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en:ecrit:articles-en [2025/07/10 15:53] – [Macron says France and Britain will 'save Europe' as he starts a state visit to the UK] natashaen:ecrit:articles-en [2026/01/27 15:51] (current) – [English articles] natasha
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 It's useful to read articles in English, even if you don't understand every word - it will help you increase your vocabulary and keep up to date with things happening in English-speaking countries! It's useful to read articles in English, even if you don't understand every word - it will help you increase your vocabulary and keep up to date with things happening in English-speaking countries!
  
-//This page will be updated on **Mondays**. The first article is aimed at a B1 and upwards level and the second article is aimed at a B2 and upwards level //+//This page will ** not longer be updated**. We are working onf inding a solution. In the meantime time, you can use the archive to access older articles. The first article is aimed at a B1 and upwards level and the second article is aimed at a B2 and upwards level //
      
  
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-===== Macron says France and Britain will 'save Europe' as he starts a state visit to the UK =====+===== King Charles III leads Britain's Remembrance Sunday ceremony for war dead =====
  
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-{{:en:ecrit:pexels-hellojoshwithers-17152061.jpg?300 |}}+{{:en:ecrit:ap25313404365653.jpg?300 |}}
  
 By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press
  
-LONDON (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday urged Britain to stick close to its neighbors despite its exit from the European Union, saying France and the U.K. will "save Europe" by standing for democracy, law and international order in a dangerous world.+LONDON (AP) — King Charles III led Britain's annual ceremony of remembrance for the country's war dead on Sunday, under November sunshine and the shadow cast across Europe by the almost 4-year-old war in Ukraine.
  
-On a state visit that mixed royal pageantry with tough political talks on Ukraine and migration, Macron said Europe must strengthen its economy and defenses and reduce its dependence "on both the U.S. and China."+As Parliament's Big Ben bell tolled 11 a.m., thousands of military personnel, veterans and members of the public gathered in central London fell still for two minutes of silence, broken by a single artillery blast and Royal Marines buglers sounding "The Last Post."
  
-Macron's three-day trip, at the invitation of King Charles III, is the first state visit to the U.K. by a European Union head of state since Brexit, and a symbol of the U.K. government's desire to reset relations with the bloc after Britain acrimoniously left the EU in 2020.+The 76-year-old king, dressed in the uniform of an army field marshal, laid a wreath of red paper poppies on a black background at the base of the Cenotaph war memorial. Erected over a century ago to honor the British and allied troops killed in World War I, it has become the focus of annual ceremonies for members of military and civilian services killed in that war and subsequent conflicts.
  
-Macron addressed members of both houses of Britain's Parliament packed into the building's ornate Royal Gallery. He said the two countries represent "a world order based on law, justice and respect for territorial integrity, an order that is today being attacked on a daily basis."+The national ceremony of remembrance is held every year on the nearest Sunday to the anniversary of the end of World War I on Nov. 11, 1918, at 11 a.m. Similar memorial services are held in dozens of towns and cities across Britain and at U.K. military bases overseas.
  
-"The United Kingdom and France must once again show the world that our alliance can make all the difference," Macron said, adding that "we will save Europe by our example and our solidarity."+A military band played as heir to the throne Prince William followed his father in laying a wreath on the simple Portland stone monument inscribed with the words "the glorious dead."
  
-He said that even though Britain has left the EU, "the United Kingdom cannot stay on the sidelines. Because defense and security, competitiveness, democracy — the very core of our identity — are connected across Europe as a continent."+Wreaths were also laid by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, other political leaders and diplomats from across the Commonwealth of Britain's former colonies.
  
-**Pomp and politics**+Queen Camilla, the Princess of Wales and other members of the royal family watched from their traditional place on a balcony of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
  
-The French president and his wife, Brigitte Macron, were treated to the full force of British ceremonial charm, a far cry from the chilly relations of 2022, when then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said that the "jury is out" on whether Macron was a friend or a foe.+Many of the wreaths were made of poppies, and most people in attendance wore paper poppies on their lapels. The scarlet flowers that bloomed on the muddy battlefields and makeshift graveyards of northern France and Belgium during World War I — made famous by the poem "In Flanders Fields" — have become a symbol of remembrance in Britain and other countries.
  
