Ted: Welcome back to another episode of Babbel News – English Only. I’m Ted, your language expert here at Babbel. Like always, we’re bringing you two more English news stories, sourced from Reuters. So you have an idea of what you’re going to hear, I’ll introduce the topics of today’s episode here in the intro. Then, before each clip, I’ll go a bit deeper, explaining key words and phrases that you should listen for during the stories. So, here are the topics for today!

We’ll start off by heading to Senegal, in West Africa, where people are protesting against a possible third term for their current president. Then, we’ll hear about how an unusually wet winter is causing big problems in California.

Remember that it’s totally normal if you don’t understand every single word the first time you listen. Just work on understanding the main idea at first, and then go back and listen again as many times as you need to get the rest. And, of course, there’s a transcript for this episode, so you can read and listen at the same time. The link is in the episode description.

Sitting comfortably? Ready to focus? Then let’s go!

Here are some key words and phrases to listen for in our first story. First up we have “controversial”, which describes something that causes a lot of anger and disagreement. And what is “controversial” in this clip? A third “term”, or time in office, for the current president. After that, you’ll hear the word “unconstitutional”, or something that isn’t allowed by a country’s constitution, its basic laws and rules. A bit later in the clip, there’s “clout”, another word for power or popularity. Right after that we have “disillusioned”, used to describe people who are disappointed with something, usually their government or politics in general, because it’s not as good as they had expected. Up next is “libel”, or the crime of writing untrue things about someone, giving people a bad opinion of them. And your last phrase from this story is “a false accusation”, or an untrue claim that someone has done something wrong. Don’t forget to look up any other words you don’t know in a dictionary after listening. Let’s make our way to Senegal for our first piece of news!

Reuters: Over 10,000 people gathered in Senegal's capital on Tuesday for the first of three planned days of protest. They're supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. This demonstration is the latest expression of tensions in the run-up to a 2024 election.

That vote could see President Macky Sall run for a controversial third term. That would be unconstitutional, says the opposition.
Khadidatou Faye was among crowds who gathered at a field in Dakar.

"We ask Macky Sall to simply stop, he is done. He must stop this third term business. He must let others run and he must let Ousmane Sonko be a candidate. No to the third term."

Sall has declined to comment on whether he plans to run.
The election would pit him against an opposition field led by Sonko. He came third in the last election but has since gained clout, particularly among disillusioned urban youth.

"We are tired. We don't have jobs. Life is expensive and everything is hard. We have a president who locks up its youth. We are tired."

Sonko is due in court Thursday to resume hearings related to libel charges. Sonko is also facing trial on charges of rape and making death threats to a beauty salon employee in 2021, which he denies.

President Sall's opponents accuse him of trying to weaken the competition with false accusations and political trials ahead of the election – which the government rejects.

Ted: Alright, here we go with the vocabulary from our second news story for today! To start off, we have the verb “to dangle”, or to hang freely from a single point. Next, there’s “a landslide”, when rocks or soil fall down the side of a hill or mountain, damaging anything in the way, including “properties”, another way to say homes or buildings. After that comes the adjective “tremendous”, another word for huge, or extremely large. Moving on, we have the phrase “to get pounded”, or to be hit very hard by something, which is often used to describe bad weather. And, finally, the last piece of vocabulary for today is “havoc”, or a confusing and dangerous situation. With that, let’s hear the second story.

Reuters: A swimming pool dangling off the cliff is a rare sight in California, but one was hanging over the edge after landslides and an evacuation around properties in the beachfront community of San Clemente.

Thanh Nguyen is the fire captain with Orange County Fire Authority. "This season we've had a tremendous amount of rain and I don't think we're done with it yet.”
 
The West Coast is getting pounded by an usually wet season following two decades of drought, creating havoc on roads, endangering homes and residents.
 
In the city of Porterville, long-time resident Ralph McLughlin was watching the nearby Tule River rise. “We hate to think about leaving and just the flood, you know, and it getting worse and taking everything out. I mean, you know, when it floods and goes into buildings like that, you know what can happen? Nothing good happens.”

Evacuation orders have been issued for the residents of Porterville, and McLughlin says they’re worried. “People are in shock more than anything else, and it's just… they're scared to death. I mean, you know, about… a lot of them lost property, I mean, a lot of them lost vehicles and stuff.”

Ted: That’s all for today, listeners! As usual, I hope you learned something new, and that you enjoyed yourself while doing it! And don’t forget, if the audio feels a little bit fast for you, you can simply reduce the playback speed in your podcast player to give your brain a little more time to catch up. Give it a try and see how it works! And if you want more practice, come back next week for another episode of Babbel News – English Only. Thanks for listening. Bye!