2022.02.17俄罗斯声称从乌克兰边境撤军是 "错误的"

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Updated less than 1 hour ago (10:45 GMT / 05:45 New York)


A senior American official declared that Russia’s claims of withdrawing troops from the Ukrainian border were “false”. Some 7,000 additional soldiers have arrived in recent days, they added. On Wednesday the Kremlin said it was calling back some of its forces after the completion of military exercises and posted a video purporting to show this. But Western countries, and NATO, found no proof of the claims.

France said it will withdraw troops from Mali, where they had been fighting jihadists. President Emmanuel Macron said the pull-out was due to a breakdown in diplomatic relations with Mali’s new government. The troops will be redeployed across the Sahel, though it is unclear how effective they will be without a presence in Mali, where the jihadists are strongest.

More than 90 people were killed by flooding and mudslides in a mountainous region of Brazil. A month’s worth of rain fell in one night, the most the city of Petrópolis has seen since 1952 according to Brazil’s meteorological agency. In 2011 mudslides killed more than 900 people in the region. Such extreme weather is probably more common because of climate change.

Police in Canada threatened to arrest protesters in Ottawa if they did not leave the capital. For nearly three weeks truck drivers have blockaded the city’s downtown areas as part of demonstrations over covid restrictions. Marco Mendicino, the federal public safety minister, suggested that Diagolon, a far-right group, is helping organise the protests with the intention to “overthrow the existing government”.

Officials in Hong Kong announced plans to test the entire city for covid-19 amid surging infections. Around a million residents are expected to be tested daily with the help of medical workers brought in from mainland China. There were more than 4,000 cases reported on Wednesday but the city is persisting with its zero-covid policy.

Visa said its cards would be once again accepted by Amazon, an e-commerce giant, as part of a global agreement between the two companies. Earlier this year Amazon had stopped accepting payments from Visa-issued cards because it felt transaction fees were too high. Visa said the agreement also includes a commitment to work together on “new product and technology initiatives”.

Operators announced that the largest coal-fired power plant in Australia will close by August 2025. Eraring Power Station, in New South Wales, was slated to run for another seven years. However Origin Energy, which manages the plant, explained that an influx of wind and solar power mean that it is no longer economically viable. In 2020 coal generated more than half of Australia’s power.

Fact of the day: 12,000, the number of street vendors shooed away by Bangkok authorities since 2014. Read the full article.

Correction: An earlier edition of Espresso incorrectly displayed a photo of Sergey Radchenko alongside a By Invitation piece by Yuval Noah Harari. Sorry.


Canada’s protests roll on

For three weeks protesters demanding an end to Canada’s covid-19 restrictions have paralysed Ottawa, the capital, with their “freedom convoy” roadblocks. Their incessant honking has caused headaches for residents and politicians alike.

On Tuesday the federal government announced a loosening of entry requirements for international travellers. Rules on gatherings will be eased in the province of Ontario (in which Ottawa is located) on Thursday. When Doug Ford, Ontario’s premier, announced the change he cited improved public-health conditions and insisted the restrictions were being lifted in spite of the protests. But the timing has many Canadians wondering whether the truckers played a role.

A motion by the federal opposition Conservative Party to make the Liberal prime minister, Justin Trudeau, outline a plan for lifting all restrictions was voted down by his allies. Plenty of wheels are still parked by Parliament Hill. And despite the government wielding emergency powers to move them on and the police threatening them with arrest, they seem a long way from trucking off.

Walmart’s slipping profitability

PHOTO: AP
Walmart, which on Thursday reports earnings for its fourth quarter, has fared better than most retailers in the face of recent supply-chain disruptions. To ease bottlenecks and keep its shelves stocked, the big-box behemoth has chartered its own cargo ships, diverted goods to less congested ports and extended working hours. Shoppers have rewarded the retailer for its efforts, flocking to its stores and boosting its market share for groceries in America. In its third quarter same-store domestic sales rose by 9.2% year on year and earnings per share hit $1.45, beating analysts’ expectations.

But investors were less impressed by the company’s gross profit margin, which slipped by 0.4 percentage points. Amid supply-chain snarls, labour shortages and other inflationary pressures, America’s biggest retailer remains committed to “everyday low prices”. Company executives are wagering that, for now, the firm can forgo profits for the sake of market share. They may come to regret it.


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Citigroup’s retail retreat

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Once a common sight in cities around the world, Citigroup’s distinctive blue branches are becoming harder to spot. The American bank is shrinking its retail operations. The firm will instead focus on commercial banking and wealth management. Most of its remaining branches will be in America.

Citi has already made deals to sell several of its foreign retail outfits, including those in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The next big sale may be in India. Axis Bank, the country’s third-largest private-sector lender, is rumoured to be close to buying Citi’s retail business there for around $2.5bn.

Citi is not alone: HSBC and ANZ have pared back their branch networks too. But Citi’s retreat is striking because of the scale of its former ambitions and the pioneering work it did on now-familiar technology including ATMs and electronic payments. But its Asian operations will be a relatively painless loss: in 2021 they accounted for just 1.6% of group earnings.

