Closed captions transcript:

00:00:08
This is v.o.a.

00:00:09
News and Diane Roberts the coronavirus
death toll continues to rise it stands at

00:00:14
2000 people while those infected
exceed 75000 feel ways to.

00:00:23
Engage this outside China to make.
Reasoned on the severity of.

00:00:30
The raids we're following up with gun
trees to get more information about what

00:00:35
happens about each case
is the outcome a w.h.o.

00:00:39
Director general said it's crucial for
impacted countries to be transparent and

00:00:44
share information with the World Health
Organization so it can help. You

00:00:50
a news Washington u.s.

00:00:53
President Donald Trump granted clemency
Tuesday to former Democratic state governor

00:00:57
Rod Blagojevich who once sought to sell
former President Barack Obama's vacated

00:01:01
Senate seat that had served 8 years of

00:01:04
a 14 year sentence as he was boarding Air
Force One The president told reporters

00:01:08
he'd seen Blood way that his wife Patricia
make an appeal for his freedom on

00:01:12
television the Department of Homeland
Security says it will bypass federal laws on

00:01:17
building contracts to speed
up the construction of

00:01:20
a wall aimed at blocking illegal crossings
at the southern border A.P.'s Jackie

00:01:25
Quinn critics are objecting to

00:01:27
a plan by the Homeland Security Department
to waive procurement regulations like

00:01:31
open competition and bitters appeals to
allow nearly 200 more miles of border wall

00:01:37
to go up more quickly the Project on
Government Oversight says waiving the

00:01:41
requirement for certified cost data could
lead to grossly inflated prices and opens

00:01:47
the door for shoddy work without any remedy
acting homeland security secretary Chad

00:01:53
Wolf says he hopes the waivers approved by
Congress in 2005 will excel or rate some

00:01:58
of the construction go. And along the
southwest border Jackie Quinn Washington this

00:02:05
is v.o.a.

00:02:06
News and is temple court acquitted noted
philanthropist. On charges of sedition

00:02:12
and being a trial that drew
international attention as

00:02:16
a test of civil liberties in Turkey and 8
other defendants were acquitted on all

00:02:21
charges for

00:02:22
a lack of concrete evidence the packed
courtroom erupted into applause and cheers

00:02:27
as the verdict were announce the court
acquitted 9 but the cases of 7 others who

00:02:32
had left the country and were tried in
absentia would now be tried separately

00:02:36
arrest warrants for them
have been lifted the u.n.

00:02:40
High Commissioner for Human Rights has
expressed horror at the scale of the

00:02:44
humanitarian crisis in northwest Syria
which has resulted in mass deaths and

00:02:49
injuries of civilians and hundreds of
thousands of this of those displaced Lisa

00:02:54
shrine reports for v.o.a.

00:02:55
From Geneva human rights chief from the
child Bachna describes conditions under

00:03:00
which civilians are forced to live in it
live in Aleppo as cruel beyond belief she

00:03:06
condemns the indiscriminate in inhumane
attacks against civilians and is calling

00:03:10
for an immediate end to hostilities her
spokesman Rupert Colleville says civilians

00:03:16
mostly women and children are living in
terror under scraps of plastic sheeting in

00:03:22
freezing temperatures while the bombing is
going on civilians fleeing the fighting

00:03:27
are being squeezed into areas without safe
shelter. In size by the hour and still

00:03:34
the United Nations estimates fighting has
forced more than 900000 civilians to flee

00:03:40
their homes since December and for v.o.a.

00:03:43
News Geneva billionaire Democratic presidential
candidate Michael Bloomberg says he

00:03:49
would sell his business interests
if elected president a.p.

00:03:53
Correspondent Mike grass reports

00:03:55
a top adviser for Democratic presidential
candidate Mike Bloomberg said Tuesday.

00:04:00
Bloomberg would sell the financial data
and media company he founded which bears

00:04:04
his name if he's elected president advisor
to Brian said Bloomberg would put

00:04:08
Bloomberg l.p. Into

00:04:10
a blind trust and the trustee would then
oversee the sale of the company or Brian

00:04:14
told the Associated Press we want to be 180
degrees apart from Donald Trump around

00:04:19
financial conflicts of interest Trump
continues to make money from his properties

00:04:24
after putting his assets in a trust
controlled by his 2 adult sons and

00:04:28
a senior company executive
Mike Ross c.e.o.

00:04:30
Washington the federal judge in the Roger
Stone trial is refusing to postpone her

00:04:35
sentencing while President Donald Trump
says the conviction of his close friend and

00:04:39
confidant should be thrown out Judge
Amy Berman Jackson said during

00:04:43
a conference call Tuesday with Stone and
his lawyers that the sentencing will take

00:04:47
place Thursday as planned but Jackson
appeared to say she could put off an order

00:04:52
for Stone to begin his sentence
after Stone's lawyers requested

00:04:55
a new trial I'm dying Robert.

00:05:07
Hanssen more. Than the best music.

00:05:51
Ever.

00:08:39
Ok.

00:09:37
It. Sounds

00:09:44
like. You can say whatever you want to us
all you have to do is reach out to us on

00:09:51
Facebook or Twitter at v.o.a.

00:09:53
Won the hits it's as simple as that my name
is Nicky strong Hulsey the Joe Bros ed

00:09:59
sheeran all coming. Here's 5 seconds
of summer with teeth on v.o.a.

00:10:02
One then hits.

00:13:24
Music right here.

00:16:55
V.o.a.

00:16:56
Won the hits Hosey with you should be sad
my name is Nikki strong the celebration

00:17:00
of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Giana
goes down February 24th tickets

00:17:07
are on sale and proceeds will go to
raise money for Kobe's Mamba and Sports

00:17:14
Foundation just letting you guys now and
of course the celebration goes down in

00:17:19
California My name is make you strong here
in the job only human I'll be away one.

00:20:34
Alex.

00:20:55
Legislator

00:21:02
Linda Douglas

00:21:08
the

00:21:10
little

00:21:42
. Lives of

00:21:47
Smolensk.

00:21:50
Lead in John

00:21:57
Lennon. Led.

00:22:05
Legalists younger

00:22:08
Leger

00:22:16
lives the

00:22:20
little

00:22:48
live.

00:23:23
The so. Called.

00:23:31
Lives.

00:24:38
Down the someone. Is beautiful. From
you know from my church I just want

00:24:45
to kill. The soul.

00:24:56
Old. News posts.

00:25:04
For

00:25:04
a. Pretty words are. Pretty

00:26:01
.

00:26:32
Slim.

00:27:03
Oh my. Gosh I. Live in.

00:27:15
Such.

00:27:22
A great sax.

00:27:55
She don't let.

00:28:09
The fuel.

00:28:42
The brakes. Be shaken to
see the Chinese. Try to

00:28:49
chase him she want to do

00:28:51
a good trade in. Yes.

00:28:59
And there's going to crazy shoes. But. If

00:29:06
you ain't gonna find me she lands man

00:29:09
a man and spinning that is not even. Close

00:29:17
to. The.

00:29:26
Things. You. Think.

00:29:33
You're doing Star you.

00:29:52
The only one that hits Arizona is their
ass with Roxanne We also drew mental just

00:29:56
line and Macklemore these days and edge
Sheerin castle on the Hill My name is Nikki

00:30:01
strong playing you all the
pop music you love on v.o.a.

00:30:03
One that heads. The. Welcome to learning

00:30:10
English

00:30:11
a daily 30 minute program from the Voice
of America I'm Jonathan Evans and I'm

00:30:18
Ashley Thompson this program is aimed
at English learners so we speak

00:30:24
a little slower and we use words and phrases
especially written for people learning

00:30:31
English. Today on the

00:30:37
program you will hear from John Russell
and Joel Robins later we will present our

00:30:43
American history series The Making of

00:30:46
a nation but 1st. This
month France marks the

00:30:53
60th anniversary of nuclear weapons tests
that made the country one of the world's

00:31:00
1st nuclear powers but critics
claim more than 30 years of

00:31:06
testing in Algeria and French Polynesia
left many suffering from the effects of

00:31:13
harmful radiation on Feb 13th 1960

00:31:20
friends held its 1st nuclear test in
Algeria as southern Sahara desert

00:31:27
your aid for France then French President
Charles de Gaulle wrote at the time but

00:31:34
have you had other memories he joined
the French testing efforts in Algeria

00:31:41
as an electrician he remembers

00:31:45
a nuclear test in 1962 that
did not go according to plan.

