标题: 2022.06.30美国最高法院限制了环境保护局监管发电厂 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-7-1 01:00 标题: 2022.06.30美国最高法院限制了环境保护局监管发电厂 America’s Supreme Court limited the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions by power plants, complicating government efforts to mitigate climate change. In a separate case the court held that the Biden administration could reverse a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their claims are adjudicated. The rulings cap a controversial term in which the court’s conservative majority eliminated the right to abortion, loosened gun laws and eroded the separation between church and state.
Israel’s parliament voted by 92-0 to dissolve itself, triggering a new election to be held on November 1st. It will be the country’s fifth in under four years. On Friday Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, will be replaced by Yair Lapid, now foreign minister, who will run a caretaker government until the election. Before the vote Mr Bennett, who was in charge for just a year, said he would not run again for a seat in the Knesset. The jostling makes possible a comeback by Binyamin Netanyahu, a former prime minister.
China’s president, Xi Jinping, arrived in Hong Kong for events celebrating the 25th anniversary of the territory’s handover from British to Chinese rule. In preparation for the anniversary, on July 1st, many of the city’s streets and buildings have been adorned with red Chinese flags. It is Mr Xi’s first trip outside of mainland China since the pandemic began, and his first visit to Hong Kong since 2017.
America promised to deploy more troops, warplanes and warships to Europe as part of NATO’s “fundamental shift” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. During a summit in Madrid the alliance agreed to fortify its eastern flank, declaring Russia to be its “most significant and direct threat”. President Joe Biden also backed the sale of American-made F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after the country dropped its opposition to NATO membership for Finland and Sweden.
Russian forces withdrew from Snake Island, a tiny but strategically important chunk of Ukrainian territory in the Black Sea. Russia called the move a “gesture of goodwill” to show that it is not blocking food exports by sea from Ukraine. But Ukraine claims it forced the occupiers into a hasty retreat, having in recent days intensified its efforts to remove them.
The committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6th 2021 subpoenaed Donald Trump’s White House counsel. Pat Cipollone will be asked to testify about the former president’s role in the riot but also about his various schemes to try to overturn the 2020 election which, as a member of the Trump administration in its final months, Mr Cipollone was privy to.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos was sworn in as the president of the Philippines in Manila. Sara Duterte, the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, the outgoing president, was sworn in as vice-president. In his inaugural speech, Mr Marcos—whose father once ruled in a violent and corrupt dictatorship—said: “I am here not to talk about the past. I am here to tell you about our future.”
Fact of the day: 651, the number of people who died trying to cross America’s border with Mexico in 2021. Read the full article.
Indonesia’s president goes to Moscow
PHOTO: AP
In the past four months a steady stream of national leaders have met their warring counterparts in Russia and Ukraine. Up next is Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president. After visiting Volodomyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, on Wednesday, Jokowi, as he is known, will meet Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Jokowi is the first South-East Asian leader to visit both countries since Russia’s invasion. He has described his “mission” as trying to prevent a looming food crisis that risks casting poor countries, which rely on grain imports from Russia and Ukraine, “into the abyss of extreme poverty and hunger”. He is unlikely to succeed. But as president of this year’s G20 meeting, in November, he has invited both Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin to attend, even though Ukraine (unlike Russia) is not a member. If they do, it will be quite an achievement. And if he can position Indonesia as a world power capable of mediating conflict, all the better.
Joe Biden considers offshore oil and gas
PHOTO: EPA
With petrol prices in America at record levels and inflation at a 40-year high, President Joe Biden is under pressure to act. His administration’s five-year plan for offshore oil and natural-gas development, a draft of which is due on Thursday, could offer some ideas of how it intends to deal with the energy crisis.
Republicans (and the occasional fossil-fuel-friendly Democrat) have criticised Mr Biden’s administration for hesitating to open new offshore sites for extraction. More supply, they contend, will help bring prices down. But environmentalists believe cutting the supply of fossil fuels is necessary to pivot America toward greener energy. Complicating matters further, when Mr Biden was running for office, he pledged to ban new drilling in federal waters.
Still, whatever Mr Biden’s plans, no additional fuel can arrive quickly enough to alleviate America’s current energy woes. Until a final oil-and-gas plan is approved later this year, leases on new sites cannot be auctioned to companies. And those leases anyway take years to bring supplies to market. Americans will be stuck with wallet-guzzling petrol prices for a while yet.
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The Marcos family return to the Philippine presidency
PHOTO: DAVE SIMONDS
On Thursday Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos was sworn in as president of the Philippines, taking over from Rodrigo Duterte. Among the onlookers at the inauguration was Imelda Marcos, mother of the new president and widow of the first Ferdinand Marcos to hold that position.
The regime of the elder Marcos terrorised its opponents and looted the economy, before a popular uprising restored democracy in 1986. Glossing over this stain on his family’s name, the younger Mr Marcos won the presidential election in May despite offering Filipinos few details on how he planned to govern.
The rehabilitation of the Marcos dynasty has both practical and symbolic meaning. The popularly despised Mrs Marcos, who turns 93 on Saturday, is free on bail while she appeals against her conviction for graft in 2018, part of a $200m corruption case stemming from her husband’s two decades in office. Once in office, her son could pardon her.
The plane in Spain stays mainly on the ground
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
On Thursday Ryanair cabin crew in Spain begin a three-day strike, shortly after similar action in several other European countries. Though the airline claims the first strikes caused little disruption, this one coincides with a stoppage by employees at EasyJet, also in Spain. Meanwhile, staff at British Airways and Scandinavian Airlines have threatened a walkout, other airlines and airports are battling through fractious pay talks, and some air-traffic controllers may also down tools.
Pent-up demand from flyers in Europe and America had already outpaced the ability of airlines and airports to re-employ staff laid off during the pandemic. A lack of workers has led to cancellations on both continents, as well as long queues in peak travel times. The July 4th holiday weekend in America will prove another test for airlines, airports and passengers. Add in the strikes, and it all makes for a gloomy summer in the departure lounge.
A simpler alternative to IVF?
PHOTO: SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
In-vitro fertilisation, the process by which an embryo is created artificially and inserted into a uterus, is marvellous. But it involves serious medical intervention, costs a lot of money and often fails. According to new research by Lindsay Machan of the University of British Columbia, there may be a simpler alternative.
When infertility is caused by a blockage of the Fallopian tubes, one option is to try unblocking them with a fine wire. This process, called recanalisation, is not new. But Dr Machan thinks it is underused.
Between 2015 and 2021 Dr Machan’s team examined 725 women who had at least one blocked Fallopian tube. The doctors were able to reopen a clogged tube in 539 of them by using recanalisation. Dr Machan did not look into how likely these women would subsequently be to conceive without IVF. But with about 2.5m cycles of the treatment performed each year, somebody should.
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.
Thursday: Which British newspaper was founded as the Daily Universal Register in 1785?
Wednesday: Which Christmas carol was based on a poem by Christina Rossetti, set to music by Gustav Holst?
Why didn’t an epic poet ever write a word about our lives?