By Invitation: Yuval Noah Harari on Russia and Ukraine

PHOTO: AFP
This is an excerpt from a guest essay written by Yuval Noah Harari, a historian, philosopher and author. Read it in full here.

At the heart of the Ukraine crisis lies a fundamental question about the nature of history and the nature of humanity: is change possible? One school of thought firmly denies the possibility of change. It argues that the world is a jungle, that the strong prey upon the weak and that the only thing preventing one country from wolfing down another is military force.

Another school of thought argues that the so-called law of the jungle isn’t a natural law at all. Humans made it, and humans can change it. Contrary to popular misconceptions, the first clear evidence for organised warfare appears in the archaeological record only 13,000 years ago. Even after that date there have been many periods devoid of war. Unlike gravity, war isn’t a fundamental force of nature. Its intensity and existence depend on underlying technological, economic and cultural factors. As these factors change, so does war.


Demystifying Stonehenge

PHOTO: EPA
The enigma of why Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument of colossal standing stones, was built 4,500 years ago, is an integral part of its appeal. The exact purpose of the stones, which stand, and lie, in a circle in a field in southern England, may elude scholars forever. But an exhibition at the British Museum hopes to shed some light.

The curators of “The World of Stonehenge”, which opens on Thursday, cast a wide net, gathering over 400 objects from across prehistoric Europe. These include an ancient standing stone from Italy and “Seahenge”, a 4,000-year-old timber circle lifted from a peat-soaked English beach. Both of these objects have been linked to the cosmos, just as Stonehenge aligns with the sun. Also on display is the bronze “Nebra Sky Disc”, thought to be the world’s oldest map of the stars which, although discovered in Germany, contains metals traced to Britain. The people of Neolithic Europe were more connected, both spiritually and materially, than may have been previously realised.

Daily quiz

The quiz is back. Our baristas will serve you a new question each day. On Friday your challenge will be to give all five answers and tell us the connecting theme. Email your responses (and include mention of your home city and country) by 17.00 GMT 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: What is the name of the electronic system used in tennis to decide whether balls are in or out?

We die only once, and for such a long time!

Molière




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一名美国高级官员宣布，俄罗斯声称从乌克兰边境撤军是 "错误的"。他们补充说，最近几天又有大约7000名士兵抵达。周三，克里姆林宫表示，在完成军事演习后，它正在召回一些部队，并发布了一段视频，声称显示了这一点。但西方国家和北约没有发现这些说法的证据。

法国表示，它将从马里撤军，他们一直在那里与圣战分子作战。埃马纽埃尔-马克龙总统说，撤军是由于与马里新政府的外交关系破裂。部队将被重新部署到整个萨赫勒地区，尽管目前还不清楚在圣战分子最强大的马里没有驻军的情况下，他们会有多大成效。

巴西的一个山区发生的洪水和泥石流造成90多人死亡。根据巴西气象局的数据，一个晚上就下了一个月的雨，这是佩特罗波利斯市自1952年以来的最大雨量。2011年，泥石流在该地区造成900多人死亡。这样的极端天气可能因为气候变化而更加常见。

加拿大警方威胁说，如果渥太华的抗议者不离开首都，就逮捕他们。近三周来，卡车司机封锁了该市的市中心，作为对毒品限制的示威活动的一部分。联邦公共安全部长Marco Mendicino表示，极右翼组织Diagolon正在帮助组织抗议活动，目的是 "推翻现有政府"。

香港官员宣布计划在感染率激增的情况下对整个城市进行covid-19测试。在从中国大陆带来的医务人员的帮助下，预计每天将有大约100万居民接受检测。周三报告的病例超过4,000例，但该市正在坚持其零感染的政策。

维萨公司表示，其卡将再次被电子商务巨头亚马逊接受，这是两家公司达成的全球协议的一部分。今年早些时候，亚马逊已经停止接受Visa卡的支付，因为它认为交易费用太高。Visa表示，该协议还包括承诺在 "新产品和技术倡议 "方面开展合作。

运营商宣布，澳大利亚最大的燃煤电厂将在2025年8月前关闭。位于新南威尔士州的Eraring发电站原计划再运行七年。然而，管理该电厂的Origin Energy公司解释说，风能和太阳能的涌入意味着它不再具有经济可行性。2020年，澳大利亚一半以上的电力来自煤炭。

今天的事实。12,000个，这是2014年以来被曼谷当局赶走的街头小贩的数量。阅读全文。

更正。早期的《Espresso》错误地将谢尔盖-拉琴科的照片与尤瓦尔-诺亚-哈拉里的《应邀》文章放在一起。对不起。


加拿大的抗议活动在继续

三个星期以来，要求结束加拿大covid-19限制的抗议者以其 "自由车队 "路障使首都渥太华陷入瘫痪。他们不间断的鸣笛声让居民和政客们都很头疼。

周二，联邦政府宣布放宽对国际旅行者的入境要求。安大略省（渥太华所在）的集会规则将于周四放宽。当安大略省省长道格-福特宣布这一变化时，他引用了公共卫生条件的改善，并坚称尽管有抗议活动，但还是要取消限制。但是这个时间点让许多加拿大人怀疑卡车司机是否扮演了一个角色。