00:31:52
Radioactive dust and rock as
scaped from underground air

00:31:59
view and others observing the
testing ran for shelter to French

00:32:05
ministers or Among them the
group washed themselves in

00:32:11
a military housing area to
decontaminate France held more than

00:32:18
200 nuclear tests until

00:32:21
a later President Jacques
Chirac ended testing in 1996

00:32:27
most to us took place in French
Polynesia but 17 took place

00:32:34
in Algeria between 196-1966
dating for years after all

00:32:41
Jerry independence from
France Brahimi Monsoor is

00:32:48
a North Africa expert at the French Institute
of International Relations in Paris

00:32:56
he said it's part of the whole issue of
decolonization and Algerians in general

00:33:02
asking for recognition of colonisation
crimes he added that official

00:33:09
recognition and financial compensation for
the Algerian tests could cost millions

00:33:16
of dollars every spent 10 years
working on nuclear test areas

00:33:23
in Algeria and later French
Polynesia now 80 and living

00:33:30
and France's Leone area he says
he is physically 5 but he used to

00:33:36
receive some questionable radioactive
testing results from the French government

00:33:45
alone day board is

00:33:46
a former French physicist and spokesman
for an independent French atomic safety

00:33:52
research group called Cry rad. He has
visited the Algerian test area as

00:34:00
they board said he discovered very high
radiation levels in some places he

00:34:07
believes the French government should
release important information about the

00:34:12
explosions but he also blames Algerian
officials for failing to correctly

00:34:19
secure the desert testing areas
France's nuclear Compensation

00:34:26
Commission seaven said more than
$1600.00 claims have been filed under

00:34:33
a 2010 French law that finally recognized
health problems related to the

00:34:39
testing only about one 3rd have met
the requirements needed to receive

00:34:46
financial benefits the
requirements include about 20 for

00:34:52
a possible radiation related
cancers almost all the claims came

00:34:58
from France and French Polynesia
of the $51.00 claims from Algeria

00:35:06
only one has been compensated
seaven director. Said

00:35:13
the commission can judge only the
Algerian claims it receives he said the

00:35:19
sickness is described in the few claims
that did come in and did not match the

00:35:25
requirements for compensation he added
the commission could not actively

00:35:32
go out and search for other victims.

00:36:03
Vacationers nature lovers and
other people are using their

00:36:09
cameras to document the effects
of extreme high tides by doing

00:36:16
so these men and women are helping
scientists predict what rising sea

00:36:23
levels will mean for coastal communities
around the world so volunteer

00:36:30
photographers are taking pictures
of an unusually high tide the

00:36:37
king tide king tides
take place about 2 times

00:36:43
a year in coastal areas when the
sun and Earth's Moon align the

00:36:50
alignment increases the gravitational
pull that produces the normal rising

00:36:56
and falling of the sea the
volunteers goal is to capture how

00:37:03
high the water line gets and where
all the water goes the volunteers

00:37:10
then upload the images for use
by scientists policymakers and

00:37:17
even city planners the pictures
show where flooding facts some

00:37:24
roads and offer clues as to whether
it is safe to build new housing.

00:37:31
The 1st of these king tide projects
involving the public began in

00:37:37
2009 in Australia the idea
has since spread to coastal

00:37:44
areas in the United States
Canada New Zealand Morrish us

00:37:51
and other nations flooding from
king tides helps to show how rising

00:37:58
sea levels will affect coastal communities
said Peter Rouge arrow acting

00:38:04
chief of the Oregon Climate Change
Research Institute he added that warmer

00:38:11
ocean water and bigger storms could
make those changes more intense

00:38:18
skip Stiles is the executive director of

00:38:22
a not for profit group called
wetlands watch it helped organize 700

00:38:29
people to document a king tide in the u.s.

