This week, the Monday Briefing starts from the migrant crisis intensifying in Southern Italy, where two NGO ships are waiting for the permission to allow the several hundreds migrants still on board to disembark and receive the necessary treatment. In other news, the new Bocconi board, elections in Israel, Elon Musk’s first moves as the owner of Twitter, an assassination attempt in Pakistan and much much more. Find it all in this week’s edition of the Monday Briefing!
Spotlight
In the past few months, the migration route from Northern Africa to Italy has seemingly not been very salient in public debate, even though the situation has not necessarily improved. Now, just a few weeks after the new right wing Italian government led by Giorgia Meloni has taken office, one of the first crises that the executive is being forced to manage regards precisely migration. As of right now, in the port of Catania, in Sicily, there are two NGO ships that over the last few days have rescued several hundreds of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea, the Humanity 1 of SOS Humanity and the Geo Barents by MSF. They have been stuck there for several days, because the Italian government claims that they have no right to dock on Italian soil. On Sunday, the Italian government, through a ministerial decree, has granted the right to disembark to women, children and fragile people, in clear violation of international law. As a result, the majority of the migrants on board have indeed reached Italian land, but several hundreds people — notably healthy males — are still on board, and the Italian minister of Interior Matteo Piantedosi claims that the ships carrying the flag of a certain nation are the responsibility of that nation. In this case, since the ships carry, respectively, a German and a Norwegian flag, it is the responsibility of these governments to take care of the asylum requests of people on board. That is a clearly violation of the Hamburg Convention of 1979, which clearly states that migrants should be allowed to disembark to the safe port that is closest to the point of rescue. As the crisis is intensifying with more ships in coming and the Italian government being increasingly criticized nationally and internationally, it seems like this will keep being a topic of discussion for several months.
Around the World
Migos rapper Takeoff shot dead in Houston . 28-year old rapper, by the real name of Kirshnik Khari Ball, was fatally shot at a bowling alley on Monday night. As reported by authorities, an argument had emerged after a game of dice, which led to shots being fired. Celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian, SZA, or James Corden sent their condolences to the rapper’s family. As of today, no suspects have been arrested by the Houston local police.
Bolsonaro breaks election silence but refuses to recognize Lula’s victory. In a brief press conference held at the Presidential residence in Brasilia, the Brazilian far-right leader made his first public appearance since his election defeat against former left-wing president Lula da Silva. Bolsonaro thanked voters and demonstrators, but did not mention his rival, nor acknowledge the results of the election. In a statement shortly after his speech, Brazil’s Supreme Court released a statement saying that Bolsonaro had accepted the outcome of the vote.
Netanyahu’s rightwing bloc pulls ahead after Israel elections. Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed “a huge vote of confidence” in Tuesday’s parliamentary elections, with a partial count putting his rightwing bloc on course to win a majority that would seal a dramatic comeback for the veteran politician.
Musk plans to cut up to half of Twitter workforce. In a massive cost-cutting endeavor, in the following weeks Elon Musk is reportedly looking to fire around 3,700 Twitter employees out of the total 7,500. While, Musk is still dismissing growing worries from advertisers, the primary source of Twitter’s revenues, that fear his objectives to loosen Twitters content moderation rules will result in the rise of inappropriate content on the platform.
Imran Khan wounded in ‘assassination attempt’ in Pakistan. On Thursday, a gunman opened fire on the convoy carrying Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, killing one person, and injuring at least seven others, among which Mr. Khan. The convoy, comprising of thousands of supporters of Mr. Khan, had been travelling to Islamabad as part of Mr. Khan’s campaign to oppose his no-confidence vote ousting in April, and to carry on in his efforts to coerce the government into holding early elections.
Indigenous people in Peruvian Amazon detain tourists in oil spill protest . On Friday, more that 70 people, both foreign tourists and Peruvians, were detained overnight on a boat in the Peruvian Amazon by leaders of the local indigenous communities. The protesters’ goal was to call for government action in response to a 2,500-barrel oil spillage in the Cuninico river caused by the 40-year-old NorPeruano rainforest pipeline.
