BBC News Review 海地 帮派暴力危机

Gang violence

crisis in Haiti. Prime Minister resigns.

This is news review from BBC, where we help you understand news headlines in English.

I'm Neil, and I'm Beth. Make sure you watch the end to learn the vocabulary you need to understand this new story in English.

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Now the story. After weeks of violence and demands from heavily armed gangs, the Prime Minister of Haiti has agreed to resign.

Ariel onre Will steps down after many Haitians questioned why he was still in power, despite beings unelected.

The Caribbean country is under a month long state of emergency after attacks including on the airport, the prison and the national palace.

You ve been looking at the headlines, beth, what's the vocabulary that people need to understand this story?

In English, we have run rampants, paralyze and titan grip.

This is news of you from BBC Learning.

Let's have a look at our 1st headline.

This is from CNN. Haiti's leader to Resign as Gangs run rampants through country engulfed in crisis.

So the headline says that Gangs run rampant in Haiti.

That's the expression we're looking at, and it contains run, which we all know.

But rampant. Beth, what does that mean?

Okay, well, rampant is an adjective.

Let me tell you about my garden, neil.

It's full of weeds. They are everywhere.

Now, rampant means spread out of control.

And to make this a verb, we say, run rampants.

So I could say, in my garden, weeds run rampants.

OK? So this expression, run rampant means spread out of control gangs run rampant.

That means they can't be controlled.

In this spreading across Haiti, the authorities are trying to contain them, but they can't.

It's not working. What else can run rampant?

Well, it's not only used for big, serious things.

Maybe children at a birthday party might run rampant.

They're out of control. After all that sugar.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have a look at our next headline.

This is from the Herald Scotland State of Emergency extended in Haiti as gang attacks paralyzed capital.

So gang attacks paralyzed the capital of Haiti.

Now, this word paralyzed is the one we're looking and I recognize it, beth, because it means that someone can't move part of their body, usually after an accident.

Is there a connection between that paralyzed and the one in the headline?

There is. Now Paralyze in the headline is a verb that means to cause something to stop moving or operating.

Now, in Haiti, gangs have disrupted the capital, so things aren't working or moving as they normally would.

Yes, that's right. So, E.G., flights have stopped, medical care isn't coming in or going out, movement has stopped, basically.

Can we use paralyzing other ways?

Yeah. So paralyzed can also mean that you're unable to think or act in a normal way.

So maybe if you're really scared, you might be paralyzed with fear you can't move.

OK, let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline. This is from BBC news.

Haiti spirals to collapse as gangs Titan grip.

So let's break this headline down.

Haiti spirals to collapse their spirals means move very quickly out of control.

It means the country's collapsing. It's falling apart.

We're looking at the expression tight and grip.

Now, beth, this mug here I've got in my grip, and I'm holding it very tight.

You can see maybe my knuckles turning white as I hold it really hard.

You're not going to get this from me.

No, because you are literally tightening your grip.

Now here in this headline, titan Grip is metaphorical.

These gangs are taking more control every day, and in a violent way.

It's like they have the country in their grip, and they are tightening it.

So adding pressure to the country, yes, and that's damaging the country and its people.

Now, it's common with this expression tight and grip to add the preposition on.

So what else can we tighten our grip on?

Well, a football team at the top of the league might tighten their grip on the title if they win

three games in a row, e.g.

Yes. Or a dictator could tighten their grip on power by, e.g.

banning elections or making other parties illegal.

Let's have a look at that again.

We've had run rampant spread out of control, paralyze, cause something to stop operating and tighten grip, take more control.

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another video. Thanks for joining us, and goodbye.

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