Former CIA Head: Kim's Murder Designed to Remove Rival

A former acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency recently spoke to VOA about the killing of Kim Jong Nam in Malaysia. He said the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was murdered to stop any effort to remove the current leadership of the country. Forty-five-year-old Kim Jong Nam died on February 13th. Malaysian officials say two women poisoned him at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia. Police say the women put VX nerve agent on Kim’s face. VX is a very powerful chemical weapon banned by the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. Police in Kuala Lumpur arrested the women and a North Korean citizen last month. On Friday, Malaysia’s national police chief said the North Korean held in connection with the case had been released. However, Malaysian officials say they want to talk to seven other North Koreans -- including a diplomat based in Kuala Lumpur. Police in Malaysia have not said that North Korea planned or carried out the murder. A North Korean official suggested that Kim Jong Nam died of a heart attack. Malaysia’s national police chief said that was not the case according to police experts. The South Korean government has accused the North Korean leader of ordering the killing of his half-brother. John McLaughlin was the acting director of the CIA from July to September 2004 and the deputy director from 2000 to 2004. He worked at the CIA for 30 years. He says North Korea likely planned and carried out the attack because of the method used by the women.   “It’s very hard for someone not connected to a state entity -- a nation-state -- to obtain the kind of poison that was apparently used.” At one time, Kim Jong Nam was believed to be the choice of former North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to rule the country. Kim Jong Il was the leader of North Korea from 1994 until he died in 2011. Kim Jong Nam has lived outside of North Korea since 2001. McLaughlin now teaches at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He told VOA that the reason Kim Jong Nam was killed was “the North Korean leadership wanted to make sure there is not an alternative readily available (to replace) Kim Jong Un.” McLaughlin said the North “particularly would want to make sure that China would not have someone handy that they could install in the event Kim Jong Un was removed or fell from power.” The murder has caused many to wonder if the North Korean leadership is stable. But McLaughlin said it is important not to speculate about the North’s leadership. However, he said a series of executions carried out by Kim Jong Un since he became the head of the government could mean he might not have complete control over the country. The killing was reported throughout the world because it took place at one of the busiest airports in Asia. Many observers asked why such a place was chosen. “It’s probably seen as a more, a place where what they were doing would be less easily noticed just from the general turmoil of an airport.” McLaughlin called the attack an “alarming event” because the banned chemical is believed to have been used in a public place to kill someone. Experts say China wanted Kim Jong Nam to be a member of the North Korean leadership. So, McLaughlin says, his murder puts China in a difficult position. McLaughlin said the United States should name North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism if it is found to be responsible for the killing. The United States named the North a state sponsor of terrorism after it was determined that it bombed a South Korean airliner in 1987, killing 115 crew and passengers. In 2008, the U.S. said the North was no longer a terrorism sponsor. This removal from the list of countries that support terrorism was part of an agreement in which the North agreed to disable its plutonium plant and permit some inspections of its nuclear facilities. After reports of the killing in Kuala Lumpur, some American lawmakers are calling on the Trump administration to cancel that decision. I’m John Smith.   VOA News Writer Jenny Lee reported this story from Washington. John Smith adapted the story for Learning English. Mario Ritter 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   nerve agent – n. a poison that is used as a weapon in war entity – n. an organization; something that exists by itself; something that is separate from other things alternative – n. something that can be chosen instead of something else; a choice or option handy – adj. near or close install – v. to put (someone) in an official or important job speculate – v. to think about something and make guesses about it; to form ideas or theories about something usually when there are many things not known about it sponsor – n. supporter

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English @ the Movies: 'It's Revolutionary'

Today on English @ the Movies we talk about the saying "it's revolutionary" from the movie "The Founder." This movie is about the people who started a famous fast food restaurant. Do you know what "it's revolutionary" means? Watch our video to see if you get it right!

