Fluency News #33

Hello, everyone!

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa nova série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui, você vai poder 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!

Nesta semana, temos diversas notícias rapidinhas, incluindo o veredito do caso contra Derek Chauvin, e os vencedores do Oscar. Também falamos sobre o duelo de titãs entre Facebook e Apple, e os problemas que a Índia está enfrentando nesta pandemia. Em boas notícias, vemos a Nova Zelândia colher os frutos de seu trabalho contra a COVID-19, os números promissores de Israel e o estudo sobre as crianças possivelmente afetadas por Chernobyl.

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, everyone! Welcome back to Fluency News, Fluency Academy’s news podcast, hosted by yours truly, Scott Lowe.

Before we get started, let me just say we are thrilled to have you with us. All of Fluency Academy’s podcasts are made with extreme care, thinking of the best ways to help you improve your skills, put them to the test and challenge yourself. If by any chance you’re not familiar with our other series, I recommend you head over to fluencytv.com, where you can get access to all of our content, for free!

Contact with the language you’re learning or hoping to improve is essential, and if you can make it daily, even better! This podcast series is extra special because on top of practicing your English, you also get informed.

Now, you probably already know how this works, but just a quick reminder. We’re going to go over some of the most important or relevant stories of the week, and then I’ll come in with some explanations in Portuguese, in anything that needs more attention or an explanation. How about we jump in?

Before we move to our major stories of the day, let’s get some quickie news. Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all the charges against him – second- and third-degree murder, and manslaughter in the George Floyd’s case. He is facing up to 40 years in prison.

The Oscar’s ceremony happened this Sunday, April 25th, in an entirely different format and setting, because of the pandemic. “Nomadland” took home the best picture award while Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand won best actor and actress in a leading role.

Apple announced on Monday, 26th, that it’s investing $430 billion in the US with 20,000 new jobs.

Nasa’s helicopter Ingenuity made its third successful flight on Mars.

As always, you can find our sources and the transcript of this episode in the description, or by going to fluencytv.com.

Our first main story today is a battle of giants! Apple is rolling out an update of its operating system with new privacy controls designed to limit digital advertisers from tracking iPhone users. And Facebook is not happy.

A new feature is being introduced to iPhones and iPads this week which is causing a huge rift between Apple and Facebook. It will allow device users to say no to having their data collected by apps.

Facebook has been put in a spin by this because user data – and the advertising it can generate – is what makes the company so profitable. This update could deal a severe blow to its business model.

Apple is requiring app developers who want to collect a digital advertising identifier from iPhone users to show a pop-up saying that the app “would like permission to track you across apps and websites owned by other companies,” along with an explanation from the app developer about why permission is being sought. Some mobile advertising analysts believe that fewer than one in three users are likely to grant permission.

IPhone owners also have a “tracking” menu in their phone’s privacy settings where they can opt-out of tracking from all apps on their phone with a single switch, or pick and choose among apps to grant permission to.

Both advertisers and app developers who sell ad inventory say if many iPhone users opt-out of tracking, it will make advertising less effective. The ad industry has long gathered data about people’s web browsing behavior in order to serve up ads, such as for clothes or cars, that users might be interested in.

A shrinking pool of user data could lead to lower sales for brands and lower ad revenue for mobile apps and publishers. Apple’s move has deepened a rift with Facebook Inc (FB.O), which has said the change will hurt small businesses because it will impede their ability to cost-effectively find local customers to target with advertisements.

Facebook has warned that the app update could cut the money earned through its ad network by half, hitting small businesses the hardest.

Facebook also argues that sharing data with advertisers is key to giving users “better experiences”.

It says that Apple is being hypocritical, because it will force businesses to turn to subscriptions and other in-app payments for revenue, from which Apple takes a cut.

As it often does when under pressure, Facebook has gone on a PR offensive. It took out adverts in national newspapers in December, featuring small businesses talking about how they only survived the pandemic thanks to targeted ads.

