diff --git "a/eval/dev.json" "b/eval/dev.json" new file mode 100644--- /dev/null +++ "b/eval/dev.json" @@ -0,0 +1,4245 @@ +[ + { + "question": "Who did the person on the left of the image berate?", + "context": "Palestinians Alarmed, But Not Surprised, By Trump-Netanyahu Comments\nPalestinians are expressing alarm \u2013 but not surprise \u2013 at the outcome of Wednesday\u2019s meeting in Washington between the U.S. president and the Israeli premier, in which President Donald Trump appeared to back down from decades of U.S. policy.\n\u201cI'm looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like,\" Trump told a joint news conference with Netanyahu. \u201cI can live with either one.\u201d\nNikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, created further confusion Thursday when she insisted that \"the two-state solution is what we support.\" But that did nothing to quiet anger among the Palestinians, who remained focused on Trump's openness to a single state.\nIn an editorial entitled \u201cAbsence of Two-State Solution Means Single State, Even Racism,\u201d the Jerusalem-based pro-Palestinian Al-Quds newspaper online said Thursday that Trump complements the position and policy of Netahyahu, who, \u201ckilled the two-state solution in the wake of the unusual settlement savagery and the Knesset decision in this regard.\u201d\nThe latter is a reference to the Israeli parliament\u2019s passage February 6 of the controversial \u201cRegularization Law,\u201d which retroactively legalized dozens of settlements across the West Bank.\nThe editorial called for Palestinians to reassess their goals: \u201cWe should call for a single state, which is practically and politically dead after the meetings in Washington, and call for one state. And perhaps we should also hand over all Palestinian keys to Israel.\u201d\nPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, is greeted by Hanan Ashrawi, left, legislator and activist, as he arrives at his hotel in New York, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011, to attend the 66th General Assembly session of United Nations.\nPLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi accused the White House of accommodating the most \u201cextreme and irresponsible\u201d elements in Israel, saying it was no way to conduct foreign policy.\n\u201cIf the Trump administration rejects this [two-state] policy, it will destroy the chances for peace and undermine American interests, standing and credibility abroad,\u201d Ashrawi said in a statement.\nAnd, she added, if the U.S. leader intends to end the two-state solution,he should put alternatives on the table.\nThe Palestinian News and Information Agency quoted a press release by the Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs that cautions against drawing premature conclusions about Wednesday\u2019s meeting in Washington, stating that the new U.S. president is still evaluating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.\nMeanwhile, in Israel, the political right-wing was generally positive about the meeting.\n\u201cTrump Is Good for the Jews,\u201d declared Israel Hayom foreign affairs editor Boaz Bismuth in Israel Hayom, a pro-Netanyahu daily. \"The press conference with Trump and Netanyahu was a U-turn from everything we have heard, known, understood, and considered for decades.\n\"For the most part, the ideas of the two-state solution for peace, road maps, multilateral negotiations, international initiatives, threats of sanctions against Israel, fingers of blame pointed at the settlements, have become irrelevant, or at best, secondary. ... And while the Israeli Left will surely frown upon this formula, only time will tell if the Israeli Right will fully subscribe to it,\" Bismuth continued.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman noted apparent chemistry and trust between Trump and Netanyahu, according to open source reports.\n\u201cIt takes years to build relations between two countries, step by step, and in the first meeting, the critical thing is to build positive personal relations. ... The prime minister ... successfully achieved this,\u201d Lieberman said, adding, \u201cwith respect to the rest, we don\u2019t know exactly what happened.\u201d\nEarlier in the week, Lieberman had suggested the Trump-Netanyahu meeting should focus on another, more important issue: \u201cThe greatest threat to Israel is Iran, Iran and Iran,\u201d he said.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nFor his part, Naftali Bennett, Education minister and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party offered rare praise for Netanyahu in an interview with Kol Baramah radio: \u201cNetanyahu made a correct decision yesterday to put an end to the adoption of a state of Palestine position, a position which Israel had adopted for 24 years.\n\u201cAfter 24 years, the Palestinian flag has come down from the mast and the Israeli flag has taken its place,\u201d he added.\nIsraeli Education Minister and head of the Jewish Home right-wing party Naftali Bennett arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Jerusalem office December 4, 2016.\nBut those to the center and left on Israel\u2019s political spectrum had mixed reactions.\nIn an editorial for Yedioth Ahronoth, Nahum Barnea, though critical of the U.S. president, agreed with Trump\u2019s assertion that the future of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis should be determined by the players themselves.\n\u201cOne should not be shocked by the lightness in which Trump threw into the bin decades of American support for the two-state solution,\u201d he wrote in the centrist daily. \u201cIn his simplistic, blatant way, he put his finger on the heart of the problem: If both sides want two states, they should agree on two states; if both sides want one state, they should agree on one state. America shouldn\u2019t have to teach them what is best for them.\u201d\nChemi Shalev, the U.S. editor for the left-leaning Haaretz newspaper, wrote: \"Supporters of a peace agreement with the Palestinians had a tough night, for sure, but at least they can console themselves with Trump\u2019s impromptu turn to Netanyahu to 'hold off with settlements for a while' and with his continued lip service to achieving a solution to the conflict.\u201d\nShalev interpreted Trump\u2019s statements as more than just a retraction of U.S. support for a two-state solution.\n\u201cTrump ... distanced himself from the need to take any position whatsoever, preferring a sort of nihilistic formula of one state, two states, whatever, I don\u2019t care,\" Shalev said.\n", + "caption": "Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, is greeted by Hanan Ashrawi, left, legislator and activist, as he arrives at his hotel in New York, Monday, Sept. 19, 2011, to attend the 66th General Assembly session of United Nations.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5BFA4590-5BBB-4CE1-8FB6-4F450B872504.jpg", + "id": "25441_2", + "answer": [ + "the White House" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Hanan Ashrawi" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_16_3727834", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_16_3727834_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who killed the person on the screen in the image?", + "context": "Analysis: Should US Return North Korea to Terrorism List?\nAmid calls by U.S. lawmakers for North Korea to be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism following the apparent assassination of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, there's an apparent lack of consensus among experts on whether his death is a terrorist attack.\nTed Yoho, the Florida Republican who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific, told VOA there is a \"strong consensus\" in Congress on returning the North to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.\nKim Jong Nam, 45, died Feb. 13 shortly after two women allegedly smeared the VX nerve agent on his face at Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur International Airport. VX is a highly toxic substance which is classified as a weapon of mass destruction under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.\nMalaysian police have detained the women and one North Korean national. Seven other North Koreans, including a diplomat based in the Malaysian capital, are currently wanted for questioning.\nFILE - People watch a TV screen broadcasting a news report on the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 14, 2017.\nAlthough the police are still trying to determine if the North was responsible for the assassination, South Korea's intelligence agency said the killing is state-led terrorism sponsored by the North, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed by the agency.\nCurrently, three countries are on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism \u2014 Iran, Sudan and Syria. They are subject to U.S. financial sanctions, which include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance, a ban on arms-related exports and sales, and controls on exports of dual-use items.\nCall for reinstatement\nThe U.S. designated North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism after the country bombed a Korean Air flight near Myanmar in 1987, killing 115 people onboard. Since then, the communist state is not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts, according to the U.S. State Department.\nIn 2008, the U.S. removed the North from the list as part of a nuclear deal, in which Pyongyang agreed to disable its plutonium plant and allow some inspections. However, the North's recent provocations have prompted some U.S. lawmakers to seek to repeal the decision. Following the latest incident in Malaysia, there is another push in Congress to return the North to the terrorism blacklist.\nFILE - A North Korean nuclear plant is seen before demolishing a cooling tower (R) in Yongbyon, in this photo taken June 27, 2008, and released by Kyodo.\nIn order to put North Korea back on the list, the U.S. secretary of state \"must determine\" that the North has \"repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism,\" according to the State Department.\nThis, nonetheless, could be difficult as the U.S. government and Congress have often disagreed on what constitutes state-sponsored international terrorism. The Obama administration refused repeated calls from Congress to reinstate the North to the list, citing the statutory requirement for such action.\nStatutory requirements\nJoshua Stanton, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney who specializes in sanctions and also maintains the influential One Free Korea blog, believes that the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, coupled with its previous bellicose acts, meets statutory requirements to put Pyongyang back on the terrorism blacklist.\nAccording to Stanton, the regime has carried out a series of what he called terrorist acts such as threats to theaters showing the film The Interview, an action-comedy centered on an assassination plot against Kim Jong Un.\u201d\n\"I think it's going to be difficult for the administration to resist the pressure to [return North Korea to the list] at this point,\" Stanton told VOA. \nStanton, who also has assisted the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee with the drafting of North Korea-related legislation, added there is little doubt that the Kuala Lumpur killing was a terrorist act because a banned chemical weapon was used against a civilian at a public airport in a third country.\nAnthony Ruggiero, who worked in the U.S. government for more than 17 years, told VOA that although there is a restricted legal interpretation of what acts of international terrorism look like, the Kim Jong Nam case \"crystalizes the effort to look at North Korea as a terrorist state.\"\nFILE - The car of ambassador of North Korea to Malaysia leaves the forensic department at the hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Feb. 15, 2017.\n\"I think you can make a case that, at least since 2008, there have been repeated acts of international terrorism, which they have supported, or in the case of Kim Jong Nam, have done themselves,\" said the former Treasury Department official, who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.\nGray zone\nDaniel Benjamin, who served as the U.S. State Department's counterterrorism coordinator in the Obama administration, however, argues that the killing in Malaysia cannot be readily construed as an act of terrorism. In an interview with VOA, Benjamin, who is now the director of the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College, said the case lies in a \"gray zone.\"\nWhile the apparent use of the deadly nerve agent in the killing is within legal parameters of designating the North as a terrorist state, assassination by itself cannot be interpreted as an act of terrorism, according to Benjamin.\n\"So this is a very unusual case,\" said the former official.\n\"The law is written in such a way that I think that the administration has a certain amount of flexibility in determining whether or not a country qualifies as a state sponsor,\" he added.\nCiting a senior South Korean official, South Korean news media reported Monday the U.S. was mulling the reinstatement. In response, a State Department spokesperson said Tuesday the State Department constantly reviews \"all of the available information and intelligence, from a variety of sources\" on the North.\n\"Even without being designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, North Korea remains among the most heavily sanctioned countries in the world,\" the spokesperson said in an email sent to VOA.\nCho Eunjung and Baik Sungwon contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - People watch a TV screen broadcasting a news report on the assassination of Kim Jong Nam, the older half brother of the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at a railway station in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 14, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E368C90C-2DE8-45AF-A272-8CE095EC8895.jpg", + "id": "22357_2", + "answer": [ + "two women", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kim Jong Nam" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_28_3744155", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_28_3744155_2" + }, + { + "question": "What nation will become a barrier for the people in the image?", + "context": "Germany, Italy Push for EU Mission on Libya-Niger Border to Deter Migrants\nROME \u2014\u00a0\nThe interior ministers of Germany and Italy are urging the European Union to set up a mission along Libya's border with Niger in a bid to stop mainly African migrants from reaching Europe.\nIn a letter to the European Commission, the ministers say that international efforts so far to curb the migrant flow have proven insufficient. According to the United Nations, more than 43,000 migrants, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, have reached European shores this year from Libya and a surge in migrant crossings is expected this spring and summer.\nFILE - Sub-Saharan migrants are rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO at the Mediterranean sea, about 20 miles north of Ra's Tajura, Libya, Jan. 12, 2017.\nNearly 1,200 migrants have died at sea trying to cross the Mediterranean.\nIn their letter, which was first reported by the German weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag, the ministers, Thomas de Maizi\u00e8re and Marco Minniti, said they \"are convinced that we all must do more\" to \u201cprevent that hundreds of thousands of people once again risk their lives in Libya and on the Mediterranean Sea in the hands of smugglers.\u201d\nThey called for the setting up of \"an EU mission at the border between Libya and Niger as soon as possible,\" which could include mobile patrols and border posts as well as vetting of asylum-seekers. They also want for the EU to help support economic growth and development in communities along the border. \"The goal is as quickly as possible to build up an EU mission on the border between Libya and Niger\" to stop migrants entering war-torn Libya.\nFILE - Illegal migrants arrive by boat at a naval base after they were rescued by Libyan coastguard in the coastal city of Tripoli, Libya, May 10, 2017.\nItaly has borne the brunt of the migration crisis since Europe concluded a deal with Turkey to stem the movement of migrants and war refugees into EU countries. European leaders are worried about a possible rush of newcomers, increasing the pressure on southern European states, such as Italy and Malta, but also roiling further politics on the continent and fueling anti-immigrant and far-right sentiment.\nA scheme to relocate asylum-seekers continues to face stiff opposition from central European countries, especially Hungary and Slovakia.\nThe ministers\u2019 request to the European Commission envisages shifting the EU\u2019s external border in effect to North Africa. It coincides with a warning from U.N. migration officials that hundreds of migrants along sub-Saharan migration routes are being traded openly in \u2018slave markets\u2019 as well as in Libya. The office of the IOM in Niger has reported: \"Sub-Saharan migrants were being sold and bought by Libyans, with the support of Ghanaians and Nigerians who work for them.\"\nFILE - Migrants sit on their belongings in the back of a truck as it is driven through a dusty road in the desert town of Agadez, Niger, headed for Libya, May 25, 2015.\nHow enthusiastic EU member states will be to the request to set up a mission along the Libya-Niger border will partly be colored by the reaction of European military officials, say analysts.\nEU navies alongside the Italian navy have been running a joint mission called Operation Sophia at sea, intercepting smugglers\u2019 boats and picking up migrants to transfer them to centers in Italy. Critics of the operation say the humanitarian rescue mission is a \u2018pull factor\u2019 encouraging migrants to make the journey.\nFILE - Migrants are disembarked from the Italian navy ship 'Vega' in the Sicilian harbour of Augusta, southern Italy, May 4, 2015.\nEU plans proposed in 2015 for EU military forces to be more proactive, including mounting coastal raids to destroy traffickers\u2019 boats, fell to the wayside.\nEuropean defense chiefs were fearful of \u201cmission\u2019 creep\u201d and of being drawn into the conflict in Libya pitting rival governments and militias against each other. In a confidential memo, they warned their political superiors that plans to stop migrant-smuggling boats crossing the Mediterranean would lead inevitably to land operations in Libya and possible clashes with the Islamic State\u2019s affiliate in the North African state. The memo counseling caution was leaked to WikiLeaks.\nFILE - A boy walks past a signboard for the International Migration Organization's transit center in Agadez, Niger, May 11, 2016.\nThe International Organization for Migration estimated that more than a quarter-of-a-million migrants crossed the Libya-Niger border last year. The EU already has five migrant centers located in Niger, part of an effort to vet asylum-seekers and discourage migrants from risking the crossing into Libya and the Mediterranean and putting their lives into the hands of traffickers.\nOne of the three governments vying for control of Libya, the internationally-recognized Government of National Accord, has said it is willing to cooperate with the Europeans, but it has no reliable forces of its own and relies on the volatile backing of some militias whose loyalty could shift unpredictably.\nThe GNA\u2019s vice president told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Sunday, \"the difficult economic situation in that [border] region pushes lots of young people to work for the traffickers.\"\nOn Monday, Italian police chief Franco Gabrielli announced that ships involved in the rescue of asylum-seekers in the Mediterranean won\u2019t be allowed to dock at any port on the island of Sicily until after a G7 summit this month in the town of Taormina. He said the move was designed to ease the burden on police and security agencies for the two-day summit, which begins May 26.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Sub-Saharan migrants are rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO at the Mediterranean sea, about 20 miles north of Ra's Tajura, Libya, Jan. 12, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DE4CC4F4-42DC-4A93-B014-6A62D2E3C484.jpg", + "id": "21518_2", + "answer": [ + "Libya", + "Niger", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "migrants", + "Sub-Saharan migrants" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_15_3851683", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_15_3851683_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who harmed one of the people from the image?", + "context": "Turkish Media Show 'Selfie' Video of Alleged Istanbul Suspect\nISTANBUL \u2014\u00a0\nTurkish media have broadcast a video of a man they say is the suspected gunman who killed 39 people during a New Year's attack on an Istanbul nightclub.\nThe video appears to be from a cell phone the man is carrying as he walks around Istanbul's Taksim square. He spends much of the time looking into the camera, but does not speak.\nIt is unclear when the video was recorded.\nAuthorities had earlier released a grainy image of the suspected shooter taken from security camera footage.\nTurkish media also reported Tuesday that authorities detained two foreign nationals at Istanbul's Ataturk airport in connection with the attack. No other details were given.\nTurkey's Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told reporters Monday that eight other people had been detained.\nA Turkish police handout picture of a suspect in Istanbul nightclub attack which killed at least 39 people on New Year's Eve, made available Jan. 2, 2017.\nThe attack began early Sunday with the gunman killing a police officer and a civilian outside the Reina nightclub before going inside. There were about 600 people, many of them foreigners, in the club at the time, some of whom jumped into the Bosphorus Strait in order to escape. Authorities said the shooter blended in with people leaving the club. In addition to those killed, about 70 people were injured.\nOn Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Erdogan to express his condolences. The White House said the two leaders agreed that Turkey and the United States must continue to stand united in order to defeat terrorism. Obama also praised Turkey's ongoing efforts to work with regional players to facilitate a nationwide cease-fire in Syria and a return to political negotiations between the Syrian regime and the opposition.\nA police officer looks at the photographs of the victims as two others stand guard a day after an attack at a popular nightclub in Istanbul, Jan. 2, 2017.\nIS claims responsibility \nIn a statement Monday, Islamic State said one of its \u201cheroic soldiers\u201d carried out the attack and that it targeted Turkey for siding \u201cwith countries of the cross.\" The group said the night club was targeted because it was a place where \u201cChristians celebrated their apostles.\u201d\n\"It was certainly expected that Islamic State would one way or another be linked to the attack,\u201d said political analyst Sinan Ulgen, of EDAM, an Istanbul-based political research group. \"Looking at both the nature of the target, a popular night club, (and) the timing, New Year\u2019s Eve, made it likely to be Islamic State.\u201d\n In a video released last week, Islamic State called on its supporters to launch attacks in Turkey. The video came against the backdrop of the Turkish military\u2019s ongoing battle to wrest control of the strategically important Syrian town of al-Bab from the jihadist group.\nCiting security sources, Turkish media reported Monday the gunman in the nightclub attack is believed to have come from a Central Asian country, either Kyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan. Many Islamic State fighters are drawn from Central Asian countries and have used Istanbul as a base before traveling to fight in Syria.\nExperts say Turkey is paying for the government\u2019s earlier Syrian policy. \u201cTurkey did choose to support Islamist-leaning groups of the Syrian rebel opposition, with the view and expectation that support would accelerate regime change in Syria,\u201d notes analyst Ulgen. \u201cWhat we have seen is these groups have taken advantage of the position of the Turkish government to set up (terror) cells within Turkey, which are now being used against Turkey.\u201c\nLocal media, citing a police report, said that three days before the nightclub attack, 63 suspected Islamic State militants were detained across Turkey, including in Istanbul. The same report said many of those held were from foreign countries and that the same jihadist cell which carried out June\u2019s attack on Istanbul\u2019s Ataturk airport could be behind this latest deadly attack.\nRelatives of Fatih Cakmak, a security guard and a victim of an attack by a gunman at Reina nightclub, react during his funeral in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 2, 2017.\nFunerals \nFunerals are continuing for those killed in the New Year's attack, which was the fourth deadly IS attack in Istanbul in a year.\nFor one unnamed mourner there was both anger and despair.\n\u201cThis is where words fail. What word, what sentence can depict this pain? After life is gone, the heart is gone. Terror is not only the problem of this country, it is the problem of every living person, but they just cannot find a solution,\u201d the mourner said.\nThe PKK Kurdish rebel group has also carried out bombings in Turkey's main cities, including last month in Istanbul. The government has promised to step up security.\nBut the security forces are struggling to cope with mass purges within their ranks after July\u2019s failed coup attempt, which Turkey's government has blamed on followers of the Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.\n", + "caption": "A police officer looks at the photographs of the victims as two others stand guard a day after an attack at a popular nightclub in Istanbul, Jan. 2, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0050B592-0A7E-4700-A177-3B33C7C55C93.jpg", + "id": "6013_3", + "answer": [ + "the gunman", + "Islamic State said one of its \u201cheroic soldiers\u201d carried out the attack " + ], + "bridge": [ + "police officer", + "Victims" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_02_3660000", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_02_3660000_3" + }, + { + "question": "What rank does the work of the man in the image hold?", + "context": "Top 5 Songs for Week Ending June 3\nWe\u2019re interfacing with the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending June 3, 2017.\nAfter several weeks of big moves, the chart falls asleep: absolutely nothing changes.\nRay McDonald's Top 5 Countdown for Week Ending June 3\n0:05:12\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:05:12\n\u25b6\nDirect link\nPop-out player\nNumber 5: Kendrick Lamar \"Humble\" \nKendrick Lamar treads water in fifth place with his former chart-topper \u201cHumble.\u201d Kendrick kicks off his North American tour on July 12\u2026and fans can get ready with a new batch of tour merchandise.\nThe TDE company has released new T-shirts, hoodies, and hats, all saying \u201cbe humble\u201d and \u201csit down.\u201d All gear is available now for pre-order and will ship by June 16.\nFILE - British singer Ed Sheeran performs during the Italian State RAI TV program \"Che Tempo che Fa\", in Milan, Italy, March 12, 2017.\nNumber 4: Ed Sheeran \" Shape Of You\" \nEd Sheeran hangs onto fourth place with another former chart-topper \u201cShape Of You.\u201d Ed has denied reports he\u2019s engaged to his girlfriend Cherry Seaborn.\nIt\u2019s all Russell Crowe\u2019s fault: the actor mistakenly referred to Cherry as Ed\u2019s \u201cfiancee\u201d during a recent Facebook Live chat. Ed set us all straight Tuesday on Australian radio: they\u2019re not engaged.\nDJ Khaled arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, May 21, 2017.\nNumber 3: DJ Khaled Featuring Jusin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne \"I'm The One\" \nDJ Khaled remains wed to third place on \u201cI\u2019m The One,\u201d featuring Justin Bieber, Quavo, Chance The Rapper and Lil Wayne.\nThey\u2019re among the stars appearing on Khaled\u2019s upcoming Grateful album, and now we have two more to anticipate. Last week, DJ Khaled went on Los Angeles radio station Power 106 to announce that Rihanna and Nas will also appear on the album. We don't, however, know the release date - Khaled just says we\u2019ll get it soon.\nFILE - Bruno Mars performs on stage at the 2016 MTV Europe Music Awards at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Nov. 6, 2016.\nNumber 2: Bruno Mars \"That's What I Like\"\nBruno Mars continues to hold the runner-up slot with \u201cThat\u2019s What I Like\u201d \u2013 every one of our top five songs has spent at least one week at number one.\nSeven years ago this month, Bruno first topped the Hot 100 chart. He was the featured artist in B.o.B.\u2019s \u201cNothin\u2019 On You.\u201d Since then, Bruno has visited the top slot six more times\u2026but B.o.B. has yet to make a return appearance.\nLuis Fonsi arrives at Wango Tango at StubHub Center, May 13, 2017, in Carson, California.\nNumber 1: Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee Featuring Justin Bieber \"Despacito\" \nLuis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee post a second week atop the Hot 100 with \u201cDespacito\u201d featuring Justin Bieber.\nSunday, June 4, Justin will participate in Ariana Grande\u2019s return concert in Manchester, England. The massive show will also feature Katy Perry, Pharrell, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay and other top acts. All proceeds will benefit the victims and families affected by the May 22 suicide bombing at the Manchester Arena, that followed a performance by Ariana.\n", + "caption": "Kendrick Lamar performs at Coachella on April 23, 2017, in Indio, California. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C57B8A03-92D5-4413-A97D-E16E9DCDBAAE.jpg", + "id": "28145_1", + "answer": [ + "fifth place " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kendrick Lamar" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_02_3884397", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_02_3884397_1" + }, + { + "question": "What were all the things that were set off at the country in the image?", + "context": "Lithuania Boosts NATO\u2019s Baltics Border Defenses With Eye on Russia\nRUKLA, LITHUANIA \u2014\u00a0\nA German-led NATO battle group of tanks, armored vehicles, and troops, including Lithuanians, engaged \u201cenemy attackers\u201d mid-March on a field outside a military base in Rukla, Lithuania. \nThe NATO group fired flares, smoke canisters, and blanks for what a press officer said was the first demonstration of maneuvers since they arrived in Lithuania earlier this year. \nA group of visiting German military and other European dignitaries watched from nearby stands. \n\u201cWe are from Norway, we are from Belgium and from the Netherlands. We all accomplished a very high intensity training,\u201d said Lieutenant-Colonel Christoph Huber, commander of the NATO enhanced Forward Presence Battle Group, and the German contingent in Lithuania. \u201cAnd, we are prepared to deter and to defend Lithuania.\u201d\nFILE - German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, left, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite attend a ceremony to welcome the German battalion being deployed to Lithuania as part of NATO deterrence measures against Russia in Rukla, Lithuania, F\nNATO is sending additional troops to the Baltics to reassure the former Soviet states against a resurgent Russia, which described the deployment as threatening its security.\nNATO troops\nAfter Russia\u2019s 2014 annexation of Ukraine\u2019s Crimea, NATO agreed to send troops to Lithuania and to Estonia, Latvia, and Poland in a move to deter potential Russian aggression. \nRussia\u2019s military drills and increased buzzing of NATO airspace have raised concerns among Baltic states, which rely on NATO policing for defense. \nNATO jet scrambles to intercept Russian warplanes approaching NATO member airspace jumped from an estimated 400 times in 2014 and 2015 to 800 times in 2016. \n\u201cWe are protecting NATO airspace, NATO borders,\u201d said Major Martin, commander of the Netherlands Air Force Detachment for NATO\u2019s Baltic air policing in Siaulai. \u201cAnd, it is not necessarily just the Russians - it\u2019s any aircraft that does not comply with the rules that we ... that apply in the air.\u201d\nU.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s demand that NATO members pay more for their defense is welcomed by the Baltic states but there is concern that his push for better U.S.-Russia relations not sacrifice their interests.\n\u201cWe do hope that such kind of relations will not create new spheres of influence; no more Yaltas Two; and of course they should not be contrary to the international law as we know it,\u201d said Latvia Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics.\nBuilding a fence\nLithuania is taking measures that include building a fence this year along its open border with Russia\u2019s Kaliningrad. The main purpose of the fence is to prevent smuggling, but there are also concerns about Russia.\n\u201cWell, as I say, we have to be prepared for the worst,\u201d said the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense\u2019s Political Director Vaidotas Urbelis. \u201cProvocations could happen. And, we saw an incident on the Estonian border where one officer was just kidnapped.\u201d\nThe September 2014 incident on the Estonian border raised concern that Russia planned to use the same hybrid warfare techniques on the Baltics that it used to seize Crimea and still employs in eastern Ukraine.\nSandwiched between NATO members Lithuania and Poland, Russia\u2019s Kaliningrad enclave is a strategic, military outpost housing its Baltic Fleet. Russia recently moved a S-400 missile defense system and nuclear capable Iskandar ballistic missiles to Kaliningrad, citing military posturing from NATO.\nSome residents are worried about the potential for conflict.\n\"Because the Kaliningrad region is quite small and many people are quite concerned about that, including us,\u201d said resident Ekaterina who only gave her first name.\nWon't take a risk\nOthers are less concerned.\n\"I do not think that someone would take such a risk. I do not think that both NATO and the European Union are in a hostile mood,\u201d said a resident who identified himself only as Ilya. \u201cThe issue is with our president (Vladimir Putin),\u201d he added.\nJust in case, Baltic states urged NATO to take additional security measures in the region ahead of a Russian September military exercise in neighboring Belarus, which some fear is much larger in scale than reported.\nLithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in February described Russia\u2019s Zapad 2017 drills as \u201ca very large and aggressive force that will very demonstrably be preparing for a war with the West.\u201d\nRussian state media on Tuesday reported the joint Russia-Belarus exercises involve around 3,000 Russian troops, 280 pieces of hardware and up to 25 Russian aircraft.\nBelarussian President Alexander Lukashenko on Monday invited NATO observers to the drills in an effort to increase transparency. \"We are not hiding and should not hide anything. If NATO representatives want to be present at our drills, you are welcome. Moreover, I\u2019m already receiving such information and such signals from them,\u201d he said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, left, and Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite attend a ceremony to welcome the German battalion being deployed to Lithuania as part of NATO deterrence measures against Russia in Rukla, Lithuania, F", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4C2070F1-BC53-4BA1-AC0E-B98C65E76507.jpg", + "id": "21331_1", + "answer": [ + "flares, smoke canisters, and blanks", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lithuania" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_22_3776749", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_22_3776749_1" + }, + { + "question": "How many became like those in the image?", + "context": "Brazil President Revokes Order Deploying Troops in Capital\nBRASILIA, BRAZIL \u2014\u00a0\nBrazil's president on Thursday cancelled an order to deploy the military to the streets of the capital after criticism that the move was excessive and merely an effort to hold onto power amid increasing calls for his resignation.\nIn a decree published in the Official Diary, President Michel Temer revoked the order issued a day earlier, \"considering the halt to acts of destruction and violence and the subsequent reestablishment of law and order.\" On Thursday afternoon, however, soldiers were still stationed in Brasilia.\nDemonstrators create a flaming barricade with chairs taken from the Ministry of Agriculture during an anti-government protest in Brasilia, Brazil, May 24, 2017.\nThe troops were deployed late Wednesday following a day of clashes between police and protesters demanding Temer's ouster amid allegations against him of corruption. Fires broke out in two ministries and several were evacuated. Protesters also set fires in the streets and vandalized government buildings. Images in national media, meanwhile, appeared to show police officers firing weapons, and the Secretariat of Public Security said it was investigating. In all 49, people were injured, including one by a bullet.\nTemer's popularity has been in a freefall since he took office a little more than a year ago after his predecessor was impeached and removed. Some Brazilians consider him illegitimate because of the way he came to power, and his efforts to pass a series of economic reforms to cap the budget, loosen labor laws and reduce pension benefits have only made him even more unpopular. In addition, several of his advisers have been linked to Brazil's massive corruption investigation, known as Operation Car Wash.\nNow, as part of the Car Wash probe, Temer is facing allegations that he endorsed the paying of hush money to a former lawmaker who has been jailed for corruption. Brazil's highest court is investigating him for alleged obstruction of justice and involvement in passive corruption after a recording seemed to capture his approval of the bribe. Temer denies wrongdoing.\nMany Brazilians want him out one way or another: They are calling for him to resign or be impeached. The calls for resignation have heated up since the release of the recording and came to a head in Wednesday's protest, when 45,000 demonstrators took to the streets.\nIn Congress, meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have submitted several requests for his impeachment. Later Thursday, the respected Brazilian bar association plans to submit another such request \u2014 a move that carries symbolic weight since the association is not partisan.\nThe use of troops in the nation's capital is particularly fraught in Brazil, where many still remember the repression of the country's 1964-1985 military dictatorship. Images of soldiers patrolling the streets increased the impression that Temer is struggling to maintain control and further ratcheted up pressure on him.\nTemer defended the decision as necessary to restore order and within his rights.\n\"Order was restored, the respect of life and order was restored,\" Defense Minister Raul Jungmann said in a news conference. He also countered accusations that the move was highly unusual, noting that the military had been called to patrol the streets of cities 29 times since 2010.\n", + "caption": "Demonstrators create a flaming barricade with chairs taken from the Ministry of Agriculture during an anti-government protest in Brasilia, Brazil, May 24, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B6AE740B-3B02-4079-8BDE-D393526FE9C8.jpg", + "id": "26108_2", + "answer": [ + "45,000" + ], + "bridge": [ + "demonstrators" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_25_3870952", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_25_3870952_2" + }, + { + "question": "If the woman on the placard in the image does not win by a majority, what must she get according to the authorities?", + "context": "Hong Kong Election Follows Unrest, Uncertainty \nA Beijing-backed panel will gather next Sunday to select the next leader for this city of 7.3 million people. The vote follows several years of unrest and uncertainty in the former British colony.\nAlthough the 1,194 voting members of the Election Committee will cast secret ballots, observers say China has already made clear which of the three candidates it prefers and has even issued a veiled warning through pro-Beijing media that the committee should not trigger a constitutional crisis by voting against the choice of the central government.\nThe risk of that happening ought to be small. A little more than a quarter of the body derives from the pro-democracy camp, which has decided to vote as a bloc. The other three-quarters of the committee are controlled by Beijing.\nThe leading candidate is former chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, a career civil servant who stepped down as the city\u2019s number-two official in order to run and is widely believed to be Beijing\u2019s preferred candidate. Critics call her \u201cC.Y. 2.0\u201d and she already has negative poll ratings, below even those of current chief executive C.Y. Leung when he assumed office.\nThe second choice is the more laid-back and popular John Tsang Chun-hwa, a mustachioed former financial secretary who also resigned his cabinet post to be a candidate. He\u2019s been nicknamed Pringles for his resemblance to a potato chip logo.\nChief Executive candidate, Hong Kong's former Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, center, holds a child as he poses for a photograph with his supporters at a election campaign in Hong Kong, March 16, 2017.\nThe third candidate is retired judge Woo Kwok-hing, a surprise entrant with no government experience. Hong Kong\u2019s pan-democratic groups do not back him even though his positions on issues may be the closest to theirs.\nRonny Tong, a former legislator who now heads the Path of Democracy think-tank, told VOA in an online interview that he doubts if any of the three candidates could be popularly accepted.\n\u201cLook at the way Carrie (Lam) is being vilified every day. Go to her (Facebook) page and you will see the opposition is so much greater than when C.Y. was elected. On the other hand, John Tsang is not getting any support from the pro-government people or Beijing, and I fear if he gets elected we may face a greater constitutional crisis -- divided over where we are going, over how One Country-Two Systems should go on -- (and) everything Beijing stands for the pan-democrats will oppose,\u201d he said.\nOne Country-Two Systems is the China-approved constitutional arrangement under which Hong Kong is allowed a capitalist system, the Common Law legal system and a high degree of autonomy.\nThe winning candidate must get at least 601 votes, one more than half the official size of the 1,200-member election committee. Leung received 689 votes in his election, a number that became his pejorative nickname thereafter. The pan-democrats hold some 325 votes on the election body. In the absence of a truly popular mandate, Beijing wants Lam to secure no less than 700 votes and preferably more than 800 in order to have a victory that appears convincing.\nHong Kong chief executive candidates, former Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, center, former Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, left, and former judge Woo Kwok-hing attend a chief executive election debate in Hong Kong, March 14, 2017.\nLeverage \nDavid Zweig, chair professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and a longtime analyst of politics here, said this small-circle method of choosing the territory\u2019s leader has little to do with a free election.\n\u201cThe population in general has very little leverage on the candidates because it doesn\u2019t really matter what the population thinks about them. You want to please these 1,200 people and you want to please 800 of them if you want to have a decent electoral victory and that\u2019s it.\u201d\nZweig says Lam appears to have been all but anointed as victor in the pro-Beijing news media, making it likely that she will carry the day.\nTsang\u2019s chances as a challenger recently took a major hit. Some thought tycoon Li Ka-shing, who controls numerous votes through his family, affiliated businesses and friends, might vote with the pan-democratic bloc, giving Tsang a shot at victory. But the Li group recently indicated that it\u2019s supporting Lam.\nThe worry that Tsang won\u2019t deliver also puts him at a disadvantage, said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of the Political Science Department and professor at Hong Kong Baptist University\n\u201cClearly, John Tsang is more of a unifier. Now the trouble is whether he will be able to deliver. He has made some promises in terms of relaunching the political reform platform and trying to convince Beijing to be more flexible\u201d on universal suffrage \u2013 pledges that China may not support, the professor said.\nZweig said Lam has benefited from Beijing\u2019s arm-twisting.\n\u201cPeople were definitely pressured. The central government in Beijing, as far as we know, has put pressure on lots of people in the committee to vote for Carrie, because they prefer Carrie and Carrie wants to be able to get at least 800 votes of this 1,200.\u201d\nPolitical reform plan \nUnder Beijing\u2019s political reform plan, which sparked months of street protests and was rejected by the Hong Kong legislature in 2014, China would have controlled the process of selecting candidates, but these nominees would have then had to stand in a general election by universal suffrage.\nZweig said any further discussion of reform appears off the table.\n\u201cMy contacts, people that I know who work in Hong Kong for the government in Beijing, make it very clear that there will be no discussion within the next five years and that as far as they\u2019re concerned the democrats shut the door on what Beijing saw as some gradual progress.\u201d\nBut Tong, who formerly belonged to the pro-democratic Civic Party, disagrees.\n\u201cDon\u2019t underestimate the value of the process of trying to restart political reform, \u201che said. \u201cIf we do it in a rational way and start engaging each other, it will improve relations, even if we ultimately will fail.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Protesters raise placards and banner during a rally against Hong Kong's former Chief Secretary Carrie Lam in Hong Kong, Feb. 5, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DC371AF2-043A-4ED3-AEA3-6D50FAB477AC.jpg", + "id": "23845_1", + "answer": [ + "no less than 700 votes and preferably more than 800 in order to have a victory that appears convincing" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lam" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_20_3773436", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_20_3773436_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the occupation of the person with the beard in the image?", + "context": "US Examining Taliban Video of American, Australian Hostages\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. officials say they are still working to examine a video released by the Taliban purporting to show an American and an Australian abducted in Afghanistan.\nThe video, released Wednesday, shows the two men urging U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate their freedom with the Islamist insurgent group.\nAmerican Kevin King, 60, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 48, teachers with the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, were kidnapped at gunpoint near the campus last August.\nFILE - A car passes American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 8, 2016.\n\"We continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,\" a senior Trump administration official said. \"The U.S. government is committed to seeing our citizens returned safely to their families and work closely with agencies across the government to do so.\" The official said there would be no further comment, due to privacy considerations.\nThe Taliban wants freedom for its \u201csoldiers\u201d being held at the U.S.-run Bagram airbase and the Afghan prison called Pul-e-Charkhi in return for freeing the two professors, the hostages said in their video messages.\nFILE - Afghan officials raise their national flag during a ceremony to hand over the Bagram prison to Afghan authorities, at the U.S airbase in Bagram, north of Kabul, September 10, 2012.\n\u201cMy captors treat me well. They treat me and my colleague Tim Weeks as their guests; but, every prisoner\u2019s final wish is to get freedom from the prison,\u201d said King, who was seen with a long beard.\nKing said he recorded the message on June 16.\nLeaders\nFor his part, Weeks urged Australian politicians to raise the issue in parliament, saying the only way for him to go home is for the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, to speak to the Taliban and Trump in order to reach an agreement with their captors.\n\u201cI pray that this happens shortly and that the Taliban soldiers may be returned home to their families for Eid [the Muslim festival marking the end of Ramadan] and that I may be able to go home to my family and to my friends. Help, please. Thank you,\u201d said Weeks.\nThis is the second video distributed by the Taliban to the news media since January as \u201cproof of life\u201d of the abductees in a bid to press for demands.\nThe hostages are believed to be in the custody of the notorious Haqqani network, an ally of the Taliban.\nUnder 'emotional strain'\nBarnett Rubin, associate director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University and writer of several books on Afghanistan, said, \"The video appears to show that the two men are in reasonable physical health but under tremendous emotional strain, as is natural.\n\"They repeat the demands of the Taliban for a prisoner exchange. It would be wrong to speculate about the sincerity or insincerity of their statements, nor does it even mean anything, as no one can make free decisions under such conditions,\" Rubin said. \"I don't want to comment on specific demands as that could disrupt ongoing efforts. I am sure the U.S. and Australian and Afghan governments are doing their utmost.\"\nMichael Kugleman, a Pakistan- Afghanistan analyst at the Wilson Center, said, \"Watching this video is heartbreaking. The professors do not look or sound well, they look nervous, and they appear to be engaging in propaganda on the Taliban\u2019s behalf.\"\nThe video's release comes at a time when Afghan authorities are reportedly planning to execute a group of Taliban prisoners convicted on terrorism charges.\nIt is not clear, however, whether Annas Haqqani, a son of the founder of the Haqqani network, Jalaluddin Haqqani, is among the group of prisoners.\nAfghan officials have not confirmed the reports and the Taliban, in response, threatens to unleash a new wave of attacks against all Afghan institutions if the government goes ahead with the executions.\nThe Afghan insurgents are also holding another U.S. citizen, Caitlan Coleman, 31, and her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, 33. They were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2012.\nFILE - A still image from a video posted by the Taliban on social media on Dec. 19, 2016, shows American Caitlan Coleman speaking next to her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, and their two sons.\nIn a video message released in December, the couple urged then-President-elect Trump to negotiate with the Taliban to secure their release in return for the prisoners.\nWhite House correspondent Steve Herman, Nike Ching at the State Department and Noor Zahid contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "Timothy Weeks of Australia, left and American Kevin King (photo taken from video sent to VOA from Taliban) ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1ABFB467-9D1F-4349-A7A5-DDE52A11F24F.jpg", + "id": "31335_1", + "answer": [ + "teacher" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kevin King" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_22_3911380", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_22_3911380_1" + }, + { + "question": "What will a daredevil use the vehicle in the image for?", + "context": "Fans Ride to Georgia for 'Smokey and the Bandit' Celebration\nATLANTA \u2014\u00a0\nThey had a long way to go and a short time to get there, but hundreds of fans in Pontiac Trans Ams have put the hammer down and made it to Atlanta to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Smokey and the Bandit.\nAbout 350 cars this week retraced actor Burt Reynolds' wild ride from the Texas-Arkansas line to Atlanta in the movie that roared into pop culture in 1977.\n\"Every town we drive through, people come out to film us, take pictures and wave as our convoy of cars comes through \u2014 it's like being in a huge parade,\" said organizer Dave Hall of Lincoln, Nebraska.\nTruckers and others also took part in \"Snowman's Run,\" a road trip that raises money for wounded veterans in the name of the late actor and musician Jerry Reed, who played the trucker Snowman in the movie.\nAll of them have gathered in Jonesboro, Georgia, the town 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Atlanta where much of the movie was filmed.\nFILE - In this March 12, 2016, file photo, Burt Reynolds sits on a 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am at the world premiere of \"The Bandit\" at the Paramount Theatre during the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Hundreds of fans in Trans Ams made it to Atlanta to celebrate the 40th anniversary of \"Smokey and the Bandit\" this weekend.\nReynolds to attend\nThis weekend, they plan to re-create some of the movie's memorable scenes, including a stunt driver's attempt to jump 150 feet (45 meters) through the air in a Trans Am. Also planned: a Burt Reynolds look-alike contest.\nReynolds himself will also be in attendance, and will take part in a question-and-answer session in a city park, Jonesboro City Manager Ricky Clark Jr. said.\n\"People are coming from all over the U.S. and other countries,\" Clark said. \"I got a message from someone from Switzerland who is flying over for this event.\"\nSmokey and the Bandit was among the first big-budget movies to be filmed in Georgia, paving the way for more recent films such as The Hunger Games movies and TV shows such as AMC's The Walking Dead.\nMany of the scenes from Smokey and the Bandit were filmed on Main Street in downtown Jonesboro, nearby U.S. Highway 41 and other roads in the area, Clark said.\nBandit's jump\nSome of the buildings still stand. The city's train depot that dates to 1867 appears in the movie, but moviemakers temporarily replaced its Jonesboro sign with one that said \"Texarkana\" so they could film scenes set in the town on the Texas-Arkansas line. That's where the movie's main characters picked up the 400 cases of Coors beer they would deliver to Atlanta in 28 hours. Participants in the anniversary celebration plan to re-create the \"Coors scene\" at the spot where it was filmed in Jonesboro this weekend.\nA stunt man driving a Trans Am had also had hoped to re-create the Bandit's jump across the Flint River west of downtown Jonesboro. The leap allowed Reynolds and his passenger, Sally Field, to evade the pursuing law officers, whose patrol cars plunged into the river seconds later.\nBut organizers decided another jump at the river site, now overtaken by weeds, wasn't feasible. So they will instead re-create the jump at Atlanta Motor Speedway Saturday evening.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this March 12, 2016, file photo, Burt Reynolds sits on a 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am at the world premiere of \"The Bandit\" at the Paramount Theatre during the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Hundreds of fans in Trans Ams made it to Atlanta to celebrate the 40th anniversary of \"Smokey and the Bandit\" this weekend.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C1251E85-0F56-4DBB-95C7-0013B8CD711A.jpg", + "id": "28690_2", + "answer": [ + "to re-create some of the movie's memorable scenes" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trans Am" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_23_3913737", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_23_3913737_2" + }, + { + "question": "What people did the person wearing the red tie in the image meet with?", + "context": "Kushner Kicks Off Mideast Peace Push\nJERUSALEM \u2014\u00a0\nJared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and chief Middle East adviser, made his first solo visit Wednesday to the region, holding separate meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to restart long-dormant peace talks.\nThere was no immediate word on the results of the meetings, which are aimed at laying the groundwork for a resumption of negotiations for the first time in three years.\nThe Trump administration faces the same obstacles that have doomed previous attempts by a string of Republican and Democratic administrations: deep disagreements over key issues such as borders, dueling claims to Jerusalem and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.\nBut Kushner enjoys some advantages that could allow him to make at least some progress.\nTrump made a successful visit to the region last month and appears to have forged a good working relationship with both sides. The new atmosphere of goodwill, along with concerns about potentially provoking the unpredictable president, could give Trump leverage in extracting concessions from the sides.\nFILE - U.S. presidential adviser Jared Kushner, center, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, greet members of the Israeli delegation after a joint news conference between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Feb. 15, 2017.\nKushner, whose family has a long relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, met with the Israeli leader in Jerusalem for about 3\u00bd hours before heading to the West Bank city of Ramallah for a late-night meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.\nVideo of arrival\nNetanyahu's office released a short video showing Kushner, along with envoy Jason Greenblatt and U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, arriving at the Israeli premier's office in Jerusalem.\nNetanyahu warmly greeted Kushner with a smile and hug. \"This is an opportunity to pursue our common goals of security, prosperity and peace,\" Netanyahu said.\n\"The president sends his best regards and it's an honor to be here with you,\" Kushner said.\nReporters were barred from covering the meetings and did not have an opportunity to ask Kushner questions.\nTrump has tasked Kushner with the ambitious goal of laying the groundwork for what he calls the \"ultimate deal\" \u2014 but deep divisions remain, clouding chances of a significant breakthrough in one of the longest Mideast crises.\nThis month marked the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Mideast war \u2014 a seminal event in which Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.\nThe Palestinians claim these territories for their future independent state. Netanyahu opposes a return to the 1967 lines and also rejects any division of Jerusalem. The eastern part of the city, which the Palestinians claim as their capital, is home to sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites.\nThe White House appeared to play down expectations for a breakthrough ahead of the visit, saying that \"forging a historic peace agreement will take time\" and that Kushner and Greenblatt will most likely make \"many visits\" to the region.\nFor now, the United States is expected to pressure each side to make goodwill gestures in hopes of improving the overall climate.\nThat means putting pressure on Israel to restrain its construction of settlements on occupied lands sought by the Palestinians. It also could mean working with Israel to take new steps to help improve the struggling Palestinian economy, such as easing restrictions to allow more development of West Bank lands.\nSecurity concerns\nAt a security conference on Tuesday, Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon spoke of the need for economic cooperation and said he was open to promoting Palestinian development as long as it does not threaten Israeli security.\n\"I personally believe that the most important thing between people is mutual trust,\" Kahlon said. \"The Palestinians can hear me say no and refuse some requests, but whenever daily life can be improved, I am there.\"\nPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meets with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner in the West Bank city of Ramallah, June 21, 2017.\nThe Palestinians, meanwhile, will come under pressure to halt what Israel sees as incitement to violence in their official media, speeches and social media.\nIsrael has also demanded that the Palestinians stop making welfare payments to families of militants who are either imprisoned or were killed while committing attacks on Israelis. Israel says the so-called \"Martyrs' Fund\" provides an incentive for Palestinian violence.\nA senior Palestinian official said that a preparatory meeting with Greenblatt on Tuesday had not gone well and became tense over the Martyrs' Fund. He said the Americans \"are buying\" Netanyahu's complaints about Palestinian incitement, and that Greenblatt was insisting on an end to the welfare payments.\nThe official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a closed diplomatic meeting, said the Palestinians had rebuffed Greenblatt's pressure and demanded an Israeli settlement freeze. He said a Palestinian delegation would head to Washington next month for further talks.\nEven before Kushner's meetings began, there were other signs of trouble.\nOn the eve of his arrival, Israel broke ground on a new West Bank settlement for residents of an illegally built outpost that was dismantled in February under orders from the Supreme Court.\nPM's commitment\nNetanyahu had vowed to compensate the residents of Amona with the new settlement, built on a nearby site in the northern West Bank.\n\"The people of Amona really appreciate his efforts and the efforts from his office in fulfilling this commitment that started to come alive to create this new community,\" said Avichai Boaron, a spokesman for the settlers.\nThe move has infuriated the Palestinians, who say all settlements are illegal obstacles to peace. The international community also widely opposes the settlements.\n\"This is the way Netanyahu is meeting Trump's envoys,\" said Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian official. The question, he said, is whether the Trump administration will tell Israel to stop settlement activities or choose to accept this \"Israeli provocation.\"\nAfter arriving early Wednesday, Kushner paid a condolence visit to the grieving family of a young female Israeli police officer who was killed by Palestinian attackers last weekend in Jerusalem. Kushner said Trump asked him to personally convey the condolences of the American people.\nThousands attended Hadas Malka' funeral on Saturday night. Netanyahu visited her grieving family on Sunday and called the 23-year-old woman \"everybody's daughter and everybody's hero.\" He also criticized Abbas for not condemning the attack.\nThe U.S. Embassy said the visit was private and gave no further details.\n", + "caption": "FILE - U.S. presidential adviser Jared Kushner, center, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, daughter of President Donald Trump, greet members of the Israeli delegation after a joint news conference between the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Feb. 15, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5B676869-9F19-4F1F-B7F8-198A501F8D19.jpg", + "id": "12452_2", + "answer": [ + "None", + "Israeli and Palestinian leaders" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jared Kushner" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_21_3910584", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_21_3910584_2" + }, + { + "question": "Why is the person in the image using the weapon?", + "context": "Canine Shelter Takes on Tehran Stray Dog Problem \u2014 Humanely\nTEHRAN, IRAN \u2014\u00a0\nOn a cold winter morning in the Iranian capital recently, a homeless dog lay basking in the sun's rays for warmth. Suddenly, the canine moaned \u2014 it had been shot with an anesthetic dart from a blowpipe. It ran several steps, then fell immobilized.\nThe cream-and-gray colored dog was collected by a worker for a new shelter where it will be given a medical check, neutered and microchipped \u2014 the first such initiative in this country where strays in the street are usually killed.