2022.07.30 埃隆-马斯克周五反诉推特

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Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, called a strike on a prison which killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war “a deliberate Russian war crime”. Russia blamed Ukraine, accusing it of using American-supplied rockets against the prison, which lies in Russian-controlled territory. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it is seeking access to the site to help the wounded.

Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr, an Iraqi cleric, forced their way into parliament for the second time in a week. His followers are demonstrating against the nomination of Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a pro-Iranian rival of Mr al-Sadr, as prime minister. In last October’s election Mr al-Sadr’s bloc won the most seats—but it has not formed a government because of political deadlock. Some 120 people have been injured in the unrest.

Brazil and Spain reported deaths related to monkeypox, the first fatalities from the virus outside Africa. Monkeypox—which is similar to smallpox, though less likely to kill—is spreading across the world, including America and Europe. The World Health Organisation recently declared the outbreak a public-health emergency of international concern. Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency in New York, where the virus is spreading fast.

On his flight home from a six-day “penitential pilgrimage” to Canada, Pope Francis said that he might one day have to retire. The 85-year-old pontiff used a wheelchair for much of the trip, during which he apologised to indigenous people for the abuses inflicted on children in residential schools run by the Catholic church. In his remarks during the flight, Francis called the mistreatment “genocide”.

Elon Musk countersued Twitter on Friday, escalating his legal battle against the social-media platform. Details of the countersuit are not publicly available yet. Mr Musk is being sued by Twitter for abandoning a $44bn deal to purchase the company. That case will go to trial on October 17th and is expected to last five days.

The S&P 500 index increased by 9.1% in July as stockmarkets rebounded on Friday, its best monthly performance since November 2020. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite also posted monthly rises of 6.7% and 12%, respectively. Despite fears of a recession, markets were buoyed by the tech giants’ gains after Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet reported earnings this week.

President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration for the state of Kentucky, where flash floods have killed at least 25 people and destroyed hundreds of homes. Andy Beshear, the state’s governor, said the death toll would probably “get a lot higher”. Some 33,000 people have no electricity. Torrential rains battered towns this week in several states, also including Missouri and Tennessee.

Word of the week: champing, the practice of camping in churches.

Editor’s note: Owing to a technical error, some readers in Asia will not have seen the full edition of World in Brief on July 30th. Visitors to our website, and users of the Espresso and Economist apps, will also have seen out-of-date content for several hours. Sorry.


Clubbing together for Ukraine

PHOTO: COURTESY OF ZENNER BERLIN
Most people go to nightclubs to be carefree, raving to electronic beats amid the anonymity of a darkened dancefloor. But on Saturday party-goers visiting Zenner, a club in Berlin, will be dancing for a purpose. Closer, a famous techno institution in Kyiv, is hosting the first of two fundraising events for the war in Ukraine. It will feature Ukrainian and international artists and a room in the basement made to look like a bomb shelter.

Maintaining international support for Ukraine’s struggle is one way that the country’s musicians are doing their bit. Back home, shuttered nightclubs in cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro have found new purpose, as storages for food, medicine and military supplies. Ukrainian techno has long been associated with politics and protest: the gritty “Cxema” raves were born out of the Maidan Revolution of 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea. The Kremlin has sought to erase Ukraine’s culture. That will be impossible—especially when it thrives underground.

A boom for Britain’s energy producers

PHOTO: DAVE SIMONDS
Britain’s energy industry has had a mixed year. Some 30 suppliers went bust: bound to the country’s energy price cap, they were forced to sell power cheaply even as a cold winter and war in Ukraine pushed wholesale prices to dizzying highs.

But that helped other companies. In the first six months of 2022 Centrica, Britain’s biggest energy firm, raked in £1.3bn ($1.6bn) in operating profits, up from £262m in the same period last year. On Thursday, bosses issued a dividend for the first time since 2020, even as soaring energy bills force some Britons to choose between heating and eating. BP, another energy giant, is also expected to post strong results on Tuesday.

A new windfall tax on energy companies will redirect part of the bumper profits to consumers. But charities have warned that the complex logistics of the energy bills support scheme may exclude poorer households. With winter gas shortages looming, an increasing number of people may struggle to keep the lights on.

