The Australian government plans to introduce a levy on social media companies and search engines to force them to pay publishers for journalism after Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, walked away from an existing arrangement.

在Facebook和Instagram的所有者Meta退出现有安排后，澳大利亚政府计划对社交媒体公司和搜索引擎征税，迫使它们向出版商支付新闻报道费用。

In the proposed amendments to current regulations, any social media platform or search engine that derives more than $250mn in revenues a year from Australia would be subject to a “charge”. That levy would be offset against any payments made directly by tech companies to publishers. The move is intended to encourage them to negotiate with the media industry over commercial deals.

在对现行法规的拟议修正案中，任何每年从澳大利亚获得超过2.5亿美元收入的社交媒体平台或搜索引擎都将被征收“费用”。科技公司直接支付给出版商的任何款项都可以抵扣这笔费用。此举旨在鼓励这些公司与媒体行业就商业交易进行谈判。

It is the latest move by Canberra to tackle the tech sector’s power after introducing a law last month that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media services. It also took X to court this year in an attempt to block violent videos being carried on its platform and has proposed laws on online scams and misinformation in the past year.

这是堪培拉方面继上个月出台禁止16岁以下人士使用社交媒体服务的法律后，为打击科技行业的势力而采取的最新举措。今年，堪培拉还将X告上法庭，试图阻止其平台上传播暴力视频，并在去年提出了关于网络诈骗和虚假信息的法律提案。

——本文2024年12月13日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Australia to introduce ‘news tax’ on tech companies

As US equity markets trace the contours of the third great speculative bubble in history, investor confidence in a new economic era has reached extreme levels.

随着美国股市“勾画出”史上第三个大投机泡沫的轮廓，投资者对一个新经济时代的信心已达到极端水平。

Among several valuation measures setting record highs is one that has reliably been a gauge for the subsequent returns and potential losses of the S&P 500 index over the following 10 to 12 years: the ratio of the market capitalisation of US non-financial companies to “gross value-added” or corporate revenues generated incrementally at each stage of production. Since early 2022, this metric has rivalled and now exceeds the peaks of both 1929 and 2000.

在创下历史新高的几个估值指标中，有一个指标迄今可靠地衡量了标普500指数(S&P 500)在接下来10到12年的后续回报和潜在损失：美国非金融公司的市值与“总增加值”（即企业在每一个生产阶段产生的新增营收）之比。自2022年初以来，这一指标已赶上、现在甚至超过了1929年和2000年的峰值。

Across a century of market cycles, valuations have seemed least reliable precisely when they were most extreme. The only way valuations could reach the heights of 1929, 2000 and today was for the market to advance triumphantly through every lesser extreme. Yet peaks such as today’s speak volumes about future returns.

纵观一个世纪中的各个市场周期，估值看似最不可靠的时候恰恰也是它们最极端的时候。估值能够达到1929年、2000年和今天这种高度的唯一途径，是市场牛气十足地冲过每一个相对较低的高峰。然而，当今这样的高峰说明了有关未来回报的很多事情。

——本文2024年12月13日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 New eras, same bubbles: the forgotten lessons of history

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government will allow its staff to work a four-day week as authorities in the world’s largest city begin a radical experiment to reverse Japan’s low birth rate.

东京都政府将允许其员工每周工作四天，这个世界上最大城市的当局开始了一项激进的实验，以扭转日本的低出生率。

The programme, which adds Tokyo to a growing global movement among local and central governments to embrace the “four-on, three-off” approach to work-life balance, comes as Japan’s population is on track for its 16th consecutive year of decline.

该计划让东京加入了多个地方和中央政府的行列，推动一项声势日益浩大的全球运动，采取“上四休三”的工作与生活平衡方式。与此同时，日本人口正处于连续第16年下降的轨道上。

The Tokyo government’s project, which will begin in April 2025, lets employees adjust their working hours to completely free up one day of their choice each week. The project is set to benefit tens of thousands of city government employees.

东京政府的这一项目将于2025年4月启动，员工可以调整工作时间，每周完全空出一个工作日，具体是哪天由他们自由选择。该项目将惠及数万名市政府雇员。

——本文2024年12月13日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为  Tokyo plans 4-day working week in effort to boost births

Syrian rebels who helped topple Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than a week ago have pressed ahead with a separate, less-publicised offensive.

不到一周前帮助推翻巴沙尔•阿萨德政权的叙利亚反政府武装又发起了另一场较少被曝光的攻势。

The Syrian National Army, a rebel group supported by Turkey, has in recent days battled the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed militant movement that Ankara deems a severe threat.

土耳其支持的反政府组织“叙利亚国民军”(SNA)最近几天与库尔德人领导的“叙利亚民主力量”(SDF)开战，后者得到了美国支持，并被安卡拉视为一个严重威胁。

Syrian Kurds, who at 2mn people make up about 10 per cent of the country’s population, carved out their own territory during the civil war and fear they may wind up worse off under a rebel-led government supported by their enemy Turkey.

叙利亚库尔德人有200万，约占全国人口的10%，他们在内战期间开辟了自己的领土，担心在敌人土耳其支持的叛军领导的政府统治下，自己的处境可能会更糟。

——本文2024年12月13日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Syria’s Kurds fear US betrayal under Donald Trump