Fluency News: There can be no talk of surrender

Hello, everyone!‍

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa 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 principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português sobre as coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, nós falamos sobre o que ainda está acontecendo entre a Ucrânia e a Rússia, no conflito que dura quase um mês. Nós também falamos sobre a queda de um avião de passageiros na China, e sobre o retorno de artefatos indianos para a Índia.

Nós temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, venha conferir! @fluencytvingles
Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar!‍

See you!‍

Transcrição do episódio

What is up, guys! Welcome back to Fluency News! Here you’ll have the opportunity of training your comprehension and listening skills, as well as getting informed about what’s happening around the world. I’m Scott Lowe and I hope you’re having a great day!

If you’re listening to us through a streaming platform, let me just remind you to head to fluencytv.com to have access to all of our sources, the transcript of this episode and hundreds of free content in all the languages Fluency Academy teaches.

You probably already know the drill by now, but if you don’t, here’s a quick rundown: we’re going to see some of the world’s most relevant news, and I might pop in with some explanations in Portuguese to make sure you understand everything and/or learn something new. Now, let’s get started!

We’re going to start off this episode with some sad news from China. A passenger plane carrying 132 people crashed, with no survivors announced so far, Chinese authorities have reported.

A China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 crashed in mountains in southern China on a domestic flight on Monday after a sudden descent from cruising altitude.

The airline said it deeply mourned the passengers and crew, without specifying how many people had been killed.

Chinese media showed brief highway video footage from a vehicle’s dashcam, apparently showing a jet diving to the ground behind trees at an angle of about 35 degrees off vertical.

Several clips show a plume of smoke coming from a mountainous region. Other show intense flames around a circular area, while another clip appears to show plane wreckage with the name China Eastern Airline visible. Drone footage of the crash site published on Monday evening showed a deep scar in the ground, and very few large pieces of wreckage.

The images couldn’t be verified immediately.

The plane was en route from the southwestern city of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong, when it crashed.

China Eastern said the cause of the crash, in which the plane descended at 31,000 feet a minute according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, was under investigation.

The airline said it had provided a hotline for relatives of those on board and sent a working group to the site.

Media cited a rescue official as saying the plane had disintegrated and caused a fire, destroying bamboo trees. The People’s Daily quoted a provincial firefighting department official as saying there was no sign of life among the debris.

The aircraft, with 123 passengers and nine crew on board, lost contact over the city of Wuzhou, China’s Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the airline said.

President Xi Jinping called for investigators to determine the cause of the crash as soon as possible, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Você provavelmente já ouviu ou leu as palavras en route em inglês, para falar que algo está em rota, a caminho. Mas você sabia que essas palavrinhas não são do inglês? Elas vem do francês, e tem o mesmo significado nas duas línguas. Esse é apenas um exemplo de muitos de palavras que o inglês “empresta” de outros idiomas. As palavras “fiancée”, “déjà vu”, “boutique” e “chef”, por exemplo, são todas de origem francesa, mas estão tão arraigadas no inglês que é difícil pensar nelas como sendo de qualquer outro idioma. E não é só com o francês que isso acontece. Do alemão, o inglês pegou “kindergarten” e “delicatessen”, por exemplo. Do espanhol, tem “siesta”, “patio” e “guerrilla”. Do japonês, o inglês emprestou “karaoke”, “ninja” e “tsunami”. “Paparazzi” é italiano, e “taekwondo” é coreano. Do mandarim, o inglês pegou “tofu”, “typhoon” e “yin and yang”. Isso acontece em muitas outras línguas, e com muitas outras línguas. Procurar por essas palavras no inglês cotidiano pode ser um bom passatempo!

Now, let’s take a look into the situation between Russia and Ukraine. The two countries are still engaged in war, and casualties have been piling up on both sides, with neither willing to back down nor surrender.

There’s just so much going on, we couldn’t possibly fit it all into one podcast episode, so we are going to leave some resources in the description of this episode, in case you want to deep dive into it. And, as we’ve said before, we record these episodes a couple of days before it’s posted, so there might be some developments. We’ll do our best to update you!

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows no signs of abating, even after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he’s ready for negotiations. The invasion has wreaked devastation and destruction, exacting a heavy toll on civilians. The U.N. says more than 3.38 million people have fled Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials have defied an ultimatum by the Russian military for its forces to surrender the city of Mariupol, in exchange for letting an estimated 300,000 trapped civilians evacuate.

Pyotr Andryushenko – an adviser to the city’s mayor – said Russian promises could not be trusted and that troops defending the city were determined to fight ‘down to the last man’.

Mariupol is a key strategic target for the Russian military, and residents have endured weeks of Russian bombardment with no power or running water.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that there could be no question of surrender.

‘There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms,’ she told the news outlet Ukrainian Pravda.

Pictures show a city in ruins, with entire neighborhoods devastated. The mayor, Vadym Boychenko, estimated that over 80% of residential buildings had either been damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.

Mr Gurin said teams were still unable to clean the rubble of a theater which Ukrainian officials say was bombed by Russia last Wednesday. Hundreds of people are believed to remain trapped in the basement, which withstood the attack. Moscow denies targeting the building.

Previous efforts to evacuate Mariupol’s civilians have been blocked by Russian fire, although local authorities say that thousands have been able to leave in private vehicles.

President Volodomyr Zelensky has said the Russian siege amounts to a “war crime”.

