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AS IT IS
Bangladesh Says Island Now Ready for 100,000 Rohingya
January 17, 2020
FILE - Rohingya refugees stretch their hands to receive aid given out by local organizations at Balukhali makeshift refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, September 14, 2017. (REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo)
A small island in Bangladesh is ready to house 100,000 Rohingya refugees, government officials announced Thursday.
No date has been set to begin moving people from crowded refugee camps along the country’s border with Myanmar, also known as Burma.
The island, named Bhasan Char, is in the Bay of Bengal, about 60 kilometers off the coast from the mainland. It was often flooded during monsoon seasons. It resurfaced only 20 years ago and has never been lived on.
Mahbub Alam Talukder is the head of Bangladesh’s refugee, relief and repatriation efforts. He told The Associated Press, “Bhasan Char is ready for habitation. Everything has been put in place.”
Bhasan Char is equipped with flood protection equipment, housing, hospitals and Islamic religious centers, officials say.
The island is equipped to hold 100,000 people. That is a small percentage of the one million Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence in Myanmar, which has a large Buddhist population.
About 700,000 people came after August of 2017. That is when Myanmar’s military launched a harsh campaign against the Rohingya. Military officials said it was in answer to an earlier attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Human rights groups and the United Nations called the campaign ethnic cleansing involving rapes and killings.
One reporter’s visit to the island
Foreign media have not yet been permitted to visit the fully equipped Bhasan Char. But Bangladeshi reporter Saleh Noman was recently able to visit the island. He described what he saw.
“I saw a market with about 10 grocery shops and roadside tea stalls. Some were selling fish and vegetables,” he said. “All is set there with a solar power system and water supply lines.”
The Bangladesh navy has been taking steps to protect the island, which was underwater for months during monsoon seasons.
But many international aid agencies and UN officials have strongly opposed the plan since it was first proposed in 2015. They fear that a big storm could put the island -- and those living on it -- at great risk.
Mostofa Mohamamd Sazzad Hossain is a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangladesh. He said Thursday that the agency is not ready to support plans to move the refugees. He added that the agency is waiting for a chance to visit the island.
Where to go
The current refugee camps are near the coastal town of Cox’s Bazar. They are overcrowded and dirty. Disease and organized crime are problems there. Education is limited and refugees are not permitted to work.
Yet most Rohingya have expressed an unwillingness to return to Myanmar because of safety concerns. Government officials do not have an estimate of how many refugees would be willing to move to the island.
On Thursday, two Bangladeshi workers involved with development of the island described its infrastructure as “modern” and of good quality. They spoke to the AP on condition that their names not be used because they did not have permission to talk to the media.
“Bangladeshi villages have never seen such good work,” one worker said. He added, “We constructed raised concrete buildings that could be used as cyclone shelters. Many trees have been planted.”
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has told the U.N. and other international partners that her administration will speak with them before making a final decision on the relocation. She has also said that no refugees will be forced to move to the island.
In November, Bangladesh attempted to start sending refugees back to Myanmar, but no one was willing to go.
The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens in Myanmar, leaving them stateless. They face many other forms of discrimination.
In 2018, a UN-supported investigation proposed charging Myanmar’s top military commanders with genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity for the violence against the Rohinya.
Myanmar is now facing the International Court of Justice in The Hague after the African nation of Gambia brought a case against the country.
I’m Ashley Thompson.
The Associated Press reported this story. Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
monsoon - n. a wind in the Indian Ocean and southern Asia that brings heavy rains in the summer
repatriation - n. the act of returning (someone) to his or her own country
habitation - n. the act of living in a place
shop - n. a building or room where goods and services are sold
stall - n. a small open counter or partially enclosed structure where things are displayed for sale
solar - adj. produced by or using the sun's light or heat
infrastructure - n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function well
construct - v. to build or make (something physical, such as a road, bridge, or building)
cyclone - n. an extremely large, powerful, and destructive storm with very high winds that turn around an area of low pressure
No.2
AS IT IS
Why Do American Newspapers Endorse Political Candidates?
January 17, 2020
On January 19, The New York Times will endorse a candidate seeking the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.
The Democratic nominee is expected to face U.S. President Donald Trump, the likely nominee of the Republican Party, in national elections this November.
