World News: Trump vs Latinos + Young People in Crisis

Noticias en inglés para practicar.

Cómo Trump esta arrinconando a los Latinos y por qué los jóvenes están tan desilusionados con todo.

I hope you enjoy this type of episode, because I think it's really

imporant (and interesting) to talk about these kinds of things. This isn't a political podcast, as you know, but sometimes we need to talk about the world to try to make sense of it. Tell me if you like this type of episode and I'll be sure to include them more often.

Thanks for listening, and for all of your support and kind messages . 🫶

Dane

P.S: I made a mistake in the recording, this is actually episode 28 of season 2.

Transcript

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Hey, what's up? Bienvenidos a other episode of the English Retain, a podcast designed to make you feel good about your English. We're going to replace notices of the moon, not only for entertainment of what's happening, but it's a manner very well to approach a bunch of vocabulary. So check the quadrant of vocabulary that I'm sure that is because we've done a million times, because it's the more manner to not only approve, but return this vocabulary. So let's jump into it. Here is the first headline. It says, Latinos cornered by Trump. At risk, ojo con la preposición, at risk. It says, as if being the target of an immigration crackdown in which racial profiling has been endorsed by US President Donald Trump were not enough, no fuese suficiente if it were not enough, the partial shutdown of the US government, which began on October 1st and is on track to surpass the historic 34-day record set in the winter of 2018 to 2019, has put access to crucial food and health subsidies for a large portion of the US Latino population in jeopardy. Let's keep going. Millions of workers have gone without pay because of the shutdown, and it has also cut funding for programs that provide nutrition and healthcare assistance to the most vulnerable. Latinos represent a significant share of this group. This government shutdown is a direct assault on Latino families who keep the country running, funcionando, who keep the country running. From federal workers and small business owners to families relying on nutrition and health programs, more than 15 million Latinos are being hit hardest by Washington's dysfunction, warned the organization Boto Latino. Acuérdate que usamos on con el verbo to rely. You rely on something or on someone. Among federal employees, entre among federal employees whose pay is at risk, since the government has only guaranteed the salaries for those considered essential, there are roughly 300,000 Latinos or 10.5% of all federal employees. The biggest obstacle in negotiations concerns cuts to public health programs such as Medicaid, which serves low-income populations, and Medicare for older adults, as well as the elimination of subsidies that make health insurance more affordable. Democrats have refused to support budgets that would leave millions without health care, while Republicans have falsely claimed that the opposition wants to extend these benefits to undocumented immigrants. The dispute is disrupting essential services for the Latino community, which relies on them heavily. One example is telehealth. About 30% of the population that depends on it for medical needs is Latino, meaning that if the shutdown continues, 2 million Latinos could face obstacles to accessing essential medical care, according to Boto Latino. Then it says, nearly 18% of elderly Latinos are uninsured, Nathan are uninsured, and 55% are underinsured, meaning disruptions to Medicare and community clinics will hit Latino families particularly hard. At stake, in juego, at stake in the struggle between Democrats and Republicans is the continuation of subsidies approved during the pandemic to reduce health insurance costs in a country where medical bills can reach astronomical amounts that low-income families cannot afford. Thanks to the subsidies available through the insurance marketplace of the Affordable Care Act, the program created by Barack Obama, commonly known as Obamacare, millions of Latinos working in low-wage jobs without health benefits can access medical care. Since the ACA's enactment, the number of Latinos purchasing insurance through this marketplace has tripled, se ha triplicado, reaching over 5 million people. This next part says$1,000 more a month. If the subsidies are cut, if the subsidies are cut, Latino families would face an average increase of$1,000 per month for healthcare insurance, and many would be forced to go without coverage, sin cobertura, without coverage, according to the Latino organization Unidos US. Ojo ahí a la pronunciación de coverage, no es coberage, es coverage, como más corto, coverage. It continues and says, for the Latino community, the stakes could not be higher. The stakes could not be higher, said Janet Murgua, president of Unidos US. She said, These tax credits aren't just numbers on a page, no son solo numeros on a pagina. They're not just numbers on a page, they are the reason a parent can take their child to the doctor, a worker can refill their prescription, or a grandmother can go to the doctor without skipping meals. The budget the Trump administration wants to pass includes tax cuts for the wealthy in exchange for the largest funding cuts ever to Medicaid. Latinos would be among the most affected. About 20 million Latinos, or roughly 30% of all Medicaid