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'The Fall of the House of Usher' by Edgar Allan Poe, Part 3

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America's Presidents - Thomas Jefferson

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US Attorney General Removes Himself from Russian Investigation

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says he is removing himself from an investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. His announcement came after requests from leading Democrats and some Republicans that he step aside. The requests followed a report from The Washington Post that Sessions met twice with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. He had told a Senate committee that he did not have any contact with Russian officials. Sessions said he did not believe he had misled the committee because he did not represent the Trump campaign at the meetings. But he said he should have mentioned the two meetings with the Russian ambassador. He denied that the two meetings were related to the presidential campaign. Investigations are underway over charges the Russian government “hacked” into Hillary Clinton and Democratic campaign computers and released embarrassing information to help winning candidate, Republican Donald Trump. Sessions, as the federal government’s top law enforcement official, would have overseen the investigation, unless he “recused” himself and turned over the investigation to someone else. Sessions said his Justice Department staff had recommended that he recuse himself. He agreed with that recommendation and said it was the right thing to do because he was part of the Trump campaign. Sessions said Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente will handle all matters related to any investigation into Russian interference with the presidential campaign. On Thursday, Trump said he has "total" confidence in Jeff Sessions. Trump told reporters he “wasn’t aware” Sessions met with the Russian ambassador, but said he believed he had spoken truthfully to the Senate.   Before Sessions' announcement, some congressional Republicans said they agreed with Democrats that Sessions should not oversee the investigation. The two top congressional Democrats went further, saying Sessions should resign as American’s top law enforcement official because he misled Congress. Why is this important? Matthew Dallek is a political scientist at George Washington University in Washington D.C. He said, “Any attempt to manipulate the outcome of an election in a democracy is by definition a big deal.” And it has long been established, Dallek said, that when an attorney general’s ability to conduct a fair and impartial investigation is questioned that someone else should take over. Robin Kolodny is a professor and chair of the Political Science Department at Temple University in Pennsylvania. She said a fair investigation is important because Americans want to know if the Trump campaign encouraged or worked with Russian officials to release unfavorable information about Hillary Clinton and other Democrats. Sessions, a longtime U.S. senator from Alabama, was one of the first members of Congress to back Trump’s presidential campaign. He became a top campaign adviser, and after the election, Trump nominated him for attorney general. Sessions says he did nothing wrong The Washington Post centered its story on Sessions’ confirmation hearing on January 10 when Senator Al Franken of Minnesota asked what Sessions would do if he received evidence of contact between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Sessions answered, “I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn’t have, did not have communications with the Russians, and I’m unable to comment on it.” Franken said that, at the very least, Sessions had misled him and the Senate. Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, had sent Sessions a written question asking if he had been in contract with any Russian officials “about the 2016 election, either before or after election day?” Sessions replied with a single word, “No.” His aide, Sarah Flores, said he was being truthful to both Franken and Leahy. She said Sessions' contact with the Russian ambassador to the United States related to Senate responsibilities, not the Trump campaign. The issue of how to respond to The Washington Post story about Sessions divided Republicans, who hold the majority in both houses of Congress. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was among the Republicans asking Sessions to give the investigation to someone else. "Somebody other than Jeff needs to do it,” Graham said. But House Speaker Paul Ryan said that Sessions should recuse himself only if he is connected directly to the investigation. Congressional Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said Sessions should resign. “Sessions is not fit to serve as the top law enforcement officer of our country and must resign,” Pelosi said.   Bruce Alpert reported this story for VOA Learning English with additional materials from VOA’s Ken Bredemeier and other sources. Hai Do 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   hack - v. to secretly get access to the files on a computer or network in order to get information embarrassing - adj. information or actions that would make someone look bad or silly recuse - v. to step aside from a job or responsibility confidence - n. faith in someone’s ability to do a job further - adv. to a greater degree or extent manipulate - v. to use or change information in a skillful way or for a particular purpose big deal - n. something of major importance impartial - adj. not taking sides in a matter surrogate - n. a person that represents someone or some group

