Fluency News 50

Hello, everyone!

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa 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 daquilo que achamos que precisa de mais atenção; assim, você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, falamos sobre os assaltos a banco no Brasil, sobre a mídia afegã sob o domínio do Talibã e sobre os países que já vacinaram mais de 70% de sua população contra a COVID-19.

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! I’m Scott Lowe and welcome to the fiftieth episode of Fluency News! How crazy is it that we’ve had so many of these? If you’ve been here since the beginning, that’s awesome! Congratulations! And if you’re joining us for the first time today, don’t worry! It’s also awesome that you’re listening in for the first time on such an important episode!

Before we dive in to today’s stories, let me just remind you to head over to our content portal, fluencytv.com, to have access to a ton of free content, in all the languages Fluency Academy currently teaches. There you’ll also find the transcript and sources to this episode, so be sure to check it out.

Now let’s jump into the news! Our first story today is a little wild, and something that could have come from a Hollywood movie.

Armed robbers hit several banks in a small city in Brazil on Monday, using locals as human shields, setting cars on fire, leaving a trail of explosive devices and shooting at police.

More than 20 heavily armed men using 10 cars carried out the brazen and elaborate attack at around midnight in Araçatuba, a city in the interior of Sao Paulo state. Alvaro Camilo, the executive secretary of the state’s military police, shared the details in a statement.

After targeting three different banks, as the criminals made their getaway, they strapped hostages to their cars as “human shields”, and burned vehicles, while leaving a trail of explosive booby traps across the city. They used drones to monitor the streets as they entered the city, hit the banks, and made their getaway, the statement said.

Camilo urged people not to leave their houses until the explosives have been found and deactivated, as the devices were fitted with sensors that detonated if someone approached.

A 25-year-old cyclist was seriously injured when one of the explosive devices planted by the gang went off as he cycled past.

He was taken to hospital, where both of his feet had to be amputated, local media reported.

There were two separate firefights with police, and three people died, Camilo said. A woman and a suspect were killed in a stand-off with police outside the city as gang members tried to make their escape, officials said.

Three other men are in hospital with bullet wounds.

Araçatuba Mayor Dilador Borges told CNN that police were still hunting the robbers after they fled into the countryside.

He said police were forced to stand back as the deadly events unfolded because they feared putting more people’s lives on the line.

Police said three suspects had been arrested.

Em inglês, algumas estruturas forçam outras a se comportar de maneira diferente. Por exemplo, sempre que tivermos um verbo depois da palavra after, esse verbo vai estar na forma contínua, terminada em ING. Nessa notícia, temos a frase “After targeting three different banks…”. A mesma coisa acontece se usarmos a palavra “before”. Algumas palavras ou partículas exigem que o verbo se comporte de determinada maneira.

Alguns verbos e expressões no inglês permitem tirar o to do infinitivo dos verbos seguintes e acrescentar o ing. Na maioria dos casos a tradução é a mesma, em outros, uma pequena variação no significado, e já em outros, significados completamente diferentes. Nesse caso, depois de palavras como after e “before”, o verbo sempre será acrescido de ING.

Now let’s visit Afghanistan, as many changes are happening in the country at the moment. A female anchor at TOLO, an Afghan news network, made history this month.

Beheshta Arghand, who’s only 24 years old, interviewed a senior Taliban representative on the air. The interview garnered headlines around the world.

Arghand also interviewed Malala Yousafzai, the activist who survived a Taliban assassination attempt, in what TOLO described as the first time Yousafzai had ever been interviewed on Afghan TV.

Arghand was blazing a trail, but her work has been put on hold. She decided to leave Afghanistan, citing the dangers that so many journalists and ordinary Afghans are facing.

Arghand corresponded with CNN Business via WhatsApp and recounted the experience of the past two weeks.

“I left the country because, like millions of people, I fear the Taliban”, she said

Saad Mohseni, the owner of TOLO, said Arghand’s case is emblematic of the situation in Afghanistan.

“Almost all our well known reporters and journalists have left,” Mohseni said on CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday. “We have been working like crazy to replace them with new people.”

Arghand’s August 17 interview with the Taliban was “the first time in Afghanistan’s history that a Taliban representative appeared live in a TV studio sitting across from a female presenter,” Mohseni said in a column for the Washington Post, asserting that the Taliban was trying to “present a moderate face to the world.”

Arghand said the interview was difficult, “but I did it for Afghan women.”

“I told myself, ‘One of us must start … If we stay in our houses or don’t go to our offices, they will say the ladies don’t want to work,’ but I said to myself, ‘Start working,'” Arghand said. “And I said to the Taliban member, ‘We want our rights. We want to work. We want — we must —be in society. This is our right.”

With each passing day came new accounts of Taliban intimidation targeting the news media.

Two days after interviewing Yousafzai, Arghand reached out to the activist for help. On Tuesday, she boarded a Qatari Air Force evacuation flight along with several family members.

