Myanmar Holds Historic Election

Millions of voters begin streaming to the polls across Myanmar in the first relatively free election in a quarter of a century. As many as 30 million people are expected to cast ballots Sunday to select from more than 6,000 candidates for both houses of the national parliament and regional assemblies.

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Students Protest High Cost of Education

For VOA Learning English, this is the Higher Education Report. Thousands of protesters marched through London on Wednesday to express anger about the rising cost of higher education. The UK joins a growing list of countries that saw angry crowds of students taking to the streets over the past year. South Africa and Chile both had large protests of the cost of higher education in the last few months. A plan to cut government money that supports full-time university students is the reason for the London protests. This money, called maintenance grants, helps full-time higher education students with the cost of living. Students do not have to pay the money back to the government. British Member of Parliament George Osborne announced in June that maintenance grants would no longer be available. Osborne said that starting in 2016, the government will offer maintenance loans instead. These loans will need to be paid back. Cuts to supports for students will affect low and middle income students the most, critics say. The problem of higher education costs for poorer people was also at the center of the South African demonstrations. The University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg announced that it would increase fees by 10.5 percent in 2016. Student protests then caused the university to stop all activity on October 14. Demonstrations spread to several other universities across the country as well as outside parliament. The protests quickly became the largest in the country since the end of Apartheid in 1994. Apartheid was the social system in South Africa that began in 1948. During the period of Apartheid, black people and people of other races did not have the same rights as white people. South African President Jacob Zuma declared on October 23 there would be no increase to university fees. However, the protests still have not ended. Income inequality and racism are also issues protesters want the government to recognize. The University of Witwatersrand recently released a study of these issues. The results of that study show 60 percent of the country's black African workers live in poverty. Chile's protests throughout this year are part of a longer struggle as well. The Confederation of Chilean Student Federations, or CONFECH, is an organization that fights for change to the country's education system. CONFECH began organizing university students in 2011. Their goal was to get the government to improve the public education system. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet's promises to change the education system helped her win the 2013 election. Bachelet signed a bill on Monday giving control of the entire public education system to the central government. This bill would share resources in all schools equally. But, many of the protesters say the President has not done enough. Protesters include in their demands free university education for all people. Bachelet has promised free university education for 70 percent of the country's poorest people. Demonstrations continue, though, as it is not clear how the country will pay for free higher education. An important quality uniting these protests around the world is the use of social media. The National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts, or NCAFC, is a London-based organization that fights tuition fees and education cuts. NCAFC created the hashtag #GrantsNotDebt to spread information about Wednesday's protests over the Internet. Organizers in South Africa used the hashtag #FeesMustFall. Chilean protesters use Twitter and Facebook to share photos and stories of what is happening in the streets. Violence has also been present at some of the protests. South African police used water cannon and stun grenades on protestors in the city of Pretoria. A property owner shot and killed two young men in the Chilean city of Valparaiso in May. The young men were hanging a sign on the side of the property owner's building. Groups in all three countries continue working to make education cheaper and easier to access. The NCAFC has plans for another march on November 17.  British Labor Party member John McDonnell voiced his concerns at the march on Wednesday. "Education is a gift from one generation to another," he told marchers. "It is not a commodity to be bought or sold." Ralph Mathekga studies politics in South Africa. He told VOA that these protests could mean major changes in the African National Congress, or ANC. The ANC will have local elections next year. Mathekga believes that the protests show a change in the way people will vote. "What we have seen is actually the [growing] power of the middle class in South Africa," Mathekga said. "And the question is: how far is this going to go?" The cost of higher education is a major issue in the United States as well. The Institute for College Access and Success is an organization that studies the cost of education. The organization released a report on Tuesday about debt from student loans in the US. The report shows that 69 percent of higher education students used loans to pay for school in 2014. The average loan debt among those students is $28,950. Next week we will look at ways some students avoid debt and find cheaper ways to get an education. I'm Pete Musto. And I'm Jill Robbins. Now it's your turn. How does your government support people who want to attend college or university? Do you think higher education should be free? Let us know in the comments section below, or on our Facebook page.   Pete Musto reported and wrote this story for VOA Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   income – n. money that is earned from work, investments or business inequality – n. an unfair situation in which some people have more rights or better opportunities than other people racism – n. poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race tuition – n. money that is paid to a school for the right to study there hashtag – n. a word or phrase beginning with a hash or pound sign (#) and used to identify messages on a specific topic cannon – n. a large gun stun grenade(s) – an object that is used to cause a sudden, loud, and violent release of energy, making a person unable to move or think clearly, without injury cheaper - adj. costing less money commodity – n. something that is bought and sold

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Fewer Americans Believe in God