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New 'Words to the Wise' from Merriam-Webster

The American English dictionary Merriam-Webster recently added a lot of new words to its online site. Learning English reporter Bryan Lynn looked into the changes. He’s joined me in the studio to talk about some of the new words. Hi Bryan. Hi Ashley. First off, how often does Merriam Webster add words? Is this a yearly event? No, actually it's not. The last time the company added new words online was 2014. But an editor at large, Peter Solokowski, said Merriam Webster had been “watching” some of the added words for many, many years.  Others, he said, were much newer in use. So where do they come from? Everywhere, really. I mean the new terms cover areas including science, technology, sports, pop culture. Most will probably be familiar to you. Okay. So, for example… Well, how about the verb "binge-watch?" Oh yes. I binge watch television shows sometimes...always! That means to watch many episodes of a series in a short period of time. To binge, in this case, means to do a lot of something in a short amount of time. Right…so in this case, I guess, watching one after the other for a few hours straight. Some people might watch a whole season of a show over a few days. So here's another from the list you collected: Seussian. Some Learning English fans outside America might not know this one. Yeah, so Seussian is an adjective that refers to the American children’s book writer known as Dr. Seuss. He wrote these fantastical books for young children that included fun rhymes and colorful pictures. Like “The Cat and the Hat” and “Green Eggs and Ham.” “‘I will not eat them, Sam-I-Am.’” The books made you laugh but they also helped a lot of kids learn to read. So anything that reminds a person of a Dr. Seuss world could be Seussian.” Okay. "Green Eggs and Ham" was the first book I ever read, actually. Another one on your list is photobomb.  That's when someone jumps in front of a camera uninvited. It's usually done as a joke. I’ve seen some pretty funny photos that were the result of a really good photobomb! Right, yeah. Photobombing is more of a prank. But, you know, it's not meant "to throw shade on anyone." Oh, so I guess that is another newly added phrase, to throw shade? Yes, it is. So, it is a slang expression that means to publicly express disrespect or dislike for someone. But to “throw shade” the insult or offense has to be subtle or understated.  Okay. So, among the new words are slang expressions, as well... Correct. So, one of those is ghost. We all know what that means as a noun, but... Right, but as a verb it means to abruptly cut off contact. Mhmm. I have friends who have been quite hurt by people who have just ghosted on them, without any explanation. It's not a very nice thing to do. Right, so I mean, with the slang words you could even pile on top, right? You could throw shade and also ghost the same person. Oh...Okay, so here is another word on this list: microaggression. So is ghosting an example of microaggression? Well, microaggression is a noun. It's a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a minority group. Okay, so that sounds a little more serious than "ghosting." It is. Alright, so this next word is not slang and I'm not really sure most people know what this one means: prosopagnosia. Yes, so this is a noun and it does have a scientific meaning -- the inability to recognize faces.  Okay, so like a face-blindness. Exactly, that's what it would be. Blind to faces. Well, this has been really interesting, Bryan. Thanks for joining me in studio here. And to our listeners, let us know if you liked this and maybe we can do more of this in the future. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Bryan Lynn.

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'Providing' More Assistance With Prepositions

