Russia is Helping Iran Fight the United States 🇺🇸

If you want to become a better English speaker and you like following what is going on in the world by watching the news in English, this is the perfect channel for you. We have more bad news in the world today. It seems like Russia is helping Iran with its intelligence and that's unfortunate because it could lead to a wider war.

As you probably know, the United States and Israel attacked Iran. That's bad enough. But if other countries start getting involved, like superpowers like Russia, hopefully not China, but other countries like Saudi Arabia, this could lead to World War II.

In today's English lesson, we are going to watch a news report on how Russia is providing information to Iran that could hurt American soldiers. If that sounds good to you, please go ahead, subscribe, like this video, and let's watch that report together. I am going to go inside where it is less snowy.

For the president, well, he was at a college sports roundt today when Fox News asked him about Russia's role. This was his answer. What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time.

We're talking about something else. Can we keep this maybe a little bit? Go ahead, please.

I mean, why talk about a war? For the first time, indicating Russian involvement in this war with Iran. Multiple sources familiar with the intelligence say that Russia is now giving Iran intelligence on US military targets, including the locations and movements of US troops, ships, and aircraft.

One person said much of that intelligence consists of Russian satellite imagery. They have better capabilities than Iran does. Cienna has asked the Kremlin and the Russian embassy for comment.

The state news agency TAS reports that President Putin spoke with his Iranian counterpart on Friday and during that call they quote agreed to continue contacts. Joining me now retired US Army Colonel Peter Mansour, now chair of military history at Ohio State University. Peter, good to have you on.

Great to be on, Jim. So this is Russia giving Iran arguably the most sensitive intelligence when it comes to America's interests in that it affects the location of US forces in the region and therefore impacts their safety. Okay, you've watched part of the newscast.

I have 19 terms for you that you might see on the IELTS or the TOEFL exam. terms you might hear native English speakers say in your next conversation. So, let's get right into it.

The first one is roundt. And the reporter asked President Trump a question while he was at a sports roundt. So, let's talk about what a roundt is.

A meeting where a group of people discuss a topic equally. So, it's not like there is a leader or anything. I'm sure if President Trump is at any round table, he is going to automatically think he's the leader.

And who knows, maybe he is. But let's get a sentence that uses roundt. The leaders sat at a round table to talk about the new rules.

Stop. Look at this word landslide. Do you think it means rocks falling down from a mountain?

In the news, that is a big no. It means winning an election by a large amount. If you want to read the New York Times or watch CNN or Fox News, you need to know news English or like I like to call it headline east, you know, like Chinese or Taiwanese.

It's a foreign language. It's not like English from a textbook. And the best place to start is my free guide.

It's called the 50 words you need to know before you read the news. It teaches you the most important words for politics, crimes, elections, and so much more. It's totally free.

There is a QR code right up there or there is a link in the description. Now, back to the English lesson. And next, we have indicating.

Indicating, this is a verb you might hear in a conversation. I bet they would put it on the IELTS or TOEFL exam because it is pretty advanced and it means showing or pointing something out. The map is indicating that the school is on the next street.

So, let me give you another example. Let's think of a country. Maybe you are watching this from Japan.

I just picked a country off the top of my head. And let's say you look at the map and there is a star indicating where the capital is. The capital is Tokyo, right?

Let me know in the comments if I am wrong. Intel. Intel is next.

And this is short for intelligence. So if a person has intelligence, we could say they are smart. But in the newscast, they used it a little differently.

secret information about a government or an army. The police received intel about a planned robbery. And I would think that Russia is a little more sophisticated than Iran.

We do call Russia a superpower. They have a bigger army, probably better technology, so they can give that intel to Iran to help them fight the United States. And hey, it's payback, right?

We'll talk about payback in a little bit, but the United States is helping Ukraine fight Russia, so it's only fair, I think, I guess. Next, we have consists. Consists, this is another advanced verb, and it means to be made up of certain parts or things.

So, this English lesson consists of at least 19 terms. You might see on the IELTS or TOEFL exam. Take a look at that picture.

We have a deck of cards. That's what we call it in English. A deck of cards.

And here is the sentence. A standard deck of cards consists of 52 cards. Next, we have arguably.

Arguably, some say that I am arguably the best teacher on YouTube. No, no, that's not true. Maybe it's Bob the Canadian.

Maybe it's English with Lucy. But I'm sure there is a better teacher out there on YouTube than me. But arguably means used to say that something is probably true, even if others uh disagree.

I think my wife thinks I might be the best English teacher on YouTube. Yeah, arguably. Maybe she thinks Bob the Canadian is.

I don't know. Let's talk about a sentence that uses arguably. That was arguably the most difficult test of the year.

So, you can use this any time where somebody might have another opinion. For example, Indian cuisine is arguably the best type of food in the world. I don't know, you might think Italian food is or some other kind of food, Brazilian food when I was in Brazil a couple years ago.

We had some very good food there. Now, we already talked about Intel, but what if there is sensitive intel? sensitive can have a couple different meanings in English.

Here it is secret information that is very private or dangerous if shared. He was fired for sharing sensitive intel with the reporter. Next, we have something that gives even native English speakers difficulty.

We have effects versus effects. Are they pronounced the same way? Yeah, pretty much.

The only difference is one is a verb and one is a noun. So, let's talk about it a little more. You see the one that starts with an a, that is a verb and it means to change.

The one with the e, that is a noun and it means the results. The weather affects my mood. So, in that first part of the sentence, it is used as a verb.

It does something. It changes. Here's the second part of the sentence.

And the effect is that I feel happy. Let me remove myself here. Oh, there is a teacher tip for you.

Exactly what I've been saying. Effect. Think of a action.

It's a verb. Effect the end result. That's the noun.

