Episodes
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Can you dream in another language?
At first glance, it may not seem surprising that many multilinguals who juggle different languages during the day, and even people who are only beginning to learn a foreign language, also use those languages in their dreams. After all, the language we speak during the day generally carries over into our nights. A study of deaf people and people with hearing loss found, for example, that they communicated in dreams as they did when awake, through sign language.
Many of us seem to categorise our dream languages in certain ways, by person, location or life stage. For example, the people in the dream may speak the languages they would speak in real life, while dreams about one's childhood home tend to be in one's childhood language.
There are also linguistic anxiety dreams, in which the speaker struggles to make themselves understood in a foreign language, has to catch a train or plane from one linguistic setting to another, or looks for words in a dream dictionary. A Polish study participant reported dreaming of an English word she couldn't figure out – "haphazard" – then looking it up when awake. A Croatian participant dreamed of trying and failing to communicate with a stranger in Italian, German and English before realising they both spoke Polish, and laughing with relief.
To understand the link between sleep and language, let's start with just one language: your own. You may think you mastered your native language long ago, but you are actually still constantly updating it. Even adults still learn about one new word every two days in their mother tongue.
"Obviously when we're children there's a lot of new word learning, particularly over the first 10 years. But we're doing this all the time, we just don't really notice," says Gareth Gaskell, a psychology professor who leads the sleep language and memory lab at the University of York.
I think:
If you dream about a language you are learning, this can be a good sign. People tend to dream about events from their lives, especially things that happened the day before. You are more likely to have dreams related to your new language if you practice that language regularly.
It may also mean that you are absorbing the language's vocabulary and grammar to the point that you can have basic conversations and think in your new language. Some multilinguals say they have dreams in different languages they know, so as you become more familiar with a language, it can appear more often in your dreams.
What do you think? -
Families search for loved ones in rubble after earthquake.
Rescuers working in freezing temperatures dig through the remains of buildings flattened in Turkey by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
Desperate and cold from the snow lying thick on the ground, relatives of earthquake victims in the Turkish city of Malatya expressed their frustration on Tuesday at what they said was the lack of help as they searched for missing loved ones.
With no specialist equipment or even gloves or winter clothing, they tried to pick through the wreckage of homes crumpled by the force of the earthquake that struck Turkey on Monday, killing thousands of people.
“There is not even a single person here. We are under the snow, without a home, without anything,” said Murat Alinak, whose home has collapsed and whose relatives are missing. “What shall I do, where can I go?”
Turkish authorities say some 13.5 million people have been affected in an area spanning roughly 450km (280 miles) from Adana in the west to Diyarbakir in the east, and 300km (186 miles) from Malatya in the north to Hatay in the south.
Bleak winter weather and damaged roads between some of the worst-hit cities, home to millions of people, were hindering efforts to assess the impact and plan help after the deadliest earthquake in Turkey since 1999.
Ahmet Alinak, speaking, like the others, before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the state of emergency, said : two of his nephews were trapped in a collapsed building.
He said: There is no one here, we are all doomed,” “This is not what we expected from the state. No matter how big the earthquake was, mobilisation of all people was necessary.”
Erdogan declared the three-month state of emergency to cover Turkey’s 10 southern provinces and called it a disaster zone in a move meant to bolster rescue efforts.
He said 70 countries had offered help in search and rescue operations and that Turkey planned to open up hotels in the tourism hub of Antalya to temporarily house people.
Turkey’s disaster and emergency authority has erected tents in Malatya to shelter those who have lost their homes.
I expect the damage caused by the earthquake to be greater than Turkey's ability as a country to respond quickly to rescue those trapped under the rubble. Turkey and Syria need urgent rescue teams from all countries. -
Missing episodes?
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Ukraine war: Hiding from Putin's call-up by living off-grid in a freezing forest.
When Vladimir Putin announced a partial mobilisation of Russian men in September last year, it took Adam Kalinin (not his real name ) a week to decide that the best thing he could do was move to the forest.
The IT specialist was against the war from the start, receiving a fine and spending two weeks in detention for sticking a poster saying "No to war" on the wall of his apartment building.
So when Russia said it was calling up 300,000 men to help turn things around in a war it was losing, Kalinin did not want to risk being sent to the front line to kill Ukrainians.
