뉴스&스피킹(영자신문)
하루 10분이면 영어에 대한 두려움을 극복하고 누구나 유창하게 영어를 구사하실 수 있습니다.
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British Parliament Rejects May’s EU Withdrawal Plan a Third Time British lawmakers rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for leaving the European Union for a third time on Friday.
The rejection leaves big questions about Britain’s next move on the day the country was supposed to cancel its EU membership.
The decision to reject a simpler version of May’s deal has left it unclear how, when or even whether Britain will leave the political and economic union.
After a special meeting of parliament, lawmakers voted 344 to 286 against May’s EU withdrawal agreement.
Within minutes of the vote, European Council President Donald Tusk said EU leaders would meet on April 10 to discuss Britain’s withdrawal.
The European Commission said that it is likely the two sides will be unable to negotiate a deal over the next two weeks.
May had told parliament the vote was the last chance to ensure Britain’s exit, or Brexit, would take place. She warned that if the deal failed, then any additional delay to Brexit would probably be a long one.
“I fear we are reaching the limits of this process in this House,” May told parliament after the defeat. “The implications of the House’s decision are grave.”
“The legal default now is that the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on 12th April,” she said.
Third Failure
It was a third failure for May, who offered on Wednesday to resign as prime minister if the deal passed. She made the offer to win over members of her Conservative Party who support a more decisive break with the EU than her deal offers.
With no majority in parliament for any Brexit plan so far, it is unclear what May will now do. Possible choices include asking the EU for a long delay, calling new elections, or what is being called a “no-deal” exit.
May’s spokesman said she would press on with talks with opponents of the deal.
Britain now has under two weeks to persuade the EU’s 27 other members that it has a way to end the dispute. If that fails, Britain will leave the union on April 12 with no deal on future ties with its largest trading ally.
French President Emmanuel Macron, speaking as parliament voted, said the EU needed to speed up planning on a no-deal exit.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that unless Britain came up with a plan, there would be a “hard” Brexit.
One of the two paths to an orderly Brexit seems now to be closed, said Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte “This leaves only the other route, which is for the British to make clear what they want before April 12.”
“The risk of a no-deal Brexit is very real,” he added.
I’m Bryan Lynn.View -
New Businesses Want to Sell Fake Meat to China Some new companies that focus on plant protein are starting to do business in Hong Kong. They aim to enter the mainland’s successful multi-billion-dollar food market.
Impossible Foods, JUST and Beyond Meat say their products are more sustainableand environmentally friendly than animal meat.
Plant proteins are fake meat products made from vegetables and grains. They include eggless eggs, pea-stuffed burgers and cell-grown fish products.
The research firm Market and Markets says the value of the global meat substitutes market was around $4.6 billion last year and is predicted to reach $6.4 billion by 2023. Asia is the fastest growing part of that market.
Big money
Plant protein firms have financial support from some of the world’s top billionaires, including Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing, philanthropist Bill Gates and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Peter Thiel is one of those giving money to San Francisco-based JUST. The company has a value of $1 billion and is planning to start selling its mung bean fake egg product in six Chinese cities starting next month.
The company says its use of the mung bean, a typical Chinese food, helps Chinese customers feel more comfortable with the foods made with it. They trust that it is safe.
China has a history of food safety issues. The problems have included eggs with plastic powder, very old frozen meat and crops ruined with heavy metals.
Nick Cooney is a partner of Lever VC, a U.S.-Asian investor focused on the new food companies. He said Chinese customers will try new, different foods more easily than people in other countries.
Beyond Meat makes burgers and sausages from pea protein. Its sales in Hong Kong increased by 300 percent last year, said Beyond Meat’s David Yeung.
Another competitor, Impossible Foods, says its soy burgers will remove the need to use animals for food and make the global food system sustainable.
The group has received around $450 million in funding since 2011. Investments have come from Lee Ka-shing’s Horizons Ventures and Google Ventures.
Growing fish to meet Asian tastes
Hong Kong-based Avant Meats uses cell technology to replace fish and seafood products. This process uses the stem cells from an animal to grow meat in a laboratory. Avant Meats is developing a cell-based fish parts sample to be introduced later this year, its chief executive Carrie Chan told Reuters. The fish parts are popular in Asian soups and stews.
