As mid-April in London – the city of our corporate headquarters – does its best impression of summer, we at Mediolana have some bright news to share: namely, one of the world’s most pre-eminent companies in any sector has joined our stellar list of corporate partners, which already includes Honey By PayPal, Newsweek and DHL.
Analysis: the remarkable resurgence in the popularity of the featurephone defies predictions, but the novelty of having one's every move tracked, packaged and sold by Big Tech is starting to wear thin #privacy#BigTech
To watch: any electronics manufacturer who can produce a privacy-centred, tactile #smartphone stands to win significant and sticky market share; the thirst for a genuinely different offering is palpable https://t.co/L4S0X44upP
Fortune: 53% of US workers are experiencing burnout, while 83% believe that a four-day workweek is part of the solution to this ongoing problem #burnout
Analysis: US companies must figure out ways of retaining and motivating staff which are beyond the merely functional; at some point, everyone needs to feel fully human if they are to give of their best #burnout
To watch: particularly from the perspective of employees, the US workforce gets a poor deal vis à vis not just Europe, but many emerging economies which boast serious quality of life compensations; human capital flight seems inevitable https://t.co/SxqxpC8EMf#WorkLifeBalance
2022 IHEF: 24,000 of the 50,000 undergraduate applications from China in 2030 are likely to be accepted, representing a 'staggering' 70% absolute increase from the 2021 figure of 14,000 #China#highered#UnitedKingdom
Analysis: the stampede of Chinese students to British universities means that 1/700 Chinese nationals in the 17-25 age group (0.1428%) will be studying in the UK by 2030 #China#UnitedKingdom#internationalstudents
To watch: the end of the one-child policy (1980-2015) means that China's teenage population is set to rise; UK universities must remain proactive in attracting this critical demographic https://t.co/9bIG3paTTF#China#highered
Dublin: Ukrainian students entering the Republic of Ireland will be given EU fee status instead of that allocated to non-EU international students #internationalstudents#Ukraine
Simon Harris (Minister for Further and Higher Education, Republic of Ireland): Ukrainian students will also have access to student grants and support, including English language training for those who need it #highered#highereducation#Ukraine
Analysis: Ireland's benevolent actions towards Ukrainian students are exemplary, but (i) their acknowledgment that Russian students in Ireland will also be supported; and (ii) that the actions of the Russian state 'are no reflection on its people' also need to be emulated #edchat
To watch: #Ukraine's EU candidacy – which was viewed as incredibly distant until recently – could be dramatically accelerated, but existing candidates may gripe about the endless delays to their own applications https://t.co/1vhf5Gl4jc
Higher Education Statistics Authority (UK): the number of Chinese students at British universities now stands at around 144,000 – a 50% increase in just five years (2017-2022) #university#internationalstudents#China
The spike in the number of Chinese international students at UK universities comes despite a seemingly endless series of foreign policy blunders, many of them rooted in mindless #xenophobia#internationalstudents
Analysis: every year, a staggering 0.7m Chinese students leave their home country to study abroad, illustrating that this aspect of #globalisation is deep and seemingly unstoppable #highered
To watch: with the world seemingly bifurcating into two opposing power blocs, education sectors worldwide could become politicised in the cause of 'national security', a trend which should be resisted in the name of sanity https://t.co/XQ0JgS1hxl
Home Office: 'around 50' Ukrainians have been granted visas under a scheme for refugees with family links to the United Kingdom, a number which represents just 0.90% of applicants #refugees
In stark contrast to the UK response, Ukraine's neighbours have taken in the overwhelming majority of the estimated 1.5m people seeking refuge from a completely unnecessary and truly horrifying war #Ukraine
Analysis: the 99.1% stall rate in granting UK visas to refugees fleeing a superpower invasion is all the more galling given the United Kingdom's outsize role in destabilising the region #Ukraine
To watch: #Ukraine needs a viable and just peace settlement with absolute immediacy if the outflow of refugees from the country is not to eclipse those exiting the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s https://t.co/29lwvD5mnP
Even the most soporific of media observers cannot fail to have noticed the alarming transition into wall-to-wall coverage of the Russia-Ukraine War, the event which has invaded the collective global consciousness since the final week of February. The spectre of conflict on Europe’s eastern periphery – a part of the world with all-too-many associations for military historians – is, quite understandably, causing deep concern across the continent; nevertheless, the sheer relentless velocity of the exposure invites certain questions, especially given the broader context.
Since March 2020 – and like their contemporaries across much of the world – European governments have been in pseudo-religious thrall to COVID-19 measures, even when these have made little medical and/or economic sense; the cost has been the opening of a deep cleavage between the general population and the classes charged with running the polity. With COVID-19 now so demonstrably and palpably not perceived to be a serious danger, the question of what exactly the last two years have all been for was starting to bite.
In this sense, the timing of the war could scarcely be more providential, but there are also other signs that, for now at least, all is not as it seems:
Illogical sanctions. The sanctions being applied to the Russian economy do not target its major export – oil – nor the importation into the Russian Federation of Italian designer clobber, meaning that Russia’s jet-set (and their Western suppliers) are unlikely to be massively inconvenienced by the chaos in a neighbouring republic.
Calculated idiocy. Instead of executing a typically wily and pragmatic plan – such as taking over the Russian-identifying areas of Ukraine – the administration of Vladimir Putin has opted for a ‘March on Kiev’ which has single-handedly wiped out the country’s enormous PR gains of the past decade (hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup, helping defeat ISIL in Syria) in a matter of days; such apparently deliberate stupidity presages a wider crisis (cf. ‘three weeks to flatten the curve’).
Ignoring non-military solutions. The obvious compromise which could have resolved this entire impasse – opening up Ukraine’s long path to EU candidacy while ensuring it steers clear of either NATO or SCO membership – seems to have been scuttled to no discernible end. Instead, Europe has suddenly embarked on an ‘impromptu’ remilitarisation drive, while chilling Russian attacks on ‘key installations’ – and the ghastly corresponding collateral damage – transfer Western anti-government anger elsewhere, and ensure Russia’s own population remains in a state of fear.
Nyon: UEFA is in the process of cancelling a sponsorship contract with Russian energy giants #Gazprom worth around €40m/US$44.84m per season (2018-21) #Russia#RussiaUkraineWar
According to the proposed terms of the advertising contract cancellation, #Gazprom advertising boards are 'unlikely' to be visible when the UEFA Champions League returns on 08/03/2022 #UEFA#WarinUkraine
Analysis: the fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war has been commercial rather than nuclear, but the conflict has nevertheless had the effect of pushing #COVID19 down the agenda – giving breathing space to politicians everywhere #WarinUkraine
To watch: the general and understandable distaste for war has tarnished Russia's soft power credentials; the aim on all sides must be for a rapid, pragmatic and just settlement characterised by serious demilitarisation moves https://t.co/7yUonbaTTs
Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association ('ASI&FMA'): 73% of bank and asset manager members have experienced difficulties hiring and retaining talent in Hong Kong #COVID19#China
The ASI&FMA survey findings are echoed in the 44% of American Chamber of Commerce members who stated that they are 'more likely' to leave Hong Kong because of the territory's continuing #COVID restrictions #China
Analysis: Hong Kong's ultra-tough 'zero COVID' policy came in at the same time as Beijing's controversial new national security law; outsiders may have a tough time telling the two apart #HongKong
To watch: Hong Kong's continued fight-to-the-death against #COVID19 is generating unsustainable levels of collateral damage; Singapore and Tokyo are already beneficiaries of 'refugees' from the gateway to China https://t.co/JULVejNPzj
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