Scientists Go Crazy About a Big-Eyed Squid

  This is What’s Trending Today. Have you ever heard of a “googly-eyed, stubby squid?” Well, you have now. Scientists working to map the Pacific Ocean floor off the coast of North America found a purple squid with big eyes. The squid is called the Rossia Pacifica. It is only about six centimeters long. The small sea creature was found at a depth of about 900 meters, off the coast of southern California. Money for the mapping project comes the Ocean Exploration Trust. The trust was the idea of Robert Ballard, who discovered the wreckage of the ship Titanic in 1985. The scientists making the map are working on a large boat called the Nautilus. The Nautilus has remote-controlled roving vehicles that can explore the ocean floor. The researchers have a number of cameras, all of which are connected to the boat with fiber-optic cables. When researchers found the brightly colored squid, they were very excited. You can see the excitement in a video posted to YouTube. It has more than one million views. You can hear the scientists saying “Whoa! What is that? He has weird eyes.”  The scientists are laughing. One of them jokingly suggests that the squid is actually a child’s toy dropped into the ocean by accident. It turns out the Rossia Pacifica uses its big eyes to look for shrimp that it can catch for food. The Nautilus left from Canada in May and will complete its trip in September. And that’s What’s Trending Today. I’m Ashley Thompson.   Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. Have you ever seen anything like the purple squid? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.   ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   squid – n. a sea creature that has a long, thin, soft body and 10 long arms stubby – adj. short and thick googly-eyed – adj. having eyes that stick out remote-controlled – adj. a process or system that makes it possible to control something from a distance by using electronic signals rover – n. a vehicle used for exploring the surface of a moon, planet, etc. fiber-optic cable – n. a rope of wires made from thin threads of glass or plastic to carry very large amounts of information in the form of light signals weird – adj. unusual or strange shrimp – n. a small shellfish that has a long body and legs and that is eaten as food

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August 16, 2016

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

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Let's Learn English Lesson 25: Watch Out!

Anna learns about a new game, "Catch Americana." She walks around the memorials to U.S. Presidents and learns fun facts by playing the game.

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Polio Is Back in Nigeria

  Nigerian officials have launched a polio vaccination campaign in the country’s northeast, where two new cases of the virus were found. Health officials say the virus was discovered in two children from Borno State. The discovery came days before what was supposed to be a major anniversary -- two years without a case of polio in Africa’s most populous country. That would have left only one year before Nigeria and the rest of Africa would have been declared to be polio-free. John Vertefeuille is director of the polio program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. He said the discovery is "disappointing," adding that the two new cases will require a massive vaccination effort. According to Nigerian officials, a boy, aged 15 months, and a two-year-old girl were diagnosed with polio earlier this year. Both are likely paralyzed for life, health officials said. Muhammad Ali Pate is from northern Nigeria and is now with the Duke University Global Health Institute. He said, “The Chigari Foundation, with the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is continuing to work on community engagement, through the northern traditional leaders, on primary health care and polio eradication. And that will continue.” Northern Nigeria is where Boko Haram militants operate. They have made vaccination campaigns difficult. Nigerian Ministry of Health official Olajide Osundu told VOA that his agency is working with the Nigerian military to reduce risks. “They (military troops) will be part of the team that will go around to guarantee safety of the health workers,” he said. Polio is not the only health threat in Borno State. Nearly one in four children there suffers from life-threatening malnourishment. Doctors Without Borders has worked in northeast Nigeria since 2014 to help fight malnutrition and diseases such as cholera and measles. In related news, officials in Afghanistan are restarting polio vaccinations. The vaccines are being offered to thousands of children in eastern Afghanistan. Until recently, the area was under the control of Islamic State militants. The vaccinations were on hold for more than 18 months because health workers were not able to safely travel to three districts in Nangarhar Province, which borders Pakistan. The Islamic State group has blocked polio vaccinations and gave out misinformation linking the vaccines to fertility problems for both boys and girls. They also said that the vaccines contain pork products, which are not permitted under Islamic law. Neither statement is true. Recent military operations by Afghan and U.S. forces are reported to have cleared many areas of Islamic State militants. I’m Anna Matteo.   Chika Oduah and Carol Pearson reported this story for VOANews.com. Bruce Alpert adapted the story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section and share your views on our Facebook Page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   diagnose - v. to recognize a disease or illness by examining someone paralyze - v. to make a person unable to move or feel all or part of the body engagement - n. the act or state of being involved with something eradication - n. to remove a disease completely malnutrition – n. a lack of healthy food in the diet

