2022.02.21普京的发言人表示，没有与美国总统拜登举行峰会

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The world in brief


A spokesman for Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said there were no concrete plans for a summit with President Joe Biden to discuss Ukraine, contradicting earlier claims from America and France. Russia said diplomacy would continue, albeit at the level of foreign ministers rather than heads of state. Despite the earlier optimism about a possible summit, America’s government said Russia appears to be preparing for a “full-scale assault” on Ukraine “very soon”. It told the United Nations it had “credible information” that the Kremlin is drawing up lists of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps following a military occupation”.

Australia demanded a “full investigation” into an incident in which a Chinese warship shone a laser at an Australian military plane. Both were within Australia’s exclusive economic zone at the time. China has not yet offered any explanation. Tensions between the two countries have been heightened since Australia formed an Indo-Pacific alliance with America and Britain, a pact known as AUKUS.

Some users of OpenSea, a leading online marketplace for trading non-fungible tokens, were hit by a phishing attack. The hackers appear to have stolen at least $1.7m in NFTs, some of which they have already sold for cryptocurrency. The popularity of NFTs exploded in 2021 but the market is frothy.

Credit Suisse denied any wrongdoing after a data leak exposed the accounts of more than 18,000 clients. The data were shared with a network of investigative journalists. Media outlets alleged that many of the Swiss bank’s clients were involved in human rights abuses, money laundering and drug trafficking. Credit Suisse said these were “tendentious interpretations of the bank's business conduct”.

Canadian police secured the downtown area of Ottawa, ending a three-week occupation of the capital. Trucks and other vehicles had been blockading the city centre as part of protests against covid-19 restrictions. Nearly 200 arrests were made. Ottawa’s police chief said his force was working to “make sure nobody returns to occupy our streets again”.

There were joyous reunions at Sydney airport, as Australia reopened its borders after nearly two years. Fully vaccinated travellers can now enter the country without quarantining. Meanwhile Boris Johnson, Britain’s prime minister, said his government would reveal its “living with covid” strategy on Monday which would involve scrapping all covid-related restrictions.

Queen Elizabeth II tested positive for covid-19. Officials at Buckingham Palace said she had “mild, cold-like symptoms”. The queen, who is 95, will continue with “light duties”. Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has been on the throne for 70 years, a mark she passed on February 6th.

Fact of the day: 14%, the share of the world’s animal species that China is home to. Read the full article.


Ukraine prepares for cyber war

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With more than 150,000 Russian troops massed on its border, Ukraine faces the prospect of an imminent invasion. It is readying itself for war on another front, too. On January 14th hackers targeting state databases warned: “Be afraid and prepare for the worst”. An attack on February 15th paralysed two big banks and the defence ministry’s website.

The risk is acute. Mobile and internet outages could create chaos ahead of an invasion. A communications blackout might be hard to achieve, as it would probably require a physical operation inside Ukraine. But Russia has other options. It could inflict power cuts or disrupt air-traffic control, as it did between 2015 and 2017.

Ukraine has improved its digital infrastructure. It is now excellent at detecting threats. And the rudimentary nature of its infrastructure is, in some cases, an advantage. But Russia is probably hiding its most advanced capabilities. It may yet hold a trump card.

Trump’s media ambitions

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Donald Trump’s new media firm launched a new social-networking platform, Truth Social, late on Sunday night. The former American president has been banned from Facebook and Twitter since shortly after the Capitol riots in January 2021.

A conservative-friendly space—“Cancelling cancel culture”, its website crows—Trump Media & Technology Group plans to launch a streaming service and news network, too. A war chest of $1.3bn will help. But the firm has had an inauspicious start: financial regulators are investigating its proposed merger with a blank-cheque company.

Mr Trump may be too preoccupied with another probe to pay that much attention. Soon he will have to sit for a deposition by New York’s attorney-general as part of her inquiry into alleged fraud at his family business. All told, it is proving an eventful post-presidency.



PHOTO: ALAMY
The next 12 months will be pivotal for the IMF. Around the world, debt piles are growing fast. Rising interest rates across the rich world could push a number of big emerging markets into crisis. The debts of more than half of the world’s low-income countries may now be unsustainable.

The IMF faces severe constraints in its efforts to address such problems. The rise in debt owed to China complicates efforts to place countries on firmer financial footing. Indebted countries are wary of antagonising the lender, and China’s leaders are divided about how lenient to be with overextended borrowers. The hardship caused by the pandemic means that the reforms the IMF might normally recommend—cuts to energy subsidies or overhauls of insolvent pension systems, for example—are a hard pill for governments to swallow. Rich countries could give more grant funding to poor countries and allow China more say within the IMF. But the sour geopolitical mood makes such co-operative steps increasingly unlikely.

Fashion’s coming slow down?

London Fashion Week kicked off on Friday and the mood is as bright as the pastel-coloured dresses on its runways. Both couture and high-street fashion houses have reported sparkling results this year. Consumers, flush with cash after lengthy lockdowns, are on a shopping spree. Americans spent 3.8% more in January than they did the previous month.

Sales at H&M, the world’s second biggest fast-fashion retailer, have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The firm wants to double them by 2030, while halving its carbon footprint. Ralph Lauren, a relatively upmarket American brand, is aiming for rapid growth, too. It opened 40 new shops in the third quarter of 2021.

These brands, and others that weathered lockdowns, have benefited from reduced competition as rivals went bust. But rising inflation, supply-chain bottlenecks, sky-high shipping costs and worker shortages are likely to get worse. Buying sprees are unlikely to last. The industry may not be strutting its stuff for long.



Making myths in Silicon Valley


PayPal, a digital-payments firm, began with a merger of two other companies: Confinity (co-founded by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist) and X.com (co-founded by Elon Musk, the boss of Tesla). Both companies allowed customers to transfer money via email. Initially rivals, they joined in 2000. A new book, published on February 22nd, examines a firm that has come to hold a unique place in Silicon Valley mythology.

“The Founders”, by Jimmy Soni, chronicles the firm’s transformation from a scrappy startup to a profitable business. PayPal is no tech giant. It has a market capitalisation of $120bn (Amazon’s is $1.6trn and Apple’s $2.7trn). But a startling number of its co-founders and senior employees have gone on to corporate greatness, earning themselves the nickname of the “PayPal mafia”. The book offers an engrossing glimpse of PayPal’s early days, investigating what Mr Soni calls “one of the most powerful and successful networks ever created”.

Daily quiz

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Monday: Which American burger chain was founded in 1969 by Dave Thomas?

Life is like a book. One has to know when to turn the page.

Hubert de Givenchy



世界简讯
迅速了解重要的全球事件


俄罗斯总统普京的发言人表示，没有与美国总统拜登举行峰会讨论乌克兰问题的具体计划，这与美国和法国此前的说法相矛盾。俄罗斯表示，外交活动将继续进行，尽管是在外交部长而非国家元首的层面。尽管早些时候对可能举行的峰会持乐观态度，但美国政府表示，俄罗斯似乎正在准备 "很快 "对乌克兰进行 "全面攻击"。它告诉联合国，它有 "可靠的信息"，克里姆林宫正在拟定乌克兰人的名单，"在军事占领后将被杀害或送往难民营"。

澳大利亚要求对中国军舰用激光照射澳大利亚军机的事件进行 "全面调查"。当时两者都在澳大利亚的专属经济区内。中国还没有做出任何解释。自从澳大利亚与美国和英国结成印太联盟，即所谓的AUKUS条约以来，两国之间的紧张关系一直在加剧。

OpenSea是一个领先的非伪造代币交易在线市场，其一些用户遭到了网络钓鱼攻击。黑客似乎窃取了至少170万美元的NFT，其中一些已经卖给了加密货币。2021年，NFTs的受欢迎程度爆发，但市场却很浮躁。

在数据泄露暴露了18000多名客户的账户后，瑞士信贷否认了任何不当行为。这些数据被分享给了一个调查记者网络。媒体称，这家瑞士银行的许多客户参与了侵犯人权、洗钱和贩毒活动。瑞士信贷说，这些都是 "对银行业务行为的有倾向性的解释"。

加拿大警方确保了渥太华市中心的安全，结束了对首都为期三周的占领。作为抗议covid-19限制的一部分，卡车和其他车辆一直封锁着市中心。有近200人被捕。渥太华警察局长说，他的警察部队正在努力 "确保没有人再回来占领我们的街道"。

悉尼机场出现了欢乐的团聚，因为澳大利亚在近两年后重新开放了其边境。完全接种疫苗的旅行者现在可以进入该国而无需隔离。同时，英国首相鲍里斯-约翰逊说，他的政府将在周一公布其 "与包虫病共存 "的战略，这将涉及取消所有与包虫病有关的限制。

英国女王伊丽莎白二世对covid-19检测呈阳性。白金汉宫的官员说她有 "轻微的、类似感冒的症状"。95岁的女王将继续履行 "轻度职责"。英国在位时间最长的君主已经在位70年，她在2月6日超过了这个标志。