\nThe Aradkouh Stray Dogs Shelter has been hired by the Tehran city government to take a new, more humane approach to deal with the burgeoning problem of stray dogs in the capital. It's a sign of changing attitudes among officials in a country where Islamic authorities have long seen dogs as \"un-Islamic\" and at times still confiscate them from people who have dogs as pets and walk them in public or drive with them in their cars.\nA Tehran urban animal control worker shoots dog with anesthetic dart from a blowpipe on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2017.\nAlthough there are no official numbers, in some Tehran neighborhoods \u2014 especially in poorer districts \u2014 strays are rampant and a nuisance and the shelter captures 30 to 40 dogs per day. District 18, for example, a poor neighborhood in Tehran's southwest known for its farmland, brick furnace towers, junkyards and factories, has some of the most stray dogs in the city.\n\"This area has a countless number of dogs and sometimes they pass by in hordes,\" said Einollah Ardalanisaid, a garage owner in southern Tehran who hailed the initiative that began less than a year ago. \"I think it is great if these dogs can be collected in a managed way so that neither the dogs nor the citizens are harmed.\"\nThe shelter, located near the small town of Kahrizak, caters to the captured dogs' needs, including feeding them and examining them for disease. Shelter workers vaccinate the dogs and sterilize them to control the stray population. After about two weeks, the dogs are microchipped and registered in a data bank so they can be tracked down later. The facility is equipped with surgery rooms, sonography machines and a kitchen.\nOn a recent day, there were 500 mature dogs and 145 puppies being looked after by the shelter's staff. All the dogs are available for adoption.\nStray dogs that have been caught are put inside the vehicle of Tehran's urban animal control after being shot with anesthetic darts on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2017.\nUrban animal control vehicles set off in the mornings to hunt for strays, their destination determined by reports from citizens or places where the population of the animals is conspicuously large. The staff's hunting tools are blowpipes or guns armed with dart syringes filled with anesthetic drugs.\nThe workers are trained to try to catch the animals as gently as possible and are advised not to use force.\nIn Islam, dogs are seen as unclean. However, police dogs, shepherd dogs and rescue dogs are common, and there have been no reports of clerical backlash against the shelter's operations.\nPrior to the shelter's arrival, the preferred method of dealing with stray animals was to shoot them dead.\nIn one horrific case in 2015, dogs were injected with a deadly substance, presumably acid. Videos were published on social media showing dogs dying while moaning in agony. The videos quickly went viral, sparking widespread outrage and prompting protests by animal rights activists and celebrities.\nAn animal activist who filmed the dog killings in the city of Shiraz in central Iran claimed that private contractors were paid about $4 for each dog they killed. Local authorities denied having any role in the incident.\nSince the advent of the shelter, municipal authorities claim that not a single dog is killed inhumanely and that the animals are being treated in a far more civil manner.\nA Tehran's urban animal control worker treats stray dogs at Aradkouh Stray Dogs Shelter in a southern outskirt of the capital Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2017.\nHassan Heidari, director of Tehran's Urban Animal Control Department, told The Associated Press that killing dogs or any other animals is against Islamic teachings and animal rights.\n\"From a moral and Islamic point of view, we are not allowed to treat these animals violently,\" he said. \"Observance of animal rights was another motive that made us stop killing dogs.\n\"We are now catching them alive despite its costs and troubles,\" he added. \"Today, with God's grace, we have accomplished a very useful and pleasant achievement.\"\nAfter shooting the dogs with the darts, the animals are placed in the air-conditioned rear compartments of the dog-catcher vehicles.\nUpon arrival at the shelter, after being fed and checked for illness, some dogs are neutered or treated with medicine in the facility's clinic and can spend 15 to 45 days there recovering. The dogs are then given to animal supporters who adopt them, or they are released into the wild.\nDogs that are not adopted receive a collar and a microchip that contains the dog's full history.\nDr. Hamid Ghahremanzadeh, the Canadian-educated veterinarian who runs the shelter, says staffers make an effort to find the dogs a home.\n\"We make arrangements to give [adopters] a registered dog with an ID,\" he said. \"If there is no adopter, we will release the sterilized dog at the same spot where we took them.\"\n", + "caption": "A Tehran urban animal control worker shoots dog with anesthetic dart from a blowpipe on the outskirts of the capital Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/41F45BDA-1896-440D-A836-B5CEFA2808C6.jpg", + "id": "1857_2", + "answer": [ + "to catch the animals as gently as possible" + ], + "bridge": [ + "worker" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_16_3769139", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_16_3769139_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who has harassed the people who go to the places in the image?", + "context": "Armed Groups Occupy Central African Republic Schools\nDAKAR \u2014\u00a0\nThe armed group took over the school little by little. One day when a fighter came to collect and burn the students' desks, teacher Thiernd Ouronfei decided he'd had enough.\n\"I said he must put the kids' desks down. They hit me in the head with a knife and I was sent to the hospital for at least a week,\" he said. Even now, after the school in Central African Republic was liberated, parents are scared to send their children, he told The Associated Press.\nSome 20 percent of schools in Central African Republic are not functioning, and students' and teachers' lives are threatened as armed groups have looted, occupied and damaged the properties in the conflict-torn country, according to a Human Rights Watch report released Thursday. An education is a rare opportunity for children in the impoverished country to get ahead.\n\"We're talking about a lost generation. These are students who aren't going to get those years back,\" said Lewis Mudge, the group's Africa researcher and co-author of the report. \"Many rebels have also been quite open that they are going to reoccupy schools during the upcoming rainy season.\"\nCentral African Republic descended into conflict in 2013 when the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels overthrew the Christian president. The Christian anti-Balaka militia retaliated with a backlash against Muslim civilians.\nWhile the country held successful democratic elections last year, many remote areas remain outside the government's control. Violence by armed groups has risen sharply since October. Various armed groups have used the schools as bases for years.\nHuman Rights Watch, which visited schools between November and January and interviewed children and teachers as well as fighters, has called on the country's government and the United Nations to do more to ensure that armed groups stay far away from classrooms. In some cases, fighters may vacate a school, but still operate meters away.\nOne student in Ngadja in Ouaka province told Human Rights Watch that he feared for his life after Seleka fighters occupied a nearby school on and off for more than two years.\n\"I often ask myself, 'Should I even bother to go to school? Is it worth the risk?'\" he said.\nThe Seleka rebels for months used the school director's office as a prison, teachers in Ngadja told the rights group.\n\"I'm afraid of the Seleka hanging around the school. So I can't go, and that makes me just as uneducated as an animal,\" a 15-year-old student in Mbres, Nana Grebizi province, told the rights group. In Mbali, Ouham province, a 16-year-old said classes finally started again in November after three years, \"but they had burned all the books, and we don't have any left.\"\nAn 18-year-old student said he had lost four years of his life because he wasn't able to study. \"I want to be a doctor, but the Seleka are blocking my future.\"\nIn November, the U.N. humanitarian office estimated that while 2,336 schools in Central African Republic were operational, at least 461 were not because of insecurity, destruction, occupation and lack of teachers.\nCentral African Republic's government in 2015 committed to protecting schools from attack and military use and permitted U.N. forces to clear them. Progress was made but then undermined when U.N., African Union and French forces in some cases occupied schools themselves, Human Rights Watch said. Once U.N. officials were informed, they left, the group said.\n\"If there are to be any meaningful attempts at peace or at reconciliation, it's important to restart these structures that provide a degree of normalcy,\" Mudge said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Children show their drawings to the teacher in a school set in the Mpoko refugee camp near the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, Feb. 15, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C0929830-0072-4ABE-BDD0-33018D74793B.jpg", + "id": "32201_1", + "answer": [ + "armed groups" + ], + "bridge": [ + "schools" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_23_3778643", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_23_3778643_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the right of the image say?", + "context": "Trump Meets with Mexican President for First Time Since Taking Office\nU.S. President Donald Trump has met his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, for the first time since he took office, and told reporters he still wants Mexico to pay for a planned border wall, a source of tension between the countries.\nReporters packed the meeting site on the sidelines of the summit in Hamburg, Germany, where leaders of the world's 20 largest economies gathered. Asked before the meeting began if he still wanted Mexico to pay for the border wall, Trump said, \"Absolutely.\"\nMexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who took part in the 30-minute meeting, said the issue of the border wall did not come up in the actual talks. Trump called Pena Nieto a friend and said the two made \"very good progress\" in talks about the North American Free Trade Agreement.\nPena Nieto said the meeting would \"help us continue a very strong dialogue\" on NAFTA, which Trump has pledged to renegotiate with Mexico and Canada.\nVidegaray said he expected talks on renegotiating NAFTA to start on August 16, the earliest possible date.\nTrump has threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican goods to protect U.S. business interests, and to pull out of NAFTA if he cannot rework it in the United States' favor.\nThe White House said Trump and Pena Nieto also discussed drug trafficking, illegal migration and the crisis in Venezuela.\nPena Nieto was scheduled to be among Trump's first international White House guests, but abruptly canceled the visit after Trump insisted Mexico would pay for the construction of a planned border wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.\nPena Nieto maintains that Mexico will not pay for the wall.\nSince the cancellation of the trip, Trump and Pena Nieto have spoken by phone, and a series of high-level meetings between the two countries have eased the tensions.\nU.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, left, and Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong arrive for a press conference in Mexico City, July 7, 2017.\nOn Wednesday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly traveled to Mexico and met with Pena Nieto. On Friday, Kelly met with Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, who said at a news conference that Mexico and the United States are exploring new ways of combating arms trafficking and organized crime.\nKelly said Friday that Trump intends to make strong, durable bonds with Mexico.\n", + "caption": "U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, left, and Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong arrive for a press conference in Mexico City, July 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/455CE65F-4037-4092-8781-D63B69371EC8.jpg", + "id": "12784_2", + "answer": [ + "None", + "Mexico and the United States are exploring new ways of combating arms trafficking and organized crime" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Miguel Angel Osorio Chong" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3932877", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3932877_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the person on the left of the image thrash?", + "context": "After Scathing Report, Chicago Promises Police Reform\nCHICAGO \u2014\u00a0\nChicago officials are pledging to revamp the city Police Department following a scathing federal report, but a change in presidential administrations could spell uncertainty for the critical next step in the process: negotiating a court-enforceable improvement plan with the Justice Department.\nA report released Friday in the final days of Attorney General Loretta Lynch\u2019s tenure found that police in the nation\u2019s second-largest department had violated the constitutional rights of residents for years, including the frequent use of excessive force, shooting at people who did not pose imminent threats and using stun guns on others only because they refused to follow commands.\nThe report was the culmination of a yearlong investigation, one of about two dozen civil rights probes of local law enforcement agencies undertaken by President Barack Obama\u2019s Justice Department.\nThe findings come just a week before Donald Trump is sworn in as president, marking a change from a Democratic White House that has strongly backed the review process to a Republican one that has expressed far less support for federally mandated overhauls of troubled police agencies.\nInvestigation began in 2015\nThe Justice Department began investigating the police force in December 2015 after the release of dashcam video showing a white officer shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald, who was hit 16 times as he held a small folded knife while walking away from police. The video of the 2014 shooting, which the city fought to keep secret, inspired large protests and cost the city\u2019s police superintendent his job.\nThe report\u2019s conclusions were unsparing, blaming \u201csystemic deficiencies\u201d within the department and the city, including insufficient training and a failure to hold bad officers accountable for misconduct. Officers endangered civilians, caused avoidable injuries and deaths, and eroded community trust that is \u201cthe cornerstone of public safety,\u201d said Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department\u2019s civil rights division.\nThe federal government\u2019s recommendations follow an especially bloody year on Chicago streets. The city logged 762 homicides in 2016, the highest tally in 20 years and more than the combined total of the two largest U.S. cities, New York and Los Angeles.\nMayor Rahm Emanuel said the results of the investigation were sobering and pledged to make changes beyond those the city has adopted, including de-escalation training and stricter use-of-force policies. Federal authorities and city officials have signed an agreement that offers a broad outline for reform, including commitments to improved transparency, training and accountability for bad officers. The Justice Department and the city will negotiate a final settlement to be enforced by the courts.\nFILE - Attorney General Loretta Lynch speaks at a news conference, Sept. 22, 2016, at the Justice Department in Washington. The Justice Department is moving forward with its plans to collect data on how often law enforcement officers use force.\nBuilding a safer city \nAttorney General Lynch said the report lays \u201cthe groundwork for the difficult but necessary work of building a stronger, safer, and more united Chicago for all who call it home.\u201d\nShe was pressed to address questions about the fate of the investigation under the Trump administration, and she insisted that talks between Chicago and the federal government about police reforms would continue regardless \u201cof who is at the top of the Justice Department.\u201d\nThe Justice Department has opened 25 investigations in the last eight years, including into police in Cleveland, Albuquerque and Ferguson, Missouri. Many of them have ended with consent decrees, which are submitted in court and commit an agency to major changes. Officials have moved quickly to resolve major cases before the end of the administration, reaching a consent decree with Baltimore on Thursday. They\u2019ve yet to announce conclusions in a handful of investigations.\nTrump nominee ambivalent \nAt his confirmation hearing this week, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, who is Trump\u2019s pick for attorney general, expressed ambivalence about the federal review process. He said he was concerned that broad investigations of police departments risk smearing an entire agency and harming officer morale.\nJonathan Smith, a former Justice Department civil rights attorney who oversaw investigations into police forces, said it\u2019s logical for the department to want to conclude the investigation before a new administration comes in, regardless of the party. He said he expected a consent decree to be reached given the connection between the violence in Chicago, which has attracted Trump\u2019s attention, and the Police Department\u2019s troubles.\n\u201cMoving forward, people are going to have to do something, and I think they will,\u201d he said.\nLess confident were Black Lives Matter activists in Chicago, who said they did not trust Emanuel to follow through with vows to pursue reforms.\n\u201cI don\u2019t believe him any more than I believed him when he said that he never saw the Laquan McDonald video before the public saw it,\u201d said Arewa Karen Winters, who said she was the great-aunt of 16-year-old Pierre Loury, who was fatally shot by police last year.\nLynch, in an interview with The Associated Press this week, said it was the federal government\u2019s job to investigate and hold police accountable.\nChicago brutal reputation \nThe Chicago department, with 12,000 officers, has long had a reputation for brutality, particularly in minority communities. The most notorious example was Jon Burge, a commander of a detective unit on the South Side. Burge and his men beat, suffocated and used electric shock for decades starting in the 1970s to get black men to confess to crimes they did not commit.\nChicago has spent more than half a billion dollars to settle claims of police misconduct since 2004, but police did not conduct disciplinary investigations in half of those cases, the report says. Of 409 police shootings that happened over a five-year period, police found only two were unjustified.\nThe Justice Department criticized the city for setting up barriers to getting to the bottom of police misconduct, including provisions in union agreements, a failure to investigate anonymous complaints or those submitted without a supporting affidavit, and a \u201cpervasive cover-up culture.\u201d\nThe report said that witnesses and accused officers were frequently never interviewed at all, that evidence went uncollected and that witnesses were routinely coached by union lawyers, \u201ca dynamic neither we nor our law enforcement experts had seen to nearly such an extent in other agencies.\u201d\nThe head of Chicago\u2019s police union said the Justice Department hurried the investigation to release its findings before Trump takes office. In a statement sent minutes before the report was posted online, Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo questioned whether the investigation was compromised because of its timing.\n", + "caption": " U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Fardon of the Northern District of Illinois speaks during a news conference accompanied by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta (left) Attorney General Loretta Lynch, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Jan. 13, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/66568872-3A41-463B-B1C6-C67D3540DF61.jpg", + "id": "27759_1", + "answer": [ + "Officers" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Vanita Gupta" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_14_3676126", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_14_3676126_1" + }, + { + "question": "What people did the people in the image talk about?", + "context": "Indonesia Official: US Speaker Ryan Does Not Link Islam, Terrorism\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nIndonesia's foreign minister expressed satisfaction after a meeting Thursday with the leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, saying that Speaker Paul Ryan had affirmed he does not see the Muslim faith as the source of Islamist radicalism.\n\"There is a strong message that Paul Ryan delivered at the meeting, that overcoming radicalism and terrorism is not [to be done] by positioning Islam as the enemy,\" Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told VOA's Indonesian service after the meeting. \"This ideology can be adopted by anyone. There is no link between Islam and radicalism.\"\nSpeaking in the Indonesian language, the minister said the 15-minute Capitol Hill meeting had left her with the belief that the United States understands that Indonesia is a strong, pluralistic and democratic country, and that Islam, the predominant faith in Indonesia, is not an obstacle to positive relations with the United States.\nShe said the two agreed that Indonesia, with the world's largest Muslim population, could play a \"very important\" role in the fight against international terrorism, \"especially through 'soft power,' because that's where our strength is.\"\nFILE - President Donald Trump signs the initial executive order for a U.S. travel ban, Jan. 27, 2017, at the Pentagon.\nTravel ban\nRetno's remarks masked her reaction to the Trump administration's initial travel ban covering seven Muslim-majority nations. In January, she said, \"We have deep regrets about the policy.\"\nAnd, although Ryan stressed the need for Indonesia to use \"soft power\" to counter \"radicalism and terrorism,\" Indonesia has faced an increase in religious intolerance since the end of Suharto's secular dictatorship in 1998. Salafism, which is much stricter than Indonesia's traditional practice of Islam, has been growing in part because of Saudi Arabian funding.\nRetno said she and Ryan also discussed efforts to maintain and strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries, cooperation on trade and investment cooperation, and the long-running dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.\nThe minister's two-day visit to Washington follows a visit to Jakarta last month by Vice President Mike Pence. In addition to her meeting with Ryan, Retno met with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Talks with Pence and Thomas P. Bossert, President Donald Trump's presidential adviser on counterterrorism, were also on her agenda.\nThe meeting between Retno and Ryan came two weeks after Islam played an unprecedented role in the election of a new governor of Jakarta, Indonesia's largest city.\nFILE - Jakarta Governor Basuki \"Ahok\" Tjahaja Purnama, who was seeking re-election, votes at a polling station during the runoff election in Jakarta, Indonesia, April 19, 2017. With him were his wife, Veronica; and son, Nicholas.\nAhok defeated\nIn last month's runoff, Anies Baswedan, a former minister of education and culture, beat Chinese-Christian Basuki \"Ahok\" Tjahaja Purnama, who became acting governor after his boss, Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo, won the 2014 presidential election.\nAhok campaigned while being tried on a blasphemy charge, which originated in a campaign speech when he quoted the Quran. Islamist hard-liners seized upon a video clip, and the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI), once a fringe group, organized two enormous protests in Jakarta, where it called for Ahok to be jailed and even killed.\nThe verdict and sentencing are scheduled for Tuesday, amid growing popular support for Sharia, the Islamic legal code, which is what the Trump administration hints at in its attacks on \"radical Islamic terrorism.\"\nAn October 2016 study found nearly 80 percent of Islamic education teachers in five of 34 Indonesian provinces supported implementing Sharia. In much of Indonesia, religion is taught in public and private schools.\n", + "caption": "Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shake hands before their meeting at the State Department in Washington, May 4, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DFAF355A-D673-4A1B-91C4-1E4167306EF0.jpg", + "id": "4450_1", + "answer": [ + "Islam, the predominant faith in Indonesia, is not an obstacle to positive relations with the United States", + "Muslim" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Indonesia", + "Retno Marsudi" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838380", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838380_1" + }, + { + "question": "What two locations will be connected with the method of transportation in the image?", + "context": "Thailand Greenlights First Phase of $5.5B Railway Project with China\nBANGKOK \u2014\u00a0\nThailand's Cabinet on Tuesday approved construction of the first phase of a $5.5-billion railway project to link the industrial eastern seaboard with southern China through landlocked Laos, as part of a regional infrastructure drive by Beijing.\nPrime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who heads the Thai ruling junta, made use of an executive order last month to pave the way for the project, which has been beset by delays, including negotiations on loan terms.\nThe first phase encompasses six railway stations on a 250-km (155-mile) high-speed line linking the Thai capital of Bangkok and the northeastern province of Nakorn Ratchasima.\n\"This project is part of the development of a regional transport network, in particular China's 'One Belt One Road' initiative that will link Europe, Asia and Southeast Asia together,\" Korbsak Pootrakool, vice-minister at the Prime Minister's Office, told reporters.\nThe link forms part of Beijing's regional infrastructure drive to connect Chinese cities with Southeast Asia, including Thailand's industrial zones and its eastern deep sea port.\nSome analysts see the project as a centerpiece of China-Thailand relations which appear to have deepened following a 2014 coup by the Thai army.\nThailand's government has said Thai firms will be responsible for construction while China will be responsible for the railway technology, signal systems and technical training.\n\"The project will use Thai materials but Chinese technology will be used in the construction,\" Prayuth said.\n\"We will send people to learn this so that we can operate the rail system ourselves in the future.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this photo taken July 10, 2014, a man walks along rail tracks in Bangkok. Thailand's military government has approved a massive budget to upgrade the country's railways including high-speed rails that would eventually link with China. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E553AAB2-A57E-4F3F-A1B5-22781CE2C890.jpg", + "id": "918_1", + "answer": [ + "the Thai capital of Bangkok and the northeastern province of Nakorn Ratchasima" + ], + "bridge": [ + "railway" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_11_3937570", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_11_3937570_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the nation of the person second to left in the image doing?", + "context": "Few From West Drawn by China's One Belt, One Road Conference \nBEIJING \u2014\u00a0\nChina announced Tuesday that 28 countries will send their heads of government to an international conference on the One Belt, One Road (or OBOR) program to be held next month in Beijing. However, only six G-20 countries are on the list, and government heads in most of the developed world will not attend.\nItaly is the only major western country sending its head of government to the conference on the development plan, despite China's effort to give it an international flavor.\nFour influential personalities will attend the event at the highest level. Those are Russian President Vladimir Putin; Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni; Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund; and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who will inaugurate the conference.\n\"This is an economic initiative and it deals with economic cooperation, so we do not want it to be politicized,\" Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in reply to a question about whether the Western world was not showing much interest because it had doubts about China's motives.\nFILE - A map illustrating China's silk road economic belt and the 21st century maritime silk road, or the so-called One Belt, One Road megaproject, is displayed at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, China, Jan. 18, 2016.\nFrance and Germany have major elections around the time of the Belt and Road Forum, to be held May 14-15. However, they have agreed to send senior officials.\n\"This is an economic cooperation forum, an international cooperation platform that everyone is paying attention to, supports and hopes to participate in,\" Wang said. He said representatives of 110 countries, which include those that are not on the OBOR route, would attend.\nA problem of plenty?\nChina has also signed documents with 56 countries to enlarge support for the program. It has allocated an initial amount of $40 billion for a Silk Road Fund to implement OBOR.\n\"The contours of OBOR are vast, and its ever-expanding nature has created plenty of discrepancies,\" Jonathan Hillman, director of the Reconnecting Asia project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. \"For example, some infrastructure projects announced years earlier are now covered under the OBOR banner.\"\nBritish Prime Minister Theresa May was widely expected to attend as part of her efforts to strengthen Britain's business and diplomatic links with China in the post-Brexit era. Instead, she is sending British Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond in her place.\nFor China, OBOR is an important model to expand political influence while enhancing its infrastructure construction business and exporting its industrial overcapacity. Beijing is also projecting the program as a \"win-win solution\" to the problem of inadequate infrastructure in developing countries, and economic slowdown in the developed ones.\nGuest list\nMost of the presidents and prime ministers attending the forum are from countries that have received or expect to obtain financial support from China. They include Greece, Belarus, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Ethiopia. Russia depends heavily on business deals, including a 30-year gas supply contract that it has entered with China.\nFILE - Leaders of BRICS nations, from left, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Jacob Zuma are seen prior to dinner hosted by Modi in Goa, India, Oct. 15, 2016. Of the five nations, three are not sending their heads of governments to the upcoming OBOR program, according to the list released by the Chinese foreign minister.\nChina has done well in persuading most of the countries linked to the South China Sea dispute, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Philippines, to send their leaders. Seven of the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations are sending the heads of their governments.\nChina did not distinguish between developed and developing countries, and regarded all as equal members of the international community, Wang said, as one of the goals of the Belt and Road program was to promote equitable development between rich and poor nations.\nRecoining a name\nWang dropped the word \"one\" from the original name of the program, One Belt, One Road. Observers said China is trying to avoid the impression that it wants to control the increasingly international program, and make it a consultative process.