-The Macrons were greeted at London's RAF Northolt air base by Prince William and his wife Catherine — wearing a dress by French design house Christian Dior — before being met by King Charles and Queen Camilla in Windsor, west of London. They were driven to the almost 1,000-year-old royal residence of Windsor Castle in horse-drawn carriages, through streets bedecked in Union Jacks and French tricolor flags.+Like many other NATO members, Britain has increased its defense spending since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Britain says it will spend 3.5% of GDP on defense by 2035.
  
-The king and queen hosted a banquet for the Macrons at Windsor Castle on Tuesday evening, with 160 guests including politicians, diplomats and celebrities such as Mick Jagger and Elton John. They were served summer vegetables, chicken with asparagus and iced blackcurrant parfait, along with Champagne and a gin-infused cocktail called L'entente, after the "entente cordiale" struck between Britain and France in 1904.+After the wreath-laying, some 10,000 military veterans with gleaming medals marched past the Cenotaph, accompanied by jaunty military music and applauded by well-wishers lining the sidewalks. Among them, in wheelchairs, were about 20 of the dwindling band of WWII veterans, the youngest of them 98 years old.
  
-As monarch, Charles is expected to be above politics, but he spoke about the support Britain and France give Ukraine "in defense of our shared values," noted the challenge of "irregular migration across the English Channel" and said the two countries face "complex threats, emanating from multiple directions.+Donald Poole, 101, who served in as a Royal Army Ordnance Corps explosives handler in the conflict that ended 80 years ago, said it was "a great honor to be able to pay tribute to the poor souls who have died in all conflicts.
  
-"As friends and as allies, we face them together," Charles said. +"I know how lucky I am to still be here thanks to all those who have fought and served, past and present," he said. "I also want to pay tribute to the civilian services who suffered during the Second World War, particularly the fire service, who saved so many lives during the Blitz — many of whom lost their own." 
- +===== With pharaoh-like fanfare, Egypt unveils a huge new museum dedicated to its ancient civilization =====
-**New tactics to stop boats** +
- +
-Politics will take center stage on Wednesday, when Macron sits down for talks with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on migration, defense and investment — including a 12.5% stake by French energy firm EDF in a new nuclear power plant planned for eastern England. +
- +
-Macron also came bearing a tantalizing cultural gift: an agreement to send the Bayeux Tapestry to Britain for the first time in more than 900 years. The 70-meter (230-foot) tapestry showing the Norman conquest of England in 1066 will go on display at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027. +
- +
-At talks Wednesday and a U.K.-France summit on Thursday, Macron and Starmer will discuss ways to stop migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats and try to advance plans for a post-ceasefire security force for Ukraine, despite apparent U.S. indifference to the idea and Russia's refusal to halt the onslaught on its neighbor. +
- +
-Britain receives fewer asylum-seekers than Mediterranean European countries, but thousands of migrants each year use northern France as a launching point to reach the U.K., either by stowing away in trucks or — after a clampdown on that route — in small boats across one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. +
- +
-The U.K. has struck a series of deals with France over the years to increase patrols of beaches and share intelligence in an attempt to disrupt the smuggling gangs. +
- +
-It has all had only a limited impact. About 37,000 people were detected crossing the English Channel in small boats in 2024, and more than 20,000 people made the crossing in the first six months of 2025, up by about 50% from the same period last year. Dozens of people have died trying to cross. +
- +
-British officials have been pushing for French police to intervene more forcefully to stop the boats, and welcomed the sight of officers slashing rubber dinghies with knives in recent days. +
- +
-France is also considering a U.K. proposal for a "one-in, one-out" deal that would see France take back some migrants who reached Britain, in return for the U.K. accepting some of those in France. +
- +
-Macron said the leaders would try "to fix today what is a burden for our two countries." +
- +
-"France and the U.K. have a shared responsibility to address irregular migration with humanity, solidarity and fairness," he said. +
- +
-**Keeping Ukraine in focus** +
- +
-Starmer and Macron have worked closely together to rally support for Ukraine, though they have taken contrasting approaches to U.S. President Donald Trump, with Macron more willing to challenge the American president than the emollient Starmer. +
-Britain and France have led efforts to form an international peacekeeping force for Ukraine to reinforce a future ceasefire with European troops and equipment and U.S. security guarantees. +
- +
-Trump has shown little enthusiasm for the idea, however, and a ceasefire remains elusive. British officials say the "coalition of the willing" idea is alive and well, with Macron and Starmer due to join an international videoconference on Thursday to discuss planning for the force. +
- +
-Macron said the coalition was a sign that "Europeans will never abandon Ukraine – never." +
- +
-===== Glastonbury 2025, by the numbers, from the cows to toilets to pints to, yes, the music =====+
  
