Fluency News 41

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!

No episódio desta semana, falamos sobre a única usina nuclear do Irã ter passado por um desligamento emergencial. Nossa história principal foca no Brasil, no coronavírus e no modo como o governo tem lidado com a pandemia. Também falamos sobre outros países e o progresso da vacinação de suas populações.

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.

Episode Transcript

What is up, everyone! How are we all doing today? I hope you’re having a fantastic day and week, and that you’re staying safe out there. I’m Scott Lowe, your host here and one of the teachers at Fluency Academy. Welcome to Fluency News, a podcast made for you to train your English skills while remaining an informed citizen of the world.

We’re going to see some of the most important or relevant stories of this week here. And, whenever necessary, I’ll come in in Portuguese to explain anything that might require some attention.

You already know, but it’s worth reminding that you can go to fluencytv.com to see all of our sources and the transcript of this episode, in case you want to read it. You’ll also find over a thousand free lessons over there, so be sure to check it out.

Alright, let’s get this party started! We’re heading over to Iran. Now, Iran has a LOT going on at the moment, from disputes with Israel to a new government, and we’re not going to get into all of it right now. We might do a whole episode on it later on. Today we’re going to talk about how Iran’s only nuclear power plant was temporarily shut down due to a “technical fault”.

An official from the state electric company Tavanir, Gholamali Rakhshanimehr, said on a talk show that aired on Sunday that the Bushehr plant shutdown began on Saturday and would last “for three to four days.”

This is the first time Iran has reported an emergency shutdown of the plant, and the official did not elaborate further.

On the morning of June 21, Monday, The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on its website that “Following a technical fault at Bushehr power plant, and after a one-day notice to the energy ministry, the plant was temporarily shut down and taken off the power grid.”

The plant went online in 2011, with help from Russia. In March, nuclear official Mahmoud Jafari said the plant could stop working since Iran cannot procure parts and equipment for it from Russia due to banking sanctions imposed by the United States in 2018.

Bushehr is fuelled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The UN agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported shutdown.

Nessa notícia, eu disse “the official did not elaborate further”. Você sabe o que a palavra FURTHER significa? FURTHER significa mais, no sentido de mais avançado, adiantado. Também pode ser traduzido para “algo mais”. Mas você já deve ter visto a palavra FARTHER por aí também. Você sabe qual é a diferença entre as duas? Apesar do óbvio, uma se escrever com A e a outra com U, as duas palavras têm significados semelhantes. Elas podem significar “a uma distância maior”, dependendo do contexto, e aí podem ser usadas como sinônimos. Nos Estados Unidos, FARTHER é mais usada para se referir a distâncias físicas e FURTHER mais frequentemente refere-se a distâncias figurativas. FURTHER pode ser empregada como adjetivo, advérbio e verbo.

Our main story of today concerns Brazil, the coronavirus and president Jair Bolsonaro.

Brazil surpassed the 500,000 Covid-19 deaths mark on Saturday, June 19, just when the country is heading for a third wave of the disease. Over the past week, Brazil has averaged 2,000 deaths per day.

The South American nation, which holds half the continent’s population, is being decimated by the virus. On June 18 alone, Brazil accounted for nearly one-third of all Covid-19 deaths worldwide, according to Our World in Data — a figure that experts warn is quickly rising as the virus spreads unchecked throughout the country.

With no lockdown and just 11.4% of the population fully vaccinated, the country is considered a “barn of new variants” and is increasingly isolated from the rest of the world. To date, more than 100 countries are restricting the entry of Brazilians, according to the foreign relations ministry.

The same day the news broke of the current death toll, thousands of people took to the streets across Brazil to protest against President Jair Bolsonaro’s pandemic response.

Protesters across the country blasted the administration for the high death toll and called for the removal of the president.

The government faces fierce criticism for passing up early opportunities to buy vaccines. Pharmaceutical maker Pfizer said it got no response to offers to sell vaccines to the government between August and November last year.

Brazilian media reported that protests had been held in all 26 states as well as the capital Brasilia.

Many demonstrators called the 500,000 dead a form of genocide carried out by the government on the Brazilian people. They chanted, beat drums and held up signs demanding Bolsonaro be removed for office.

“Half a million reasons to oust Bolsonaro,” read one protester’s sign in downtown Sao Paulo.

Experts warn that the world’s second-deadliest outbreak may worsen due to delayed vaccinations and the government’s refusal to back social distancing measures.

“I think we are going to reach 700,000 or 800,000 deaths before we get to see the effects of vaccination,” said Gonzalo Vecina, former head of Brazilian health regulator Anvisa, predicting a near-term acceleration in fatalities.

“We are experiencing the arrival of these new variants, and the Indian variant will send us for a loop.”

Raphael Guimaraes, a researcher at Brazilian biomedical center Fiocruz, said delays in the vaccination program in Latin America’s most populous nation meant its full effects would not be felt until September or later.

Guimaraes warned that Brazil could revisit scenes from the worst of its March-April peak, when the country averaged 3,000 deaths per day.

“We are still in an extremely critical situation, with very high transmission rates and hospital bed occupancy that is still critical in many places,” he said.

Bolsonaro didn’t comment on the 500,000 deaths milestone when he posted a video to his social media to encourage police forces.