English learners know that prepositions can be difficult to master. There are 94 one-word prepositions in English, and about 56 prepositions with two or more words, called “complex prepositions.” This adds up to 150 chances to make mistakes. We cannot, of course, explain the small differences between all 150 prepositions here. We can, however, provide you with a few explanations of different prepositions that use one particular verb: provide. Provide (someone) with: When provide is followed by an indirect object, English speakers use the preposition “with.” Providing (someone) with something means to give something wanted or needed. Here is an example sentence, written by [former] U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama: “Room to Read provides girls with scholarships that cover the cost of housing, food, and books.” In this sentence, “girls” is the indirect object and “scholarships” is the direct object. Provide for:   Another preposition with the same verb is “provide for.” “Provide for,” in general, means to make whatever is necessary for someone available to him or her. We often use this expression when we talk about parents providing for their family.  In a VOA Learning English story about a Cambodian-American filmmaker, we used the preposition in this way: “She says changes such as migration away from rural areas are allowing more women to find work and provide for their families.” This preposition can also be used in other ways. “Provide for” can mean to make it possible for something to happen in the future. For example, in our story about water shortage in California, we wrote, “They say it [California] needs to find a way to provide for the growing need for water.” Provide (something) to/for:   When “provide” is followed by a direct object, English speakers can use the prepositions “to” or “for.” Provide (something) to/for (someone) means that you deliver or give something to someone. For example, “The company provides health insurance to all of its employees.” “Health insurance” is the direct object and “employees” is the indirect object. In this example, we also could have said “The company provides health insurance for all of its employees.”   Both of these sentences are correct, but it is more common to use “provide (something) for” than “provide (something to)” someone. The expression using “to” is rather new to American English, according to the Internet application Google Ngrams. Google Ngrams is an app that shows general changes in English usage by searching all the words in Google’s digital books. The graph on Ngram for “provide (something) to” shows it was hardly ever used before 1960. Compare that to the Ngram graph for “provide (something for).” The expressions appear more often. The expressions also appeared much earlier, around 1920. They were used then almost as often as they are used now. Understanding English prepositions can be difficult, even for native speakers! But we hope that we have been able to provide assistance to all of our listeners and readers. I’m Kelly Jean Kelly. Jill Robbins wrote this story for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   prepositions - n. a word or group of words that is used with a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase to show direction, location, or time, or to introduce an object direct object - n. a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase which indicates the person or thing that receives the action of a verb indirect object - n. a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase that occurs in addition to a direct object after some verbs and indicates the person or thing that receives what is being given or done     

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March 2, 2017

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

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Groups Oppose Social Media Password Collection at US Border

  Privacy groups have raised concerns about a possible U.S. policy to ask visitors to provide social media account information and passwords at the border. Such border checks do not follow existing legal rules and violate the privacy rights of travelers, the groups say. The head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, recently spoke on the issue during a hearing in the U.S. House. He said U.S. officials were considering a new policy to examine social media data of U.S. visitors from certain countries. “If they come in, we want to say, for instance, which websites do you visit, and give us your passwords. We want to get on their social media, with passwords – what do you do, what do you say? If they don’t want to cooperate, then they don’t come in.” Kelly said the proposed policy is one of many being considered to prevent potentially dangerous people