Week two - US, Cuba relation

President Obama Declares a 'New Day' in U.S.-Cuba Relations After Castro Meeting

Maya Rhodan  Mar 22, 2016 3:17 AM

President Barack Obama hailed "a new day" in the relations between the U.S. and Cuba on Monday as he spoke alongside Cuban President Raúl Castro following a historic bilateral meeting.

"For more than half a century, the sight of a U.S. President in Havana would have been unimaginable, but this is a new day," Obama said.

The leaders' remarks followed a bilateral meeting at the Revolutionary Palace on Monday, the first major event of Obama's historic trip to the island nation. He is the first U.S. President to visit Cuba in 88 years.

Both leaders made clear that though profound differences between the two countries remain, they hope to find common ground as they improve relations.

The issue of human rights is the biggest disagreement between the U.S. and Cuba, given Cuba's detention of political prisoners. During a question-and-answer session, Castro was asked about political prisoners, but he denied that any were being held, and asked the reporter who asked the question to provide him with a list.

Castro also went on the attack against the U.S., criticizing Americans for "political manipulation and double standards" on human rights and calling the lack of access to health care, education and equal pay in the U.S. "inexcusable."

Obama implied that both countries have work to do to further normalize relations."The U.S. will continue to speak up on behalf of democracy," he said, "including the right of the Cuban people to decide their own future."

http://time.com/4266394/obama-cuba-castro-meeting/?iid=sr-link1

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- President Obama and President Raúl Castro

WHEN- After 88 years

WHAT- President Obama first meet Cuba

WHY- "A new day" in the relationships between U.S and Cuba

WHERE- In Cuba

HOW-  By a historic bilateral meeting

keywords

1. alongside 在...旁邊

2. bilateral 雙方的
3. profound 意義深遠的
4. detention 監禁
5. session 會議
6. manipulation 操縱
7. lack 需要
8. access 進入
9. normalize 使正常化
10. democracy 民主精神

Week one - Alpha Go, Lee Sedol

IBM's Top Researcher: A Win for Computers Is a Win for Humans

     John E. Kelly Mar 21, 2016

Google's AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence system designed expressly to win the ancient Chinese game of Go, recently defeated grandmaster Lee Se-Dol four times during a five-game match. Go had been a pursuit of AI researchers for decades, and the computer scientists who achieved this impressive milestone deserve congratulations, as does Se-Dol for his vital role in this exhibition.

Despite these challenges, cognitive computing is already making a profound difference, augmenting the expertise of humans to help us tackle the messiness and complexity that is everyday life. What’s more, it promises to be an engine for high-value job creation, opening up entirely new domains for skilled data workers and a rich, open platform upon which developers can innovate.

Today’s most cutting-edge work is focused on augmenting humans’ ability to understand and act upon the complex systems that make up our world. Watson is an example of this advanced technology already at work. Shortly after the Jeopardy! matches aired, we set aside game buzzers in favor of tackling a series of important business and societal challenges around the world.Success will not be measured by how many games are won or lost, but rather the numbers of lives made healthier, students better educated, ecological disasters avoided and incidents of financial malfeasance prevented. Those are the victories that history will value most .

http://time.com/4264205/artificial-intelligence-games/?iid=sr-link2

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Google's AlphaGoWHEN- Not mention in the articalWHAT- AIWHY-To help humans in everyday lifeWHERE- GoogleHOW-  By artificial intelligence system

keywords

1. intelligence 智能

2. pursuit 工作

3. milestone 轉折點

4. cognitive 認識的

5. augment 增加

6. expertise 專門技術

7. messiness 混亂

8. domain 領域

9. innovate 創新

10. buzzer 嗡嗡作聲的東西

Week eight - Referendum

Britain Doesn’t Actually Have to Abide by the Results of the E.U. Referendum

But it will

•  Dan Stewart
 

June 24, 2016

The voters have spoken. Britain will leave the European Union, after some 17.4 million people put their ‘x’ beside Leave in polling stations up and down the country.But none of that necessarily matters. The whole thing could be called off.That’s because the referendum is not legally binding. In the U.K. only parliament gets to sets the laws, and the legislation that created the E.U. referendum did not say parliament had to act in accordance with the result.

So theoretically, this means Prime Minister David Cameron could decide to put the results of the referendum to a parliamentary vote, rather than going straight to the E.U. to ask to leave. The UK Parliament is thought to be about 3/4ths in favour of Remain so this would negate the result.

