2022.06.11美国的平均汽油价格达到每加仑5美元，为历史最高

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Updated less than 1 hour ago (16:10 GMT+1 / 11:10 New York)

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The average petrol price in America reached $5 per gallon, the highest ever. The record came as Joe Biden slammed ExxonMobil, an energy giant, for making “more money than God” last year. Data on Friday showed that consumer prices in America were 8.6% higher in May than one year earlier, the highest inflation rate in more than four decades. The news may prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more aggressively when it meets next week.

China would “not hesitate to start a war” if anyone tried to split Taiwan from the mainland, China’s defence minister told Lloyd Austin, his American counterpart. Mr Austin, meanwhile, asked China to “refrain from further destabilising actions”. In a speech at the Shangri-La security meeting in Singapore, he accused China of taking a “more coercive and aggressive approach to its territorial claims”.

Intense street fighting is ongoing in Severodonetsk, with both Russia and Ukraine likely suffering “high numbers of casualties”, according to Britain’s defence ministry. Britain said Russia is running out of high-precision missiles, forcing it to turn to inefficient weapons that carry a high risk of collateral damage. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials and military officers warned that their forces in the eastern Donbas region have run perilously low on artillery ammunition.

During an unannounced visit to Kyiv Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that she would offer an opinion on Ukraine's bid to join the EU by the end of next week. The commission, the EU's executive arm, will reportedly say that Ukraine should become an official candidate (actual accession negotiations would take many years). But many of the EU's 27 governments, all of whom must approve a bid, disagree.

Australia said it would pay Naval, a defence company majority-owned by the French state, A$830m ($585m) to extricate itself from a submarine contract. The deal, for 12 Attack-class submarines, was scuppered last year when Australia agreed on the so-called AUKUS deal, under which America and Britain will help Australia obtain more advanced nuclear-powered submarines. The switch torpedoed Australia’s relations with France; Anthony Albanese, the new prime minister, has moved quickly to heal them.

Iran and Venezuela signed a 20-year cooperation plan, pledging to work together on oil, defence and agriculture, and announcing regular flights between Tehran and Caracas. The two autocracies have grown close in recent years, united by a dislike for America, which has imposed painful sanctions on both of them. Speaking in Tehran on Friday Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, described the two countries as pioneers of a new world order.

Jeanine Áñez, briefly a president of Bolivia, was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for breach of duty. She had taken the helm of a hastily assembled caretaker administration after President Evo Morales resigned in 2019, whereupon she wrenched the country rightwards, away from the rest of left-leaning Latin America. Ms Áñez was arrested on charges of terrorism and sedition in March 2021, soon after allies of Mr Morales had defeated her side in elections.

Phrase of the week: the Octopus Doctrine, as described by Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, discussing his approach towards Iran. “We no longer play with the tentacles, with Iran’s proxies: we’ve created a new equation by going for the head.” Read the full article.


A possible gun deal has momentum

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
After a deluge of mass shootings, many Americans are fed up. On Saturday tens of thousands are expected to attend at least 450 March for Our Lives gun-reform demonstrations across the country and beyond. Organisers expect as many as 100,000 to march at the rally in Washington, DC. America has seen at least 254 mass shootings this year, notably at a supermarket in Buffalo, where a white supremacist targeted African-Americans, and in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a primary school.

The anger may yield political results. A sweeping gun reform bill passed by the House of Representatives on June 8th will probably falter in the Senate, but negotiations for a more modest bipartisan Senate bill look promising. The model may be Florida, which changed its laws after a school shooting in 2018. A so-called “red flag” law there prevents dangerous people from accessing guns, and limits the purchase of some firearms to under-21s. That will not end gun violence—but it could help.

A raucous election in Alaska

PHOTO: EYEVINE
Alaska has been a state for just 63 years. For 49 of them its sole congressional seat was held by Don Young, before he died in March. Nearly 50 candidates have filed to run in the primary election to fill the remainder of his term. The vote will be held on Saturday.

The candidates include Josh Revak, a state senator endorsed by Mr Young’s widow, and a man called Santa Claus. A better-known aspirant is Sarah Palin, a former governor who served, notoriously, as John McCain’s running-mate in the 2008 presidential race. But although she enjoys the endorsement of Donald Trump, Ms Palin may struggle to convince Alaskans she is serious. A recent television appearance saw her rapping while dressed as a bear.