Fewer Americans believe in God, pray daily and regularly go to church than in 2007, a poll says. More than 35,000 Americans were polled about their religious beliefs over four months in 2014 by the Pew Research Center. The study, called the 2014 Religious Landscape, was released Tuesday. It updates research done seven years ago. The Pew Research center said the percentage of Americans who are “absolutely certain” God exists fell to 63 percent from 71 percent. One reason for this, the center says, is the large population of young adults – called Millennials – who say they don’t belong to any religion. The other reason is that older, more religious Americans, are dying. The people who don’t belong to a religion are called “nones” by the survey’s writers. “Nones” made up 16 percent of the adult population in 2007. This time around, the number is 23 percent. Among the “nones,” about 61 percent said they believed in God. But the research center said there is a “great deal of stability in the U.S. religious landscape” in spite of the lower numbers. Within the category of people who are affiliated with a religion, the numbers stayed mostly stable. Seventy-seven percent of the people surveyed said they were connected to a religion, down from 83 percent in 2007. In that group, 89 percent of those surveyed said they believe in God, which was only a small change from the last time the survey came out. Alan Cooperman, the Pew center’s director of religious research, says those who identify as “religious” are as observant as ever. “On some measures, there are even small increases in their levels of religious practice.” The survey asked Americans about a number of hot-button issues related to religion. The survey looked at Americans’ views on homosexuality, abortion and evolution. People who identified as Christian were about 10 percent more accepting of homosexuality than they were seven years ago. Most Christian institutions officially oppose homosexuality. Views about abortion were mostly unchanged compared with the survey seven years ago. Fifty-three percent of Americans said abortion should be legal in most cases. About evolution, 62 percent of Americans said they believed humans evolved over time. Thirty-four percent said they did not believe in that theory. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. This story appeared on VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. Are people more or less religious in your country than they were seven years ago? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   abortion – n. a medical procedure used to end a pregnancy and cause the death of the fetus affiliate– v. to closely connect (something or yourself) with or to something (such as a program or organization) as a member or partner capture – v. to get and put (information) into a form that can be read or used by a computer homosexual – adj. sexually attracted to people of the same sex hot button – n. an issue that causes people to feel strong emotions (such as anger) and to argue with each other millennial – n. an idiomatic term used to describe the generation of people born between the early 1980s and early 2000s observant – adj. careful to follow religious teachings or customs

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When Things Go Very, Very Wrong

Welcome to VOA Learning English’s program Words and Their Stories. Life is not perfect. Things go wrong. We make mistakes. We have mishaps and failures.  But mistakes, mishaps and failures are nothing compared to a fiasco! A fiasco is something that goes completely wrong often in a ridiculous or embarrassing way. It is dramatic and sometimes absurd. These are all important words when talking about fiascos. They are what make fiascos different from other types of failures. Fiasco is an Italian word meaning “bottle.” The Italians use the word fiasco in a phrase that literally means “to make a bottle.” But Italians also use it to mean “a dramatic mess.” Many word experts are not sure why “making a bottle” means something is a complete failure. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “fiasco” entered English in the mid-1800s. At that time it meant a “breakdown in a dramatic or musical performance.” Basically, a theatrical screw up. Perhaps the best way to explain fiasco is with a story. Our story begins at an outdoor wedding. A beautiful tent is set up outside. A group of jazz musicians are playing. And 100 guests are dressed in their best clothes.            Unfortunately, the bride’s best friend, the maid of honor, is sick. She is taking lots of medication. She also never drinks alcohol. But today, she celebrates her best friend’s marriage with a glass of champagne. The mixture of alcohol and medicine affects her terribly. Not realizing what she is doing, she dances wildly on the dance floor. She yells loudly, “I love these two people!” This usually would not be a problem. But her timing is bad. She interrupts the bride and groom during their first traditional dance as man and wife.              People laugh nervously. Perhaps they think this is part of the ceremony. So, this is a faux pas, a mistake. But the wedding is not a wreck or a disaster. It can be fixed. We are still far from a fiasco. But as the best man leads the maid of honor back to her seat, his foot catches on the tablecloth. Candles fall and catch the tablecloth on fire. The fire quickly spreads to the curtains. People jump up, screaming.               Just then a fire truck appears. As a dozen firemen run into the tent, they knock over the four-story, $2000 wedding cake. The cake crashes to the floor. The firemen slip on the cake. Then their hose trips a group of people who fall backward into the bird cage. The birds -- meant to celebrate peace and love -- are now freaking out and flying into people’s hair. Now the wedding is a disaster, but still not fiasco.  The maid of honor flees the scene in the expensive, rental bridal car. But a rope from the tent gets caught in the door. As she pushes hard on the gas pedal, the tent crashes to the ground with all the guests and birds still under it. The entire wedding party and a flock of frightened birds escape from under the tent just as the rental car drives into the lake. They all run over to see if the maid of honor is okay. But with too many people standing on the wooden pier, the dock breaks. Dozens of wedding guests splash into the lake. Welcome to the world of FIASCO! No one is hurt. People often aren’t seriously hurt in a fiasco. That would make it a tragedy. But it is safe to say that this wedding is a fiasco! Fiascos may be complete failures. But sometimes they are our best stories. I’m Anna Matteo.   Have you ever had a fiasco happen to you? Let us know in the comments section. Anna Matteo wrote this story for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   ridiculous – adj. extremely silly or unreasonable embarrassing – adj. to make (someone) feel confused and foolish in front of other people dramatic – adj. attracting attention absurd – adj. extremely silly, foolish, or unreasonable    

