【常速英语广播5分钟】英语新闻 20200218

VOA NEWS

February 18, 2020

This is VOA news. I'm Marissa Melton.

---------------------------------------------------------------

说明：小编将此处文本省略了，如有需要者，请留言，或加微信（littleflute）索取，谢谢！

。。。

===========================================

Syrian army said Monday it's taken full control of dozens of towns in Aleppo's northwestern countryside. Lucy Fielder has more.

An army spokesman announces Syrian forces have regained control of dozens of villages and towns in Aleppo province - yet another advance the day after a huge strategic gain for President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, when his forces drove insurgents from the highway linking Aleppo to Damascus, reopening the route between Syria's two largest cities for the first time in years.

But the cost has been vast. The fight since the start of the year backed by Russian air strikes to regain the last parts of the Aleppo countryside and Idlib province has driven hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians towards the border.

That's Lucy Fielder.

This is VOA news.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Angola's president Monday in Luanda [to] with talks focusing on strengthening economic ties and supporting Angolans in their fight against corruption.

At a joint news conference, Angola's foreign minister said he wants to believe Pompeo's presence signals a new chapter and a new relationship between the two countries.

Pompeo praised the Angolan president for his efforts.

"He's increased transparency, he's helped financial institutions clean up their books and he's pursued bad actors. I'm optimistic that he will continue to liberate Angola from corruption."

From Luanda, Pompeo travels on to [Eu...] Ethiopia, later Saudi Arabia and Oman. It's a nine-day trip to six countries.

Jurors deciding Harvey Weinstein's fate in his sex assault trial has set to start deliberating on Tuesday. AP correspondent Julie Walker has more.

Weinstein left court Friday to a flurry of question from reporters in closing arguments. His lawyer said the accusers are opportunists and that the prosecution created a universe that "strips adult women of common sense, autonomy and responsibility."

Prosecutors told jurors in Weinstein's universe the women were merely "ants that he could step on without consequences" and implored them to focus on his conduct, not what the alleged victims in the case may have said or done with Weinstein afterward.

Julie Walker, New York.

Strong winds and heavy rain have caused flooding road closures and electricity outages across the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe as people on the British isles clean up from damage caused in recent days. VOA's Jim Bertel has more.

The storm named Dennis, which started over the weekend, has prompted widespread travel disruptions across Europe, with a potential to cause more damage than the previous weekend's storm.

Emergency services on the Jutland peninsula have been pumping out water from basements and using sand bags to try to contain the deluge while residents in parts of Wales and western Britain have been surveying the damage after the storm-flooded roads, railways, homes and businesses.

Jim Bertel, VOA news.

Amazon founder Jeff [Bi...] Bezos says he will give $10 billion of his own money to fight climate change. The world's wealthiest person made the pledge Monday in an Instagram post.

He said the initiative would begin issuing grants within a few months.

Amazon has faced criticism from its own employees [from not] for not doing enough to combat climate change. The company which delivers billions of parcels each year has a high carbon footprint based on the planes, trucks and cars it [use...] uses to transport items around the world.

Last year, Bezos pledged to make the retailer net carbon neutral by 2040.

From Washington D.C., I'm Marissa Melton. You're listening to VOA news.

严重推荐： 

---