In August the four candidates who win the most votes will compete to determine who completes Young’s term, which runs until January. A separate primary and then, finally, a general election this November will be needed to decide who will occupy the seat after that. Alaskans could be forgiven if they are confused.

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Football’s corruption scandal drags on

PHOTO: REUTERS
Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini were once the most powerful men in football. Mr Blatter was president of FIFA, the world governing body, from 1998 until 2015. Mr Platini, a former captain of the French national team, ran UEFA, FIFA’s European subsidiary, from 2007 to 2016. Racked by allegations of corruption, the pair have since fallen from grace.

This week both men went on trial in Switzerland. Under the spotlight is a payment of 2m Swiss francs ($1.8m) made in 2011 from FIFA to Mr Platini, authorised by Mr Blatter. Both men say the payment was made to settle a “gentleman’s agreement” over Mr Platini’s salary. But prosecutors allege it was fraud and embezzlement—and, even if legitimate, was paid well after it should have been. If found guilty Mr Blatter and Mr Platini would join an inauspicious group of other convicted former football executives, many of whom faced charges relating to evidence found during a raid on FIFA’s headquarters in Zurich in 2015. Sometimes the beautiful game leaves behind an ugly mess.

Traffic noise might affect intelligence

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
Arthur Schopenhauer called noise “the most impertinent of all interruptions.” Since the German philosopher was driven batty by the cracking of horsemen’s whips, one wonders how he would have managed in a cacophonous modern city. Not very well, if new research published in PLOS Medicine, a journal, is anything to go by.

In a study in Barcelona, nearly 3,000 children from 38 different primary schools were given a series of cognitive tests. The results were compared against recordings of road-traffic noise taken from their schools. They suggest that more traffic noise was linked to an impairment of cognitive development.

Average decibel readings were linked to worse outcomes. But the pupils’ cognition seems to have been more deeply affected by spikes in sound, such as cars honking horns or revving engines. Children exposed to more of those “noise events” suffered a slower development of memory and attentiveness, the tests showed. Noise regulations in cities are often based on average decibel levels rather than spikes. Rethinking that might serve children better.


Weekend Profile: the Gupta brothers

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Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta were not born in South Africa. But within 20 years of arriving they had allegedly pulled off one of the most remarkable corruption schemes in history. The three brothers stand accused of orchestrating a mind-boggling scam of “state capture” in the 2010s, in which at least 49bn rand ($3.2bn) in public money and contracts was apparently channelled into, or through, Gupta-linked firms—making the brothers fabulously wealthy. Last Monday Atul and Rajesh (pictured) were arrested in Dubai in relation to a case being pursued by South African authorities. (The Guptas have denied any wrongdoing, and described the allegations as politically motivated. Ajay has not been arrested.)

The trio grew up in Saharanpur, a sleepy town in northern India. Their father, a small-time businessman and trader, urged them to go out into the world to make their fortunes. Atul, the middle son, arrived in South Africa around the fall of apartheid, and began a business assembling cheap computers. Within a few years his brothers had joined him, and together they began to forge political connections in their adopted homeland. That soon paid off in the form of public contracts, such as one in 2002 to supply computers to government-run schools. They seemed quickly to settle on a modus operandi of pocketing cash while delivering little: journalists found that the computers did not work as promised.

Few friendships were as profitable for the Guptas as that with Jacob Zuma. The brothers met Mr Zuma in the early 2000s, when he was the country’s deputy president. The Guptas regularly invited Mr Zuma into their Johannesburg home, and employed his son as a director of some of their businesses. After winning the presidency in 2009 Mr Zuma repaid the favours in spades, ultimately handing over, in effect, the keys of state. The Guptas secured control of the boards of huge state-owned firms, including the electricity, rail and ports monopolies. Investigations by public watchdogs and a judge-led inquiry have reported that by around 2015 the Guptas were able to have cabinet ministers appointed and fired.

Yet the brothers seem to have made a fatal mistake. Most of the time bribe-payers follow an unwritten code: steal only as much as you can before attracting attention and getting caught. To the Guptas, this seemed to be just one more rule to be broken. Having left South Africa in 2016, two years before Mr Zuma stepped down, Atul and Rajesh—who now face a contentious extradition fight—may have an unhappy return.

