Donald Trump charged: BBC News Review

Donald Trump charged with trying to change the result of

the 2020 US presidential election.

This is News Review from BBC

Learning English. I'm Neil, and I'm Beth.

Make sure you watch to the end to learn vocabulary to talk about this story.

Don't forget to subscribe to our channel, like this video

and try the quiz on our website.

Now, the story.

Donald Trump has been charged with attempting to change the result of

the 2020 US presidential election.

It follows an inquiry into riots in Washington

on the 6th of January 2021.

The former president is accused of spreading lies about election fraud

for more than two months.

Trump has now been charged in three criminal cases.

You've been looking at the headlines,

Beth. What's the vocabulary?

We have overturn, plotting and can run, but can't hide.

This is News Review from BBC Learning English.

  Let's have a look

at our first headline.

This is from the Financial Times.

Donald Trump indicted for unprecedented attempt

to overturn US election.

So the headline says that Donald Trump has been indicted

for trying to overturn the results of

the 2020 US presidential election. Indicted means

officially accused of a crime. Unprecedented means

never happened before,

but we are looking at overturn.

Now, Beth,

I think we can break this

word down, can't we?

Yep, so, as we often see this is a longer word

we can break down into over and turn.

Now, we all know what term means it's changing the direction of something.

And when we add over it means changing the direction

completely. Now in this headline,

it's metaphorical.

Yes, we are talking about the metaphorical direction or position of something.

And in this case,

it's an election. So, simply,

Donald Trump is accused of trying to change the position,

the original result of something.

It's the US presidential election.

Can we use this in other ways, Beth?

Well, it is usually used in official contexts.

So, for example, in law a legal ruling might be

overturned, for example.

It wouldn't be normal or natural to say I've overturned

my decision to have salad for lunch instead of pasta, for example.

Oh, yes. That would be weird.

It sounds way too formal.

Let's look at that again.

Let's have our next headline.

This is from BBC

News. Trump charged

with plotting to overturn election defeat.

So in the headline,

we see that word overturn again that we've just been learning about.

But this time we are going to look at plotting, and again,

if you look inside that word,

there's a clue about its meaning. The word plot.

Now, Beth, I know you love a good novel.

The plot is the storyline. Is that right?

It is when it's a noun, but here

it's a verb, and it's used a little bit differently.

So to plot is to make a plan, but often one

that is wrong or possibly harmful.

If you say that someone is plotting to do something,

they're making a plan to do something they probably shouldn't.

Yeah, so in this headline

it means that Trump is accused of planning to do something wrong. And here

that is changed the result of an election.

Now, that's a very serious thing to accuse someone of.

But we can also use plotting in a more light hearted way,

can't we? We can, yeah.

Maybe you see two friends and they're whispering to each other.

And you say "What are you two plotting over there?"

And of course, this is a joke.

You're accusing them

in a funny way of doing something wrong, planning something,

but it's not that serious.

Let's look at that again.

 

Let's look at our next headline, and this is from the Spectator.

Donald Trump can run,

but he can't hide from his 6th of January indictment.

So we have indictment which is the noun form of the verb we saw

in the first headline indict, which means to officially accuse someone

of committing a crime.

But we are looking at the expression can run,

but can't hide.

Yes. Now let's think literally again.

Imagine someone being chased because they've done something wrong.

They would be looking for somewhere to hide.

But if there isn't anywhere,

They have to carry on running.

Yes. Now nobody is suggesting that Donald Trump is literally running anywhere.

What it means, though,

is that he is trying to escape from something that

he just can't seem to get away from.

That's right. And we can use this for informal situations too. Now,

Neil, I had a chocolate bar on my desk

this morning, and it's gone.

  You can run,

but you can't hide. Let's look at that again.

We've had overturned: changed the result

something. Plotting: planning to do something wrong or harmful.

And can run, but can't hide:

can't escape the consequences of your actions.

Now if you are interested in Donald Trump,

click here to watch another video.

And don't forget to click here to subscribe to our channel,

So you never miss another video.

Thanks for joining us. Bye.