Julian Assange walks free: BBC Learning English from the News

From BBC Learning English,

this is Learning English from the News, our podcast

about the news headlines. In this programme – Wikileaks

founder Julian Assange walks free.

Hello. I'm Neil.

And I'm Beth. In this programme,

we look at one big news story and the vocabulary

in the headlines that will help you understand it.

You can find all the vocabulary and headlines from this episode, as well

as a worksheet, on our website BBCLearningEnglish.com. So, Neil,

let's hear more about the story.

So, we're talking about Julian Assange. He is the Wikileaks founder.

Now, he's walked free from a US court after pleading guilty

in a deal to end a legal battle that has lasted for years.

Yeah. That's right. Now, yesterday

Assange was released from a prison in the UK where

he's been for the last five years,

and now he's back in his home country of Australia.

His organisation Wikileaks published secret US military records

in 2010. Now

Assange has pleaded guilty to one

charge connected to espionage – that's

spying. Now,

this is a controversial and complicated story.

Some people see Assange as a hero

and others see him as a criminal.

Now, we have a headline here,

which describes what has been happening.

And it's from NPR. The headline is: WikiLeaks

founder Julian Assange strikes plea deal with the US.

Yes, that's: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange strikes plea deal

with the US, and that is from NPR. So this headline tells us

that a legal arrangement has been made which has allowed Julian Assange

to be released from prison in the UK.

And now, to walk free.

Now, the expression

we are interested in is 'strike a deal'. In this headline,

it says 'strike a plea deal'. Now, that means that

Assange has agreed to plead guilty to a charge in the US and in return

he has been released in the UK and as part of that arrangement, that deal,

he won't be sent to jail in the US.

So this expression 'strike a deal', which is used here,

has a wider use. It is not just about legal issues, is it?

No, not necessarily. So you can strike a deal in a lot of different situations.

Politicians might strike a deal with other parties

if they agree to work together. In a similar way,

companies might strike a deal with each other

if they are going to merge or something like that.

And then sports people might strike a deal.

So, a footballer might strike a deal with a club

Yeah. To stay a bit longer than expected, or something like that.

Yeah. Strike a deal.

Sounds quite official, doesn't it?

But you can use it in a less official context. For example,

I could say that I have struck a deal with my kids to tidy their rooms

in return for money.

Sounds a bit too formal, but that sometimes makes things funny.

Yeah, exactly.

So, that's strike a deal –

make an official arrangement. For example,

I've struck a deal with my boss to work from home every Tuesday.

This is Learning English from the News, our podcast about the news headlines.

Today we're talking about the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange

who has been released from prison after making a deal with the US.

Now, this story goes back a number of years. As we said

before, Julian Assange's organisation, that's Wikileaks,

released secret US military information.

Yes. And those documents that they obtained were released digitally

and, importantly for our next headline,

there was a lot of information.

OK, Neil. Can you give us that headline?

Yes. It is: From Afghanistan to Hillary Clinton's emails:

Wikileaks major document dumps. And that headline, from The Telegraph.

So, again: From Afghanistan to Hillary Clinton's emails:

Wikileaks major document dumps.

So, we are looking at the word 'dumps', which has a lot of uses,

but I think it's probably useful to start with it as a verb, Beth.

Yes. So, as a verb,

it means to throw something away,

but quite carelessly, so it might be used in the context

of throwing away a chocolate bar wrapper, but we also hear it used about

water companies dumping waste into our rivers and streams.

But in this headline,

it is a noun, and as a noun, dump has several meanings.

So, a common one - 'a dump' is a place where you throw away your unwanted things.

So, all of that junk from your house

that you don't want any more,

you take to the dump and throw it away.

You dump it at the dump.

That's right. Now the use of 'dumps' in this headline keeps that sense

of releasing things, but there is a specific digital meaning.

So, a dump in digital terms is the release of a lot of data,

and here, that is secret information.

So staying in the digital world,

we use 'dump' when we're talking about social media as well.

Beth, can you explain what it means to do a photo dump?

Yeah. So a photo dump is just putting lots of photos at once online

without necessarily choosing the best ones.

So, we've had dumps – releases

of a large amount of digital information or data.

For example, Juan's latest photo

dump was ridiculous.

I don't want to look through 50 pictures of his holiday.

This is Learning English

from the News from BBC

Learning English.

We're talking about Julian Assange and his release from a British jail

after five years.

So, as we've said, this story has gone on for a number of years

and through many phases.

Yes. Julian Assange has faced a lot of legal battles and accusations

which have resulted in him spending five years in jail in the UK.

But, before that, he spent seven years being protected by Ecuador

in their embassy in London. Yeah.

So, this next headline uses an expression which describes this type

of long, complex story. One that

no one is quite sure how it's going to end.

This comes from The Evening Standard: Julian Assange

timeline: The many twists and turns of Wikileaks founder's lengthy

legal fight.

Yes. So that headline again,

from The Evening Standard: Julian Assange timeline:

The many twists and turns of Wikileaks founder's lengthy legal fight.

So, we are looking at 'twists

and turns'. Neil,

can we start by looking at that expression literally?

Yes. So, if you literally 'twist

and turn', you change direction, the direction of your body,

the direction you're going in. Here

we're looking at metaphorical changes in direction.

Yeah. So, at one stage,

it looked like Assange would be arrested and sent back to the US

to face charges. And at another stage

he avoided arrest by staying in Ecuador's embassy for seven years.

Then he had to leave and was arrested and sent to jail in the UK.

Now, he's been released.

So, lots of twists and turns. That's right.

Lots of changes in the direction of this story – twists and turns.

How else can we use this, Beth?

Well, any life story

is full of twists and turns, and in fiction

actually, we talk a lot about twists.

So, plot twists, for example.

Maybe you think that everything's going really well,

there's going to be a happy ending,

and then suddenly something very dramatic and dark happens.

That's unexpected. That's a plot twist.

I love a good twist in a novel.

We've had twists and turns – dramatic changes in direction.

For example, my grandparents lived through the Second World War and

their lives were full of twists and turns. Everything changed for them.

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News.

We'll be back next week with another news

story. If you've enjoyed this programme,

why not try Office English? Our podcast all about the world of work.

You can search Learning English for Work on your podcast app,

or head to our website

BBCLearningEnglish.com

Goodbye for now. Bye!