English Listening Practice — October 22, 2026

⚖️ EU's Sakharov Prize won by the International Criminal Court

The European Union has awarded its prestigious Sakharov Prize to the International Criminal Court.

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola announced the accolade in Strasbourg.

She commended the tribunal for upholding international law and justice.

ICC President Tomoko Akane noted that the honor arrives amid unprecedented headwinds.

The court and its officials currently face disruptive sanctions designed to undermine their judicial mandate.

Metsola also acknowledged the other finalists: jailed Tanzanian lawyer Tundu Lissu, alongside imprisoned Iranian twin sisters Taraneh and Romina Rahimi.

⚔️ Bukele says military operation launched to rescue Salvadorans held by gangs in Haiti

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has mobilized a military rescue operation in Haiti.

The mission aims to extract four Salvadoran military aviation technicians recently abducted by armed gangs.

The service members vanished after assailants ambushed and torched their armored vehicle in Port-au-Prince.

Bukele issued an uncompromising ultimatum directly to the gang leaders.

He demanded the immediate, unharmed release of all four hostages.

Furthermore, he warned that noncompliance would trigger a significantly more forceful military offensive.

🛒 World's largest wealth fund posts $30 billion loss after bond market turbulence

Norway’s $2.3 trillion sovereign wealth fund posted a $30 billion loss for the third quarter, totaling 278 billion kroner.

Norges Bank Investment Management attributed the downturn to widespread turbulence in global fixed-income markets.

As major central banks pursued aggressive rate-hiking cycles, surging bond yields eroded asset values.

Consequently, the fund’s fixed-income holdings slumped 3.5%, serving as the primary catalyst for the negative quarterly return.

Fixed income constitutes just over a quarter of the world’s largest investment portfolio.

🏛️ France protests: Macron condemns 'stupid' comments from Trump, others as bond market pressure builds

French President Emmanuel Macron has sharply rebuked Donald Trump and other foreign leaders for their commentary on France’s recent civil unrest.

Following the country's worst rioting in years, Macron dismissed the external reactions as both "unacceptable" and "stupid."

He attributed the rhetoric to foreign disinformation, accusing overseas politicians of exploiting the crisis for their own ends.

Trump had publicly blamed the turmoil on "migrants, jihadists, and Communists."

Other high-profile Republicans, including JD Vance and Mike Johnson, have also referenced the unrest on the campaign trail.

🖥️ ‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentre

Google faces intense backlash in Finland after illegally felling 250,000 trees to clear land for a data centre.

The unauthorised logging has provoked sharp public fury across the country.

Local critics and environmentalists have condemned the tech giant's actions as an act of pure arrogance.

By bypassing local regulations, the company cleared substantial woodland before securing the requisite approvals.

The incident highlights mounting friction between rapid infrastructure expansion and environmental compliance.

Local authorities are now evaluating the fallout from the unlawful deforestation.

📰 Oxford scientists discover how viruses build themselves without a blueprint

University of Oxford researchers have observed virus-like particles self-assembling molecule by molecule, revealing the fundamental rules governing viral architecture.

Published in Nature, the study demonstrates how individual proteins navigate thousands of possible configurations through trial and error.

Transient, weak bonds continually dissolve until the proteins lock into resilient molecular checkpoints.

A pivotal milestone occurs when five protein units coalesce into a stable pentagonal ring.

Deciphering these self-assembly pathways could unlock new avenues for targeted antiviral therapies and next-generation vaccines.

📺 ‘The tech bro fight club is real!’ The titans of AI get the Succession treatment in a wild new TV show

Former Succession writer Jonathan Glatzer has created The Audacity, an acerbic television satire lampooning the titans of artificial intelligence.

Billed with the tagline "Move fast and break people," the dark comedy dissects the cutthroat culture of Silicon Valley executives.

Actor Billy Magnussen stars as Duncan Park, the morally bankrupt founder of a data analytics company.

Despite amassing a personal fortune of half a billion dollars, the tech executive desperately schemes to cross the coveted billionaire threshold.

📰 Legendary video game studio BioWare closes after 31 years

Electronic Arts has officially shuttered BioWare, terminating the storied Canadian game studio after 31 years of operation.

The developer earned widespread acclaim for flagship role-playing franchises, including Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

However, BioWare’s last two releases failed to meet internal sales targets.

Consequently, EA dissolved the studio as part of a broader corporate restructuring that eliminates 400 jobs across the enterprise.

Prior to the shutdown, the studio had been actively developing the next installment in the Mass Effect series.

🏀 French teenage rugby player dies after on-field injury

Seventeen-year-old French amateur rugby player Clea Menier has died following an on-field accident on Saturday.

The back-row forward for Union du Bassin Marmandais sustained severe trauma during an under-18s match against Agen Agglo Rugby.

After receiving immediate medical attention on the pitch, Menier was rushed to Pellegrin Hospital in Bordeaux.

She subsequently succumbed to her injuries.

Neither her club nor the French Rugby Federation has disclosed the specific nature of the fatal trauma.

🎨 'The Savage Mind' author says America's violent past is embedded in its present

In his latest book, The Savage Mind: An American Legacy, acclaimed Ojibwe author David Treuer examines the enduring roots of American violence.

Treuer argues that historic frontier brutality did not vanish with westward expansion.

Instead, the subjugation of Native peoples and the seizure of Indigenous land remain woven into modern institutions, narratives, and cultural habits.

Rather than viewing this violence as a relic of the past, Treuer contends that modern America continues to harbor and perpetuate the very practices once justified in the name of civilization.