beneficiaries, rely on the program for health care, even though Latinos make up only 20% of the U.S. population. Our community depends on Medicaid to meet its needs, and without it, families will face devastating consequences, Murgia added. Two other programs facing cuts and funding shortfalls due to the government shutdown also disproportionately affect Latinos. SNAP, which is Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides food vouchers, like Bonos de Comida, which provides food vouchers to low-income families, and WIC, special supplementation nutrition program for women, infants, and children, which provides vouchers for instant formula, fresh fruit and vegetables, low-fat milk, and other essential healthy foods often out of reach for low-income households. Gina, a Honduran woman, a Honduran woman living in Jackson, Mississippi, said that many of her Latino friends depend on SNA to put food on the table. At a time when they are trying to avoid encounters with immigration agents, Los de AICE, the program is more necessary than ever. She said, quote, Many receive SNAP vouchers, and now fear losing them because it's what helps feed their children, especially during a difficult time like the current one. People are afraid to go to work and the economy is tough, she told El Bais by phone. Three million Latinos benefit from WIC, and another 10 million rely on SNAP to feed their families. Every day the shutdown continues, their access to these essential benefits becomes more uncertain, said Murguilla. Oof. You can say something like, there's a lot at stake in this election, or his reputation is at stake. Also, be careful with the pronunciation of the word beneficiaries. I feel like Spanish speakers have a difficult time with these words that are like four or more syllables. So in this case, beneficiaries, because we don't we don't really know where to put the emphasis on these longer words. Beneficiaries, like fishado. Alright, let's switch gears for a second. To switch gears, if you're not familiar, means to change what you're talking about or thinking about, or even the way you are approaching something. La manera que estás enfocando algo, the way you are approaching something. So let's switch gears. This next headline is about young people and the struggles that they are facing. I think this is an issue we need to address urgently, because as cliche as this sounds, today's young people are tomorrow's citizens, teachers, parents, and change makers. And if you have kids in the 12 to 24 age bracket, this might be particularly interesting for you. The headline reads, A generation in crisis, why young people are so unhappy. Young people are in a bad way, como que están mal. They're in a bad way. They feel very sad, completely depressed. The worst thing isn't the anxiety or being glued to their phones, pegados al móvil, or being glued to their phones, or feeling lonely, or being unemployed, or even knowing that it's impossible for them to buy a house. The worst part is that until just a few years ago, none of them expected to find themselves in this situation. In August, an article published in the scientific journal PLOS 1 reported that there is currently no age group more dissatisfied than young people. Until recently, the curve of happiness, La Curva de la Felicidad, until recently, the curve of happiness followed a clear pattern. It started high in childhood and youth, dipped in middle age, and rose again, subi otra vez, and rose again in old age. To dip, of course, means to decrease slightly. So it dipped in middle age and rose again in old age. Young people who used to be the second happiest group are now the only ones whose happiness has dropped. The most affected are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 12 and 24. The study is based on surveys of millions of people across more than 40 countries. And while it's always wise, Siempre sabio, while it's always wise to be cautious with survey-based conclusions, the trend is hard to dispute. Are young people overly sensitive? The so-called snowflake generation goes to therapy more often than their parents and grandparents did, and easily uses terms like OCD, ADHD, burnout, and imposter syndrome. Has this greater awareness of mental health affected their overall mood? Not necessarily, but it's clear that the idea of happiness isn't the same for a 20-year-old as it is for their grandmother, says Alejandro Sancerrado, a physicist and an analyst at the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and author of In Defensa de la Infelicidad, In Defense of Unhappiness. If someone born at the beginning of the 20th century had been asked at some point in their life if they had depression, they wouldn't even have known how to answer. And they were living in very difficult situations. The world changes and qualities once considered essential to being intelligent, like having an encyclopedic memory, ojo la pronuncia, encyclopedic memory, are no longer ones that help people navigate and overcome challenges today. Similarly, the factors that defined happiness 50 years ago, such as having a traditional family or a strong relationship with God, differ from those that shape well-being now. It's really hard to compare the responses of a kid who spends his day on TikTok with those of two people who lived through a war. Everyone values things differently. Happiness only began to be measured systematically in the 1970s. In 1972, Bhutan introduced the concept of gross national happiness, and soon after, and soon after, surveys like the World Value Survey began asking about life satisfaction. The Big Leap, el Gran Salto, the big leap came over the past two decades with large-scale international surveys, evidence that we've never been so intent on quantifying our own well-being. The paradox is that the more obsessed we become with measuring happiness, the more sensitive we are to mental health problems like depression, says Censerrado. However, there are more objective indicators than self-reported happiness surveys. In the United States, the suicide rate among teenagers aged 12 to 17 rose by 70% between 2008 and 2020. 