\nOn the other hand, several countries in China's neighborhood \u2014 including Japan, South Korea, India and Singapore \u2014 have not yet agreed to send their heads of government. Three of China's colleagues on BRICS \u2014 Brazil, India and South Africa \u2014 are not sending their heads of governments, according to the list released by the Chinese foreign minister. The other two members of BRICS are Russia and China.\n\"Unsustainable debt is a real concern for certain countries,\" Hillman said, referring to concerns that expensive infrastructure projects under OBOR can push economically weak countries deeper into debt.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Leaders of BRICS nations, from left, Brazilian President Michel Temer, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and South African President Jacob Zuma are seen prior to dinner hosted by Modi in Goa, India, Oct. 15, 2016. Of the five nations, three are not sending their heads of governments to the upcoming OBOR program, according to the list released by the Chinese foreign minister.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A2351C64-2846-4DAC-9CA0-75A1125AA00C.jpg", + "id": "6653_3", + "answer": [ + "signed documents with 56 countries to enlarge support for the program", + "One Belt, One Road megaproject" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Chinese President Xi Jinping", + "China" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_18_3815447", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_18_3815447_3" + }, + { + "question": "Who was helped by the man in the center of the image?", + "context": " Turkish Singer, Journalists on Trial Over Failed Coup\nTurkish pop star Atilla Tas and 28 others, most of them journalists, are being tried in Istanbul on terrorism charges over alleged links to a U.S.-based Muslim cleric blamed for last year's failed coup attempt in Turkey.\nThey face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of membership in \u201can armed terrorist organization,\u201d in a massive government crackdown that has seen more than 100 media outlets closed and more than 41,000 people arrested since July.\nTurkish state media said Tas and several others are charged with managing a Twitter account that spread propaganda on behalf of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is accused of masterminding the coup attempt.\nGulen has denied any knowledge of the plot.\nHuman rights groups say Turkey has jailed about 150 journalists, many of whom were arrested before the botched insurrection, for alleged ties to Kurdish rebels who are fighting the Turkish state. The Reporters Without Borders group ranked Turkey at 151st out of 180 countries on its press freedom index last year.\nTurkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waves to his supporters during a meeting in Istanbul, March 27, 2017. Turkey hold a referendum on April 16 on whether to expand the powers of the Turkish presidency.\nThe government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insists the crackdown was essential for the stability of the country. But critics say the detentions show Turkey is becoming more authoritarian under the Islamist leader.\nThis trial is being closely watched in Turkey, which holds a referendum on April 16 on whether to expand the powers of the presidency.\n", + "caption": "Turkish police officers escort Turkish pop singer Atilla Tas, center, to police headquarters following his arrest, in Istanbul. Tas and 28 other people, mostly journalists, went on trial Monday, March 27, 2017, on terrorism charges for alleged links to a failed coup attempt. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D037B089-4ABE-436D-A929-0BE1F67822BB.jpg", + "id": "31891_1", + "answer": [ + "U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tas " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3784164", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3784164_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where was the person in the image kept?", + "context": "Jordan Court Blocks Extradition of Bombing Suspect to US \nAMMAN, JORDAN \u2014\u00a0\nJordan's highest court has blocked the extradition of a Jordanian woman who faces U.S. charges in the 2001 bombing of a Jerusalem pizza restaurant that killed 15 people, including two Americans.\nThe U.S. indictment against Ahlam al-Tamimi was unsealed last week.\nJordanian state media reported on Tuesday that a day earlier, Jordan's Court of Cassation upheld a lower-court decision on grounds that Jordan and the United States don't have an extradition treaty.\nThe military's news website Hala Akhbar quoted al-Tamimi as saying she had been confident the Jordanian judiciary \"will be fair to me.''\nU.S. prosecutors allege she accompanied the suicide bomber and ordered him to detonate the explosives.\nAl-Tamimi was imprisoned in Israel, but released to Jordan in a 2011 prisoner swap between Israel and the Islamic militant Hamas.\n", + "caption": "This image provided by the FBI is the most wanted poster for Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, a Jordanian woman charged in connection with a 2001 bombing of a Jerusalem pizza restaurant that killed 15 people and injured dozens of others.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D51ED1C6-76F4-4F5F-92F9-6930ACD8D3A5.jpg", + "id": "2006_1", + "answer": [ + "Israel" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi", + "Al-Tamimi" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775190", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775190_1" + }, + { + "question": "What would the people in the image get?", + "context": "Biafran Secessionist Movement Grows Stronger in Nigeria\nOn May 30, many people in southeastern Nigeria will remember those who lost their lives in one of Africa\u2019s most brutal wars. More than 1 million people died during Nigeria\u2019s 1967 to 1970 civil war known as the Biafra War The conflict erupted after leaders from southeastern Nigeria declared that the region would secede from Nigeria. \nMemories of the war remain strong for those who lived through it.\n\u201cHave you been walking with somebody and the bomb killed him and all you have to do is look at the corpse and continue walking? Even if it\u2019s your sister, you just continue walking because you\u2019re running for dear life? Or have you been hidden in the roof of a building because you are afraid, because your mother is afraid the soldiers will come and rape you?\u201d says Enuma Okoro, who was 21 when the war broke out.\n\u201cIn my compound we saw several skeletons of dead people. My father\u2019s compound was flattened. It was a war front,\u201d says Obum Okeke, who was 7 years old when the war started.\nFILE - A group of starving Biafran children wait at Aba for doctors to see them, July 27, 1968.\nImages sifted opinion\nThe war gained widespread global attention once pictures of starving Biafran children were published in the international media. The Nigerian government had formed a blockade, making it difficult for aid groups to reach Biafra. Many children starved and developed a severe condition that became known as kwashiorkor.\n\u201cFirst of all, the first thing you notice is the stomach bloated,\" says Christopher Ejiofor, a traditional king in his community in the southeastern state of Enugu and the aide to Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, a military officer and leader of the short-lived Republic of Biafra. \"The arms to the bones, the legs to the bones, the thigh to the bones, the head, skull. Can you imagine that? That is a starving a child. And that is what happened everywhere in Biafra,\u201d he says.\nChristopher Ejiofor, a traditional king, known as an igwe, in his community in the southeastern state of Enugu. During the war, he served as the aide-de-camp to Chukwuemeka Oujwku, a military office and the leader of Republic of Biafra.\nThe war ended with the surrender of Biafra in January 1970. Biafrans returned to Nigeria and the country once known as Biafra, ceased to exist. But in recent years, the pro-Biafra movement has resurged. Supporters say the grievances that led to the war have still not been addressed.\nPoll: growing support\nA survey released this week from a Nigerian research group revealed that the pro-Biafra movement is gaining support, particularly among young people who did not experience the war. The rise could also be a reaction for a region that has received little infrastructural development from the federal government.\n\u201cI am supporting it [Biafra] because that is who I am,\u201d says senior university student Sofuru Afah. \u201cNigeria is an artificial creation by the British. I am not a Nigerian and I have never been and I never will. Buhari hates our people.\u201d \nNigerian President Muhammadu Buhari fought against Biafra during the civil war as a young soldier. He says he will not tolerate the Biafra movement. Under Buhari\u2019s administration, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of one of the more popular pro-Biafra groups, called IPOB, was detained in 2015 on charges of treason, criminal conspiracy and belonging to an illegal society. Kanu was released on bail last month after spending nearly two years in prison in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.\nIPOB\u2019s deputy, Uche Mefor, told VOA the Nigerian government cannot ignore the voice of Biafrans. He says May 30 will be a day for the world to recognize because pro-Biafrans will unite in peaceful resistance. Some pro-Biafrans will stay in their homes while others plan to join street rallies.\n\u201cThe compliance on that day will indeed convince the world that the people of Biafra are actually ready for their self-governance. We have our right to self-existence and it doesn\u2019t matter what anybody things about it,\u201d he told VOA.\nThe Nigerian government is determined to preserve Nigeria. Speaking at a Biafra remembrance forum in Abuja this week, acting president Yemi Osinbajo said Nigeria should remain one and all Nigerians should strive to achieve an ideal Nigeria.\n\u201cWe are not there yet, but I believe we have a strong chance to advance in that direction. But that will not happen if we allow our frustrations and grievances to transmute into hatred,\u201d Osinbanjo said during the address.\nLawrence Akpu and other disabled Biafra war veterans gather to discuss their support for the pro-Biafra movement. They want southeastern Nigeria to secede and form the country of Biafra.\nBut, the message of one Nigeria is too late for many people like Lawrence Akpu, a former Biafran fighter. During the war, shrapnel cut into his spinal cord. Today, he\u2019s confined to a wheelchair. Even though he\u2019s poor and begs for handouts, he says he doesn\u2019t regret fighting for Biafra and will fight again.\n\u201cIf we join our hands together to seek Biafra, we shall get Biafra. Because we have no place in Nigeria,\u201d Akpu says.\nAkpu joins a group of other disabled Biafra War veterans on a hot afternoon. They reminisce about the war and soon, they begin to sing the war songs that kept their spirits inspired to keep fighting.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A group of starving Biafran children wait at Aba for doctors to see them, July 27, 1968.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/48583287-E4D0-40DA-A2A5-DEAA300ABAAC.jpg", + "id": "19053_2", + "answer": [ + "kwashiorkor" + ], + "bridge": [ + "children" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_27_3873873", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_27_3873873_2" + }, + { + "question": "What is happening to the spouse of the person in the image?", + "context": "Chinese Rights Lawyer's Wife Says Xie Yang Released but Under Heavy Surveillance\nChinese rights lawyer Xie Yang has been released on bail after recanting accusations of police torture during his trial on Monday. But he is still under tight surveillance by secret police, according to his wife.\nA court in the central Chinese city of Changsha has yet to announce a verdict, and legal experts say a ruling may not come any time soon.\nRights groups suspect that Xie\u2019s swift release is likely a trade-off and another way of controlling rights advocates without having to put them in formal detention, a tactic that will make it harder for the international community to keep the pressure on.\nNo genuine freedom\nXie\u2019s wife, Chen Guiqiu, has fled China and is now in the United States with her two daughters.\n\u201cEscorted by secret police, Xie Yang arrived home on May 9 to celebrate his mother\u2019s 80th birthday. But hours later was taken away along with his [octogenarian] parents to a residence in a remote village deep into the mountains. He still has no genuine freedom,\u201d Chen told VOA.\nChen says that when she spoke with Xie on Wednesday, her husband sounded indifferent when she shared details of the intimidation and harassment suffered by their family while in China and recounted their escape in March to the United States.\nShe said she thinks it was inconvenient for Xie to speak freely, but also noted that his responses were strange and abnormal. Chen said her husband demanded she and their daughters return to China from the United States, promising that Chinese authorities would keep the family safe.\nDespite this, Chen said their daughters were overjoyed to learn of their father\u2019s release.\n\u201cThey are thrilled, in particular, my eldest daughter burst into tears after learning of his release. [They] miss their father very much. It\u2019s been almost two years since they last saw their father, who was arrested without any warning,\u201d Chen said, adding that she holds little hope that Xie will one day be allowed to visit them in the U.S.\nA photo described as the trial showing human rights lawyer Xie Yang which is seen on the social media of the Changshai Intermediate People's Court is displayed on a computer in Beijing, May 8, 2017.\nTrade-off\nThe family\u2019s lawyer, Chen Jiangang, who was denied access to Monday\u2019s trial, believes Xie\u2019s release is part of a trade-off.\nHe insisted what he disclosed in January about Xie\u2019s torture by Hunan police was based on Xie\u2019s own words during their meetings, even though his client denied the allegations in court.\nNow that Xie has successfully been silenced, Chen said authorities are working to shut him up as well. Chen\u2019s family was briefly detained in the southern province of Yunnan last week.\n\u201cXie Yang lied and denied being tortured. That helped the Chinese government save face and, in return, the Chinese government would promise to let him keep his license. This is a trade-off,\u201d Chen told VOA.\n\u201cWhy are they after me? They are seeking revenge as I was the one who made public his allegations of torture,\u201d which invited criticism from 11 countries, he added.\nAnother show trial\nFrances Eve, a researcher with Chinese Human Rights Defenders, said Xie\u2019s release, likely in exchange for his guilty plea, was the government\u2019s latest show trial to incriminate rights defenders.\nShe said as the 19th Communist Party Congress draws closer, China appears to be pushing the cases of rights lawyers through the judicial system because holding them in pre-trial detention easily becomes \u201ca lightning rod for international criticism.\u201d\n\u201cIt\u2019s a way to control people without having them in formal detention, which is harder for international advocacy efforts to keep the pressure on because it\u2019s harder to know what is exactly happening to them when they\u2019re kind of just being controlled in house arrest [or] surveillance,\u201d Eve said.\nFILE - This image made from Aug. 1, 2016 video shows Chen Guiqiu, left, has lunch with lawyer Jiang Tianyong after attending a trial for human rights lawyer and activists at the Tianjin No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Tianjin, China.\nKeep speaking up\nBut such tactics are unlikely to silence the larger debate and widespread concerns about a nationwide crackdown on rights lawyers that began on July 9, 2015.\nMore than 300 lawyers have been caught up in the crackdown, which is aimed at those assisting dissidents and government critics. Most of those lawyers have been released, but 32 have been indicted and seven others are awaiting trial.\nOn Friday, Wang Qiaoling, the wife of prominent rights lawyer Li Heping, and other supporters filed a suit with the Supreme Court demanding an investigation into the police\u2019s torture of Li as well as information surrounding the disappearance of another lawyer, Wang Quanzhang.\nAfter a 669-day detention, Li returned home earlier this week after being convicted of state subversion late last month and sentenced to three years in prison with a four-year reprieve. Li\u2019s wife insists he suffered cruel torture and urged authorities to get to the bottom of the alleged abuse of power.\nMeanwhile, the Washington D.C.-based Congressional-Executive Commission on China has expressed alarm about what it called China\u2019s continued assault against rights lawyers.\n\u201cIf China persists in viewing its own citizens with suspicion and hostility and if it continues to ruthlessly disregard their most basic rights, it will never be viewed as a responsible global stakeholder,\u201d the commission said in a statement.\n\u201cThe international community needs to acknowledge that Xi Jinping\u2019s increasingly severe suppression of internationally-recognized civil and political right has real implications for regional stability and bilateral cooperation,\u201d it added.\nBrian Kopczynski contributed to this report\n", + "caption": "FILE - wife of detained human rights lawyer Xie Yang, with other wives of detained human rights lawyers including Fan Lili (L), the wife of Ge Ping, and Wang Yanfang (C), the wife of Tang Jingling, outside the Supreme People\u2019s Procuratorate wearing the na", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8B6B8A82-D289-4E57-9B50-49F2C4862580.jpg", + "id": "4679_1", + "answer": [ + "tight surveillance by secret police" + ], + "bridge": [ + "wife" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_12_3849081", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_12_3849081_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is making the weapons in the image more dangerous?", + "context": "50,000 Evacuated in Germany After WW II-era Bombs Found\nMore than 50,000 residents of the northern German city of Hannover have been asked to leave their homes, as authorities prepare to mount a large-scale operation to defuse World War II-era bombs.\nCity officials say two bombs were found at a construction site and three more nearby.\nThe city prepared a series of events for the evacuees, including free museum visits and discounted film screenings.\nResidents pass by rescue workers in Hannover, northern Germany, May 7, 2017 when 50,000 people have to leave their homes when an unexploded World War II-era bomb is defused.\nMore than 70 years after the end of the war, unexploded bombs are regularly found buried on German land, legacies of the intense bombing campaigns by Allied forces against Nazi Germany.\nGerman broadcaster Deutsche Welle newspaper noted that on October 9, 1943, alone, some 261,000 bombs were dropped on the city, and many of them remain unexploded. Authorities worry the bombs are getting more dangerous with the passage of time as the material disintegrates.\nThe biggest such evacuation took place last Christmas, when an unexploded British bomb forced 54,000 people out of their homes in the southern city of Augsburg.\n", + "caption": "Three defused WWII bombs sit on the bed of a truck in Hannover, northern Germany, May 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8B913CB3-0953-4007-A98A-3A97E8A253EC.jpg", + "id": "23439_1", + "answer": [ + "the passage of time" + ], + "bridge": [ + "bombs" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841583", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841583_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the blonde person in the image become?", + "context": "Would You Climb Into This Capsule to Survive a Tsunami?\nOCEAN PARK, WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nA small company in the northwestern U.S. is drawing global interest in a high tech way to survive a tsunami.\nThe company has created an escape pod, called a survival capsule that could also protect residents on vulnerable coastlines in the event of a hurricane or typhoon. In either case, survival involves climbing into a spherical aluminum pod, and buckling in for what is sure to be the ride of your life.\nJeanne Johnson is the first U.S. buyer of this technology. She just recently moved from the Seattle area to what she calls her \"dream home\" at the beach. It's about midway up the sandy, flat Long Beach Peninsula in southwest Washington state, and, she recognized, in a tsunami zone.\nSurvival Capsule customer Jeanne Johnson (right) lives three houses in from the dunes and the Pacific Ocean surf on Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula.\nGeologic records show the Cascadia earthquake fault offshore is capable of and has a history of generating massive tsunamis. In an effort to protect its residents, the city of Long Beach is using grant money to design an armored, man-made hill that could be used as a tsunami evacuation platform for at least 850 people.\nEvacuation options\nBut Johnson doesn't think that would work for her. While she could make a run for high ground, the Microsoft executive doubts she could reach safety in the short time between the end of the shaking of a great earthquake and incoming tsunami waves.\n\"When I decided to move to the ocean into a tsunami zone I felt like I should prepare. People panic and I don't want to be caught in the panic,\" she explained.\nSo she did a bit of Internet research and discovered a different option: a bright orange, high-strength floating metal ball that looks like something NASA had designed for astronauts. She has taken delivery and is now deciding whether to tether her capsule in her herb garden or keep it in the garage.\nThe capsule's seats have shoulder harnesses and seat belts to buckle in tight.\nThe aircraft-grade aluminum sphere is about one and a third meters in diameter. It has a round marine door and two tiny portholes. Inside, air supply tanks and about six to seven days' worth of drinking water come standard. A small portable toilet is an optional feature.\n\"My model is big enough for two people to be buckled in like a pilot's seat,\" she said, adding that she wants her dog Trixie to join her if and when \u201cthe Big One\u201d comes. \"I have friends who say, 'Oh my God, wouldn't it be claustrophobic? How can you stand it?' All I can think is, what's my option? To drown? I would rather be in that ball for the ride of my life and maintain my life.\"\nA brainstorm for survival\nThat \u2018ball\u2019 is the creation of a startup called Survival Capsule, based near Seattle. Company president Julian Sharpe is an aerospace engineer. He got the idea for the product lying awake one night while spending the weekend at a beach town in Oregon.\n\"I thought, 'Well, what happens now if a tsunami comes?'\" he recalled. \"I just thought it's going to be a disaster because I've got four sleeping kids. If it comes at night, the lights are going to be out. You don't necessarily know where you're going. You can't see the wave, how far it is. So I thought it would be great if I could design something to throw the family in and ride it out. That's where it all started.\"\nSurvival Capsule President Julian Sharpe gives some tips to his first U.S. customer, Jeanne Johnson.\nWhile the inspiration for the product was tsunami survival, Sharpe said his company's capsules are now drawing additional interest from people worried about hurricanes or typhoons.\n\"Rather than evacuate from hurricanes and be 200 miles away while the hurricane decides it wants to go in a different direction, leaving their home vulnerable - or business vulnerable - to looting, they want to stay at home and have a tsunami capsule as a last line of defense.\"\nThe cost of peace of mind\nThe two-person survival capsule starts at $13,500. A four-person model lists for $17,500. The company's initial sales have been to Japanese customers - eight capsule kits so far. Sharpe anticipates local governments in Japan could become a major customer base, although the company has two competitors in that market who are offering similar-looking survival pods. Survival Capsule has also held initial talks to license its design for fabrication in Indonesia, which might produce a lower cost for customers in developing nations.\n", + "caption": "Survival Capsule customer Jeanne Johnson (right) lives three houses in from the dunes and the Pacific Ocean surf on Washington state's Long Beach Peninsula.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BCAB3B29-744B-4118-B4C7-1448D19CECCC.jpg", + "id": "27142_2", + "answer": [ + "the first U.S. buyer of this technology" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jeanne Johnson" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695528", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695528_2" + }, + { + "question": "What territory was the car in the image driving in?", + "context": "Landmine in East Ukraine Kills American OSCE Monitor\nAn American monitor with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) died and several other monitors were injured Sunday when their car hit a mine near Luhansk in eastern Ukraine.\nAustria's foreign ministry confirmed the incident near the small village of Pryshyb.Austria currently holds the OSCE\u2019s rotating presidency.\nAustrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz demanded a thorough investigation, adding that those responsible would be held accountable.\nA German and a Czech national were also injured but have been treated at a local hospital.\nAccording to reports, the vehicle drove over a mine in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.\nThe chief of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission (SMM), Ertugrul Apakan, said he is travelling to Luhansk Monday to extend his support to the monitors and to better understand the situation. \nIn a statement, Apakan said the OSCE remains committed to fulfilling its mandate and contributing to bring peace to the people of Ukraine.\nA rebel statement said the OSCE team was traveling along an unsafe road.\"We know that the mentioned crew deviated from the main route and moved along side roads, which is prohibited by the mandate of the OSCE SMM,\" local media reported.\nThe incident marks the first loss of life for the OSCE's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.\nThe OSCE has 600 members in eastern Ukraine, and is the only independent monitoring mission in the destroyed industrial war zone.It provides daily reports on the war and has angered insurgents for accusing them of being responsible for most truce agreement violations.\nDuring the past three years tensions between Ukraine and separatists in the Russian-held eastern part of the country have continued to increase.A 2015 cease-fire agreement is repeatedly violated.\nAt least 9,750 people have been killed in the war in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.More than 40 died during the first two months of this year, when hostilities suddenly surged.\n", + "caption": "The vehicle that drove over a mine while transporting members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), is seen while it is moved from the scene in Luhansk region, Ukraine, April 23, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AE6B04B4-8DC5-441C-9332-024F686D84BD.jpg", + "id": "22408_1", + "answer": [ + "Luhansk in eastern Ukraine", + "the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic.", + "Pryshyb" + ], + "bridge": [ + "vehicle", + "vehicle that drove over a mine" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822096", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822096_1" + }, + { + "question": "What will the infrastructure in the image be used for?", + "context": "Islamic State Defeated at Tabqa Dam\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nU.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have defeated Islamic State fighters in the city of Tabqa and have seized Tabqa Dam, a key objective for the militias before a planned attack on the terror group\u2019s de-facto capital, Raqqa.\nThe SDF, a multi-ethnic group which includes Kurdish fighters and Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) fighters, had been battling Islamic State for weeks in Tabqa, about 40 kilometers west of Raqqa, with the help of coalition airstrikes and U.S. special forces advisers.\nSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters pose with foreign volunteer fighters inside Tabqa military airport after taking control of it from Islamic State fighters, west of Raqqa city, Syria April 9, 2017.\n\"This is yet another victory by the SAC and the SDF, our most committed and capable ground force partners in the fight against ISIS,\u201d coalition spokesman U.S. Col. John Dorrian said in a Central Command statement released Thursday.\nU.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. military operations in the Middle East, said approximately 70 Islamic State fighters had conceded to the SDF's terms, which included dismantling bombs surrounding the dam, surrendering their heavy weapons and withdrawing all remaining fighters from Tabqa.\nThe SDF accepted the IS surrender in order \u201cto protect innocent civilians\" and to preserve the Tabqa Dam infrastructure, which hundreds of thousands of Syrians rely on for water, agriculture, and electricity, Central Command said.\nMap of Tabqa Dam.\nAfter Wednesday\u2019s SDF victory, the coalition said it tracked fleeing Islamic State fighters and targeted those who could be hit without harming civilians.\nThe coalition said Thursday that Islamic State had moved its external attack planning operations to Tabqa after their defeat in Manbij in order to avoid coalition airstrikes in Raqqa.\n\u201cThe operation to seize the Tabqa Dam, airfield and city disrupts ISIS operations in Raqqa and their ability to defend the city and plan and execute external attacks against the West,\u201d the coalition said.\nU.S. airmen had airlifted SDF forces behind IS lines to launch the attack that captured the Tabqa airfield in late March, U.S. General Carlton Everhart, commander of the Air Force's Air Mobility Command, told VOA after the March assault.\nFILE - A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighter walks near destroyed airplane parts inside Tabqa military airport after taking control of it from Islamic State fighters, west of Raqqa city, Syria April 9, 2017.\nAmerican engineers and crews were repairing and restoring the airfield while the SDF continued its fight for Tabqa city and Tabqa dam.\nThe seizure of Tabqa and Tabqa Dam comes just days after President Donald Trump authorized the Pentagon to equip the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Forces.\nChief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White said Tuesday the Kurdish component, which makes up more than half of the SDF fighters, would be armed \"as necessary to ensure a clear victory\" over Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria.\nFILE - This April 30, 2017, photo provided by the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), shows a fighter from the SDF carrying weapons as he looks toward the northern town of Tabqa, Syria.\nA military official told VOA the United States will provide Kurdish forces around Raqqa with small arms, machine-guns, ammunition, and armored vehicles to counter improvised explosive devices and construction equipment.\n\u201cWeapons will be meted out to achieve limited military objectives,\u201d the military official said Tuesday.\nAnkara opposes Washington's alliance with Syrian Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State. Turkey contends the SDF's Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the YPG, is a terrorist group affiliated with the outlawed PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a terror group that has been battling the Turkish state for many years.\n", + "caption": "FILE - This photo released on March 27, 2017 by the official Twitter account of Operation Inherent Resolve, shows the Tabqa Dam, in Raqqa, Syria.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7CDE5679-ED73-467F-9341-9606B83410C1.jpg", + "id": "29856_1", + "answer": [ + "a planned attack on the terror group\u2019s de-facto capital, Raqqa" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tabqa Dam" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_11_3847666", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_11_3847666_1" + }, + { + "question": "What type of effects might the weather in the image have?", + "context": "New Zealanders Evacuated from Parts of Coast as Storm Hits\nWELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND \u2014\u00a0\nHundreds of people in New Zealand were evacuated from some coastal areas on Thursday as the second major storm in just over a week made landfall near the North Island town of Whakatane.