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Sports Illustrated Magazine Reveals 'Golden' Cover

  This is What’s Trending Today. On August 16, 1954, Sports Illustrated published its first-ever magazine. The new publication led with an article called the “The Golden Age is Now.” Sixty-two years later, Sports Illustrated is one of the most famous sports publications in the world.  And, now it has published perhaps its most golden magazine cover yet. The cover photo of the August 22 edition of the magazine features U.S. Olympic gold medal swimmers Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, and gold-medal gymnast Simone Biles. The cover reads: “The Greatests.” Together, the three athletes won 16 Olympic medals in Rio de Janeiro. Thirteen of them are gold.   Shortly after the magazine released its “Greatests” cover this week, it became a trending topic on social media. Phelps is the most decorated Olympian of all time, with 28 medals. The 31-year-old won six medals in Rio, five of them gold. Nineteen-year-old Ledecky won four gold medals and a silver medal in Rio.  And first-time Olympian Biles, also 19, won four golds and one bronze medal. She tied the record for most gold medals won in one Olympics by a woman gymnast. Phelps wrote on his Facebook page that it was an “honor” to share the cover with Ledecky and Biles.   ​ Sports Illustrated wrote that the photoshoot took place Sunday evening in Rio. Biles had just won her third of four gold medals of the Games. People on social media called the three athletes “heroes” and “superstars.” And that’s What’s Trending Today. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   athlete - n. a person who is trained in or good at sports, games, or exercises that require physical skill and strength medal - n. a piece of metal often in the form of a coin with designs and words in honor of a special event, a person, or an achievement decorated - adj. having many awards or medals   

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US Announces Single Largest Transfer of Guantanamo Inmates

  Fifteen people are no longer prisoners at the United States military’s prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Twelve detainees from Yemen and three Afghans were released to the government of the United Arab Emirates. The release was announced on August 15. It was the largest transfer of detainees from the prison during the nearly eight- year presidency of Barack Obama. The move comes during a renewed push to reduce the number of people jailed at Guantanamo. The U.S. Department of Defense said on Monday that 61 detainees are still held there. The prison has mostly been used to hold those captured by the government’s war on terrorism. President Obama is facing his own deadline to close the prison. Obama will leave office in January 2017. He promised to close Guantanamo when he was first elected in 2008. The president faces opposition about the future of the prison from many members of Congress. A top official with the rights group Amnesty International believes Guantanamo will remain open. "…[T]here is a significant possibility this is going to remain open as a permanent offshore prison to hold people, practically until they die," said Naureen Shah, Amnesty’s U.S. director for security and human rights. One of the detainees who just left Guantanamo spent more than 13 years there. He was identified as an Afghan national named Obaidullah. He had been accused of hiding and storing mines to be used against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.   I’m Mehrnoush Karimian-Ainsworth. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb wrote this report. Jim Dresbach adapted her report for Learning English. Additional information came from the Reuter news service. George Grow was the editor. What should be done with the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   deadline – n. a date or time when something must be finished; time limit transfer – n. an act of moving someone or something from one place to another offshore – adv. at a distance from the coast; outside the country

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Fine Feared Too Small for Dead Fish Damage in Vietnam

