标题: 2022.08.25 怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔年会 [打印本页] 作者: shiyi18 时间: 2022-8-26 04:52 标题: 2022.08.25 怀俄明州杰克逊霍尔年会 President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase Russia’s armed forces by 137,000 combat personnel to 1.15m. It comes into effect on January 1st. Perhaps 15,000 Russians have been killed and 45,000 wounded after six months of war in Ukraine; the war will now depend, in part, on which army can replenish faster. Elsewhere America and the European Union condemned a Russian missile strike on a railway station in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday that killed at least 25 people, including two children. Russia’s defence ministry confirmed the strike, but claimed to have hit a military train.
President Joe Biden announced a plan for significant student-debt relief, under which up to $10,000 in student loans will be forgiven for each debtor who earns less than $125,000 a year. The relief will go up to $20,000 for those who received federal aid during their education. Many economists fret that debt cancellation can aggravate inflation. But the announcement may come as a political boon for Democrats ahead of November’s mid-term elections.
Marsha Blackburn, an American senator, arrived in Taiwan, marking the third visit by a Washington official this month. Following an earlier visit by Nancy Pelosi, one of America’s most senior legislators, China staged its largest-ever military exercises around Taiwan. In response, the Taiwanese government proposed to spend more than $19bn on defence next year, a 15% increase on the current budget.
Peloton, an American exercise equipment and media company, reported an operating loss of $1.2bn in its fourth quarter as the sale of its home fitness kit flagged. The company’s revenue fell by 28% to $678.7m in the fourth quarter, below analysts’ expectations of $718m. On Wednesday Peloton announced it would sell its products on Amazon to boost sales in America.
China announced an additional 300bn yuan ($44bn) for policy banks to lend to infrastructure, to help counter an alarming economic slowdown. The money comes on top of a similar amount announced in June. China’s cabinet also confirmed that local governments could issue an extra 500bn yuan of “special” bonds, to be repaid with the help of revenues earned from the projects they finance.
Amazon said it would shut the virtual health service it offers to its employees, bringing to an end—for now at least—an attempt to upend America’s health-care market. The e-retailer said that Amazon Care was not extensive enough to offer to other companies. Staff have round-the-clock video access to doctors and nurses, and also to a few physical sites in order to receive vaccinations, testing and the like.
Fighting erupted in northern Ethiopia between rebels from the Tigray region and central government forces, ending a five-month long ceasefire and dampening hopes for peace talks in the country’s ongoing civil war. The conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, which controls the region, and prime minister Abiy Ahmed’s government has killed thousands and displaced millions since it began in 2020.
Fact of the day: $15bn, the value of direct investment foreigners pulled out of Russia in the first quarter of 2022, easily the worst figure on record. Read the full story.
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago headache
PHOTO: REUTERS
Donald Trump decried the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago home on August 8th as an unjustified political assault. The bureau has so far been tight-lipped on its motivations. But its rationale for the seizure of classified records from Mr Trump’s Palm Beach estate will soon be divulged. A judge in Florida, Bruce Reinhart, has ruled that the Justice Department must unseal a redacted version of its affidavit that enabled the search by Friday at noon.
Mr Trump has demanded the unsealing of the full document. But his lawyers filed no such motion in court. Government officials warn that releasing the unredacted affidavit could sabotage their probe into the former president’s handling of government records. Last week Mr Reinhart gave the Justice Department seven days to redact it to their liking, signalling that at least part of the document might see the light of day. But negotiations between the court and the government about exactly what to publish could yet postpone the unveiling.
Misery by design in Myanmar
PHOTO: REUTERS
Five years ago the Burmese army forced nearly 750,000 Rohingyas to leave Myanmar amid intense violence. The UN branded the army’s campaign of mass killing, rape and arson a genocide, but no punishments followed. Most of the expelled Rohingyas are now languishing in Bangladesh in the world’s biggest refugee camp. On Thursday human rights groups will mark “Rohingya Remembrance Day”.
But around 600,000 remain in Myanmar. Many are confined to what Fortify Rights, an American pressure group based in South-East Asia, calls “modern concentration camps”. Conditions are squalid, structures unsound and access to health care scant. Their plight has become ever more dire since the army toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the de facto leader, last year. They are denied access to education and paid work. The military junta has blocked international-aid agencies from visiting Rohingya camps and villages. No matter which side of the border Rohingyas find themselves on, their experience is comparable: hunger and misery surrounded by barbed wire.
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Moving markets in Wyoming
PHOTO: DAVE SIMONDS
In the shadow of the majestic Teton mountain range, just over 100 central bankers and economists from around the world are gathering at a lodge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Their idyllic retreat, which starts on Thursday, is not all late-summer’s calm: the comments of attendees can shake global markets. The main event at the three-day economic symposium will be a speech by Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve, on Friday.
After softer inflation data in America last month, many investors thought the Fed might relax its hawkish stance. They piled back into stocks, fuelling a month-long rally. Mr Powell has a chance to recalibrate expectations with his speech. He may choose to signal that the Fed’s campaign to crush inflation is far from over. That possibility has already rattled markets, with leading indices taking a tumble this week. The descent from high inflation looks a little like the jagged path down the Teton peaks.
France seeks to befriend Algeria
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Sixty years ago Algeria won independence from France after a bloody eight-year war. This painful history renders the link between the two countries complicated even today. So a three-day visit of Emmanuel Macron to the north African country, which began on Thursday, has been optimistically billed as one of “friendship”. France’s president wants to use his first foray to Algeria in five years to forge closer links between businesses, startups and artists.
But first Mr Macron hopes to “soothe memories”, after decades marked by mutual suspicion and accusations. Relations soured last year when Mr Macron reportedly questioned Algeria’s pre-colonial existence as a nation. But he has taken steps to acknowledge France’s role in certain historical atrocities, and set up a “memories and truth” commission on his country’s historical role in Algeria. Now there are new questions, including how to source more natural gas from resource-rich Algeria, and how to ease recently tightened rules for Algerians to obtain French visas.
Australia prepares to try an alleged Chinese agent
PHOTO: PA IMAGES
In 2018 Australia infuriated China by rushing through sweeping laws to prevent foreign meddling in its democracy. On Thursday, the only man so far to be accused of breaching them appeared before a court in Victoria. In 2020 Di Sanh Duong, a 67-year-old Australian of Chinese heritage, made a A$37,000 ($25,500) donation to a hospital in Melbourne. Prosecutors allege that he was seeking to gain favour with Alan Tudge, an up-and-coming federal minister whom he invited for the handing over of the cheque, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party. Mr Duong’s lawyer says the donation was a bid to improve the public image of Chinese people in Australia.
On trial is not only Mr Duong but the new laws themselves. Mr Duong is accused of “preparing for” or “planning” interference. The prosecution has used evidence of his links to the Chinese government to build its case. But criminalising contacts and intent, rather than action, is a troubling idea for many lawyers.
Daily quiz
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 1877 novel by Anna Sewell is considered a classic of children’s literature?
Wednesday: Who was the British foreign secretary during the invasion of Iraq in 2003?
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