\nBut residents of the nation's largest city, Auckland, breathed a sigh of relief as the remnants of Cyclone Cook moved past them to the east. Authorities had earlier worried the storm could hit the city and cause major problems.\n\"It seems Auckland has largely survived ... unscathed,\" tweeted Auckland Mayor Phil Goff.\nCivil defense authorities said people from about 250 homes in the beach town of Ohope were told they had to evacuate, while other households chose to leave. Authorities had earlier advised people in low elevations on the Coromandel Peninsula to evacuate to higher ground, as large waves were expected to batter the coast.\nAir New Zealand suspended flights from Tauranga Airport and other flights around the country were also delayed or canceled. The military said it had placed 500 troops on standby. The storm also caused power disruptions to hundreds of homes in Whakatane and Tauranga.\nSarah Stuart-Black, director of the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management, said the storm was \"extremely serious\" and severe weather warnings were in place for much of the country.\n\"We are watching very carefully, we're not through this yet,'' she said on Thursday evening.\nThe storm was expected to move south overnight Thursday and reach the capital, Wellington, early Friday, causing more problems along the way but also losing some of its punch.\nThe MetService weather agency predicted rainfall could exceed 100 millimeters (4 inches) in some places and cause more flooding in areas still recovering from heavy rainfall last week.\nLast Thursday the town of Edgecumbe was flooded when a river burst through a concrete levee on the Rangitaiki River as the remnants of Cyclone Debbie hit. The water forced 2,000 people to evacuate and flooded hundreds of homes.\nMany people have been unable to return to their homes since then and authorities have been scrambling to shore up the breached levee. That system and others will be tested again by rainfall from the latest storm.\nMetService predicted winds from the storm could gust to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour and that waves could rise to over 5 meters (16 feet).\n", + "caption": "A police officer walks to a house to advise residents to evacuate as fears grow about possible storm surges at high tide in Ohope, New Zealand. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A5DA0EF1-27DB-43DE-9119-033EEC48C1DD.jpg", + "id": "23425_1", + "answer": [ + "waves could rise to over 5 meters (16 feet)" + ], + "bridge": [ + "storm" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808450", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808450_1" + }, + { + "question": "How many of the people in the image had bombs?", + "context": "How Could Taliban Breach Heavily-guarded Afghan Army Base?\nWASHINGTON/MAZAR-I-SHARIF \u2014\u00a0\nOn Friday early in the afternoon, two Afghan Army Ford Ranger vehicles with 10 soldiers on board stopped before the first security check point of the main entrance to 209 Shaheen Corps, in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of northern Balkh province.\nThe soldiers on board were Taliban militants, disguised in Afghan National Army (ANA) uniforms with fake identification cards.\nInside the first vehicle, there was a wounded soldier who was pleading for urgent care.\n\u201cThe soldier was covered in blood, and when the guard at the first checkpoint communicated with his superiors in the second checkpoint, he was told to let them in,\u201d an Afghan soldier from the military base told VOA on condition of anonymity.\n\u201cThey were allowed to cross the second checkpoint as well, and when they were stopped and asked for their guns in the third checkpoint, they started firing at the guards,\u201d the Afghan soldier added.\nAccording to the soldier, the security guard at the main gate was convinced that the assailants were returning from a mission from northern Faryab province and that the wounded soldier would die if not taken care of immediately.\n\u201cAs soon as they gunned down the security guards in the third checkpoint, they spread inside the base, and two of the assailants rushed towards the cafeteria and the mosque detonating their suicide vests,\u201d the source added.\nThe attack reportedly left at least 140 soldiers dead and many more wounded. The death toll may rise as some soldiers are said to be in critical condition.\nGeneral Mohammad Radmanesh, spokesperson of the Afghan Ministry of Defense, confirmed that the attackers faked a wounded soldier scenario to get inside the base.\nCoffins containing the bodies of Afghan national Army (ANA) soldiers killed April 21 in an attack on an army headquarters are lined up in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, April 22, 2017.\n\u201cWe are soldiers and we have emotions towards our fellow comrades. The soldier was covered in blood,\u201d Radmanesh said, referring to how the wounded soldier scenario has led to the loosening of security protocol.\n\u201cTwo of the assailants were suicide bombers, and the remaining eight others were armed with guns and went on a rampage to kill unarmed soldiers before they were gunned down by Afghan commandos inside the base,\u201d Radmanesh added.\nSurvivors\u2019 accounts\nZabiullah, a wounded officer from eastern Nangarhar province, told Afghan media that they were confused about who was fighting whom inside the military base as the assailants were all in Army uniform.\n\u201cAs we came out of the mosque, we heard gun shots and we saw a Ranger coming towards us at a very fast speed. There were four people in it - two in the front and two in the back seat. The two in the front seat were armed and the other two had suicide vests.\u201d Zabiullah told Ariana News, a local TV station in Afghanistan.\n\u201cOne of my colleagues said they were Afghan army soldiers as they were dressed in military uniforms. But as we were trying to figure out who they were and what to do, they started firing at us,\u201d he added.\nZabiullah said it is impossible to get inside the military base without proper identification.\n\u201cEven soldiers are not allowed in without presenting their identification cards. How were they [assailants] able to get in?\u201d Zabiullah asked.\nIn Afghanistan, the Taliban released to the media this picture, which it said shows the suicide bombers who attacked the army base in Mazar-i-Sharif, April 21, 2017.\nNoorullah, another wounded soldier, accused the senior leadership at the base of mismanagement and corruption.\n\u201cAll our seniors at the Corps are corrupt. They sell us off and they never stay in the base,\u201d he said while talking to Tolo News, a local TV Channel. \u201cWhen a poor soldier wants to visit his ailing mother during a weekend, he is not allowed to do so, but senior officials regularly use government vehicles for personal business.\u201d\n\u201cThose who helped them and gave them our guns must be hanged in public. They are using our guns against us,\u201d Mohammad Zabih, another wounded soldier from Nangarhar told Radio Liberty. \nRadmanesh told VOA an investigation is underway.\n\u201cWe have sent a high level investigation team to the base and they will investigate every aspect of the attack,\u201d Radmanesh said. \u201cThis sophisticated attack has been planned and executed with help of intelligence agencies of regional countries.\u201d\nSome security analysts, however, charge that militant groups, whether they are the Taliban or Islamic State, have previously engaged in similar attacks and security forces have failed to adapt to them.\n\u201cThe Taliban used the same tactics they used for attacking the military hospital in Kabul last month, Abdul Wahed Taqat, a retired Afghan general said. \u201cAs was the case in the attack on the hospital, the militants had deployed infiltrators inside the base in Mazar as well. They had 5-6 infiltrators in the base.\u201d\nLast month\u2019s attack on the military hospital in Kabul was claimed by Islamic State, but Taqat believes IS and the Taliban have the same foreign support.\nTaqat warned that the militants have infiltrated every sector of the Afghan security structure.\n\u201cIt must be thoroughly probed. The enemy has infiltrators in almost all security departments including army corps, national security, and they are used when needed,\u201d he added.\nWahid Muzhda, a Kabul-based Taliban expert echoes some of Taqat\u2019s concerns.\n\u201cThe militants plan such attacks with a high degree of sophistication. They use information they receive from infiltrators in planning their attacks,\u201d said Muzhda. \"The timing of the attack on the army base was based on the information provided by four of the attackers who had previously worked inside the base and had a good knowledge of how the base operated. They knew that the Friday prayer would be concluded around 1:30 p.m. and the soldiers would not be carrying guns.\"\nBut spokesperson Radmanesh downplayed the allegations of infiltration and charged that the attack happened because militants faked a wounded soldier scenario.\nVOA Afghan Service\u2019s Mirwais Bezhan contributed to this report from Mazar-i-Sharif\n", + "caption": "In Afghanistan, the Taliban released to the media this picture, which it said shows the suicide bombers who attacked the army base in Mazar-i-Sharif, April 21, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/26CF4FF2-01A4-4D7E-A9F2-458BCD08E846.jpg", + "id": "8398_3", + "answer": [ + "Two" + ], + "bridge": [ + "suicide bombers", + "bombers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822326", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822326_3" + }, + { + "question": "What groups educate the people in the image?", + "context": "Myanmar Plans Education Reform, But Critics Claim Lack of Consultation\nMyanmar's democratic government recently launched a comprehensive, multi-year strategy to reform the country's education system, which is in a dire state after decades of neglect under the former military regime.\nThe National Education Strategic Plan runs through 2021 and is an ambitious road map for a first phase of reforms that aims to improve teaching, learning and inclusion on all education levels, from kindergarten to universities.\nSome major proposed measures include extending basic education with two years to a total of 13, and the introduction of new curricula, child centered learning and more interactive classrooms.\nThe plan has been broadly welcomed as an important starting point for the long-term task of developing a modern education system. But education experts note significant challenges such as its high implementation costs, while some criticized it for failing to consult civil society and ethnic minority education providers.\nMore than three years in the making with ample assistance from international donors and education consultants, the plan was presented in late February by de facto government leader and State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi, who stressed it is pivotal for Myanmar's socio-economic development.\n\"The change must be started in education,\" she said. \"We all need to consider what the main needs are to succeed after the National Education Strategic Plan has been adopted.\"\nBertrand Bainvel, UNICEF's Myanmar representative, said the launch was \"a historic moment\" for the education system.\nExpensive reforms\nMyanmar's education system was one of Asia's best until the military took over in 1962. It drastically cut spending, began to emphasize rote learning and - fearing the student movements - all but dismantled higher education.\nIn 2011, the previous, quasi-civilian government began to sharply raise education spending, which was Asia's lowest and represented only 0.7 percent of GDP. It drafted a National Education Law and began developing the NESP.\nFILE - Student activists called for higher education reforms during a protest in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 2015.\nFor the National League for Democracy government to now implement the new plan, which officially runs from 2016-2021, will be expensive. The \"low-performance scenario\" in which 80 percent of the measures are introduced, requires $10.6 billion over five years, or an average of $2.1 billion annually.\nLast year, the government spent $1.13 billion on education, international donors $71 million and individual households an estimated $186 million. So the government will have to prioritize among the proposed measures and sharply increase spending, presumably together with international donors.\nMael Raynaud, a political analyst who has written about education reform, said finding necessary funding and quality personnel to implement the NESP will be a long-term challenge.\n\"[I]t took 20 years for Indonesia to be able to provide the education sector with a budget comparable to what exists in the West, or in East Asia. And obviously, it will take decades to train teachers and professors, but also\u2026 (Ministry of Education) staff,\" he said.\nNon-state educators excluded\nRaynaud, who heads the Enlightened Myanmar Research Foundation's Political Information Program, said another major issue will be \"the process through which a number of non-state providers of education are slowly integrated in the system.\"\nIn Myanmar, Buddhist monastic schools, civil society and ethnic organizations - including rebel groups - play an important role in filling a gap in education services for poor students and children in remote ethnic areas.\nStudents study at a high school run by the Kachin Independence Army in Laiza, on the Myanmar-China border.\nRebel groups have long demanded autonomy to govern ethnic areas, including the right to teach their own languages and culture. Kachin, Karen and Mon rebels maintain education departments that teach tens of thousands of students in their areas of control, but the government mostly declines to recognize their degrees.\nThein Lwin, a former NLD member and respected education expert with the National Network for Education Reform, criticized the plan for its lack of consultation with civil society and ethnic educators, in particular on the issue of how to integrate their education programs into the government system.\nHe noted that NNER - a large network of student unions, teachers unions and ethnic education NGOs - also was ignored by the Ministry of Education.\nEthnic language teaching falls short\nAccording to Thein Lwin, the Ministry of Education's ethnic language teaching programs and curricula - implemented and drafted without non-state educators - are minimal.\n\"The difficulties are that ethnic languages are taught only in evening class, not in the school hours; Myanmar reader texts are translated into ethnic languages for teaching; and [there is a] lack of teachers for ethnic languages,\" he wrote.\nThein Lwin said many countries with indigenous minorities include strong mother tongue teaching in basic education, as it can significantly reduce dropout rates, which are often high in Myanmar's ethnic regions.\nKim Jolliffe, a political researcher who studied ethnic groups' social services provision, said the NESP's \"clear strengths\" lie in emphasizing new education approaches - such as a shift to child centered and outcomes based learning - that both state and non-state educators can use to develop unified teaching methods, which eventually can help integrate the latter's programs.\nYet, he also faulted the lack of inclusion of non-state educators in the NESP. \"There were a lot of attempts over a long period by many actors to be heard and they were just blocked out.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - Students prepare for an exam in suburbs of Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 19, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FBC6E2C0-BFB7-4D72-8259-8E662441CDB3.jpg", + "id": "11015_1", + "answer": [ + "Kachin, Karen and Mon", + "Kachin, Karen and Mon rebels", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "students", + "Students" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_19_3816698", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_19_3816698_1" + }, + { + "question": "What nation is the person in the left of the image worrying about becoming a bigger problem?", + "context": "After Criticism, France's Macron Seeks to Reassure Syria Opposition\nPARIS \u2014\u00a0\nFrance's new president, Emmanuel Macron, sought to reassure opponents of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday after provoking concern among rebel groups by saying that he saw no legitimate successor to Assad.\nFormer president Francois Hollande had backed the Syrian opposition, demanding the six-year conflict be resolved through a political transition that would eventually see Assad replaced.\nMacron, a centrist elected in May, said last month he no longer considered Assad's departure a pre-condition for a negotiated settlement to the conflict, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.\nWhile he described Assad as an enemy of the Syrian people, Macron said Paris' priority was fighting terrorist groups and ensuring Syria did not become a failed state. He also questioned the opposition's credibility.\nHailed by some in France as a pragmatic stance to advance negotiations, the comments also caused unease among the Syrian opposition, former officials and humanitarian groups.\nMacron on Wednesday appeared to try to refine his comments after speaking to Riad Hijab, head of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee, which represents a group of military and political opponents at U.N.-mediated talks between Syria's warring parties in Geneva.\nIn a statement the presidency said Macron had confirmed to Hijab that France supported the HNC in the Syrian peace talks being held under UN auspices.\n\"The president assured Mr. Hijab of his will to engage fully and personally to achieve an inclusive political solution in the Geneva framework,\" the French presidency said.\nMacron's comments on June 21 echoed Russia's stance that there is no viable alternative to Assad. The French leader has sought closer co-operation with Russia and French diplomats say he wants to develop a \"spirit of trust,\" notably on Syria.\nHijab's office said that he had, in their conversation on Tuesday, reminded Macron that Assad had \"lost legitimacy after being repeatedly responsible for using chemical weapons against his own people.\"\n\"Assad\u2019s presence in office helps spread chaos, strengthens the role of terrorist organizations, creates more sectarian militias, and fuels sectarian discrimination and hatred,\" Hijab's office said in a statement.\nMacron's election victory has offered Paris an opportunity to re-examine its policy on Syria after opponents of Hollande's foreign policy considered that his stance was too intransigent and left the French government isolated.\nRussia's foreign minister will be in Paris on Thursday to discuss the conflict.\n", + "caption": "French President Emmanuel Macron waits for guests to leave at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, June 6, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/553E79B7-8A19-496B-961C-0A4CAD48248A.jpg", + "id": "243_1", + "answer": [ + "Syria" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Emmanuel Macron", + "Macron" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3928952", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3928952_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the right of the image accused of doing?", + "context": "Lawmakers: Former Trump Security Adviser May Have Broken US Law \nCAPITOL HILL \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Donald Trump's former national security adviser appears to have violated federal law by not properly disclosing payments he received from foreign governments for public engagements, the heads of the House Oversight Committee told reporters Tuesday.\nThe rare show of bipartisan consensus on Capitol Hill came after the White House denied the committee's request for documents relating to retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn's contact with foreign nationals.\n\"As a former military officer, you simply cannot take money from Russia, Turkey or anybody else \u2014 and it appears as if he did take that money,\" said House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican.\nHouse Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, right, a Utah Republican, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, speak about the failure of former national security adviser Michael Flynn to disclose payments for a 2015 speech in Moscow.\nThe White House responded Tuesday by saying it didn't know whether Flynn had broken the law in the course of making contact with and receiving payments from foreign governments. \nPress secretary Sean Spicer downplayed claims that the White House had denied the request, saying the committee had received all the documents it needed from other agencies.\n\"Right now, to ask the White House to produce documents that were not in the possession of the White House is ridiculous,\" Spicer told reporters.\nAfter an hourlong classified briefing, Chaffetz said he had seen no evidence Flynn complied with the law.\nRepresentative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee's ranking Democrat, said Flynn's contacts were \"a major problem.\" He added that the matter would now most likely fall under the purview of the House Intelligence Committee. \"Somebody else will determine whether or not he's guilty,\" he told reporters after the news conference. \nThe lawmakers said Flynn would have needed permission to deliver a paid speech at a gala sponsored by the Russian-funded television station RT in 2015, where he sat at the same table with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Flynn received $45,000 for that appearance and more than $500,000 for lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government.\nCummings and Chaffetz said it appeared Flynn did not seek or receive the required permission and could be prosecuted for failing to do so.\n\"The statute's real clear. You have to seek and get permission,\" Chaffetz told reporters after the briefing. \"It's a pretty high bar. But it appears as if he didn't even try to do that and jump over that bar.\"\nCummings told reporters, \"I do believe we are in a struggle for the soul of our democracy, and that concerns me.\"\nFILE - Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn stands by the elevators as he arrives at Trump Tower in New York.\nInformation request rejected \nAccording to the lawmakers, the committee asked the White House for information about any efforts Flynn made to obtain permission for those payments, the former adviser's applications for security clearances and documentation of funds he may have received from foreign sources.\nThe White House referred the committee to the Department of Defense for information about Flynn's security clearances. Marc Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, said the White House did not hold material predating Flynn's service as national security adviser.\nAsked whether Flynn had violated federal law, Spicer told reporters Tuesday, \"That would be a question for him. I don't know what he filled out,\" referring to Flynn's responses to questions on federal security documents.\nFlynn was forced to leave the White House after lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian Ambassador to U.S. Sergey Kislyak during the period before Trump officially took office.\nSenate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said the newest Flynn allegations were \"extremely troubling\" and called for an investigation into the matter.\nFILE - Then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, June 28, 2016.\nYates, Clapper to testify at hearing \nMeanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Tuesday that former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper would testify at a May 8 hearing on Russia's meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election.\nYates and Clapper are also expected to testify at a public House intelligence panel hearing sometime after May 2, the date FBI Director James Comey is scheduled to appear before the committee in a closed session.\nLast month, Comey acknowledged that his agency was investigating whether members of Trump's campaign had colluded with Russia to try to influence the election. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded Moscow intervened to try to influence the election in Trump's favor.\nYates, who was dismissed by President Donald Trump in January after refusing to defend his travel ban, was scheduled to testify before the House panel weeks ago about phone calls between Flynn and Kislyak.\nFILE - House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., right, accompanied by the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington.\nThat hearing, however, was postponed by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican. Nunes recused himself from the investigation two weeks after telling reporters that classified reports showed Trump associates had been caught up in U.S. government surveillance of foreign officials during the presidential transition.\nNunes then hurried to the White House to brief Trump on the findings, prompting Democratic criticism that Nunes had become too close to the president to oversee an independent investigation.\n", + "caption": "FILE - House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., right, accompanied by the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BBCC549A-DDA9-4EB4-9DE3-E8E256CEC6EE.jpg", + "id": "32479_5", + "answer": [ + "become too close to the president to oversee an independent investigation." + ], + "bridge": [ + "Nunes" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_25_3824989", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_25_3824989_5" + }, + { + "question": "Who is the president of the country whose flags the people in the image are walking past?", + "context": "Gallup Poll: Turks Have Dim View of US\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nNearly half of Turkish residents have a negative view of the United States, according to a Gallup Poll commissioned by the Broadcasting Board of Governors, parent organization of VOA. Turks also gave the United States considerably higher marks for schools and business opportunities than interracial harmony, protection of human rights or efforts to fight international crime.\nOnly 12.4 percent of the respondents said they felt very favorably about America, with 29.8 percent saying they felt somewhat favorably. Another 33 percent viewed the United States very unfavorably and 14 percent ranked it somewhat unfavorably. Just under 12 percent said they didn't know or refused to answer.\nThe survey was conducted last year but publicly released only Wednesday, hours after President Donald Trump held his first telephone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish presidential sources said the two leaders agreed to cooperate in the fight against Islamic State extremists in Syria, and that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would soon visit Turkey.\nGallup survey results.\nIn the Gallup survey, Russia ranked even worse than the United States, with 44.1 seeing it very unfavorably \u2014 up from 33 percent three years earlier \u2014 and 18 percent viewing it \"somewhat unfavorably\" amid tensions over Moscow's involvement in Syria and Turkey's downing of a Russian fighter jet that violated its airspace in November 2015.\nThe poll of 1,700 Turkish adults and 500 Kurdish speakers was conducted May 12-June 19, before an attempted coup by Turkey's army on July 15. While the country's relations with the U.S. have become more strained since then, cooperation has improved with Russia.\nThe survey also asked respondents to evaluate the importance of seven qualities for any country on a scale of 1 to 9. Protecting human rights got the highest average rating, with 71.6 percent of Turks giving it a 9; only 17.6 percent said the United States does that very well.\nGallup survey results.\nHaving democracy with political freedoms got the lowest priority among Turks, with 57.3 percent of the respondents giving it a 9. Other top priorities were having good schools and universities (70.2 percent) and being a place where people of different races live together peacefully (68.2 percent).\nThe respondents were asked how well the United States performs on each of the seven categories. Having good schools was first, given a 9 by 43.5 percent of the respondents, followed by 32.1 percent for economic and business opportunities.\nBut only 20.1 percent gave the United States a 9 for different races living together peacefully, followed by 17.6 percent for protecting human rights and 15.1 percent for fighting international crime.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Men walk at the Galata bridge past two Turkey flags, in Istanbul, Aug. 2, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/22CB82A0-E28A-465C-86A8-65C474A4F9BB.jpg", + "id": "81_1", + "answer": [ + "Recep Tayyip Erdogan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Turkish" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714907", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714907_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the left of the image do?", + "context": "Weakened Syrian Rebels Maintain Disapproval of Russian-proposed Constitution\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nSeven months ago, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad reacted indignantly when a Lebanese newspaper reported that Russian diplomats had finished drafting a new constitution for his country \u2014 one that included a name change for the Syrian Arab Republic with the removal of the word Arab.\nOn its face, the proposed constitution clawed back some powers from the Syrian president, handing them to the prime minister, a council of ministers and decentralized \"regional commissions\" \u2014 although the system of government under the Russian plan remained largely presidential.\n\"No draft constitution has been shown to the Syrian Arab Republic. Everything which has been said in the media about this subject is totally untrue,\" Assad's statement read.\nFILE - Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to French journalists in Damascus, Syria, Jan. 9, 2017.\nThis week, the Assad government toned down its objections \u2014 at least in public \u2014 when Russian negotiators at the Astana talks handed to rebel counterparts a version of the draft constitution. In private, within the talks process, the government has raised reservations. The difference speaks volumes, say Middle East analysts, arguing that it reflects how Russia is now calling the shots when it comes to finding a solution to the long-running conflict in Syria.\nRussia fills gap\nThis week, Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May told U.S. Republicans in a speech that neither her country nor America should invade foreign countries \"to make the world in their own image.\" Russia appears determined to fill the gap and model post-conflict Syria according to its vision.\nLast week, Russia signed a long-term military agreement with Syria allowing it to expand its Tartus naval base. A similar agreement allows the expansion of the Russian-built Khmeimim air base in Latakia.\nSyrian rebels have noted the contrast between what they see as a retreating West and a newly assertive Moscow, dubbing Russia \"imperialist.\" Rebel negotiators have rejected Russia's draft constitution, telling Moscow that only Syrians are entitled to write their country's constitution. However, some rebel leaders concede privately that their weakness on the battlefield thanks to Russian hard power and a developing rapprochement between Moscow and Turkey, their biggest overseas backer, is placing them in an increasingly weak position.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, shakes hands with Syria's opposition members in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 27, 2017.\nSpeaking Friday in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the importance of the Russian draft constitution for a future Syria.\n\"The draft constitution attempts to bring together and find shared points in those approaches that were outlined to us both by representatives of the government and representatives of the opposition, including all those present here, over the past several years,\" Lavrov said.