Politics this week (2020.05.23) Part.03

The prime minister of Lesotho, Thomas Thabane, resigned after battling to stay in power despite claims he was involved in the murder of his ex-wife.

• Lesotho
  • 莱索托🇱🇸
• claim
  • a statement that sth is true although it has not been proved and other people may not agree with or believe it 声称

Nelson Teich quit as Brazil’s health minister after just one month in the job. The country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, sacked the previous minister, who had pushed for stronger action against covid-19. The president and Mr Teich were also at odds. Brazil’s almost 300,000 confirmed cases are the third-highest number in the world.

• sack
  • (informal) 解雇，炒鱿鱼
• push (sb) for sth
  • （向某人）反复要求，施压争取……
• be at odds (with sb) (over/on sth)
  • （就某事）与……有分歧

El Salvador‘s Supreme Court suspended an order from the president, Nayib Bukele, to extend a state of emergency, ruling that he must seek the approval of the Legislative Assembly. The legislature then passed a law to hasten the economy’s reopening, which Mr Bukele said he would veto.

• El Salvador
  • 塞尔瓦多🇸🇻
• suspend
  • 中止，使暂停发挥作用
  • 推迟，暂缓
• rule
  • 决定，判决
• Assembly
  • a number of people gathered together, esp for a formal meeting held at regular intervals 立法机构；会议；议会
• hasten
  • 促进，使加快
• veto
  • 行使否决权，拒绝认可

Reseachers in Argentina found fossils of an undiscovered type of megaraptor (large carnivorous dinosaur) in Patagonia. The dinosaur lived 70m years ago, was ten metres long and had 40cm claws. Megaraptors were slimmer than the Tyrannosaurus rex, and more prepared to race “with long tails to help them maintain balance”.

• fossil
  • 化石
• megaraptor
  • 大盗龙属，又名大猛龙
• carnivorous
  • 肉食性的，食肉的
• claw
  • 爪子
• Tyrannosaurus rex
  • 霸王龙，是霸王龙属（Tyrannosaurus）目前仅有的一个有效物种，名字的拉丁文含义是“蜥蜴中的暴君”
  • tyrant
    • 暴君
  • [Greek] sauros: lizard 蜥蜴
• race
  • 赛跑，速度竞赛

Coronavirus briefs

The Chinese city of Shulan was put under a strict lockdown after an outbreak of covid-19.

Infections in Russia surged to a cumulative total of 310,000.

Protests erupted in a poor suburb of Santiago, Chile’s capital, over food shortages caused by the lockdown.

Donald Trump said he was taking hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, to ward off covid-19. Doctors warned that this is unsafe.

America’s House of Representatives is to allow remote voting for the first time.

Captain Tom Moore, a war veteran who walked laps of his garden ahead of his 100th birthday to raise money for Britain’s health service, was awarded a knighthood. Captain Tom’s quest went viral, raising ￡32m ($39m), and cheering up a nation.

• erupt
  • 突然发生，爆发
  • （火山）爆发；（岩浆、烟等）喷出
• suburb
  • 郊区，城外
• hydroxychloroquine
  • 羟氯喹
• malaria
  • 疟疾
• ward sb/sth ↔ off
  • 防止，避免，抵御（危险、疾病、攻击等）
• House of Representatives
  • 众议院
• knighthood
  • （英国）爵士头衔，骑士头衔，爵士称号，骑士称号
• go viral
  • (of a video, image, story, etc) to spread quickly and widely among internet users via social networking sites, e-mail, etc 通过互联网快速广泛地传播