But, unlike hundreds of thousands of others, he did not want to leave the country.
Three things kept him in Russia: friends, financial constraints and an unease about abandoning what he knows.
"Leaving would have been a difficult step out of my comfort zone,"said Kalinin, who is in his thirties, told the BBC. "It isn't exactly comfortable here either but nevertheless, psychologically, it would be really hard to leave."
And so he took the unusual step of saying goodbye to his wife and heading for the forest, where he has lived in a tent for nearly four months.
He uses an antenna tied to a tree for internet access and solar panels for energy.
He has endured temperatures as low as -11C (12F) and exists on food supplies brought to him regularly by his wife.
Living off-grid, he says, is the best way he can think of to avoid being called up. If the authorities can't hand him a summons in person, he can't be forced to go to war.
In some ways, Kalinin continues his life as before. He still works eight hours a day in the same job, although throughout winter - with its limited daylight - he doesn't have enough solar power to work full days and so makes up his hours on the weekend.
Some of his colleagues are now in Kazakhstan, having also left Russia after mobilisation began, but his internet connection via a long-range antenna strapped to a pine tree is reliable enough that communication is not a problem.
He is also a lover of the outdoors, spending many of his past holidays camping in southern Russia with his wife. When he made the decision to move permanently to the wilderness, he already had much of the equipment he needed.
I think Kalinin made the right decision, that he doesn’t join Putin's Army. The other details it doesn’t a matter.
What do you think? -
A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a man in his 60s died following the suspected robbery of his mobility scooter.
Police were called shortly before 6am on Sunday to a report a man had been found unresponsive in the car park of a Tesco superstore on Stratford Road in Stroud.
The man was found without his mobility scooter and was taken to Hospital by paramedics, where he died later in the day.
His next of kin have been informed.
Police believe the victim was subject of a robbery and his mobility scooter, which he used as a mode of transport, was taken.
A woman from Stroud has been arrested on suspicion of robbery and murder and remains in police custody.
The force said: 'Police are keen to hear from people who saw a black mobility scooter being used by anyone in the area between around 2am and 4am yesterday... It is described as having four wheels, a basket on the front and arm rests.
'A mobility scooter, which is believed to belong to the victim, was found by a member of the public later that morning, shortly before 8am, abandoned on Bisley Old Road.
'Officers are in the early stages of a murder investigation which is being led by the Major Crime Investigation Team.
'Investigating officers are asking for anyone who lives in the area to review their doorbell cameras and CCTV to see if they have any footage of the mobility scooter or it being driven which may assist the ongoing investigation.'
Police are also keen to hear from any motorists who were driving in the area and may have dashcam footage. -
Syrian refugee who lived in airport gains Canadian citizenship.
Wednesday marks a long-awaited milestone for Syrian refugee Hassan Al Kontar. After years of uncertainty – including seven months spent stranded in a Malaysia airport – Al Kontar has finally become a Canadian citizen.
“Today is kind of a declaration of winning after all these years,” Kontar told Al Jazeera during a phone call just before the citizenship ceremony. “Today I am stateless no more.”
Now 41 years old, Al Kontar first gained the world’s attention in 2018 when he started to chronicle his ordeal in the airport on social media. Having fled the war in Syria, Al Kontar found himself stuck in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport without legal immigration papers, unable to leave or travel to another country.
His posts attracted sympathy from around the world and drew attention to the labyrinthine process many asylum seekers navigate as they try to escape violence and persecution.
As he prepared to take Canada’s oath of citizenship on Wednesday, Al Kontar said:
“For this, I lost a destroyed country. I was not able to be there for my father when he needed me the most or to be by his side when he passed away. I watched my brother’s wedding over Skype when I was stuck at the airport. I was jailed and faced a racist system,”.
More than 350,000 people have been killed in the war and more than 13 million Syrians have been displaced, according to the United Nations. Part Of them, more than 6.6 million are outside of the country, with many stuck in refugee camps and trapped in legal limbo.
Al Kontar told Al Jazeera that, instead of receiving support and assistance, Syrian refugees have often found themselves shut out as countries heighten immigration restrictions and seek to keep asylum seekers at arm’s length.