The Mariupol city council has claimed that several thousand residents have been “deported” to Russia over the past week. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced more than 10 million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the US.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN on Sunday that a failure to end the war by negotiations could lead to “world war three”, and he will be hoping that this week’s Nato summit in Brussels will provide him with more support.

A palavra nor, que foi usada no início dessa história, é uma que é pouco usada no cotidiano. Ela significa “nem”, ou “também não”. Na maior parte das vezes, no entanto, usamos apenas or, como substituto, sem que o sentido se perca. Nor é usado em uma frase negativa, antes da introdução de uma segunda frase ou cláusula que complementa a primeira. Muitas vezes é acompanhado da palavra neither, para dizer “nem um e nem outro”.

And in some good news, Australia has returned 29 religious and cultural artifacts to India, among them several stolen or illegally exported from the country.

New Delhi has pushed Western governments and museums to identify and return objects of India’s “stolen heritage”, and hundreds of items from overseas collections have already been repatriated.

“I would like to especially thank you for the initiative to return ancient Indian artifacts,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison during a virtual meeting of the leaders.

The objects — including sculptures, paintings, photographs and a scroll — date back to the 9th century and were held by the National Gallery of Australia.

The museum first announced the return of works it acquired through Kapoor last July, including a US$5 million bronze statue of the Hindu god Shiva that had been stolen from a temple in southern India.

Experts estimate that thousands of artworks are stolen from Indian temples each year and shipped to a thriving international antiquities market.

These artifacts are generally smuggled out under fake documentation and concealed in furniture or garment consignments. Most never return to India.

Barry O’Farrell, Australia’s high commissioner to India, said the restitution of the artifacts was a symbol of strong diplomatic ties “built on deep bonds of trust and cooperation”.

And this is where we’re gonna end today’s episode, guys! Don’t forget to check out the description on our content portal, fluencytv.com, to see all of our sources and the transcript of this episode.

E se você quer se tornar fluente em inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês, mandarim e coreano, em menos tempo, com todo o apoio dos professores da Fluency Academy, então preste bem atenção.

Todas as turmas da Fluency Academy estão lotadas agora, mas tem um jeito de você ser avisado em primeira mão quando uma nova for abrir. É só se inscrever na nossa lista de espera!

Colocando seu nome na lista, você tem mais chances de garantir sua vaga nas próximas turmas e estudar com os melhores professores do mundo.

É 100% de graça e é rapidinho de se inscrever. Então, se você quer ser tornar aluno da Fluency Academy, aperte o link na descrição desse episódio!

There’s a new episode of Fluency News every week, and we’ll be waiting for you. See you next time!

Peace!

‍Sources:‍

‍Ukraine war
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-60812438
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ukraine
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60525350https://www.aljazeera.com/tag/ukraine-russia-crisis/‍

Russia’s deadline passes with Ukraine refusing to lay down arms and surrender Mariupol
https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-russias-deadline-passes-with-ukraine-refusing-to-surrender-mariupol-12571816‍

Zelensky to people of Israel: Ukrainians made their choice 80 years ago and saved Jews, now you have such a choice
https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/816191.html‍

Russia called on Ukrainian forces to surrender Mariupol, claiming ‘odious bandits’ were responsible for the loss of civilian lives. Ukraine quickly shut down the request.
https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-called-on-ukrainian-forces-to-surrender-mariupol-by-deadline-2022-3‍

Ukraine defies Russian demand to lay down arms in Mariupol
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-refuses-surrender-mariupol-russia-warns-humanitarian-catastrophe-2022-03-21/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/20/russia-sets-5am-deadline-for-ukrainian-forces-surrender-in-mariupol‍

Russia’s losses in Ukraine: almost 15,000 troops, 500 tanks and 100 aircraft
https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3435654-russias-losses-in-ukraine-almost-15000-troops-500-tanks-and-100-aircraft.html
https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2022/03/21/7333255/‍

Putin is all too aware of the fact that his soldiers are coming home in body bags’
https://www.businessinsider.com/ned-price-state-department-biden-strategy-ukraine-putin-russia-2022-3‍

Russian troops ‘open fire on Ukrainian protesters’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10635433/Ukraine-war-Russian-troops-open-fire-protesters-Kherson.html‍

Zelensky: ‘I’m ready for negotiations’ with Putin, but if they fail, it could mean ‘a third World War’
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/20/politics/zelensky-putin-ukraine-negotiations-war-cnntv/index.html‍

Ukraine conflict: Russia trying to starve Mariupol into surrender – MP
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60816885‍

‘What I saw, I hope no one will ever see’ says Greek diplomat returning from Mariupol
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/what-i-saw-i-hope-no-one-will-ever-see-says-greek-diplomat-returning-mariupol-2022-03-20/‍

Top EU diplomat decries Russia’s ‘massive war crime’ in Mariupol
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/21/top-eu-diplomat-decries-russias-massive-war-crime-in-mariupol‍

‍Chinese Boeing jet crashes in mountains with 132 on board, no sign of survivors
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-eastern-airlines-passenger-jet-has-accident-guangxi-state-media-says-2022-03-21/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-60819760
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/21/plane-carrying-133-crashes-in-china-state-tv
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/21/chinese-plane-crashes-guangxi-province-china-eastern-737-wuzhou‍

‍India’s Modi thanks Australia for returning stolen artefacts
https://www.digitaljournal.com/world/indias-modi-thanks-australia-for-returning-stolen-artefacts/article