World Economic Forum (April 8, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:

0:15 Vanuatu takes the World to Court – The island state pushed through a historic UN motion which calls on the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest court to establish countries’ legal duties to address the climate crisis. The ICJ will provide an ‘opinion’ on what countries can do to cut emissions and protect people and protect climate-vulnerable people. Although the opinion won’t be legally binding, it will carry huge weight and could be used in climate negotiations and future climate lawsuits.

1:43 Japanese workers just got a historic payrise – Every year, unions of major companies negotiate wages in Spring, for shorter hours and better pay. This year, the parties agreed to a 3.8% wage rise, the biggest raise since 1993. For part-time and contract workers, the raise was even larger, 5.91% per hour. A rise in the cost of living drove the agreements. Consumer prices in Japan have risen 4.2% in a year, The sharpest rise for 40 years. And the real value of wages fell 4.1% in January for the tenth consecutive month.

3:03 Latvia has the most female inventors in Europe – A new study charted the gender gap in European inventors from 1978 to today by counting the women named in patent applications. From 2010-2019, 30.6% of Latvia’s inventors were women. Portugal took second place with 26.8% and third was Croatia, where 25.8% of inventors were women. 4:39 Friends are key to reducing inequality – Researchers wanted to know why some people climb the economic ladder faster than others. So they looked at the Facebook friendships of 72 million people. Here’s what they found.

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