The Times is one of most famous newspapers in the United States. It has been publishing endorsements of presidential candidates for around 150 years.
But this year, there will be something different. The endorsement process will take place in a very public way. Readers will have a chance to see and even hear how the paper’s editorial team decided on which candidate to support.
Today, we will explore how and why U.S. newspapers endorse political candidates. We will also show you how endorsements are changing in the modern media landscape.
Endorsements
Newspaper endorsements are specific declarations or statements of support for a political candidate. This candidate could be seeking the presidency or any number of local political offices.
American newspapers have been endorsing U.S. presidential candidates for a long time. The New York Times, for example, has been endorsing presidential candidates since 1860. So says Kathleen Kingsbury, a deputy Editorial Page editor at The Times.
Endorsements appear in the editorial section, which gives opinions. The editorial section is separate from the news section.
Process
Newspapers come to their endorsement decisions in different ways, notes Danny Funt in the Columbia Journalism Review.
For example, the policies of The Tennessean newspaper, in Nashville, Tennessee, are set by the paper’s editorial board. For an endorsement, Funt explains, five board members must reach a consensus decision.
Another paper, The Idaho Statesman, has a board that “consists of an editor, publisher, and five unpaid community volunteers.”
“Some readers might imagine a staff meeting where everyone on staff casts a vote,” Funt writes. “In reality,” he adds, “we endorse” may reflect the opinion of the publisher alone, the opinion editor alone, a board of a few people, or a board of 16, as at The New York Times.”
Public and private
To make its endorsement decisions, The Times has historically done ‘off-the-record’ interviews with candidates. In other words, its editorial team met with candidates and asked them questions. The questions and answers were not released to the public.
This year will be the first time that The New York Times publishes written transcripts and videos of the interviews. Kathleen Kingsbury wrote on Twitter that the idea is to make the endorsement process more open.
But not everyone thinks this change is a good idea. Alex Tabarrok is an economist and a professor at George Mason University in Virginia. He notes that private, off-the-record discussions can be very valuable.
“A credible off-the-record system leaks a bit of honesty into the public domain and thus improves information overall,” he wrote in the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution. He added, “Indeed, what possible value-added can the NYTimes make with a “transparent,” “public” process? Everything that will be said, has been said.”
Do presidential endorsements matter?
Newspaper endorsements have been a subject of debate for some time.
Before the 2012 elections, for example, 17 large U.S. newspapers chose not to endorse a presidential candidate, according to National Public Radio (NPR).
David Haynes told NPR that endorsements tend “to undermine this whole idea of independence, and it really undermines this idea of being an honest broker of opinion.” At the time, Haynes was the editorial page editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The 2016 election seemed to settle the question about whether newspaper endorsements influence American public opinion in presidential elections.
In October 2016, media company Politico noted “as of this writing, Clinton has more than 200 endorsements from daily and weekly newspapers in the United States.” By comparison, Politico reported, Trump had only six endorsements.
Trump won the presidency the following month.
Yet many U.S. newspapers are expected to endorse presidential candidates this year. Their reasoning often goes beyond the idea of simply changing public opinion.
Chicago Tribune editorial page editor John McCormick noted that “swaying votes is only one reason for endorsing, and arguably not the most important.”
He added that endorsements, “explain to the world what that publication is, what it advocates, how it thinks, what principles it holds dear.”
I’m John Russell.
John Russell wrote this report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
endorse – v. to publicly or officially say that you support or approve of (someone or something)
landscape – n. the qualities of a given situation or activity; a picture representing an area
section – n. a part of piece of something; a group within something larger
board – n. a committee; a group of people serving on the decision-making body of an organization
consensus – n. an idea or opinion that is shared by all the people in a group
reflect – v. to represent something
transparent – adj. honest and open; not secretive
credible – adj. able to be believed; reasonable to trust or believe
undermine – v. to lessen the effectiveness of something
sway – v. to influence; to cause to move back and forth
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No.3
ARTS & CULTURE
Hollywood Films Making Actors Look Years Younger
January 17, 2020
These photos show actor Robert De Niro, left, during the filming of "The Irishman" and the younger De Niro created by visual effects expert Pablo Helman.
“The Irishman” is competing against eight other movies for one of the film industry’s highest awards: the Oscar for best picture.
