Month: January 2022

In kids’ book, Sotomayor asks: Whom have you helped today?

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

By JESSICA GRESKO Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — “Whom have I helped today?” That’s the question Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor tells kids she asks herself every night before she goes to sleep.

Her new children’s book, “Just Help! How to Build a Better World,” challenges kids to ask how they will help, too. The book comes out Tuesday and is Sotomayor’s third book for young readers.

In the book, children help in a variety of ways: sending care packages to American soldiers overseas, recycling plastic bags, cleaning up a park, donating toys to a children’s hospital and encouraging others to vote.
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Bitcoin pyramid schemes wreak havoc on Brazil’s ‘New Egypt’

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Read time : 5 mins

Level : Advanced

By DIANE JEANTET Associated Press

CABO FRIO, Brazil (AP) — In April, Brazil’s federal police stormed the helipad of a boutique seaside hotel in Rio de Janeiro state, where they busted two men and a woman loading a chopper with 7 million reais ($1.3 million) in neatly packed bills.

The detainees told police they worked for G.A.S. Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who is the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil’s biggest-ever pyramid schemes.

Police say the company owned by 38-year-old Glaidson Acácio dos Santos had total transactions worth at least $7 billion ($38 billion reais) from 2015 through mid-2021 as part of a Bitcoin-based Ponzi scheme that promised investors 10% monthly returns.

In hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press, federal and state police and prosecutors accuse dos Santos and his associates of running a sophisticated racket defrauding thousands of small-scale investors who believed they were getting rich off Bitcoin’s steep appreciation. He is now in a Rio jail awaiting trial on charges including racketeering, financial crimes and ordering the murder and attempted murder of two business competitors. He remains under investigation in the attempted murder of a third competitor.
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Volcanic ash delays aid to Tonga as scale of damage emerges

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

By NICK PERRY Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Thick ash on an airport runway was delaying aid deliveries to the Pacific island nation of Tonga, where significant damage was being reported days after a huge undersea volcanic eruption and tsunami.

New Zealand’s military is sending much-needed drinking water and other supplies, but said the ash on the runway will delay the flight at least a day. A towering ash cloud since Saturday’s eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand also sent a navy ship to Tonga Tuesday with another planned to leave later in the day and pledged an initial 1 million New Zealand dollars ($680,000) toward recovery efforts.

Australia sent a navy ship from Sydney to Brisbane to prepare for a support mission if needed.
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Tennis star’s deportation exposes Australian border debate

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

By ROD McGUIRK Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Weary after two years of some of the harshest COVID-19 border restrictions in the world, many Australians wanted tennis star Novak Djokovic kicked out of their country for traveling to a tennis tournament without being vaccinated.

But the backdrop to the government’s tough line on the defending Australian Open champion — and Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s description of the expulsion as a “decision to keep our borders strong” — dates to nearly a decade ago. It also shines a light on Australia’s complicated, and strongly criticized, immigration and border policies.
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EXPLAINER: What does record inflation mean for the eurozone?

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

By KELVIN CHAN AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — Inflation in the 19 countries that use the euro currency hit its highest level on record, led by surging food and energy costs, figures released Friday show.

Here’s a closer look at the data:

WHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY?

Consumer prices in the eurozone, made up of European Union economies like France and Germany, rose 5% in December compared with the previous year, according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistics office.

Energy prices led the increase, jumping 26% over the past year, slightly lower than the previous month. The boost in food prices picked up steam to 3.2%, from November’s 2.2% rate, and the price of goods rose at a faster pace of 2.9%.
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