Ted: Hey. Welcome to Babbel News – English Only. I’m Ted, language expert here at Babbel, and I’ve got two more news stories for you today, sourced from Reuters.

Before we jump in, I’ll give you a quick introduction to the topics. That way, you’ll have an idea of what you’re going to hear. Then, directly before each clip, I’ll explain the most important words and phrases in more detail. Ready to hear the topics for today?
In our first story, you’ll hear about a young Australian woman who has a big dream: to convince Disney to create a princess character with disabilities. After that, we’ll make our way to Japan, where rice that can’t be eaten is being used to make low-carbon plastic.

When listening to the episode for the first time, focus on understanding the main idea of each news story. Then, to make sure you’ve understood the rest, you can go back and listen again – once, twice, or as many times as you need! Don’t forget that there’s a transcript for each episode, so you can read along while you listen. You can find the link in the episode description.

Alright. Get comfortable, get focused, and let’s begin.

Here are your key words and phrases from the first story. The first one is “cerebral palsy”, a condition that often makes it difficult for a person to walk or to hold their body in a straight position. Next up is the verb “to campaign”, or to organize different activities to try to make something happen. Then, there’s “disability”, a physical or mental condition that makes it hard for someone to do the same things as people who don’t have disabilities, and it’s usually permanent. A bit later in the story, you’ll hear the phrase “to call somebody out”, which means to criticize someone or to ask them to explain their actions. And the last piece of vocab from this clip is “ableist slur”. If something is “ableist”, it is unfair or harmful to people with disabilities, and a “slur” is a word or phrase meant to insult or hurt someone. As always, if you come across any other words that you don’t know, look them up in a dictionary after listening. With that, let’s hear the story!

Reuters: "The number 63,957 signatures is wild. It's the closest I will ever feel to a rock star."

Meet Hannah Diviney, a cerebral palsy advocate from Australia.
The 23-year-old has been campaigning for Disney to create a princess with disabilities.

"And the reason for that specifically is because Disney princesses are the ones that get the most visibility."

Diviney was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth. The condition affects a person's ability to move and maintain posture, and affects around 0.1% of Australia's near 26 million population.

"I kind of remembered that when I was originally diagnosed with cerebral palsy, the diagnosis my parents were given was that I would never walk, talk, or feed myself. But obviously you can tell that, like, that diagnosis didn't eventuate quite how it was predicted to. I have the literal privilege of being able to have a voice that is easily understood."

Diviney says she believes her journey towards love and self-acceptance would have been different if she’d seen positive representation of people like her in movies while growing up. The Sydney resident began an online campaign for Disney to create a princess character with disabilities in 2020.

The petition has now received 64,000 signatures, with Hollywood actors Reese Witherspoon, Jameela Jamil, and Mark Hamill giving the cause their backing. In 2022, Diviney called out singers Beyonce and Lizzo on Twitter for using an ableist slur in their songs. Her tweets went viral. And both artists later removed the slur and recorded the songs again.

Besides campaigning, Diviney also works as an editor for an online news platform for women and recently starred in Australian TV series Latecomers.
 
She says she wants to use her voice for good. “I hope that in the, kind of, decades to come there will be loads of disabled people, some of whom might not even be born yet, who are able to have bigger, better, easier, more inclusive lives because of things that I did."

Ted: Now, let’s go over some of the vocabulary from our next story. If something is “deemed unsuitable for consumption”, it is thought to be unsafe to eat. After that, there’s the adjective “steady”, and it describes something that doesn’t change but continues in the same condition. Our next phrase is “to trigger a meltdown”. In this case, “to trigger” means to cause, and “a meltdown” is a catastrophic failure in a nuclear power plant that releases radiation into the environment, like what happened in Fukushima in 2011. You’ll also hear the phrase “off-limits” to describe an area of land that people are not allowed to enter. Then comes the word “cutlery”, or knives, forks, and spoons used for eating. And to finish off, there’s “strict”. If a rule or a limit is “strict”, it must be followed exactly. Can you pick out what kind of “strict” limit they speak about in this story? Remember that you can go back and listen again if you miss it! And now, we’re off to Japan!

Reuters: 85-year-old farmer Jinichi Abe is watching his rice fields return to productivity for the first time since 2011, when the Fukushima disaster covered the area with radiation. The rice grown here has been deemed unsuitable for consumption due to health worries.

But now, he has a steady buyer again. Not to grow rice for eating, but to turn it into low-carbon plastic.

"I wanted to do my part against plastic waste. Another reason was for the reconstruction of Namie."
 
Abe’s town of Namie is still struggling to recover from the 2011 disaster, when a tsunami triggered a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Parts of Namie lie only two and a half miles from the plant, and some 80% of the town's land currently remains off-limits. Today, less than 2,000 people live in the town, compared with 21,000 before the disaster.
 
But November 2022 was a turning point. A company based in Tokyo, called Biomass Resin, opened a factory in Namie. Here, rice is combined with small plastic beads, heated, and kneaded before it’s extruded into thin rods that are cooled and cut into tiny brown pellets.

The pellets, which are either 50% or 70% rice, are then sent to companies which manufacture plastic goods. The raw materials are reborn as low-carbon plastic cutlery and take-out containers used by major firms across Japan. They’re used in chain restaurants, souvenirs sold at one of Japan's largest airports, and most recently, in shopping bags at a BMW pop-up showroom in Tokyo.

While the plastic isn't biodegradable, using rice cuts down on petroleum products, and growing more rice in Namie also reduces overall atmospheric CO2. Experts said additional testing has found no rice registering above strict radioactive limits – meaning the plastic is also fine too.

For the town of Namie, the revival of industry is vital. Biomass Resin employs ten people in Namie and hopes to expand. It currently uses only about 55 tons of Namie rice – the rest of the 1,700 tons needed are mainly from elsewhere in Fukushima. But it will be buying more next year from Abe and his cooperative, grown on these freshly cleared fields.

Ted: That brings us to the end of this week’s episode. I hope you liked the stories and that you learned a few new words and phrases along the way. Remember to try some of the listening strategies we’ve mentioned this season, like using the transcript, writing unfamiliar words down and looking them up in a dictionary, or adjusting the speed of the audio in your podcast player. You’re sure to see progress if you keep it up! So, thanks again for listening today. We’ll be back again next week with more news in English. See you then!