标题: 2022.08.27罗马天主教会的红衣主教们聚集在梵蒂冈 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-8-27 21:57 标题: 2022.08.27罗马天主教会的红衣主教们聚集在梵蒂冈 America’s S&P 500 stockmarket index fell by 3.4% on Friday after hawkish remarks by Jerome Powell, chair of the Federal Reserve, at an annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Tackling inflation, Mr Powell said, was “likely to require a sustained period of below-trend growth” but the Fed “must keep at it until the job is done”. In July the Fed announced its second consecutive 0.75-percentage-point rate rise.
Gita Gopinath, the deputy head of the International Monetary Fund, warned that a consequence of the Fed’s tighter monetary policy—the strong dollar—will make it harder for poor countries to repay their debts. In an interview with Bloomberg TV she suggested that rich countries ought to improve programmes to help them, saying “A lot more speedy action is needed”.
The New York Times reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency had assembled a team of experts to visit the Zaporizhia nuclear power station in south-eastern Ukraine, possibly in the next few days. The Russian-occupied plant was hooked back up to Ukraine’s electricity grid on Friday, according to the national atomic-energy company, having been disconnected in a fire triggered by artillery shelling. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said Europe narrowly avoided a “radiation disaster”.
Moderna, an American pharmaceutical company, sued its rival, Pfizer, and its German collaborator BioNTech over alleged patent infringement while developing their covid-19 vaccine, the first in the world. Moderna said that the companies infringed on patents filed between 2010 and 2016 covering innovative mRNA technology; it clarified that it was not seeking to block the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from the market.
America and China reached an agreement that could avert the delisting of hundreds of Chinese companies from American stock exchanges. The deal will enable American regulators to examine audit documents, which Chinese authorities have resisted. Companies face delisting if they fail to show regulators their books for three years. In August five Chinese state-owned companies said they would delist.
America’s Department of Justice unsealed the affidavit that authorised the search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month. The heavily redacted version, written by an FBI special agent, claimed there was “probable cause” to believe that the former president had not returned additional classified documents, and that “evidence of obstruction” would be found at his home.
Morocco recalled its ambassador to Tunisia “for consultations” after the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, welcomed Brahim Ghali, the head of a local separatist movement, at Tunis airport. Morocco’s foreign ministry denounced Tunisia’s “hostile and detrimental attitude” and pulled out of TICAD, a regional summit on African development. Last year it temporarily withdrew its ambassadors to Germany and Spain over the same issue.
Word of the week: Eskuara, the Basque language, which, against all odds, has seen an increase in speakers of 350,000 since the 1980s. Read the full story.
Heat and drought in China
PHOTO: PA IMAGES
The end of summer cannot come soon enough for tens of millions of residents in the megacities of Chengdu and Chongqing. For weeks Sichuan province in south-west China has experienced record-breaking heat. Temperatures are supposed to cool at the end of August—but much of the damage is already done.
The energy system has been strained by greater demand and weaker supply. A drought reduced hydroelectric output by about 50% year on year in the province. Industry has been hit hard. Provincial officials have been forced to tell thousands of manufacturers to cease production. That includes important multinationals such as Toyota, a Japanese carmaker, and Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics group that supplies Apple. The load-shedding ended on August 25th. But the power crunch, the second in as many years, has raised serious questions about China’s ability to cope with the effects of climate change.
The Church hands out its red hats
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
On Saturday the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church gather in the Vatican to welcome 20 new “princes of the church” selected by Pope Francis. As the first pontiff from Latin America, he has tilted the college of cardinals towards parts of the world long marginalised by the church—particularly Asia. Timor-Leste, a country of just 1.3m people which is almost 98% Catholic, will get its first cardinal. So will Mongolia, where there are only around 1,300 faithful. The share of European cardinals has fallen from 52% to 40% on Francis’s watch. But Africa, the engine of Catholicism’s growth, remains badly underrepresented.
Of the new cardinals, 16 are part of the smaller group which will pick Francis’s successor. Now aged 85, he has signalled that he may one day retire. He presides over a church finely balanced between reformers and conservatives. But he will at least influence who follows him: 83 of the 132 cardinal-electors are his choices.
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Farewell to the Mekong Review
PHOTO: EYEVINE
At a glance the Mekong Review, an English-language magazine, can be compared to many Western literary journals; its simple white cover might be easily mistaken for the Times Literary Supplement. But in its content, including reviews, reportage, poetry and fiction, all concerned with South-East Asia, it is unique. Despite only publishing a few thousand copies of each issue, it has attracted a devoted following. But this week, after seven years, the journal’s editors said they were putting down their pens.
Minh Bui Jones, the Australian founder, has found it increasingly difficult to publish in a region dominated by authoritarian governments. In 2020 authorities in Hong Kong forbade the printing of an issue featuring a profile of Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy activist. The following issue, which covered protests in Thailand, was rejected by printers in Bangkok. Logistical difficulties caused by covid-19 lockdowns only made matters worse. That the Mekong Review survived for as long as it did is a triumph.
The wonders of Elvis up for auction
PHOTO: REUTERS
Few musicians left a legacy like Elvis. America’s King of Rock ’n’ Roll sold some 500m records in his lifetime, with fan clubs as far off as South Africa and the Philippines. On Saturday his admirers will get a chance to take part of his legacy home when close to 200 of the King’s jewellery pieces, including cufflinks, rings and chains, will be auctioned off. The collection, given by Elvis to his manager Tom Parker, had been long considered lost. This will be the first chance for Elvis aficionados to see, and bid on, the assembled trinkets.
Decades after his death, Elvis continues to rake in millions. The Presley estate is valued at $1bn; a recent biopic directed by Baz Luhrman brought in over $270m at the box office. A single ring in this collection comes with a minimum bid of $130,000. “Your kiss to me is worth a fortune,” the crooner once sang. For deep-pocketed fans, so is his bling.
Weekend profile: Michael Heizer, the artist behind “City”
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND TRIPL
Richard Nixon was still America’s president when Michael Heizer, one of the country’s foremost land artists, began his mysterious sculpture project in 1972, in the high Nevada desert north of Las Vegas. Few people were allowed to see the work in progress; many thought it would never get done. As the years passed, it took on a mythical quality in the art world.
Naysayers notwithstanding, half a century on, Mr Heizer’s “City” is complete. On September 2nd, it will open to the public—even if, to maintain its atmosphere of splendid isolation, at first only six people a day will be allowed to visit.
As an artist, Mr Heizer is almost completely self-taught. Fascinated by drawing from an early age, as a teenager in the late 1950s he helped his father, a famous anthropological archaeologist, who was excavating an ancient Olmec site on the Yucatán peninsula. Then he spent a year in Paris, mostly in its museums. “I saw it all first-hand,” he says. “You can’t go to school and learn about art by looking at a bunch of slides projected on a wall.”
The artist started work on “City”, with a huge piece at one end called “Section One”, a rectangular slope surrounded by concrete struts. “I worked entirely intuitively,” he says, “with no ongoing thought or consecutive way of planning.” The finished work is more than a mile and a half long and half a mile wide (2.4km x 800 metres), making it one of the biggest contemporary sculptures ever made. Walking through it feels as much like being in a garden—albeit one with no flowers—as in a city. There are mounds and walkways, as well as discrete spaces that could be neighbourhoods. It is both intimate and epic, forbidding and yet inviting; a work that is utterly itself.
At 77, Mr Heizer has made his last visit to the site. He lives far away, at sea level, for the sake of his damaged lungs. But his stubbornness is undimmed; he refuses to explain the significance of the work. “It’s the visitor who does the interpretation,” he says. “I don’t give a damn.”
The winners of this week’s quiz
Thank you to everyone who took part in this week’s quiz. The winners, chosen at random from each continent, were:
Asia: Gyu-young Ju, Wonju, South Korea
North America: Michael Slater, Naperville, United States
Central and South America: Martin Whittle, São Paulo, Brazil
Europe: Glenn W. Most, Florence, Italy
Africa: Paul Leigh, Pretoria, South Africa
Oceania: Jennifer Bladon-Clark, Melbourne, Australia
They all submitted the correct answers of Elder, Big Blue, Jack Straw, Black Beauty, Goose. The theme is berries: elderberry, blueberry, strawberry, blackberry and gooseberry.
Weekly crossword
Our crossword is designed for experienced cruciverbalists and newcomers alike. Both sets of clues give the same answers, all of which feature in articles in this week’s edition of The Economist:
Cryptic clues
1 down Green hype at uncertain new treatments (4,7)
1 across A great writer? The ego! (6)
2 across At first, horrors aren’t very easily noticed: it’s a safe place (5)
3 across Scream “That hurts”, cowardy custard! (6)
Factual clues
1 down Its first trial got under way in 1990 (4,7)
1 across Who, aged 75, took up archery (6)
2 across The Cayman Islands or Jersey, for example (5)
3 across The colour of sulphur (6)
If you don’t hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you’ll get.