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- +
-By LOUISE DIXON Associated Press +
- +
-LONDON (AP) — This week, thousands of music lovers from across the U.K. and beyond will flock to a farm in the southwest of England for the legendary Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts. But just how many? +
- +
-Find out in this guide to Glastonbury — and all of its quirks — by the numbers. +
- +
-**210,000: Full capacity of the festival** +
- +
-The festival's current license allows up to 210,000 people on-site, including fans, staff and performers — but, this year, a few thousand fewer tickets have been sold, to avoid overcrowding. +
- +
-The closest village of Pilton has a population of around 1,000 people. During the festival, though, the area becomes the seventh-largest largest city in the U.K. (more than double that of nearby Bath, which has a population of around 94,000). +
- +
-**1,200,000: Pints of beer stocked across more than 100 bars** +
- +
-Brooklyn Brewery's pilsner has been the official beer of Glastonbury since 2023, keeping festivalgoers well lubricated. This year, they are preparing more than 1.2 million pints of lager for a hot and thirsty crowd. That's equivalent to two standard-size swimming pools.+
  
-And that's despite Glastonbury's B.Y.O. standing, unique at British music festivals where bringing alcohol in from the outside is usually prohibited. At Glastonbury, if you can carry it, you can drink it, and it's not uncommon to see wheelbarrows and small trailers being pulled into campsites with a weekend's worth of supplies of food and drink.+By SAMY MAGDY Associated Press
  
-**120,000: Largest-ever crowd for one set**+CAIRO (AP) — In an extravaganza of pharaonic imagery with a drone light show depicting ancient gods and pyramids in the sky, Egypt on Saturday inaugurated its long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, a megaproject aiming to give the country's millennia-old heritage a rich, modern display.
  
-The headliners on the iconic Pyramid Stage traditionally attract the biggest crowds, and Elton John's 2023 farewell gig attracted more than 120,000 fans as he closed the festival. Paul McCartney pulled in more than 100,000 festivalgoers for his headlining Saturday night set in 2022.+Two decades in the making, the museum located near the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx is the centerpiece of the government's bid to boost Egypt's tourism industry and bring cash into the troubled economy.
  
-**4,000: Number of toilets**+At the elaborate grand opening ceremony, attended by a number of European and Arab royals and other presidents and prime ministers, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi sought to give the event an international scale.
  
-As well as standard portable toilets, the more than 4,000 toilets include the infamous "long drops" — lockable, open-air toilets set up on high with a huge concrete gutter around 10 feet (3 meters) below (looking down not recommended) and "compost loos," with a bin of sawdust located outside to scoop and scatter over your business. There are also both men's and women's urinals for a speedy pee!+He called on attendees to "make this museum a platform for dialogue, a destination for knowledge, a forum for humanity, and a beacon for all who love life and believe in the value of humankind."
  
