标题: 2022.08.22 俄罗斯继续在乌克兰的几个地区发动攻势 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-8-23 00:47 标题: 2022.08.22 俄罗斯继续在乌克兰的几个地区发动攻势 Russia pressed on with its offensive in several areas of Ukraine, having bombarded it with unusual severity over the weekend. Russian forces pounded Nikopol, a city near Zaporizhia, and fired cruise missiles into Odessa. In Russia, police opened a murder investigation into a suspected car bomb attack that killed the daughter of Alexander Dugin, a Russian ultra-nationalist ideologue. Russia’s Federal Security Service blamed the attack on Ukrainian secret services; Ukraine has denied involvement.
Germany’s economy is increasingly likely to slip into recession with inflation rising above 10% this autumn, according to the country’s Bundesbank. The euro zone’s largest economy is highly reliant on Russian gas supplies, which will again be choked off in a three-day closure of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline next week. Dutch TTF prices, a key benchmark for Europe’s wholesale gas price, jumped by 20% to above €290 per MWh.
China’s central bank slashed key lending rates in an attempt to revive the beleaguered property sector and reignite the economy. The five-year loan prime rate, the benchmark for mortgages, was cut by 0.15 percentage points to 4.3%, in step with an identical reduction in May. On Friday officials announced additional financing to prop up the real-estate sector.
Turkey doubled its imports of Russian oil this year, according to Refinitiv, a financial-data provider. Imports rose to over 200,000 barrels per day so far in 2022, compared with 98,000 in the same period of 2021. Trade between the two countries has grown rapidly since Turkey elected not to join Western sanctions against Russia, citing its reliance on Russian energy.
President Joe Biden spoke with heads of government from Britain, France and Germany about reviving a nuclear deal with Iran. The four Western leaders discussed ways to “deter and constrain Iran’s destabilising regional activities”. They also spoke about the war in Ukraine and the importance of protecting the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the site of intense shelling in recent weeks.
Pakistan charged Imran Khan, the former prime minister ousted in April, with crimes under an anti-terrorism act. On Saturday he had addressed supporters at a rally, denouncing police and judges for jailing and torturing his colleagues. On Sunday he was accused of incitement against the state. He was banned from television and, Mr Khan complained, YouTube was blocked to censor him.
Cineworld, the world’s second-largest cinema chain, said it was considering filing for bankruptcy in America. The British business, which also owns Regal cinemas in America, said that a shortage of blockbuster films and the popularity of online streaming had threatened its recovery from the pandemic, which saw its debts soar. The company had a market value of just £56m ($66m) at Friday’s close.
Fact of the day: $16bn, Amazon’s expected spending on media content this year. Read the full article.
America and South Korea back in full battle rattle
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
On Monday America and South Korea began full-scale joint military drills for the first time in five years. In 2018 Donald Trump, then America’s president, had called for an end to the exercises as he courted Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader, who resented them. But those were different times. America and North Korea were talking to one another, and South Korea’s doveish then-president, Moon Jae-in, was keen for inter-Korean rapprochement. Reality has since set in. North Korea is back to developing weapons openly, while America and South Korea warn of “strong and firm” action, if need be.
The drills mark a return to the status quo. They are designed to test readiness for an attack; to reassure the South Koreans they are safe; and to dissuade the North Koreans from trying anything too bold. At the very least, expect the normal North Korean reaction: fiery words to match its enemies’ live-fire exercises.
Cloak-and-daggers drawn for Greek politicians
PHOTO: EYEVINE
Greece’s lawmakers returned from summer break on Monday to discuss a demand by Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the left-wing opposition, for a parliamentary probe into the activities of the national intelligence service, EYP. It stands accused of hacking into the phones of politicians and journalists. The scandal could topple the government. The conservative prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will be pressed to explain why EYP, which he oversees personally, was eavesdropping on Nikos Androulakis, a member of the European Parliament, while he campaigned for the leadership of a small socialist party.
Meanwhile the European Parliament’s spyware watchdog, PEGA, wants Greece to investigate Intellexa, the Athens-based, Israeli-owned maker of Predator, a spyware system that was used in another, unsuccessful attack on Mr Androulakis’s phone. Predator was also detected lurking in a Greek journalist’s phone. Mr Mitsotakis claims that he was unaware of EYP’s surveillance of Mr Androulakis and that Greece’s government does not possess Predator.
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Africa’s many health problems
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
This week scores of officials, ministers and other bigwigs descend on Lomé, Togo’s capital, for an annual World Health Organisation conference about the state of health in Africa. The past two sessions had to be held virtually. This year the four-day pow-wow includes a session on how countries have maintained essential health services while fighting covid-19. Yet the pandemic is just one of many items on the agenda.
The health ministers have a myriad of problems to consider, from sickle-cell disease to tuberculosis; African countries have some of the highest rates in the world. Polio, non-communicable diseases and mental health will also be in focus. Most of the continent’s health ministries are short on resources and struggle with unenviable decisions about how to prioritise covid-19 vaccinations relative to perennial needs, such as jabs against tetanus and measles. And with just 22% of Africans fully vaccinated against covid-19, another wave could force priorities to change quickly.
Zoom’s shrinking earnings
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Today Zoom, a videoconferencing service, will report its second-quarter results. The firm’s popularity soared during the pandemic, but now it faces emboldened competitors, such as Microsoft Teams. Another problem is that demand for Zoom’s services is waning as more workers return to the office. Its operating margins declined from 32% in last year’s first quarter to 17% this year. Investors took heed. Zoom’s share price has fallen by 46% since the start of the year, against a 17% decline across the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index.
Yet remote work has survived. Some 58% of America’s employees say they work from home at least some of the time. But firms that benefited during the pandemic’s heyday are now suffering. Consider Peloton, which makes internet-connected exercise bikes; Netflix, a video-streaming service; and DocuSign, an electronic-signatures firm. Each of their share prices has fallen by more than 50% this year. The buzz around remote-work stocks has all but worn off.
Making jet fuel green
PHOTO: ALAMY
Air-travel emissions are notorious—and hard to do without. Batteries show promise for powering short-range flights, but decarbonising longer journeys is much harder.
The solution may be sustainable aviation fuel, a “drop-in” replacement for the conventional stuff. Innovators are working on various ways to produce SAF. Some use discarded cooking oil and animal fats. Others start with plant matter left over from forestry and agriculture. Still others turn carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and then combine that with hydrogen to create hydrocarbons. Some are even trying to engineer single-celled algae to produce fuels directly.
For now, SAF is about three times as costly as ordinary jet fuel. Even so, airlines have undertaken 450,000 flights with SAF in the fuselage. With the industry aiming to become carbon-neutral by 2050, that number is set to soar. Someday even the most environmentally finicky passenger may board aircraft with a clean conscience.
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: What is the traditional title for an adult male Mormon who has taken the lowest office in the Melchizedek priesthood?