Weekend crossword

Welcome to our new crossword, designed for experienced cruciverbalists and newcomers alike. Both sets of clues give the same answers, all of which feature in articles in this week’s edition of The Economist:

Factual clues

1 down Where Volodymyr Zelensky paid a visit on June 5th (10)

1 across City in Britain’s northern powerhouse (5)

2 across Established crop in Peru and Colombia; a newer one in Honduras and Venezuela (4)

3 across Home to the Medina bazaar neighbourhood (5)



Cryptic clues

1 down Classy, hunky but non-U, under attack in Donetsk (10)

1 across City’s on top, we hear? (5)

2 across Leaves when company about? (4)

3 across Lulu, baker back in part of capital (5)

Email all four answers by 9am BST on Monday to crossword@economist.com, along with your home city and country. We will pick randomly from those with the right answers and crown one winner per continent in Friday's edition.


The winners of this week’s quiz

Thank you to everyone who took part in this week’s quiz. (And sincere apologies to readers who were sent an old question in Friday’s email newsletter.) The winners, chosen at random from each continent, were:

Asia: Ahrum Kim, Bucheon, Republic of Korea

North America: Christian Hecimovic, Squamish, Canada

Central and South America: Michel Tanaka & Beatriz Fortes, Brasília, Brazil

Europe: Erik Mashkilleyson, Helsinki, Finland

Africa: Hasit Raja, Nairobi, Kenya

Oceania: Ian Hamilton, Perth, Australia

They all gave the correct answers of David Tennant, Earl Grey, Shirley Chisholm, Jane Fonda and “In the Heights”. The theme is novels by the Brontës: “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, “Agnes Grey”, “Shirley”, “Jane Eyre” and “Wuthering Heights”.

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.

Jeannette Rankin



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美国的平均汽油价格达到每加仑5美元，为历史最高。这一记录是在乔-拜登抨击能源巨头埃克森美孚公司去年 "赚得比上帝还多 "时出现的。周五的数据显示，美国5月份的消费者价格比一年前高出8.6%，是40多年来最高的通货膨胀率。这一消息可能促使美联储在下周开会时更积极地提高利率。

中国国防部长告诉他的美国同行劳埃德-奥斯汀，如果有人试图将台湾从大陆分裂出去，中国将 "毫不犹豫地发动战争"。同时，奥斯汀先生要求中国 "不要采取进一步破坏稳定的行动"。他在新加坡的香格里拉安全会议上发表讲话，指责中国对其领土要求采取了 "更具胁迫性和侵略性的做法"。

据英国国防部称，塞维罗多涅茨克的激烈巷战正在进行，俄罗斯和乌克兰都可能遭受 "大量伤亡"。英国表示，俄罗斯正在耗尽高精度的导弹，迫使它转向效率低下的武器，这些武器具有很高的附带损害风险。与此同时，乌克兰官员和军官警告说，他们在东部顿巴斯地区的部队的火炮弹药已经达到了危险的程度。

欧盟委员会主席乌苏拉-冯德莱恩(Ursula von der Leyen)在对基辅进行暗访时表示，她将在下周末前就乌克兰加入欧盟的申请提出意见。据报道，作为欧盟的执行机构，该委员会将表示，乌克兰应该成为一个正式的候选国（实际的入盟谈判将需要很多年）。但欧盟27国政府中的许多人不同意，他们都必须批准一项申请。

澳大利亚表示，它将向法国国家拥有多数股权的国防公司Naval支付8.3亿澳元（5.85亿美元），以使自己从一份潜艇合同中脱身。去年，当澳大利亚同意所谓的AUKUS协议时，12艘攻击级潜艇的交易被取消了，根据该协议，美国和英国将帮助澳大利亚获得更先进的核动力潜艇。这一转换破坏了澳大利亚与法国的关系；新任总理安东尼-阿尔巴内斯（Anthony Albanese）已经迅速采取行动来修复这种关系。

伊朗和委内瑞拉签署了一项为期20年的合作计划，承诺在石油、国防和农业方面进行合作，并宣布德黑兰和加拉加斯之间的定期航班。这两个专制国家近年来关系日益密切，由于不喜欢美国而团结在一起，美国对这两个国家实施了痛苦的制裁。委内瑞拉总统尼古拉斯-马杜罗周五在德黑兰发表讲话，将两国描述为世界新秩序的先驱。

曾短暂担任玻利维亚总统的珍妮-阿涅斯因失职罪被判处十年监禁。在埃沃-莫拉莱斯总统于2019年辞职后，她执掌了一个匆忙组建的看守政府，在那里她将这个国家向右拉开，远离了其他左倾的拉丁美洲国家。2021年3月，在莫拉莱斯先生的盟友在选举中击败她的一方后不久，阿涅斯女士就以恐怖主义和煽动罪的罪名被捕。

