe mantenersi entro gli 8 miliardi.

Ennio Doris è morto, il fondatore di Banca Mediolanum aveva 81 anni. Il fondatore di Banca Mediolanum è moro nella notte tra martedì e mercoledì, all’età di 81 anni. Ad annunciarlo sono state la moglie e I figli I quali hanno dichiarato che «in questi giorni di lutto» vogliono «mantenere uno stretto riserbo», che chiedono a tutti di «voler rispettare». Anche la banca diffonde una nota dalla quale emerge il dolore di dipendenti e collaboratori, che si stringono alla famiglia Doris e rendono omaggio al loro fondatore.

Il nuovo tentativo di cambiare la sanità in Lombardia. I consiglieri stanno discutendo l’ennesimo tentativo di riforma della sanità regionale dopo le evidenti lacune emerse durante la prima ondata della pandemia da coronavirus. I punti principali del nuovo testo sono quattro: il cosiddetto approccio “One Health”, che riconosce un legame tra la salute degli individui e quella degli animali e dell’ambiente; la libertà del cittadino sia nella scelta delle strutture ospedaliere, sia del personale; il rapporto tra sanità pubblica e privata; il raccordo tra sanità lombarda, aziende e università.

Bocconi News

This weekend the campus has hosted the graduation ceremonies of the Undergraduate students that completed their studies in October. Once again, the campus has been filled with flowers, confetti and choirs to celebrate the new Doctors. Congratulations!

This week the University has held a series of events for the International Day for Violence Against Women. One of them, Half The (Bright) Sky – Standing Against Gender-based Violence has seen the rector being joined by the CDA student representative Achraf Fadhel, along with Bianca Brunori from Team and Vaasavi Unnava from World@B that have expressed the endorsement of the entire student community of the “Statement against gender-based violence”.

In the last days, Bocconi mail servers have been under attack by a series of phishing campaigns: the Security Operations Centre has promptly reacted to those, by warning the students and instructing them on the procedures to follow to avoid major damages and data thefts.

Campus Life events are entering a new exciting phase: on the 25th, the Addictions and Substance Use/Abuse event in collaboration with Ospedale Sacco has been held on Zoom.  Next week, on the 30^th there will be a new event in which the students will be able to meet two Italian paralympic athletes: Beatrice Bebe Vio, Olympic champion of fencing, and Riccardo Bagaini, World silver medalist in sprinting events!

Long Read

Over the past two years, people all over the world have been in the grips of a pandemic that has dismantled our habits and has arguably completely taken apart our everyday lives. We all know that and we all have been talking about the long-term effects that COVID-19 is having and is bound to keep having on our existence. An element that may have been less evident but that is extremely relevant for us to think about is the clear distinction in the effects that the pandemic has had on the Northern hemisphere of the world, where COVID-19 became a leading cause of death, and the Southern hemisphere, where the main engine of destruction was not the disease in itself, but the second-order effects that derived from measures that were imposed by local governments. In the compelling analysis that he put together for The Guardian, Kwame Anthony Appiah argues that there are two pandemics to be analyzed, one in the developed world and one in the developing world. You can find the full piece here.

In Case You Missed It

On the TiL Rundown column, Emma Velasquez Mariucci put a spotlight on the FemTech industry, which develops technologies for womxn’s health and well-being.

Carlo Maria Franchino wrote about Milan’s M4 – the new metro line in construction that will connect the Linate Airport to S. Cristoforo RS.

L’associazione studentesca bocconiana Keiron ha pubblicato un articolo sul fenomeno del falso ricordo e sulle sue possibili conseguenze per il diritto penale sostanziale e processuale.

Emma Velasquez Mariucci interviewed Emanuela Wu, a Bocconi alumna who is currently the Head Global Business Development Manager at Impossible Brands in China.

Chiara Todesco, who has recently been elected to Milan Municipio 5 council, told her story and shared her tips on how to become a political representative of our generation.

Santiago Ferrer summarized the game that took place on Sunday 21^st November between Bocconi Men’s basketball first team and Basket Seriana.