CARTOON This cartoon by Chappatte from NZZ am Sonntag shows President Obama sitting at his desk in the Oval Office having buckets of ice poured over his head. The buckets are labelled with various crises he is facing around the world: Ukraine, Middle East, ISIS ...
EXPLANATION The Ice Bucket Challenge is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. It went viral on social media during July-August 2014. The cartoonist uses the Ice Bucket Challenge to illustrate the veritable host of international problems the Obama administration is confronted with.
NOTE In real life, President Barack Obama has decllined to take part in the Ice Bucket Challenge. Instead, he has opted to donate $100 to the charity fighting Lou Gehrig’s disease. Read more >>
As the vote on whether Scotland will remain a part of the United Kingdom draws nearer, more and more celebrities are voicing their opinions on the matter. Sir Paul McCartney become the most recent figure to sign an open letter urging Scots to shoot down the independence campaign. Hundreds of British celebrities have now signed a "Let's Stay Together" campaign letter. Full transcript >>
Tensions between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats over how to counter the terrorism threat from extremists have been exposed as Paddy Ashdown accuses Tory ministers of "kneejerk" responses and of stoking fear in the minds of the British people. The former Liberal Democrat leader and former high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, writing in the Observer, also criticises David Cameron for ill-judged rhetoric that he says could alienate ordinary Muslims and hamper the battle to defeat jihadis. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A knee-jerk reaction is immediate and not carefully considered. • Toto Wolff says Mercedes will not make a “knee-jerk reaction” following the fallout between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at the Belgian Grand Prix.
All over the world children (and teachers) are going back to school after the summer break, and this cartoon by Rick McKee from The Augusta Chronicle is one of a whole 'Back to School' collection on The Cagle Post.
An old-fashioned teacher holding a ruler, is giving a pupil the time-honoured back-to-school writing assignment: 'What I did this summer'. The boy, who is playing with his mobile phone, tells her, "If you followed me on Twitter, you'd know." See here for a very similar cartoon from 2013.
GRAMMAR The cartoon features a nice example of the second conditional, which is used to talk about ‘unreal’ or impossible things. Note that 'you'd' is a contraction of 'you would'.
• If I won a lot of money I’d buy a big house in the country. • Where would you live if you could live anywhere in the world? • If you didn’t smoke so much you’d feel a lot better.
The structure is usually if + past simple and would + infinitive. It’s not important which clause comes first.
If you're a parent, you already know your role in your child's life is important. But a new study suggests your reaction to your child's nonsensical babbling impacts his or her language development. Here's how the research was conducted – 12 mothers and their 8-month-old babies were observed during free play over the course of six months. The free-play sessions took place twice a month and were each 30 minutes long. According to HealthDay, when mothers paid attention to the child's babbling, his or her language skills developed more quickly than those of infants who didn't receive that kind of attention. Full transcript >>
Shoppers are panic-buying powerful vacuum cleaners to beat an EU ban that comes into force next week. Last night retailers reported that sales had soared by nearly 50 per cent as consumers snap up any remaining stock in the run-up to the Brussels diktat outlawing machines of over 1,600 watts. Many stores and websites have already run out of the most powerful models, with one reporting its busiest day for sales in more than a decade. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A stampede is a situation in which a lot of people all try to do something at the same time. • The news led to a stampede by investors trying to sell their stocks.
BACKGROUND The Ice Bucket Challenge, sometimes called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, is an activity involving dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research. It went viral on social media during July-August 2014. In the US, many people participate for the ALS Association, and in the UK, many people participate for the Motor Neurone Disease Association, although some individuals have opted to donate their money from the Ice Bucket Challenge to other organizations. The challenge dares nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and then nominating others to do the same.
CARTOON The cartoon by Steve Nease shows two shops: House of Ice and Bucket World. In the shop window of the former, there's a sign saying 'Sold Out', while the latter has a sign saying, 'Out Of Stock'. The joke is that people have been buying so much ice and so many buckets for the Ice Bucket Challenge that neither shop has any supplies of either left.
VOCABULARY Both 'sold out' and 'out of stock' mean that the product is not available, but 'out of stock implies that it will become available again when the next order comes in. 'Sold out', on the other hand, suggests that the product is gone, and you may not be able to get it again.
We used to think of drones exclusively as high-powered military machines, but that definition ha shifted. From high-tech deliveries to aerial photography to questionable stunts involving fireworks, unmanned aerial vehicles have become the latest tech vogue for some time now. So, really, this news was inevitable: Google has just unveiled their own take on drones, dubbed Project Wing. Full transcript >>
BACKGROUND Ryanair, which once suggested it would introduce standing-only flights if only it was allowed by aviation safety authorities, will launch a new tier of tickets aimed at business travellers willing to pay more for better service. ‘Business Plus’ tickets will offer the ability to change to another flight on the same day, to any airport in the same destination country, up to 40 minutes before departure for no extra fee, Ryanair said on Wednesday. The airline normally charges as much as £90 to make a change. Ryanair’s business customers will have to make do with the same type of seating as everyone else, but their more expensive tickets will include priority boarding, and one of the so-called ‘premium’ seats on the flight. They are either at the front of the plane, granting a quick exit, or in exit rows, offering more leg room. The airline normally charges £15 on top of a standard ticket to reserve one. Read more >>
CARTOON The cartoon by Kipper Williams from The Guardian shows a 'Business Plus' passenger holding a scratchcard. A flight attendant asks him if he'd like her to scratch his scratchcard for him.
