【178-181】 Trump and Putin to Meet in Helsinki

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*【178】AS IT IS

US Judge Orders Reuniting of Separated Families in 30 Days

June 28, 2018

A mother migrating from Honduras holds her 1-year-old child as surrendering to U.S. Border Patrol agents after illegally crossing the border Monday, June 25, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

This week, a judge in the United States gave the federal government 30 days to reunite detained migrants with their children.

The deadline was set Tuesday by a judge in San Diego, California. The order requires U.S. border officials to return children under age 5 to their parents within 14 days.

The judgement came in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. The group went to court in March seeking to end separations of migrant families. That case involves two youngsters. They were separated from their parents while the adults sought entry into the United States.

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said that the situation with separated migrant families had “reached a crisis level.”

President Donald Trump and his administration are trying to stop the flow of illegal immigrants. In April, the administration started enforcing a policy aimed at strengthening border security. The measure requires the government to bring criminal charges against adults who are caught while trying to cross the border illegally.

Immigrant Elyse Hernandez, from Honduras, right, waits with her daughter Genesis, center, and son, Jorge David, left, inside the bus station Saturday, June 23, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

This meant that under U.S. law, the children could not stay with their parents in detention. They were instead sent to shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

More than 2,000 children were separated from their parents under the measure. Some boys and girls were housed in tents in the state of Texas, near the Mexican border. Others were sent to shelters or centers in other states.

Many activist groups, U.S. lawmakers and other Americans have criticized the family separations. They raised concerns about the children and the conditions in which they were kept in. Audio of separated children crying and images of detention centers led to more criticism.

But administration officials defended the policy, saying the children are well cared for and being treated humanely. Recent studies showed that about two-thirds of Americans opposed the separation policy.

Clergy with Women of Faith pray outside of a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol processing center, Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. The group traveled to McAllen to pray for detained immigrants. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Last week, President Trump signed an executive order to end the separations of parents from children at the border. Trump has said he supports efforts to reunite migrant families.

Administration officials have proposed holding the children and their parents together inside immigration detention centers. But a 1997 government settlement generally bars the government from keeping children in detention with their parents for more than 20 days.

The administration plans to seek legal action to block the agreement, known as the Flores settlement. Government lawyers were expected to ask a judge for permission to let the families stay together until their immigration cases are completed.

U.S. officials have said they are working to reunite all families as soon as possible. But they have yet to speak publicly about plans aimed at meeting the judge’s deadlines.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said this week his department is preparing to house detained migrants on at least two military bases. Officials have said the temporary shelters will be designed to house up to 20,000 people.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis speaks with the media at the Pentagon, Wednesday, June 20, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The children are currently being held by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of HHS. It says the government can keep them “in a temporary shelter or hostedby an appropriate family.” Children unable to be reunited with family would likely be placed in America’s foster care system.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar told Congress Tuesday his department is still holding 2,047 immigrant children who were separated from their parents. That is only six fewer children than the number given by the department last Wednesday.

Under questioning, Azar did not give a specific estimate for how long it will take to reunite families. He said his department first has to closely investigate parents to make sure they are who they say they are, and are not involved in illegal activities.

Judge Sabraw’s order also halted future family separations, unless the parent is found to be unfit or does not want to be with the child. It also ordered the government to provide telephone contact between parents and their children within 10 days.

U.S. Border Patrol agent-in-charge Melissa Lucio, right, talks with women and children migrating from Honduras after they surrendered to U.S. Border Patrol agents after illegally crossing the border Monday, June 25, 2018, near McAllen, Texas. (AP Photo/Da

Some adults held at an immigration center in Texas reported problems with telephone connections. The parents told immigrant advocates they had not been able to reach a phone number set up to provide information about separated children.

In the state of Virginia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg is a legal director with the Legal Aid Justice Center. He was reported as saying that the U.S. government “never had any plan to reunite these families that were separated.” But now, he added, officials are “scrambling to undo this terrible thing that they have done.”

I’m Bryan Lynn. And I'm Dorothy Gundy.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press and other sources. George Grow was the editor.

How do you think the government should handle the issue of separated migrant families? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

deadline – n. a date or time when something must be finished

tent – n. structure made of metal poles and cloth that sits on the ground to be used to sleep in

executive – adj. of or related to the execution of laws

host – v. person or group that provides things needed for guests

foster – n. to look after a child as part of your family for a time, without becoming their legal parent

unfit – adj. not acceptable; lacking the necessary skills or abilities

department – n. a major part of a company, organization or government

advocate – n. someone who supports a particular idea or cause

scramble – v. move or act quickly to do, find, or get something done

*【179】AS IT IS

Trump and Putin to Meet in Helsinki

June 28, 2018

FILE - In this July 7, 2017, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. Six months into his presidency, Donald Trump has made clear who he considers to be his friends, and his foes, on the international stage. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

American President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold their first summit July 16 in Helsinki, Finland.