from entering the U.S. He said some people could also be asked to provide social media details during the application process before visiting America. Emma Llanso is director of the Free Expression Project at the not-for-profit Center for Democracy & Technology. She says she was shocked to hear the government proposal was being considered. “The idea of conditioning travel to the U.S. on actually providing - not just information about your social media use - but actually your passwords and the ability for customs agents to review years worth of private e-mails or other communications that have nothing to do with your admissibility into the country, was just a really concerning precedent.” President Donald Trump has called for stronger vetting procedures to keep out dangerous individuals and terrorists.  Electronic device search in place A U.S. policy to allow border agents to search electronic devices was actually started by the previous administration of Barack Obama. It was put in place by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the CBP, the number of electronic media searches greatly increased in 2016 – Obama’s last year in office. They went from 4,764 in 2015 to 23,877 a year later, the agency said. A senior Customs and Border Protection official told the Associated Press there has been no change in that policy under the Trump administration. The official added that despite the increase, the number of searches amounts to less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of all international arrivals to the U.S.    But some groups are still concerned with the rise in device searches at U.S. borders. Esha Bhandari is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union or ACLU. She says the ACLU is currently seeking answers on why this is still going on for foreign visitors, as well as some American citizens too. “The big concern here is more and more numbers of Americans and foreign visitors to the U.S. travel with smart devices that contain almost their entire lives on those devices - financial information, health information and sensitive personal communications.” Social media information for visa waiver program Some foreign visitors who frequently come to the U.S. are asked to provide social media information with their applications. These individuals who regularly visit the U.S. for business or tourism purposes are allowed to stay for up to 90 days without a visa. ​ The users of this system, called the Visa Waiver Program, are asked to list social media services they use and provide user names, but not passwords. U.S. officials recently announced plans to also add long-term Chinese visa holders to the list of applicants asked to voluntarily provide social media account information. Emma Llanso said even though providing this information is not mandatory – either at the border or on an application beforehand – it still puts great pressure on people to comply.   “You're being asked these questions and you think, I had better fill out this form as completely as possible, because I don't want to give customs officials any excuse or reason to reject my application.” The ACLU’s Esha Bhandari says she fears changes in U.S. policies would cause other nations to also put in place new requirements regarding personal data collection. “If sharing social media information becomes a norm for international travel, obviously that's going to affect what people feel free to say online. The Internet has really developed as a forum where people are free to speak out. It's an amazing forum, and a very democratizing forum, and this trend risks turning it into a largely monitored space.” Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, has questioned the legality of government searches of devices and social media. He recently wrote a letter to Kelly expressing opposition to any future policies for visitors to provide social media passwords. Wyden is also proposing legislation that would require border agents to get a warrant to search personal devices at the border. It would also bar law enforcement from seeking social media account information and passwords.   I’m Bryan Lynn.   Bryan Lynn reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Do you think governments are justified in asking foreign visitors to provide social media information and passwords at the border? Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   precedent – n. something that happens and can be used as an example or rule to be followed in the future vet – v. investigate someone’s background thoroughly mandatory – adj. required because of a law or rule comply – v. do what you have been asked or ordered to do monitor – v. watch something very carefully over time warrant – n. document issued by a court that gives police the authority to do something