Many have risked their lives in desperate efforts to reach Europe, embarking on deadly journeys and frequently paying with their lives. Those who arrive safely face an uncertain future. Countries like Denmark have tried to send asylum seekers back to war-torn Syria.
What do you think about alkontar story? -
The United Nations has called on Greece to drop all charges against 24 migrant rescue workers accused of espionage, as hearings of a long-delayed trial resumed on Friday on the island of Lesbos
Those on trial include prominent Syrian human rights worker Sarah Mardini, a refugee and competitive swimmer whose sister Yusra Mardini was part of the refugee swimming team at the Olympic Games in 2016 and 2021.
The Syrian siblings were celebrated for their efforts to save 18 fellow passengers when they helped drag their sinking refugee dinghy to safety on the journey from Turkey to Greece in 2015. Their story was later turned into the Netflix film – The Swimmers.
“Trials like these are deeply concerning because they criminalise life-saving work and set a dangerous precedent. Indeed, there has already been a chilling effect,” UN rights office spokeswoman Liz Throssell told reporters at a briefing in Geneva, calling for “all charges against all defendants” to be dropped.
The Greek and foreign defendants argue they were doing nothing more than assisting people whose lives were at risk.
The Greek trial is “emblematic of a broader trend towards the EU disrupting people’s journeys and deterring people from reaching Europe, often leaving them trapped in dire conditions or at risk at sea, rather than protecting them along their journeys or providing routes to safety”, he said.
Greece, which saw about a million people cross to its shores from neighbouring Turkey at the height of a refugee crisis in 2015, has clamped down on migration, erecting a fence along much of its land border with Turkey and increasing sea patrols near its islands.
Greek officials say they have a strict but fair migration policy.
They also deny, despite increasing evidence to the contrary, conducting illegal summary deportations of people arriving on Greek territory without allowing them to apply for asylum, a procedure known as “pushbacks”. -
Five dead after boat carrying refugees sinks off Tunisia’s coast.
At least five people have died and 10 are missing after an overcrowded boat carrying refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia to Italy sank.
The boat sank off of Louata, in the Sfax region, a Tunisian judicial official said on Saturday. Another 20 people were rescued by the Tunisian coastguard.
The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing poverty and conflict in Africa and the Middle East for a shot at a better life in Europe.
More than 25,000 people have died or went missing trying to cross the Mediterranean since 2014, according to data collected by the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.
Soaring inflation and food shortages have compounded unrest amid the North African country’s continuing political crisis. Tunisia’s President Kais Saied has been threatening democratic institutions, sending the economy into a tailspin.
While the number of crossings in the central Mediterranean rises, Italy’s right-wing government has approved new measures to fine charities who rescue asylum seekers at sea and impound their ships if they break new rules, possibly putting thousands of people’s lives in danger.
Since Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October, the government has targeted the activities of sea rescue charities, accusing them of facilitating the work of people traffickers amid a surge in arrivals. The charities dismiss the allegations.
At least 102,000 asylum seekers disembarked in Italy in 2022, according to interior ministry data, compared with about 66,500 in the same period last year. -
#Learn_english. Prince Harry reveals he killed 25 in Afghanistan:
Prince Harry admitted to killing 25 people during his military service, confessing he is neither proud nor ashamed of it.
Prince Harry has acknowledged killing 25 people in Afghanistan during his time as an Apache helicopter pilot, according to the United Kingdom’s media.
Harry, the duke of Sussex, served in Afghanistan first as a forward air controller in air raids from 2007-2008, then flying the attack helicopter between 2012-2013.
The 38-year-old is due to release a book, Spare, in the next week, in which he revealed that he undertook six missions as a pilot that led to him “taking human lives”, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Harry said he was neither proud nor ashamed of doing so. He also described eliminating the targets as like removing “chess pieces” from a board.
The prince has also claimed his elder brother and heir to the throne, Prince William, knocked him to the floor during a 2019 argument about Harry’s wife Meghan, according to the Guardian.
There have been security concerns because of Harry’s military service, which are likely to increase after he revealed the number of people he has killed during that time.
My opinion on the abuses of British and American soldiers in Afghanistan. There are a lot of crimes committed by soldiers in Afghanistan. And they will not be held accountable for these crimes because they have blue eyes. The judge is the same as the criminal who hands out medals of honor.
What do you think?
