Since the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the refugee crisis generated by this war has been a major humanitarian challenge. Eurostat tracks data on people granted temporary protection across the Union. The latest data published by the agency shows that Germany has taken in more Ukrainian refugees than any other European Union country except Poland.

As of March 2023, there are over 1 million Ukrainian refugees in Germany. The majority of refugees are women and children, as Ukrainian men are banned from leaving the country based on the mobilization law in place.

Compared to the population of each EU member, the highest numbers of total registered refugees per thousand people in March 2023 were observed in Czechia (30.9%), Estonia (27.8%), Poland (25.9%), Lithuania (24.2%) and Bulgaria (22.5%).

You can find more information about this data on the Eurostat website.

It has been 9 days since the beginning of the Russian invasion of the Ukrainian nation, which unfortunately has been catastrophic for this country. More than 1 million refugees have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Poland and several Ukrainian cities have been heavily bombed.

All western countries have condemned this unprovoked invasion in unison and have uniformly applied sanctions against the Russian regime. Hopefully, they will make it economically impossible to sustain this senseless war.

Slava Ukraini

Last night, when I passed near the Rathaus in Basel, I found that a Ukrainian flag had been placed on the flagpole of this emblematic landmark. There was also a group of young people gathered in the square with peace signs and notices imploring an end to the unprovoked invasion of this European country. Sending my love and best wishes to all my Ukrainian friends.

An invasion is defined as 'an instance of invading a country or region with an armed force.' Ukraine has been an independent country since the signing of the Belovezh Accords in 1991, which dissolved the Soviet Union. The news that the Russian president has recognised the independence of two Russian-controlled territories in east Ukraine—territories that call themselves the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics—and the subsequent incursion of his military forces into this region of Ukraine, fits the definition of an invasion.

Diplomacy is always the preferred option to avoid a military conflict, but I feel bad for my Ukrainian friends because it seems that the conflict is already there :/, and the world should act accordingly.

When Theresa May announced her intention to seek a general election back in April, the conservative lead on the polls over labor was around 21%. As you can see in the graph above, this lead has been shrinking over time. It's very interesting to see what is going to happen in this election next month.

Two days ago, amazing Coldplay concert in the Olympia Stadium in Berlin.

Interesting chart about the top UK selling music acts in history. Data from wikipedia.

The chart above contains a breakdown per region of the Brexit vote results. In a nutshell England and Wales voted to leave (with the exception of London) and Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain.

It's shocking that the UK decided to leave the European Union, but on the other hand, Scotland voted clearly in favour of the UK staying in the EU by 62% to 38%—with all 32 council areas backing Remain. Heading towards a new Scottish independence referendum?

According to this Wikipedia article that tracks all the polls related to the British referendum on the European Union membership (Brexit), it's going to be a close call even if the remain vote has been gaining ground in the last days.

In last week's episode, John Oliver summarised quite nicely why [leaving the European Union](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgKHSNqxa8) would be such a bad deal for the United Kingdom. Crossing the fingers.

Yesterday at the office we were discussing the possibility of the UK leaving the European Union. Actually, we wrote in our company blog what this brexit would mean for European workers, some time ago. But with all this brexit discussion, we forgot the UK is actually one of the oldest members of the European Union (1973).

You can check this map in detail here

Yesterday evening I was listening to a really cool Freakonomics podcast episode titled Who Needs Handwriting?. Stephen Dubner discussed the pros and cons of handwriting, its origins, and the emphasis it still receives in the high school system. Quite interesting.

I started to think that I use handwriting at work to draw schemas about the different pieces of a project or task that I need to accomplish, but it definitely has been a while since the last time I wrote a proper handwritten letter.

I wanted to check if there was data about postal volume, because I guess the decline in handwriting has an impact on these numbers. I found two interesting sources:

• UK Postal Museum
• US Postal Services

Both sites show a decline in the number of total mail sent. The decline is particularly dramatic after 2005: