2022年经济学人 马斯克要求推特证明其虚假账户少于5%（在线收听）

The world this week--Business

本周国际要闻--商业

Twitter insisted that it would enforce the buy-out deal it struck with Elon Musk, for $44bn, after Mr Musk said he was putting the offer on hold.

推特坚称将执行与埃隆·马斯克达成的440亿美元收购交易。此前，马斯克表示他将搁置收购要约。

Mr Musk wants the company to provide evidence that spam and fake accounts make up less than 5% of all its users, as claimed by Twitter.

马斯克希望推特提供证据，证明垃圾邮件和虚假账户如该公司所声称的在推特所有用户中所占比例不到5%。

Mr Musk thinks the figure is 20%.

马斯克认为这个数字是20%。

Investors wonder what he is up to.

投资者想知道他在做什么。

Mr Musk may be trying to get a lower price for the deal, or be seeking to walk away and pay a $1bn break-up fee.

马斯克可能试图以更低的价格达成交易，或者寻求退出，并支付10亿美元的中断费。

Investors took fright when a batch of company earnings revealed that higher costs and disrupted supply chains were hurting their business.

当一批公司的盈利报告显示，更高的成本和中断的供应链正在损害他们的业务时，投资者感到恐慌。

Target’s share price slumped by 25% after the retailer issued a profit warning.

在零售商塔吉特发布利润预警后，其股价暴跌了25%。

Walmart said that higher food prices were also eating into its profits. Its share price swooned.

沃尔玛表示，食品价格上涨也侵蚀了其利润。该公司股价暴跌。

The S&P 500 plunged by 4%, its biggest one-day loss since mid-2020.

标准普尔500指数暴跌4%，这是自2020年年中以来的最大单日跌幅。

The NASDAQ composite fell by 4.7%, as tech giants such as Amazon and Apple shed more than 5% of their value.

纳斯达克综合指数下跌4.7%，亚马逊和苹果等科技巨头市值下跌超过5%。

António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, warned of a coming global food shortage caused by the war in Ukraine that would particularly affect developing countries.

联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯，警告即将到来的由乌克兰战争引起的全球粮食短缺，这将特别影响到发展中国家。

He called for Ukraine’s grain supplies to be released from its ports, and for Russian food and fertiliser exports to be allowed to resume trading on world markets.

他呼吁乌克兰的谷物供应从其港口释放，并允许俄罗斯的食品和化肥出口在世界市场上恢复交易。

Global wheat prices surged after India, the world’s second-biggest producer, decided to halt exports of the grain as it tackles soaring domestic food prices.

全球小麦价格飙升，此前，全球第二大小麦生产国印度决定停止小麦出口，以应对不断飙升的国内食品价格。

Similar price increases have destabilised neighbouring Sri Lanka.

类似的价格上涨也破坏了邻国斯里兰卡的稳定。

Wheat supplies were already tight following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

在俄罗斯入侵乌克兰之后，小麦供应已经紧张。

Higher commodity prices were one reason why Japan’s economy shrank by 0.2% in the first three months of the year over the previous quarter.

较高的商品价格是日本经济在今年第一季度比上一季度萎缩0.2%的原因之一。

The country’s import costs have risen as the yen has fallen to a 20-year low.

随着日元跌至20年最低点，日本的进口成本有所上升。

Britain’s annual rate of inflation leapt to 9% in April, the highest level in four decades.

英国4月份的年通货膨胀率跃升至9%，为40年来最高水平。

Britain now has the worst rate of inflation in the G7.

英国现在的通货膨胀率在七国集团中是最严重的。

Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, said there was not much he could do about it, singling out “apocalyptic” rises in food prices as an external cause, although energy costs account for much of Britain’s inflation.

英国央行行长安德鲁·贝利表示，对此他无能为力，他指出食品价格“末日般的”上涨是一个外部原因，尽管能源成本在英国通胀中占很大比例。

His calls for restraint on pay increases, which firms usually pass on to consumers, have not gone down well with cash-strapped workers.

企业通常会把加薪转嫁给消费者，但他呼吁对加薪加以限制，这在现金短缺的工人中并不受欢迎。

McDonald’s decided to pull out of Russia for good, two months after closing its outlets there at the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

麦当劳决定永久退出俄罗斯。两个月前，俄罗斯对乌克兰开战，麦当劳关闭了在俄罗斯的门店。

“The Golden Arches will shine no more in Russia,” lamented the chief executive.

“金拱门将不再在俄罗斯闪耀，”这位首席执行官哀叹道。