VOA慢速听力4篇As It Is【598-601】‘Mother Mushroom’ to Receive Press...
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*【598】AS IT IS
Bangladesh Halts Plan to Return Refugees to Myanmar
November 15, 2018
Rohingya refugee children shout slogans during a protest against repatriation efforts, Unchiprang refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, Nov. 15, 2018.
The head of Bangladesh’s refugee commission announced on Thursday that plans to start sending Rohingya Muslims back to Myanmar has been cancelled.
An estimated 700,000 Rohingya are living in refugee camps in Bangladesh. But they are unwilling to return to Myanmar, officials said.
Refugee Commissioner Abul Kalam told the Associated Press that officials “can’t force them to go.” But he said officials will continue to try to persuade the refugees to leave.
The announcement came after about 1,000 Rohingya demonstrated against returning to Myanmar.
Another Bangladeshi official went to the Unchiprang camp, near the city of Cox’s Bazar. It is one of the largest refugee settlements in Bangladesh.
The official spoke to the refugees over a loudspeaker. He said “we have arrangedeverything for you, we have six buses here, we have trucks, we have food. We want to offer everything to you. If you agree to go, we’ll take you to the border, to the transitcamp.”
However, hundreds of refugees refused the offer.
Bangladesh had attempted to start the return of the refugees to Myanmar, although United Nations officials had said they should wait. A U.N. negotiated deal with Bangladesh and Myanmar states that the Rohingya cannot be forced to return.
The countries had planned to send a first group of 2,251 people back in the middle of November, followed by about 150 each day after that.
Large numbers of Rohingya started fleeing Myanmar in August of 2017. That was when security forces launched a campaign against the group after rebels attacked guard stations.
The size and violence of the operation caused many nations and U.N. officials to accuse Myanmar of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Myanmar has a Buddhist majority. Most people there do not accept the Rohingya as a native ethnic group. They are considered “Bengalis” who illegally entered the country from Bangladesh. Most Rohingya are Muslim.
Almost all Rohingya in Myanmar have been denied citizenship. They are unable to attend schools or get medical care.
Human rights activists say it is not yet safe for the refugees to return.
Bill Frelick is with the New York City-based group Human Rights Watch. He said in a statement that “nothing the Myanmar government has said or done suggests that the Rohingya will be safe upon return.”
The group said 150 people from 30 families were to be sent to a transit camp on Thursday, but the camp was empty except for security guards.
Bangladeshi officials said they have been working with the United Nations on a list of those who want to return to Myanmar.
At the Jamtoli refugee camp, 25-year-old Setara said she and her two children, age four and seven, were on a return list, but her parents were not. She said she never asked to return to Myanmar.
“They killed my husband; now I live here with my parents,” she said. “I don’t want to go back.”
Setara said others who were named on the government’s list had fled to other camps in hopes of disappearing.
Earlier plans to start sending the refugees back to Myanmar last January also were called off because of reports of continuing violence.
I’m Mario Ritter.
Julhas Alam reported this story for the Associated Press. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
arrange –v. to organize the details of something before it happens
transit –adj. related to the act of moving people or things from one place to another
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*【599】
AS IT IS
Ford, Walmart to Work on Self-Driving Delivery Vehicles
November 15, 2018
A specially designed delivery car that Ford Motor Co. and Domino’s Pizza use to test self-driving pizza deliveries, at Domino’s headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Aug. 24, 2017.
The American companies Ford and Walmart will soon begin working together to design a delivery service that uses self-driving vehicles.
The project grew out of the car company Ford’s efforts to develop businesses that could use self-driving delivery vehicles. Ford has already been working with the delivery company Postmates to develop the service.
Ford said its new project with Walmart will take place in and around Miami, Florida. The project will deliver goods ordered at Walmart stores through Postmates.
It will begin with human-driven vehicles to see how a self-driving vehicle would behave. Ford has said it expects to launch wider production of self-driving vehicles by 2021.
Brian Wolf is with Ford’s self-driving vehicle group. He wrote in a blog post that the companies will test to see which goods, especially groceries, can be delivered successfully.
In a statement, Tom Ward of Walmart said, “Before self-driving cars can go mainstream, we must get a better sense of how people want to interact with them.”
That may require new designs or equipment for the self-driving vehicles. Wolf said that Ford is designing storage systems on the vehicles for customers to receive goods and groceries.
Walmart has more stores around the United States than any other company. It is competing with Amazon.com and other online companies to deliver goods.
The use of self-driving delivery vehicles instead of human-driven ones could reduce costs for Walmart. But self-driving technology remains costly, and the industry is still waiting for rules to be set by local governments.
Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Reuters news story. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
groceries - n. food sold or bought at a store
mainstream - n. thoughts, beliefs and choices that are accepted by the largest number of people
interact - v. to talk or do things with other people
customer - n. someone who buy goods or services from a business
*【600】
AS IT IS
‘Mother Mushroom’ to Receive Press Freedom Award
November 15, 2018
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who goes by the pen name Mother Mushroom, speaks with a reporter during a video conference on her laptop computer in Houston, Texas, October 19, 2018.
The Vietnamese blogger known as “Mother Mushroom” will be honored with an International Press Freedom Award on November 20 in New York City.
Others who will receive awards are Amal Khalifa Idris Habbani of Sudan, Venezuala’s Luz Mely Reyes, and Anastasiya Stanko of Ukraine.
The Committee to Protect Journalists announced the award winners last June.
Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh wrote under the name “Mẹ Nấm,” or Mother Mushroom. She was serving a 10-year sentence for “propaganda against the state” when, in 2017, she received an International Women of Courage Award from American first lady Melania Trump.
Quỳnh was suddenly released from prison in October. She then left Vietnam and went to Houston, in the American state of Texas.
The blogger told VOA that it was difficult to accept the offer of her prison release from the Vietnamese government. She said the offer was made on the condition that she leave Vietnam. She thought of her young children whom she had not seen for more than two years.
Quỳnh was reunited with her two children on the flight from Vietnam.
Quỳnh told VOA she began blogging in 2006 while she was pregnant with her daughter. She said, “When I went to a hospital for a check-up, I started to notice that a lot of people around me - who were poor - did not get the same quality of service from medical professionals. And I asked myself, ‘How could I not have seen the unfairness that was happening around me like that?’”
On her blog, she wrote about social injustice, environmental issues and the territorial dispute between China and Vietnam over the Spratly Islands. She also helped form the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, a group of independent journalists who support press freedom in Vietnam.
Quỳnh was first detained in 2009 for writing about the Vietnamese government land confiscation to support a Chinese mining project. She said, “They were afraid that the bilateral government relation could be affected when people like me speak out against the projects.”
At first, Quỳnh did not consider herself to be a member of the press. She said, “I was just exercising my rights to speak for myself, but then they arrested me, and they tried to stop me from blogging, and that was when I realized that I am now an activist for freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”
In her first few weeks of freedom, Quỳnh has spent time with her two children and her mother. But she plans to start writing again soon.
She said, “I want to continue my blogging and I want to take back my Facebook account [that was blocked in Vietnam] so that I can continue sharing with other people my thoughts and what I aspire to do.”
I'm Anna Matteo.
Hai Do wrote this story for Learning English with additional materials from VOA's Tra Mi and Ten Soksreinith. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
confiscation - n. the act of taking something away from someone to enforce a rule or law
bilateral - adj. involving two groups or two countries
*【601】AS IT IS
Saudi Arabia to Seek Death for 5 Charged in Khashoggi Killing
November 15, 2018
Mongi Dhaouadi (L) and Ahmed Bedier set up an image of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before an event to remember Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post who was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, in Washington, Nov. 2
Saudi Arabia charged 11 men Thursday in the killing of Saudi reporter Jamal Khashoggi at Saudi diplomatic offices in Istanbul, Turkey, last month.
Saudi government lawyer Shalaan Bin Shalaan said officials will seek death sentences for five of the suspects charged with ordering and carrying out the crime.
Shalaan told reporters in Riyadh that Khashoggi's "presence abroad represented a threat to the Saudi kingdom."
He said deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al Assiri formed a team to travel to Istanbul to try to persuade the reporter to return home.
Shalaan said Assiri chose a 15-member team, made up of three groups: a negotiating team, an intelligence team and a planning team. He says the head of the negotiating team knew Khashoggi and ordered the reporter be taken to a secure place. But, Shalaan said, Khashoggi was killed in the process.
He said Khashoggi fought with the team and was given a calming drug and tied up. The lawyer said five members of the team admitted to killing him, cutting up his body and removing the pieces from the building.
The government lawyer also suggested that a top advisor to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had been barred from leaving Saudi Arabia. The advisor, Saud Qahtani, was removed as head of Bin Salman's communications team after Khashoggi's death.
Shalaan said that the crown prince "did not have knowledge about” the operation.
News media, including The New York Times, have reported about a sound recording of a discussion between the Saudi team and people in the kingdom on the day of the killing. The reports said the discussion included the message "to tell your boss." Some reports said that the “boss” spoken of is the crown prince. VOA has not heard the recording.
Hilal Kashan teaches political science at the American University of Beirut. Kashan told VOA that the official Saudi version is, in his words, "difficult to believe."
Khashoggi lived near Washington D.C. and wrote for the Washington Post newspaper. Thursday, the American government ordered its first punishment in connection with his killing. The Treasury Department ordered restrictions on 17 Saudis for their reported links to the act.
“These individuals who targeted and brutally killed a journalist who resided and worked in the United States must face consequences for their actions,” Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement.
The individuals Mnuchin noted include Saud Qahtani.
I’m Caty Weaver.
VOA News reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. Mario Ritter was the editor.
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Words in This Story
brutally –adv. with extreme cruelty or harshness
reside –v. to live in a place
consequences –n. things that happen as a result of an action or condition
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