Today's Headlines:

Tracing the origins of Islamic State group's weapons

Making UK health tourism pay

Building the world's biggest wind farm

Transcript:

James Bevan and his team from the group Conflict Armament Research carefully document the weapons, now made safe, to establish their origin. The arms trade is a murky world but this group has been able to trace where IS gets much of its munitions from and the answers are surprising. They found crates of ammunition and rockets manufactured in factories in Eastern Europe. These were bought by the governments of the US and Saudi Arabia. They were supposed to be shipped through Turkey to rebel groups the US and Saudi Arabia supports in Syria but instead, sometimes as quick as two months from manufacture, these fell into the hands of IS and are now being used to kill US-backed Iraqi forces.

The (UK) government said it would raise five hundred million pounds a year from treating overseas visitors on the NHS but it's falling well short so the pressure is on to get hospitals to do more checks to allow NHS bosses to claim back from foreign governments. A plan to get all patients to produce identification for non-urgent hospital care is being considered.

Flying over the Humber (river in the UK) and out to the North Sea, you soon get a sense of how the renewable energy boom is transforming the horizon and this area's economy. Five miles off the east coast, this is the Westermost Rough Wind Farm built by Danish firm, Dong Energy. Dong plans to invest six billion pounds on the Humber by 2020.

Words and phrases and definitions:

a murky world
complicated and badly understood 

fell into the hands of
went to the wrong person or people

falling well short
not achieving what is expected

boom
sudden economic increase

Exercise:

Use one of the words or phrases from Lingohack to complete each of these sentences. Note that you may have to change the form of a word or phrase to complete the sentence correctly.

a murky world  / fell into the hands of / falling well short / boom

1. A report says The European Union is __________ of its ambitious target to cut energy use by 20% by 2020.

2. It's believed the stolen paintings have _________ of criminals who will take them abroad and resell them.

3. The property market, like that of gold and oil, is a rather _________. The prices you'll see on most websites are only asking prices.

4. Football in China is enjoying a _________ as investors not only snap up overseas clubs but also lure big name players and coaches to the nation's Super League.

Answers:

1. A report says The European Union is falling well short of its ambitious target to cut energy use by 20% by 2020.

2. It's believed the stolen paintings have fallen into the hands of criminals who will take them abroad and resell them.

3. The property market, like that of gold and oil, is a rather murky world. The prices you'll see on most websites are only asking prices.

4. Football in China is enjoying a boom as investors not only snap up overseas clubs but also lure big name players and coaches to the nation's Super League.