News Farm

The invasion of Ukraine has lasted for over a month now. On March 2, the BBC reported on the ongoing battles for Kharkiv, Kherson and Kyiv: the chaos, the rubble, the dispair of peaceful Ukrainians in the bomb shelters, the tears of refugee families…

Russian Journalist Marina Ovsyannikova has been released after being interrogated for 14 hours without a lawyer, for two consecutive sleepless nights, and after paying a fine of €250.  She was detained for disrupting a major Russian TV news programm…

With social restrictions in place because of COVID19, St. Patrick's Day is going to be celebrated differently again in 2021, but, it is still going to be a worldwide online celebration.  To join in the fun, and feel the spirit of Paddy's Day…

On International Women's Day, Rappler , publishes the video " In Contested Cybercrime Laws, Activists and Women Are in Dange r" (6':49") about the repression of women's activism around the world.  Authoritarian regimes and…

The C1.1 students became gossip reporters last week, when they had to find a story about celebrities, their relationships and personal lives.  Five stories were voted in the four mini-groups as the best:  María B. presented "Did Kanye West Chea…

Australian social media celebrity  Supercar Blondie  shows us round a luxury villa in Dubai with a snow room in the extreme heat of the desert. Check it out! If you have $24 million, you may consider buying it! This short video below (9':15&qu…

Christmas is a commercial and religious family holiday which is celebrated in many countries around the world, including Spain and the UK. It is also a school holiday and each student always has something to say about Christmas: whether they find it…

Diwali festival celebrates the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance, good over evil. It is observed by Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and New Buddhists all over the Indian subcontinent and in the diaspora, at the end of October or at the b…

Freddie is a 14-year-old inventor who has developed two machines to help his 89-year-old great aunt, Pat, who has demetia. In this short BBC World Service video (4':46") you will hear him explaining his inventions.  The video can be seen w…

In the modern digital world, everybody is talking about algorithms, but what are they exactly? Where can you find them? What can they do? How do they work? Should we be scared of algorithms? Can algorithms think for themselves? What do they look lik…

This is the story of a baby who was born on a rescue boat, when her Nigerian mother was trying to arrive in Italy five years ago.  This short BBC News video with subtitles (2':47") is suitable for B2 students and it will allow you to listen…

Antonio Banderas, talks to Terry Gross on Fresh Air about his latest movie with Pedro Almodóvar, " Pain & Glory ", which earned him a "Best Actor Award" in the Cannes Film Festival and a nomitation to the Oscars, and about hi…

Morgan Bullock is a 20-year-old African American from Richmond, Virginia, who uploaded an Irish dance version of Beyoncé's " The Savage Remix " on Tik Tok, which went viral. Many people loved her artistic performance, but there were so…

The BBC reports that 100,000 mink are going to be culled in a farm in Puebla de Valverde (Teruel) because they have been infected with coronavirus, after Joaquín Olona, agriculture minister for the Aragon region, announced the decision yesterday.  T…

Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91 in Rome. He was the composer of the score of  more than 500 films, including successful "spaghetti westerns" like " The Good, the Bad and the Ugly ", " Once Upon a Time in the West &…

Rowan Atkinson does not play Mr. Bean here, but he is very funny, too. He plays an Anglican vicar giving a Sunday sermon, the Gospel of St. John. You will come across literary language and archaic grammar structures from the Bible, like it came to p…