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Airliner Crash Complicates Migration Wave to Europe

Intelligence officials are questioning the security at the Sharm el-Sheikh airport in Egypt. And investigators say they suspect the crash of an airliner that took off from Sharm el-Sheikh was caused by a bomb onboard. A Russian Metrojet airliner bound for Russia crashed and killed all 224 people onboard 20 minutes after leaving Sharm el-Sheikh airport. The crash happened Saturday. The Islamic State (IS) terrorist group claimed responsibility for the crash. That claim is unproven. IS says it retaliated against Russian military action in Syria. Russia has bombed targets in Syria since late September to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia says it targets IS terrorist camps. The Russian presence is expected to continue. It could escalate in response to the suspected airline bombing. Experts say Russia also hits non-IS targets, such as Syrians fighting against Assad. The director of the Kurdistan Regional Government's intelligence agency said, “Their support role of Assad is very clear." U.S. fighter planes help support Syrian fighters on the ground against IS in the northeastern part of Syria, U.S. Col. Steve Warren said Wednesday. European Union member countries say they worry about Middle East tensions and terrorism moving into their countries through immigration. Refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and other countries surge into Europe through Turkey and Greece. The International Organization for Migration estimates 700,000 migrants have made their way to Europe this year. The river of migrants over land and sea started in 2015. Those refugees and migrants come from war-torn countries like Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ukraine. The EU announced a plan Oct. 25 to accept 160,000 migrants. But only a fraction of the migrants and refugees have been registered officially. Many are wandering and without shelter. EU nations launched a program to relocate migrants from Greece to other countries. On Wednesday, 30 Iraqi and Syrian migrants flew from Athens to Luxembourg. Critics say it will not lessen the huge number of people arriving in Europe waiting to be registered and relocated. Pawel Swidlicki is from the policy group Open Europe. He says many European governments are reluctantly involved in the program in the first place. I’m Caty Weaver.   This story appeared on VOANews.com. Dan Friedell adapted it for Learning English. Kathleen Struck was the editor. What do you think of the difficult situation involving Russia, Syria and IS? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section or on our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   airline – n. a company that owns and operates many airplanes which are used for carrying passengers and goods to different places fraction – n. a part or amount of something river – n. a large flow of something retaliation – n. the act of doing something bad to someone who has hurt you or treated you badly

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Tanzania’s New President Says ‘Our Nation Can Prosper’

Tanzania swore in its new president, John Magufuli, on Thursday amid disputes about the election.   The ceremony took place in the capital, Dar es Salaam. Magufuli took the oath of office along with the country’s new Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan. She is the first female in East Africa to serve in that office.  John Magufuli belongs to the ruling Chamba Cha Mapinduzi party. That party has led Tanzania since the country gained independence in 1965. Magufuli spoke to the large crowd gathered for the swearing-in. He said he would work hard to carry out the promises he made during the campaign. "We are aware of the trust and enormous responsibility that you have assigned us,” he said. “But with God's guidance, people's cooperation and goodwill, our nation can prosper." Magufuli also appealed to all Tanzanians to unite. He noted that voting was carried out peacefully so, in his words, “we are all winners.” The leaders of South Africa, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and other nations attended the ceremony. However, the opposition boycotted the ceremony. It accuses CCM of cheating in the presidential election and has rejected the results. The Zanzibar area of Tanzania cancelled its voting results because of reported irregularities. Zanzibar is partly self-ruled. European Union election observers said the voting October 25 was well organized but not transparent. Tanzanian election officials said John Magufuli defeated his main competitor, Edward Lowassa, 58 to 40 percent. Lowassa represented the UKAWA opposition coalition. The new president is 56 years old and has served in the Tanzanian cabinet for 15 years. During the campaign, he promised to reduce unemployment and poverty in the country and improve infrastructure.  Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in Africa. The World Bank says almost 50 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day. I’m Caty Weaver. Dan Joseph and Miriam Diallo reported this story for VOA News. Caty Weaver adapted it for Learning English. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­Kathleen Struck was the editor. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   amid – prep. in or into the middle of (something) enormous – adj. very large in size or amount prosper – v. to become very active, healthy, or strong irregularities – n. the quality or state of being not normal or usual; or of not following the usual rules about what should be done transparent – adj. honest and open: not secretive infrastructure – n. the basic equipment and structures (such as roads and bridges) that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