In its latest blog, Facebook appeared to accept the changes and promised “new advertiser experiences and measurement protocols”. It admitted that the ways digital advertisers collect and use information needed to “evolve” to one that will rely on “less data”.

Você sabe qual é a diferença entre “pick” e “choose”? A diferença entre os dois é muito sutil, e não é uma questão de regras, e sim de uso! As duas palavras podem ser traduzidas para ESCOLHER.

PICK significa escolher algo a partir de um grupo, é uma escolha sem muitos critérios. Também é um termo mais informal. CHOOSE passa mais uma ideia de decidir o que quer a partir de uma série de coisas ou pessoas.

Our second story of the day revolves around India and its battle with COVID-19. India recorded more than 350,000 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours, setting a devastating world record for the 5th day in a row.

The country is struggling to cope: Hospitals are full, oxygen is running low, and crematoriums are burning for so long that they have started to melt.

Total infections in India have now surpassed 17 million. In comparison, the US has recorded more than 32 million infections — but the number of new infections in India is now higher than the whole of North America, Insider reported Friday.

Experts say actual infection numbers could be higher because testing is not universal and deaths are not always accurately reported, the New York Times reported.

Global COVID-19 cases are the highest they’ve ever been, despite falling infection numbers in some rich countries.

Countries around the world including the US, UK, France, Germany, Singapore and China offered aid over the weekend. Tech giants Microsoft and Google have also publicly pledged to help.

The pandemic is sweeping through India at a pace that has staggered scientists. Daily case numbers have exploded since early March: the government reported 273,810 new infections nationally on 18 April. High numbers in India have also helped drive global cases to a daily high of 854,855 in the past week, almost breaking a record set in January.

Just months earlier, antibody data had suggested that many people in cities such as Delhi and Chennai had already been infected, leading some researchers to conclude that the worst of the pandemic was over in the country.

Researchers in India are now trying to pinpoint what is behind the unprecedented surge, which could be due to an unfortunate confluence of factors, including the emergence of particularly infectious variants, a rise in unrestricted social interactions, and low vaccine coverage. Untangling the causes could be helpful to governments trying to suppress or prevent similar surges around the world.

India’s ultra-rich are paying tens and thousands of dollars to escape the country. The alarming numbers are prompting wealthy Indians to pay thousands for last-minute flights and private jets as travel restrictions come into place.

One popular destination seems to be the United Arab Emirates, which is only a short distance away from India and usually operates hundreds of flights there. It announced this week that it was barring the entry of travelers from India for 10 days from April 25, according to Gulf News.

According to the Sunday Times, at least eight private jets were flown to Britain from India in the last 24 hours as the UK implemented its own travel ban on the country. It is reported that the jets may have cost more than $138,000 (£100,000) to charter for the nine-hour flight.

Nessa história, nós temos algumas palavras que não são muito comuns, ou que, apesar de comuns, não têm o significado explorado. Que tal vermos algumas delas? PINPOINT significa apontar, ou localizar com precisão. COPE significa lidar. STAGGERED significa cambaleando, mas nessa notícia a melhor tradução seria confundir, atordoar ou chocar. EMERGENCE aqui também não significa “emergência”, e sim, aparecimento. Para ver onde essas palavras se encontram na história, você pode encontrar a transcrição deste episódio na descrição, ou em fluencytv.com.

How about we see some good news?

Israel has recorded no new daily Covid death for the first time in ten months as it continues to lead the world in its vaccination drive.

Figures show the country’s coronavirus death tolls remained unchanged at 6,346 on Thursday.

The last time Israel recorded zero Covid death was at the end of June last year. Hospitals have now started closing its specialist coronavirus wards after daily death toll plunged in recent weeks.

Israel continues to lead the world in its vaccination drive, with more than 80 percent of its adult population vaccinated.

In some other good news, studies find that there is no “additional DNA damage” in children born to parents who were exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl explosion before they were conceived.

This is according to the first study to screen the genes of children whose parents were enlisted to help in the clean-up after the nuclear accident.

Participants, all conceived after the disaster and born between 1987 and 2002, had their whole genomes screened.

