CZYTANIE 3 EN [#24]

What’s it like to serve in a multinational workplace? Before I came here I worked at the main logistics HQ in my country, which was a very different environment. NATO can be a test not so much because of the language barrier, but because work here requires all personnel to do their best while cooperating in teams to mitigate work challenges. Otherwise it is enjoyable and everybody is really friendly.

1. According to the soldier, service in a multinational workplace is ...

Climbers seeking a permit for Everest will need high altitude mountaineering experience and demonstrable training, a high level commission for the Nepalese government ruled. The recommendation was issued by a special panel after one of the deadliest seasons in recent years on Everest, which was blamed on inexperience and crowding near the summit. Eleven climbers were killed or disappeared on the 8,850-metre mountain last May.

2. The recent decision concerning Everest was made due to...

It happens when someone is cold calling you: knocks uninvited on your door and tries to sell you something or offers to do some work in your home or garden. It is about callers who are not genuine and who will try to trick you into giving them money for repair work. It takes place when a fraudster rings your doorbell pretending to be an official from the Council, a water company or from the electricity or gas provider. Doorstep crime, also known as distraction burglary. To avoid it, find out more at www.ablecommunitycare.com.

3. The aim of this text is to ...

The process a soldier goes through when applying for officer training is confusing. I’m a senior NCO but I've had to go through the recruitment firm, Capita, and then liaise with its candidate support manager. I've also had to submit my educational qualifications although they are held on JPA and then go through vetting despite being already cleared at security check level earlier. But my biggest problem is with the medical. The medical declaration document I received to submit through my GP has three boxes: "First Time Applicant", "Previous Applicant" and "Re-Enlister/Rejoiner". None apply to me. Apparently, a high number of candidates are rejected because of clerical errors so I’d appreciate some tips.

4. The aim of the letter about officer training is to ...

Elon Musk, the technology entrepreneur, investor and engineer, got into more hot water with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) when he tweeted inaccurate production forecasts for Tesla’s cars, violating part of last year’s settlement with the regulator about not disseminating misleading information about the company. The SEC asked a court to hold Mr Musk in contempt.

5. Elon Musk ...

Nationalism is an exclusionary ideology in which political community is always defined in opposition to “alien” outsiders. Currently Europe is experiencing its third historic surge of nationalism. The first was in the mid-19th century, when nationalism was regarded by emerging democratic movements as a way to throw off the shackles of monarchy and absolutism. The second was in the 20th, when rival European states turned to the protectionist forms of nationalism that wrought such destruction on the continent. The third is under way now. And it is nationalism, not populism that poses the greatest threat in Europe being a problem that affects political scene from the left to the right.

6. The author says that today nationalism in Europe ...

Babies who frequently communicate with their caregivers using eye contact and vocalisations at the age of one are more likely to develop greater language skills by the time they reach two, according to new research. Scientists say the findings should encourage parents to pay close attention to babies’ attempts to communicate before they can use words, and to respond to them. In the study, researchers looked at 11-and-12-month-old babies’ vocalisations, gestures and gaze behaviours, and at how their caregivers responded to them. “These have never been looked at together in the same analysis before,” said Dr Ed Donnellan, the lead author on the study.

7. In the new study researchers analysed for the first time ...

A former US air force intelligence officer, who defected to Iran in 2013, has been charged with espionage. Technical sergeant Monica Witt, a linguist, was a cryptologist and a counterintelligence investigator for the US Air Force for more than ten years. Later she worked as an intelligence analyst in Iran for a defence contractor for almost a year. Then Witt converted to Islam in 2012. FBI agents allege she was recruited after participating in two conferences hosted by the New Horizon Organization linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Corps the same year.

8. According to the text, Witt might have been recruited ...

The war against the Houthis waged by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates has been on a roll lately. The coalition forces have already reached the vicinity of Hodeida, the port still held by the Houthis. If the coalition were to take Hodeida, it could further squeeze Houthi-controlled areas. The port, however, is Yemen’s primary conduit for humanitarian aid. War would disrupt the flow, leaving 8m Yemenis at risk of starvation. The UN has urged the coalition to stop; however, control of the port would bring the coalition closer to landlocking the Houthis, and thus giving it more leverage in peace talks.

9. The text says that if the fights continue near Hodeida, …

In response to protests in Hong Kong against mainland Chinese who buy goods in large quantities to resell, China’s government introduced a new regulation. It limited residents of Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, to visiting the territory just once a week. Goods in Hong Kong are cheaper and more trusted, but a flow of mainland Chinese visitors has caused resentments.

