Fluency News #26

Hello, everyone!

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa nova série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui, você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as três principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português das coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, trazemos atualizações sobre as histórias de Myanmar e Alexei Navalny e cobrimos os massacres que têm acontecido em vilas na Etiópia. Nós também falamos sobre as melhorias e métodos ao lidar com mosquitos transmissores de malária.

Temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, vá conferir! @fluencytvingles

Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar! See you!

Este episódio foi escrito por Lívia Pond.

Transcrição do episódio:

What is up, guys! Welcome back to Fluency News, the news podcast created by Fluency Academy.

I’m Scott Lowe, your host and newscaster! Você sabe o que é “newscaster”? É a pessoa que lê as notícias, que apresenta as histórias em um jornal, por exemplo. Isso que eu acabei de fazer aqui vai se repetir durante este episódio! That’s right! I’m going to read some of the most important news of the week, and every time we see a word or an expression that may be new to you, I’ll come in in Portuguese to explain it, so you can understand everything!

And to make sure you REALLY understand everything, let me remind you you can go to fluencytv.com to see the full transcript of this episode, in case you want to practice your reading skills too! There you’ll also find over 1000, yes, a thousand FREE lessons in five different languages, so don’t forget to check it out. It’s fluencytv.com.

Alright, let’s jump into it! We have some updates on past stories today! First, let’s talk about Alexei Navalny. The Russian opposition leader was moved from a Moscow jail to one of Russia’s most notorious prison camps to serve his sentence. Navalny, who survived a poisoning attempt, is serving a two-year six-month sentence for defying probation terms while he was hospitalized for the poisoning. The facility, about 60 miles from Moscow, is known as a “red zone” prison, defined by the harsh manual labor prisoners must carry out.

Você sabe qual é a diferença entre “labor” e “work”? “Labor” normalmente é associado ao trabalho físico, ou exaustivo mentalmente, enquanto “work” se refere a qualquer tipo de trabalho. “Labor” também pode ser traduzido para “mão de obra”.

Also in an update, Myanmar protests against the military coup have not ended, and security forces in Myanmar opened fire and made mass arrests on Sunday, February 28th, as they sought to break up protests. At least 18 people have been killed and dozens wounded across Myanmar in the most violent crackdown yet by security forces against peaceful demonstrators protesting against a February 1 military coup, according to the United Nations human rights office.

“Throughout the day, in several locations throughout the country, police and military forces have confronted peaceful demonstrations, using lethal force and less-than-lethal force that – according to credible information received by the UN Human Rights Office – has left at least 18 people dead and over 30 wounded,” the office said on Sunday.

World leaders have publicly condemned the actions of the police. UN chief Antonio Guterres on Sunday led the chorus of international condemnation against the actions of the military.

Em algumas notícias em outros episódios e nessa história, você ouviu a palavra “crackdown”. Você sabe o que ela significa? Ela pode significar “aplicação de medidas duras”, ou melhor, “repressão”. Isso significa que na tentativa de reprimir, conter os protestos, 18 pessoas morreram.

Now, I have to warn you, our main story today is a tough one. Ethiopians say their towns are being razed in ethnic cleansing campaign.

“They set our crops on fire, then they started burning the homes,” said Gebru Habtom, a farmer in his 40s from the village of Debre Harmaz in Ethiopia. “Then they said they’d burn me next, so I fled for my life.”

Gebru, whose name has been changed to protect him from reprisals, was born and raised in the village of Debre Harmaz in central Tigray, some five miles from Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea. Like thousands of others, he has been displaced by Ethiopia’s months-long civil war.

Gebru connected with VICE World News from an undisclosed location along the Ethiopian-Sudanese border, and said that there was no sign of war or even resistance fighters present when, on January 10, Eritrean soldiers arrived in his village and went on a murderous rampage, pillaging and setting homes alight. “They shot at everyone, they even killed priests who were hiding in the church,” he said. Gebru also said that he heard about neighboring villages experiencing similar destruction that has also gone unreported.