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Going West for Decades on Route 66

  America’s tallest monument dominates the skyline of St. Louis, Missouri, the largest city on Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles.   The Gateway Arch represents the beginning of the American West. It also commemorates St. Louis’s role in the nation’s westward expansion. Early settlers in the 1800s depended on the city as a final chance to stock up on food and other provisions before making the long journey west. The Gateway Arch towers above St. Louis on the banks of the Mississippi River. The 192-meter-tall stainless steel arch is the tallest structure of its kind in the world. Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen won a national competition for a design of the proposed monument in 1947. Construction of the Gateway Arch was completed in 1965. Karen Stoeber works at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, which includes the Gateway Arch. “The arch commemorates the 300,000 people who, after Jefferson made the Louisiana Purchase, moved from the eastern part of the country west...and this was kind of the meeting place for all of them. This was the last big city, where they could provision up before they went west.” The Gateway Arch has an internal tram system. Visitors can ride to the top of the arch for a good view of St. Louis and the Mississippi. "And Eero Saairnen, the architect, made it in the shape of a gate...kind of like you open the gate and step into the new country.” That “new country” held promise. But it held tragedy too. The “Westward Expansion” of the 1800’s brought many Americans to settle on the Great Plains of the United States. Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas offered good land for farming and raising cows in the early years of settlement. The Dust Bowl Then, in the 1930s, disaster struck. A severe and long-lasting drought destroyed crops across the southern Great Plains. Over-farming, or planning too many crops, had destroyed the area’s natural grasslands. This left the land unprotected from the wind storms that arrived with the drought. The result was several years of massive, deadly dust storms. The huge area of prairie land in the U.S. became known as the “Dust Bowl.” The period of time came to be called the “Dirty Thirties.” Farms, equipment and homes were sometimes buried in the huge dust storms. At the same time, the U.S. was experiencing a major economic crisis known as the Great Depression. Mother Nature and the failed economy displaced millions of people who lived in the Dust Bowl. And so began the largest human migration in the United States. Route 66 played a major part in that westward movement of  desperately poor people. Hundreds of thousands of people headed west. Many were poor farmers. But teachers, doctors and other professionals also fled the Dust Bowl. Entire towns disappeared. Whole communities “hit the trail.” For many, that trail was the newly commissioned Route 66. The highway crossed much of the Dust Bowl into the more fertile land of California. The migrants collected their families and the possessions they could keep. They loaded them into wagons and cars. The trek west continued through the 1930s until the beginning of World War II. “Dust Storm Disaster” by American folk legend Woody Guthrie paints a picture of the Route 66 travelers. It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns, It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm. We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in, We rattled down that highway to never come back again. Migrant camps sprung up along Route 66. Most were along narrow manmade waterways used to water crops. This provided the migrants with water for drinking, cooking and bathing. These poor, temporary villages were called “ditch bank camps.” The Mother Road The writer John Steinbeck traveled Route 66 and visited some of these camps in 1936 and 1937. He reported about them for a newspaper. Steinbeck’s news stories were central to the creation of his most famous novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” The novel made the road famous and gave it its most popular nickname, the “Mother Road.” That book tells the story of the Joads, a poor migrant family that travels Route 66 from Oklahoma to California during the Dust Bowl period. Steinbeck writes: “66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there. From all of these the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.” Today, it is mostly tourists who travel the full distance of Steinbeck’s “mother road.” The Dust Bowl and the Depression have long passed. Route 66 is no longer a “road of flight.” But it remains a powerful symbol of America’s westward migration that continues to this day. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Caty Weaver. Join us next week as we continue our journey down the Mother Road. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   provision – n. a supply of food and other things that are needed tower – v. to be much taller than (someone or something) commemorate – v. to exist or be done in order to remind people of (an important event or person from the past) migration – n. the movement of people from one country or place to live or work in another trek – n. a long and difficult journey jalopies – n. (informal) an old car that is in poor condition rattle – v.to make quick, short, loud sounds while moving tributary – n. a stream that flows into a larger stream or river or into a lake

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English in a Minute: To Have Butterflies

Butterflies are beautiful creatures. But, is it a good thing or a bad thing to "have butterflies?" Find out how to use this expression in this episode of English in a Minute!

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Ancient Mars: What Did It Look like?

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Route 66 - Westward Expansion

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Water on Mars: What Does It Mean?

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