10. As a result of the new regulation, Shenzhen residents will …

China decided to buy $70bn-worth of American goods, including oil and gas, through its state-owned companies provided America drops its plan to impose tariffs on Chinese products. It is the latest offer which aims at averting a trade war between the two countries, submitted after earlier talks between Chinese and American negotiators led to nowhere. Meanwhile, trade hostilities broke out between America and its allies, after the Trump administration pressed ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminium.

11. By its latest decision China wants to …

An Italian health official blamed an alarming rise in measles cases on the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), which has campaigned on an anti-vaccination platform. According to the health ministry, more than 700 cases were registered in 2017, compared with 220 for the same period last year. Ranieri Guerra, director general for preventive health, said: “People from the M5S say measles is normal. Well, I say it’s not normal; we are supposed to be a measles-free country.”

12. Ranieri Guerra …

The Royal Gibraltar Regiment has taken delivery of its first Dragon Runner robot, the type used so successfully in Afghanistan to negate improvised explosive devices. The lightweight, backpackable, multi-terrain asset has the ability to send video footage back to the operator at a safe distance and is equipped with a manipulator arm that can dig round suspicious objects and move them, as well as with small charges to disrupt suspect devices and wire cutters. With grippy twin tracks rather than wheels it was deemed more suited than other robots to operations on Gibraltar's rocky terrain.

13. Dragon Runner was chosen for the Royal Gibraltar Regiment mainly because of …

The guns of February

Things are eerily quiet outside the caged walkway that cuts through the no-man's-land separating Israel from Gaza. But there is increasing talk of war on both sides of the expanse, and elsewhere around Israel. "Every day there is aggression and terror [by Israel]," says Daoud Shihab of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian armed group that has fired rockets into Israel. "The situation could explode at any moment." Some of Gaza's leaders believe Israel will use a coming military exercise with America as cover for an attack. They put the chances of a new war at 95%, according to Al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper.

The Israelis see things differently. Gadi Eisenkot, the chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), reportedly told the cabinet that Hamas, the Islamist group that runs Gaza, might start a war if life in the coastal enclave does not improve. It has been under siege by Israel and Egypt for over a decade. Tensions increased after Donald Trump, America's president, recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital on December 6th. The IDF has responded to rocket fire from Gaza with air strikes.

There is talk of impending conflicts on Israel's northern borders, too. On January 28th the IDF's spokesman, Ronen Manelis, wrote an op-ed, published by Lebanese websites, in which he warned Lebanon not to allow Iran to produce precision missiles in the country. Israel has repeatedly struck Iranian arms convoys bound for Lebanon. The IDF has been training on the northern front. "As we have proven in recent years our security red lines are clearly demarcated," wrote General Manelis. "The choice is yours, people of Lebanon."

The Lebanese government opposes Israeli plans to build a wall along the border, claiming it will encroach on Lebanese territory. It says it will pursue the issue in international forums, but Hizbullah, which is part of the government, has reportedly threatened to attack Israeli soldiers on the frontier. All of Lebanon will pay if Hizbullah goes to war with Israel, warns Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli defence minister.

The winds blowing across Mount Avital, in the Golan Heights, carry yet more talk of war. Israeli soldiers look down into Syria, where Bashar al-Assad's forces sit one town away from rebels in old Quneitra. Bled by seven years of fighting, the Syrian army is not seen as a threat, but Israel is concerned that the forces which propped up the Assad regime are establishing strongholds in Syria. It has told Hizbullah and Iran to stay out of the area. On February 6th Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, toured Mount Avital warning Israel's enemies "not to test us".

For all the bluster, no one seems eager to start shooting. Hamas may merely be using its war talk to draw attention to Gaza's misery. The siege and sanctions imposed by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which runs the West Bank, has left the enclave short of electricity, drinking water and food. A deal between Hamas and the PA was meant to hand administrative control of Gaza to the PA, which in turn would lift the sanctions. But officials in Gaza find fault with Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, saying he is dragging his feet. (The PA sees it the other way around saying it is moving fast towards lifting the sanctions.)

In the north Hizbullah would probably like to regroup after nearly seven years of fighting in Syria. Lebanon was so badly damaged during the group's previous war with Israel, in 2006, that Hizbullah's leaders regret provoking it. Hizbullah is not ready for another conflict but it is adding to its arsenal of guided missiles. The IDF may feel forced to forestall this build-up.

Mr Assad also seems more interested in consolidating his position at home than starting a new war (which he would lose). And the Iranian public is already pressing the regime in Tehran to end its foreign adventures. Israel says it will hit Iranian bases if Iran tries to entrench itself in Syria.

However, with everyone on edge, it may not take much to start a conflict. A rocket from Gaza, an air strike by Israel, a bullet from Hizbullah - any of these could ignite the next one. Bismarck famously predicted that "some damned foolish thing in the Balkans" would start a European war (he was eventually proved right in 1914). In the Levant it may be some damned foolish thing on the border.