联邦反对党保守党提出动议，要求自由党总理贾斯汀-特鲁多概述解除所有限制的计划，但被其盟友否决。大量的车轮仍然停在国会山旁。尽管政府挥舞着紧急权力让他们继续前进，警察威胁要逮捕他们，但他们似乎离卡车离开还有很长的路要走。

沃尔玛的盈利能力下滑

照片。美联社
周四公布第四季度收益的沃尔玛，在面对最近的供应链中断时，表现得比大多数零售商好。为了缓解瓶颈并保持货架上的库存，这个大卖场巨头包租了自己的货船，将货物转移到不太拥挤的港口，并延长工作时间。购物者对该零售商的努力给予了回报，他们涌向其商店，提高了其在美国杂货市场的份额。在其第三季度，国内同店销售同比增长9.2%，每股收益达到1.45美元，超过了分析师的预期。

但投资者对该公司的毛利率印象不深，其下滑了0.4个百分点。在供应链堵塞、劳动力短缺和其他通胀压力下，美国最大的零售商仍然致力于 "每日低价"。公司高管们正在打赌，目前，该公司可以为了市场份额而放弃利润。他们可能会因此而后悔。


在您的收件箱中获取简报
每周六次在早餐前送达。

报名
花旗集团的零售退路

照片。GETTY IMAGES
花旗集团独特的蓝色分行曾经是世界各地城市中常见的景象，现在却越来越难看到。这家美国银行正在缩减其零售业务。该公司将转而专注于商业银行和财富管理。其剩余的大部分分支机构将在美国。

花旗银行已经达成了出售其国外零售机构的交易，包括在澳大利亚、印度尼西亚、马来西亚、菲律宾和泰国的机构。下一次大的出售可能是在印度。据传，印度第三大私营银行安信银行(Axis Bank)接近以约25亿美元收购花旗的零售业务。

花旗银行并不孤单：汇丰银行和澳新银行也已经缩减了它们的分行网络。但花旗的退缩是引人注目的，因为它以前的雄心壮志和它在现在熟悉的技术（包括自动取款机和电子支付）方面所做的开拓性工作。但它的亚洲业务将是一个相对无痛的损失：2021年，它们仅占集团收益的1.6%。

应邀参加。尤瓦尔-诺亚-哈拉里谈俄罗斯和乌克兰

照片。法新社
这是历史学家、哲学家和作家尤瓦尔-诺亚-哈拉里撰写的客座文章的节选。在此阅读全文。

乌克兰危机的核心是一个关于历史性质和人类本质的基本问题：变革是否可能？有一个学派坚决否认变革的可能性。它认为，世界是一个丛林，强者掠夺弱者，防止一个国家吞噬另一个国家的唯一办法是军事力量。

另一个学派认为，所谓的丛林法则根本就不是自然法则。人类创造了它，而且人类可以改变它。与流行的误解相反，有组织战争的第一个明确证据仅出现在13000年前的考古记录中。即使在这一日期之后，也有许多时期没有战争。与重力不同，战争并不是自然界的基本力量。它的强度和存在取决于潜在的技术、经济和文化因素。随着这些因素的变化，战争也在变化。


揭开巨石阵的神秘面纱

照片。环保局
巨石阵是一座由巨大的立石组成的史前纪念碑，建于4500年前，这个谜是其吸引力的一个组成部分。这些石头在英格兰南部的一块田地上围成一圈，其确切目的可能永远无法让学者们理解。但大英博物馆的一个展览希望能给人们带来一些启示。

本周四开幕的 "巨石阵的世界 "的策展人广撒网，收集了来自欧洲史前时期的400多件物品。其中包括一块来自意大利的古代立石和 "海神"，一个从泥炭浸泡的英国海滩上取出的4000年历史的木圈。这两个物体都与宇宙相联系，就像巨石阵与太阳相一致一样。同时展出的还有被认为是世界上最古老的星空图的青铜 "Nebra Sky Disc"，虽然它是在德国发现的，但其中的金属可追溯至英国。新石器时代的欧洲人在精神和物质上的联系比以前可能意识到的要多。

每日问答

测验回来了。我们的咖啡师每天都会为您提供一个新问题。在周五，你的挑战是给出所有五个答案，并告诉我们连接的主题。在周五格林尼治标准时间17点之前，将你的回答（包括提及你的家乡城市和国家）发到 QuizEspresso@economist.com。我们将从正确的答案中随机挑选，并在周六为每个大洲选出一名获胜者。

星期四。网球比赛中用来决定球是否进场的电子系统叫什么名字？

我们只死一次，而且死了这么久！"。

莫里哀