今天的事实。14%，中国在世界动物物种中的份额。阅读全文。


乌克兰为网络战争做准备

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随着超过15万俄罗斯军队在其边境集结，乌克兰面临着即将被入侵的前景。它也在为另一条战线上的战争做准备。1月14日，针对国家数据库的黑客们警告说。"要害怕，做好最坏的打算"。2月15日的一次攻击使两家大银行和国防部的网站瘫痪。

风险是尖锐的。移动和互联网的中断可能会在入侵前造成混乱。通信中断可能很难实现，因为这可能需要在乌克兰境内进行实际操作。但俄罗斯还有其他选择。它可以造成断电或破坏空中交通管制，正如它在2015年至2017年期间所做的那样。

乌克兰已经改善了其数字基础设施。它现在在检测威胁方面非常出色。而且，在某些情况下，其基础设施的初级性质是一种优势。但俄罗斯可能隐藏了其最先进的能力。它可能还持有一张王牌。

特朗普的媒体野心

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唐纳德-特朗普的新媒体公司周日晚间推出了一个新的社交网络平台--Truth Social。自2021年1月国会大厦骚乱发生后不久，这位美国前总统就被禁止使用Facebook和Twitter。

作为一个有利于保守派的空间--"取消取消文化"，其网站上叫嚣着--特朗普媒体与技术集团也计划推出一个流媒体服务和新闻网络。13亿美元的战争资金将有所帮助。但该公司有一个不吉利的开始：金融监管机构正在调查其与一家空白公司的合并提案。

特朗普先生可能太专注于另一项调查，而没有注意到这一点。不久之后，他将不得不接受纽约总检察长的取证，这是她对其家族企业涉嫌欺诈的调查的一部分。总而言之，事实证明，这是一个多事之秋的总统任期。

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报名
国际货币基金组织陷入困境

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未来12个月对国际货币基金组织来说将是至关重要的。在世界各地，债务堆积正在快速增长。整个富裕世界的利率上升可能会使一些大型新兴市场陷入危机。世界上一半以上的低收入国家的债务现在可能是不可持续的。

国际货币基金组织在解决这些问题的努力中面临着严重的限制。欠中国的债务增加，使得将各国置于更坚实的财政基础之上的努力变得复杂。负债国对与贷款国作对持谨慎态度，而中国领导人在对过度扩张的借款国的宽松程度上存在分歧。大流行病造成的困难意味着国际货币基金组织通常可能建议的改革--例如削减能源补贴或彻底改革无力偿还的养老金制度--对政府来说是一颗难以吞咽的药丸。富国可以向穷国提供更多赠款，并允许中国在IMF内部有更多的发言权。但糟糕的地缘政治气氛使得这种合作步骤越来越不可能。

时尚界的慢下来了？

伦敦时装周于周五拉开帷幕，其气氛就像跑道上的粉色礼服一样明亮。高级时装店和高街时装店都报告了今年闪亮的业绩。消费者在经历了长时间的封锁后，现金充裕，正在进行购物狂欢。美国人在1月份的消费比上个月多了3.8%。

世界第二大快速时尚零售商H&M的销售额已恢复到大流行前的水平。该公司希望到2030年将销售额翻一番，同时将其碳足迹减半。拉尔夫-劳伦(Ralph Lauren)是一个相对高档的美国品牌，也在努力实现快速增长。它在2021年第三季度开设了40家新店。

这些品牌，以及其他经历过封锁的品牌，都受益于竞争对手破产后的竞争减少。但通胀上升、供应链瓶颈、天价运输成本和工人短缺可能会变得更糟。购买热潮不太可能持续。这个行业可能不会大展拳脚很久。



在硅谷创造神话

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贝宝(PayPal)是一家数字支付公司，最初是由另外两家公司合并而成的。Confinity（由风险资本家彼得-泰尔(Peter Thiel)共同创办）和X.com（由特斯拉的老板伊隆-马斯克(Elon Musk)共同创办）。这两家公司都允许客户通过电子邮件转账。最初是竞争对手，他们在2000年加入。2月22日出版的一本新书，研究了一家在硅谷神话中占有独特地位的公司。

"吉米-索尼（Jimmy Soni）的《创始人》记录了该公司从一个潦倒的初创公司到一个盈利企业的转变。贝宝不是科技巨头。它的市值为1200亿美元（亚马逊的市值为16万亿美元，苹果为27万亿美元）。但它的联合创始人和高级雇员中，有不少人已经走向了企业的辉煌，为自己赢得了 "PayPal黑手党 "的绰号。这本书提供了对PayPal早期的引人入胜的一瞥，调查了Soni先生所说的 "有史以来最强大和最成功的网络之一"。

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