Tell us the significance of that of Russia taking that step to become involved in this war. Well, my first thought is but of course they are. I mean this is payback for the United States providing Ukraine intelligence on the position of Russian forces and assets uh in the vicinity of Ukraine.

So I would be astonished if Russia didn't do this. Um, so quite frankly, this is an expected development and um, like I said, it's it's tit for tat because we're doing the same thing uh, in the European theater. To see the White House response to this, one might imagine a president or a White House press secretary at least taking issue with that support.

But when Carolyn Levit was asked about it, she said it doesn't matter. Her reasoning being that the US is doing so well. It doesn't matter that Russia is providing such intelligence.

But we did see that US forces were at least vulnerable. You had that Iranian drone strike that killed six US service members. I mean, should the US president, should the US defense secretary more definitively call out Russia for this kind of help?

Sure. I mean, absolutely. You should demarsh Russia, give them a diplomatic protest um and make public uh your concern about their involvement in the war.

I used payback earlier. So, it's almost like Russia is paying back the United States for the United States helping Ukraine in their war. So, let's get the official definition.

Doing something bad back to someone because they hurt you. Take a look at the picture. We have maybe a couple co-workers at a couple desks.

He took my seat so I didn't help him with his work as payback. So maybe she was sitting in that seat first, the one the man is sitting in. Maybe she went up maybe to use the bathroom and when she came back that guy was sitting in her seat, he took her seat.

Assets is next. Assets. What are assets?

Every country has assets. The United States has assets in a lot of different countries. Assets.

These are valuable things that a person or a company owns. Take a look at the woman in the picture. Oh my goodness, that is a pretty nice car.

That would be a valuable asset. Her house and her car are her most valuable assets. But earlier we talked about Intel.

Intel could be an asset for whichever government has it. Next, we have the vicinity. Vicinity is how you pronounce that.

Let's get the official definition. The area near or around a specific place. There is a grocery store in the vicinity of my house.

So, in the front of the picture, you can see there is a house and maybe in the back there would be a store. So, it's in the general vicinity. You might also hear that term, the general vicinity, like what's around that place.

Astonished. Do you know this adjective? Astonished.

It's a good one to know in English. It means very surprised or shocked. I was astonished by how quickly the students learned English.

Yeah, that's true for me. Sometimes I will get a student in my class who knows zero English. It helps if they are a native Spanish or French speaker because French, Spanish, it's closer to English than say Arabic, but within two years those speakers can become pretty good at English.

I do have a student originally from Syria, moved to Lebanon, lived there most of his early life. Now he's about 16. He's been in the United States for about two and a half years.

His English is amazing. Kind of crazy how some students can learn English so quickly. Quite frankly, I find that astonishing.

Let's talk about quite frankly. Quite frankly, a phrase used to show that you are being very honest or direct. Quite frankly, I think learning English is tough.

But if you learn it almost every day, don't skip your days. Put an hour. If you have two hours in each day, I think you're going to learn pretty quickly.

But quite frankly, I do realize it's difficult. You're doing a great job. You're sticking with it here.

12 terms already. Quite frankly, I think we should start the project over. Yeah, she's being very honest.

I don't believe I have ever taught tit for tat on this channel, but it's a good one to know. Tit for tat. Let's get the definition.

Doing the exact same thing to someone that they did to you. And this is almost always used in a negative way, like they did something bad to you. So, you are going to pay them back.

Oh, you did that to me. I'll do the same thing to you. Let's get a sentence.

They stopped talking to each other in a tit fortat argument. A that's not good. Hopefully, they can become friends again.

Theater of war is next. So, when you think theater, you might think a place to watch a movie. Now, that's a little different when we're talking about war.

the specific place or region where a war is happening. Soldiers were moved from the city to the active theater of war. So if you think about American history, I'm not sure how much you know about that, but in World War II, students are taught that Americans fought two theaters of war in World War II.

one in Europe and one in Asia. Next, we have Caroline Levit. She has been very famous in the United States ever since President Trump began his second term.

Let's talk about who she is. She is a US political figure and press secretary. Caroline Levitt gave a speech to the reporters this morning.

So a couple times a week she will speak to reporters on behalf of Donald Trump. So she meets with him almost every day to discuss issues and because the president is very busy, he doesn't have that much time to speak to reporters. She does that job for him.

Next we have vulnerable. Vulnerable. Now I know we have talked about that term on this channel before.

Vulnerable. Let's get the definition. Easily hurt, attacked or influenced.

And I think I use this definition quite often. And also this example sentence, without a warm coat, you are vulnerable to the cold weather. And I think I also talk about how young people and old people are especially vulnerable.

They often need protection. Here we have an English phrasal verb to call someone out. You know, native English speakers, we love using those English phrasal verbs.

And it means to point out someone's mistake or criticize them publicly. Oh, that's never fun. You should call out people who are being mean to others.

And it looks like that woman is doing exactly that. Ooh, she is pointing her finger in that man's face. Next, we have a diplomatic protest.

Diplomatic. Usually, that is the opposite of war. If somebody is being diplomatic, they are being polite.

Protest. Let's get the full definition here. An official complaint from one government to another, but it's not violent.

Here's a sentence. The country filed a diplomatic protest after the border was closed. Next, we have make public.

Usually, when you hear public, think about people. Like a public restroom. Everybody can use it.

If it's private, not everyone can use it. So if something is made public, that's the past tense. It means to share information so that everyone can know.

The company will make public. It's new information next month. So this is a public English lesson.

Anybody can watch it. It's not a private one. I do have membersonly English lessons.

This one has been made public. Thank you so much for watching. Nice job.

If you are looking for more English, right down there is an entire playlist about this war in Iran. Thanks so much for watching. See you next time.