Over the past month, VICE World News has documented harrowing testimony from nine displaced Tigrayans who recalled wanton slaughter, the destruction of crops and livelihoods, and tens of thousands fleeing from areas of Ethiopia’s Tigray region under Eritrean military control. Their testimony has been largely confirmed by satellite image analysis by the U.K.-based research organization DX Open Network, and their recounting and the image analysis both suggest that Eritrean soldiers involved in Ethiopia’s war in Tigray are ethnically cleansing communities near the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

While several towns in the area have been previously reported destroyed, VICE World News found that, at minimum, an additional four villages in Tigray have likely been razed, and their inhabitants killed.

Eritrean soldiers first entered Ethiopia’s civil war to fight alongside the Ethiopian army against forces of Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, known as TPLF, or the governing party in the region. In November, soldiers from the two countries succeeded in jointly pushing out Tigrayan forces from the regional capital, Mekelle, and have been accused by international organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch of brutal war crimes and indiscriminate shelling that targeted civilians and is believed to have left thousands dead.

Residents say that though Ethiopian prime minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory and the end of combat operations, Eritrean military units have continued attacking civilian areas, looting and killing before setting properties ablaze to render entire areas uninhabitable.

Now, Ethiopia claims it is conducting clean-up operations across parts of rural Tigray. Satellite imagery from central Tigray’s Eritrean border, however, points to something far more nefarious.

Like Debre Harmaz, the remote farming community of Adi Mendi, located three miles from Ethiopia’s border, also appears to have been destroyed. According to analysis by the DX Open Network, satellite imagery revealed that on January 19, some 478 structures, mostly tukul homes made from compressed straw, grass and mud, were set on fire.

“Absence of scorching between blackened structures suggests intentional burning, not the result of a wildfire,” the DX Open Network said of the images in a statement to VICE World News. “Perpetrators likely went from structure to structure to initiate razing. And furthermore, there were no apparent indicators of any militarily valid targets.”

“Many of them were burnt alive in their homes,” said Adamu Gidey, who is well acquainted with the border areas. “I’ve met with survivors, who told me that the Adi Mendi is now a ghost town. Farmers were forced by Eritrean soldiers to slaughter their cows and prepare food for the soldiers. They later doused the homes of these same farmers in gasoline. Adi Mendi no longer exists.”

The satellite images of the visible scorched aftermath point to possibly thousands of people being rendered homeless or far worse.

The DX Open Network’s analysis also confirmed that in recent weeks, the razing has begun to expand beyond central Tigray.

Neither the Ethiopian Prime Minister’s press secretary, Billene Seyoum, nor Eritrean Minister of Information Yemane Gebremeskel responded to emails sent by VICE World News seeking comment on the findings. Both governments typically rebuff such allegations, with Yemane Gebremeskel only yesterday labeling Amnesty International’s report alleging Eritrean military involvement in the Axum massacre as “fallacious.”

Most of the survivors reached by VICE World News are suffering from trauma and shock, and don’t know if they will have a home to return to once the war is over.

“I think they want to kill us all,” said Samuel, whose name has been changed and who says he witnessed soldiers shoot dead his parents, three of his neighbors, and a young child. “I don’t think it would be safe to return, even if things became peaceful. They’d want to finish what they started.”

The situation looks increasingly grim. The Ethiopian and Eritrean governments refuse to acknowledge abuses by their forces, and preventative measures don’t appear forthcoming. International pressure is also limited: While other governments have made statements condemning nearby attacks, very little has changed.

Hirut Zeray, one of over 50,000 Ethiopians to flee into Sudan, agreed. “Sudan is my country now,” she told VICE World News. “I am safe here and the people are helping us with what little they have. But in Ethiopia, we are treated worse than animals.”