Right Treat, another Hong Kong company headed by David Yeung, is seeking to replace Asia’s favorite meat – pork. The new product, called “Omnipork,” combines mushrooms, peas and rice for people to use in dumplings and meatballs.
Since Omnipork was first sold in Hong Kong in April 2018, sales have tripled – in other words, increased by three times.
“If we want to change the world, we must find ways to shift Asian diet and consumption, which means we must find ways to reduce Asia’s dependence on pork and other meat products,” said Yeung.
Supporters of plant-based protein say meat substitutes are healthier for people. They also use less water, produce fewer greenhouse gases and use less land than producing the same amount of meat.
Consumers, however, must be willing to pay a little more. Both Omnipork and Impossible Burger are more expensive than the meats they replace.
I’m Jill Robbins.View -
WOW Airlines Collapses, Leaving Thousands Without Flights Iceland’s WOW air suspended operations and cancelled all its flights on Thursday without warning.
The move left thousands of passengers in North America and Europe without transportation.
In a statement on its website, the airline company told passengers there would be no more flights. It advised them to find flights with other airlines.
WOW air was the creation of Icelandic businessman Skuli Mogensen. The airline was founded in late 2011, with its first flight coming six months later.
The company specialized in low-cost travel across the Atlantic Ocean. Its main cities were Reykjavik, London, Paris, New York and Washington, D.C.
In 2013, the airline grew as a result of its low ticket prices and a marketing campaign aimed at making Iceland a popular destination for foreign travelers.
WOW air flew travelers to a total of 16 cities in 2015. By 2018, it offered flights to 36 destinations in Europe, North America and Asia. The company reported a 60 percent increase in passenger numbers.
But then those numbers began to fall, and the company began having difficulties with its finances.
Wow Air announced a pre-tax loss of almost $60 million in the first half of 2018. It was forced to fly fewer airplanes and pay back more debt.
By 2019, the number of planes was cut from 20 to 11 and the company stopped serving several cities, including some in the United States. It also cut jobs.
For the past six months, Mogensen had been seeking investors to keep the airline in the sky.
The first interested buyer was Icelandair. When those negotiations failed, the American company operating the airline Wizz, Indigo Partners, expressed interest, but also passed on investing. Icelandair reconsidered its decision, but by this morning those negotiations collapsed.
“I will never forgive myself for not acting sooner,” Mogensen said in a letter to employees Thursday. “WOW was clearly an incredible airline, and we were on the path to doing amazing things again.”
More than 1,000 people will lose their jobs.
WOW air grounded at least six planes that were set to fly late Wednesday from six airports in North America.
In Europe, flights to Iceland from seven cities did not take off Thursday morning.
Passenger Kimberly Worthy was waiting at the airport in Iceland. She told CNN television she was supposed to fly home to Atlanta.
“I arrived and there were no signs for WOW and when I asked about how to check in, the only response I got was: Check your email. Wow doesn't fly here anymore,” she said.
I’m Alice Bryant.View -
US Nuclear Waste Dump Marks 20 Years Many years ago, the United States government started a project aimed at proving that nuclear waste can be safely left underground.
The government approved plans to set up a processing center, known as the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, or WIPP, in the New Mexico desert. The plant received its first shipment of radioactive waste in March of 1999.
Twenty years later, workers have stored more than 12,380 shipments of waste in the plant’s underground salt caverns.
What is WIPP?
WIPP is the U.S. government's only permanent underground storage area registered to take what is called transuranic waste. The term transuranic means waste made by the nation’s nuclear weapons program that has only radioactive elements heavier than uranium.
The nuclear waste repository was cut out of an ancient salt formation about eight-tenths of a kilometer below the desert. The idea was that the salt would eventually completely contain the waste.
Peter Swift is a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. He worked on the development of WIPP. He noted that it was "exciting" to work on "what was then going to be the world's first deep-geologic repository for that class of waste." Swift added that "nothing that radioactive had been put that deep underground before. And that's still true 20 years later."
J.R. Stroble is the head of business operations at the Department of Energy's Carlsbad Field Office in New Mexico. He told the Associated Press that the goal of WIPP is to prevent radioactive waste from reaching "people and the things people need in order to live life on Earth."
Stroble and others in the communities surrounding WIPP strongly believe that the plant is a success. They point to 22 areas around the nation that have been cleaned up because of WIPP's storage capabilities.
