标题: 2022.07.06 在部长们继续辞职后，鲍里斯-约翰逊的首相职位 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-7-6 19:32 标题: 2022.07.06 在部长们继续辞职后，鲍里斯-约翰逊的首相职位 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.