+ Italy's new obesity law
| | | | Pension reforms are a perennial source of tension in Europe. It's no wonder – our ageing population is putting more and more pressure on public services, with ever increasing costs for taxpayers. We can predict and plan for these demographic shifts, but any talk of raising the retirement age is usually met with opposition, and sometimes massive, furious demonstrations. Here's the thing: the alternatives are all far worse. Keeping retirement ages low means squeezing money from somewhere else, probably by substantially hiking taxes. Pension reforms may seem like political suicide in the short term, but imagine being the politician who has to raise the price of literally everything. So how can we make pension reforms actually stick? Economists Javier Díaz Giménez and Julián Díaz Saavedra have a clear answer. Another serious issue for Europe (like much of the world) is the global spread of obesity, or "globesity", as the WHO has creatively dubbed it. Even though our bodies are hard-wired to gain and retain weight, obesity is often treated as a personal failing rather than a medical condition. That could be changing though, as Italy has just become the first European country to legally recognise it as a chronic disease like any other. The new measures will grant patients access to proper treatment, prevention and, above all, dignity. This week marks the 10th anniversary of the November 2015 Paris terror attacks. Commemorating these events can be tricky, with controversy and debate swirling around which events deserve a monument, garden or plaque. A reflection on the 17 plaques that commemorate just a fraction of the various attacks in Paris since 1974 notes how some of these tragic events have "remained invisible in the public sphere". |  | Alex Minshall Editor, Valencia | |  Javier Díaz Giménez, IESE Business School (Universidad de Navarra) ; Julián Díaz Saavedra, Universidad de Granada Demographic shifts are predictable, but pension reforms fail when politics triumphs over economics. | | |  José Miguel Soriano del Castillo, Universitat de València Obesity needs specialised medical care, not personal judgement. Italy has enshrined this in law. | |  Valdemar Brimnes Ingemann Johansen, University of Copenhagen; Christoffer Clemmensen, University of Copenhagen The evolutionary science of weight regain unpacked. |  Aiden Hoyle, Leiden University Russia and China push content that depicts western states as chaotic, immoral and even just weird. | |  Sarah Gensburger, Sciences Po Of the nearly 150 attacks that have taken place in Paris since 1974, only a few have left a mark on its 'urban memory'. Why do so many attacks remain absent from the public sphere? |  Xosé M. Núñez Seixas, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Who defeated the Nazis and ended World War II? It's a matter of disputed historical memory. | |  Ansgar Wohlschlegel, Swansea University Voters in the German city of Hamburg recently rejected the idea of a free payment for all residents. | | | | | -
Sergi Basco, Universitat de Barcelona The value of AI-related stocks has ballooned in recent months. What happens when the bubble bursts? -
Hussein Boon, University of Westminster This is a pop record with substance and bite. -
Andrea Scotti, Lund University Seven grams of salt per litre is optimal, according to physics. -
Elena Papagiannaki, Edinburgh Napier University It's part of a global trend towards longer hours as wages can't keep pace with inflation. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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