-By contrast, there are scarce few public showers. Organizers instead recommend a "good ol' fashioned stripwash and making do."+**A bid to join the ranks of the world's top museums**
  
-**3,972: Performers across 120 stages this year**+The museum, known as GEM, is one of several megaprojects championed by el-Sissi since he took office in 2014, embarking on massive investments in infrastructure with the aim of reviving an economy weakened by decades of stagnation and battered by the unrest that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
  
-This year's headliners are English indie rockers The 1975 on Friday, Canadian-American singer-songwriter Neil Young on Saturday and American pop star Olivia Rodrigo closing on Sunday. But if that's not your thing, there are 3,969 other acts to choose from.+Egypt's pharaonic history has long made it a tourist magnet. But it has also long struggled to organize and display the sheer huge amount of artifacts — everything from tiny pieces of jewelry and colorful tomb murals to towering statues of pharaohs and animal-headed gods, with more as discoveries are constantly being made across the country.
  
-**35: Minutes it took for 2025 tickets to sell out**+Touted as the world's biggest museum dedicated to a single ancient civilization, the new building, in contemporary style is a stark contrast. Its large, open halls give space for some 50,000 artifacts on display, along with virtual reality exhibits. It displays the entire collection of treasures from the tomb of the famed King Tutankhamun for the first time since its discovery in 1922.
  
-Tickets for this year went on sale in November 2024, more than 6 months before a single performer was announced, yet the general admission tickets sold out in 35 minutes. The resale round in April saw remaining tickets sell out in just 20 minutes.+The museum replaces the Egyptian Museum, housed in building more than a century old in downtown Cairo that — while elegant in its Neo-Classical style — had become antiquated and was often compared to a warehouse, overpacked with artifacts with little explanation.
  
-**1970: Glastonbury's birth year**+Construction on the $1 billion project began in 2005 under then-President Hosni Mubarak. But work was interrupted by turmoil surrounding the 2011 uprising that brought down the Egyptian strongman. Further delays ensued, and a planned grand opening over the summer had to be put off after the 12-day-long war between Israel and Iran erupted in June.
  
-This does not mean this week is the 55th edition though, as traditionally the festival takes a fallow year roughly every five years to allow the farmland to recover. The last official fallow year was 2018, but the festival's 50th anniversary in 2020 and the following year's edition were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.+GEM is expected to attract 5 million visitors annually, said Egypt's tourism and antiquities minister, Sherif Fathy. That would put it in the realm of the most popular museums in the world. In 2024, by comparison, Paris's Louvre brought in 8.7 million, the British Museum 6.5 million and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York 5.7 million.
  
-If you're considering making Glasto plans for next year, don't bother: 2026 is a fallow year.+**An elaborate opening ceremony**
  
-**1,000: Acres constituting the festival's site**+Saturday night's grand opening stoked the pharaoh-mania.
  
-This is equivalent to 500 soccer pitches or approximately 733 standard American football fields. That makes it the world's largest greenfield music and arts event.+As an orchestra played fanfares, lines of actors dressed in ancient Egyptian garb arrayed around the museum, the pyramids and the Sphinx. Hundreds of drones created a light show in the sky, depicting well-known Egyptian gods like Isis and Osiris and the pyramids.
  
-**1,000: Cows living on the farmland**+El-Sissi posed with delegates from more than 70 countries, including members of the royal families from Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Jordan, Gulf Arab nations and Japan, and a number of European and regional presidents and prime ministers. It was a throwback to the grand opening of another megaproject in Egypt, the 1869 inauguration of the Suez Canal, when Egypt's rulers gathered a host of European royal families.
  
-The rest of the year, that is — the humans and the cows don't cohabitate during the festival. Worthy Farm, where the festival is held, is a working farm with 500 milking cows and 500 young stock. During the festival, organizer Michael Eavis sends the dairy cows for a short stay at the Glastonbury "Moo-tel," a large shed based away from the action, while the rest go off to graze further afield.+**Ramses the Great and King Tut**
  
-**400: Food stalls**+The museum boasts a towering, triangular glass façade imitating the nearby pyramids, with 24,000 square meters (258,000 square feet) of permanent exhibition space.
  
