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In an unexpected move, Facebook blocked news content on its sites in Australia, and also stopped people outside the country from viewing Australian news publications on its platforms. The social-media giant took the action after the lower house of parliament passed a bill that would force it to pay for news content that has been shared by users; it says the law is unclear about what constitutes “news”.
令人意外的是，Facebook屏蔽了其澳大利亞網站上的新聞內容，并禁止境外人士在其平臺上瀏覽澳大利亞新聞出版物。這家社交媒體巨頭采取這一行動之前，澳洲下議院通過了一項法案，要求Facebook為用戶分享的新聞內容付費；該公司表示，這項法案并未清楚定義什么是“新聞”。
Facebook’s defiant tone was a stark contrast to Google’s global agreement to pay News Corporation for content from its publications, which include the Wall Street Journal and the Sun in Britain. Google was also under threat from the proposed law in Australia and had warned that it would shut its search engine there.
Facebook的挑釁式口吻與谷歌同意向新聞集團(News Corporation)支付其出版物內容費用的全球協議形成鮮明對比，這些出版物包括《華爾街日報》和英國的《太陽報》。谷歌也受到澳大利亞擬議法律的威脅，并警告稱公司將關閉其在澳大利亞的搜索引擎。
Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH, a French luxury-goods group, is joining the growing list of business leaders who have set up a special-purpose acquisition company. A SPAC is a shell company that lists on a stock exchange with the intent of merging with an existing company, enabling the firm to raise capital without the slog of an IPO. They became popular in America in 2020, but are now taking off in Europe, too. Mr Arnault’s investment company is launching its spac with other investors to look for deals in financial services.
法國奢侈品集團路威威登集團的主席伯納德·阿爾諾也加入了成立特殊目的收購公司的商界領袖的行列。特殊目的收購公司（SPAC）是一家在證券交易所上市的空殼公司，其目的是與現有公司合并，使公司無需進行首次公開募股即可籌集資金。它們于2020年在美國開始流行，現在歐洲也開始流行起來。阿爾諾的投資公司將與其他投資者一起推出特殊目的收購公司，尋找金融服務領域的交易。
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was appointed as the new director-general of the World Trade Organisation. She is the first African and the first woman to hold the job. The Trump administration had opposed the nomination of Ms Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister, claiming that she lacks experience. But her only rival, Yoo Myung-hee, South Korea’s trade minister, withdrew her candidacy in early February, soon after Joe Biden took office.
恩戈齊·奧孔喬·伊韋拉（Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala）被任命為世界貿易組織新任總干事。她是第一位擔任該職位的非洲人，也是第一位任此職位的女性。特朗普政府曾反對提名尼日利亞前財長伊韋拉，稱她缺乏經驗。而她唯一的競爭對手、韓國貿易部長柳明熙在2月初喬·拜登上任后不久就撤回了她的候選人資格。
China displaced America as the European Union’s biggest trading partner last year, according to official data, with both exports and imports growing. America remains the EU’s biggest export market (followed by Britain), but overall trade slumped between the two after their economies tanked during the pandemic.
根據官方數據，中國去年取代美國成為歐盟最大的貿易伙伴，出口和進口都在增長。美國仍然是歐盟最大的出口市場(其次是英國)，但在疫情期間雙方經濟遭受重創后，二者之間的貿易總額大幅下滑。
Official statistics confirmed that Britain’s GDP contracted by 9.9% in 2020, the worst performance in the G7. The economic recovery that began mid-year stalled when the second wave of the pandemic took hold. The Treasury’s average of forecasts suggests that the economy will grow by 4.4% this year and 5.7% in 2022, depending on what happens with COVID-19.
官方統計證實，英國的GDP在2020年下降了9.9%，是七國集團中表現最差的。年中開始的經濟復蘇在第二波疫情爆發時陷入停滯。財政部的平均預測顯示，今年經濟將增長4.4%，2022年將增長5.7%，這取決于新冠疫情的發展情況。
Japan’s economy shrank by 4.8% in 2020. The country’s economic output picked up towards the end of the year, helped by a surge in exports.
日本經濟在2020年萎縮了4.8%。在出口激增的推動下，日本的經濟產出在接近年底時有所回升。
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