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AS IT IS
Gaza's Only Grand Piano Makes Public Comeback
November 29, 2018
Palestian Pianist Yara Thabit
The only grand piano in the Palestinian territory of Gaza was played in public this week for the first time in 10 years.
Palestinian and Japanese musicians played the piano for 300 people at a November 25 performance at the Palestine Red Crescent Society. For many, it was the first time they had ever heard a piano performed live.
One Japanese pianist, Kaoru Imahigashi, said, “Playing this piano is feeling like playing history. It’s amazing. I felt the prayer of peace for many people.”
The Japanese government donated the piano about 20 years ago, following temporary peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
The piano was placed in a large theater at the al-Nawras resort in northern Gaza. A culture ministry official explained that music events were a regular activity there before conflicts between Palestinians and Israelis began again in 2000.
In 2007, the Islamic militant group Hamas took control of Gaza by force after winning legislative elections. Under Hamas rule, many forms of public entertainment were closed, including movie theaters and performance spaces. As a result, the al-Nawras resort closed its theater and swimming pool.
The resort closed permanently in January 2009. The piano sat unused until 2014. An Israeli airstrike that year destroyed the al-Nawras theater. The piano was found undamaged, but unplayable.
The Belgian nonprofit group Music Fund supports music education in the Palestinian areas. In 2015, the group sent a French expert to Gaza to repair the piano. Another expert traveled there in October to make final repairs on the instrument.
One the night of the performance, all 300 seats of the theater at the Palestine Red Crescent Society were filled. Fans of all ages listened intensely and applauded at the end of each performance.
It was the first time that 22-year-old Yasmin Elian had attended a piano concert. She said after the concert, “This encourages me to learn piano.”
I’m Jonathan Evans.
Fares Akram reported this story for the Associated Press news agency. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
applaud(ed) – v. to strike the hands together over and over to show approval or praise
resort – n. a place where people go for vacations
as633:
Ukraine Seeks NATO’s Help in Dispute with Russia
November 29, 2018
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko speak to soldiers during a visit to a military base in Chernihiv region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Nov, 28, 2018. (Mykola Lazarenko, Presidential Press Service via AP)
Ukraine is asking the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, for help after Russia seized three Ukrainian naval ships and their crews.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko urged NATO countries to send naval ships to the Sea of Azov. His comments were reported in the German newspaper Bild.
Poroshenko said Ukraine’s NATO allies were needed “to provide security” after Russian forces seized the ships and their crews on Sunday. He told the newspaper the seizures showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants nothing less than to occupy the sea.”
The Ukrainian government has said Russia is blocking shipping activity to and from Ukrainian ports near the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. The Kerch Strait connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea.
Russia denies it is restricting shipping in the area. It has said the Ukrainians were violating Russian waters and that Ukraine did not inform Russian officials of its naval movements. Ukraine denies this.
Poroshenko said sending NATO ships would send a clear message to Putin. “The only language he understands is the unity of the Western world,” he said.
Earlier this week, NATO released a statement condemning Russia’s “use of military force against Ukraine.” The alliance called on Russia to provide unrestricted access to Ukrainian ports and permit “freedom of navigation.”
The United States and other countries have also criticized the Russian actions in the Kerch Strait. On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was canceling planned talks with Putin over the issue. The two leaders were to meet at the G-20 summit in Argentina this weekend.
On Twitter, Trump said that his decision was "based on the fact that the ships and sailors have not been returned to Ukraine from Russia." He added that he looks forward to a future meeting with Putin "as soon as this situation is resolved.”
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she does plan to meet with Putin at the G-20 meetings. She said she will urge him to order the release of the Ukrainians and their ships.
Following the Russian seizures, Poroshenko declared martial law in parts of Ukraine. Putin has accused the Ukrainian president of provoking the naval incident and using it so that he could declare martial law. He said he thinks Poroshenko took the action to build up his popularity before planned presidential elections in March.