00:38:34
City of Norfolk Virginia
in 2017 for us the king

00:38:40
tide offers

00:38:41
a look at where the water will
be in about 2050 about 30 to

00:38:48
46 centimeters above normal
levels Stiles said his group's

00:38:55
efforts have since grown into

00:38:57
a computer software program that uses
crowdsourcing to gather images and

00:39:04
find flooding what we're
finding is there's

00:39:09
a real appetite for this data he
said. Some of the king tide projects

00:39:16
are operating under the direction of nonprofit
groups while others work with state

00:39:23
and local governments they all have
the same goal to educate the public

00:39:30
and provide

00:39:31
a clear example of how climate change
will affect every day life arenas

00:39:38
Soros helped develop
California king tides project

00:39:43
a lot of the conversation around climate
change was what was happening far away and

00:39:50
not about what people were going to be
experiencing in their own lives she said

00:39:58
the goal of the project was to get people
thinking more about climate change

00:40:03
locally instead of just polar
bears when Auckland New Zealand

00:40:10
organized its 1st king tide photo Advent
people shared pictures of flooded

00:40:16
areas and roads with local government
officials some of the images

00:40:23
were used to develop a plan to build up

00:40:27
a popular beach that was slowly being
washed away last year the group

00:40:34
expanded the program to include

00:40:37
a series of tide gauges citizen
scientists inspected said Ben

00:40:43
Sheeran founder of the New Zealand the
king tide project there's no eureka

00:40:50
moment where it all comes into play but
it's an evolving database of information

00:40:57
that's there when needed
he said. John Russell.

00:41:30
2 years ago this month

00:41:32
a 19 year old American sought and
killed 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman

00:41:39
Douglas High School and Parkland Florida
14 of the victims were students

00:41:48
the other 3 were teachers the gunman was

00:41:51
a former student at the high school on this
anniversary as with other anniversaries

00:41:58
of school shootings Americans continue
debating how to make sure students are safe

00:42:05
in schools on Feb 11th

00:42:09
a group called every town
for Gun Safety released

00:42:12
a report on one method for reducing gun
violence at schools in the United States

00:42:20
every town is

00:42:21
a not for profit organization that joined
with 2 labor unions in writing the

00:42:28
report on school safety drills for active
shootings the till Are the American

00:42:35
Federation of Teachers or a.f.p.

00:42:38
And the National Education
Association and. The Us Federal

00:42:45
Bureau of Investigation defines an
active shooter as an individual

00:42:52
actively engaged and killing or
attempting to kill people in

00:42:57
a populated area. To increase preparedness
for such an event many schools

00:43:04
now hold active shooter drills for
students and their teachers the new report

00:43:11
notes the possible harmful effects
of such exercises it urges school

00:43:18
administrators to look for better ways to
make schools safe and to prepare children

00:43:25
for an active shooter u.s.

00:43:28
Department of Education numbers show
how rare gun violence at schools is

00:43:35
only point 2 percent of
about $36000.00 gun deaths

00:43:40
a year happen on school grounds but
almost all schools hold drills

00:43:47
designed to prepare their employees
and students for an active shooter in

00:43:54
fact 40 states require such
exercises the report says

00:44:01
one problem with the way schools carry out
active shooter drills is how much they

00:44:06
frighten students when

00:44:09
a school fails to inform parents
and students about plans for

00:44:14
a drill parents cannot prepare their
children and the children may think that the

00:44:20
attack is real in some communities
the report says schools deploy

00:44:27
individuals who are told to act like
massed gunman students as young as 3

00:44:34
or 4 years old may be told to
stay quiet in a small space for

00:44:40
a long period of time experts on
mental health say these experiences

00:44:47
can have both short and long term effects
on how well the children behave in school

00:44:54
as well as on their physical and mental
health for example after one drill in New

00:45:01
Jersey and 8th grade student
reportedly said. I was genuinely not

00:45:07
sure if I would finish the
day a life Melissa Reeves is

00:45:13
a former president of the National Association
of School psychologist she said the

00:45:20
drills may trigger either
past trauma or trigger such

00:45:25
a reaction that it actually ends up
scaring the individuals instead of better

00:45:31
preparing them to respond in these
kinds of situations there has been

00:45:38
little research on how well the exercises
prepare students for an active shooter

00:45:45
in 20071 study found it better to
prepare students for an intruder

00:45:52
rather than

00:45:53
a shooter another study noted the
value of announcing drills in advance

00:46:00
and following them with discussion students
in that situation felt better prepared

00:46:07
to handle possible violence surprise
drills on the other hand can result in

00:46:14
trauma to children one woman in Arizona
described the effect drills at her

00:46:21
son's school had on him he started
biting his fingernails and refused to go

00:46:28
anywhere alone even to his room or

00:46:32
a bathroom at home he
said I'm Jill Robbins.

