英语咖啡馆：2023年2月28日英语新闻

THE WORLD IN BRIEF

Downing Street announced that Rishi Sunak would meet Ursula von der Leyen on Monday. Britain’s prime minister and the president of the European Commission are reportedly very close to a deal on reforming Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements, among the most vexed issues in Britain’s divorce from the EU. MPs were told to attend Parliament on Monday, possibly in anticipation of a vote on any agreement. 

At least 59 people died when a boat carrying about 150 migrants sank off Italy’s southern coast. A dozen children, including a baby, were among the dead. Some 105,000 people tried to claim asylum in Italy in 2022; many attempt to reach the country by crossing the Mediterranean Sea in flimsy vessels from north Africa. Italy’s anti-immigration prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, expressed “deep sorrow” for the victims. 

The result of Nigeria’s election remained uncertain two days after Africa’s most populous country held its closest vote in decades. The poll was marred by the failures of a new electronic voting system, which has been slow to release voting tallies. Usually a two-horse race, this year’s competition has been energised by the third-party candidacy of Peter Obi, a sprightly 61-year-old former state governor.

Ueda Kazuo, the incoming governor of the Bank of Japan, said he had ideas for tweaking the bank’s ultra-loose policies but believed a tighter approach was not yet needed. At the second parliamentary hearing in his confirmation process, Mr Ueda argued that Japan’s long-term inflation rate would have to rise first for policy to change.

NASA and SpaceX, a rocketry firm founded by Elon Musk, halted the launch of a spacecraft minutes before blastoff after discovering a glitch in the machine’s fuel-ignition system. The craft was due to take four astronauts up to the International Space Station. The crew will now remain at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida until another attempt can be made.

Tommy Fury, brother of two-time world heavyweight champion Tyson, pummelled Jake Paul, an American YouTuber-turned-pugilist, to win a highly-anticipated boxing match in Saudi Arabia. It was the latest lucrative sporting event hosted by the Gulf state, which has also thrown billions at hosting a breakaway golf tour and a Formula 1 race.

Fact of the day: 500GW, the amount of power India aims to generate from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030, up from 121GW today.

TODAY’S AGENDA

Zoom’s post-pandemic pain

On Monday Zoom, a video-conferencing service, announces its fourth-quarter results. The firm became a household name during the pandemic, as lockdowns forced more work and play online. Its market capitalisation peaked at $162bn in October 2020. At the time it was the world’s 65th-most-valuable company. 

Zoom has since fallen back down to earth. Today it is worth about the same as it was before the pandemic, compared with a rise of 24% for the S&P 500 index of big American firms over the same period. Other pandemic darlings, such as Netflix, a video-streaming company, and Peloton, a seller of internet-connected exercise bikes, have also returned to pre-pandemic values; the market (and many others) thought the shift to digital would be more permanent than it proved to be. Zoom, however, has other problems. It faces growing competition from Teams, Microsoft’s video-conferencing product, and a looming recession is forcing IT departments to tighten their purse strings. Revenue growth has slowed to a trickle. Being a household name only helps so much. 

Brexit and Northern Ireland

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s prime minister, is poised to announce a deal with the European Union over Northern Ireland. In 2020 the Brexit treaty bashed out by the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, avoided a border with Ireland by leaving the province, but not the rest of the United Kingdom, in the EU single market for goods. That necessitated a border in the Irish Sea. The new deal creates a “green” lane for goods not going to the EU that minimises customs checks. Britain will set VAT and state-aid rules. And the EU will consult Northern Ireland on new single-market rules.

Yet there are opponents to Mr Sunak’s deal. The Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s largest pro-Britain party, wants the original protocol scrapped entirely before it returns to Northern Ireland’s power-sharing executive. Mr Johnson prefers to stick to a bill allowing the government unilaterally to tear up the protocol. And many Tories are unhappy that the European Court of Justice will retain a role in Northern Ireland. Unless Mr Sunak wins round these critics, his deal could fall apart.

South Korea’s political prosecution

On Monday South Korea’s parliament voted down an unprecedented motion on whether to allow the arrest of Lee Jae-myung, leader of the Minjoo party and the main rival to Yoon Suk-yeol, the country’s president and representative of the People Power Party. Prosecutors have for months been investigating Mr Lee in connection with a string of corruption probes. He has denied all wrongdoing. He and his party have accused Mr Yoon, a former chief prosecutor, of acting like a dictator—no light charge given South Korea’s history of brutal repression by despots. 

The vote was surprisingly close. Minjoo commands 169 of parliament’s 299 seats, meaning Mr Lee was expecting ample protection. In the end, the motion fell short by only 11 votes. 

Prosecutors may yet decide to indict Mr Lee without arrest. What seems sure is that the investigations will continue to consume South Korean politics, making co-operation on legislation more tricky. Unfortunately, such gridlock is becoming all too normal.

Dancing on the margins

Among the most spellbinding TV moments of recent years is the house-party scene in “Lovers Rock”, about West Indian communities in London, in which the cast dance to Janet Kay’s hit “Silly Games”. People sway, a couple leave seeking greater privacy. The record finishes but the partygoers keep it going a capella. The camera is right in the mix, unobtrusive but intimate. 

Emma Warren, a culture writer, acknowledges this scene in her new book “Dance Your Way Home”, a history of dancing. In the book Ms Warren explains why she believes dancing is so important to life: it builds communities, enhances social cohesion, cultivates relationships. But she also finds that dance venues often come under threat from the authorities. In Britain, for instance, youth clubs have their public funding cut; nightclubs fall foul of regulations. The “Lovers Rock” party was held in a house because mainstream venues weren’t safe for immigrants. Ms Warren’s is a story of a joyful act often pushed to the margins.

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