本周用词：章鱼理论，以色列总理纳夫塔利-贝内特在讨论他对伊朗的态度时这样描述。"我们不再与伊朗的代理人一起玩触角游戏：我们已经创造了一个新的方程式，那就是去找头。阅读全文。


一项可能的枪支交易有了势头

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在大量的枪击事件发生后，许多美国人已经厌倦了。周六，预计将有数万人参加全国各地和其他地区的至少450次 "为我们的生活游行 "枪支改革示威活动。组织者预计将有多达10万人参加在华盛顿特区举行的集会。美国今年至少发生了254起大规模枪击事件，特别是在水牛城的一家超市，一名白人至上主义者以非洲裔美国人为目标，以及在德克萨斯州的乌瓦尔德，一名枪手在一所小学杀害了19名儿童和两名教师。

这种愤怒可能会产生政治结果。众议院于6月8日通过的一项全面的枪支改革法案可能会在参议院动摇，但关于一项更温和的两党参议院法案的谈判看起来很有希望。佛罗里达州可能是榜样，该州在2018年发生校园枪击案后修改了法律。那里的一项所谓的 "红旗 "法律防止危险人物获得枪支，并限制21岁以下的人购买一些枪支。这不会结束枪支暴力--但它可能会有所帮助。

阿拉斯加喧闹的选举

照片。EYEVINE
阿拉斯加成为一个州只有63年。其中49年，其唯一的国会席位由唐-杨担任，他在3月去世。近50名候选人已申请参加初选，以填补他剩余的任期。投票将于周六举行。

候选人包括杨先生的遗孀所支持的州参议员乔什-雷瓦克，以及一个叫圣诞老人的人。萨拉-佩林（Sarah Palin）是一位更知名的候选人，她是前州长，在2008年总统竞选中作为约翰-麦凯恩（John McCain）的竞选伙伴而臭名昭着。但是，尽管她得到了唐纳德-特朗普的支持，佩林女士可能很难说服阿拉斯加人相信她是认真的。在最近的一次电视亮相中，她穿着熊的衣服在说唱。

8月，赢得最多选票的四位候选人将进行竞争，以决定由谁来完成杨的任期，任期至1月。需要进行单独的初选，最后是今年11月的大选，以决定谁将在此后占据这个席位。如果阿拉斯加人感到困惑，也是可以原谅的。

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足球的腐败丑闻持续发酵

照片。REUTERS
塞普-布拉特和米歇尔-普拉蒂尼曾经是足球界最有权势的人。布拉特先生从1998年到2015年担任世界管理机构国际足联的主席。普拉蒂尼是法国国家队的前队长，从2007年到2016年负责国际足联的欧洲附属机构欧足联。由于受到腐败指控的困扰，这两个人从此一蹶不振。

本周，两人在瑞士接受了审判。焦点是2011年国际足联向普拉蒂尼先生支付的200万瑞士法郎（180万美元），该款项由布拉特先生授权。两人都说，这笔钱是为了解决关于普拉蒂尼先生工资的 "君子协定"。但检察官指责这是欺诈和贪污--即使是合法的，也是在本应支付的很久之后才支付。如果布拉特先生和普拉蒂尼先生被认定有罪，他们将加入其他被定罪的前足球高管的不祥之列，其中许多人面临的指控与2015年突袭国际足联苏黎世总部期间发现的证据有关。有时，美丽的游戏会留下丑陋的混乱。

交通噪音可能影响智力

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阿瑟-叔本华称噪音是 "所有干扰中最无礼的"。由于这位德国哲学家被马夫的鞭子声弄得晕头转向，人们不禁要问，他在一个喧闹的现代城市中会如何应对。如果发表在《PLOS医学》杂志上的新研究能说明这一点的话，那就不是很好。

在巴塞罗那的一项研究中，来自38所不同小学的近3000名儿童接受了一系列的认知测试。测试结果与他们学校的道路交通噪音记录进行了比较。他们表明，更多的交通噪音与认知发展的损害有关。

平均分贝读数与更糟糕的结果有关。但是学生们的认知似乎更深地受到了声音尖峰的影响，例如汽车鸣笛或发动机转速。测试显示，接触到更多此类 "噪音事件 "的儿童，其记忆力和注意力的发展速度较慢。城市中的噪音规定通常是基于平均分贝水平，而不是峰值。反思一下，这可能对儿童更有利。