00:46:51
Welcome to the making of

00:46:53
a nation American history
in Vo way special English

00:46:59
Americans experimented with many new customs
and social traditions during the 1920

00:47:06
s.

00:47:07
Their words their dances new kinds of clothes
sand some of the most imaginative our

00:47:13
tanned writing ever produced in the
United States but in most ways the

00:47:19
1920 s.

00:47:21
Were

00:47:21
a conservative time in American life
voters elected 3 conservative Republican

00:47:28
presidents Warren Harding Calvin
Coolidge and Herbert Hoover and they

00:47:35
supported many conservative social and
political policies Cagle lanta and

00:47:42
Harry Monroe continue the story of American
conservatism during the night team

00:47:48
twenty's one such policy
concerned immigration most

00:47:55
Americans in the 1920 s.

00:47:58
Had at least some time through blood or
marriage to the 1st Americans who came from

00:48:04
Britain and many people with these kinds
of historic ties considered themselves to

00:48:11
be real Americans true Americans
Americans traditionally

00:48:18
had welcomed newcomers from such
Western European countries as Britain

00:48:25
France or Germany. But most of the
people arriving in New York City

00:48:31
and other harbors in the 1920 s.

00:48:35
Were from the central eastern and
southern areas of Europe some

00:48:41
Americans became afraid of these millions
of people arriving at their shores

00:48:49
they worried that the immigrant newcomers
might steal their jobs or they

00:48:55
feared the political beliefs of the
immigrants pressure to control

00:49:01
immigration increased following
the World War Congress passed

00:49:08
a bill that set

00:49:10
a limit on how many people would be
allowed to enter from each foreign

00:49:16
country and the Congress and
President Calvin Coolidge agreed

00:49:23
to an even stronger
immigration law in $1024.00

00:49:30
under the new law limits on the number
of immigrants from each foreign

00:49:36
country depended on the number of
Americans who had families in that

00:49:43
country for example the law allowed
many immigrants to enter from

00:49:50
Britain or France because many American
citizens had family is in those

00:49:57
countries but fewer people could
come from Italy or Russia

00:50:04
because fewer Americans had family
members in those countries the

00:50:10
laws were very difficult to enforce
but they did succeed in limiting

00:50:17
the number of immigrants from certain
countries. A 2nd sign of the

00:50:24
conservative feelings in the 1920 s.

00:50:28
Was the nation's effort to ban the sale
of alcoholic drinks or liquor this

00:50:35
policy was known as pro have Bishan
because it prohibited or banned

00:50:41
alcoholic drinks many of the strongest
supporters of prohibition were

00:50:48
conservative Americans living in rural
areas many of them then leave that

00:50:54
liquor was evil the product of the devil

00:51:00
a number of towns and states
passed laws banning alcohol sales

00:51:07
during the 1st years of the
20th century and in 1919 the

00:51:14
nation passed the 18th Amendment
to the federal constitution this

00:51:20
amendment and the vul stead Act
made it unlawful to make sell or

00:51:27
transport liquor prohibition
laws failed terribly from the

00:51:34
start there was only

00:51:36
a small force of police to
enforce the new laws and

00:51:43
millions of Americans still
wanted to drink liquor it was not

00:51:49
possible for the police to watch
every American who wanted to buy

00:51:56
a drink secretly or make
liquor in his own home not

00:52:02
surprisingly thousands
of Americans soon saw

00:52:07
a chance to make profits from the new
laws they began to import liquor

00:52:14
illegally to sell for high prices.
Criminals began to bring liquor

00:52:21
across the long on protected border
with Canada or on fast boats

00:52:28
from the Caribbean island.
At the same time private

00:52:34
manufacturers in both cities and
rural areas began to produce liquor

00:52:41
and the shop owners in cities across
the country sold liquor with little

00:52:48
interference from local police
by the middle of the 1920 is

00:52:55
it was clear to most Americans
that prohibition laws were

00:53:01
a failure but the laws were not
changed on till the Alexion of

00:53:07
President Franklin Roosevelt in 1032

00:53:13
a 3rd sign of conservatism in the 1920 s.

