World and Press January 2
January 2 2023 • No 2 • 75th Year of Publication • Original Pressetexte aus britischen und US-amerikanischen Medien € 3,00 [d] Sprachtraining • Landeskunde • Vokabelhilfen • Übungsmaterial IN FOCUS B2–C2 • Opinion: You don’t ‘get’ a grade. You have to earn it Page 2 USA • Climate change: U.S. pays tribes to move away from climate threats • Arab Americans: Arab voters are often ignored by political candidates Pages 4/5 BRITAIN • Stonehenge: Similarities between British and Japanese cultures • Immigration: The UK’s Irish community is withering Pages 6/7 OTHER TOPICS • Ireland: Protecting the peatlands as fuel costs skyrocket • Germany: The country’s economy is in trouble • Startups: Silicon Valley’s euphoria runs into economic reality • Beauty: The first makeupfree participant in the Miss England competition • Book review: A new biography of Agatha Christie Pages 9/10/11/12/13 Get the vocabulary trainer! www.phase6.de/wp/0223 | Photo: New York Times China eases ‘zero-COVID’ restrictions in victory for protesters PANDEMIC Beijing’s costly policy of lockdowns has pummeled the world’s second-largest economy and set off mass public protests. By Keith Bradsher, Chang Che, and Amy Chang Chien 1 OVER THE PASTthree years, China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, staked his legitimacy on “zero-COVID,” making it an ideological campaign aimed at demonstrating the superiority of centralized control over democratic rule. He declared a “people’s war” against the coronavirus that used lockdowns and quarantines to eliminate infections. In a remarkable pivot, the Chinese government announced a broad rollback of those rules Wednesday, an implicit concession to public discontent after mass street protests in late November posed the most widespread challenge to the ruling Communist Party in decades. 2 The party appears to be attempting a tactical, face-saving retreat that would allow Xi to change tack without acknowledging that widespread opposition and economic pain forced his hand. China’s state media depicted Wednesday’s move as a planned transition after Xi’s zero-tolerance approach secured a victory over a virus that has now weakened. 3 The move could very well assuage protesters. But the party is expected to confront a surge of infections as lockdowns lift, schools reopen, and people try to resume On paper, Europe’s train system has a leg up on many parts of the world. Yet its railways could almost be an allegory for the European Union itself. Read more on page 3 normal life. The government must now place much greater urgency on vaccinations, which had been neglected in recent months, experts say. 4 The new policy takes aim at some of the most onerous and widely feared pandemic measures that reflect how intrusive the policy had become. Beijing largely did away Wednesday with rules requiring mass testing, limited the scope of lockdowns, and scrapped mandatory hospitalization and mass quarantines. It also ordered pharmacies not to ban or control the sale of cold and flu medication – a policy enforced in some places For the first time in British history, a robot, sporting dungarees and a black bob, testified in the House of Lords – before having a public breakdown. Die Nr.1 unter den Vokabeltrainern. Read more on page 14 to prevent residents from using over-the-counter drugs to reduce fevers and avoid detection. 5 The changes, while not a complete dismantling of “zero- COVID,” loosen measures that have dragged down the economy by disrupting daily life for hundreds of millions of people, forcing many small businesses to close, and driving youth unemployment to a record high. The changes also attempt to alleviate public anger against the system of digital surveillance used to track and limit the movements of practically all people. 6 Under “zero-COVID,” dozens | Photo: Getty Images People lining up at a COVID-19 vaccination station in Hong Kong. | Photo: Vernon Yuen/ NurPhoto via Getty Images of officials have been punished or fired after outbreaks. Cities have imposed lockdowns that confined hundreds of millions of people in their homes for weeks or even months at a time. Citizens and health experts who questioned the extent of controls or problems with lockdowns were punished or silenced. The controls have become harder to justify as rapidly spreading Omicron variants continued to slip through and especially as the rest of the world has increasingly adjusted to living with the virus. Continued on page 12 Die Nr.1 unter den Vokabeltrainern. €3,50 [a] CHF5,40 [ch] 0 – 1 RESTRICTION Beschränkung — costly kostspielig — to pummel verprügeln; h.: verheerende Auswirkungen haben auf — to stake s.th. on s.th. e-e S. an etw. knüpfen — superiority Überlegenheit — pivot Kehrtwende — rollback Aufhebung — implicit indirekt — concession Zugeständnis — discontent Unzufriedenheit — to pose darstellen 2 – 3 retreat Rückzug — to change tack e-n anderen Kurs einschlagen — to acknowledge zugeben — to force s.o.’s hand jdm. keine Wahl lassen — to depict darstellen — transition Übergang — to assuage beschwichtigen — surge starker Anstieg — to resume wiederaufnehmen — urgency Dringlichkeit — vaccination Impfung 4 to take aim at s.th. auf etw. abzielen — onerous beschwerlich; lästig — measure Maßnahme — to be intrusive ins Privatleben eingreifen — scope Umfang — to scrap abschaffen — mandatory verpflichtend — hospitalization Krankenhausaufenthalt — to enforce in Kraft setzen — over-thecounter drug rezeptfreies Medikament — detection Entdeckung 5 – 6 dismantling Demontage; Abschaffung — to loosen lockern — to drag down (fig) beeinträchtigen — to alleviate (fig) entschärfen — surveillance Überwachung — to track verfolgen — to impose verhängen — to confine einsperren — extent Ausmaß — to silence s.o. jdn. mundtot machen — to justify rechtfertigen