Both sides confirmed the meeting plans Thursday. The announcement came a day after Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton met with Russian officials in Moscow.

Bolton told reporters in Moscow that Trump sent him to the city to prepare for a possible summit. During his visit, Bolton met with Putin and other high-level officials.

So far, Putin has held two brief meetings with Trump while attending international meetings last year.

“There are a wide range of issues despite the differences between us where both President Trump and President Putin feel they can find constructive solutions,” Bolton said. A White House statement said the two leaders would discuss relations between the nations and “a range of national security issues.”

In the past, Bolton has been highly critical of Russia. He once accused Russia of carrying out “a true act of war” by using cyber methods to try to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Russia denies any activities aimed at interfering in the election.

When asked about his past statements about Russia, Bolton said they had no effect on his current position as National Security Adviser.

Trump told reporters at the White House Wednesday that talks with Putin would include the situations in Syria and Ukraine and “many other subjects.” He said, “getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing. It’s good for the world. It’s good for us. It’s good for everybody.”

During Wednesday’s meeting with Bolton, Putin said U.S.-Russian relations had clearly reached a low point. But, he said the talks “at least take the first step to reviving” full ties.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to meet with American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the coming weeks to further prepare for the summit.

Finland has been a favored place for U.S.-Russian summits since the Cold War period. A 1975 meeting was held there between American President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev also held a summit there. In 1997, American President Bill Clinton met Russian President Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

summit – n. an important meeting between leaders

range – n. the amount or number between a set of limits

constructive – adj. helpful or useful

cyber – prefix relating to electronic communications, especially the Internet

revive – v. to make something strong, healthy, or active again

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*【180】AS IT IS

In Small Numbers, Visitors Are Returning to Fukushima

June 28, 2018

Tourists from Tokyo's universities plant rice seedlings in a paddy field, near Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, during a rice planting event in Namie town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, May 19, 2018.

It has been more than seven years since the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan.

Now, tour organizers are bringing tourists to the area.

People are slowly returning to the area where the disaster struck. Many hope that visitors will help bring back towns there and increasingly ease fears of radiation.

Tourism in the Fukushima area

Takuto Okamoto operates tours through the area. He brings groups two times a month to places like Tomioka, a town 10 kilometers from the wrecked power plant.

“The disaster happened. The issue now is how people rebuild their lives,” Okamoto said.

He wants to increase his tours to twice a week.

A tour guide and a tourist check radiation levels at Joroku Park, near Tokyo Electric Power Co's tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, in Namie town, Fukushima prefecture in May..

The area around the Fukushima Daiichi power plant is not fully back to normal.

Electronic signs on the highway to Tomioka show radiation levels 100 times normal background levels.

Louie Ching is a 33-year-old programmer from the Philippines. He, two other Filipinos and a Japanese man who visited Chernobyl each paid about $209 for the trip from Tokyo.

Ching said about his visit, “For me, it’s more for bragging rights, to be perfectly honest.”

Few people return to Namie

The group visited another town, Namie. It is only four kilometers from the disabled nuclear plant. Residents began returning after officials lifted restrictions. But only 700 of 21,000 people have returned.

Mitsuru Watanabe is a former resident who owned a restaurant in town. He is 80 years old now. He and his wife Rumeko have no plans to return. They returned only to clear out the restaurant which is the same as it was when they fled the area in 2011. But he did not want people to forget about the area.

“We want people to come. They can go home and tell other people about us,” he said.

Okamoto’s tour group also traveled to the coast where the deadly tsunami killed hundreds of people.

Empty rice fields, empty houses and a school were all that remained.

The area is at the edge of the restricted radiation zone. A new sea wall has been built to replace the one destroyed by the tsunami.

Fukushima Prefecture plans to build a memorial park there. It will have a center that will show videos and exhibits as well as hold records related to the earthquake and ocean waves of 2011.

Kazuhiro Ono is the prefecture’s deputy director for tourism.

He said the Japan Tourism Agency will fund the project while TEPCO, Tokyo Electric Power Company, will provide materials for the archive. He said, “It will be a starting point for visitors.”

Ono wants foreign tourists to come to Fukushima. While Japan has seen a 200 percent increase in tourism from 2011, the area has seen very few visitors.

Hidezo Sato is the first person to return to the town. He hopes more tourists arrive.

“If people come to brag about getting close to the plant, that can’t be helped, but at least they’ll come,” he said. Sato said the archive center will help ease people’s fears about radiation.

But Mayumi Matsumoto is uneasy about the park and archive plans. The 54-year-old lives in a rebuilt farmhouse with her family.

