Learning English

Georgia's 'foreign agent' law

Thousands of protesters in Georgia are angry about a new so-called 'foreign agent' law

ነቲ ቪድዮ ብምዕዛብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

NEWS REVIEW PODCAST NOW AVAILABLE - SUBSCRIBE HERE

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you like that? Why not try these?

• Brazil floods
• Healthy living and DNA
• Milan ice cream ban

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Click here to find out how to use News Review in class

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

(Images: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The story  

Georgia’s parliament has passed a new so-called 'foreign agent' law.

It would mean media and nongovernmental organisations which receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad, will have to be registered and monitored.

Comparisons have been made with Russian laws which the Kremlin has used to control its critics.

Protesters worry civil rights and Georgia’s chances of joining the European Union will be threatened.

Key words and phrases

sounds alarm

warns people

• Scientists have been sounding the alarm about the effects of climate change on the polar ice caps for decades.
• Economists are sounding the alarm over growing income inequality.

 green lights

gives permission

• The government decided to green light the construction of a new motorway.
• After much consideration, her manager green lighted her project proposal.

 stand-off

a situation where opposing sides can’t agree

• The stand-off between the rival gangs eventually escalated into violence.
• The workers and their management finally reached a resolution after a long stand-off.

To do

Try our quiz to test yourself on today's language.

Downloads

You can download the audio and PDF document for this episode.

More

We hope you enjoyed News Review. You can find more episodes here.