EXPLANATION Ryanair began selling scratchcards in 2008 in an attempt to further increase its additional or 'ancillary' revenues. Around a quarter of the airline’s annual earnings are generated by ancillary revenues. Its extra charges, including check-in fees, booking fees and luggage charges, have increased by up to 700 per cent since 2006. The joke is that the 'better service' being offered by the air hostess to the passenger who has paid more for his 'Business Plus' ticket is ridiculously insignificant.
VOCABULARY A scratchcard (or scratch card) is a small card with a substance on its surface that you scratch off to find out whether you have won a prize. • Scratch cards are sold all over the UK in various shops ranging from small corner shops, post offices to supermarket chains.
It's late August. Kids are back in school, football kicks off soon and Apple rumors are ringing in our ears.
That last one picked up big-time Tuesday with Bloomberg's report that months of speculation on a bigger iPad could finally be coming true. The outlet reported Apple plans to start producing the 12.9-inch tablet in the first quarter of 2015. Full transcript >>
BACKGROUND As governments in West Africa struggle to contain the Ebola epidemic, World Health Organization officials are warning that the suspension of flights and imposition of travel restrictions raise fears of shortages and could undermine the capacity to respond. While advising countries to perform exit screening at airports, seaports and major border crossings, the WHO is recommending against any ban on international travel or trade. But several international airlines have announced bans. Kenya Airways suspended flights to Sierra Leone and Liberia, effective Tuesday. British Airways, which stopped flights to the two nations earlier this month, will continue the suspension until Aug. 31 “due to the deteriorating public health situation in both countries,” spokeswoman Caroline Titmuss said. Meanwhile, the health ministry in Kenya, the travel hub of East Africa, announced over the weekend that it was closing its borders to travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Read more >>
CARTOON The cartoon by Chappatte from the International New York Times shows the continent of Africa surrounded by a curtain. Inside the curtain, a dead Ebola victim is being carried off by workers in protective suits. Outside, an official uses a megaphone to tell those inside, "You're under quarantine ... for your own good."
COMMENTARY Although the official says that the quarantine is for the Ebola victims' "own good", it is really designed to protect non-African countries from the deadly disease, even if this, in the words of the WHO, "could undermine the capacity to respond".
VOCABULARY Quarantine is a situation in which a person or animal that might have a disease is kept separate from other people or animals so that they do not catch the disease. • Animals can be kept in quarantine for up to three months.
Amazon's never been shy about dropping big bucks to nab a company it thinks can broaden its reach. But its latest acquisition is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. Amazon will purchase Twitch, a live-streaming service for video game players, according to Twitch's CEO, and The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is shelling out $1 billion to get its hands on the company. Google was rumored to be in talks to buy Twitch for the same amount earlier this year but those talks reportedly went cold. For all you non-gamers, Twitch is a service that allows people to stream themselves playing video games. Full transcript >>
More than 1,400 children were sexually abused during a period of over 16 years by gangs of paedophiles after police and council bosses turned a blind eye for fear of being labelled racist, a damning report has concluded. Senior officials were responsible for “blatant” failures that saw victims, some as young as 11, being treated with contempt and categorised as being “out of control” or simply ignored when they asked for help. Full story >>
VOCABULARY If you turn a blind eye (to something), you pretend you do not notice something, because you should do something about it but you do not want to. • We're not supposed to park here, but the authorities usually turn a blind eye.
BACKGROUND French President François Hollande on Monday called for a cabinet reshuffle, evicting from his government rebel leftist ministers who had argued for an economic policy U-turn away from budgetary rigor. The surprise move - which risks deepening the confrontation between Hollande and more left-wing lawmakers - came a day after outspoken Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg attacked euro zone powerhouse Germany for ruining the region's economy with what he called an "obsession" with economic austerity. Full story >>
THE CARTOON The cartoon by Adams from the Daily Telegraph is composed of two frames. In the first, French President François Hollande is shown in close-up against the background of the French flag. He's holding a document titled 'Le Government' (the correct French word is 'gouvernement') and says (to the rebel leftist ministers, we assume), "Leave then! Partir!! I cast you away!". However, in the second frame, we discover that Hollande is standing alone on a desert island, and the French flag is in tatters (as are his clothes).
COMMENTARY The 'joke' is that Hollande is the one who is isolated — his approval rating is at an all-time low of 17% and now key members of his own Socialist party are turning on him.
VOCABULARY The cartoon features a play on the verb 'cast away'. Hollande uses it to mean 'I reject you', but 'cast away' is also used to describe someone being shipwrecked or abandoned on a desert island. • Would you be able to survive if you were cast away on a desert island?
The French government has dissolved, but before anyone bids it adieu, let's look at what that really means. No, the country hasn't fallen into anarchy, and the only revolution that's happened is a kind of complicated political one. Basically what's happened is, because of internal conflict between President François Hollande and two of his ministers, Hollande ordered the prime minister to get rid of the current cabinet — well, part of it — and make a new one. Full transcript >>
