Show notes
1. Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, begged America to let it strike deep inside Russia after his delegates met officials in Washington on Saturday. Ukraine’s army is limited to using American weapons on its soil and in defensive cross-border attacks. Mr Zelensky said six people were killed and 97 injured by Russian guided aerial bombs in Kharkiv on Friday, and that such attacks could only be avoided by “striking… the logistics of Russian terror.” Earlier Ukrainian offensive killed five people and injured 46 more in Belgorod, a city in south-western Russia, according to Russian authorities. Belgorod has frequently come under Ukrainian attack.
烏克蘭總統沃洛迪米爾·澤連斯基在其代表團於週六與華盛頓官員會晤後，懇求美國允許烏克蘭在俄羅斯境內進行深度打擊。烏克蘭軍隊目前僅限於在其國土上使用美國武器以及進行防禦性跨境攻擊。澤連斯基表示，週五在哈爾科夫有六人因俄羅斯的制導空中炸彈而喪生，另有97人受傷，他強調，只有通過「打擊俄羅斯恐怖行為的後勤供應」才能避免此類襲擊。俄羅斯當局稱，早些時候的烏克蘭攻擊在俄羅斯西南部城市別爾哥羅德造成五人死亡，46人受傷。別爾哥羅德經常遭到烏克蘭的攻擊。
2. Kamala Harris said her rival, Donald Trump, had “disrespected sacred ground” by using tape of his trip to Arlington National Cemetery in a campaign video. Mr Trump visited America’s most hallowed military burial ground on Monday, spending time in Section 60, where federal law bans political activities. His team pushed aside a cemetery employee who tried to stop them filming and then used the video to campaign.
卡馬拉·賀錦麗表示，她的對手唐納德·川普在競選影片中使用他參觀阿靈頓國家公墓的錄像，是對「神聖之地的不敬」。川普於週一參觀了美國最神聖的軍人墓地，並在聯邦法律禁止進行政治活動的第60區逗留。他的團隊推開了一名試圖阻止他們拍攝的墓地員工，隨後將這段影片用於競選活動。
3. China and the Philippines accused each other of ramming coastguard ships in a disputed area of the South China Sea—almost all of which China claims as its own. The Philippines said China **“intentionally” **struck its vessel, while China accused the Philippines of “deliberately” crashing into its ship. The Philippines reported no injuries. Tensions are mounting between the two countries; this was their fifth maritime clash in a month.
中國與菲律賓互相指責對方在南中國海一個有爭議的區域內撞擊對方的海岸警衛隊船隻。中國聲稱幾乎整個南中國海都是其領土。菲律賓表示，中國「故意」撞擊其船隻，而中國則指控菲律賓「蓄意」撞上其船隻。菲律賓報告稱，事件中無人受傷。兩國間的緊張局勢正在加劇，這是他們在一個月內發生的第五次海上衝突。
4. A statement by leaders from the Pacific Islands Forum, the region’s main** diplomatic** grouping, was amended to remove references to Taiwan. The original document, issued on Friday after the forum’s annual meeting, included mentions of its relationship with Taiwan, which drew ire from Chinese officials. China is not a member of the group, but attends some events as a “dialogue partner”.’
太平洋島國論壇的領導人發表的一份聲明被修改，刪除了提及台灣的內容。這份原本於週五在論壇年度會議後發布的文件，曾提到該論壇與台灣的關係，這引發了中國官員的不滿。中國不是該組織的成員，但以「對話夥伴」的身份參加了一些活動。
5. American and Iraqi troops launched** a joint military operation** in western Iraq that killed 15 members of Islamic State, a jihadist group. America’s army said that the militants were armed with weapons, grenades and suicide-belts. Seven American soldiers were injured. Iraq’s army claimed that leading members of the group were killed in the operation, which was carried out on Thursday.
美國和伊拉克軍隊在伊拉克西部發動了一次聯合軍事行動，擊斃了15名屬於聖戰組織「伊斯蘭國」的成員。美國軍方表示，這些武裝分子攜帶了武器、手榴彈和自殺式腰帶。七名美國士兵在行動中受傷。伊拉克軍方聲稱，該行動中擊斃了該組織的高層成員。這次行動於週四進行。
6. Osiel Cárdenas, an infamous Mexican drug lord, was released from prison in America. He served a 21-year sentence for his role as a former leader of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, feared crime organisations** specialising** in marijuana and cocaine trafficking and extreme violence. As of May 2024, cartels controlled around a third of Mexico’s territory, according to the Council of Foreign Relations, a think-tank.
