【280-283】Group Providing Clothing, Books to Migrant Children

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AS IT IS

Southeast Asian Nations, China Agree on Proposal for South China Sea

August 02, 2018

ASEAN and China foreign ministers pose for a photo ahead of the ASEAN-China Ministerial Meeting on the sidelines of the 51st ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Singapore, Aug. 2, 2018. (AP Photo/Yong Teck Lim)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China have agreed on a proposal to prevent conflict in the disputed South China Sea.

The foreign ministers from the 10-member ASEAN group met in Singapore to discuss territorial issues, trade and security.

Four of the 10 nations in ASEAN have territorial claims to parts of the South China Sea, which is important to world trade and holds valuable natural resources. China, however, claims nearly the whole area as its own territory. Taiwan, which is not an ASEAN member, also claims parts of the sea.

China and ASEAN have been negotiating a “code of conduct” for the disputed waterway for years. The goal is to reduce tensions and increase cooperation on issues linked to the waterway.

South China Sea Territorial Claims

ASEAN member states and China agreed on a negotiating text for a code of conduct at a meeting in Changsha, China on June 27, the meeting’s final statement said.

Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that the proposal was a “milestone.”

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said approval of the proposal was “good news” and a “breakthrough.”

Statement admits ‘concerns’

One issue facing ASEAN countries is China’s military buildup in parts of the South China Sea. It has built three airport runways and placed anti-aircraft missiles on seven landforms in the area.

Without naming China, ASEAN ministers wrote that they “took note of the concerns expressed by some countries” on the buildup. They went on to say that those actions had hurt “trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region.”

In years of negotiations, ASEAN members have disagreed about how to deal with China over territorial issues in the South China Sea.

Vietnam has strongly expressed concerns over China’s growing military presence especially on landforms it claims as its own.

ASEAN members Cambodia and Laos are Chinese allies and they oppose strong language against China in ASEAN statements.

Satellite imagery analysis by geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor shows overall land, building and military expansion by China on Woody Island in the South China Sea. (Courtesy of Stratfor)

The United States has carried out so-called freedom of navigation exercises in support of keeping the waterway open to trade.

The final statement released by ASEAN ministers also welcomed talks between the U.S. and North Korea. Ministers urged support for United Nations and international efforts to remove nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula.

In addition to ministers of Southeast Asian nations, other countries with interests in the area sent high level officials.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to arrive in Singapore on Friday.

Reuters reports that officials from Japan, Russia and New Zealand met with ASEAN representatives for talks on security and trade.

I’m Mario Ritter.

Mario Ritter adapted material from VOA, AP and Reuters for this VOA Learning English story. Hai Do was the editor.

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Words in This Story

conduct –n. a way of behaving, a way to carry something out

confidence –n. a feeling or belief that someone or something has the ability to do what is expected

undermine –v. to make something weaker in a hidden or slow way

stability –n. a quality of not being changed easily

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AS IT IS

Group Providing Clothing, Books to Migrant Children

August 02, 2018

Linda Walker has been volunteering with the nonprofit for the past six months. “I felt immediately that Comfort Cases had a role to play in the immigrant issue; reaching those children,” Walker said.

A committee of the United States Senate is studying the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for migrant families. The policy is directed at individuals who crossed the U.S. border with Mexico. Those who entered the U.S. illegally were detained. The children were held separately from their parents.

On June 20, President Donald Trump signed an order cancelling the family separations after a series of protests across the country.

Last week, a federal judge credited the government with reuniting more than 1,800 children with their parents or guardians. But the judge also said the government is responsible for expelling the parents of more than 400 children without reuniting those families.

The boys and girls have been living in shelters in Texas and three other states. They are receiving backpacks filled with clothing, books and other supplies from Comfort Cases, a non-profit group in Maryland.

Rob Scheer, cofounder of Comfort Cases — a nonprofit that donates backpacks filled with basic necessities to children in the foster care system.

Rob Scheer is the founder of the group.

“We have children who have walked into our country that needed us. They need us.”

Scheer says he and his husband Reece set up Comfort Cases in 2013 partly because of his experience as a child in the U.S. foster care system. Today, the group serves about 39 states, Washington, D.C. and U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico.

Scheer says their hope is to give a child that “sense of dignity” and to provide the children with something to hold their possessions. Children living in foster care are often moved from home to home, and many have only a plastic bag to hold their few belongings.

As a child, Scheer had to move his belongings the same way. Some 40 years later, he and his husband agreed to accept four children from the foster care system as members of their family.

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Migrant children

Once Scheer heard about the family separations, he called his team and volunteers and said they could not just sit back and watch what was happening.

“At the end of the day, I don't walk in the shoes of their parents. I can't tell you the reasons why they came to the border or why they entered our country. The only thing that I can tell you is that they're here. And these children need us.”

Marli Abramowitz is a volunteer at Comfort Cases. Abramowitz said as soon as news about the separations began to spread, the team prepared and shipped backpacks to McAllen, Texas.

“For the migrant kids, we have special stuffed animals that were made by a woman who donated, I think, a thousand of them...They also get a Spanish book and an English book, or they get a book that's half Spanish, half English.”

In 2017, Comfort Cases donated 11,000 backpacks. This year, that number is set to hit 14,000.

Linda Walker, who has been volunteering with the nonprofit for the past six months, said she immediately felt the group had an important job.

It had to overcome some administrative problems to reach the children, she explained, but hopes the backpacks hold “everyday necessities,” as well as the message that the migrants are welcome here.

“It’s something that could have been avoided, Now they don’t have their parents. It’s going to be a hard journey to get them back. You can’t rip children away from their parents. It’s unacceptable."

I’m Susan Shand.

VOA’s Aline Barros reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. The editor was George Grow.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

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Words in This Story

tolerance – n. ability to overcome pain or hardship

migrant – n. someone who moves from place to place, usually to find work

backpack – n. a piece of equipment designed to carry things on one’s back

foster care – n. a situation in which a child lives with and is cared for by people who are not the child’s parents

dignity – n. the quality of being worthy of respect

charity – n. a group that hel

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Pope Francis Says Death Penalty 'Inadmissible'

August 02, 2018

FILE - Pope Francis delivers a speech after a meeting with Patriarchs of the churches of the Middle East at the St. Nicholas Basilica in Bari, southern Italy July 7, 2018. (REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo)

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, has changed Church teaching about the death sentence.

The new teaching says that the earlier policy was outdated and that the church should work to end the death penalty.

The Vatican said the Pope approved a change Thursday to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the collection of the Church's official teaching.

In the past, the catechism said the Church does not object to the death penalty, in its words, “If this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”

The new teaching, published on August 2, said “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

The death penalty is no longer used in most of Europe and South America. But it is still legal punishment in the United States and in several countries in Asia, Africa and the Mideast.

This week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could bring back the death sentence. Turkey had ended the punishment in 2004 in an effort to join the European Union.

Pope Francis has long opposed the death penalty. On almost every of his foreign trips, the Pope has visited prisoners to offer words of support and hope. He still stays in touch with Argentine prisoners who he attended to during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The Pope announced his decision to change Church teaching on the death penalty last October on the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism.

At that 2017 ceremony, the Pope said the death penalty violates the Gospel and compared it to the voluntary killing of a human life.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, has long campaigned against the death penalty. The organization called the new teaching an “important step forward.” It also praised the Roman Catholic Church for its commitment to end the death penalty.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on AP and other news reports. Mario Ritter was the editor.

Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

penalty –n. a punishment for breaking a rule or law

inviolability –n. too important to be ignored or treated with disrespect

dignity –n. the quality of being worthy of honor or respect

commitment –n. a promise to do or give something

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Apple’s Stock Value Reaches $1 Trillion Total

August 02, 2018

An electronic screen displays Apple stock at the Nasdaq MarketSite, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018, in New York. Apple has become the world's first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Apple has become the first American company to have the total value of its publicly traded stock reach $1 trillion. Stock in the technology company reached the huge number during trading on Thursday.

If Apple were a nation, it the world’s seventeenth largest economy.

Steve Jobs and a few other people created Apple 42 years ago in Cupertino, California.

By 1997, the company had fallen on hard times and shares were worth just a few dollars. If someone had bought $10,000 of the stock at that low point, their investment would now be worth $2.6 million.

FILE - In this April 24, 1984, file photo, Steve Jobs, left, chairman of Apple Computers, John Sculley, center, president and CEO, and Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, unveil the new Apple IIc computer in San Francisco.

The current price of a share in the company is about $207 dollars. Stocks experts that is a reasonable amount when the company’s earnings are considered.

Apple’s rise in recent years has signaled the strength of the technology industry. Apple became part of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a widely used measure of stock prices, in 2015.

And Apple faces strong competition from other technology companies. It could lose its top spot to Amazon, based in Seattle, Washington. The online sales company now has a market value of $880 billion dollars.

The company known for iPhones and the Mac computer is not the first publicly traded company to reach the $1 trillion mark. Thomson Reuters information shows that Chinese oil company PetroChina reached that level in 2007, although it has since lost much of that value.

Technology companies like Apple, Amazon and Alphabet—the parent company of Google—appear to have taken the lead in high market value.

But a traditional industrial business, The Saudi Arabian Oil Company known as Aramco, could surpass Apple if it carries out plans to offer its stock to the public.

Some experts estimate the Saudi oil company could reach a total stock market value two times bigger than Apple’s – at $2 trillion dollars.

I’m Caty Weaver.

Mario Ritter adapted this story from VOA News and wire reports. Caty Weaver was the editor.

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