【959-961】美国特勤局在领导更迭期继续保卫总统&第一位公开同性恋的美国总统候选人？&假新闻在印度投票开始时淹没了社会媒体
AS IT IS
Secret Service Continues to Guard US President While its Leadership Changes
April 09, 2019
FILE - Secret Service agents hold the door to his car as U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to visit first lady Melania Trump at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. May 16, 2018. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
The Trump administration announced this week that the head of the United States Secret Service is being replaced. The Secret Service says Randolph “Tex” Alles will leave office in May.
The move appears to be part of leadership changes at several agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump has chosen James Murray, a career Secret Service official, to lead the agency.
The Secret Service protects the president and vice president, their family members and former presidents and their wives. It also protects foreign leaders during visits to the United States and major candidates in U.S. presidential campaigns.
In recent years, a series of scandals have damaged the image of the Secret Service. Some involved wrongdoing by agents while traveling with the president.
Protecting the president involves more than being willing to step into the path of gunfire. As part of their training, all of the several thousand Secret Service agents learn everything from operating firearms to emergency first aid. They also have to learn how to drive.
Agents are trained in the art of defensive driving with a single goal: get the protected individual out of the area and moved to a safe place, explains Thomas Murach. He works as Secret Service assistant to the special agent-in-charge.
One defensive driving move agents must learn is the J-turn, a move that will be familiar to lovers of action movies. The driver makes the vehicle turn in a half-circle, around 180 degrees, and then escapes.
However, to drive the president or vice-president requires additional training. Only about 60 percent pass the class, known as the Protective Operations Driving Course.
“If an agent doesn’t pass the advanced course, they would continue normal duty and can try again at a later date,” says Julia McMurray, a Secret Service Public Affairs Specialist.
Once agents pass, they are permitted to drive the 9,000 kilogram presidential vehicle, which is called Cadillac One or The Beast.
Agents may also perhaps drive one of two buses known as Ground Force One. The million dollar black buses were last used in 2012 during then-President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. Both are used by the presidential candidates of the two main political parties.
Agents also learn to control large motorcycles.
It’s almost like 400 kilograms, explained Secret Service Technical Officer Lloyd Llamas. “They make you do things that you can’t imagine that you could possibly do with that,” he added.
Agents and officers must also learn special techniques to ride bicycles.
The Secret Service believes all this training will prevent a repeat of the Secret Service’s worst day on November 22, 1963. That was when President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in the back seat of a car during a visit to Dallas, Texas.
As a result, formal training for Secret Service drivers began in 1970. For those in the Secret Service chosen to operate a presidential vehicle, there is a constant drive to guarantee the safety of its important passengers.
I’m Susan Shand.
VOA’s Steve Herman and the Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
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Words in This Story
scandal – n. an occurrence in which people are shocked and upset because of behavior that is morally or legally wrong
formal – adj. made or done in an official and usually public way
constant – adj. happening all the time or very often over a period of time
AS IT IS
In India, Fake News Floods Social Media as Voting Begins
April 09, 2019
In this Monday, April 8, 2019, photo, a customer watches election campaign advertisements on his mobile phone outside a shop in New Delhi, India. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
Indian voters begin marking ballots this week in a general election that will continue over the next six weeks.
The election will decide seats in India’s lower house of parliament. The winning party or coalition will choose India’s prime minister.
Current Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is seeking a second term in office. The main opposition Congress Party, led by Rahul Gandhi, is seeking to take control of the government.
The election will be held in several rounds of voting through May 19, with vote counting expected to begin May 23. The country has about 900 million eligiblevoters.
Experts say a high percentage of India’s citizens are getting election-related information from social media. They say this has raised concerns about fake news stories and images influencing the election.
Media watchdog groups say in the run-up to the election, they have seen fake, made up pictures being published by major news media. They have also seen hateful propaganda based on made up comments.
A lot of people seem to be believing the information they are seeing.
Ram Shankar Rai owns a store in the city of New Delhi. Rai told The Associated Press he spends at least two hours a day examining political news and videos shared by others on social media.
On the WhatsApp messenger service, Rai received a series of videos and images that were said to show results of an Indian airstrike in Pakistan. The information included pictures identified as the bodies of dead militants.