-The more than 400 stalls go well beyond the traditional festival burger, offering just about every type of global cuisine you can imagine. Plus the Brits love a "meal deal" (a combo of a main meal and a drink or side dish) and Glastonbury is no exception with 6-pound (roughly $8) meal deals offered across the site to keep things affordable.+It opens to a granite colossus of Ramses the Great, one of ancient Egypt's most powerful pharaohs who reigned for around 60 years, from 1279-1213 B.C., and is credited with expanding ancient Egypt's reach as far as modern Syria to the east and present-day Sudan to the south. The statue greets visitors once they step inside the museum's angular atrium.
  
-**30: Arrests made in 2024**+The museum's 12 main galleries, which opened last year, exhibit antiquities spanning from prehistoric times to the Roman era, organized by eras and by themes.
  
-Twenty-one of these were for drug-related offenses, but the festival retains a low crime rate overall.+Two halls that will be opened for the first time after Saturday are dedicated to the 5,000 artifacts from the collection of King Tutankhamun — a boy pharaoh who ruled from 1361-1352 B.C. The tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 in the southern city of Luxor. The old Egyptian Museum did not have enough room to display the whole collection.
  
-**8: Kilometers around the perimeter fence**+The collection includes the boy pharaoh's three funeral beds and six chariots, his golden throne, his gold-covered sarcophagus and his burial mask, made of gold, quartzite, lapis lazuli and colored glass.
  
-A "Super Fortress Fence" was installed in 2002. Before this, there were tens of thousands of gate-crashers every year. Some jumped the fence, while others tunneled under, "Great Escape" style. Eavis installed the impenetrable fence after he was fined in 2000 for breaching licensing conditions.+Zahi Hawass, Egypt's most renowned archaeologist and former minister of antiquities, said the Tutankhamun collection is the museum's masterpiece.
  
-**5: Days the festival site is open for business**+"Why this museum is so important, and everyone is waiting for the opening?" he told The Associated Press. "Because of Tutankhamun."
  
-Ticket holders can get access starting 8 a.m. Wednesday to pitch their tents and bag the best spots. While there is entertainment and music over the first few days, the main stages start up on Friday morning and run through Sunday night. All festivalgoers must leave by 5 p.m. Monday, when the site officially closes.+**Boost to tourism and economy**
  
-**5: Most headlining appearances of any band**+Officials hope the museum will draw more tourists who will stay for longer periods and provide the foreign currency needed to shore up Egypt's battered economy.
  
-Coldplay has headlined the Pyramid Stage a record five times. They first topped the bill in 2002, followed by 2005, 2011, 2016 and, most recently, 2024. Arctic Monkeys, Muse and Radiohead are among an elite group of artists who have headlined three times.+The government has also revamped the area around the museum and the nearby pyramids and the Sphinx. New highways were built, and a metro station is being constructed nearby. An airport, Sphinx International Airport, has also opened west of Cairo — 40 minutes from the museum.
  
-**3: Banned items that may surprise you**+The tourism sector has suffered during years of political turmoil and violence following the 2011 uprising. In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia's war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
  
-Among the list of banned items you might expect, including narcotics, weapons and fireworks, are the less assuming Chinese lanterns, body glitter and gazebos. The first two are verboten because of environmental concerns — a couple cows have died from ingesting the remnants of a Chinese lantern! — while a sudden rash of gazebos would take up too much space in the busy campsites.+A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8% of the country's GDP, according to official figures. Fathy, the tourism minister, said about 18 million tourists are expected this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
  
-**0: Number of plastic bottles sold on-site**+This will translate into more jobs and pump foreign currency into the economy, said Walid el-Batouty, a tour guide.
  
-Glastonbury banned single-use plastic in 2019, installing more drinking water fountains around the site and encouraging festivalgoers to bring reusable bottles — for water or some other liquid of choice, of course.+"It will be boost the economy of Egypt tremendously not just the hotels and the museum itself," he said. Whenever a tourist rides a cab or even just buys a bottle of water, "that is pumping money" into Egypt's coffers, he added.
  
 +Associated Press journalist Ahmed Hatem in Cairo contributed to this report.
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