70%. The European Union has also seen a similar increase, with Spain going from 1.99 to 2.94 deaths per 100,000 young people aged 15 to 19 between 2011 and 2022. Hospital admissions for mental health disorders among minors and the use of psychiatric medications have also risen. In the United Kingdom, for instance, antidepressant prescriptions for teenagers aged 12 to 17 doubled between 2005 and 2017, amid growing concern among doctors about over-medication, not only among young people. According to the PLOS 1 report, youth unhappiness began to rise sharply around 2012. So what happened then that could have had a global impact that is still felt today? The first hypothesis links this quarter life crisis to the rise of social media and smartphones. Sociologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, explains via video call that there are now too many studies of many different kinds to deny a causal link between these technologies and the deterioration of young people's mental health. Social media is a substantial cause, not just a small correlation, of depression and anxiety, and therefore of the behaviors associated with those disorders, including self-harm and suicide. Height argues that the problem isn't just the anxiety or isolation caused by platforms like Instagram or TikTok, but that these networks have completely reshaped how young people socialize. That's why he warns, advierte, he warns, if a teenager were to quit social media to protect their mental health, they might actually feel worse because they'd be cut off from their peer group's social life. An entire generation trapped in a system where everyone would be better off if they disconnected, but where everyone who does so by themselves ends up isolated. To be better off is estar mejor. Then it says something as essential to well-being as sleep has also been disrupted by smartphones. In Spain, 83% of young adults aged 18 to 34 show symptoms of insomnia, and around 13% meet the criteria for a chronic disorder. Only one in four say they sleep well and enough, according to the 2024 report, Habits and Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in Spain. Sleep problems have worsened, have worsened over the past two decades. Those under 35 have suffered the greatest decline. Sleep expert Dr. Javier Álvarez, author of Generación Zombie or Zombie Generation, warns that the overuse of phones and tablets is shaping a quote generation trapped in a spiral of overstimulation, addiction, and chronic sleep deprivation. Screens, he explains, not only steal hours, they not only steal hours of rest, but also fragment it. Quote, they increase the number of awakenings during the night, despertades, of awakenings during the night, and as a result, both the quality and quantity of rest decline. He notes that half of teenagers reply to messages during the night, and a similar percentage check their phones at least once in the middle of the night. He sums it up neatly, de manera organizada, neatly. Today there is overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world. Let's do a quick vocabulary check before we finish up. First, we have the adverb overly, which means too much or excessively, right? The sentence was, are young people overly sensitive? This is a great adverb to throw into your vocabulary arsenal in general if it's not already there. You can say that someone is overly cautious, you can say that a plan is overly ambitious, you can say that someone is overly dramatic, etc. Overly is also a great word to substitute too, right? Your plan is too ambitious, your plan is overly ambitious. So called. The sentence was the so called snowflake generation. So called con guion. So guion called. Or exaggerated or ironic. I think in Spanish we would just say denominado, no? Like you'll often hear it used in phrases like the so-called experts or his so-called friends or things like that. Alright, that's it for this episode of English with Dan. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you liked it. Tell me if you like these news episodes, because I really like doing them. I like finding out what's going on, getting some vocab, presenting it to you like this. I don't want this show to be political, ni mucho menos, but it is weird to ignore a lot of things that are happening in the world and just be putting out content related to English and not address these things once in a while. So tell me if you like these episodes, if they are useful, if you want to see more of them. So you know quieres ver más de estos episodios, you just want me to talk about phrasal verbs or whatever, if you like conversation episodes, do those feedback, maybe in it muy bien, and it helps me to make shows or episodes that are more fun, more enjoyable, and just more useful for you. So, yeah, thanks for listening, and I'll catch you next week later.