Vamos ver mais algumas palavras que vão aumentar o seu vocabulário? “Forthcoming”, “grim”, “rebuff”, “fallacious” e “razed” são algumas palavras que não são muito comuns, mas que vão acrescentar profundidade ao seu repertório. “Forthcoming” significa “próximo”, “prestes”. Nós podemos falar que algo é “grim” quando é sinistro, severo, cruel. “Rebuff” significa “repelir”, e “fallacious” pode ser traduzido para mentiroso. “Razed”, no sentido que vemos aqui, significa “arrasada”, “demolida”, “destruída”.

Now, let’s hear some good news? A Dutch inventor found a cheap way of combating malaria by, quote, ‘thinking like a mosquito’.

A Dutch inventor has come up with a cheap and effective way of combating malaria by placing ventilation grilles doused in insecticide in the walls of houses. A report, describing a two-year trial run of the grilles, was published in medical journal the Lancet on Thursday, February 25. It shows that these ‘lethal lures’ kill potential malaria-carrying mosquitos before they can enter the house, almost halving the number of cases.

A trial carried out by an international team of scientists in Ivory Coast divided villages into two groups, one of which was given mosquito nets to protect them while the other used mosquito nets and the poisoned ventilation grilles.

Two years later the instances of malaria among the children in the latter group had fallen by 40%.

Malaria killed over 400,000 people worldwide in 2019, with most cases and deaths occurring in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the WHO regions of South-East Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, Western Pacific, and the Americas also report significant numbers of cases and deaths, according to World Health Organisation data.

Anne Osinga, the Dutch product developer who invented the grilles, said he came up with the idea ‘by thinking like a mosquito’. The grilles had to be placed at roof height, he said. ‘Humans have a temperature of 37 degrees and emit a smell that travels up because it is warmer than the environment. If I were a mosquito I would enter the house by way of the ventilation grille because the smell at night would be irresistible,’ Osinga told the Volkskrant.

Medical entomologist Sander Koenraadt, who was not involved in the trial, said the invention was ‘a breakthrough’.

‘New ways of killing mosquitos are a constant in my field but they all depart from the same principle, and that is finding new insecticides. This approach is different.’

The grille is also killing mosquitos which have become resistant, the trial showed. ‘They are getting a big dose of poison and that finishes them off. There is no one simple solution to eradicate malaria, but the results are promising, and COVID-19 researches have been proving useful in the field.

Alright, that is it for today, folks! Remember that there’s a new episode of Fluency News every week, and until next time, you can enjoy those awesome free lessons you can find by going to fluencytv.com or by clicking the link in the description.

Todos os dias, recebemos muitas mensagens de pessoas querendo estudar na Fluency Academy. Se você é uma delas e quer melhorar o seu nível de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão ou japonês estudando com os nossos super professores, você pode se inscrever de graça na nossa lista de espera. Assim, na próxima vez que abrirmos uma turma, você vai saber primeiro e vai ter uma chance ainda melhor de conseguir uma vaga! É só clicar no link na descrição desse episódio e se inscrever, leva uns 15 segundinhos.

I’ll see you next time. Peace out.

Fontes:

World condemns Myanmar crackdown as 18 peaceful protesters killed
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/28/world-condemns-violent-crackdown-in-myanmar
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/18-killed-myanmar-forces-cities-76175605

Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Sent to Notorious Prison Camp
https://www.thedailybeast.com/russian-opposition-leader-alexei-navalny-sent-to-notorious-prison-camp

“They Started Burning the Homes”: Ethiopians Say Their Towns Are Being Razed In Ethnic Cleansing Campaign
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7vgex/they-started-burning-the-homes-ethiopians-say-their-towns-are-being-razed-in-ethnic-cleansing-campaign?utm

Amazon rainforest plots sold via Facebook Marketplace ads
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56168844

Dutch inventor finds cheap way of combating malaria by ‘thinking like mosquito’
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/02/dutch-inventor-finds-cheap-way-of-combating-malaria-by-thinking-like-mosquito/