Or, MPs could use the threat of departure to negotiate the favourable deal with the E.U. that eluded David Cameron back in February. They could then put that deal to a second referendum, if they so wished. A petition calling for a second referendum has already garnered over 100,000 signatures, so they could still say they had popular support. And there’s a long history of other member states simply handing out another ballot paper when voters get the “wrong” result — in Ireland, for example, which reran a referendum on an E.U. treaty in 2001.Or, lastly, they could simply ignore the results of the referendum altogether and say it is too harmful to Britain’s economic and political future to go along with.

Here’s the thing — none of this is likely to happen. Cameron, or whoever replaces him, will almost certainly invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty (the mechanism for leaving the E.U.) or begin other negotiations designed to withdraw.

http://time.com/4381645/eu-referendum-brexit-sovereign-parliament-results/?iid=sr-link4

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Britain 

WHEN- after the vote

WHAT- leave E.U.

WHY- negative result

WHERE- UK

HOW-  by vote

keywords

1. referendum全民投票
2. parliament議會
3. legislation立法
4. accordance按照
5. favour 贊成
6. petition 請願
7. garnered 獲得
8. ballot選票
9. invoke調用
10. mechanism機制

Week seven - White Helmets

How the White Helmets of Syria Are Being Hunted in a Devastated Aleppo

'It's a catastrophe'

•  Jared Malsin / Istanbul @jmalsin
 

Sept. 25, 2016

It should have been a banner month for the White Helmets. The acclaimed Syrian volunteer rescue group is the subject of a documentary that was released on Netflix on Sept. 16. The organization is up for the Nobel Peace Prize next month, and a raft of celebrities including George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake petitioned the prize committee in support of the group’s nomination. On Sept. 22, the White Helmets, who are known inside Syria as the Civil Defense, won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the “alternative Nobel,” honoring the volunteers for their bravery in rushing to the aid of Syrian civilians under relentless bombardment. The group claims to have rescued some 60,000 people since 2013.

But now, the White Helmets have become the targets of that bombing. In the besieged rebel-held section of the city of Aleppo, at least three of the group’s four operations centers were damaged by airstrikes in one night. Many of their vehicles were destroyed. A fire station was heavily damaged. Even the rescue center featured in the Netflix documentary was destroyed.

The attacks are part of new, escalating chapter of the civil war in Syria, in which nearly half a million people have been killed since 2011. The current assault on eastern Aleppo began on the night of Sept. 19, when the Assad regime’s military declared an end to a partial ceasefire that went into effect a week earlier under an agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Russia. That night, regime and Russian aircraft resumed heavy bombardment of rebel-held areas, including an attack on a Red Crescent aid convoy in the rebel-held countryside west of Aleppo that killed at least 20 people and destroyed supplies intended to help more than 70,000 people.

http://time.com/4507009/aleppo-offensive-syria-white-helmets-attack/?iid=sr-link5

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- white helmets

WHEN-  Sept. 16.

WHAT- nomination of Nobel and target of bombing

WHY- rescue civilians from bombing

WHERE- Aleppo

HOW-  by Syrian volunteer rescue group

keywords

1. acclaimed 廣受好評的
2. documentary紀錄
3. petitioned 請願
4. nomination提名
5. alternative 替代
6. aid援助
7. relentless 狠
8. claims聲明
9. vehicles 汽車
10. regime政權

Week six - SpaceX

What SpaceX’s Rocket Explosion Means for Elon Musk

The technology billionaire runs two high-profile, innovative companies — but his rough summer shows he may be stretched too thin

• Kevin Kelleher 
  
 
Sept. 1, 2016

The SpaceX explosion is only the latest in a series of issues, both mechanical and financial, that has plagued SpaceX and Tesla, where Musk serves as CEO, as well as SolarCity, where Musk chairs the board and where his cousins serve as CEO and CTO. All three companies boast ambitious goals. SolarCity brings low-cost clean energy to the masses. Tesla aims to speed the transition to a sustainable-energy economy. SpaceX’s long-term goal is to make humans a multi-planetary species. Any one of these would be an audacious ambition for a corporate leader. All three at once may be a bit too much for any one human being.

That challenge doesn’t hinder Musk. Instead, it seems to spur him on. It’s like he’s sitting inside three racing cars at once – behind the wheel of two of them, a backseat driver in the third. Sometimes this leads to inspiring results, such as the breathtaking sight of a rocket landing agilely back on Earth after being launched to space. Other times it ends in a smoking wreck, as it did Thursday.

