Why is France on the verge of a nervous breakdown?
The News Agents

Why is France on the verge of a nervous breakdown?

B2Upper-intermediateOctober 19, 202644 min
  • Politics

After the horrifying scenes of violence and destruction all over France this weekend the Prime Minister has this morning called for partial curfews. Are these protests organic frustration amongst the young over rising costs and falling wages? Or is there a political movement afoot here? And is this something the rest of Europe is catching? Later, former Home Office minister Mike Tapp is fresh back from Dunkirk ,Calais and Piddington. What’s the true picture of the immigration problem- and is he right to call it a crisis? The News Agents is a Global Production. ...

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Sentence 3 of 12 · 0:12

Violent rioting in France. Days of it.

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There were tens of thousands of people gathered in the Place de la Republique,

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

Comfortable if you already follow TV news

A1 34%A2 29%B1 17%B2 16%C1 4%
  • 80% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 184 words a minute: natural, fairly fast speech.
  • 194 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

This is a global production. Violent rioting in France. Days of it. These protests did start off peaceful. There were tens of thousands of people gathered in the Place de la Republique,

0:19

but they did turn violent. Familiar tactics at tear gas and water cannons did contain, although also antagonised, tens of thousands of demonstrators, high costs of living, fuel prices and the erosion of public services. A collective criticism of a centrist government struggling to find answers.

0:48

It was trivial, but we were able to find localisation, and we were very happy. I was just amazed at the fact that we had to find a settlement. It has been a weekend of mayhem in France, with thousands of shops looted, police injured, thousands of arrests, a no-ending sight and no-one quite sure what this protest is all

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