But Rai later found out the images were falsely identified. They were not militants. Instead, the pictures showed victims of a 2005 earthquake that killed thousands of people in Pakistan. Rai told the AP he could not tell the pictures were not real. “It’s news,” he said. “How can it be fake?”
Another example of fake news appeared on Facebook in February after a suicide bombing in Kashmir, an area claimed by both India and Pakistan. The bombing killed 40 Indian soldiers and increased tensions between the two sides.
Two weeks after the attack, a Facebook user shared a recording of what he said was a telephone call in which the head of the BJP, Amit Shah, was speaking. Shah was supposedly heard saying, “We agree that for election, we need a war.” But the recording was not real. It was made by putting together different pieces of audio from older stories.
The Facebook post was seen by 2.5 million viewers and shared more than 150,000 times before it was removed by the company.
In India, Facebook has partnered with fact checking companies and increased efforts to block fake accounts. On Monday, Facebook said it had removed 1,126 accounts, groups and pages in India and Pakistan for “inauthentic behavior.”
One of the fact checking companies partnering is Boom. Jency Jacob directs the operation. He told the AP his biggest worry is “the blatant misuse of old videos and images to suggest that one political party or leader is not good for the country.” He added that most people do not take the time “to go back and check whether what they are seeing is true or not.”
Apar Gupta is head of an Indian-based group called the Internet Freedom Foundation. He said many Indian internet users seem to lack the knowledge and skills to judge that “just because it’s on a screen does not mean it’s true.”
I’m Bryan Lynn.
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English based on reports from the Associated Press, Reuters and VOA News. George Grow 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
rounds – n. a series of repeated actions or events
eligible – adj. having the right to do or receive something
fake – adj. false, not true
watchdog – adj. involving or related to something that guards against loss, waste or undesirable actions
viewer – n. someone who watches or inspects something
check – v. to inspect or examine
inauthentic – adj. not real or true
blatant – adj. very obvious, with no attempt to be honest or behave well
screen – n. the area where information and operations are shown on an electronic device
AS IT IS
First Openly Gay US Presidential Candidate?
April 09, 2019
Nearly fifty years ago, police raided a New York City bar popular with homosexualscalled the Stonewall Inn. Police often raided such bars in the 1960s.
But this time -- on June 28, 1969 -- patrons and workers at Stonewall fought back. People who lived near the bar joined in the fight, too.
For the next six days, police and the public clashed in an event known as the Stonewall Riots.
The riots are the subject of a recently opened exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The exhibit shows how the uprising helped begin the modern gay rights movement in the United States.
Exhibit writer Christy Wallover says the exhibit aims to show the bravery of everyday Americans. She says that, over the years, gay rights activists have fought for the right to hold jobs, serve in the military, speak publicly about being gay and marry someone of the same sex.
First openly gay candidate for president?
This year, the gay rights movement in the United States may be taking a new step. If he runs, Pete Buttigieg would be the first openly gay person to campaign for president of the United States.
Buttigieg is currently the top official of a city of 100,000 in the Midwestern state of Indiana. He has not yet announced he is a candidate for the 2020 presidential election. But he has already raised $7 million for a possible campaign.
Buttigieg, who is 37 years old, is married to a man. His young age and limited government experience may be more notable for many voters than his sexual orientation. A public opinion study this year found 68 percent of Americans would accept a gay presidential candidate.
Buttigieg spoke this week at a fundraising event in Washington, D.C. that promotes openly gay public officials. There, he made note of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence’s position on gay rights.
Pence, who is Christian, has publicly supported a national law that would define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Buttigieg is also Christian and speaks openly about his faith. During his speech, he addressed Pence by saying, “Your problem is not with me -- your quarrel, sir, is with my creator.” In other words, Buttigieg suggested that God made him who he is.
A 2017 Gallup study found that about 4.5 percent of Americans – around 10 million people – identify as LGBTQ. The letters mean Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer or Questioning.
I’m Kelly Jean Kelly.
Kelly Jean Kelly adapted this story for Learning English based on reports from VOA. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in This Story
homosexual - n. sexually attracted to people of the same sex
exhibit - n. an object or a collection of objects that have been put out in a public space for people to look a