【275-277】Trump Considering Sales of Guns Made by 3D Printers

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*【275】AS IT IS

Trump Considering Sales of Guns Made by 3D Printers

July 30, 2018

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., left, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Ct., display a photo of a plastic gun on Tuesday, July 31, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Democrats are calling on President Donald Trump to reverse an administration decision to allow a Texas company to make blueprints for a 3D-printed gun available online. (AP Photo/Matthew Daly)

Editor's Note: A federal judge in Washington state issued a temporary restraining order late Tuesday to stop the release of 3-D gun printing plans.

President Donald Trump says he is studying whether guns made by a three-dimensional (3-D) printer should be sold in the United States.

Trump wrote on Twitter the idea “doesn’t seem to make much sense!” He added that he spoke to the National Rifle Association (NRA) about the issue.

The NRA is the largest American organization representing the interests of gun owners.

Trump’s comments come as eight states and the District of Columbia are taking legal action against his administration for permitting the release of the gun-printing plans. They say anyone following those step-by-step directions could use 3-D printer technology to create a gun out of plastic.

State attorneys general are the state officials who can bring cases against the federal government.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is leading the case against the Trump administration. He said the gun-printing plans are a danger to the public.

“These downloadable guns are unregistered and very difficult to detect, even with metal detectors, and will be available to anyone regardless of age, mental health or criminal history,” he said.

The eight states and the District of Columbia argue that permitting people to make their own guns violates state controls over weapons.

Officials say that 1,000 people have already downloaded the directions for plastic guns.

Seized plastic handguns which were created using 3D printing technology are displayed at Kanagawa police station in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, May 8, 2014.

Plans for printing a gun available to the public

A Texas company created the designs. They enable anyone with a 3-D printer to make the parts of a plastic gun that would cost just a few hundred dollars.

The same directions are also at the center of legal action over whether they can be made available to the public.

The State Department had ordered a gun rights activist to stop providing the directions. State Department officials said the plans violated U.S. export laws.

The activist, Cody Wilson, argued that the ban violated his rights under the U.S. constitution. In June, the Trump administration changed its position to permit publication of some instructions.

Gun experts say plastic guns may not work without some metal parts and that they could blow up in the hands of users. They add that 3-D printing technology can be very costly.

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Kenneth Schwartz reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

three-dimensional –adj. having length, width and height

printer – n. a device for making copies of a photograph or other object

detect – v. to discover the presence of something

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*【276】AS IT IS

Iran Rejects Trump’s Offer of Talks as ‘Humiliation’

July 31, 2018

FILE - ranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a joint news conference as part of a meeting with Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz at the federal chancellery in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Senior Iranian officials on Tuesday rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer of talks as worthless and “a humiliation.”

Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss how to improve relations. Trump said his offer came with no preconditions. “If they want to meet, I’ll meet,” he told reporters.

But the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations reportedly said Iran saw “no value” in Trump’s proposal to meet. Kamal Kharrazi was quoted in the semi-official Fars news agency. He noted his country’s “bad experiences in negotiations with America” as well as “U.S. officials’ violation of their commitments.”

In May, Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 multinational agreement that eased international sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program. Trump said the deal helped Iran more than it helped other countries.

And on July 23, Trump warned Iran of serious consequences “few had ever suffered in history” if it made threats against the United States.

The deputy speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Motahari, said that to negotiate with Trump now “would be a humiliation.” Motahari told the state news agency IRNA, “If Trump had not withdrawn from the nuclear deal and not imposed (new) sanctions on Iran, there would be no problem with negotiations with America.”

A senior aide to Rouhani said in a Twitter message that the only way to re-open talks was for the United States to return to the nuclear agreement. Hamid Aboutalebi tweeted on Tuesday, “Respecting the Iranian nation’s rights, reducing hostilities and returning to the nuclear deal are steps that can be taken to pave the bumpy road of talks between Iran and America.”

Also on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he has no plan to meet with Iran’s foreign minister later this week in Singapore. Both are to attend a meeting of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.

Kelly Jean Kelly adapted this story for Learning English based on a report in Reuters. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

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Words in This Story

humiliation - n. a feeling of shame or foolishness

quote - v. write or say the exact words of someone

sanctions - n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country, etc.

consequences - n. something that happens as a result of a particular action or set of conditions

deputy - n. an important assistant who helps the leader of a government, organization, etc.

pave - v. to with a material to create a hard, level surface for walking, driving, etc.

bumpy - adj. having or covered with bumps: opposite of smooth

*【277】AS IT IS

Facebook Uncovers Fake Accounts Ahead of Midterm Elections

July 31, 2018

FILE- In this March 29, 2018, file photo, the logo for Facebook appears on screens at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York's Times Square.

Facebook says the company has removed 32 pages and accounts from its social media sites ahead of midterm elections in the United States.

In a statement July 31, Facebook said those removed had violated company policy barring “inauthentic coordinated behavior.” The policy is in place because, the statement continued, “we don’t want people or organizations creating networks of accounts to mislead others about who they are, or what they’re doing.”

Facebook said it does not know who controlled the accounts but that they appeared to be fake. The company also did not directly suggest the pages were aimed at influencing the U.S. midterm elections in November. But it did compare the accounts to those set up by Russian-based Internet Research Agency, or IRA. It is facing criminal charges of illegal interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.

The social media company said it is still early in its investigation of possible fake accounts. It also said it has shared the information with U.S. law enforcement agencies, Congress, and other technology companies.

The first of the pages was created in March 2017. The other removed material included eight Facebook pages, 17 Facebook profiles, and seven accounts of the photo-sharing site Instagram.

Facebook said one of the pages had 290,000 followers. The most followed pages used names like “Aztlan Warriors,” ″Black Elevation,” ″Mindful Being,” and “Resisters.”

The accounts also spent about $11,000 for 150 ads on Facebook and Instagram. The money was paid in U.S. and Canadian dollars from April 2017 to June 2018. The account also created about 30 events since May 2017.

Facebook said since the company has increased efforts to prevent abuse, the creators of fake accounts have begun to employ trickier, more secretive efforts. For example, “they used VPNs and internet phone services, and paid third parties to run ads,” the statement said. VPNs are virtual private networks.

However, the company added that it had found some connections between these fake accounts and the removed IRA accounts. One of the IRA accounts shared a Facebook event hosted by the “Resister” page. And the two also briefly had the same administrator.

I'm Caty Weaver.

Hai Do wrote this story based on information from Facebook. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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