  Observers and activists in Vietnam are concerned about a fine against a foreign-owned steel factory for polluting ocean waters along the coast. The observers and activists say the record pollution fine would not pay all victims of the environmental disaster. They also say it does not send a strong enough warning to other export manufacturers. The steel factory, Formosa Ha Tinh, was accused of letting toxic waste pollute the ocean in April. The pollution caused 80 tons of fish to wash up on coastal beaches. In June, the government fined the Taiwanese-financed steel plant $500 million for fish deaths along 200 kilometers of a coastline southeast of Hanoi. That is believed to be the largest fine ever against a company in Vietnam. The plant apologized and agreed to clean up the wastewater system. But people familiar with the issue say the fine cannot cover the continued losses to fishermen, seaside businesses and local people. Some have developed skin diseases from touching the water. The sale of seafood has slowed throughout Vietnam. That has hurt the fishing industry. Citizens hope Vietnamese officials will test the ocean water to make sure it is safe.   Other foreign investors are watching How involved the Vietnamese government gets in the fish death case will send a message to foreign investors. Some people think the government went easy on Formosa Ha Tinh to protect the company’s $10 billion investment in Vietnam. Foreigners have built export-manufacturing factories in the country to save on costs. Those plants helped to expand Vietnam’s economy by 30 percent over the past five years to $193 billion in 2015. Le Cong Dinh is a lawyer at a law office in Ho Chi Minh City. He said the government will use the fish kill fine as an alert to all doing business in Vietnam. “… [W]e want them to comply with the laws, and satisfy the condition of the environment,” he added. Environment Minister Tran Hong Ha told local media in June the fine covers only direct material damages. The money does not cover psychological losses to fishermen, who suffered a drop in earnings. He called the fine “too small.” Vietnamese living in Taiwan protested last week. They called for the steel plant’s investor -- Formosa Plastics Corporation -- to leave Vietnam. Criticism of government Vietnamese officials say the fish deaths affected about five million people. Some have not recovered, said Duc Truong, an independent reporter and member of the non-governmental organization Brotherhood for Democracy. Fishers in the oceans near the plant are catching less fish than a year ago. Fish sauce producers are suspected of using the dead fish illegally, Duc and other activists said. An  An activist said environmental experts should test the water quality of the once-polluted seas. Tran Bang is an engineer and activist in Ho Chi Minh City. He said an independent report showed high levels of six chemicals. But officials in the coastal city of Da Nang told local media in April that its waters were already safe for swimming. I’m Anne Ball. Ralph Jennings wrote this story for VOANews.com. Jim Dresbach adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   toxic – adj. containing poisonous substances beaches – n. areas covered with sand or small rocks that are next to an ocean or lake alert – n. a message that tells people there is some danger or problem comply – v. to do what you have been asked or ordered to do

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Researchers Exploring Ways to Fight Roundworm Infection

