标题: 2022.06.23公共场合携带隐蔽的手枪 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-6-24 03:16 标题: 2022.06.23公共场合携带隐蔽的手枪 America’s Supreme Court struck down a law in the state of New York that required people to demonstrate “proper cause” to carry a concealed handgun in public. By six votes to three, the justices ruled that the century-old law infringed on the constitutional right of citizens “with ordinary self-defence needs” to bear arms. It is a major blow to those campaigning for stricter gun control.
Ukraine received a consignment of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems from America. Each carries a pod of six GPS-guided missiles, accurate over distances as far as 70-84km—about three times the range of the howitzers that America has supplied thus far. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, has been pleading for heavy weapons to be delivered, saying that Russia is trying to destroy the whole Donbas region with air and artillery strikes.
Germany moved to the second stage of a three-part emergency plan to deal with a potential shortage of gas after Russia reduced supplies. Germany has accused Russia of using gas as a “weapon” in retaliation for EU sanctions provoked by the invasion of Ukraine. Among other measures, Germany’s government will now issue loans to help companies fill gas-storage facilities.
Xi Jinping, China’s president, promised to meet economic targets despite the country’s costly zero-covid policy. His government has projected GDP growth of 5.5% this year. Most economists believe the figure will be much lower. Mr Xi was speaking ahead of the BRICS summit which started on Thursday. He also criticised the West’s sanctions on Russia, calling them a “boomerang and a double-edged sword”.
Aid began to arrive in remote parts of Afghanistan hit by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake on Wednesday which killed at least 1,000 people. The Taliban had called for international support. A senior official said the government was “financially unable to assist the people to the extent that is needed”. The UN said it is “fully mobilised” but rescue efforts will be hindered by the terrain, weather and lack of access.
Norway’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate from 0.75% to 1.25% in order to contain rising inflation. It was the biggest single raise for 20 years. The bank further warned that interest rates would “most likely” go up again in August to 1.5%, predicting that core inflation would reach 3.2% this year, well above its target of around 2%.
A judge in Argentina ruled that eight people looking after Diego Maradona before he died in 2020 should face homicide charges. The footballer (and national hero) died, aged 60, of cardiac arrest, two weeks after undergoing brain surgery. The judge found that his medical team failed to take “action that could have prevented the death”. The defendants have denied responsibility.
Fact of the day: 79%, how much higher the number of suicides was in the Chinese city of Wuhan during lockdown in 2020 than in the same period in 2019. Read the full article.
BRICS and mortars
PHOTO: DAVE SIMONDS
This year’s BRICS summit opened on Thursday, in awkward circumstances. Leaders of the group’s main members—Brazil, China, India and Russia—have met annually since 2009 (with South Africa joining in 2010) to discuss issues of interest to the emerging world’s leading economic powers. Yet this year’s two-day virtual proceedings, hosted by China’s president, Xi Jinping, is unfolding against a global backdrop marred by the war his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, is waging in Ukraine and the consequent economic fallout.
Mr Xi would like to use the summit to bring big emerging economies into closer alignment with China—and against the West. Indeed, expansion will be on the agenda with Argentina and Saudi Arabia among several countries joining the meeting. India, though, is likely to resist efforts to send an overtly anti-American message (its appetite for Russian arms and oil notwithstanding). Given the war’s heavy global costs, Mr Xi may struggle to find any group solidarity.
In the foothills of EU accession
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Ukrainians starved for good news may get a bit from Brussels on Thursday. A summit of the European Council, composed of the EU’s national leaders, is expected to grant Ukraine candidate status. That is the first step on the long road to membership. Moldova, which also has a reformist government threatened by Russia, is likely to be given candidate status too, while Georgia will be asked to meet more conditions.
There will be less joy for four western Balkan countries. Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia would like to join the EU but have been on hold for years. (North Macedonia is being blocked by Bulgaria; a French-brokered compromise is now hostage to an unfolding government crisis in Sofia.) EU members will discuss granting certain benefits of membership, such as visa-free travel, during the accession process and, for other countries, some form of looser European association. On Friday the council will take up an even bigger problem: the continent’s worsening economy.
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A dry run for Britain’s next general election
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Britain’s governing Conservative Party faces a pair of parliamentary by-elections on Thursday. The contests will stress-test the popularity of Boris Johnson, the prime minister, in two very different seats.
Both votes came about in the grubbiest of circumstances. In Wakefield, a city in northern England, where the Tories enjoy a majority of 3,358 over Labour, the previous MP was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 2008. In Tiverton and Honiton, a sprawling farming seat in the south-west, a majority of 24,239 is under assault from the Liberal Democrats. There, the poll was triggered after the Tory MP admitted watching pornography while at work in the House of Commons. The by-elections will show whether voters are willing to forgive either of these scandals, on top of “Partygate” in which Mr Johnson was fined for breaking lockdown rules—and how far a big squeeze on living standards is eroding Conservative support.
Cities’ return to normality
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Life in the world’s cities is improving. Every year EIU, the research and analysis division of The Economist Group, compiles an index of urban “liveability”. The average score for 2022 is 73.6, up more than four points from 2021.
The EIU’s index rates living conditions according to such things as stability, health care, culture, environment, education and infrastructure. Western cities have fared well, having lifted most covid restrictions after successful vaccine rollouts. Vienna tops the ranking for the third time since 2018, and five other European cities make the top ten, joined by three cities in Canada.
There are notable exceptions to the trend. Every city in China has slipped down the rankings. And the war in Ukraine is weighing heavily. EIU had to abandon its Kyiv survey when fighting broke out, and life in Russian cities has become less tolerable as censorship tightens—and Western sanctions bite.
Worrying about monkeypox
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Scientists are still unsure why monkeypox, a virus that causes symptoms similar to those of chickenpox—fever, exhaustion and pustules—is spreading so rapidly. Usually the disease is confined to parts of Africa. But this year the World Health Organisation has identified 2,103 confirmed cases in 42 countries. (The one death recorded so far was in Nigeria.) On Thursday the WHO meets to decide whether to classify the monkeypox outbreak a “public-health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC), a designation currently applied only to covid-19 and polio.
A PHEIC is a technical designation applied to an “extraordinary event” that is determined to constitute a public-health risk through the international spread of disease. If the WHO does declare one for monkeypox, it will also issue recommendations on how governments should handle outbreaks. The world’s limited supply of smallpox vaccines, which can protect people from monkeypox, could help. Distributing them will require international co-ordination. But that may be easier than it was for covid vaccines, as the demand, thankfully, is not as great.
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.
Thursday: What term was devised by Arthur Okun, an economist, to describe a measure that added the unemployment rate to the inflation rate?
Wednesday: Which Massachusetts town was gripped by a series of witch trials in 1692 and 1693?
I have had dreams, and I've had nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams.
两张选票都是在最糟糕的情况下产生的。在英格兰北部城市韦克菲尔德，保守党以3,358票的优势领先于工党，前任议员在2008年因性侵犯儿童而被定罪。在西南部的蒂弗顿和霍尼顿（Tiverton and Honiton），一个庞大的农业席位，24,239人的多数席位正受到自由民主党的攻击。在那里，在保守党议员承认在下议院工作时观看色情制品后，触发了投票。补选将显示选民是否愿意原谅这些丑闻中的任何一个，以及约翰逊先生因违反禁闭规则而被罚款的 "党派门"，以及对生活水平的巨大挤压在多大程度上侵蚀了保守党的支持。