She said she hopes to return: “If the Taliban do what they said — what they promised — and the situation becomes better, and I know I am safe and there is no threat for me, I will go back to my country and I will work for my country. For my people.”

At the same time, a video of a television anchor surrounded by armed Taliban fighters is being widely shared on social media.

The 42-second clip, shared on Twitter by BBC reporter Kian Sharifi and Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, shows the host of a political debate program reading a statement from the Taliban as well as at least eight Taliban fighters.

“With armed Taliban fighters standing behind him, the presenter of Afghan TV’s Peace Studio political debate program says the Islamic Emirate (Taliban’s preferred name) wants the public to “cooperate with it and should not be afraid,” Sharifi tweeted. Sharifi said in another tweet the program is called Pardaz and that later the presenter interviewed a Taliban fighter who “presumably outranks the rest of the lot in the studio.”

“This is surreal. Taliban militants are posing behind this visibly petrified TV host with guns and making him to say that people of #Afghanistan shouldn’t be scared of the Islamic Emirate. Taliban itself is synonymous with fear in the minds of millions. This is just another proof,” tweeted Alinejad.

All stories coming from the country at the moment are still developing, and we’ll have to wait and see what happens after the deadline set by US President Biden for American troops to vacate the country passes.

A expressão blazing a trail pode ser traduzida para “abrindo caminho”. Pode ter um sentido mais literal, de criar uma trilha, abrir caminho em uma mata, por exemplo, ou como aqui, no sentido de ser o primeiro, ou um dos primeiros a fazer algo. Ser pioneiro, ou inovador em algo, como a jovem jornalista entrevistando pessoas influentes e de poder.

In some good news, Singapore has fully vaccinated 80 percent of its 5.7 million people against COVID-19, according to officials, becoming the world’s most vaccinated country and setting the stage for further easing of curbs.

“We have crossed another milestone, where 80% of our population has received their full regimen of two doses,” Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“It means Singapore has taken another step forward in making ourselves more resilient to COVID-19.”

The development gives the tiny city-state the world’s highest rate of complete vaccinations, according to a tracker by the Reuters news agency.

Other countries that have high vaccination rates include the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay and Chile, which have fully inoculated more than 70 percent of their populations.

Singapore, which began its vaccination campaign in January, relied mostly on the jabs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

Earlier in August, Ong, the health minister said if Singapore can “continue to keep the number of severe cases and illnesses under control and our healthcare capacity is not overly stretched,” then the country will further open up its economy and allow social activities and quarantine-free travel to resume.

“Our lives will be more normal, (and our) livelihoods will be better protected,” he said.

Ong, along with two other cabinet ministers, described what the new normal would look like in an article in the Straits Times in June.

They said large gatherings such as the New Year Countdown will resume and “businesses will have certainty that their operations will not be disrupted”.

Singaporeans will also be allowed to travel again, at least to countries that have also controlled the virus.

“We will recognize each other’s vaccination certificates. Travelers, especially those vaccinated, can get themselves tested before departure and be exempted from quarantine with a negative test upon arrival,” they said.

A palavra which pode ter algumas traduções diferentes, mas o uso dela costuma ser bem direto. Ela é comumente usada com o mesmo significado de “that” e “who”. Essas são palavras que podem ser usadas para fazer referência a algo que já foi dito, para evitar repetição. A diferença entre as palavras dependerá se estamos falando de uma coisa ou de uma pessoa. “That” e which são utilizados para nos referirmos a coisas e “who” a pessoas. Como nessa história estamos falando de um país e das ações dele, usamos which. Which é mais formal do que “that”, e por isso, mais usado em notícias e textos formais.

And that’s it for today’s episode, folks!

Se você quer melhorar o seu nível de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês ou mandarim estudando com os nossos super professores, você pode se inscrever na nossa lista de espera.

Assim você vai ter uma chance ainda melhor de conseguir uma vaga quando a gente abrir uma nova turma! É só se inscrever clicando no link na descrição desse episódio, leva uns 15 segundinhos!

E é claro, se você conhecer mais alguém que quer aprender um novo idioma, mande o link pra eles também.

Don’t forget to check out fluencytv.com for more content, and come around next week, for a brand new episode of Fluency News. Until next time. Peace out!

Stories
Robbers in Brazil stage brazen bank raids, taking hostages; at least 3 dead
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-violence-idUSKBN2FV14M]
https://nypost.com/2021/08/30/brazilian-bank-robbers-strap-hostages-to-getaway-cars/
‍‍https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58382410
Female journalist flees Afghanistan following groundbreaking TV interview with Taliban spokesman
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/29/media/arghand-fleeing-afghanistan/index.html
‘Don’t be scared’: Afghan TV anchor relays Taliban message surrounded by armed fighters
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/afghan-tv-anchor-relays-taliban-message-surrounded-by-armed-fighters-101630302158609.html
Singapore vaccinates 80 percent of population against COVID-19
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/29/singapore-vaccinates-80-percent-of-population-against-covid-19