THE MUSTS

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No country in the world has gender equality at work

Showing that the gender gap is much worse than previously thought, a report has shown that no country in the world offers the same opportunities for men and women in the job market.

• The same research, carried out by the World Bank, found that closing this gap could increase global GDP by more than 20%.

When theory and reality show two different stories. In recent years, 95 countries have passed laws on equal pay, but only 35 of them have measures in place to ensure that these rules are put into practice.

During this period, countries in Africa have made the fastest progress in reforming legislation - but they are also the least likely to have put the laws into practice in real life.

What else in on

• Maduro breaks promises of clean elections in Venezuela: After signing a treaty ensuring that he would not persecute the opposition, the main opposition candidate was banned from running for 15 years; her replacement was banned from registering as a candidate; the date of the election was decided by surprise for the birthday of Hugo Chávez and protests against the government were repressed with the arrest of human rights leaders and critics of Maduro.

• Protests over Gaza war divide US universities: After students at Columbia University in NY organized pro-Palestinian protests on campus, demonstrations spread to more than 20 educational institutions in all regions of the US. Jewish students say they don't feel safe to attend their places of study. NYU has confirmed that anti-Semitic chants are being sung at the protests - including references to World War II.

• Iraq criminalizes same-sex relationships: Iraq's parliament passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence. The law aims to "protect Iraqi society from moral depravity and the calls for homosexuality that have overtaken the world," according to a copy of the law.

  
  

Spending on experiences is the new consumer motto

YOLO: You Only Live Once. That’s the famous catchphrase you’ve been using to “invest in experiences” rather than save money: The good news is that you’re not alone in your irresponsability 🙂 . 

• Spending on international travel and live shows has increased by 30% in the last year. On the other hand, savings are increasingly empty.

• The rate of money saved by 2023 has fallen to almost 3%.

• Consumers spent $145 billion more last February - the biggest monthly increase in over a year.

Post-pandemic effect: On one hand, workers have managed to increase their incomes after COVID - despite inflation. On the other hand, those who can't spend are going into debt.

Personal opinion: There are so many studies that talk about us saving less as a generation. There are also many studies showing how the price of everything is much more expensive in proportion to the average salary compared to the past. And we rarely make the link between the two: Saving for what? While in the past you had the idea that by saving for a few years you could have enough money to buy a car or put a down payment on a house, this is no longer a tangible reality for the majority of regular workers. And without an achievable goal of why you should save, that trip in the end of the year or nice festival becomes much more attractive than just saving for the sake of saving.

What else in on

• “Blowing off steam” isn’t a good way to calm down. Punching your pillow, doing cardio, and screaming into the void are way less effective for managing anger than deep breathing, yoga, and other relaxing practices, according to a review of 154 studies on physiological arousal and anger. Across the board, mindfulness practices that can lower your heart rate helped people chill out, while common stress-relief activities that get your blood pumping, like jogging, actually had an adverse effect.

• Teens are scientifically confirmed to smell like cheese and urine. Scientists in Germany have classified the chemical compounds that make us smell differently throughout our lives, starting with the ones that cause babies to smell like flowers, soap, and violet. It’s all downhill from there: Puberty leads to the heightened presence of certain compounds that cause teenagers to give off scents of sweat, urine, sandalwood, cheese, goat, and wax, aka a typical locker room - yummy. The researchers got these results by sewing cotton pads into kids’ and teens’ pajama armpits, extracting the chemical compounds present on the pads in the morning, and then having a trained smeller… identify the smells. Is anyone looking for a job?

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