标题: 2022.06.15斯里兰卡公务员每周放假一天，在家里种菜 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-6-15 18:28 标题: 2022.06.15斯里兰卡公务员每周放假一天，在家里种菜 The European Central Bank called an unscheduled meeting on Wednesday to “discuss current market conditions”, just six days after saying that it would raise interest rates in July. The announcement provided some respite to the euro, Italian government bonds and European shares. After its meeting today the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by as much as 0.75 percentage points to combat inflation. On Tuesday the S&P 500 index fell for the fifth straight day, sliding deeper into bear-market territory.
Russia demanded the surrender of Ukrainian forces fighting to defend Severodonetsk. The governor of Luhansk, the region containing Severodonetsk, said it was getting “harder” to defend the city, which Russia now controls 80% of. Evacuations of civilians sheltering in the Azot chemical factory are underway.
Coinbase, America’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, announced it has sacked 18% of its workforce amid a market meltdown. Brian Armstrong, the CEO, reckoned the “crypto winter” could last for “an extended period” and would shrink trading revenues, the company’s biggest source of income. He also conceded that Coinbase had grown too quickly during the crypto boom.
The European Union said it would sign an agreement to procure 110,000 doses of a monkeypox vaccine, to be delivered from the end of June, without naming the supplier. The bloc has so far recorded 900 cases of the virus. America’s drugs regulator has already approved the use of an existing smallpox vaccine. The WHO, in preparing for an emergency committee next week, announced it would rename the virus to avoid stigmatising patients.
The first flight carrying asylum-seekers from Britain to Rwanda was cancelled just hours prior to its departure, after the European Court of Human Rights issued last-minute injunctions stopping the deportations. The number of migrants to be deported had already fallen to single digits in recent days. Earlier in the day Boris Johnson, the prime minister, had hinted that Britain might simply withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights to get its way.
Government workers in Sri Lanka will be given one day off a week to grow crops at home, in a bid to stave off a looming food catastrophe. Several food staples, along with fuel and medicine, are in short supply. Annual inflation in the country hit 39% in May, ravaging household budgets. A statement from the cabinet said that the four-day week would also help to reduce fuel consumption.
BTS announced a “hiatus”, prompting shares of Hybe, the agency that manages the South Korean pop phenomenon, to collapse by 28%. This was no black swan: Hybe’s valuation had been sinking amid uncertainty over the group’s future. In a video posted on YouTube, BTS assured their fans that life goes on; though their members may be pursuing individual projects, the boy band insists this is not a break-up.
Fact of the day: 48%, the share of South Africans who think migrants are “dishonest”. Read the full article.
The Fed eyes a jumbo rate rise
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As chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell prizes predictability, giving investors ample guidance to prepare them for policy changes. But the past few days have been a whirlwind. Before Monday, virtually all bets were on the Fed raising interest rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday at the end of a regular rate-setting meeting. Suddenly, the table has slanted in a more hawkish direction: markets have now priced in a three-quarter-point increase.
That larger increment, taking rates to a range between 1.5% and 1.75%, would be the biggest single rise since 1994. The message would be clear: with inflation running at more than 8% year-on-year, the Fed is determined to bring prices under control. History suggests that rapid monetary tightening often precedes a recession. But the Fed knows that runaway inflation would be even worse.
Apple’s labour fight
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After years of declining membership, American unions are having a moment. Spurred by a tight labour market, union drives are spreading in the technology and retail industries. In the past six months an Amazon warehouse in New York City and a Starbucks café in Buffalo, New York have become the first unionised branches in those companies.
Apple could be next. Employees at its shops are frustrated about stagnant wages and claim that the company’s management disregards health and safety. On Wednesday workers at a shop in Maryland will begin voting on whether to unionise.
Apple is not taking to the idea. Like Amazon and Starbucks, it has been campaigning hard against unionisation. A shop in Atlanta has already cancelled a vote. Even if Maryland workers choose to organise, unions will have a long way to go. There are 271 other Apple stores in America.
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China’s economic loop
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Economic policymakers sometimes complain that their job is like steering a car by looking in the rear-view mirror: the data that guides them reflect the past, not the future. That is less of a problem when the economy is going round in circles.
On Wednesday China published figures on industrial production, retail sales and unemployment for May. Shanghai was then under a strict lockdown to contain a covid-19 outbreak and other parts of the country were also trammelled by restrictions on free movement and gathering. Yet the figures were better than expected and less bad than the month before. The hope is that China can put this covid outbreak behind it and stage a rapid recovery. But infections in both Beijing and Shanghai are already raising fears of another lockdown. The worry, then, is that China’s bad economic data will be a guide to the country’s future as well as its past.
How India squashes protest at home
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Nupur Sharma, a spokesperson for India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party, was hardly blazing a trail when she disparaged the Prophet Muhammad on right-wing chat shows last month. Taboos against offending the Muslim minority are falling by the day. A former BJP officeholder, campaigning in the state of Uttar Pradesh, boasted recently that local Muslims “have stopped wearing skull caps…If you vote for me again, they will start wearing tilak”, a mark on the forehead worn only by Hindus.
But Ms Sharma overstepped, by offending Muslims abroad. Countries in the Gulf led a diplomatic backlash. Eventually the BJP suspended her. But the past week has shown why India’s 200m Muslims tend to be quiescent. Police crackdowns against local protesters were fierce: two were killed, 30 wounded and 400 arrested. In Uttar Pradesh activists’ homes were demolished. On Monday Indian Muslim groups asked their followers to suspend further demonstrations.
More TV shows are out and proud
PHOTO: HULU
The third and final season of “Love, Victor” is released on Wednesday. The comedy-drama follows an American secondary-school pupil as he comes to terms with being gay.
The show—a spin-off from “Love, Simon”, a film about a pupil at risk of being outed—once struggled to find a home. At first it was intended for release on Disney+ but was moved to Hulu because of its “adult themes”. There, it became one of the platform’s most-binged programmes in 2020 and was praised for a less saccharine depiction of LGBT issues than the original.
The third season will air on both platforms. LGBT dramas are becoming more popular on big streaming services. In April Netflix’s “Heartstopper”, based on a web-comic, charmed audiences with its portrayal of queer romance at a British all-boys school. “First Kill”, also on Netflix, hopes to draw on the same success with a tale of a lesbian vampire and vampire hunter. Fans of “Love, Victor” will have choices this pride month.
Daily quiz
Our baristas will serve you a new question each day this week. On Friday your challenge is to give us all five answers and, as important, tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 1700 BST on Friday to QuizEspresso@economist.com. We’ll pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown one winner per continent on Saturday.
Wednesday: Which rock star wrote books such as “In His Own Write” and “A Spaniard in the Works”?
Tuesday: Who was the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister to date, surpassed only by her father?
If fate means you to lose, give him a good fight anyhow.