Pronunciation ChallengeCNN10: Crisis / Election / Inspiration

[Transcript]

Debt Default and Inflation Crisis

Starting off, we're taking you to two island countries on opposite sides of the Northern Hemisphere. Cuba, a country located in the Caribbean sea, is popularly known for its cigars, rums and exotic atmosphere. But now it’s hard for the people there to relax and have a good time as tens of thousands of Cubans are now leaving their nation. The country is currently dealing with runaway inflation⏤prices are around 70% higher at the end of last year than they were the year before. The communist country is seeing its worst shortages of food and medicine in decades. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a huge impact on Cuba's tourism industry⏤the country's getting less oil from its ally Venezuela, which is having trouble producing enough oil for itself.

Meanwhile, the island nation of Sri Lanka is also dealing with shortages of fuel and food. The inflation rate in this presidential republic is more than 33% higher than it was last year at this time. If you drive through Sri Lanka's capital Colombo now, you'll find hundreds of people standing in multiple queues, hoping to take home fuel and gas from collection points. 36-year-old Thuvan, an auto-rickshaw driver, has spent two nights at a gas station in central Colombo waiting for gas. Also for Sagarika, a stay-at-home mom, since the 30th of April, there has been no cooking gas so she could only cook one meal a day instead of three as she used to. Last Monday, Sri Lanka's new prime minister Wickremesinghe warned that things will only get worse before getting any better, and four days later, for the first time in its history, the country defaulted on its debt.

Defaults happen when governments are unable to meet some or all of their debt payments to creditors. It can damage a country's reputation with investors, making it harder for it to borrow the money it needs on international markets, which can further harm confidence in its currency and economy. So yeah, pretty serious.

U.S. Midterm Election

It's a midterm election year, folks. Americans will be choosing all 435 voting members of the US House of Representatives. They'll be deciding on 34 seats in the 100-member Senate, picking governors in 36 states. And, a slew of (a lot of) politicians for state and local races will also be on the ballots in the midterm elections. In the primaries, voters can whittle down, almost like screening and selecting a list of candidates who are running. For example, if several Republicans or several Democrats are all trying to win the same seat, a primary in the spring can decide which candidate from each party gets on the ballot in the fall. There's a lot at stake in the midterms; control of Congress is one of the biggest headlines. So, the election season that's in full swing now will decide the makeup of the House and Senate until at least the next election in two years.

[CNN10 Video]

Folks, today’s CNN10 report covers an inspirational story of Ed Jackson, a paralyzed professional athlete who recently climbed the Himalayas, breaking the highest vertical ascent record by someone with a spinal cord injury. Check it out in today’s CNN10 video.

[Sentence of the day]

As Cubans protested last year over shortages, power outages, and the lack of freedoms, their government blamed the United States for trying to overturn Cuba's communist rule.

[Vocabulary words]

1. shortage
a situation in which there is not enough of something

i.e. The long hot summer has led to serious water shortages.

2. outage
a period when a service, such as electricity, is not available

i.e. Breaking news reported power outages affecting over 50 homes.

3. overturn
To defeat or remove someone from power, using force
To challenge and overthrow, subvert an authority.

i.e. Some high-ranking officers plotted to overturn the government.


Alright, that’s all we have time for today.
Leave me a comment down below and share your ideas of today’s story.
This is Ken Miao with CNN10. I’ll see you again next week.

Day 96.