The shipping incident is the latest dispute between the two countries since Russian forces took the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. At the time, the Russian government said Crimea’s ethnic Russian majority was under threat. Pro-Russian forces have also been fighting Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, although tensions have recently eased.
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. was the editor.
We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
navigation – n. the movement of ships
access – n. permission or ability to enter
martial – adj. related to war or soldiers
provoke – v. to cause a strong and usually angry reaction
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AS IT IS
Suicides and Drug Overdose Deaths Push Down US Life Expectancy
November 29, 2018
FILE - A general view of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, Sept. 30, 2014.
Suicides and drug overdoses were two reasons for an increase in the number of deaths in the United States last year. They also were partly to blame for a continuing decrease in how long Americans are expected to live.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that there were more than 2.8 million deaths nationwide in 2017. That is nearly 70,000 more than in 2016. It was the most deaths in a single year since the U.S. government began counting more than a century ago.
The Associated Press says the increase is partly a result of the nation’s growing, aging population. But it is deaths in younger age groups — especially middle-aged people — that have had the biggest effect on life expectancy, experts said.
The “statistics are a wake-up call that we are losing too many Americans, too early and too often, to conditions that are preventable,” said CDC Director Robert Redfield.
The report, called “Suicide Mortality in the United States, 1999-2017,” was based on government records. It found that the suicide death rate last year was the highest in at least 50 years. There were more than 47,000 suicides, up from a little less than 45,000 the year before.
In addition to suicide, the United States is experiencing a drug abuse crisis, with more than 70,000 overdose deaths last year. The CDC report, “Drug Overdose Deaths in the United States, 1999-2017,” said overdose deaths rose 10 percent last year. It blamed the increase largely on the illegal use of synthetic opioids, drugs that are designed to ease pain.
The Decrease
For a long time, U.S. life expectancy rates were increasing, rising a few months nearly every year. Now, life expectancy is decreasing. It fell in 2015, stayed the same in 2016, and decreased again last year, the CDC said.
A baby born in the United States last year is expected to live about 78 years and 7 months. An American born in 2015 or 2016 was expected to live about a month longer, and one born in 2014 about two months longer than that.
The nation is in the longest period of decreasing life expectancy since the early 1900s, when World War I and influenza combined killed nearly 1 million Americans. In 1918, average life expectancy was 39 years.
Barring the unusual experience of the early 20th century, “we’ve never really seen anything like this,” said Robert Anderson, a CDC official.
Among the nation’s 10 leading causes of death, only the cancer death rate fell in 2017, while 7 other causes increased. They include suicide, drug overdose, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease.
Heart disease remains the number one killer, and the death rate from heart disease has stopped falling. In years past, reductions in heart disease deaths were enough to serve as a counterbalance to other causes of death, but that is no longer true, Anderson said.
Causes of Death
CDC officials did not try to explain the cause of decreasing life expectancy, but a disease prevention expert thinks the cause is hopelessness.
William Dietz is with George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He suggested that financial struggles, inequality and divisive politics are all depressing many Americans. “I really do believe that people are increasingly hopeless, and that that leads to drug use, it leads…to suicide,” he said.
But the increase in drug overdose deaths has started to slow. From 2015 to 2016, the rate of increase was 26 percent, but from 2016 to 2017, it was 10 percent.
That’s not quite cause for celebration, said John Rowe, a professor of health policy at Columbia University in New York.
“Maybe it’s starting to slow down, but it hasn’t turned around yet,” Rowe said. “I think it will take several years.”
I’m Susan Shand.
Susan Shand wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
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Words in This Story
overdose – n. an amount of a drug or medicine that is too much and usually dangerous
statistic – n. a number that represents a piece of information
synthetic – adj. made by combining different substances : not natural
influenza – n. a common disease that is caused by a virus and that causes fever, weakness, body aches, and breathing problem
diabetes – n. a serious disease in which the body cannot properly control the amount of sugar in your blood because it does not have enough insulin
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