臭名昭著的墨西哥毒梟奧西爾·卡德納斯在美國獲釋。他因曾擔任海灣卡特爾和洛斯澤塔斯的前領導人，而服刑21年，這兩個令人聞風喪膽的犯罪組織專門從事大麻和可卡因的販運以及極端暴力行為。根據智庫「對外關係委員會」的資料，截至2024年5月，卡特爾控制了墨西哥大約三分之一的領土。
Extra Reading
Is Western culture stopping people from growing up?
Kidults are all around you
西方文化是否在阻止人們成長？ 「大孩子」就在你身邊。
Aug 16th 2024
An older boss was correcting a younger female employee. “There is no P in ‘hamster’,” said the boss. But “that’s how I spell it,” the 20-something objected. The boss suggested they consult a dictionary. The employee called her mother, put her on speakerphone and tearfully insisted that she tell her boss not to be so mean.
It is an arresting vignette. The tearful employee appears to have imbibed the notion of “my truth”, a popular phrase intended to rationalise the speaker’s beliefs and shield them from criticism based on facts. You may say that 1+1=2, but “my truth” is that it makes three. Post-modernists deem this way of thinking sophisticated. Keith Hayward calls it childish. He is right.
But Mr Hayward, a criminologist at the University of Copenhagen, goes much further. In “Infantilised”, he contends that young people today are less mature than previous generations, and that Western culture is to blame. He offers plenty of examples of “kidulting” to reinforce his case. Some people like to recreate their childhood pleasures by dressing up as “My Little Pony” and buying tickets to places where they can jump into ball pits and do pillow-fights. Some carry on pursuing teenage kicks in nightclubs well into early middle age.
Over many years as a lecturer, Mr Hayward grew concerned that his 18-year-old students “resembled less mature teenagers on the cusp of adulthood and more fearful schoolchildren adrift in an alien world of adult autonomy”. One arrived in class dressed in a onesie, noting that it was cold and he liked to feel comfortable. Was he not “concerned about the infantilising overtones of such a garment?” asked Mr Hayward. “No, I want to be treated like a kid,” came the reply. “Adulting is hard.”
海沃德先生問道：「他難道不擔心這種服裝帶有使人幼稚化的意味嗎？」回應是：「不，我希望被當作孩子對待。當大人很難。」
Here the author produces his most solid evidence, though it will be familiar to many readers. In rich countries there has been a dramatic fall in the share of people who, by the age of 30, have attained the traditional markers of adulthood: leaving home, becoming financially independent, getting married, having a child. In Britain, the median age for a first (heterosexual) marriage, at 33 for men and 31 for women, is a decade higher than it was in the early 1960s. In 2016 a Pew study found that for the first time in 130 years, American 18-34-year-olds were more likely to be living with their parents than with a partner in a separate abode.
2016年，皮尤研究中心的一項研究發現，130年來首次，美國18至34歲的年輕人更有可能與父母同住，而不是與伴侶住在另一處住所。
Pop culture, Mr Hayward believes, is infantilising people. Modern cinema celebrates immaturity. From the unreconstructed man-children of “School of Rock” and “Ted” (which stars a beer-drinking teddy bear) to the endless “Batman” and “Spider-Man” remakes, “a visit to the movies these days feels more like a trip to a toy shop”. Reality TV shows “normalise infantilism” by making “40- and 50-year old celebrities dress up as toy cars, children’s bears and dinosaurs”. Many advertisements are an “assault on mature adulthood”.
許多廣告都是「對成熟成年人的攻擊」。
The Milky Bar Kid has been portrayed by actors of all ages. Evian water’s “live young” campaign featured adults in T-shirts that showed baby torsos beneath their necks.