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The cumbersome course of justice in Ethiopia

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
The horrific civil war in Ethiopia has been plagued by war crimes since it began in 2020. Yet, despite repeated promises from the warring parties, which include the government and Tigrayan rebels, barely any justice has been served. The United Nations is hoping to rectify this. Following a brief visit to the country, a three-member commission will deliver a report on human-rights violations during the conflict on Saturday.

A thorough investigation—let alone redress—is unlikely. The commission, which has been rejected by the Ethiopian government, is hamstrung. It lacks staff and resources. Investigators have been prevented from visiting Tigray, the site of many of the worst atrocities. For now they are investigating only “emblematic incidents”, which mostly means massacres allegedly committed by rebels from the northern Tigray region (but includes the bombing of civilians by the Ethiopian air force). Meanwhile the horrors continue: last month ethnic Oromo rebels allegedly massacred hundreds of civilians in western Ethiopia.

A two-faced van Gogh

PHOTO: AP
Vincent van Gogh was not recognised as a genius in his short lifetime. The Dutch painter was often hard up. To cut back on the cost of canvases he sometimes painted on both their sides. That has led to a handful of his works—now extraordinarily valuable—emerging on the reverse side of other pieces. In July the National Galleries of Scotland discovered the first such work in Britain, when an image appeared, from under layers of glue and cardboard, on the back of the “Head of a Peasant Woman”, painted in 1885.

On Saturday the world’s newest Van Gogh will be shown to the public. Its subject, a familiar-looking bearded man in a brimmed hat, is an example of another penny-pinching measure. The artist would paint self-portraits to save on the cost of hiring models. Exposing the painting properly will require tricky conservation work. For now, visitors to the museum in Edinburgh will have to content themselves with a ghostly X-ray image.


Weekend profile: Pragg, India’s chess superstar

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
In February, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, a 16-year-old Indian, became the youngest person to defeat Magnus Carlsen, a five-time world chess champion and giant of the game. Any victory over Mr Carlsen is remarkable but this was comprehensive, taking just 39 moves. Chess has a rich history of such precocious exploits—Mr Carlsen himself was a teenage prodigy. But in India, a country starved of sporting success outside cricket, Pragg, as he is commonly known, became an instant superstar. On Twitter, Narendra Modi, the prime minister, and Sachin Tendulkar, a celebrated former cricketer, gushed praise.

Although young, Pragg’s stardom has been a while in the making. He started playing at the age of three when his father, a bank employee, introduced chess to the household to distract his sister from watching TV. By the age of seven Pragg began showing signs of genius, so his father enrolled him in a chess academy—easy enough in Chennai, one of south India’s biggest cities and a breeding ground for chess champions (Viswanathan Anand, India’s best-ever player, is also a Chennaiite).

The head of the academy, RB Ramesh, a world-class player himself, was struck by his student’s dedication. While his other charges struggled to watch the ten videos he demanded of them each day, Pragg would watch 30. In between hours-long practices of complex chess manoeuvres, the pair would take a break by indulging in more child-like pursuits: playing hide-and-seek.

The hard work paid off. At ten Pragg became the youngest-ever international master, the second-highest title in chess. Two years later he became the second-youngest player to secure the game’s highest: grandmaster. In 2019, when barely 14, he became the world under-18 champion.

This weekend he will continue his chase for glory when he competes with 2,000 players, including Mr Carlsen, at the Chess Olympiad, which started on Thursday in Mahabalipuram, near Chennai. In his matches, he will sport what has become his trademark look, sacred ash on his forehead, dabbed there for good luck. He scarcely needs it.



