标题: 2022.07.30 埃隆-马斯克周五反诉推特 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-7-30 23:04 标题: 2022.07.30 埃隆-马斯克周五反诉推特 Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, called a strike on a prison which killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war “a deliberate Russian war crime”. Russia blamed Ukraine, accusing it of using American-supplied rockets against the prison, which lies in Russian-controlled territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is seeking access to the site to help the wounded.
Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi cleric, forced their way into parliament for the second time in a week. His followers are demonstrating against the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a pro-Iranian rival of Mr al-Sadr, as prime minister. In last October’s election Mr al-Sadr’s bloc won the most seats—but it has not formed a government because of political deadlock. Some 120 people have been injured in the unrest.
Brazil and Spain reported deaths related to monkeypox, the first fatalities from the virus outside Africa. Monkeypox—which is similar to smallpox, though less likely to kill—is spreading across the world, including America and Europe. The World Health Organisation recently declared the outbreak a public-health emergency of international concern. Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in New York, where the virus is spreading fast.
On his flight home from a six-day “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, Pope Francis said that he might one day have to retire. The 85-year-old pontiff used a wheelchair for much of the trip, during which he apologised to indigenous people for the abuses inflicted on children in residential schools run by the Catholic church. In his remarks during the flight, Francis called the mistreatment “genocide”.
Elon Musk countersued Twitter on Friday, escalating his legal battle against the social-media platform. Details of the countersuit are not publicly available yet. Mr Musk is being sued by Twitter for abandoning a $44bn deal to purchase the company. That case will go to trial on October 17th and is expected to last five days.
The S&P 500 index increased by 9.1% in July as stockmarkets rebounded on Friday, its best monthly performance since November 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite also posted monthly rises of 6.7% and 12%, respectively. Despite fears of a recession, markets were buoyed by the tech giants’ gains after Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet reported earnings this week.
President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for the state of Kentucky, where flash floods have killed at least 25 people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Andy Beshear, the state’s governor, said the death toll would probably “get a lot higher”. Some 33,000 people have no electricity. Torrential rains battered towns this week in several states, also including Missouri and Tennessee.
Word of the week: champing, the practice of camping in churches.
Editor’s note: Owing to a technical error, some readers in Asia will not have seen the full edition of World in Brief on July 30th. Visitors to our website, and users of the Espresso and Economist apps, will also have seen out-of-date content for several hours. Sorry.
Clubbing together for Ukraine
PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZENNER BERLIN
Most people go to nightclubs to be carefree, raving to electronic beats amid the anonymity of a darkened dancefloor. But on Saturday party-goers visiting Zenner, a club in Berlin, will be dancing for a purpose. Closer, a famous techno institution in Kyiv, is hosting the first of two fundraising events for the war in Ukraine. It will feature Ukrainian and international artists and a room in the basement made to look like a bomb shelter.
Maintaining international support for Ukraine’s struggle is one way that the country’s musicians are doing their bit. Back home, shuttered nightclubs in cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro have found new purpose, as storages for food, medicine and military supplies. Ukrainian techno has long been associated with politics and protest: the gritty “Cxema” raves were born out of the Maidan Revolution of 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea. The Kremlin has sought to erase Ukraine’s culture. That will be impossible—especially when it thrives underground.
A boom for Britain’s energy producers
PHOTO: DAVE SIMONDS
Britain’s energy industry has had a mixed year. Some 30 suppliers went bust: bound to the country’s energy price cap, they were forced to sell power cheaply even as a cold winter and war in Ukraine pushed wholesale prices to dizzying highs.
But that helped other companies. In the first six months of 2022 Centrica, Britain’s biggest energy firm, raked in £1.3bn ($1.6bn) in operating profits, up from £262m in the same period last year. On Thursday, bosses issued a dividend for the first time since 2020, even as soaring energy bills force some Britons to choose between heating and eating. BP, another energy giant, is also expected to post strong results on Tuesday.
A new windfall tax on energy companies will redirect part of the bumper profits to consumers. But charities have warned that the complex logistics of the energy bills support scheme may exclude poorer households. With winter gas shortages looming, an increasing number of people may struggle to keep the lights on.
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The cumbersome course of justice in Ethiopia
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
The horrific civil war in Ethiopia has been plagued by war crimes since it began in 2020. Yet, despite repeated promises from the warring parties, which include the government and Tigrayan rebels, barely any justice has been served. The United Nations is hoping to rectify this. Following a brief visit to the country, a three-member commission will deliver a report on human-rights violations during the conflict on Saturday.
A thorough investigation—let alone redress—is unlikely. The commission, which has been rejected by the Ethiopian government, is hamstrung. It lacks staff and resources. Investigators have been prevented from visiting Tigray, the site of many of the worst atrocities. For now they are investigating only “emblematic incidents”, which mostly means massacres allegedly committed by rebels from the northern Tigray region (but includes the bombing of civilians by the Ethiopian air force). Meanwhile the horrors continue: last month ethnic Oromo rebels allegedly massacred hundreds of civilians in western Ethiopia.
A two-faced van Gogh
PHOTO: AP
Vincent van Gogh was not recognised as a genius in his short lifetime. The Dutch painter was often hard up. To cut back on the cost of canvases he sometimes painted on both their sides. That has led to a handful of his works—now extraordinarily valuable—emerging on the reverse side of other pieces. In July the National Galleries of Scotland discovered the first such work in Britain, when an image appeared, from under layers of glue and cardboard, on the back of the “Head of a Peasant Woman”, painted in 1885.
On Saturday the world’s newest Van Gogh will be shown to the public. Its subject, a familiar-looking bearded man in a brimmed hat, is an example of another penny-pinching measure. The artist would paint self-portraits to save on the cost of hiring models. Exposing the painting properly will require tricky conservation work. For now, visitors to the museum in Edinburgh will have to content themselves with a ghostly X-ray image.
Weekend profile: Pragg, India’s chess superstar
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
In February, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, a 16-year-old Indian, became the youngest person to defeat Magnus Carlsen, a five-time world chess champion and giant of the game. Any victory over Mr Carlsen is remarkable but this was comprehensive, taking just 39 moves. Chess has a rich history of such precocious exploits—Mr Carlsen himself was a teenage prodigy. But in India, a country starved of sporting success outside cricket, Pragg, as he is commonly known, became an instant superstar. On Twitter, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, and Sachin Tendulkar, a celebrated former cricketer, gushed praise.
Although young, Pragg’s stardom has been a while in the making. He started playing at the age of three when his father, a bank employee, introduced chess to the household to distract his sister from watching TV. By the age of seven Pragg began showing signs of genius, so his father enrolled him in a chess academy—easy enough in Chennai, one of south India’s biggest cities and a breeding ground for chess champions (Viswanathan Anand, India’s best-ever player, is also a Chennaiite).
The head of the academy, RB Ramesh, a world-class player himself, was struck by his student’s dedication. While his other charges struggled to watch the ten videos he demanded of them each day, Pragg would watch 30. In between hours-long practices of complex chess manoeuvres, the pair would take a break by indulging in more child-like pursuits: playing hide-and-seek.
The hard work paid off. At ten Pragg became the youngest-ever international master, the second-highest title in chess. Two years later he became the second-youngest player to secure the game’s highest: grandmaster. In 2019, when barely 14, he became the world under-18 champion.
This weekend he will continue his chase for glory when he competes with 2,000 players, including Mr Carlsen, at the Chess Olympiad, which started on Thursday in Mahabalipuram, near Chennai. In his matches, he will sport what has become his trademark look, sacred ash on his forehead, dabbed there for good luck. He scarcely needs it.