When that award is announced in February, many people may pay close attention to the special effects teams that make it and similar films possible.
Martin Scorsese directed the “The Irishman.” It tells a story that extends over 30 years. One of the stars, Robert De Niro, is 76 years old in real life. But on camera, he and his co-stars play characters from their 30s into old age. It is something that made the film one of 2019’s most celebrated movies.
In the film industry, making actors look younger on camera is called “de-aging.”
A number of movies released last year have used new digital de-aging techniques to make stars look young. Samuel L. Jackson and Will Smith appeared in films that made them look like younger men.
Some critics are calling 2019 an important year for de-aging effects in film.
The Irishman
There are several methods using computers to make actors look younger than they are.
In “The Irishman,” the filmmakers avoided using tracking markers. Tracking markers are dots painted onto actors’ faces that let computers mathematically reproduce facial movements.
The young faces of De Niro and others in “The Irishman” are the work of Pablo Helman. He is a visual effects supervisor at a company called Industrial Light and Magic. In the past, Helman received Oscar nominations for his work on “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” and “War of the Worlds.”
He said the decision not to use tracking markers came directly from Scorsese and De Niro. Use of such markers require an actor to wear a headpiece with small cameras attached.
Helman told The Associated Press that such equipment can interfere with an actor’s thinking while they are working.
“He’s going to want to be in the moment with Joe Pesci and Al Pacino on set, with no markers on him. So, if you’re going to capture the performance, how are you going to do that?”
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Instead, Scorsese used a “three-headed monster,” a piece of equipment with three cameras on it. It has a director camera in the center and “witness” cameras on either side that take infrared pictures. The infrared cameras do not record shadows created from lighting on set. The shadows might interfere with the operations of the de-aging software.
Gemini Man
While the team at Industrial Light and Magic was working on “The Irishman,” another group of technical experts was experimenting with de-aging at Weta Digital.
The Weta team created a completely digital, 23-year-old version of Will Smith for the action movie “Gemini Man.”
“You have that many years of expertise of looking at a human face and knowing what’s wrong,” says Bill Westenhofer, one of the film’s visual effects supervisors. He said trying to get all the different things to work well together can be difficult.
The character Junior is the younger version of Will Smith’s killer Henry Brogan in the film. To look like the younger character, Smith wore a gray tracksuit with two cameras attached to his head which captured his facial expressions through tracking markers.
Where it starts
Before filming started on both “Gemini Man” and “The Irishman,” each visual effects team found old films of their acting stars.
Helman and his team then spent two years looking through old movies to document how De Niro, Pacino and Pesci looked at different ages. They created a program similar to ones used to make “deepfake” videos. Such programs can make people in videos look like someone else.
In the case of “Gemini Man,” filming Junior required Smith to spend time in a special room where many cameras captured his facial expressions under different lighting conditions.
Captain Marvel
Scorsese has criticized movies made by Marvel Studios that used similar de-aging methods to “Gemini Man” as “not cinema.” An example is the film "Captain Marvel" which also used tracking markers to make Samuel L. Jackson look much younger.
Jackson’s character is Nick Fury. The young Nick Fury was created by comparing images from old Jackson movies with his performance in "Captain Marvel."
Jackson said he was lucky to have earlier films with enough facial expressions to do such a believable job in making his young Nick Fury.
The de-aging effects were the work of a company called Lola Visual Effects.
Weta Digital’s Guy Williams said the de-aging of Jackson was well done. He added that “different approaches suit different requirements. It’s not a one-size-fits-all kind of situation.”
Helman, who worked on “The Irishman,” agrees. He believes that 2019 was a historic year for visual effects.
“It’s not by chance that we have several movies that have motion capture performance, facial performance, in three or four different ways,” he said. “That shows that we’re all thinking about digital humans.”
I’m Alice Bryant. And I’m Jill Robbins.
The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter, Jr. was the editor.
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Words in This Story
dot – n. a very small round mark
moment – n. a very short period of time
infrared – adj. producing or using rays of light that cannot be seen and that are longer than rays that produce red light
shadow – n. an area of darkness created when a source of light is blocked
tracksuit – n. a special suit worn by actors to help capture a visual effect
deepfake – n. videos in which one person’s face is replaced by another’s in order to trick viewers
suit – v. to be proper or suitable for