Russia and North Korea are certainly very similar; they are both ruthless dictatorships, but Chinese leader Xi’s current visit makes it clear that whilst Putin’s economy and power are in decline, Kim has benefited from his involvement in the war in Ukraine and from the prospect of possessing nuclear weapons
The ever-growing pile of Gazan corpses marks, like a metronome, the dwindling time for the hostages and the forthcoming announcements of fallen Israeli soldiers, but above all it stands there to remind us of the moral abyss into which we have fallen. ‘An abyss in which the death of dozens, hundreds of human beings has become routine.’ Etgar Keret
On the cover you will find a sentence found in Corriere della Sera and it is what we fear most: a loosening of quality standards in European food, with a possible invasion of ‘Made in USA’ products
Demand for alternative energy to oil, fertiliser demand and financial speculation threaten to exacerbate the storm unleashed by the war against Iran
The supermarket idea turned out to be a move for which there were no answers, and in the long run one of the moves that led the US to win the cultural and economic game they played with us on the chessboard of Europe
The objectives of the Mattei plan are unclear and the risk of an autogoal on Italian agriculture is possible
This new shock, after the inflationary shock caused by the attack on Ukraine, in addition to triggering a humanitarian cause, risks creating political extremism and new waves of migration towards Europe. It obviously adds to the short-sighted suspension of the dismantling of Usaid
The government, on energy, is in a huge conflict of interest, which is why prices do not fall: Snam, Italgas and Terna beat Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and Meta (Facebook). Italy’s publicly controlled companies that transport or distribute gas and electricity to citizens and businesses are more profitable than some of the world’s largest, most technologically advanced and important companies in the business of the future: cloud, data centres and artificial intelligence. In short, Big Energy beats Big Tech
“If the situation continues, consumers could see higher prices for bread within six to ten weeks, for eggs within a few months, and for pork and broiler chicken within six months, estimates Raj Patel, a food systems expert at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.”
And as we write, 98% of 88VIP customers in China are already deciding where to spend their next money. WeChat knows where and when. Alipay knows the optimal pricing. The advertising system knows which message is most effective for that person, at that time, on that category. Europe is still debating whether GDPR allows data sharing.
A planetary trade war, eminently political, in which the Chinese and Americans are the ‘masters’ and Europe, apart from a few rare exceptions – such as Lidl – has stood by and watched
Mercosur: it is obvious that the ‘invasion’ risk of uncontrolled products, without the safeguard clauses, is likely to exacerbate the risks to our health. But the real problem is that in the European Union there are ‘derogation’ authorisations that allow prohibited substances to be used by member countries to compete unfairly with their neighbours. So before lashing out at Mercosur, perhaps we need to put things in order in Europe