The study found no mutations that were associated with a parent’s exposure.

And finally, to get us hopeful for the future, New Zealand is showing us what a COVID-free nation looks like!

More than 50,000 people attended a concert at New Zealand’s largest sports stadium on Saturday, in what organizers said was the largest live music event since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Zealand band Six60 performed at Eden Park in Auckland to a sold-out event that featured pyrotechnics and was live-streamed to nations across the South Pacific.

With no social-distancing or mask-wearing required, the concert was a demonstration of New Zealand’s success in controlling the coronavirus through closing its international border and rigorous testing and contact tracing. It’s a stark contrast to other countries across the world that are in lockdown amid surging infections.

New Zealand has recorded only about 2,600 cases of the virus and 26 deaths since the pandemic began and tops Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking. The border closure has badly hit the nation’s tourism industry, though it has now opened a quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia.

“Our city has shown the world this week that in the midst of a global pandemic, we can live close to normality in Auckland,” Mayor Phil Goff said in a statement.

And that is it for today’s episode! We’ve added some more news, I hope you enjoyed listening to the good ones! We could all use some positivity in our lives at the moment, right? Don’t forget to check out fluencytv.com for more free content! That’s pretty positive! Over there you’ll find over 1000 lessons in five different languages, and yes, all of that is free!

E se você quiser ter aulas com os melhores experts em fluência em idiomas do mundo, se inscreva na nossa lista de espera! Assim você vai ficar sabendo quando abrirem novas vagas nas turmas de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês e mandarim. Pra não ficar de fora, aperte o link na descrição desse episódio e faça a sua inscrição 100% gratuita.

Remember there’s a new episode of Fluency News every week, and we’ll be waiting for you! Stay safe and healthy, and until next time! Peace out.

Fontes:

Derek Chauvin found guilty of murder of George Floyd
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/20/derek-chauvin-verdict-guilty-murder-george-floyd

Oscars 2021 recap: Winners, speeches and top moments
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/live-updates/Oscars/?id=77265351

Apple announces $430 billion investment in US with 20,000 new jobs
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/apple-announces-430-billion-investment-us-20000-jobs/story?id=77314369

Ingenuity: Nasa’s Mars helicopter makes it three from three
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56882257

Facebook v Apple: The ad tracking row heats up
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56831241
https://www.ft.com/content/5527ddd1-77a8-4cd0-82fd-4568be5da80f
https://www.wionews.com/technology/apple-to-roll-out-new-privacy-update-facebook-google-protest-380119
https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-do-apples-new-iphone-privacy-changes-mean-consumers-businesses-2021-04-26/

India COVID crisis
https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/indias-richest-people-are-fleeing-on-private-jets-as-the-country-hits-almost-350000-covid-19-infections-in-another-daily-global-record/articleshow/82242206.cms
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/germany-will-send-oxygen-medical-aid-india-help-covid-crisis-2021-04-26/
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/coronavirus-us-to-send-raw-material-for-covishield/article34408833.ece
https://www.firstpost.com/health/complete-massacre-of-data-experts-flag-undercounting-of-indias-covid-19-deaths-in-second-wave-9562541.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/will-hang-anyone-blocking-oxygen-supply-delhi-high-court/articleshow/82229184.cms
https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-india-cases-rising-record-infections-coronavirus-2021-4?r=US&IR=T
https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/25/us-pressed-to-lift-export-ban-to-help-india-fight-surge-in-covid-cases
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01059-y

50,000 fans attend rock concert in COVID-free New Zealand
https://nypost.com/2021/04/25/50000-people-attend-concert-in-covid-free-new-zealand/
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/new-zealand-s-covid-success-concert-for-50-000-held-in-auckland-11619327063230.html

Chernobyl radiation damage ‘not passed to children’
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56846728

Israel records ZERO daily Covid deaths for first time in ten months as it closes hospital coronavirus wards with more than 80% of adults vaccinated
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9506877/Israel-records-ZERO-daily-Covid-deaths-time-ten-months.html