The education system deserves some blame, too. Students are shielded from potentially upsetting ideas: the University of Aberdeen in Scotland put a trigger warning on “Peter Pan”, saying that students might find the “odd perspectives on gender” in the book “emotionally challenging”. Schoolchildren are told things that are manifestly untrue, such as “You can be anything you want to be.” History, sociology and philosophy are compressed into a “childhood morality tale” of the “privileged” and the “oppressed”. 教育體係也難辭其咎。學生們免受潛在令人不安的想法的影響：蘇格蘭阿伯丁大學對《彼得潘》發出了觸發警告，稱學生可能會發現書中“對性別的奇怪觀點”“在情感上具有挑戰性” 。小學生被告知的事情明顯不真實，例如「你可以成為任何你想成為的人」。歷史、社會學和哲學被壓縮成「特權階級」和「被壓迫者」的「童年道德故事」。
Schools and universities used to teach “the uncontroversial idea that [students] will need to adjust their behaviour and adapt to the world if they are to function effectively within it”. No more.
Finally, Mr Hayward chides the liberal commentariat. On the one hand, they celebrated Greta Thunberg, a former schoolgirl activist, as an “all-knowing sage”, despite her possessing “no scientific expertise” and saying “nothing original whatsoever about climate issues”. This, he claims, is evidence of “a role reversal in which young people are increasingly assigned the intellectual gravitas and cultural authority to educate adults”.
On the other hand, when Shamima Begum, a British schoolgirl roughly the same age as Ms Thunberg, went off to join the mass-murdering, mass-raping Islamic State, the same liberal pundits decried the British government’s decision not to allow her back into Britain to face justice, presenting her “as a duped child…far too young and naive to know her own mind, and therefore not responsible for her subsequent actions”. “When society acts in such a hypocritical fashion, adultfiying on the one hand and infantilising on the other, it is playing a dangerous and duplicitous game,” thunders Mr Hayward.
Maybe so. But the main liberal argument for allowing Ms Begum to return home is that it is against international law to make someone stateless. If it were not, countries could dump all their criminals on foreign shores and refuse to take them back. Mr Hayward does not mention this.
There are some nuggets in this book. This reviewer was intrigued to learn that, according to the “fabulously named” Immorality Lab at the University of British Columbia, those who regularly signal victimhood are more prone to lying and cheating for selfish ends, a habit people are supposed to grow out of. And it can’t hurt to remind American voters of Donald Trump’s reported schoolyard hissy-fit when his vice-president refused to help him try to overturn the results of the election he lost in 2020: “I don’t want to be your friend anymore if you don’t do this!”
But Mr Hayward’s argument has two flaws. One is that it is so grumpy. Why shouldn’t adults dress up as comic-book characters, if they enjoy it?
但海沃德先生的論點有兩個缺陷。一是脾氣暴躁。如果成年人喜歡的話，為什麼不該打扮成漫畫人物呢？
What is wrong with liking the “Wallace and Gromit” animated films? Being grown-up means taking responsibility for your actions; it does not mean only ever seeking fun in highbrow places.
The second, bigger flaw is that Mr Hayward glosses over more compelling explanations for the supposed surge of “infantilism” he decries. Perhaps there is more memorable evidence of adults behaving childishly these days because everyone has a camera and posts amusing clips to social media.
第二個更大的缺陷是，海沃德先生掩蓋了他所譴責的所謂「幼稚主義」激增的更令人信服的解釋。也許有更令人難忘的證據表明現在成年人的行為很幼稚，因為每個人都有相機並在社交媒體上發布有趣的剪輯
The idiotic things that the Boomers and Generation X did in their 20s are nearly all forgotten, thank heaven. The silliest antics of the silliest members of Gen Z tend to go viral.
And perhaps the reason why young people are finding jobs and having children later in life than earlier generations is that they are remaining longer in education.
年輕人之所以比前幾代人更晚找到工作和生育孩子，或許是因為他們接受教育的時間更長。
A whopping 40% of Americans aged 25 and over now have college degrees, up from 8% in 1960. This is a huge change, and usually considered a good thing, even if some degrees are costly and pointless. Those who are still studying at 25 are unlikely to be financially independent, and may therefore hesitate to have children. This is not childish; it is wise.
25歲還在讀書的人不太可能經濟獨立，因此可能會猶豫是否要孩子。這並不幼稚；這是明智的。
Other writers, such as Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge, have compiled interesting and sometimes troubling research about the young, from their apparently high levels of mental anguish to their threadbare support for free speech. But to dismiss a whole generation as big babies seems like name-calling.
但將整整一代人視為大嬰兒似乎在罵人。
--
Hosting provided by SoundOn