Parsons told Global Insider, "this notion of mutual recognition just really doesn't exist in American jurisprudence and legislation. It's a really extraordinary invention of the European single market: This principle that if you want to have relatively easy movement, across jurisdictions, you don't necessarily have to sit down and draw up single common standards; you can have an alternative where you just all agree that anything that meets anybody's standard is acceptable across all the jurisdictions." The European Union has spent 60 years tearing down commercial and migration barriers between its member countries — and yet the flow of people, goods and services between California and Texas is still much larger than between Germany and France. Matthijs and Parsons say that's not a sign of EU failure, but instead indicates that the EU has removed regulatory barriers while failing to tear down cultural ones — leaving the continent with an underused single market. Americans, on the other hand, are enthusiastic about working, buying and selling across state lines. And yet they face innumerable and pointless barriers — from local standards for elevators to different state hairdresser licensing rules. The payoff from U.S. state and federal governments doing some EU-style market reforms could be huge. COVID — THE 1.6 MILLION DEATHS XI FEARS: China risks a "tsunami" of coronavirus cases resulting in 1.6 million deaths if the regime in Beijing changes its policy to live with the virus rather than crush it, according to a new study by Fudan University researchers. That didn't stop WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus — in a rare public criticism of Beijing — telling the country's leadership that their "zero-Covid" approach needs to change. "We don't think that it is sustainable considering the behavior of the virus," told a media briefing. HONG KONG'S NON-ELECTION ELECTION: John Lee Ka-chiu's appointment as Hong Kong's new chief executive signals another decisive lurch toward Beijing-driven authoritarian rule. UKRAINE FRONTS SANCTIONS: Atlantic Council has published a global sanctions dashboard. FUNDING: "We are not as dumb as you might think": In an exclusive interview, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told POLITICO's Christopher Miller he rues U.S. delays in providing weapons. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy today thanked Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her efforts to swiftly pass funding bills. On Tuesday night, the House passed a $40 billion military aid and humanitarian assistance package and sent it to the Senate for consideration. While the U.S. is funding the bulk of Ukraine's defense support (to the chagrin of European commentators such as Eoin Drea), the EU expects to stuck with the bill for Ukraine's much more expensive eventual reconstruction. WEAPONS: Russia's weapons lack precision, and even the better ones are running out, U.S. defense officials say. Charles Michel , president of the European Council, was forced into a bomb shelter with Ukraine's prime minister when Russia launched missiles at Odesa. UNITED NATIONS: The war and U.N. reform prospects: Read this edited version of a recent lecture by International Crisis Group's Richard Gowan. TURKEY — TENSION OVER TURKEY'S 4 MILLION REFUGEES NEARS BOILING POINT: Turkey is home to more than 4 million refugees, most of them from Syria. But with inflation in Turkey reaching 70 percent in April, a sign of broader economic instability, "it is no coincidence that the fears over refugees are mounting," writes Laura Pitel for the Financial Times. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is sending mixed messages. As recently as March, he was defending his policy of hosting "our Syrian brothers and sisters" and last week announced a plan to build 100,000 homes in northern Syria that he said would convince around one million Syrians to go back. Then, in a televised address Monday , Erdoğan pushed back against opposition CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who is promising to return Syrian refugees to their homeland within two years of him coming to power. "We will protect up to the end these brothers who fled the war and took refuge in our country," Erdogan said. SRI LANKA — PROTESTORS SEND PM'S HOME UP IN FLAMES: Protesters torched the family home of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who resigned on Monday after weeks of anti-government protests sparked by his economic mismanagement. Rajapaska fled under military protection. His older brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, remains president of the country and a target of protestors. PHILIPPINES — MINIMUM VIABLE DEMOCRACY ON THE WAY: Ferdinand Marcos Jr. won the Philippines election, proving that a family history of looting the state is no barrier to democratic success. One of the foundations of Marcos Jr.'s success: a retelling of his family's history as a "golden era" of stability and high growth. The opposition will attempt to disqualify Marcos in a Supreme Court case. If that all sounds familiar to American readers: Yes, you have been paying attention. Marcos should at least be more friendly to Washington than the outgoing Rodrigo Duterte administration — but it's not clear the vibes will be returned "given the Biden administration's focus on human rights and other governance issues," said Charles Dunst, an associate at The Asia Group and fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. TECH — BY THE NUMBERS: The world's largest technology companies have shed over $1 trillion in value over the past week. WORKPLACE TREND — FOUR-DAY WORK WEEK Are you so glued to your screens from Sunday night to Thursday night that you informally dial down on Friday? The idea of a four-day work week isn't new. It's the subject of pilot programs and opinion polls that, unsurprisingly, show strong public support. Congress and the lobbying industries it supports always worked a four-day Washington week; if the actual work didn't end on Friday, at least the D.C. focus did. What's different in 2022 is the type of organization taking the thinking on-board. Trends that started as "casual Fridays" are morphing from an invitation to dress down into more expansive "summer Fridays" programs, where workers at companies like IBM spend the day doing some kind of training or personal development, or simply closing their laptop at lunch. This week, Washington's HFX — which runs the Halifax International Security Forum — officially adopted a four-day workweek. HFX President Peter Van Praagh said "an in-person, four-day workweek now is not just possible, but desirable." For some managers, "in-person" is the key phrase there, not "four-day workweek." Are you struggling to get your staff into the office for even one or two days? Are you moving to a four-day workweek? Email rheath@politico.com with your thoughts.
| 
Comments
Post a Comment