Japan to sign military pact with UK as allies eye China threat Japan and the UK are reportedly set to sign a Reciprocal Access Agreement in December. The pact will simplify the framework of military co-operation between the two countries in the effort to act as a deterrent against the possibility of a conflict sparking with China over Taiwan.
19 people dead after airplane plunges into Lake Victoria. On Sunday morning, the Precision Air flight from Tanzania’s capital Dar es Salaam to Bukoba crashed into the water, 100 meters from the airport runway. A rescue operation is currently ongoing, and 26 people have since been transferred to local hospitals. The nation’s President, along with representatives of the airline company and the Commission chair of the African Union all expressed their condolences following the incident.
Peruvians descend to the streets against President Pedro Castillo. Demonstrators demand the resignation of the nation’s leader who is currently being investigated for 6 corruption-related accusations. On Sunday morning, protesters clashed with police forces, who used tear gas to keep them away from the Parliament and Government buildings.
The French far-right party elects new 27-year-old leader. On Saturday night, Jordan Bardella, a young European lawmaker beat rival Louis Aliot in the internal party elections, securing 85% of the party members’ votes. In his winning address, Bardella vouched to protect France from illegal immigration. The vote comes after former leader Marine Le Pen had stepped down from the party’s leadership following her defeat in this spring’s Presidential Election.
Italian News
Il reintegro di medici e infermieri “no vax”. Tra i primi provvedimenti decisi dalla presidente del Consiglio Giorgia Meloni c’è stata la fine dell’obbligo di vaccino contro il coronavirus per il personale delle strutture sanitarie. L’obbligo sarebbe dovuto terminare il 31 dicembre, ma il governo ha deciso di anticiparne la scadenza al 31 ottobre: dal giorno successivo, quindi, i circa 4mila tra medici, infermieri e altri lavoratori dei servizi per la salute che erano stati sospesi per non essersi vaccinati hanno potuto rientrare in servizio.
La legge anti-raduni cambia, la norma sarà modificata: ecco come. La legge sui rave, nella sua conversione in Parlamento, cambierà. Probabilmente saranno abbassate le pene massime da sei a quattro anni, in modo tale da non prevedere l’arresto immediato e le intercettazioni telefoniche. Sicuramente sarà circoscritta la fattispecie, così da non poterla utilizzare come oggi invece è possibile per una qualsiasi “invasione di edifici”, come un’occupazione di una scuola per esempio, ma soltanto in caso dell’organizzazione di rave.
Migranti e Ong, la Francia tende la mano all’Italia. No della Norvegia. In 7 giorni sbarcate 6.270 persone. Il ministro francese dell’Interno, Gérald Darmanin, «non ha alcun dubbio» sul fatto che l’Italia «rispetterà il diritto internazionale», accogliendo in uno dei suoi porti la nave umanitaria Ocean Viking della ong Sos Méditerranée, bloccata in mare con 234 migranti a bordo. «Il diritto internazionale è molto chiaro: quando una barca chiede di accostare con dei naufraghi a bordo, è il porto più sicuro e più vicino che deve accoglierla. Nello specifico, l’Italia»,
Governo Meloni, dal caro energia alle trivelle: le decisioni del Cdm. Il Consiglio dei ministri ha approvato la Nadef. Il presidente del Consiglio annuncia “30 miliardi per il caro energia fino al 2023” di cui 9,5 da utilizzare la prossima settimana per gli aiuti a famiglie e imprese. Un emendamento al decreto Aiuti ter permetterà nuove estrazioni in mare, per rendere l’Italia più indipendente sul fronte del gas e metterlo a disposizione delle aziende più energivore a prezzi calmierati. Via libera alla spending review per i ministeri
Un elicottero è precipitato in Puglia. Sabato mattina un elicottero con a bordo 7 persone è precipitato nella zona di Foggia, in Puglia: i resti sono stati ritrovati in un’area di campagna tra i comuni di San Severo e Apricena e non ci sono sopravvissuti. L’elicottero era scomparso dai radar intorno alle 10:30 mentre sorvolava Apricena, circa un’ora dopo essere partito dalle isole Tremiti, l’arcipelago nel mar Adriatico in provincia di Foggia.
