年度大事盤點
America and China started a trade war, the world’s worst such dispute in decades. America imposed tariffs on $250bn-worth of Chinese products; China responded with tariffs of its own. America also slapped duties on steel imports from Europe, Canada, Mexico and elsewhere, infuriating its allies. Donald Trump intervened on national-security grounds to scupper a $117bn bid from Broadcom, a chipmaker with ties to South-East Asia, for Qualcomm. It would have been the biggest-ever tech merger. There was one de-escalation: America, Canada and Mexico struck a deal to update NAFTA.
美國和中國開始了一場貿易戰，這是幾十年來全球最嚴重的一次貿易爭端。美國對價值2500億美元的中國產品征收關稅；中國也發起相同措施作為反擊。美國還對從歐洲、加拿大、墨西哥和其他地方進口的鋼鐵征收關稅，此舉激怒了美國的盟友。特朗普以國家安全為由出面干預，試圖阻止與東南亞有關聯的芯片制造商博通(Broadcom)以1170億美元的價格收購高通(Qualcomm)。這本可以成為有史以來最大的科技公司合并。其中一個緊張局勢有所降級：美國、加拿大和墨西哥就更新北美自由貿易協定達成了協議。
“Fire and Fury”
“火與怒”
In another dysfunctional year at the White House, Rex Tillerson was sacked as secretary of state, as was Jeff Sessions as attorney-general, both after the president had publicly undermined them. The investigation by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, into Russian influence in American elections rumbled on, laying charges against some of Mr Trump’s former aides. A voter backlash against Mr Trump propelled the Democrats to win the House of Representatives in the mid-terms, though the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate.
在白宮又一個混亂的年頭里，國務卿雷克斯·蒂勒森(Rex Tillerson)遭解職，而杰夫·賽辛斯(Jeff Sessions)也被解除了司法部長一職，特朗總統曾公開表示對兩人的不滿。特朗普的特別顧問羅伯特·米勒(Robert Mueller)針對俄羅斯對美國大選影響的調查仍在繼續，他對特朗普的幾位前助手提出指控。選民對特朗普的強烈反對，推動民主黨在中期選舉中贏得了眾議院，盡管共和黨在參議院的多數席位有所增加。
The messy spectacle of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to the Supreme Court polarised American politics even further. With the #MeToo movement fully behind them, Democrats wheeled out sexual- assault allegations from the early 1980s to try to block his path. Mr Kavanaugh survived the media circus and was eventually confirmed in the Senate by 50-48, the narrowest such margin since 1881. He appointed a team of all-female clerks, a first for the court.
布雷特·卡瓦諾(Brett Kavanaugh)向最高法院提交確認聽證會的混亂場面進一步分化了美國政治。借助著MeToo運動的浪潮，民主黨人曝出了始于上世紀80年代初期的性侵指控，以阻止他成為大法官。卡瓦諾從媒體的狂轟濫炸中幸存下來，最終以50比48的優勢通過參議院的表決，這是自1881年以來最微弱的差距。他還任命了一個全部由女性職員組成的助手團隊，這在最高法庭尚屬首次。
Bother Brexit
退歐道阻且長
After a year of tortuous Brexit negotiations, Theresa May and the European Commission agreed a deal for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union, but Britain’s Parliament has not approved the agreement. Britain’s prime minister clung to power after hard Brexiteers in her party tried to bring her down. Two-and-a-half years after the referendum, the opposition Labour Party still had no coherent Brexit policy. Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29th.
經過一年曲折的退歐談判，特蕾莎·梅(Theresa May)和歐盟委員會就英國退歐達成協議，但是英國議會尚未批準該協議。英國首相在其黨內強硬退歐派試圖趕她下臺后，仍然大權在握。公投結束兩年半后，反對黨工黨仍未制定出連貫的退歐政策。英國將于3月29日脫離歐盟。
Tensions increased between Britain and Russia after two Russian intelligence officers poisoned Sergei Skripal, a dissident, and his daughter with a nerve agent in Salisbury, an otherwise quiet cathedral town. They both survived. Russia paraded the attackers on television, claiming they were innocent tourists with an interest in church spires.
兩名俄羅斯間諜在索爾茲伯里用某神經毒劑毒殺持不同政見的謝爾蓋·斯克里帕爾及其女兒。這里原本是一個安靜的教堂小鎮，如今英俄兩國的緊張關系加劇。他們都僥幸存活。兩名間諜現身接受了俄羅斯電視采訪，聲稱他們只是無辜的游客，對教堂尖頂感興趣罷了。
Facebook had a terrible year. The social network came under intense pressure to rein in fake news and protect user data. The revelation that Cambridge Analytica, a political consultancy that had worked on Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, had obtained information on 87m Facebook users through a third-party app shook the company to its core.
Facebook這一年諸事不順。這家社交網絡公司在把控虛假新聞和保護用戶數據方面面臨巨大壓力。2016年，曾參與特朗普競選活動的政治咨詢公司劍橋分析公司通過一款第三方應用軟件獲取了8700萬名Facebook用戶的信息，該消息的披露徹底動搖了這家公司的“根基”。
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