One example is Rocky Flats, a former nuclear weapons plant outside Denver, Colorado. It had a history of leaks, spills and other violations.
Problems and Criticism of WIPP
For critics, the success of WIPP is not clear.
Don Hancock works with the Southwest Research and Information Center, a watchdog group. He notes that WIPP is "80 percent through its lifetime, and it has disposed of less than 40 percent of the waste and has cost more than twice as much as it was supposed to."
"How great of a success is that?" he asked.
A 2014 radiation leak at WIPP forced a costly, nearly three-year closure.
More recently, the Department of Energy said it would investigate reports that workers may have been exposed to dangerous chemicals last year.
Hancock says a large problem is that the federal government and nuclear power plants keep producing more waste.
"How much nuclear power waste are we going to create, how much nuclear weapons waste are we going to create?" Hancock asked. He noted the importance of knowing answers to those questions, "so that we can then put our arms around the problem."
I'm John Russell.View -
Mother Russia: South Florida Experiences a Rise in ‘Birth Tourism’ Every year, hundreds of pregnant Russian women travel to the United States to give birth.
The reason: The U.S. Constitution gives citizenship to any person born on American soil.
The women pay anywhere from $20,000 to as much as $50,000 to people who take care of their travel documents, hotels and hospital stays, often in Florida.
Their children will be receive rights not available to children born in Russia. The parents may also benefit someday as well.
The Russians are part of the new wave of “birth tourists” that includes large numbers of women from China and Nigeria.
President Donald Trump has spoken out against the part of the U.S. Constitution that permits “birthright citizenship”. The president has talked about ending it, but changing the constitution would be very difficult.
There have been few cases of officials arresting operators of birth tourism agencies for violating visa rules or other crimes. But coming to the United States to give birth is legal. Russians who talked to The Associated Press (AP) said they were honest when asking for visas and some showed signed documents with doctors and hospitals.
There are no numbers on how many women travel to the United States to give birth. The Center for Immigration Studies estimated that in 2012, more than 35,000 foreign women entered the U.S. to give birth and then left the country.
The Center for Immigration Studies works for stronger immigration laws.
The number of Russian women is relatively large. Anton Yachmenev sets up such trips for the Miami Care company. He told the AP that about 150 Russian families a year use his service. He added there are 30 similar companies in the area.
“With $30,000, we would not be able to buy a (house) for our child or do anything, really. But we could give her freedom. That’s actually really cool,” said Olga Zemlyanaya. She gave birth to a daughter three months ago. She was staying in South Florida until her child receives a U.S. passport.
An American passport can prove useful. After the child turns 21 years of age, he or she can ask for a green card for his parents. A green card gives a non-citizen the right to live in the United States.
A U.S. passport also gives the holder more travel possibilities than a Russian one. Americans can make short-term trips to more than 180 countries without a visa, while Russians can go only to about 80 visa-free.
Traveling to the United States on a Russian passport often requires a lot of work to get the visa. It can take months.
Some Russians fear that their ability to travel could be restricted as problems grow between Russia and the west.
“… The country might well close its borders. And if that happens, one would at least have a passport of a different country and be able to leave,” said Ilya Zhegulev. He works for the Latvia-based Russian website Meduza, which is critical of the Russian government.
Last year, Zhegulev sold two cars to pay for a trip to California for him and his wife so she could give birth to their son.
Trump opposes birthright citizenship, but mostly when it comes to those who cross the U.S. border with Mexico. Last year, the president said he wanted to end birthright citizenship. He has not taken any action to do so.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other groups say Trump cannot change the constitution with an executive order.
But others, like the Center for Immigration Studies, which wants less immigration, said birthright citizenship is harmful.
“We should definitely do everything we can to end it, because it makes a mockery of citizenship,” said Mark Krikorian. He is the head of the Center for Immigration Studies.
People from Florida have shown no problem with the arrivals of expectant mothers from Russia.
Zemlyanaya said that even her two nights in the hospital were a treat, like “a stay in a good hotel.”
She was able to work at home during her stay thanks to the internet, as were the husbands of other women. This way they do not lose any wages while visiting the United States.
Yachmenev said he expects that birth tourism rate among Russians will only grow.
I'm Susan Shand.View