Will mental health concerns sink social media platforms? A US politician has called TikTok “digital fentanyl”. Some schools are suing social media companies alleging that the platforms have caused a youth mental health crisis. Yet the companies warn that cutting off young people could also damage mental health. A world-first law banning social media for children under 16 was passed in Australia. Other countries could well follow.

对精神健康的担忧会摧毁社交媒体平台吗？美国一位政治人物形容TikTok是“数字芬太尼”。一些中小学正在起诉社交媒体公司，指控其平台造成了一场青少年精神健康危机。然而这些公司警告称，禁止年轻人接触社交媒体也会损害精神健康。澳大利亚通过了世界上第一部禁止16岁以下未成年人使用社交媒体的法律。其他国家很可能会效仿。

Under the law, Australians under 16 will be banned from opening accounts on all major social media platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit — even with parental permission. The social media groups will be responsible for policing this, or face fines of up to $32.5mn.

根据该法律，16岁以下的澳大利亚人将被禁止在所有主要社交媒体平台上开设账户，包括TikTok、Facebook、Instagram、Snapchat和Reddit——即使得到父母允许也不例外。社交媒体集团将负责执行该法，否则将面临最高3250万美元的罚款。

The penalty itself is negligible. Revenues at Meta were $40.6bn in the latest quarter. TikTok parent company ByteDance’s hit $110bn last year.

罚款数额本身较小，可以忽略不计。Meta在最近一个季度的营收达到406亿美元。TikTok母公司字节跳动(ByteDance)去年营收达到1100亿美元。

——本文2024年12月2日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Australia’s social media ban is as big a TikTok threat as US

For more than a year, as conflicts between Israel and Iranian-backed forces spread across the Middle East and spilled into his own country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was conspicuously silent.一年多来，尽管以色列和伊朗支持的武装力量之间的冲突在中东蔓延并扩大到叙利亚，但叙利亚总统巴沙尔•阿萨德(Bashar al-Assad)一直显得异常沉默。

With a long civil war still simmering in Syria, the state broken and bankrupt, and the backers that propped up his regime — Russia, Iran, and Hizbollah — all distracted and weakened by their own conflicts, Assad lay low, seemingly hedging his bets.

叙利亚的长期内战仍在酝酿之中，国家支离破碎，支持阿萨德政权的俄罗斯、伊朗和真主党都因各自的冲突而分心和削弱，阿萨德低调行事，似乎是在对冲赌注。

But this week’s shock assault by Islamist rebels, who captured Aleppo, the nation’s second city, within 48 hours of launching their offensive, has dramatically exposed the instability in Syria, the fragility of Assad’s hold over his shattered country and the scale of opposition to his rule.

然而，上周伊斯兰叛军的突然袭击在发起进攻后48小时内就攻占了该国第二大城市阿勒颇，这极大地暴露了叙利亚的不稳定、阿萨德对这个支离破碎国家的控制的脆弱性以及反对派的规模。

——本文2024年12月2日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Syria’s Assad trapped by rebel advance and refusal to compromise

Joe Biden has pardoned his son Hunter over convictions on gun and tax charges in an extraordinary reversal of his promise not to use executive powers to benefit his son less than two months before the end of his presidency. 

乔•拜登在距离总统任期结束还剩不到两个月之际赦免了因枪支和税务指控被定罪的儿子亨特，明显违背了他不使用行政权力为儿子谋利的承诺。

In a statement on Sunday night, the US president accused political opponents in Congress of “instigating” the charges against Hunter to attack him.

在上周日晚上的一份声明中，美国总统指责国会中的政治对手“煽动”对亨特的指控以攻击他。

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” Biden said.

拜登说：“任何理性的人在查看亨特案件的事实后，都会得出这样的结论：亨特被单独挑出来只是因为他是我的儿子——这是错误的。”

——本文2024年12月2日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Joe Biden pardons son Hunter over gun and tax charges

Retail sales rose on Black Friday with record online spending, even as fewer people visited stores for the biggest promotional event of the US holiday shopping season.

今年黑色星期五(Black Friday)零售额有所上升，尽管在这个美国假日购物季最大促销活动期间到店购物的人数减少，但线上消费创下了新高。

Sales on Friday rose by 3.4 per cent year on year from Black Friday 2023, according to data released on Saturday by Mastercard SpendingPulse. 

根据万事达卡消费指数(Mastercard SpendingPulse)上周六发布的数据，上周五的黑色星期五销售额同比增长了3.4%。

That masked starkly different trends in ecommerce and in brick and mortar locations. While online retail sales jumped by 14.6 per cent year on year, in-store sales rose by only 0.7 per cent, Mastercard said. The figures are not adjusted for inflation. 

这个数据掩盖了电子商务和实体店截然不同的趋势。万事达卡表示，线上零售额同比增长了14.6%，而实体店销售额仅增长了0.7%。这些数据未经过通货膨胀调整。

——本文2024年12月2日发布于FT中文网，英文原题为 Surge of online spending means more Americans stay home on Black Friday