\nHe emphasized Russia does not want to impose it on the country. The rebels, however, aren't so sure. They say that, at the very least, Russia is trying to pre-define much of what will be discussed when it comes to U.N.-brokered peace talks expected to resume next month. \nSyrian opposition figure Yahya al-Aridi says Russia's Syria envoy, Alexander Lavrentiev, presented the rebel delegation with the draft constitution at the start of the Astana talks this week. \nLeft on the table\nAt first, the rebel negotiators left the document on the table, a gesture of disregard and in line with their insistence that they only agreed to attend the Russian-brokered negotiations to discuss the fragile cease-fire and boosting humanitarian aid into their war-torn country.\nYahya Al-Aridi, spokesman for the Syrian opposition, speaks to the media ahead of the Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, Jan. 24, 2017.\nTheir biggest priority all week has been to get Iranian-controlled militias to abide by the cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey.\nAs far as the rebels are concerned, the draft constitution merely shakes up existing government power structures, a reformulation as they see it of the existing Baath party's state structures. The draft goes further: curbing presidential powers, adjusting the parliamentary structure, and introducing changes to the judiciary and the security agencies.\nAnd to the frustration of Syrian Kurds, who welcome the proposed dropping of Arab in the name of the country, the Russian constitution falls short of political federalism, although it envisages Kurds being given greater administrative freedoms in northeast Syria. The ruling Kurdish PYD in northern Syria attended a Moscow meeting Friday. The PYD was not invited to the Astana talks because of Turkish objections \u2014 Ankara views the group as a terrorist organization with ties to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).\nRussia's state-owned news agency, Sputnik News, reported in June 2016 that Russia suggested the name change for the country \"in order to appeal to ethnic minorities such as Kurds and Turkmen.\" Pre-war Syria had a 74 percent majority Arab population; 9 percent were Kurds, and there were about 100,000 Turkmen.\nBefore he took office on January 20, U.S. President Donald Trump indicated he will cede efforts to end the Syrian civil war to the Russians, and suggested he might end American financial and logistical support for rebel forces battling Assad.\nThe Syrian president has clung to power thanks to the intervention of allies Russia and Iran. And they appear now to be securing rewards. Earlier this month, the Syrian government announced it would give Iran 5,000 hectares of land for farming, and 1,000 hectares for oil and gas terminals. Iran also has secured electricity projects.\n", + "caption": "Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, shakes hands with Syria's opposition members in Moscow, Russia, Jan. 27, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/990C715F-7A1C-4AD3-9915-A10C1FFE9B71.jpg", + "id": "6193_3", + "answer": [ + "stressed the importance of the Russian draft constitution for a future Syria.", + "Stressed the importance of the Russian draft constitution for a future Syria " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Sergei Lavrov", + "Sergey Lavrov" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3696005", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3696005_3" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the image critique?", + "context": "Turkey's Erdogan Plans Gulf Visit to Discuss Qatar Dispute\nTurkey's President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's staunch regional ally in its dispute with Gulf Arab neighbors, hopes to visit the Gulf soon to discuss efforts to resolve the crisis, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.\nSaudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5 over allegations it funds terrorist groups and is allying with their arch-foe Iran. Qatar denies the accusations.\n\"All our efforts are focused on a solution that suits the laws of brotherly relations,\" Cavusoglu told reporters after talks in Ankara with his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.\nErdogan has criticized a list of demands made by the four Arab states to end the sanctions, including a requirement for Turkey's military base in Qatar to be closed.\nTurkey has also sent 200 cargo planes with supplies to Qatar since its Gulf neighbors cut air and sea links. Qatar's only land border is with Saudi Arabia.\nU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson left Qatar on Thursday after a tour of Gulf Arab countries aimed at easing the worst regional dispute in years, saying he had made proposals that would help resolve the crisis.\nDuring his trip Tillerson signed a U.S.-Qatari accord on combating the financing of terrorism in an effort to help ease the crisis.\nQatar's opponents said it fell short of allaying their concerns, but Cavusoglu said it showed the Gulf state's sincerity.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan talks to media after the Eid al-Fitr prayers in Istanbul, June 25, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B74EC972-2DC4-4E8C-BEB0-8BA5E1E5454A.jpg", + "id": "4369_1", + "answer": [ + "a list of demands made by the four Arab states", + "a list of demands made by the four Arab states to end the sanctions" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Erdogan", + "Tayyip Erdogan" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_14_3944004", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_14_3944004_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person without glasses in the image promise?", + "context": "Pence: Israel Embassy Move Under \u2018Serious Consideration'\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Donald Trump is giving \u201cserious consideration\u201d to moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday, the day before a scheduled White House visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.\nTrump is also \u201cpersonally committed\u201d to becoming the U.S. president who finally ends the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Pence said.\nMoving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem is a politically charged act that would anger Palestinians who want east Jerusalem, which was captured in 1967, as a future capital and part of their sovereign territory. Such a move would also distance the U.S. from most of the international community, including its closest allies in Western Europe and the Arab world.\nPalestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrives to delivers a speech during the United Nations Human Rights Council on Feb. 27, 2017 in Geneva.\nMoving embassy a campaign promise\nTrump had pledged during the presidential campaign to move the embassy, if elected. The White House says the idea is still under discussion.\n\u201cThe president of the United States, as we speak, is giving serious consideration into moving the American embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,\u201d Pence said, uttering his biggest applause line during remarks at the Israel Independence Day Commemoration event in an ornate room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House.\n\u201cTo be clear, the president has also personally committed to resolving the Israeli and Palestinian conflict,\u201d the vice president added. Pence also sought to reassure the audience that, while compromises will have to be made, Trump \u201cwill never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel \u2014 not now, not ever.\u201d\nTrump and Abbas are expected during their meeting on Wednesday to address options for pursuing peace between Israelis and Palestinians.\nTrump broke with longtime U.S. policy in February when he withheld clear support for an independent Palestine, saying he could endorse a one-nation solution to the conflict.\nVice President Mike Pence, right, was introduced to speak by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, May 2, 2017, during a ceremony commemorating Israeli Independence Day.\nTrump just wants a solution\nAt a White House news conference in February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump was asked whether he was ready to give up on the idea of a two-state solution to the conflict. Trump said he was \u201clooking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. I'm very happy with the one that both parties like. I can live with either one.\u201d\nHe also asked Israel to \u201chold off\u201d on Jewish settlement construction in territory Palestinians claim for their future state.\n", + "caption": "Vice President Mike Pence, right, was introduced to speak by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, May 2, 2017, during a ceremony commemorating Israeli Independence Day.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FDDEFE69-3D20-4C8A-82D9-8B8749984A33.jpg", + "id": "11267_3", + "answer": [ + "Trump \u201cwill never compromise the safety and security of the Jewish state of Israel", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Pence", + "Mike Pence" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3835192", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3835192_3" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image try to suggest?", + "context": "Video Poses New Questions About 2014 Ferguson Police Shooting\nFERGUSON, MISSOURI \u2014\u00a0\nPreviously undisclosed video of Michael Brown, recorded hours before the unarmed black 18-year-old was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has raised new questions about a suspected robbery that police said he committed in his final hours.\nThe footage unearthed by a documentary filmmaker shows the teenager visiting a convenience store the night before his 2014 killing, which prompted national protests and kindled a debate about how U.S. police treat minorities.\nShortly after Brown's death, local police released security-camera video of Brown visiting the same store in the daytime, a few minutes before he was shot. That footage, which now appears to depict the second of two visits to the Ferguson Market and Liquor store by Brown within a span of a few hours, showed Brown pushing a worker before walking out with cigarillos in an apparent robbery.\nBrown's family and protesters had criticized the release of the video as an effort to demonize the teenager.\nWitnesses have given conflicting accounts of Brown's encounter a short time later with police officer Darren Wilson.\nLocal and federal investigations cleared Wilson of criminal wrongdoing.\nThe new video, which appears in the documentary \"Stranger Fruit,\" shows Brown in an earlier, seemingly more amicable exchange.\nIt shows him giving store employees what appears to be a small bag, the contents of which the staff pass around and sniff. One employee gives Brown two boxes of cigarillos in a carrier bag.\nBrown takes a few steps away before turning back and handing the bag back to an employee who appears to stash it behind the counter.\nJason Pollock, the documentary filmmaker, said the video showed Brown exchanging marijuana for cigarillos and undermined the police account that Brown may have robbed the store.\n\"He left his items at the store and he went back the next day to pick them up,\" Pollock says in the documentary. \"Mike did not rob the store.\"\n'No Transaction'\nRobert McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney, dismissed Pollock's account as \"pathetic.\"\n\"There was no transaction. There was certainly an attempt to barter for these goods, but the store employees had no involvement at all in that,\" McCulloch told a news conference on Monday. The clerks did nothing wrong, he added, and were not safeguarding the cigarillos for Brown.\nMcCulloch said he would release unedited video from the store showing that the clerks replaced the items returned by Brown, which he said undermined the idea there had been any trade.\nJay Kanzler, a lawyer for the convenience store, also disputed the filmmaker's explanation.\n\"The reason he gave it back is he was walking out the door with unpaid merchandise and they wanted it back,\" Kanzler was quoted as saying by the New York Times. He did not respond to a request for comment.\nAbout 100 protesters, who saw the video as exonerating Brown, gathered on Sunday night at the store, which was protected by a couple of hundred police officers.\nThe protest was largely peaceful, although police arrested at least two people, a Reuters witness said, and an unknown person fired about half a dozen bullets into the air toward the end of the demonstration.\n", + "caption": "Police deployed during a civil disobedience action on Aug. 10, 2015 on West Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, Missouri. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/74465CFB-CE3D-4D6C-BF97-5B14D13E2A39.jpg", + "id": "31470_1", + "answer": [ + "Brown may have robbed the store." + ], + "bridge": [ + "police" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763352", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763352_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who used substances like the one in the image?", + "context": "Assad Linked to Syrian Chemical Attacks for First Time\nInternational investigators have said for the first time that they suspect President Bashar al-Assad and his brother are responsible for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict, according to a document seen by Reuters.\nA joint inquiry for the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a global watchdog group, had previously identified only military units and did not name any commanders or officials.\nNow a list has been produced of individuals whom the investigators have linked to a series of chlorine bomb attacks in 2014-15 \u2014 including Assad, his younger brother, Maher, and other high-ranking figures \u2014 indicating the decision to use toxic weapons came from the very top, according to a source familiar with the inquiry.\nThe Assads could not be reached for comment but a Syrian government official said accusations that government forces had used chemical weapons had \u201cno basis in truth.\u201d The government has repeatedly denied using such weapons during the civil war, which is almost six years old, saying all the attacks highlighted by the inquiry were the work of rebels or the Islamic State militant group.\nA Civil Defense member carries a damaged canister in Ibleen village from what activists said was a chlorine gas attack, on Kansafra, Ibleen and Josef villages in Syria, May 3, 2015.\nList not available to public\nThe list, which has been seen by Reuters but has not been made public, was based on a combination of evidence compiled by the U.N.-OPCW team in Syria and information from Western and regional intelligence agencies, according to the source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue.\nReuters was unable to independently review the evidence or to verify it.\nThe U.N.-OPCW inquiry \u2014 known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) \u2014 is led by a panel of three independent experts, supported by a team of technical and administrative staff. It is mandated by the U.N. Security Council to identify individuals and organizations responsible for chemical attacks in Syria.\nChemical weapons use a war crime\nVirginia Gamba, the head of the Joint Investigative Mechanism, denied any list of individual suspects had yet been compiled by the inquiry.\n\u201cThere are no ... identification of individuals being considered at this time,\u201d she told Reuters by email.\nThe use of chemical weapons is banned under international law and could constitute a war crime.\nWhile the inquiry has no judicial powers, any naming of suspects could lead to their prosecution. Syria is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC), but alleged war crimes could be referred to the court by the Security Council \u2014 although splits among global powers over the war make this a distant prospect at present.\n\u201cThe ICC is concerned about any country where crimes are reported to be committed,\u201d a spokesman for the court said when asked for comment. \u201cUnless Syria accepts the ICC jurisdiction, the only way that [the] ICC would have jurisdiction over the situation would be through a referral by the Security Council.\u201d\nThe list seen by Reuters could form the basis for the inquiry team's investigations this year, according to the source. It is unclear whether the United Nations or OPCW will publish the list separately.\nA U.N. chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Aug. 29, 2013.\n'Highest levels'\nThe list identifies 15 people \u201cto be scrutinized in relation to use of CW [chemical weapons] by Syrian Arab Republic Armed Forces in 2014 and 2015.\u201d It does not specify what role they are suspected of playing, but lists their titles.\nIt is split into three sections. The first, titled \u201cInner Circle President\u201d lists six people including Assad; his brother, who commands the elite 4th Armored Division; the defense minister; and the head of military intelligence.\nThe second section names the air force chief as well as four commanders of air force divisions. They include the heads of the 22nd Air Force Division and the 63rd Helicopter Brigade, units that the inquiry has previously said dropped chlorine bombs.\nThe third part of the list \u2014 \u201cOther relevant Senior Mil Personnel\u201d \u2014 names two colonels and two major generals.\nHamish de Bretton-Gordon, an independent specialist in biological and chemical weapons who monitors Syria, told Reuters the list reflected the military chain of command.\n\u201cThe decisions would be made at the highest levels initially and then delegated down. Hence the first use would need to be authorized by Assad,\u201d said de Bretton-Gordon, a former commander of British and NATO chemical and biological defense divisions who frequently visits Syria for professional consultancy work.\nThe Syrian defense ministry and air force could not be reached for comment.\nChlorine barrel bombs\nSyria joined the international Chemical Weapons Convention under a U.S.-Russian deal that followed the deaths of hundreds of civilians in a sarin gas attack in Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus in August 2013.\nIt was the deadliest use of chemicals in global warfare since the 1988 Halabja massacre at the end of the Iran-Iraq War, which killed at least 5,000 people in Iraqi Kurdistan.\nThe Syrian government, which denied its forces were behind the Ghouta attack, also agreed to hand over its declared stockpile of 1,300 tonnes of toxic weaponry and dismantle its chemical weapons program under international supervision.\nThe United Nations and OPCW have been investigating whether Damascus is adhering to its commitments under the agreement, which averted the threat of U.S.-led military intervention.\nThe bodies appointed the panel of experts to conduct the inquiry, and its mandate runs until November. The panel published a report in October last year that said Syrian government forces used chemical weapons at least three times in 2014-15 and that Islamic State used mustard gas in 2015.\nThe October report identified Syria's 22nd Air Force Division and 63rd Helicopter Brigade as having dropped chlorine bombs and said people \u201cwith effective control in the military units ... must be held accountable.\u201d\nThe source familiar with the inquiry said the October report had clearly established the institutions responsible and that the next step was to go after the individuals.\nWomen, affected by what activists say was a gas attack, receive treatment inside a makeshift hospital in Kfar Zeita village in the central province of Hama, Syria, May 22, 2014.\n18 Syrian officials blacklisted\nWashington on Thursday blacklisted 18 senior Syrian officials based on the U.N.-OPCW inquiry's October report \u2014 some of whom also appear on the list seen by Reuters \u2014 but not Assad or his brother.\nThe issue of chemical weapons use in Syria has become a deeply political one, and the U.N.-OPCW inquiry's allegations of chlorine bomb attacks by government forces have split the U.N. Security Council's veto-wielding members.\nThe United States, Britain and France have called for sanctions against Syria, while Assad's ally Russia has said the evidence presented is insufficient to justify such measures.\nA Security Council resolution would be required to bring Assad and other senior Syrian officials before the International Criminal Court for any possible war crimes prosecution \u2014 something Russia would most likely block.\n", + "caption": "A U.N. chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus, Syria, Aug. 29, 2013.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5E1822B4-E265-46AE-A485-D719BCF47EFE.jpg", + "id": "7197_3", + "answer": [ + "Syrian government forces used chemical weapons at least three times in 2014-15 and that Islamic State used mustard gas in 2015.", + "President Bashar al-Assad and his brother" + ], + "bridge": [ + "chemical weapons" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_13_3675639", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_13_3675639_3" + }, + { + "question": "What was the job of the person with the brown vest in the image?", + "context": "India's Top Court Orders Trial of BJP Leaders Over 1992 Mosque Demolition \nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nA quarter century after a Hindu mob tore down a mosque in Northern India, triggering some of country's worst Hindu-Muslim violence, the Supreme Court has ordered prominent leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to face trial for their alleged role in the demolition.\nCalling it a setback for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist party, analysts say it could prompt BJP hardliners to slow down on pressing ahead with their pledge to build a temple on the site where the 16th century mosque once stood in Ayodhya town in Uttar Pradesh state.\nCourt rules BJP leaders must face charges\nReversing a lower court decision to drop charges of criminal conspiracy against four BJP leaders, the Supreme Court said on Wednesday that they must stand trial for making inflammatory speeches that allegedly incited the mob to pull down the mosque.\nAmong them is Lal Krishna Advani, a former deputy prime minister who has been one of BJP's top leaders. The others are Water Resources minister, Uma Bharti, and senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi and Kalyan Singh.\nThese BJP leaders have repeatedly said that the demolition of the mosque in 1992 was a spontaneous act by an angry mob which descended on the small, sleepy Aydohya town in 1992 and tore down the mosque with pickaxes, crowbars and even their bare hands.\nIndia's Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses his supporters at Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters in New Delhi, India, March 12, 2017.\nReligious site with a disputed history\nHindu groups believe that the mosque was built after the destruction of a temple dedicated to Lord Rama, which used to stand on what they say is the birthplace of their revered god.\nThe issue continues to be an emotive and polarizing one as Hindus want to build a grand temple on the site while Muslims want a new mosque.\nThe bitter dispute has been winding its ways through courts for decades.\nBJP leaders insist there was no conspiracy\nAfter Wednesday's court order, Bharti, who is now the Water Resources Minister, told reporters that there had been no conspiracy to bring down the mosque. Asserting that she had no regrets and that it was her dream to see the temple built, she said \u201cI want to tell the country it's time for the Ram temple to be built.\u201d\nAs it campaigned for elections in Uttar Pradesh state, where it scored a huge victory in recent elections, the BJP promised that rebuilding the temple \u201cwithin the framework of the constitution\u201d remains a priority.\nHowever, independent political analyst Ajoy Bose said it could be embarrassing now for the government to openly sponsor the temple's construction.\nBuilding a Hindu temple on site is still strong issue\n\u201cThere were indeed in Uttar Pradesh plans of starting the Ram mandir movement, so resurrecting the whole demolition, the controversies around it, all that has a symbolic effect and after this court order BJP would be somewhat on the backfoot,\u201d said Bose.\nCritics charge that the campaign to rebuild the temple is part of a Hindu nationalist agenda that the BJP under Prime Minister Modi's watch is trying to promote. Such concerns have been heightened by last month's appointment of Yogi Adityanath, as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. The hardline religious leader has made anti-Muslim remarks in the past and is a staunch supporter of building a temple.\nThe Supreme Court is also hearing the case with regard to ownership of the disputed land where the mosque stood. Last month, Chief Justice J.S. Kheh argued the two communities to settle their claims through negotiations and even offered to act as a mediator.\nCases usually take decades as they wind their way through India's slow-moving legal system, but the Supreme Court has ordered that the case against the BJP leaders should be concluded in two years.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this July 28, 2005 photo, President of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) Lal Krishna Advani, second right, senior BJP leaders Uma Bharati, right, Kalyan Singh, second left, and Murli Manohar Joshi wave to people during a public rally in Rae Bareilly. India's top court said April 19, 2017, that the four senior leaders of the BJP Party will stand trial for their role in a criminal conspiracy over the destruction of the 16th century Babri mosque in 1992, an event that sparked bloody nationwide rioting. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/45DFB786-D049-4C2B-8DC3-80898F6A8E25.jpg", + "id": "7497_1", + "answer": [ + "deputy prime minister" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lal Krishna Advani" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818076", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818076_1" + }, + { + "question": "What were the people in the image told?", + "context": "Students Jeer US Education Secretary at University Ceremony in Florida\nStudents at a university in Florida booed and jeered Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she tried to speak during their graduation ceremony Wednesday.\nBethune-Cookman University President Edison Jackson warned students to be quiet, to little effect.\n\"If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you,\" he told students at the commencement ceremony in Daytona Beach.\nBethune-Cookman traces its history to 1904 and is one of the oldest institutions among U.S. historically black colleges and universities \u2014 schools where African-American students make up a large proportion of the student body.\nBoos rang out before DeVos stepped to a podium to speak Wednesday, but she began by telling the hundreds of students she hoped they could disagree respectfully.\n\"Let's choose to hear one another out,'' DeVos said, reading her prepared text in a measured tone despite continuing waves of boos, catcalls and scattered applause.\nSecretary of Education Betsy DeVos delivers a commencement speech to graduates at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla., May 10, 2017.\nProtests continued even after Jackson demanded an end to the demonstration. Many of the graduates stood and turned their backs to DeVos as she spoke \u2014 about half of the nearly 400 people receiving degrees this term, according to reports from the scene.\nOpposition to nomination\nDeVos' conservative Republican background and strong views on educational policy attracted strong opposition when President Donald Trump named her to his Cabinet this year. Many African-Americans objected to her comment during Senate confirmation hearings that historically black colleges were the \"real pioneers when it comes to school choice\" \u2014 a reference to her belief that parents and students in the American system of public education should be able to choose between state-run elementary and secondary schools and alternative schools sponsored by churches or other nonpublic groups supported by public funds.\nA protester is escorted out of commencement exercises during a speech by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, May 10, 2017.\nAfrican-American educators and students said DeVos' views were misdirected, because historically black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs, became established as a response to systems of racial segregation widely practiced in the United States during the first half of the 20th century and earlier.\nThe HBCUs, protesters said, were \"born not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism.''\nJackson, Bethune-Cookman's president, had been accused of selling out the school by offering DeVos an honorary doctoral degree and inviting her to address the student body.\nProtesters delivered a petition signed by thousands of people urging the university to revoke the invitation to the education secretary, but Jackson refused.\n", + "caption": "A group of students stand and turn their backs during a commencement exercise speech by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos at Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Florida, May 10, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1F479945-C9EC-411D-83B3-B0C5EDBE21F6.jpg", + "id": "33367_1_1", + "answer": [ + "to be quiet" + ], + "bridge": [ + "students" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_10_3846697", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_10_3846697_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person wearing the scarf in the image try to do?", + "context": "Kenya Governor Says Police Blocking Him From Kenyatta Event\nNAIROBI \u2014\u00a0\nThe governor of Kenya's second largest city says paramilitary police have surrounded his home and office to prevent him from attending a presidential event and answering accusations of corruption.\nMombasa Gov. Ali Hassan Joho's aide said Sunday he would attend the event to answer President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has suggested that Joho misappropriated millions of dollars.\nJoho said Monday he managed to sneak out of his house in his brother's car but was stopped at a roadblock by officers who said the president ordered that he be prevented from attending.\nKenyatta during a campaign rally on Sunday said Joho should explain how he had used $389 million allocated over four years. Joho says Mombasa county was allocated $166 million.\nKenya holds presidential elections in August. Joho is not a candidate.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Mombasa County Governor elect Hassan Ali Joho, right, of the CORD party, is congratulated by some of his supporters after the IEBC declared him the winner to become the first Governor for Mombasa town, March 7, 2013.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6ECB50F2-4455-47CC-8030-23E50A12BFEA.jpg", + "id": "31445_1_2", + "answer": [ + "sneak out of his house " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Joho" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763003", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763003_1" + }, + { + "question": "How were the people in the image let go?", + "context": "Workers: GM Fires 2,700 in Venezuela After Plant Closure\nCARACAS \u2014\u00a0\nGeneral Motors' Venezuelan subsidiary has sent a message to almost 2,700 staff informing them that they are no longer employed by the company and had received severance pay in their bank accounts, according to two employees.\nA Venezuelan court last week ordered the seizure of the company's Valencia plant, ruling in favor of two dealers that had filed a case in 2000 against the subsidiary on grounds they had not complied with an agreed sale of 10,000 vehicles.\nWorkers say that before the seizure was announced, GM had been dismantling the plant, which has not produced a car since the beginning of 2016 because of shortages of parts and strict currency controls in the OPEC nation.\nThe seizure, which GM called \"illegal,\" comes amid a deepening economic and social crisis in leftist-led Venezuela that has already roiled many U.S. companies.\n\"We all received a payment and a text message,\" said a worker who had worked for the company for more than a decade, adding that his corporate email account had been deactivated over the weekend.