标题: 2022.06.20马克龙在国民议会的选举中失去了议会多数 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-6-21 00:15 标题: 2022.06.20马克龙在国民议会的选举中失去了议会多数 France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, lost his parliamentary majority in elections to the 577-seat National Assembly. His centrist alliance still emerged as the largest party, but a left-wing alliance became the biggest opposition group, and the far right secured a record-breaking 89 seats, up from eight in the last election.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, called Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports a “war crime”. He called on Russia to end its blockade, saying it is “inconceivable” that people are starving while wheat sits in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said he expected Russia to intensify attacks on his country ahead of an EU decision on whether Ukraine should receive candidate status to join the bloc.
Russia demanded that Lithuania reverse cargo restrictions which have cut off Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea, from the rest of the country. The ban prevents some Russian cargo from moving across Lithuania by train. Lithuania says it is enforcing EU sanctions which came into force on June 17th. Russia called the move “openly hostile” and warned of retaliation.
José Mauro Coelho, the chief executive of Petrobras, the Brazilian state oil company, resigned after just two months in the job. The price of petrol has risen more than 25% since June 2021, and last week Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, said that prices should not rise further—shortly before the company raised its prices again. Two previous bosses were also forced out after disputes with Mr Bolsonaro.
Security forces across India were put on high alert and several trains were cancelled as protests against a new army-recruitment scheme raged on. Under “Agnipath”, the government plans to hire soldiers on fixed four-year contracts, as a way to reduce the army’s expenditure. Protesters, mostly young men, believe this hurts their chances of securing a permanent military job which provides several other benefits, including a pension.
A court in Japan dismissed a claim that the country’s ban on same-sex marriages was “unconstitutional”. Despite most of the population approving of same-sex marriages or civil unions, Japan is the only country in the G7, a group of big economies, not to allow them. Last week the local government in Tokyo, the capital, passed legislation that gave some partnership rights to same-sex couples.
Low-cost clothing retailer Primark announced a small trial of “click-and-collect” at 25 stores in the north-west of England—the first time the firm has offered any online shopping at all. The Irish firm has shops throughout Europe and in America. Without an online presence, the chain was hit especially hard by shop closures during the pandemic.
Fact of the day: 13%, manufacturing’s share of GDP across the OECD club of mostly rich countries, an all-time low. Read the full article
A vicious circle of inflationary expectations
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Economists expect that the global surge in inflation will soon come to an end. The general public are not so sure. A worldwide measure of people’s inflation expectations over the next year was more than 4% in May, up from 2.3% a year ago. Other measures of inflation expectations seem to be growing, too. The worry is that these beliefs will start feeding into actual economic behaviour—wage demands, say, or pricing decisions—thus feeding the inflationary beast.
Indeed, central banks may have difficulty getting inflation expectations down again. After decades of low and stable inflation, few people pay much attention to what Jerome Powell, Christine Lagarde or Andrew Bailey say, or even know who they are. History offers some lessons. In the 1980s Paul Volcker, chairman of the Federal Reserve, cultivated his image as an anti-inflation nutter. Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were known for their anti-inflationary zeal. Perhaps it’s time for inflation to be named public enemy number one once again.
China delves deeper into Africa
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Signs that China is tentatively revising its cherished doctrine of “non-interference” can be seen in the Horn of Africa. On Monday a “peace conference” kicks off in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, organised by China after its appointment of a special envoy to the region, which is racked by ethnic, territorial and resource-driven conflicts, including a war between Ethiopia’s federal government and the rebellious region of Tigray.
China has said very little about what it wants to achieve, other than to tackle the challenges of “security, development and governance”. Protecting its considerable economic investments in the region is probably its main concern. But China is unlikely to attempt to mediate directly in Ethiopia’s civil war. Rebel groups are not invited. Eritrea—a major source of the region’s instability—is unlikely to attend. In all, it is doubtful the conference will address the root causes of the Horn’s instability.
Get the briefing in your inbox
Delivered before breakfast six times per week.
Sign up
The latest cycle of gerrymandering comes to an end
PHOTO: ALAMY
Monday is the deadline for Louisiana to submit a new map of its Congressional districts. A federal judge rejected the state’s previous proposal—passed by the Republican legislature over the veto of the Democratic governor—when it was found to violate the voting-rights act by not including enough black-majority districts. Louisiana is the only state left without a map for the midterm elections in November. Once approved, America’s contentious redistricting cycle will finally end.
After the decennial census in 2020, Democrats and Republicans competed to redraw Congressional boundaries in their favour, a process known as gerrymandering. Courts attempted to block more egregious efforts—sometimes, as in Louisiana, to avoid the marginalisation of racial minorities. In some states, like Ohio, Republicans simply ignored the courts. Across the country as a whole, the partisan balance has remained stable, but the number of competitive districts has dwindled. The Supreme Court may rule next year to expand the ability of states to gerrymander. Voters look set to be stuck with still more extreme candidates.
Sri Lanka seeks help from the IMF
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
These days Sri Lanka often looks deserted. The most active people are officials scrambling to emergency meetings. Public transport has ground to a halt. From Monday, schools and state-run offices will be shut for two weeks. Fridays have been declared a public holiday in a bid to conserve fuel. With rolling blackouts and a lack of medicines, the country confronts a humanitarian crisis. Food prices have soared as farmers plough through an acute shortage of fertilisers.
A delegation from the International Monetary Fund arrived in Colombo, the capital, on Monday to discuss a rescue package. On May 22nd Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt for the first time. High energy prices and the covid-19 pandemic contributed to the worst economic crisis in seven decades, but so too did the country’s own economic mismanagement. Last week the central-bank governor admitted that the government could have gone to the IMF sooner. Better late than never.
Nobel prize auction for Ukraine
PHOTO: EYEVINE
After Russia invaded Finland in 1939, Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist, donated his Nobel-prize medal to aid Finnish civilians. More than 80 years later, he has inspired another laureate to follow suit. On Monday, a Russian journalist and last year’s peace-prize winner, Dmitry Muratov, will auction his 23-karat gold token to help Ukrainian refugees. The starting price is $550,000, but higher bids are expected. Another medal belonging to Francis Crick, a molecular biologist, fetched $2.3m in 2013.
Mr Muratov has already done much to shine light on his country’s government. His independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta has for decades investigated corruption and human-rights abuses in Russia. Founded on a small budget in 1993, the publication was boosted with the last Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev’s own Nobel-prize money. Six of its journalists have been murdered since 2000. It kept going—until March, when it suspended operations as the Kremlin muffled media critical of its war.
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.
Monday: Which performer in the Star Wars movies was the daughter of Debbie Reynolds, an actress and singer?
Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing