2022.07.06 在部长们继续辞职后，鲍里斯-约翰逊的首相职位

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Boris Johnson’s premiership is looking shakier than ever after ministers continued to quit, triggered by the initial resignations of Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, and Sajid Javid, the former health secretary. On Wednesday Will Quince, the minister for children and families, left the government, and was quickly followed by the schools standards minister, Robin Walker. In all, 13 have resigned from Britain’s government in less than 24 hours. All question the prime minister’s fitness for leadership, particularly his appointment of a senior government figure despite knowing about credible misconduct allegations against him. Mr Johnson will be grilled by MPs on Wednesday.

Nadhim Zahawi, previously Britain’s education minister, replaced Mr Sunak as the chancellor (or finance minister), inheriting responsibility for a struggling economy. On Tuesday the Bank of England warned that the economic outlook for Britain, and the world, has “deteriorated materially” because of inflationary pressures largely created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. On Wednesday morning the pound fell to a two-year low against the dollar.

The 21-year-old accused of carrying out a mass shooting in Highland Park in Illinois was charged with seven counts of murder. Police revealed two prior contacts with the accused: in April 2019, when he attempted suicide, and in September 2019, when a relative reported he planned to “kill everyone”, leading officials to remove 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from his home.

China reported its first cases of the highly transmissible Omicron BA.5.2 subvariant of covid-19. The cases were detected in Xi’an; authorities sent parts of the city in central China into lockdown in response. Meanwhile Shanghai is once again reporting new cases of covid-19, raising fears of new restrictions. The city only reached “zero covid” and emerged from a draconian months-long lockdown in June.

Crypto broker Voyager Digital filed for bankruptcy, having suspended withdrawals, trading and deposits last week. The firm cited market volatility and the unexpected collapse of Three Arrows Capital, a now-bankrupt crypto hedge fund which had defaulted on a multimillion dollar loan to Voyager Digital.

After capturing Luhansk earlier this week, Russia is now laying siege to Donetsk, the other part of the Donbas region of Ukraine. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of Donetsk, urged residents to flee. On Tuesday a Russian missile strike set a market ablaze in the city of Slovyansk; Mr Kyrylenko described the attack as “pure terrorism”.

Twitter filed a petition in an Indian court challenging a government order demanding that certain content be removed. Over the past year the government led by the Bharatiya Janata Party has repeatedly asked the social-media giant to remove tweets and block accounts, citing threats to public order. In June Twitter, which has some 24m users in India, received a letter warning of “serious consequences” if it did not comply.

Fact of the day: 51, the number of people killed in mass shootings in America so far this year. Read the full story.


DACA on the docket

PHOTO: AP
Ten years ago America instituted a programme to block immigrants who had been illegally brought into America as children from deportation. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) scheme allowed beneficiaries to apply for work authorisation, renewable every two years. DACA was supposed to be a temporary reprieve while Congress passed legislation offering undocumented arrivals a path to full citizenship. But it never did.

Though popular—three-quarters of Americans support it—DACA has long been under attack. Although the Supreme Court thwarted Donald Trump’s bid to end it, in 2018 Texas and other Republican-led states sued to stop the federal government from approving new enrollees. Last year a judge sided with Texas. On Wednesday the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the Biden administration’s appeal against that decision. Some 650,000 people currently benefit from DACA, and 100,000 more a year could enrol if allowed to. Instead, those young people face the possibility of deportation from the only country they have ever known.

Biden mulls a cut in tariffs on China

PHOTO: AFP
On July 6th 2018 Donald Trump’s first long list of tariffs on Chinese products took effect. That matters, because America is required to review the levies after four years. With inflation running high Joe Biden, Mr Trump’s successor as president, is looking for ways to ease price pressures. Eliminating tariffs on China—effectively, a tax on consumers—could lower inflation by roughly half a percentage point, according to some estimates.

But Mr Biden has also vowed to be tough on China, and is loth to do something that would be portrayed by Republicans as a capitulation. Even within his administration, some see the tariffs as precious leverage. The result may be a narrow suspension of tariffs on school supplies, which are popular summer purchases, and the like, while the rest remain in place. For Mr Biden, this could be the worst of all worlds: he risks criticism for making concessions, while inflation remains resolutely untamed.

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A global food catastrophe is still coming

PHOTO: AP
As well as war, disease and poverty, hunger is haunting the world. Expect sobering findings from the UN’s annual “State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” report, which is published on Wednesday. Covid-19 has warped supply chains and curbed household incomes, and extreme weather has hurt yields in many breadbaskets. The result was a jump in the number of undernourished people in 2021.

Yet this year threatens to be worse. International grain prices, which shot up after Russia invaded Ukraine, have at least fallen to pre-war levels. But the UN’s negotiations with Russia to end a blockade on Ukraine’s shipping of grain have failed to bear fruit. And many risks remain, from protectionism and more adverse weather events to the soaring costs of energy and fertilisers. In May the UN warned that the number of people facing acute hunger could rise by 47m in 2022, bringing the total to nearly 250m. That forecast still looks tragically credible.

Boris on the brink

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Britain’s prime minister has been under threat for so long that it has become difficult to imagine what would dislodge him. But the simultaneous resignations of two of his government’s most senior ministers—Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, and Sajid Javid, the health secretary—have left Boris Johnson more exposed than ever. Mr Sunak cited fundamental differences with the prime minister over economic policy, Mr Javid the need for competence and integrity. Both quit in the wake of revelations that Mr Johnson knew of previous allegations against the former deputy chief whip, who resigned last week following accusations that he drunkenly groped two men.

Mr Johnson will desperately try to shore up support among Tory MPs. But cabinet loyalty is now a thing of the past, opponents are co-ordinating and recent by-election results signal how low his stock has sunk with voters. His survival in a confidence vote last month makes him technically safe until and unless Tory MPs change the rules on holding another ballot. But the game is well and truly afoot.


Women’s football’s winning streak

PHOTO: ALAMY
On Wednesday evening England will play Austria in Manchester, opening the Women’s European Championships. Last time England hosted the football tournament, in 2005, the games were confined to five grounds in the country’s north-west and just 120,000 fans attended the 15 matches. This time more than 500,000 tickets have been bought in advance. The final, to be held at Wembley stadium in London on July 31st, will be played in front of 87,000 fans.

The competition has been expanded to 16 teams, reflecting the growing popularity of the women’s game. Star names, including France’s Wendie Renard, Norway’s Ada Hegerberg and Caroline Graham Hansen now attract sponsorships from major brands. And the tournament is likely to be highly competitive: bookies reckon six of the 16 teams have a decent chance of winning. Women’s football has arrived.

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.

Wednesday: Which country was the subject of three partitions in the late 18th century?

Tuesday: Which Californian city is named after an 18th century bishop and philosopher?

Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light.

Frida Kahlo



在部长们继续辞职后，鲍里斯-约翰逊的总理职位看起来比以往任何时候都更不稳定，这是由前总理里希-苏纳克和前卫生部长萨吉德-贾维德最初辞职引发的。周三，儿童和家庭部长威尔-昆斯离开了政府，随后学校标准部长罗宾-沃克也迅速离开。在不到24小时内，总共有13人从英国政府辞职。所有人都质疑首相是否适合担任领导职务，特别是他在知道对一名政府高级官员有可信的不当行为指控的情况下仍任命他。约翰逊先生将于周三接受议员们的质询。

之前担任英国教育部长的纳迪姆-扎哈维(Nadhim Zahawi)接替苏纳克先生担任首相（或财政部长），继承了对挣扎的经济的责任。周二，英格兰银行警告说，英国和世界的经济前景已经 "严重恶化"，因为通货膨胀的压力主要是由俄罗斯入侵乌克兰造成的。周三上午，英镑兑美元跌至两年来的最低点。

被指控在伊利诺伊州海兰帕克进行大规模枪击的21岁年轻人被指控犯有7项谋杀罪。警方披露了此前与被告的两次接触：2019年4月，他试图自杀；2019年9月，一位亲戚报告说他计划 "杀死所有人"，导致官员从他家里搬出16把刀，一把匕首和一把剑。

中国报告了首例高度传播的Omicron BA.5.2亚变体covid-19的病例。这些病例是在西安发现的；当局将中国中部的部分城市封锁起来作为回应。与此同时，上海再次报告了新的covid-19病例，引起了人们对新限制措施的担忧。该市在6月才达到 "零covid"，并摆脱了长达数月的严厉封锁。

加密货币经纪商Voyager Digital申请破产，上周已经暂停提款、交易和存款。该公司引用了市场波动和Three Arrows Capital的意外倒闭，Three Arrows Capital是一家现已破产的加密货币对冲基金，它拖欠了给Voyager Digital的数百万美元贷款。

在本周早些时候占领卢甘斯克后，俄罗斯现在正在围攻乌克兰顿巴斯地区的另一部分--顿涅茨克。顿涅茨克州州长Pavlo Kyrylenko敦促居民逃离。周二，俄罗斯的导弹袭击使斯洛维扬斯克市的一个市场被烧毁；凯里连科先生将这次袭击描述为 "纯粹的恐怖主义"。

推特向印度法院提交了一份请愿书，质疑政府要求删除某些内容的命令。在过去的一年里，印度人民党领导的政府以威胁公共秩序为由，多次要求这家社交媒体巨头删除推文和封锁账户。6月，在印度拥有约2400万用户的推特公司收到一封信，警告说如果它不遵守，将有 "严重后果"。

今天的事实。51人，这是今年迄今为止在美国大规模枪击事件中死亡的人数。阅读全文。


审理中的DACA案

照片。美联社
十年前，美国制定了一项计划，阻止童年时被非法带入美国的移民被驱逐出境。童年抵美者暂缓行动（DACA）计划允许受益人申请工作许可，每两年更新一次。DACA本应是在国会通过立法为无证入境者提供获得完全公民身份的途径时的一个临时缓刑。但它从未做到。

尽管很受欢迎--四分之三的美国人支持它--但DACA长期以来一直受到攻击。虽然最高法院挫败了唐纳德-特朗普结束它的努力，但在2018年，德克萨斯州和其他共和党领导的州起诉，阻止联邦政府批准新的注册者。去年，一名法官支持德克萨斯州。周三，保守的第五巡回上诉法院将听取拜登政府对该决定的上诉。目前约有65万人受益于DACA，如果被允许，每年还有10万人可以加入。相反，这些年轻人面临着被从他们唯一知道的国家驱逐出境的可能性。

拜登酝酿削减对中国的关税

照片。法新社
2018年7月6日，唐纳德-特朗普对中国产品征收的第一份长长的关税清单生效。这很重要，因为美国被要求在四年后审查这些征税。随着通货膨胀的高涨，特朗普先生的总统继任者乔-拜登正在寻找缓解价格压力的方法。根据一些估计，取消对中国的关税，实际上是对消费者征税，可以将通胀率降低大约半个百分点。

但拜登先生也发誓要对中国采取强硬态度，他不愿意做一些会被共和党人描述为投降的事情。即使在他的政府内部，一些人也认为关税是宝贵的筹码。其结果可能是对学校用品的关税进行狭义的暂停，因为学校用品是夏季采购的热门商品，等等，而其他商品则保持原状。对拜登先生来说，这可能是所有世界中最糟糕的情况：他有可能因为做出让步而受到批评，而通货膨胀却仍然顽固不化。

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全球粮食灾难仍将来临

照片。美联社
除了战争、疾病和贫困之外，饥饿也在困扰着世界。联合国的年度 "世界粮食安全和营养状况 "报告将于周三发布，预计该报告的结论将令人警醒。贪污腐败破坏了供应链，抑制了家庭收入，极端天气损害了许多面包篮的产量。其结果是2021年营养不良的人数猛增。

然而，今年的情况有可能更糟。国际粮食价格在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后急剧上升，至少已降至战前水平。但联合国与俄罗斯为结束对乌克兰粮食运输的封锁而进行的谈判未能取得成果。许多风险依然存在，从保护主义和更多的恶劣天气事件到能源和化肥成本的飙升。5月，联合国警告说，2022年面临严重饥饿的人数可能增加4700万，使总数达到近2.5亿。这一预测看起来仍然是悲惨的、可信的。

处于边缘的鲍里斯

照片。GETTY IMAGES
英国首相受到威胁的时间太长了，以至于人们很难想象什么会让他下台。但他的政府中两位最资深的部长--财政大臣苏纳克(Rishi Sunak)和卫生部长萨吉德-贾维德(Sajid Javid)同时辞职，使鲍里斯-约翰逊比以往任何时候都更容易暴露。苏纳克先生表示，他与首相在经济政策方面存在根本分歧，而贾维德先生则认为需要能力和诚信。两人都是在约翰逊先生知道之前对前副首席教鞭的指控后辞职的，后者在被指控醉酒后对两名男子进行了摸索。

约翰逊先生将拼命地在保守党议员中争取支持。但是，内阁的忠诚度已经成为过去，反对者正在进行协调，最近的补选结果表明他在选民中的地位已经下降到了何种程度。他在上个月的信任投票中幸存下来，使得他在技术上是安全的，除非保守党议员改变举行另一次投票的规则。但游戏已经开始了。


女子足球的连胜

照片。阿拉米
周三晚上，英格兰队将在曼彻斯特与奥地利队比赛，为女子欧锦赛揭幕。上一次英格兰举办足球锦标赛是在2005年，比赛仅限于该国西北部的五个场地，只有12万名球迷参加了15场比赛。这一次，有超过50万张门票被提前购买。决赛将于7月31日在伦敦的温布利体育场举行，将在87000名球迷面前进行。

比赛已经扩大到16支队伍，反映了妇女比赛的日益普及。包括法国的温迪-雷纳德、挪威的阿达-赫格伯格和卡罗琳-格雷厄姆-汉森在内的明星人物现在都吸引了各大品牌的赞助。而比赛可能会有很强的竞争性：博彩公司估计16支球队中有6支有相当大的机会获胜。女子足球已经到来。

每日问答

本周，我们的咖啡师将每天为您提供一个新问题。周五，你的挑战是给我们全部五个答案，同样重要的是，告诉我们连接的主题。在北京时间周五17点前，将你的回答（包括提及你的家乡和国家）发到 QuizEspresso@economist.com。我们将从那些有正确答案的人中随机挑选，并在周六为每个大洲选出一名获胜者。

星期三。哪个国家在18世纪末曾被三次分割？

星期二。哪个加利福尼亚的城市是以18世纪的主教和哲学家命名的？

没有什么比笑声更有价值。笑是一种力量，抛弃自己，是一种光明。

弗里达-卡洛