乌克兰总统沃洛迪米尔-泽伦斯基称对一所监狱的袭击造成53名乌克兰战俘死亡，是 "俄罗斯蓄意的战争罪行"。俄罗斯指责乌克兰，指责其对位于俄罗斯控制区的监狱使用了美国提供的火箭弹。红十字国际委员会表示，它正在寻求进入该地以帮助伤员。

伊拉克神职人员Muqtada al-Sadr的支持者在一周内第二次强行进入议会。他的追随者正在示威，反对提名亲伊朗的萨德尔先生的对手穆罕默德-希亚-苏达尼担任总理。在去年10月的选举中，萨德尔先生的集团赢得了最多的席位，但由于政治僵局，它还没有组建政府。约有120人在骚乱中受伤。

巴西和西班牙报告了与猴痘有关的死亡病例，这是非洲以外地区首次因该病毒而死亡的病例。猴痘--它与天花相似，但致死的可能性较小--正在全球范围内蔓延，包括美国和欧洲。世界卫生组织最近宣布该疫情为国际关注的公共卫生紧急情况。纽约州州长凯西-霍楚尔（Kathy Hochul）宣布纽约进入紧急状态，该病毒正在快速蔓延。

教皇方济各在结束对加拿大为期六天的 "忏悔朝圣 "之旅回国的飞机上说，他可能有一天不得不退休。这位85岁的教皇在这次旅行的大部分时间里使用轮椅，期间他就天主教会开办的寄宿学校对儿童的虐待行为向原住民道歉。在飞行途中的讲话中，弗朗西斯称这种虐待为 "种族灭绝"。

埃隆-马斯克周五反诉推特，升级了他对社交媒体平台的法律斗争。反诉的细节还没有公开。马斯克先生因放弃440亿美元的公司收购交易而被Twitter起诉。该案将于10月17日开庭，预计将持续五天。

由于股市在周五反弹，标普500指数在7月份增长了9.1%，这是自2020年11月以来的最佳月度表现。道琼斯工业平均指数和纳斯达克综合指数也分别实现了6.7%和12%的月度涨幅。尽管担心经济衰退，但在苹果、亚马逊、微软和Alphabet本周公布财报后，市场受到了科技巨头们的鼓舞。

乔-拜登总统为肯塔基州发布了灾害声明，那里的山洪已经造成至少25人死亡，并摧毁了数百所房屋。该州州长安迪-贝希尔说，死亡人数可能会 "高得多"。约有33,000人没有电。本周，暴雨袭击了几个州的城镇，还包括密苏里州和田纳西州。

本周关键词：Champing，在教堂露营的做法。

编者按：由于一个技术性错误，一些亚洲的读者可能没有看到7月30日的《世界简报》全文。我们网站的访问者，以及Espresso和Economist应用程序的用户，也会在几个小时内看到过时的内容。对不起。


为乌克兰结伴而行

照片。由Zenner Berlin提供
大多数人去夜总会是为了无忧无虑，在黑暗的舞池中随着电子节拍狂欢。但在星期六，前往柏林Zenner俱乐部的聚会者将为某种目的而跳舞。基辅著名的电子音乐机构Closer正在为乌克兰的战争举办两场筹款活动中的第一场。该活动将邀请乌克兰和国际艺术家，并在地下室设立一个看起来像防空洞的房间。

保持对乌克兰斗争的国际支持是该国音乐家们尽其所能的方式之一。在国内，基辅和第聂伯罗等城市被关闭的夜总会找到了新的用途，成为食品、药品和军用物资的仓库。乌克兰的电子乐长期以来一直与政治和抗议有关：粗糙的 "Cxema "狂欢诞生于2014年的Maidan革命，那一年俄罗斯吞并了克里米亚。克里姆林宫一直试图抹去乌克兰的文化。这将是不可能的--尤其是当它在地下蓬勃发展的时候。

英国能源生产商的蓬勃发展

照片。DAVE SIMONDS
英国的能源行业在这一年里喜忧参半。约有30家供应商破产：受国家能源价格上限的约束，即使在寒冷的冬天和乌克兰战争将批发价格推到令人眼花缭乱的高点，他们也不得不廉价出售电力。

但这帮助了其他公司。2022年上半年，英国最大的能源公司Centrica赚取了13亿英镑（16亿美元）的营业利润，比去年同期的2.62亿英镑有所增长。周四，老板们发布了自2020年以来的首次股息，即使是在能源账单飙升迫使一些英国人在取暖和吃饭之间做出选择。另一家能源巨头英国石油公司(BP)预计也将在周二发布强劲的业绩。

对能源公司征收的新暴利税将把部分丰厚的利润转给消费者。但慈善机构警告说，能源账单支持计划的复杂物流可能会将贫困家庭排除在外。随着冬季天然气短缺迫在眉睫，越来越多的人可能会挣扎着保持灯火通明。