周末简介：古普塔兄弟

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阿杰、阿图尔和拉杰什-古普塔并不是出生在南非。但在来到南非的20年内，据称他们已经完成了历史上最了不起的腐败计划之一。这三兄弟被指控在2010年代策划了一个令人难以置信的 "国家俘获 "骗局，其中至少有490亿兰特（32亿美元）的公共资金和合同显然被引入或通过与古普塔有关联的公司，使这三兄弟富可敌国。上周，阿图尔和拉杰什（图）在迪拜被捕，与南非当局正在追查的一起案件有关。(古普塔家族否认有任何不当行为，并称这些指控是出于政治动机。阿杰没有被逮捕）。

三人在印度北部一个沉睡的小镇萨哈兰布尔（Saharanpur）长大。他们的父亲是一个小商人和贸易商，敦促他们到外面的世界去发财。中间的儿子阿图尔在种族隔离制度结束时来到南非，开始了组装廉价电脑的生意。几年内，他的兄弟们加入了他的行列，他们一起开始在他们的祖国建立政治关系。这很快就以公共合同的形式得到了回报，比如2002年为政府开办的学校提供电脑。他们似乎很快就确定了一种将现金收入囊中而不提供什么的操作方式：记者们发现，这些电脑并没有像承诺的那样工作。

对古普塔斯来说，很少有朋友能像与雅各布-祖马的关系那样有利可图。兄弟俩在21世纪初认识了祖马先生，当时他是该国的副总统。古普塔斯家族经常邀请祖马先生到他们在约翰内斯堡的家中做客，并雇用他的儿子作为他们一些企业的董事。2009年赢得总统职位后，祖马先生对这些恩惠进行了大量的回报，最终交出了国家的钥匙。古普塔家族获得了对大型国有企业董事会的控制权，包括电力、铁路和港口垄断企业。公共监督机构的调查和法官领导的调查报告显示，到2015年左右，古普塔家族能够任命和解雇内阁部长。

然而，这对兄弟似乎犯了一个致命的错误。大多数时候，行贿者都遵循一个不成文的准则：在引起注意和被抓之前，只能尽可能多地偷窃。对古普塔夫妇来说，这似乎只是要打破的又一个规则。阿图尔和拉杰什在2016年离开南非，也就是祖马先生下台前两年，他们现在面临着一场有争议的引渡斗争，可能会有一个不愉快的回归。

周末填字游戏

欢迎来到我们的新填字游戏，它是为有经验的十字架爱好者和新来者设计的。两组线索都给出了相同的答案，这些答案都在本周的《经济学人》杂志的文章中出现。

事实性线索

1下 6月5日沃洛德米尔-泽伦斯基访问的地方(10)

1下 英国北部动力中心的城市 (5)

2下 秘鲁和哥伦比亚的成熟作物；洪都拉斯和委内瑞拉的较新作物 (4)

3 横跨麦地那集市街区的所在地 (5)



隐秘的线索

1下 顿涅茨克市受到攻击的优雅、帅气但非U的人 (10)

1横 城市的顶端，我们听说？(5)

2个横行的叶子，当公司约？(4)

3横穿露露，面包师回到首都的一部分 (5)

请在北京时间周一上午9点前将所有四个答案发送至邮箱：crossword@economist.com，同时附上你的家乡城市和国家。我们将从有正确答案的人中随机挑选，并在周五的版本中为每个大洲选出一名获胜者。


本周测验的获胜者

感谢所有参加本周测验的人。(对那些在周五的电子邮件通讯中收到旧问题的读者表示诚挚的歉意）。从各大洲随机选出的获奖者是。

亚洲。Ahrum Kim，大韩民国富川市

北美洲。Christian Hecimovic，加拿大Squamish

中美洲和南美洲。Michel Tanaka & Beatriz Fortes, 巴西，巴西利亚

欧洲。芬兰，赫尔辛基，埃里克-马什基莱森

非洲：Hasit Raja，肯尼亚，内罗毕

大洋洲：伊恩-汉密尔顿，澳大利亚珀斯

他们都给出了正确的答案：大卫-坦南特、格雷伯爵、雪莉-奇索姆、简-方达和 "在高处"。主题是勃朗特夫妇的小说。"The Tenant of Wildfell Hall"、"Agnes Grey"、"Shirley"、"Jane Eyre "和 "Wuthering Heights"。

你不可能赢得一场战争，就像你不可能赢得一场地震。

詹妮特-兰金