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The world this week--Business
本周國際要聞--商業
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.
推特堅稱將執行與埃隆·馬斯克達成的440億美元收購交易。此前，馬斯克表示他將擱置收購要約。
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.
馬斯克希望推特提供證據，證明垃圾郵件和虛假賬戶如該公司所聲稱的在推特所有用戶中所占比例不到5%。
Mr Musk thinks the figure is 20%.
馬斯克認為這個數字是20%。
Investors wonder what he is up to.
投資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.
馬斯克可能試圖以更低的價格達成交易，或者尋求退出，并支付10億美元的中斷費。
Investors took fright when a batch of company earnings revealed that higher costs and disrupted supply chains were hurting their business.
當一批公司的盈利報告顯示，更高的成本和中斷的供應鏈正在損害他們的業務時，投資者感到恐慌。
Target’s share price slumped by 25% after the retailer issued a profit warning.
在零售商塔吉特發布利潤預警后，其股價暴跌了25%。
Walmart said that higher food prices were also eating into its profits. Its share price swooned.
沃爾瑪表示，食品價格上漲也侵蝕了其利潤。該公司股價暴跌。
The S&P 500 plunged by 4%, its biggest one-day loss since mid-2020.
標準普爾500指數暴跌4%，這是自2020年年中以來的最大單日跌幅。
The NASDAQ composite fell by 4.7%, as tech giants such as Amazon and Apple shed more than 5% of their value.
納斯達克綜合指數下跌4.7%，亞馬遜和蘋果等科技巨頭市值下跌超過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.
聯合國秘書長安東尼奧·古特雷斯，警告即將到來的由烏克蘭戰爭引起的全球糧食短缺，這將特別影響到發展中國家。
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.
他呼吁烏克蘭的谷物供應從其港口釋放，并允許俄羅斯的食品和化肥出口在世界市場上恢復交易。
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.
全球小麥價格飆升，此前，全球第二大小麥生產國印度決定停止小麥出口，以應對不斷飆升的國內食品價格。
Similar price increases have destabilised neighbouring Sri Lanka.
類似的價格上漲也破壞了鄰國斯里蘭卡的穩定。
Wheat supplies were already tight following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
在俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭之后，小麥供應已經緊張。
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.
較高的商品價格是日本經濟在今年第一季度比上一季度萎縮0.2%的原因之一。
The country’s import costs have risen as the yen has fallen to a 20-year low.
隨著日元跌至20年最低點，日本的進口成本有所上升。
Britain’s annual rate of inflation leapt to 9% in April, the highest level in four decades.
英國4月份的年通貨膨脹率躍升至9%，為40年來最高水平。
Britain now has the worst rate of inflation in the G7.
英國現在的通貨膨脹率在七國集團中是最嚴重的。
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.
英國央行行長安德魯·貝利表示，對此他無能為力，他指出食品價格“末日般的”上漲是一個外部原因，盡管能源成本在英國通脹中占很大比例。
His calls for restraint on pay increases, which firms usually pass on to consumers, have not gone down well with cash-strapped workers.
企業通常會把加薪轉嫁給消費者，但他呼吁對加薪加以限制，這在現金短缺的工人中并不受歡迎。
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.
麥當勞決定永久退出俄羅斯。兩個月前，俄羅斯對烏克蘭開戰，麥當勞關閉了在俄羅斯的門店。
“The Golden Arches will shine no more in Russia,” lamented the chief executive.
“金拱門將不再在俄羅斯閃耀，”這位首席執行官哀嘆道。
