Podcast #8 News Review - February 2 to 8, 2020

News of the week - February 2 to 7, 2020:

• An app causes a fiasco during the Democratic primaries in the United States. [spp-timestamp time=”00:00:41″]
• EU enlargement: the Balkans question. [spp-timestamp time=”00:01:49″]
• Coronavirus in China: hospital built in 10 days. [spp-timestamp time=”00:03:22″]
• Attack in Israel. [spp-timestamp time=”00:04:34″]
• Vocabulary of the week explained [spp-timestamp time=”00:05:20″]

Every week, HelloFrench publishes a podcast that immerses you in the week's news. Each news review comes with a transcription, a vocabulary list, and a quiz, to help you improve your French and test yourself.

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Transcription

Hello,

Welcome to the HelloFrench news review, the podcast that immerses you in the week's news to help you improve your French.

Headlines for the week of February 2 to 8, 2020:

1. Democratic primaries for the presidential elections in the United States. A poorly designed app creates a fiasco.
2. Albania and North Macedonia soon in the European Union? This is at least the wish of the European Commission.
3. The hospital built in 10 days in Wuhan welcomes its first coronavirus patients.
4. In Israel, a car drives into a crowd, injuring 14 people.

Democratic primaries in the United States. It's a fiasco in Iowa. The cause? A mobile app. This app was designed to transmit results from the 1,700 polling stations more easily. Polling station officials were supposed to submit results through this app. However, the malfunctions only kept piling up. Difficulty downloading the app, difficulty registering, error messages when sending results... This app, developed in barely two months, ended up causing total chaos in this election. Several days after the vote, the complete results had still not arrived. The Democratic Party still does not know who the winner of this Iowa primary is, Pete Buttigieg or Bernie Sanders. These primaries will designate the Democratic candidate who will face Donald Trump on November 3. However, these problems will not impact the voting data. The app that was supposed to be used for the Nevada primaries will ultimately not be used.

The European Commission in Brussels wants to expand the European Union to the Balkans. After a veto from France, the Netherlands, and Denmark, discussions to integrate Albania and North Macedonia had been stopped in October. Emmanuel Macron, the President of France, was particularly against this membership. He recalled the arrival of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, which was too rushed in his opinion, for countries still very prone to corruption and crime. For other countries, like Italy, this was a historic mistake. Indeed, the Balkan countries could, in the event of a definitive refusal, turn to China or Russia. After the departure of Great Britain, Ursula von der Leyen, the German president of the Commission, considers it essential to integrate new countries. She therefore presented various proposals last Wednesday to reassure the reluctant countries and begin negotiations. The Commission proposes modifying the procedure for new countries joining the EU by giving more power to existing member states. For example, it would give member countries the ability to interrupt a membership procedure or to force a candidate country to restart negotiations from scratch if they do not meet certain commitments. Other Balkan countries are also candidates: Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and Bosnia.

Only 10 days - that is how long it took China to build a hospital. This Monday, this hospital welcomed its first patients. A construction project of impressive efficiency. Chinese media filmed the workers almost around the clock, along with the cranes and excavators. The facility can accommodate 1,000 patients. The construction of a second hospital, with a capacity of 1,300 people, is currently being prepared. Facing the scale of the coronavirus, China still faces a shortage of hospital beds. To increase capacity, the Chinese government wants to convert hotels and schools into temporary hospitals. The country also lacks medical equipment and protective masks, to prevent the disease from continuing to spread. As of February 7, the death toll has reached 636 people and the number of sick people is 31,161.

14 people injured in central Jerusalem after a car drove into a crowd on Wednesday. The majority of those injured in the attack are Israeli soldiers. An attack that comes just days after the United States announced a plan to reorganize territories in the Middle East. A plan that the Israelis support and that is completely rejected by the Palestinian territories. Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist party, therefore praised the car attack against Israeli soldiers. They consider it a response to Donald Trump's plan.

Vocabulary of the week

Expand your French vocabulary - download our list of key words from the week of February 2 to 8, 2020.

■ L'application mobile (mobile app): software for the phone, such as Instagram, Tinder, or Blablacar.

■ Le fiasco (fiasco): a complete failure, when nothing goes as planned.

■ Le dysfonctionnement (malfunction): bugs, errors that occur, or a situation that does not go as planned.

■ S'accumuler (verb - to accumulate): happening multiple times, recurring. For example: "I first lost my phone, then my wallet and my keys: the problems keep piling up."

■ Le chaos (chaos): when nothing is going right, it's a bit like the end of the world, total disorder.

■ Le vainqueur (the winner): the one who won, who achieved a victory.

■ Affronter (verb - to face/to confront): to face a situation, something, or someone with great courage.

■ Élargir (verb - to expand/to widen): to grow larger, to become bigger.

■ Le veto (veto): to be against something, to say no, to be opposed in a very firm manner.

■ Arrêter (verb - to stop): to stop, to prevent someone, something, or a situation from going further, from continuing.

■ Particulièrement (particularly): very strongly.

■ Précipité (rushed): doing something quickly, in haste, too fast.

■ Se tourner vers (to turn to): to change position to go toward someone else, another idea, or in another direction. For example: "I was thinking of buying an apartment, but I'm going to turn toward a house instead."

■ Refus définitif (definitive refusal): a "no" with no turning back. 

■ Le réfractaire (the reluctant one): someone who is fundamentally against an idea or decision, who resists and refuses to accept something.

■ La négociation (negotiation): when people who do not share the same opinion talk to try to make a decision together and thus reach an agreement. Negotiation is also used in a more economic context. For example, at the market, you can try to negotiate prices.

■ L'engagement (commitment): when you say you are going to do something, when you promise you are going to do something.

■ Le candidat/être candidat (candidate/to be a candidate): someone who applies for a position, a role, or a job. For example, I am a candidate for the communications manager position.

■ L'hôpital, les hôpitaux (hospital, hospitals - plural): the place where sick people are treated, where you receive care, where you can undergo surgery.

■ Construire (to build): to create a building. You can build, construct a house, for example.

■ L'efficacité (efficiency): performance. When we say someone acts with efficiency, they acted without wasting time and quickly achieved the expected result.

■ La grue (crane): a machine on a construction site, a device that allows heavy objects to be moved.

■ La pelleteuse (excavator): a machine on a construction site, a device that allows digging, like a shovel but more efficiently.

■ En cours de préparation (in preparation): something that is currently being done/prepared/developed.

■ L'ampleur (the scale/magnitude): the significant size of something. For example, you can say: "Faced with the scale of the damage caused by the hurricane, the entire city had to be rebuilt."

■ La pénurie (shortage): when something is lacking. For example: "There is a sugar shortage, there is no more sugar."

■ La capacité d'accueil (capacity): the maximum number of people who can enter, come to a place.

■ L'école (school): the place where you go to learn, where you receive group education. For example, you can say: "Children go to school from Monday to Friday."

■ Temporaire (adjective - temporary): just for a while, it will not last forever.

■ Le masque (mask): a mask is something you put on your face to disguise yourself, to hide it, or to protect yourself. You can wear a mask for carnival or a protective mask to avoid catching a disease.

■ Se propager (verb - to spread): to spread, to diffuse, to propagate. For example: "The disease is spreading, it is propagating, it is affecting more people."

■ La foule (crowd): many people gathered/who are in the same place.

■ Le blessé/être blessé (the injured/to be injured): when you have injuries, when you receive blows, shocks. You are in pain.

■ L'attaque (attack): the action of attacking, of physically or verbally assaulting someone.

■ Le soldat (soldier): a person who works for a country's army, who defends a country.

■ Rejeter (to reject): to refuse, to say no to something.