\n\"Our former bosses told us the executives left and we were all fired. There is no longer anyone in the country,\" added another employee who received the same message on his personal cell phone and a payment to his account. He had been at GM for five years.\nFILE - A motorcyclist rides past the General Motors' plant in Valencia, Venezuela, April 20, 2017.\nThe company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the layoffs or the worker allegations it had already been dismantling the plant.\nGM said last week that it was halting operations and laying off workers due to the \"illegal judicial seizure of its assets.\"\n'Show Your Face'\nThe leftist government of Nicolas Maduro says it is not seeking to expropriate the plant, which has been operating for 35 years, and has called on GM to come back.\n\"To the current General Motors president of Venezuela, Jose Cavaileri: You come here, show your face and share with us the options to restore normality,\" said Labor Minister Francisco Torrealba said Monday.\nGM is not the first company to fire Venezuela employees by text message. Clorox did the same two years ago when announcing its exit from the crisis-struck country, after which workers took over the plant.\nGM's plant closure comes after Venezuela's automobile production fell in 2016 to a record low of eight cars per day, according to a local automotive group.\nTwo union spokespeople said they had no official company information on the layoffs, but said that most workers received the messages along with a bank deposit.\nNeither employee would reveal the amount they received but union leaders said it was too low.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Workers of General Motors listen during a meeting with government officials at the company's plant in Valencia, Venezuela, April 20, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AA005CEE-2FF4-44D9-875B-EADFA85C2319.jpg", + "id": "16770_1", + "answer": [ + "by text message", + "None", + "received a payment and a text message" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Venezuela", + "Workers of General Motors" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3823807", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3823807_1" + }, + { + "question": "What ideology describes the incident in the image?", + "context": "Report: Anti-Semitism Rises, But Violence Against Jews Falls\nTEL AVIV, ISRAEL \u2014\u00a0\nViolent attacks on Jews dropped for a second straight year in 2016, but other forms of anti-Semitism are on the rise worldwide, particularly on U.S. university campuses, according to a report released Sunday.\nResearchers at Tel Aviv University said assaults specifically targeting Jews, vandalism and other violent incidents fell 12 percent last year. They recorded 361 cases compared to 410 in 2015, which had already been the lowest number in a decade. The figure reported Sunday is the lowest since 2003, when 360 incidents were recorded.\nThe report attributed much of the drop to increased security measures in European countries including France, where there were 15 attacks compared to 72 in the previous year, and the United Kingdom, where the number of incidents fell from 62 to 43.\nAnother reason for the decreased violence may be that far-right groups in Europe appear to be focusing their attacks on migrants who have reached the continent in large numbers over the last years, said Dina Porat, a historian who leads the team of researchers behind the report.\n\"Fears that the influx of Muslim refugees from the Middle East would lead to an increase in anti-Semitism appear so far to have been unjustified,\" Porat said.While Islamic extremists are often involved in attacks on Jews, the perpetrators are usually second or third generation immigrants who have been radicalized at home in Europe or during trips to territories held by the Islamic State group, she said.\nTel Aviv University's Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry releases the report every year on the eve of Israel's Holocaust memorial day, which begins Sunday at sundown.\nAccording to the report, the reduced violence was not mirrored by a drop in cases of general anti-Semitism, which increased in countries including the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States.\n\"There is a dramatic rise in all forms of verbal and visual anti-Semitism, harassment and insults, mainly on the internet, but also offline,\" Porat said.\nOn U.S. university campuses there was a 45 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents, mostly insults and harassment of Jewish students, the report said. Porat said these were usually connected to increased anti-Israel activities by pro-Palestinian groups on campus.\nThe number of violent anti-Semitic incidents in the United States was largely stable compared to 2015, rising slightly from 88 to 91. While the report dealt only with cases until the end of 2016, Porat said there were no indications so far of a major increase connected to the tense U.S. election or Donald Trump's new presidency.\nJewish leaders who commented on the report praised the increased security measures credited with reducing violence, but said this may be masking a trend of anti-Semitism becoming more mainstream and acceptable, especially on the far left and right of European politics.\n\"We see a dramatic growth in the number of parliamentarians who allow themselves to express anti-Semitic views,\" said Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group representing Jewish communities across the continent.\nIn an interview with The Associated Press, Kantor cited the controversy over anti-Jewish remarks made by some members of Britain's Labour Party, the close defeat of the far-right candidate in last year's Austrian presidential election and the strong polling of National Front leader Marine Le Pen ahead of Sunday's vote in France.\n\"We are very, very close today to a situation in which anti-Semites will come to executive power,\" he said.\n", + "caption": "Damaged headstones rest on the ground at Mount Carmel Cemetery, Feb. 27, 2017, in Philadelphia. More than 100 headstones have been vandalized at the Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7866DE95-44D3-48D9-957B-D70070CFA462.jpg", + "id": "14926_1", + "answer": [ + "anti-Semitism", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jewish", + "Damaged headstones" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822003", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_23_3822003_1" + }, + { + "question": "What were the enemy of the people in the image given?", + "context": "Afghan Official: Taliban Reportedly Seeking Russian Aid to Take on IS \nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nThe Taliban in northern Afghanistan is seeking Russian assistance to build up its fight against Islamic State-backed militants along the country's border with the former Soviet Union, an Afghan official told VOA.\nThe governor of the strategic northeastern Kunduz province said Thursday the Taliban is asking Moscow for weapons and training to counter the expanding influence of IS groups in various parts of the country.\n\u201cThey [Taliban] are now opposing the Islamic State group and are attempting to convince Russia into extending a helping hand to them,\u201d Kunduz Governor Assadullah Omarkhail told VOA's Afghan service on Thursday.\nSeveral militant groups are active in the restive Kunduz province, which borders Tajikistan, a breeding ground for IS sympathizers who have by the thousands gone to fight with IS in Syria and Iraq. Recently, a Tajik militia pledged allegiance to IS, spurring fears IS influence may expand into northern Afghanistan.\nAfghan security forces take position during a gun battle between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Laghman province, Afghanistan, March 1, 2017.\nKunduz remains a hot spot\nKunduz, the capital city of the province, briefly fell to the Taliban two years ago. Last year, Taliban militants came close to capturing the city again before Afghan forces pushed them back.\nThe Taliban reportedly has recently amassed fighters in Kunduz's Imam Saheb district, bordering Tajikistan.\n\u201cThe Taliban has about 650 fighters, most of whom are local residents, in the district and they have been deployed in 45 groups,\u201d district governor Imamuddin Quraishi told VOA.\nAccording to Quraishi, Taliban fighters are equipped with heavy weapons, and they train in areas along the border with Tajikistan.\n\u201cThey [Taliban] control the Zangla area near the Tajikistan border where they train terrorists,\u201d said Quraishi.\nLocal Taliban leaders in Kunduz reportedly have met with Russian advisors across the Amu River in Tajikistan, according to Afghan media reports.\nTaliban's connections with Russia came under the spotlight last year as Moscow sought to increase its influence in the nation it once occupied, and to counter IS expansion from Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian countries.\nRussia has acknowledged ties with the Taliban as it views Taliban help as essential in fighting the spillover effects of the IS insurgency in Afghanistan.\nRussian officials say Moscow is not supplying Taliban militants with arms and training, though, asserting their contacts with the Taliban are aimed at diplomatically facilitating the peace process in Afghanistan.\nFILE - Army Gen. Joseph Votel briefs reporters about the situation in Kunduz, Afghanistan, April 29, 2016, at the Pentagon.\nTroubling talks\nAfghan and American officials are increasingly wary, however, of the deepening ties between Russia and the Taliban that is fighting to topple the government in Kabul. Such an involvement on Russia's part, they say, could complicate an already precarious security situation in the country.\n\u201cI believe what Russia is attempting to do is they are attempting to be an influential party in this part of the world,\u201d U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel told House lawmakers on Wednesday.\n\u201cI think it is fair to assume they may be providing some sort of support to [the Taliban], in terms of weapons or other things that may be there,\u201d Votel said.\nAccording to Wahid Muzhda, a Kabul-based Taliban expert, Moscow has provided the Taliban with a well-equipped mobile clinic, along with a large supply of medicine to treat injured Taliban fighters in the southern Helmand province, where Afghan forces are engaged in heavy battles with Taliban.\nA Taliban delegation from its political office in Qatar recently told officials in Moscow the Taliban wanted anti-aircraft missiles, according to Muzhda.\nAs Moscow's concerns grow that IS is expanding to Central Asia, Taliban is a willing ally, Muzhda said.\n\u201cTaliban have been fighting IS in Afghanistan and that has brought the group closer to Russia,\u201d said Muzhda. \u201cThe Taliban have killed several IS-linked, anti-Russia Uzbek fighters in Afghanistan.\u201d\nWhile opposed to Taliban insurgency \u2014 Taliban controls some 33 of the country's 407 districts \u2014 Kabul and the U.S. reject notions that Taliban are fighting IS in Afghanistan.\n\u201cThis idea that Taliban and Daesh [IS] are opposed to each other is wrong,\u201d Afghanistan national security advisor Mohammad Hanif Atmar told Indian media this month. \u201cIt's actually the morphing and mutating of Taliban \u2026 into Daesh. They are the same people, but there is a lot of re-branding here.\u201d\nTaliban claims discounted \nU.S. military officials say Afghan forces \u2014 and not Taliban \u2014 are battling IS.\n\u201cThe Taliban is not fighting ISIS-K,\u201d U.S. Navy Capt. Bill Salvin, spokesperson for Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, told VOA last week. \u201cIt is the Afghan security forces that are taking the fight to ISIS-K and we are working with our Afghan partners in order to make sure that we continue to keep the pressure on these terrorists groups.\u201d\nIS's self-styled Khorasan Province branch (ISIS-K) has taken root in mountainous areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan, increasing its recruiting efforts and terror attacks nationwide. Its name refers to a centuries-old description of Afghanistan and surrounding areas of Central Asia and Persia.\nIS has been active in eastern Afghanistan for the past two years. It recently has expanded to northern Jouzjan province. Its activities in Kunduz, however, are harder to detect, experts say.\n", + "caption": "Afghan security forces take position during a gun battle between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Laghman province, Afghanistan, March 1, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/14DFC278-F8DF-4D97-852A-9F71DEA5C9DE.jpg", + "id": "8713_2", + "answer": [ + "a well-equipped mobile clinic", + "Islamic State-backed militants" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Afghan security forces", + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_30_3789844", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_30_3789844_2" + }, + { + "question": "What section of the country does the person with the white shirt in the image work?", + "context": "Protests by Indian Farmers Highlight Rural Distress \nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nThey were no common protests. As angry farmers dumped milk and vegetables on the streets in India\u2019s western Maharashtra state and six farmers were killed by police in Madhya Pradesh state when they blocked roads and burnt vehicles, the spotlight has turned on growing rural distress in the country.\nA truck burns during a farmers protest on a highway near Bhopal in the central state of Madhya Pradesh, India, June 9, 2017.\nThe protests flared unexpectedly when bumper harvests following a good monsoon were supposed to augur well for rural prosperity.\nBut the opposite has happened: a price crash due to the crop glut not just wiped away any prospect of a profit but left farmers struggling to pay back loans which they often raise to buy seeds, fertilizers and other inputs to plant crops.\nLow crop prices\nThe violence witnessed last week was a rare eruption of anger in the rural community in a country whose economy is the world\u2019s fastest-growing, but where tens of millions of farmers are coping with stagnating incomes as they struggle to make a living off small land holdings.\nExperts say decades of neglect in crucial infrastructure in the farm sector has left behind India\u2019s countryside. With no easy access to markets close to villages and few storage facilities, farmers say they are at the mercy of traders and middlemen who often do not give them a fair price for their produce.\n\u201cThe farmer does not have the right to set the price. It is the middlemen who set the price. They buy my produce for Rs 10 per kilo and sell it for Rs. 20 or 30 to customers. This is a major problem in the country,\u201d lamented Bhim Singh, a farmer in northern India. \u201cThere should be better marketing platforms for us.\u201d\nOnce a week, he makes an 80 kilometer trip to Gurugram, a flourishing business hub near the capital New Delhi, where he sells directly to consumers to get a better price. But he says he is forced to dump the rest in a wholesale market for prices that barely cover his cost of cultivation.\nMany farmers Haryana state travel to this market in the business hub of Gurugram near New Delhi to get a better price for his produce for which they say they otherwise get a poor price.\nFarmers always seem to suffer\n\u201cThere is a strong pro-consumer bias in the system,\u201d said agriculture economist Ashok Gulati at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations in New Delhi. \u201cWhen there is a drought, as there was in 2014 and 2015, farmers suffer as production drops, and when there is a good harvest they suffer again as prices crash in the absence of commensurate storage and processing facilities or due to export restrictions.\u201d\nRural experts have long urged the government to build more roads and markets closer to villages and storage facilities that will make it possible for them to sell produce at better prices when there is a bumper crop instead of resorting to distress sales as has happened this year.\nBetter roads and storage facilities needed\nIn fact, although food production has increased steadily in India making it self-sufficient, farmers incomes have lagged behind. New Delhi based agriculture expert Devender Sharma pointed out the average income of a farmer in 17 states, as per the government\u2019s 2016 economic survey, is a meager Rs. 20,000 (about $300) per year.\n\u201cThe real income of farmers is static for last 25 years. There is something terribly, terribly going wrong\u2026 he requirement is overhaul of agriculture policies. We need to give farmers his due income,\u201d he points out.\nToo many farmers\nThe low incomes are not surprising \u2014 too many people depend on agriculture for a living. Farming accounts for just 15 per cent of the country\u2019s gross domestic product, but it supports more than half the country\u2019s 1.3 billion people.\nBumper harvests after good rains did not bring good news for farmers as the crop glut led to a price crash.\nIn a cover story this month, a leading news magazine, India Today, called India \u201cNo country for Farmers\u201d and said the country \u201cdesperately needs another revolution in agriculture for the farmer to break out of his vicious cycle of misery.\u201d\nReports of farmers committing suicide because they cannot repay their loans come in with alarming regularity.\nFarmer Bhim Singh testified to the sense of despondency in his community. \u201cMy children don\u2019t want to go into farming. They say they will toil as labor, work in factories, but they will not farm.\u201d\nState takes action after protests\nIn the wake of protests by farmers in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, the state governments have promised to write off bank loans and ensure farmers get better prices for their crops. In the northern Uttar Pradesh state, where elections were held earlier this year, the government has also promised to write off loans.\nBut this has triggered even greater anger among farmers in the rest of the country, said chief adviser to the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association, P. Chengal Reddy.\nDisappointment with new prime minister\nHe said farmers had pinned high hopes on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had promised to address their problems when he was voted to office three years ago and has pledged to double farm incomes by 2022.\nBut farmers feel let down because on the ground nothing has changed. And the crash in prices of farm produce this year was for many he says \u201cthe last straw.\u201d\n\u201cThe dichotomy of India is that Indian agriculture is successful but farmers are angry, annoyed, disgusted, unhappy,\u201d Reddy warned. \u201cThis [dumping of] vegetables and milk is only a beginning.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Farmer Bhim Singh (left) says farmers suffer a loss because they cannot set the price of crops but have to depend on middlemen.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A0A68F3B-A8E5-4EAB-84CB-9E815C309462.jpg", + "id": "12764_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "northern India" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Bhim Singh" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3896625", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3896625_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the person in the black suit in the image?", + "context": "Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Case Goes to the Jury \nThe fate of comedian Bill Cosby is now in the hands of the jury after both sides wrapped up their cases Monday in his sexual assault trial near Philadelphia.\nThe 79-year-old Cosby is charged with drugging and assaulting Andrea Constand, a former director of operations of the Temple University women's basketball team.\nHe allegedly gave her pills that paralyzed her and left her unable to resist when he started touching her in his Philadelphia home.\nConstand had gone to Cosby's house for dinner and to get advice about her career.\nCosby's lawyers used their closing arguments to say Constand lied on the witness stand about her relationship with the comic. They pointed out that she telephoned Cosby more than 50 times after the alleged attack, but told police she had no contact with him.\n\"It's not a fib. It's not a mistake, It's a stone cold lie,\" Brian McMonagle told the jury.\nConstand said the calls were just business and that Cosby, as a Temple alumnus, could help the basketball team.\n\"This isn't talking to a trustee. This is talking to a lover,\" McMonagle said, accusing Constand of trying to use Cosby's name for financial gain.\nThe prosecution relied heavily on parts of the deposition Cosby gave to police in a 2005 civil suit brought by Constand.\nIn it, Cosby admitted getting a prescription to a sedative called Quaaludes back in the 1970s and giving the drug to women he wanted to sleep with.\nDistrict Attorney Kevin Steele told the jury these words prove Cosby knew exactly what he was doing when he allegedly gave pills to Constand, telling her they were herbal relaxants.\n\"Drugging somebody and putting them in a position where you can do what you want with them is not romantic. It's criminal.\"\nSteele said no amount of \"fancy lawyering\" will save Cosby from his own words.\n\"Ladies and gentlemen, he has told you what he has done,\" Steele said to the jurors. \"It is about as straightforward as you are ever going to see in a sex crimes case.\"\nIf found guilty, Cosby could go to prison for the rest of his life.\nMore than 50 women claim Cosby sexually assaulted them in incidents dating back to the 1960s, when he emerged as a major comedy star. Most of the alleged incidents occurred too long ago to be prosecuted now.\nConstand's complaint is the only one that has come to trial. Cosby has denied all the charges.\nCosby won fame for stand-up comedy routines focusing on his Philadelphia childhood and growing up in a middle class black family.\nHe played a wise and genial doctor in his 1980s television comedy series, The Cosby Show. It was the country's most popular TV show for much of its eight-year run.\n", + "caption": "Bill Cosby, left, walks out of the courtroom during a lunch break in hia sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, Pennsylvana, June 12, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4115F55B-C25A-4A00-9724-BF6C5F9839BD.jpg", + "id": "5345_1", + "answer": [ + "comedian" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Bill Cosby" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897591", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897591_1" + }, + { + "question": "What part of the people in the image has been questioned?", + "context": "Nightclub Massacre Prompts Questions About Competence of Turkish Security\nAn hour into the new year and shocked first responders were counting bodies in a nightclub on the coast of Istanbul\u2019s Bosphorus. The 39 dead and the dozens wounded had come to celebrate the arrival of 2017 but already, thanks to a lone gunman, this year appears set to be a bloody repeat of 2016 for Turkey.\nTerror attacks have come right on top of each other in the country in an accelerating succession of bombings and shootings.\nAn injured woman is carried to an ambulance from a nightclub where a gun attack took place during a New Year's party in Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 1, 2017.\nLast month alone saw 44 people killed and 163 wounded in a twin bomb attack on a football stadium in Istanbul. Just 11 days ago in the country\u2019s capital, Ankara, the Russian ambassador was gunned down by an off-duty policeman who announced the slaying was in protest at Russia\u2019s indiscriminate bombing of Syrian rebels and civilians in eastern Aleppo.\nSince July 2015 more than 500 people have died in Turkey in terror attacks claimed either by the Islamic State terror group or Kurdish separatists. Eight IS members were detained last week suspected of preparing a suicide attack for New Year's Eve.\nFew security experts doubt the killing on Saturday night is somehow linked to the Islamic State terror group. While Kurdish separatists tend to target Turkish soldiers whether they are on or off duty, the only discernible pattern in who is targeted by jihadists is that there is no pattern. It is the \u2018where\u2019 that\u2019s important, say counter-terror experts.\nIN PICTURES: Istanbul Nightclub New Year's Eve Terror Attack\nIstanbul Nightclub New Year's Eve Terror Attack\nThe killing zones are crowded venues so the casualty tally has the potential to be high \u2014 the same holds true in Europe and North Africa as in Turkey.\nSad list\nIstanbul\u2019s Reina night club joins a sad list: The Tunisian resort of Sousse, where Western vacationers were slaughtered by a lone gunman who at first looked like just another beachcomber going for a stroll, kicking up some spray by the Mediterranean\u2019s edge before unleashing his mayhem. Nice\u2019s promenade, where French revelers celebrating Bastille Day were plowed into by a speeding truck. Paris\u2019 Bataclan theater where 89 concert-goers were killed by suicide bombers.\nAnd last month a Christmas marketplace in Berlin, where again a speeding truck was the weapon of choice for the mass murder of innocents.\nFirefighter stand beside a truck at a Christmas market in Berlin, Dec 19, 2016 after the truck ploughed into the crowded Christmas market in the German capital.\nThe targets couldn\u2019t be much softer. The terror attacks are not incidents in battlefield action with bombs and bullets flying \u2014 they involve, as with the Reina nightclub slaughter, the methodical killing of unarmed victims who are often partying or relaxing and are utterly vulnerable.\nWith rare exceptions, such as the Bataclan assault, spectacular 9/11 attacks that require some ingenuity, planning and training for months even years are currently being eschewed by jihadists. What we have is the shocking targeting of the easiest, most vulnerable victims and in the least challenging circumstances for the assailants.\nFILE - People mourn in front of the screened-off facade of the Bataclan Cafe adjoining the concert hall, one of the sites of the deadly attacks in Paris, France, a day before a ceremony to pay tribute to the 130 victims, Nov. 26, 2015.\nOne of the reasons for the so-called soft targeting is that improved security and greater vigilance is making it harder for more complex terror plots to be executed, analysts say. But even improved security is not full-proof.\nEnhanced security \nIn the hours after the massacre at the Reina, one of Istanbul\u2019s best-known nightclubs, popular with locals and tourists alike and frequented by businessmen and diplomats, security analysts were questioning the ease with which the gunman was able to arrive in a taxi armed with an automatic weapon.\nSecurity had been beefed up in Istanbul for the New Year celebrations. There were 25,000 policemen on duty in Istanbul on Saturday night and the gunman\u2019s taxi passed through three nearby security checkpoints to reach the club. The gunman, after spraying bullets in the crowded club that was hosting up to 800 people, had no difficulty in making good his escape.\nA Turkish coast guard boat patrols in front of the Reina nightclub by the Bosphorus, which was attacked by a gunman, in Istanbul, Jan. 1, 2017.\nTurkish commentator Murat Yetkin questions the competence of the police and security officials who have been replacing those purged by the government in the wake of the botched coup in July to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan.\n\u201cThere have recently been a number of warnings sent to provincial governors that major terrorist attacks are expected in big cities, especially in Istanbul and Ankara, focused on crowded places like shopping malls, restaurants and nightclubs frequented by foreign nationals and tourists. If there is a failure, the precautions side of security should now be debated,\u201d he argues.\nThe attack has not only exposed possible Turkish security failings as the country experiences the mounting backlash of the conflict in neighboring Syria. It is also prompting questions about the effectiveness President Erdogan\u2019s autocratic style of governing. \u201cIn times of crisis when violence stalks the land people cry out for a strongman to get a grip on the problem. But what if terrorism spawns chaos in a country already under the thumb of a strong man?\u201d queries Mark Almond, an Oxford University historian and author of \u201cSecular Turkey: A Short History.\u201d\nSecurity challenges\n\u201cTurkey is in a uniquely awful position. It now has the strongest president since the military coup in 1980, possibly since Ataturk himself ninety years ago. But President Erdogan\u2019s extraordinary skill in consolidating his power has not been matched by an ability to solve the country\u2019s problems,\u201d Almond said.\nThose problems could worsen in the coming months as jihadists lose more territory in Syria and Iraq and vent their fury on Turkey. But it is not only Turkey that has been put on notice by Saturday\u2019s attack that 2017 will likely continue in much the same way as 2016.\nBritish security minister Ben Wallace warned hours before the Reina attack that Islamic State wants to carry out a mass casualty attack in Britain and has \u201cno moral barrier\u201d to using chemical weapons.\n\u201cThey want to harm as many people as possible and terrorize as many people as possible.They have no moral objection to using chemical weapons against populations and if they could, they would in this country,\u201d Wallace told Britain's Times newspaper, adding, \"The casualty figures which could be involved would be everybody's worst fear.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Turkish police stand guard on a road leading to the Reina nightclub by the Bosphorus, which was attacked by a gunman, in Istanbul, Jan. 1, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7E8EE940-BAFA-45DE-AEEF-344A1946DD0A.jpg", + "id": "18536_1", + "answer": [ + "the competence", + "None", + "competence" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Turkish police", + "police" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_01_3658868", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_01_3658868_1" + }, + { + "question": "What vow did the person grasping the flag from the image make?", + "context": "Somali Presidential Palace Attacked as New Leader Moves In\n \u2014\u00a0\nAt least two people were killed Thursday in a barrage of mortar rounds fired toward Somalia's presidential palace as the country's new leader moved in.\nAbdifitah Halane, a spokesman for the Benadir regional administration, told VOA's Somali service that two children were killed when one of the mortars hit their home in Warta Nabadda district near the palace.\nHalane blamed al-Shabab militants for the attack. \nNew President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was not hurt, and there were no other reported casualties.\nThe mortar rounds were aimed at a ceremony where the former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud officially handed over the palace to Farmajo, who defeated Mohamud in an election by parliament two weeks ago.\nAddressing the crowd of officials and journalists, Farmajo said, \u201cIt\u2019s a historic day in Somalia. People in Somalia and around the world can see how smoothly we are transferring the power.\u201d\n\u201cThis government is for the people and by the people; we are bringing it back to you because you own it,\" he said.\nHe appealed fellow Somalis across the world to cooperated with his government\u2019s bid to restore peace and order to Somalia. \n\u201cIn terms of security and tax collection, we need you to protect this government and we pray that Allah may save us from the conflict and the drought we are struggling with,\u201d he said. \nPresident Farmajo also vowed that Somalia will one day rebuild its national army and say farewell to the African Union mission, AMISOM, which protects the government from al-Shabab.\nAbdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle in Mogadishu contributed to this story.\n", + "caption": "Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo, center-right, holds a Somali flag during a handover ceremony at the presidential palace with former president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, center-left, in Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/23236F88-A0AB-44FD-AFE4-D408ACE59777.jpg", + "id": "27642_1", + "answer": [ + "Somalia will one day rebuild its national army" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Farmajo" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_16_3727082", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_16_3727082_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people locking arms in the image talking about?", + "context": "China, SE Asian Nations Agree on 'Code of Conduct' for South China Sea \nChina and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to a framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea, a development that could ease tensions in the disputed waters.