Letizia Moratti si candiderà alla presidenza della Lombardia con Azione-Italia Viva. Pochi giorni dopo aver dato le dimissioni da vicepresidente e assessora alla Sanità della Regione Lombardia, guidata dalla Lega, Letizia Moratti ha annunciato che si candiderà come presidente alle elezioni regionali del 2023, sostenuta dall’alleanza dei partiti di Carlo Calenda e Matteo Renzi, Azione e Italia Viva (chiamata anche “Terzo Polo”). Moratti sfiderà quindi il candidato della destra, che potrebbe essere proprio l’attuale presidente Attilio Fontana, di cui era vicepresidente solo fino a pochi giorni fa.
Bocconi News
Some exciting stuff has happened in campus this week:
- The most important event of the week has for sure been the first Board Of Directors meeting chaired by new Bocconi President Andrea Sironi and the new Rector, Professor Francesco Billari. The Board of Directors appointed Professor Guido Tabellini as Bocconi Vice President and Professor Stefano Caselli as Dean of SDA Bocconi School of Management. This completes the renewal of the Bocconi Directorate.
- On Wednesday, after the break, the first concert lesson on percussion, voice and guitar organized by Campus Life was held. Registration are now close, but you can have a look at your Bocconi email to see what upcoming activities Campus Life has prepared for our community
- On Thursday, a GREEN Workshop was held on the decarbonization of the plastic industry: Italy is the second plastic consumer in Europe, with about 100 kg per person consumed in 2020. Amongst the main solutions for decarbonizing the plastic industry are the reduction of consumption, the increase of recycling and the substitution of the fossil raw materials with vegetable ones. The workshop has seen a confrontation between academics, figures of the public and private sectors on the guiding principles and the next steps to follow for decarbonizing.
Chiara’s Recommendation
During this past week, two events have reminded us of how multinational fast fashion companies are exploiting workers in China and South-East Asia.
On October 17th, Channel 4 released a documentary “Inside the Shein machine: UNTOLD” in which an undercover investigation shed light on the working conditions of Chinese factories supplying fast fashion company Shein, founded in 2008 by Chris Xu and valued at 47 billion dollars in 2021.
Unsurprisingly, workers are paid less than 3 pence per item and are forced to work shifts up to 18 hours a day, seven days a week. These conditions violate Chinese labor laws, under which workweeks cannot exceed 40 hours, overtimes cannot go over 36 hours and one day off per week must be granted.[1] Workers have so little time that in some factories women must wash their hair during lunch breaks.
Here is what fashion activist Venetia la Manna has to say on Shein’s business model:
Poor working conditions are direct consequences of fast fashion and Shein has managed to take this to the next level.
https://startuptalky.com/shein-business-model/:
Shein has outcompeted ultra-fast fashion, which was pioneered by Zara and H&M, by moving to “real-time fashion”.
The salient points of this new industry are:
– anticipating consumers by getting product ideas from search engines and social media of consumers. In this way, Shein manages to think and produce a new product in three days instead of three weeks like other fast fashion companies. [2]
– algorithms functioning such that when an item is launched, production automatically follows based on how much the item is bought
– aggressive marketing on social media: “Shein has an army of fashion bloggers that constantly post content on TikTok using the hashtag Shein. In return, Influencers get free merchandise”
A week after the investigation on Shein was broadcasted, activists of the Clean Workers Campaign (Abiti Puliti in Italian) have taken the streets to mobilize against Adidas, renown sportwear company with an annual revenue of 21.2 billion dollars, accused of owing 11,7 million dollars of unpaid salaries dating back to the pandemic to factory workers in Cambodia. In May, almost six thousand workers of a factory supplying Adidas went on strike due to their unpaid salaries and the factory reacted by arresting three leaders of the labor unions. Activists claim the company should sign a legally binding agreement to ensure workers are paid and have their rights.
Here is a video of the demonstration in front of the Adidas shop in Rome:
To know more about the Pay Your Workers campaign, click here:
[1] https://www.businessoffashion.com/news/retail/report-shein-violating-labour-laws/
[2] https://norna.ai/news/?p=378
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