  Researchers in Ireland and England may have discovered a new way to fight roundworm parasites. The researchers say they identified a method that could possibly turn an animal at risk for the disease into one that can fight the infection. Their findings were published in PLOS, the Public Library of Science. More than 800 million people around the world are infected with the parasite. The highest infection rates are in parts of Asia, south-central Latin America and Africa, south of the Sahara. The World Health Organization says roundworm is one of many neglected diseases in warm climates. In other words, not much research is being done to stop these diseases. Roundworm is the most common of three diseases transmitted through soil. Most humans infected with roundworm do not show signs of the disease. People only realize they are infected after the parasite leaves the body in the person’s waste or vomit. Fertilized roundworm eggs are left in the soil from human waste. When the eggs enter the body, they hatch in the intestine. The roundworm larvae then move into the liver where they grow larger. They then travel through the bloodstream into the lungs. After a few days, the worms leave the lungs and enter the throat, where they are either swallowed or expelled from the body. If they return to the intestines, the female worms can produce up to 200,000 eggs a day. The eggs are deposited into the soil when a person defecates. This restarts the cycle of infection. Roundworms can be especially harmful to children. Adult worms can live in the body for up to two years, blocking the intestines. The larvae can also cause breathing problems when they enter the lungs. The WHO fights the parasite by “deworming” people who live in areas with high rates of infection. Patients are given strong medicines designed to kill the parasites. Graham Medley is a professor of Infectious Disease Modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He noted that deworming is effective at stopping the disease from spreading, but it does not end the health threat. His comments were published in the British medical journal The Lancet. Medley told VOA that “roundworms are a major public health problem in low-income countries, and having a drug that prevents infection would be a major advance.” Researchers have found that some people are more likely to be infected with roundworm than others. But it is costly to study humans, so researchers use mice that have the same chance of being infected. When these animals are infected, a larger number of the parasites enter their lungs than enter those of mice that are resistant to the parasites. Earlier research suggested that the livers of these two genetically-different mice must be different. Jim Carolan works at Maynooth University in Ireland. He told VOA that humans should be able to stop the parasite from entering our bodies. “But it doesn’t,” he said, “because the [roundworms] have evolved ways to evade or suppress the system.” Carolan wanted to learn how the organisms did that. So he studied the liver proteins of the two genetically-different mice. He and his team found that the liver cells of resistant mice had more copies of a protein than the mice that were more likely to be infected. The proteins create a chemical which the researchers believe could be toxic to the parasitic cells. But they are not sure. Carolan notes that more research must be done before drugs can be developed and tested on humans. But he said the research is “pointing us in a direction that we need to focus on.” I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise. VOA’s JoEllen McBride reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted her report for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   parasite – n. an animal or plant that lives in or on another animal or plant and gets food or protection from it neglect – v. to fail to take care of or to give attention to (someone or something) transmit – v. to cause (a virus, disease, etc.) to be given to others vomit – n. the food, liquid, etc., that comes out of your body through your mouth when you vomit hatch – v. of an egg: to break open as a young bird, insect, fish, etc., is born larva – n. a very young form of an insect that looks like a worm defecate – v. to pass solid waste from the body cycle – n. a set of events or actions that happen again and again in the same order; a repeating series of events or actions advance – n. progress in the development or improvement of something evolve – v. to change or develop slowly often into a better, more complex, or more advanced state; to develop by a process of evolution evade – v. to avoid doing toxic – adj. containing poisonous substances focus – v. to cause (something, such as attention) to be directed at something specific (usually + on)  

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August 15, 2016

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

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August 14, 2016

A look at the best news photos from around the world.

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Hong Kong Protest Leaders Avoid Jail Time

  Three leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2014 were sentenced on Monday. All three avoided jail time. A judge sentenced Joshua Wong, 19, to 120 hours of community service. Nathan Law, 23, was ordered to perform 80 hours. The most famous leader of the protests, 19-year-old Alex Chow, was sentenced to three weeks in prison. But his sentence was suspended for a year while he attends school in Britain. The three student activists entered a fenced-off area of Hong Kong’s government offices in September 2014. They were protesting Chinese government plans to restrict elections in Hong Kong. Police detained the young men and other protesters. The arrests led to a massive demonstration along major Hong Kong streets. The protest shut down much of the territory for 79 days. Judge June Cheung said she handed down light sentences because the three men had no previous criminal history. She said the court also felt the activists did not mean to harm anyone else or to help themselves by their actions. “The court believes the three defendants are expressing their views and demands genuinely out of their political beliefs or their concern for society,” the judge said.   Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997. The territory has autonomy from China, but the government in Beijing has refused to grant full democracy. Pro-democracy activists have expressed concerns that China is moving to reduce personal freedoms in Hong Kong. The three activists spoke outside court after the sentences were announced. Chow said the protests showed that the people “are advocating self-determination, or even Hong Kong independence.” “It is out of their frustration and their hope for a better Hong Kong, a more democratic Hong Kong, a more just Hong Kong,” he said. Wong promised to keep pushing for political reforms in Hong Kong. He said by taking part in non-violent protests, he can show his “commitment and persistence to fight for human rights, democracy and freedom in Hong Kong.” I’m Ashley Thompson. Richard Green reported this story for VOANews.com. Bryan Lynn adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   sit-in – n. protest in which people stay in one spot and refuse to leave until their demands are met tear gas – n. gas that makes people’s eyes hurt, used by police or military to control crowds assembly – n. group gathered in a place for a common purpose benefit – v. to be useful or helpful genuinely – adv. in a truthful way autonomy – n. the right of a country or group to govern itself advocate – v. express support for a cause persistence – n. continue to do or pursue something  

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