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Republicans in Congress Seek to End Green Card Lottery

  Every year, about 14 million people from around the world try to win one of 50,000 Diversity Immigrant Visas. These visas let the winners live and work in the United States. The program is best known as the “green card lottery.” The chance of winning is about 0.3 percent. Some Republican lawmakers want to cancel the lottery. Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia have written legislation that would end the 22-year-old visa program. The proposal also calls for lowering the number of immigrants and refugees permitted to enter the U.S. every year. Members of the House of Representatives have also written a bill that would end the diversity visa program. It is called the SAFE for America Act. Both Republicans and Democrats also tried to end the lottery last year. However, those measures were included in other legislation that Congress did not approve. But unlike last year, Republicans now control Congress and the White House. Since becoming president, Donald Trump has worked to make changes in the country’s immigration program. So Republicans have once again decided to try to stop the visa program. The senate proposal is called the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment, or RAISE Act. In a statement announcing the bill, the senators said it would “help raise American workers’ wages.” “We are taking action to fix some of the shortcomings in our legal immigration system,” Perdue said. “Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages.” But some researchers say it is difficult to prove there is a link between immigration and jobs and wages. Critics of the diversity visa program say people requesting the visa are sometimes victims of fraud. And they say some people lie on their applications. The U.S. government reported on fraud in the program ten years ago. The State Department later improved the application process to reduce such wrongdoing. The diversity visa is one of the only ways foreigners can legally move to the US if they are not refugees or do not have sponsors. Lottery winners must have a high school education or a work history to qualify to come to the United States. They also must be able to pay for travel to the United States and visa fees. In 2015, the U.S. gave 48,097 diversity visas. That is less than ten percent of the 531,463 total immigrant visas given that year. The lottery was designed to encourage immigration to America from countries that send few immigrants to the U.S. People from countries that have sent more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the past five years are not permitted to enter the lottery. These countries include Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic and El Salvador. The others are Haiti, India, Jamaica, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Peru, South Korea and Vietnam. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom from which people can enter the lottery. The announcement about the RAISE bill followed President Trump’s executive order targeting immigrants. Many people have protested the order. But groups that support restrictions on immigration support it. Many of these groups have been working for years to cancel the diversity visa program. Earlier attempts to cancel the program would have shifted the visas to employment-based visas. But the RAISE Act does not do that. It calls for cuts in family preference visas and refugee admissions as well as elimination of the diversity lottery. It adds a new visa, which would permit the foreign-born parents of adult U.S. citizens to visit for renewable five-year periods. They would not be given citizenship and would not be able to work in the United States. Tekleab Elos Hailu entered the lottery a few times before winning it. He has three children. He is from Eritrea. His wife is Ethiopian. They entered the lottery while he was studying at a graduate school in Britain, following a war between their home countries in the late 1990s. When he entered the United States he worked as a security guard. But was eventually able to continue his studies. During these studies he researched the experiences of others who won the diversity lottery. He earned a doctorate degree. He now works at a community college in Colorado. Diversity immigrants usually are well-paid in their home countries because of the education or work experience requirements. They also must have enough money to for pay green card fees, health examinations and travel. Hailu says that means they will be good for the United States. In his words, “they sacrifice what they have had in their own countries, just to bring change for their children. On the other hand, the United States gains from people who have been educated, without spending any money on these people.” So, he asks, why end the program? I’m Christopher Jones-Cruise.    VOA Immigration Reporter Victoria Macchi reported this story from Washington. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the story for Learning English. (Name) 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   green card – n. a card indicating that a person from a foreign country can live and work in the U.S. lottery – n. a system used to decide who will get or be given something by choosing names or numbers by chance shortcoming – n. a bad feature; a flaw or defect in something fraud – n. a person who pretends to be what he or she is not in order to trick people; the crime of using dishonest methods to take something valuable from another person sponsor – v. to be a sponsor for (something or someone); taking the responsibility for someone or something qualify – v. to have the right to do, have or be a part of something prefer – v. to like (someone or something) better than someone or something else; to choose something over something else renewable – adj. able to be extended for another time period; able to be renewed contribute – v. to give (something, such as money, goods, or time) to help a person, group, cause or organization

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Dr. Seuss Honored on World Book Day

This is What’s Trending Today… On Thursday, many people were remembering the American writer Theodore Seuss Geisel – better known as “Dr. Seuss.” Geisel is one of the world’s most famous authors of books for children. March 2 would have been his 113th birthday. He was born in 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. He died in 1991. In his honor, March 2 is known as both “Dr. Seuss Day” and, in many places, “World Book Day.” The aim of the observance is to celebrate literature and urge children around the world to read. On Thursday, the hashtags #DrSeuss and #WorldBookDay were two of the top trending topics on Twitter. Dr. Seuss is known for his fantastical and humorous books for young children. His books are filled with colorful pictures and fun rhymes. Dr. Seuss' works include “The Cat in the Hat, ”Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Lorax.” Dr. Seuss helped generations of children learn to read - and to love reading. His books have been published in some 20 languages. Many people used “World Book Day” to express thanks for Dr. Seuss’ books. One person tweeted “Thank you for making life more colorful.”   Others honored other favorite authors, including Roald Dahl, Maurice Sendak and JK Rowling. For bookworms, however, every day may seem like #WorldBookDay. A “bookworm” is an informal name for someone who loves to read. ​ As one person tweeted, “in my world, every day is World Book Day.” If you missed out on World Book Day, you will have another chance later this year to celebrate books and reading. The United Nations marks World Book and Copyright Day on April 23. That is the date that several of the world’s greatest writers died. They include England’s William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes of Spain. And that’s What’s Trending Today.  I’m Dan Friedell.   Ashley Thompson wrote this report. George Grow was the editor. Did you celebrate World Book Day? What are some of your favorite books? Let us know in the Comments Section! ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story   author - n. a person who has written something fantastical - adj. related to fantasy rhyme - n. one of two or more words or phrases that end in the same sounds

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