“We haven’t gotten to the bottom of what happened at the plant, and now is not the time,” she said.

The cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi plant including removing the nuclear fuel could take 40 years and cost billions of dollars.

Matsumoto had come back for a day to hold a rice-planting event for about 40 university students. Later they toured Namie on two buses. And they visited the place where the park is expected to be built.

Matsumoto described her feelings about Tokyo Electric as “complicated.” She feels the company was responsible for the disaster. But, it also helped her family afterwards.

One of her sons works for the company and he has faced angry residents.

She said: “It’s good that people want to come to Namie, but not if they just want to get close to the nuclear plant. I don’t want it to become a spectacle.”

Okamoto is the only guide offering tours to the area. And there are very few visitors. But Okamoto says he hopes that the people he brings will not only take pictures but understand the extent of the damage caused by the disaster.

I’m Mario Ritter. And I’m Caty Weaver.

Reuters reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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Words in This Story

tour – n. an activity in which you go through a place (such as a building or city) in order to see and learn about the different parts of it

bragging rights – expression a good reason to talk with pride about something you have done

resident – n. someone who lives in a particular place

tsunami – n. a very high, large wave in the ocean that is usually caused by an earthquake under the sea and that can cause great destruction when it reaches land

prefecture – n. any one of the areas into which some countries (such as Japan and France) are divided for local government : the area that is governed by a prefect

archive – n. a place in which public records or historical materials (such as documents) are kept

spectacle – n. something that attracts attention because it is very unusual or very shocking — usually singular

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#【181】AS IT IS

What Happened to General Electric?

June 28, 2018

The General Electric logo appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, June 26, 2018.

This week, General Electric was officially removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a leading measure of stock prices for major American businesses.

GE was replaced by Walgreens Boots Alliance, a company that operates healthcare businesses, including Walgreens drug stores.

Based on stocks, the five most valuable American businesses are all technology companies. They are Alphabet, which owns Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft.

Big name companies like General Electric no longer have the power or influence they once did. Instead, technology, finance and health care businesses lead the United States economy.

GE was the last original member of the Dow Jones industrials. The company was formed in 1892 when the businesses of inventor Thomas Edison joined with a competing company. The famous banker J.P. Morgan financed the deal.

In its early years, shares of GE stock were like those of a current-day high-tech company. The Dow – an industrial index – was influenced heavily by the growth industries of the day, such as railroads, copper, oil and sugar.

For a century, General Electric was at the center of American capitalism. Its chief executive officer, Jack Welch, was well-known, both across the country and worldwide. At times, GE was the most valuable American company by market value.

So what happened?

General Electric has had a difficult time since its stock price rose to an all-time high in May 2000. This led to a three for one stock split. Investors were given three shares of stock for each one they owned.

Over the past year, GE shares have fallen 55 percent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 15 percent. This broke a major rule of the Dow: A company’s stock should not be worth less than 10% of the highest price stock in the index.

The Dow industrials is a price-weighted index, which means higher priced stocks have a greater influence on its direction.

“The low price of GE shares means the company has a weight in the index of less than one-half of one percentage point,” said David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at S & P Dow Jones Indices. “Walgreens Boots Alliance’s share price is higher, and it will contribute more meaningfully to the index.”

But as financial reporter Allan Sloan explained in The Washington Post, GE could have stayed in the Dow through a reverse stock split. Its stock price would have gone to $130. While its market value would be exactly the same, the company would have increased its influence in the Dow.

But being pushed out of the Dow was low on General Electric’s lists of concerns.

GE has been coming apart since the Great Recession 10 years ago. The weak economic conditions showed that the company was heavily dependent on its finance business, GE Capital.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, reporter Andy Kessler wrote “GE was basically a giant hedge fund—a bet on its finance unit, which contributed half of GE’s profits.”

At the end of 2001, Jeffrey Immelt became the company’s chief executive. Under his leadership, the value of GE Capital grew to more than $500 billion. The business expanded through a combination of loans, leasing agreements, equity finance and insurance products.

But when the recession hit, GE had to take $3 billion from Warren Buffett to meet its short-term debts.

“GE have been unwinding this hedge fund ever since,” wrote Kessler.

John Flannery became the company’s CEO in the summer of 2017.

Last autumn, he warned that GE’s power-generation business was hurting. The company cut its dividend for only the second time since the Great Depression. In January, GE surprised investors by taking a big charge and setting aside $15 billion to pay for debts held by GE Capital, the company’s financial services business. In January 2018, GE announced a $10 billion loss. It also announced plans to sell off $20 billion more in equipment and other assets.

GE investors chase profits instead of earnings and for a long time the company showed profits, right up until it didn’t.

I’m Susan Shand

Susan Shand wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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