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埃塞俄比亚繁琐的司法程序

照片。GETTY IMAGES
埃塞俄比亚可怕的内战自2020年开始以来，一直受到战争罪行的困扰。然而，尽管交战各方（包括政府和提格雷叛军）一再承诺，几乎没有任何正义得到伸张。联合国希望能够纠正这种情况。在对该国进行短暂访问后，一个由三名成员组成的委员会将于周六提交一份关于冲突期间侵犯人权的报告。

彻底的调查--更不用说纠正了--是不太可能的。该委员会已被埃塞俄比亚政府拒绝，它受到了阻碍。它缺乏工作人员和资源。调查人员被阻止访问提格雷，那里是许多最严重暴行的发生地。目前，他们只对 "标志性事件 "进行调查，这主要是指据称由提格雷北部地区的叛乱分子实施的屠杀（但也包括埃塞俄比亚空军对平民的轰炸）。与此同时，恐怖事件仍在继续：上个月，奥罗莫族叛军据称在埃塞俄比亚西部屠杀了数百名平民。

一个两面派的梵高

照片。美联社
文森特-凡高在其短暂的一生中并没有被公认为是一个天才。这位荷兰画家经常生活拮据。为了减少画布的成本，他有时会在画布的两面作画。这导致了他的少数作品--现在非常有价值--出现在其他作品的反面。7月，苏格兰国家美术馆在英国发现了第一件这样的作品，当时在1885年画的 "农妇头像 "的背面，从胶水和纸板层下出现了一个图像。

周六，世界上最新的梵高作品将向公众展示。它的主题是一个看起来很熟悉的戴着有边帽的大胡子男人，是另一个缩减开支的例子。这位艺术家会画自画像，以节省雇佣模特的费用。适当曝光这幅画将需要棘手的保护工作。目前，爱丁堡博物馆的参观者将不得不满足于一个幽灵般的X光图像。


周末简介。普拉格，印度的国际象棋超级明星

照片。GETTY IMAGES
今年2月，16岁的印度人拉梅什巴布-普拉格南德哈(Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa)成为击败五次世界象棋冠军、象棋巨人马格努斯-卡尔森的最年轻的人。对卡尔森先生的任何胜利都是了不起的，但这次是全面的，只用了39步。国际象棋有丰富的历史，卡尔森先生本身就是一个少年神童。但在印度这个除板球外缺乏体育成功的国家，普拉格（他通常被称为）立即成为了一个超级明星。在推特上，总理纳伦德拉-莫迪(Narendra Modi)和著名的前板球运动员萨钦-坦杜尔卡(Sachin Tendulkar)都大加赞赏。

虽然年轻，但普拉格的星途已经有一段时间了。他三岁时开始下棋，当时他的父亲是一名银行职员，为了分散他妹妹看电视的注意力，将国际象棋引入家中。到7岁时，普拉格开始显示出天才的迹象，因此他的父亲让他进入国际象棋学院--在钦奈很容易，钦奈是印度南部最大的城市之一，也是国际象棋冠军的滋生地（印度有史以来最好的棋手维斯瓦纳坦-阿南德也是钦奈人）。

学院院长RB-拉梅什本人也是一名世界级棋手，他被学生的奉献精神所打动。当他的其他学生努力看他要求他们每天看的10个视频时，普拉格会看30个。在长达数小时的复杂国际象棋演习之间，这对夫妇会通过沉迷于更像孩子的追求来休息一下：玩捉迷藏。

艰苦的工作得到了回报。10岁时，普拉格成为有史以来最年轻的国际大师，这是国际象棋中的第二高称号。两年后，他成为获得该游戏最高级别的第二年轻选手：特级大师。2019年，在不到14岁的时候，他成为了18岁以下的世界冠军。

本周末，他将继续追逐荣誉，与包括卡尔森先生在内的2000名棋手在国际象棋奥林匹克竞赛中竞争，该竞赛于周四在钦奈附近的马哈巴里普兰开始。在他的比赛中，他将采用已经成为他标志性的造型，在他的额头上涂抹神圣的灰烬，以获得好运。他几乎不需要它。