And yet, even this difficult trick is not enough of a challenge for Musk. He has consistently raised the bar for himself, by vowing a mission to Mars in two years, by angling to merge SolarCity with Tesla, and by doubling down on Tesla’s production goals. The problem for Musk in 2016 is, the bolder the goals become, the faster the crashes and glitches are coming.

http://time.com/4476888/elon-musk-spacex-explosion-tesla/?iid=sr-link2

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Elon Musk

WHEN- Thursday

WHAT- raised the bar for himself

WHY- SpaceX explosion

WHERE- SolarCity

HOW-  by vowing a mission to Mars in two years

keywords

1.financial 財政的

2.plague 困難

3. audacious 無畏的

4.spur 鞭策

5.agilely 敏捷的

6.wreck 損壞

7.merge 同化

8.doubling 加倍

9.bolder 更大膽

10.glitch 小故障

Week five - Paris Climate Change Conference

What to Know About the Paris Climate Change Conference

Over 40,000 people are meeting in Paris for a historic conference on climate change

• Justin Worland  
 

Nov. 29, 2015

More than 100 heads of government and 40,000 other attendees are meeting on Nov. 30 for the launch of the two-week United Nations conference on climate change. Negotiators expect the gathering, formally known as the 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to yield the most significant international agreement yet to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and slow the effect of climate change. But the negotiations are likely to be contentious as developed nations wrestle with developing ones in the effort to divide the global bill over global warming. Here’s what you need to know:

This isn’t the first time that there’s been a lot of hype surrounding international climate negotiations. Why are people so optimistic this time around?

Leaders of past climate summits tried to build top-down climate agreements in which countries would agree to broad guidelines to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Treaties borne out of that approach—like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which required developed countries to commit to binding greenhouse gas reduction targets—gave governments little flexibility in addressing climate change. Some countries, like the United States, opted not to participate in the agreement. Others, like Canada, ratified it, but ultimately ignored its provisions. Climate advocates set a 2009 conference in Denmark as an opportunity to achieve a comprehensive agreement that would actually lead to a reduction in emissions. But the conference was poorly organized and China and other countries refused to cooperate. In the end, the negotiations fell apart and the resulting Copenhagen Accord fell flat.

http://time.com/4123568/paris-climate-conference-preview/?iid=sr-link1

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- heads of government and other attendees

WHEN- Nov.30

WHAT- 21st Conference of Parties (COP 21)

WHY- global warming

WHERE- Paris

HOW-  by conferences 

keywords

1.attendees 出席者

2.negotiator 交涉者

3. yield 同意

4.emission 排放

5.wrestle 深思

6.hype 炒作

7.borne 負荷

8.opt 選擇

9. ultimately 最終

10.provision 條款

Week four - Leonardo DiCaprio

How Leonardo DiCaprio Got People to Care About Climate Change

The actor's speech broke the record on climate change discussion on Twitter, one study finds

Ashley Hoffman Aug.5.2016

It seems like Leonardo DiCaprio got a bunch of people to talk about the Earth more after he accepted the award for Best Actor at the Oscars in February.

In his acceptance speech, which he finally got to make after years of looking gracious every time he didn’t win, DiCaprio demanded action on climate change, and it caused a significant spike in online conversation about climate change online, a new study published in the journal Plos one finds. According to the research, the number of tweets about climate change following DiCaprio’s call surged after the speech. (While the media didn’t report on climate change any more than they already were after DiCaprio’s plea, tweets with the phrases “climate change” or “global warming” hit a record-breaking number.)

“Climate change is real, it is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species, and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating. We need to support leaders around the world who do not speak for the big polluters or the big corporations, but who speak for all of humanity, for the indigenous peoples of the world, for the billions and billions of underprivileged people who will be most affected by this, for our children’s children, and for those people out there whose voices have been drowned out by the politics of greed,” he said.

http://time.com/4441219/leonardo-dicaprio-oscars-climate-change/?iid=sr-link3

Structure of the Lead：

WHO- Leonardo DiCaprio

WHEN- after he accepted the award for Best Actor

WHAT-  a speech about climate change

WHY- Got People to Care About Climate Change

WHERE- at the Oscars

HOW-  by speech

keywords

1.a bunch of 一堆

2.gracious 親切的

3. significant 重要的

4.spike 阻止

5.surge 激增

6.urgent 緊急的

7.procrastinate 拖延

8.indigenous 本地的

9.underprivileged 社會底層的 

10.drowned out 淹沒