VOA慢速英语 White House Press Briefing Room Cleared - Briefly

White House Press Briefing Room Cleared - Briefly¹

U.S. Secret Service agents cleared reporters from the White House briefing room Tuesday following a bomb threat.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest was speaking to reporters at the time.

A Secret Service dog was deployed² to check the area for explosives. A short time later, reporters returned to the room where the briefing restarted.

Earlier, a hearing of the Transportation Security Agency, TSA, on Capitol Hill was also cleared because of a bomb threat.

Capitol police evacuated⁴ several levels of the Senate office building but found no dangerous materials. Josh Earnest told reporters he did not know if the two threats were related.

Obama, Abadi: Quicker training needed for Iraqi Troops

U.S. President Barack Obama met with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Germany Monday. The U.S. leader stressed the need to quickly train Iraqi troops in order to succeed against Islamic State fighters.

Mr. Obama said the U.S. military is working on plans to improve the training effort, and that those who have been trained are operating "effectively."  He also said recruiting, especially from Sunni tribes, needs to be a priority.

And he said it is very important to stop the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq. Mr. Abadi agreed. He said the foreign fighters add to the death and destruction.

HSBC to dismiss tens of thousands of workers

One of the world's largest banks, HSBC, is planning to dismiss up to 50,000 employees. The move is part of an overhaul⁵ of the bank’s international operations. It plans to focus more on Asia. It might even move its headquarters out of London.

The job cuts affect about 19 percent of the HSBC staff over the next two years.  Half of those cuts will come from selling operations in Turkey and Brazil. Thousands of jobs cuts will also come from the U.K.

HSBC operates in more than 70 nations with over 6,000 branches, and has tens of millions of customers. The bank has assets of more than $2.6 trillion.

Former lawmaker pleads not guilty of financial wrongdoing

Dennis Hastert, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told a court Tuesday that he is not guilty of federal charges against him. Mr. Hastert is charged with illegal bank withdrawals⁶ and lying to investigators⁷. A Chicago court released him after he paid a $4,500 bond to guarantee his return to court for trial.

The 73-year-old is suspected of paying as much as $3.5 million to someone to make up for and hide past wrongdoing. Reports say the wrongdoing involved sex.

Words in the News

evacuate³ – v. to remove a person or people from a dangerous place

recruit – v. to find suitable people and get them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc.

priority – n. something that is more important than other things and that needs to be done or dealt with first

focus – v. to direct attention or effort at something specific

asset -– n. something that is owned by a person, company, etc. — usually plural

1 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

3 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

4 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

5 overhaul   

v./n.大修，仔细检查

参考例句：

• Master Worker Wang is responsible for the overhaul of this grinder.王师傅主修这台磨床。
• It is generally appreciated that the rail network needs a complete overhaul.众所周知，铁路系统需要大检修。

6 withdrawals   

n.收回，取回，撤回( withdrawal的名词复数 )；撤退，撤走；收回[取回，撤回，撤退，撤走]的实例；推出（组织），提走（存款），戒除毒瘾，对说过的话收回，孤僻

参考例句：

• He has made several withdrawals from his bank account. 他从银行账户上提了几次款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It is not the bank's policy to deduct interest on withdrawals. 提款需扣除利息这并非是本银行的政策。 来自辞典例句

7 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》