The president is being investigated by a congressional inquiry as his administration has lagged in acquiring vaccines but pushed the use of ineffective drugs such as chloroquine.

Senator Renan Calheiros in a press conference on Friday, 18, placed Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga, former Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello and ex-Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo “under investigation”. The inquiry will investigate Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic and whether he deliberately delayed securing timely supplies of vaccines.

É praticamente impossível ler qualquer tipo de texto em inglês sem se deparar com WHICH, WHO e THAT. Essas três são palavras que podem ser usadas para fazer referência a algo que já foi dito, para evitar repetição. A diferença entre elas dependerá se estamos falando de uma coisa, situação ou de uma pessoa. WHICH e THAT são utilizados para nos referirmos a coisas e WHO a pessoas. WHO pode ser traduzido para “quem”, enquanto WHICH e THAT podem ser traduzidos para “que”, ou “o qual”. Essas palavrinhas são parte do que chamamos de “relative clause”, e elas são pronomes relativos. Todas essas palavras que eu usei como exemplo são responsáveis por unir uma frase à outra ou fornecer informações adicionais sem ter a necessidade de começar outra frase.

It’s not all bad news, though. Brazil has set a new record by administering 2,561,533 doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 in 24 hours. The number—the highest since the vaccination campaign was launched—was announced by the country’s Ministry of Health, Agencia Brasil reports.

Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said that the count reached on Thursday (June 17) is a demonstration of the “power” of Brazil’s network of public hospitals and health care stations, the Unified Health Care System, or SUS.

“Those who question the immunization program are in for a big surprise. Administering 2 million doses of a vaccine is no easy task,” the minister declared, after highlighting the importance of vaccinating the population to work on ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

And to keep the good news rolling, India gave out a record 7.5 million free vaccine doses on Monday, June 21. A federal campaign was set in place to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism over the second wave that killed hundreds of thousands.

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of inoculating 950 million adults by December. So far, India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5% with two doses.

“If supply remains consistent, we will be on course to innoculate most of our population by the end of the year”, D N Patil, a senior health official in the country’s richest state of Maharashtra, told Reuters.

And China has administered more than 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses!.

As of Saturday, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said over 1,0 billion doses have been given. Those doses are almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots administered globally.

Even as China battles a wave of cases in the southern province of Guangdong, this is a significant step towards reaching Beijing’s ambitious goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of the country’s population, or about 580 million people, by end-June.

Some provinces are offering vaccines for free to encourage people to roll up their sleeves. Residents in central Anhui province have been given free eggs, while some living in Beijing have received shopping coupons.

Você já consegue identificar os phrasal verbs por conta própria? Essas estruturas estão sempre presentes em inglês. Alguns exempos são WORK ON, que significa “trabalhar” ou “continuar a trabalhar”. Temos também GAVE OUT, que aqui significa “distribuiu” e ROLL UP, que significa “enrolar”.

And this is where we’re ending this week’s episode. I hope you had a good time here, and those good news helped you remember that there are still good things happening around the world.

Stories:

Iran’s sole nuclear power plant undergoes emergency shutdown‍

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/irans-sole-nuclear-power-plant-undergoes-emergency-shutdown-78388463
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/20/irans-only-nuclear-power-plant-undergoes-emergency-shutdown
https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-iran-europe-entertainment-business-6729095cdbc15443c6135142e2d755e3
Brazil reports 44,178 new coronavirus cases, 1,025 deaths
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-reports-44178-new-coronavirus-cases-1025-deaths-2021-06-20/
‍Brazilians protest Bolsonaro’s role in half a million COVID-19 deaths
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazilians-protest-president-bolsonaros-response-pandemic-2021-06-19/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/19/fresh-protests-in-brazil-against-bolsonaros-handling-of-covid-pandemic
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/19/brazil-passes-500000-covid-deaths-as-anti-govt-protesters-rally
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/462251/Bolsonaro-faces-calls-to-resign-as-Covid-deaths-mount-in-Brazil
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/brazilians-protest-bolsonaro-s-role-in-half-a-million-covid-19-15050472
‍Bolsonaro’s rule is ‘worse threat than coronavirus,’ say Brazilians as nation passes 500,000 deaths
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/19/americas/brazil-covid-deaths-intl-cmd/index.html
‍Brazil passes half a million COVID-19 deaths, experts warn of worse ahead
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-set-pass-half-million-covid-19-deaths-2021-06-19/
https://www.independent.ie/world-news/latin-america/brazil-passes-half-a-million-covid-19-deaths-asexperts-warn-of-worse-ahead-40559256.html
https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/miscellaneous/covid-19/brazil-surpasses-500000-covid-19-deaths-says-media-consortium/
‍Brazil pandemic probe places current, ex-officials “under investigation”
‍https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-pandemic-probe-places-current-ex-officials-under-investigation-sources-2021-06-18/
Brazil administers 2.56 million vaccine doses in 24h
https://www.inform.kz/en/brazil-administers-2-56-million-vaccine-doses-in-24h_a3802851
China says 1 billion COVID vaccine doses administered
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/20/china-vaccine-doses-pass-one-billion-mark-health-officials
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-vaccine-doses-pass-one-billion-mark
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/20/asia/china-one-billion-doses-intl/index.html

India’s vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-reports-53256-new-covid-19-cases-2021-06-21/