00:53:18
Was the effort by some Americans to
ban school books on modern science

00:53:25
most of the Americans who supported these
efforts were conservative rural Americans

00:53:32
who believed in the traditional ideas of
the Protestant Christian church and many

00:53:39
of them were fearful of the many changes
that had taken place in American society

00:53:47
science became an enemy to many of
these traditional religious Americans

00:53:53
science seemed to challenge the most
basic ideas taught in the Bible the

00:54:00
conflict burst into a major
public debate in 1925 in

00:54:07
a trial over Charles Darwin's
idea of evolution. British

00:54:13
scientist Charles Darwin published
his books the origin of the species

00:54:20
and the Descent of Man in the 19th
century the books explained to

00:54:27
Darwin's idea that humans developed
over millions of years from apes

00:54:34
and other animals most
Europeans and educated people

00:54:40
accepted Darwin's theory by the end
of the 19th century but the book

00:54:47
had little effect in rural parts
of the United States until the 19

00:54:54
twenty's William Jennings Bryan
led to the attack on Darwin's

00:55:00
ideas Brian was

00:55:03
a rural Democrat who ran twice
for president he lost both

00:55:10
time. But Bryan remained
popular among many traditional

00:55:16
Americans Brian told his
followers that the theory of

00:55:23
evolution was evil because it challenged
the traditional idea that God

00:55:30
created the world in 6 days
he accused scientists of

00:55:37
violating God's words in the
Bible Brian and his supporters

00:55:43
called on local school officials
to ban the teaching of evolution

00:55:51
some state legislatures in the more
conservative south eastern part of the country

00:55:58
passed laws making it

00:56:00
a crime to teach evolution theory. In 1925

00:56:07
a young science teacher in the southern
state of Tennessee challenge to the state's

00:56:14
new teaching law the teacher
John Scopes taught Darwin's

00:56:20
evolution ideas officials arrested
scopes and put him on trial

00:56:28
some of the nation's greatest lawyers
rushed to Tennessee to defend the young

00:56:34
teacher they believed the state had
violated his right to free speech

00:56:41
and they thought Tennessee's law against
teaching evolution was foolish in

00:56:48
a modern scientific society America's
most famous lawyer Clarence Darrow

00:56:55
became the leader of scopes defense team
Brian and other religious conservatives

00:57:02
also rushed to the trial they supported
the right of the state of Tennessee to

00:57:09
ban the teaching of evolution the
trial was held in the small town of

00:57:15
Dayton Tennessee hundreds of people
came to watch religious conservatives

00:57:22
free speech supporters news men and
others the high point of the trial

00:57:29
came when Brian himself sat before
the court lawyer Clarence Darrow

00:57:36
ask Brian question after question
about the Bible and about science

00:57:43
how did Brian know the Bible is
true Did God really create the

00:57:50
earth in a single day is

00:57:54
a day in the Bible 24 hours or can it mean

00:57:59
a 1000000 years. Brian
answered the questions but he

00:58:05
showed

00:58:06
a great lack of knowledge about
modern science the judge found the

00:58:13
scopes guilty of breaking the
law but in the battle of ideas

00:58:19
science defeated conservatism
and on higher court later ruled

00:58:27
that Scopes was not guilty the
scopes evolution trial captured

00:58:33
the imagination of Americans the
issue was not really whether one

00:58:40
young teacher was innocent
or guilty of breaking

00:58:44
a law the real question was the
struggle for America's spirit

00:58:51
between the forces of modern ideas
and those of traditional rural

00:58:58
conservatism the trial
represented this larger conflict

00:59:05
American society was changing in many
important ways during the early part of the

00:59:12
20th century it was not yet the world
superpower that it would become after

00:59:19
World War 2 but neither was it

00:59:22
a traditional rural society of
conservative farmers and clergy the

00:59:29
1920 s.

00:59:31
Were

00:59:31
a period of growth of change and
of struggle between the old and

00:59:38
new values. And that's
our program for today

00:59:45
listen again tomorrow to learn English 3
stories from around the world I'm Jonathan

00:59:51
Evans and I'm Ashley Thompson.

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