\nChina's foreign ministry said senior officials from ASEAN and China agreed to the framework that establishes guidelines for a final agreement. The terms were reached at a meeting in the southwestern province of Guizhou. \nChina claims ownership of nearly all of the South China Sea, believed to be the source of vast oil and gas deposits, despite partial counterclaims from Taiwan and several ASEAN members. The dispute has created divisions among ASEAN members that usually try to operate by consensus.\nThe issue escalated in recent years as China followed a strategy of constructing artificial islands in the sea that can support regional military facilities. The strategy has provoked intense reaction from other claimants and the U.S., which argues China's actions threaten the ability to navigate freely through the strategically important area.\nA draft of the framework describes the projected agreement as \"a set of norms to guide the conduct of parties and promote maritime cooperation in the South China Sea,\" adding it is \"not an instrument to settle territorial disputes.\"\nFILE - Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers and Secretary-General Le Luong Minh pose for a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) in metropolitan Manila, Philippines, April 28, 2017.\nASEAN and China adopted a non-binding declaration in 2002 not to use threats or force to assert claims to the territory. But China refused to honor the declaration as legally binding, and instead used the intervening time to build artificial islands.\nFormer Philippines president Benigno Aquino had taken a firm position against China's claims, but relations between the two countries have warmed considerably since last year's election of President Rodrigo Duterte, who has declined to confront China on the issue with the hope of being rewarded with aid and investment.\nChinese and Philippine officials will hold their first round of bilateral talks on their part of the dispute in China on Friday.\nDuterte said on Thursday he would be willing to explore the South China Sea's natural resources along with rival claimants China and Vietnam.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers and Secretary-General Le Luong Minh pose for a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting (AMM) in metropolitan Manila, Philippines, April 28, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3382DBD7-8A4A-4B22-8981-3B84AF390BA0.jpg", + "id": "2076_2", + "answer": [ + "a framework for a code of conduct in the South China Sea" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)", + "ASEAN" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3856806", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3856806_2" + }, + { + "question": "What can the person wearing the suit in the image do?", + "context": "Trump Gives Defense Chief Authority to Set US Troop Levels in Afghanistan\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump has given Defense Secretary Jim Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan.\nSpeaking to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, Mattis testified that the president had authorized his ability to set troop numbers in Afghanistan on Tuesday, noting that any change to the current troop level of 8,400 would not come immediately.\n\"The revised Afghanistan strategy with the new approach will be presented to the president for his approval in the coming weeks,\" the defense secretary told lawmakers.\nThis could mean a boost in the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, where 16 years of fighting against the Taliban and other militants has resulted in a stalemate.\nMattis said Wednesday any decision on the number of U.S. military personnel will come after consulting other U.S. agencies and will be in line with President Donald Trump's \"strategic direction and foreign policy.\"\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nMattis: US 'Not Winning' in Afghanistan\nShare this video\n0:01:41\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:41\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 4.9MB\n360p | 7.8MB\n720p | 47.7MB\n1080p | 32.5MB\nIn a separate hearing a day earlier, the military chief told lawmakers the United States is not gaining in the fight to stabilize Afghanistan and vowed to present a strategy to Congress \"by mid-July.\"\n\"We are not winning in Afghanistan right now, and we will correct this as soon possible,\" Mattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday.\nMattis acknowledged that the Trump administration is currently in a \"strategy free time\" concerning Afghanistan.\nThe defense secretary called on Congress to provide the Pentagon with a budget, \"not a continuing resolution,\" that is \"passed on time,\" in order to push the U.S. military through readiness shortfalls while maintaining a support role in two wars.\nMattis on Tuesday equated \"winning\" in Afghanistan with the Afghan government's ability to handle the enemy's level of violence, which he said will require a \"residual force\" of U.S. and allied forces to train Afghan troops and maintain high-end capabilities.\nFILE - U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, third right, walks with U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major David Clark, left, and General Christopher Haas, second right, as he arrives to the Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2017.\n\"It's going to take a change in approach,\" Mattis said.\nBut he said the United States cannot quit on Afghanistan because problems that threaten the U.S. and its economy arise out of \"ungoverned spaces.\"\nOn Saturday, a uniformed member of the Afghan Special Forces turned his gun on U.S. military personnel, killing three American soldiers and wounding one other.\nThe Pentagon said 25-year-old Sgt. Eric Houck, 29-year-old Sgt. William Bays and 22-year-old Corporal Dillon Baldridge of the Army's 101st Airborne Division were killed during the attack in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.\nRepublican Senator John McCain highlighted the attack during Tuesday's hearing. He said Congress and the Department of Defense should not ask the families of service members to \"sacrifice any further\" without an Afghanistan strategy in place.\n", + "caption": "FILE - U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, third right, walks with U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major David Clark, left, and General Christopher Haas, second right, as he arrives to the Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8263C5A8-74B6-4567-8BDB-89CF3404DC6D.jpg", + "id": "18711_2", + "answer": [ + "set troop levels in Afghanistan.", + "None", + "set troop levels in Afghanistan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jim Mattis", + "James Mattis" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_13_3898740", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_13_3898740_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who is supporting the change of law that the people in the image do not like?", + "context": "Macedonia's Ethnic Disputes Provoke Fears of Spillover\nA two-year-long political crisis in Macedonia is entering a dangerous phase, with nationalists accused of stirring up ethnic tensions in a bid to disrupt a corruption probe.\nThousands of ethnic Macedonians have held evening protests against three ethnic Albanian parties forming a coalition government with the Social Democrats. The country's president, Gjorge Ivanov, has sided with the protesters and so far has withheld approving a coalition government that would shut out the main nationalist party.\nEuropean Union leaders and analysts say the mounting political confrontation could spin out of control, adding to increasing ethnic tensions across a destabilizing Balkans.\nA group called For a United Macedonia announced Monday that it would continue to organize mass rallies in the capital, Skopje, as well as in other towns nationwide against the formation of the coalition. The group accuses the prime minister of neighboring Albania, Edi Rama, of being the true author of the coalition idea.\nFarmers on tractors participate in a protest in front of the government building in Skopje, Macedonia, March 10, 2017. Thousands of ethnic Macedonians have held evening protests against three ethnic Albanian parties forming a coalition government with the Social Democrats.\n'People won't go home'\n\"The masks have fallen,\" Bogdan Ilievski, protest organizer and one of the group's leaders, said in a statement. \"We are in favor of a united Macedonia for all, and we are against platforms written in other countries, which some of our politicians won't clearly reject. Despite their attempts to hide their true intentions, they will be met with strong resistance from the democratic public. The people won't go home.\"\nOne of the key demands of the ethnic Albanian parties is that the Albanian language be recognized as an official second language. Ivanov has called the demands for greater recognition of ethnic Albanian rights a \"threat to Macedonia's sovereignty.\" A quarter of Macedonia's population is ethnic Albanian.\nThe standoff between the country's two ethnic groups worsened last December when the Macedonian nationalist party VMRO narrowly won parliamentary elections. The Albanian parties declined to enter a coalition government with VMRO, deciding instead to partner with the Social Democrats.\nZoran Zaev, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, presents the program of the new Macedonian government, at the party headquarters in the capital, Skopje, March 10, 2017.\nSocial Democrats say Ivanov is stirring the ethnic dispute. They argue he is using it as a distraction to withhold giving a mandate to their leader, Zoran Zaev, because Ivanov and former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski fear the Social Democrats will open probes into illicit wiretapping and corruption allegations that have dogged the VMRO government since 2015.\n2001 agreement\nA dispute over ethnic Albanian rights appeared to have been settled more than a decade ago when in 2001 a seven-month-long ethnic Albanian insurgency that left more than 100 dead ended with an agreement providing more rights for the country's ethnic minority. Progress, though, on enacting the agreement has been slow.\n\"To avoid jail time for his friends, President Ivanov is instead inciting ethnic clashes over a nonissue such as the use of Albanian language in public institutions,'\" said Gjovalin Shkurtaj, a member of the National Academy of Science of Albania.\nOn Monday, Zaev and his proposed Albanian coalition partners started talks on electing a new parliamentary speaker in a bid to persuade Macedonia's president to back down. Zaev is backed by 67 out of 120 lawmakers. VMRO is demanding a new election.\nIt isn't often a political dispute in a country of just 2 million prompts the alarm of policymakers in Brussels or Washington, but disputes in the Balkans historically have had outsized consequences for Europe \u2014 from the 1914 assassination by a Bosnian Serb of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, which triggered the First World War, to the post-Cold War disintegration of the Yugoslav state that kicked off a decade of internecine warfare drawing in NATO.\nEarlier this month, the EU's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, visited the Macedonian capital and urged Ivanov to allow Zaev to form a government.\n\"I asked the president to reflect on the way forward and to reverse his decision in the interests of all citizens in this country,\" Mogherini told reporters.\nEuropean Union leaders already are scrambling to try to tamp down an ethnic flare-up between Serbia and its former province Kosovo. In January, Serbia's president warned he's ready to send troops to Kosovo to protect Serbian nationals there, if necessary. Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said the two countries were on the verge of a conflict.\nFILE - Gravestones are seen at sunrise at a memorial complex near Srebrenica, 150 kilometers (94 miles) northeast of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, July 11, 2015. Twenty years earlier, Serb troops overran the eastern Bosnian Muslim enclave of Srebrenica and executed 8,000 Muslim men and boys, which International courts have labeled as an act of genocide.\nBosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro\nOther issues dividing parties and public opinion include whether to tilt geopolitically to the EU or Russia and border disputes. Ethnic tensions are on the rise also in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Bosnia remains split among Serbs, Bosnians and Croats, and the wounds of their vicious three-year-long war of the 1990s have not yet begun to heal.\nThe ethnic flare-ups coincide with the Kremlin's bid to expand its influence across an increasingly unstable Balkans, say analysts. From offering help with disaster relief to supplying sophisticated weaponry, including warplanes, Moscow has been on a charm offensive in a region Russia has viewed historically as in its sphere of influence.\nIn Serbia, Moscow's diplomatic offensive apparently is paying off. A recent Gallup Poll suggested Serbs viewed Russia as a more dependable ally than NATO, an organization Belgrade officially wants to join.\nIn Macedonia, a Russian hand is also being played. Moscow is accusing the West of trying to install a government in Macedonia that would help Albania pursue expansionist policies. EU leaders say Moscow is determined to stop the Balkans from integrating with NATO.\nZaev has warned that miscalculations in the current deadlock could \"set fire to the country.\"\n", + "caption": "Protesters carrying umbrellas in colors of the national flag march through a street in Skopje, Macedonia, March 10, 2017. Thousands of Macedonians have been protesting against the designation of Albanian as a second official language nationwide.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/074C6BC7-1A2D-4CBF-9C0F-AE275440CA35.jpg", + "id": "21233_1", + "answer": [ + "the ethnic Albanian parties " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Albanian language" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_14_3765776", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_14_3765776_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the left of the image vow to take?", + "context": "Prosecutors: NY Man Willing to Sacrifice Self for Jihad\nA New York man was being held without bail on terrorism charges after federal authorities said he was prepared to strap on a bomb and sacrifice himself for jihad and persistently tried to join the Islamic State or another extremist group in Syria.\nElvis Redzepagic, 26, was charged Saturday with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. Police on suburban Long Island arrested Redzepagic on Feb. 2 on a minor, unrelated charge, and he told them: \"I'm going to leave this country, and I'm going to come back with an Army \u2014 Islam is coming,\" according to a federal court complaint.\nHis lawyer, Mildred Whalen, noted that Redzepagic is a citizen and had cooperated with law enforcement.\n\"We will be working with his family in the hope that the court and the government will see that what he needs is counseling and support, not imprisonment,\" she said in an email.\nAuthorities have prosecuted a number of people accused of trying to join the Islamic State group and other militants in recent years, though in some cases, the accused haven't actually succeeded in traveling overseas.\nRedzepagic \"was persistent in his efforts\" to join Islamic militants in civil-war-ravaged Syria, making it to Turkey in 2015 and Jordan last year and even getting to the Syrian border, said William F. Sweeney, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York field office.\nRedzepagic, who lives in Commack, told authorities after his arrest that he'd become a devout Muslim while in Montenegro, in the Balkans, and believed a cousin was a battalion commander in Syria for the Islamic State or the group once known as the Nusra Front, according to the court complaint. The latter group \u2014 now called the Fatah al-Sham Front, and also known at times as Jabhat al-Nusra \u2014 is an al-Qaida affiliate.\nNo one immediately responded to phone or email messages to Redzepagic's relatives.\nAfter telling his cousin he wanted to join him, Redzepagic went to Turkey in July 2015 and aimed for Syria. He got cab rides to the border, then directions to a border wall manned by the military, followed by instructions to try to cross instead by making a two-day trip through the woods, the complaint says.\nHe'd been willing to put on a bomb and sacrifice himself, he told authorities after his arrest, though he told them at another point he just wanted to \"feed the children\" in Syria. But frustrated that he didn't getting more help crossing the border, Redzepagic returned to the U.S., the complaint says.\n\"Since I got back from Turkey from trying to perform jihad and join Jabhat al-Nusra the CIA has been bothering me,\" he wrote to a Facebook contact in October 2015, the complaint says. \"It's annoying but I out smarted them.\"\nThe CIA declined to comment Saturday on the case.\nHe also told various Facebook contacts that \"I just don't like this country,\" apparently meaning the U.S., and that \"jihad is the best for u,\" according to the complaint.\n\"There will come a time where people will only know to say Allahu akbar,\" he wrote in one message, using the Arabic phrase for \"God is great,\" says the complaint.\nRedzepagic went to Jordan last August to try again to get to Syria, but Jordanian officials stopped him and asked why he wanted to go there. He said he wanted to study Arabic, the complaint says.\nIt says he then told the same to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, who found he had electronic files about jihad. He said he'd downloaded them two years earlier, the complaint adds.\nIt's not immediately clear whether he remained on federal authorities' radar between then and his arrest in February. Long Island police notified federal authorities about the arrest, and although he was released without bail on the minor charge, he willingly continued talking to federal agents and let them scrutinize his phone, laptop and Facebook account, the complaint says.\n", + "caption": "In this courtroom drawing, Elvis Redzepagic, left, appears during his arraignment on charges that he attempted to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FC6F2644-5D2D-4B40-B4B5-F43D42CE0DD7.jpg", + "id": "20181_1", + "answer": [ + "an Army", + "himself", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Redzepagic", + "Elvis Redzepagic" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_05_3750204", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_05_3750204_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where are the people in the image being aided?", + "context": "Militants' Families Are Islamic State's Last Casualties\nMOSUL, IRAQ \u2014\u00a0\nThe families come in waves, trudging through the ruins of Old Mosul as Iraqi and coalition forces capture buildings one by one.\nThey are starving and cry out for water. Children are covered in rashes. It is more than 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees F), and dead IS fighters rot in the searing rubble. Many people have no shoes.\nA woman sinks to the ground when she realizes her 6-month-old daughter is dead, in Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nOne woman sinks to the ground. Her 6-month-old daughter, Elaf, lost consciousness in the airstrike that sent them running. Now Elaf is dead.\n\"She's gone!\" her mother wails, rocking back and forth as she weeps and feels the baby for a pulse, still hoping. The grandfather, gaunt and in his 70s, urges her to stop crying and keep moving out of the war zone.\nSoldiers tell families they must continue on, as the thinnest and the oldest collapse. Among these sick and dying have been more than 40 suicide bombers, both men and women, in the past few days.\nSoldiers in Old Mosul say in recent days at least 40 suicide bombers disguised as refugees have exploded themselves as they approached Iraqi forces. Most have only killed themselves, but soldiers and civilians have been killed and maimed. Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nMost of the bombers' only victims were themselves, but some succeeded in killing and maiming soldiers and civilians.\nHowever, as families leave the war zone, the vast majority desperately try to hold on to life, not end it. Soldiers forget their caution, scrambling to give them water, biscuits or anything else they have. Elaf's mother holds her daughter's lifeless body and squeezes into a humvee, hoping against hope that someone can help.\nSoldiers help families as they arrive, but tensions are high after so many suicide bombings. Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nNearby, an Iraqi translator hands one woman his bottle of water. She gulps it down and soon after throws it up.\nThese are IS's last victims in Mosul as the militants' rule here collapses. Many of the people fleeing the city now are widely believed to be the families of IS militants, both living and dead.\nSome admit to being related to an IS member. Most do not.\nIraqi soldiers say they have no mandate or desire to punish starving women and children. Like other families in Mosul, IS relatives are suffering for what the militants have done.\nIraqi Federal Police Col. Taha al-Hussaini says families are screened several times as forces look for bombs, weapons and militants attempting to flee, in Mosul, Iraq, July 3, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nScreening\nFamilies leaving the war zone are screened several times as Iraqi forces search for bombers and fleeing militants.\nThe first level of screening is on the front line, where government snipers watch in both directions, searching for signs of bombers among the families. Women are told to remove the veils from their faces. Men must lift their shirts.\nIn the relative safety behind Iraq's front line, men and women are separated. Men's identifications are run through databases, and their bodies are searched for bombs and other weapons. Female volunteers search women.\nChildren fleeing Old Mosul are often covered in rashes parents say are caused by bad food, lack of water and the heat, in Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nWomen, children and the elderly then move on to places like a field hospital, where they can eat, rest and seek emergency care. The sickest leave in ambulances.\nOne woman at a field hospital does not want to move to the next screening point, one of two more before she can register for a tent or transportation elsewhere. Her husband, she says, is still being checked and she wants to wait for him.\n\"His brothers are with IS,\" she tells a soldier. \"But he is innocent.\"\n\"We will check him, and God willing, it will all be fine,\" the soldier replies. \"Now go and get in the truck. You can meet him at the next screening point.\"\nAs she departs, the soldier drops his voice. \"We know who her husband is. He works for IS, producing their videos,\" he says.\nThis woman collapses, saying she can walk no further in the 45-degree Celsius heat after months of food and water shortages, in Mosul, Iraq, July, 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nFleeing fighters\nSince the beginning of the government offensive last year, IS fighters have hidden among families fleeing Mosul. \nIt's often ordinary people who turn in the extremists when they reach Iraqi forces.\n\"We arrested a man the other day after the people said he was with IS,\" explains Iraqi Federal Police Colonel Taha al-Hussaini at a screening center on the edge of the battle. \"He said he was from a different neighborhood, and the people were mistaken. They just didn't know him.\"\nFamilies fleeing are starving and crying out for water as they reach Iraqi forces in Mosul, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nBut then a little boy in the group began to cry. \"That is my uncle. Where are you taking him?\" the boy asked, according to al-Hussaini. The people knew exactly who he was.\nThe United Nations has warned that relatives of alleged IS members are under threat of \"collective punishment\" from local authorities or other civilians.\nFamilies of IS members fleeing often either keep it secret or just keep to themselves.\n\"A woman came to me saying, 'I know they all hate us,' \" says al-Hussaini, \" 'but it's not my fault my husband joined IS.' \"\n", + "caption": "Children fleeing Old Mosul are often covered in rashes parents say are caused by bad food, lack of water and the heat, in Mosul, Iraq, July 5, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/06DA20DE-2A8A-4A58-8319-BA128B36017B.jpg", + "id": "19767_5", + "answer": [ + "field hospital", + "None", + "a field hospital" + ], + "bridge": [ + "children", + "Children" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_06_3931412", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_06_3931412_5" + }, + { + "question": "What type of nickname does the person in the blue shirt in the image have?", + "context": "Colombia's FARC Rebels Disarm, End Armed War With Government\nMESETAS, COLOMBIA \u2014\u00a0\nColombia's Marxist FARC rebels concluded their disarmament on Tuesday, handing in all but a few of their individual weapons to the United Nations and ending their role in a half-century war that killed more than 220,000 and displaced millions.\nThe Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, turned in the remaining 40 percent of their firearms in Mesetas, a mountainous area in southeastern Colombia. The roughly 7,000 former fighters have pledged to continue their struggle as a political movement.\nThe 7,132 weapons will be stored in containers until they are molded into a monument for peace. Explosives and bigger weapons are being cleared from caches nationwide and a few guns will remain for security at 26 camps until they close on Aug. 1.\n\"Today doesn't end the existence of the FARC, it ends our armed struggle,\" said Rodrigo Londono, the FARC's top commander, who goes by his nom de guerre Timochenko. \"Farewell to arms, farewell to war, welcome to peace.\"\nFinanced by drug trafficking, kidnapping for ransom and extortion, the FARC had about 17,000 combatants in the 1990s, capable of launching military attacks close to Bogota, the capital.\nBut the rebel group that began in 1964 as a peasant army demanding agrarian reform was battered deep into Colombia's inhospitable jungles by a relentless military offensive that began in 2002 during Alvaro Uribe's presidency.\nUS-backed campaign\nThe U.S.-backed campaign improved security and helped the nation of 49 million people, once considered nearly a failed state, lure back investors and tourists.\nRich in commodities like oil, coal, gold and coffee, it is one of Washington's closest allies in Latin America and has a long history of market-friendly governments.\n\"Today is a very special day, the day weapons became words... I can say from the bottom of my heart that to live this day, to achieve this day, has made worthwhile being president of Colombia,\" said President Juan Manuel Santos, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. \"Our peace is real, and it's irreversible.\"\nAlthough the government promises to provide protection, the FARC is concerned about security. Thousands of former guerrillas were assassinated by paramilitaries after joining a political party during a peace attempt in the 1980s.\nSantos, who took office in 2010, began secret talks with FARC commanders that led to negotiations in Cuba and a final peace accord late last year. He is trying for a similar accord with the National Liberation Army (ELN).\nPeace with the FARC, however, is unlikely to end violence in Colombia as the lucrative cocaine business has given rise to criminal gangs and traffickers.\n", + "caption": "Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos, front left, top commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, Rodrigo Londono, also known as Timole\u00f3n Jim\u00e9nez or Timochenko, front right, and Jean Arnault, U.N. representative for the Colombian peace process, center, watch the disarmament process on a television monitor during an act to commemorate the completion of the disarmament process, in Buenavista, Colombia, June, 27, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/36009244-B92B-49F0-BA5F-B4AEBE7E9ED4.jpg", + "id": "12036_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "nom de guerre" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Rodrigo Londono" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3918753", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3918753_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who are the people in the image accusing?", + "context": "Kyrgyz Opposition Leader Arrested on Eve of Putin Visit\nBISHKEK \u2014\u00a0\nA Kyrgyz court jailed a prominent opposition politician on corruption charges on Monday, a move his supporters said was part of a politically motivated crackdown by President Almazbek Atambayev.\nThe court ordered Omurbek Tekebayev to be detained for two months pending trial, a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Central Asian former Soviet republic, which hosts a Russian airbase.\nKyrgyzstan holds presidential elections on November 19 in which Atambayev is barred from running. Tekebayev, whose supporters plan to nominate him as a candidate, is one of the president's most outspoken critics.\nThe state security service detained 58-year-old Tekebayev, who leads the Ata Meken (Fatherland) party's parliamentary faction, on Sunday after the prosecutor general's office alleged he took a $1 million bribe from a Russian businessman in 2010.\nThen a senior member of an interim government, Tekebayev promised the man he would be able to take over a local telecommunications company, prosecutors said, citing the Russian businessman's testimony.\nTekebayev's allies said he denied any wrongdoing. A few hundred Tekebayev supporters have rallied in the capital Bishkek since Sunday, protests that a second Ata Meken lawmaker, Kanybek Imanaliyev, said would continue.\nWhile Atambayev cannot serve another term as president, constitutional amendments passed in a referendum that was orchestrated by his backers in parliament have significantly increased the powers of the prime minister.\nThat role would be open to Atambayev, though he has denied planning to seek it.\nAtambayev, who took office in 2011, has drawn Kyrgyzstan closer into Russia's orbit, shutting down a U.S. airbase and joining the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union, a post-Soviet trade bloc.\nPutin is due to visit Bishkek on Tuesday as part of a regional tour.\nBoth Atambayev's predecessors were toppled by violent riots.\n", + "caption": "Supporters of detained opposition politician Omurbek Tekebayev, the leader of the Ata Meken (Fatherland) party, hold a rally in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Feb. 26, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C96D4B95-0605-46C9-BA2A-7CFE2C9AEF26.jpg", + "id": "22405_1", + "answer": [ + "President Almazbek Atambayev.", + "Tekebayev", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Supporters of detained opposition politician Omurbek Tekebayev", + "supporters" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742059", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742059_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is threatening the people in the image?", + "context": "Swiss Spy Agency Defends Practices After German Arrest in Tax Case\nBERN \u2014\u00a0\nSwitzerland's Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) on Tuesday defended its efforts to combat theft of business secrets after a Swiss man was arrested in Germany on suspicion of working for the spy agency.\nThe 54-year-old man, identified only as Daniel M., was arrested on Friday. His lawyer told a Swiss newspaper he was suspected of trying to find out how German states have obtained CDs containing details of secret Swiss bank accounts set up by Germans to evade tax.\nThe man was detained in Frankfurt, and officers from Germany's federal criminal police carried out searches at several addresses in the region.\nWhile Swiss authorities declined to comment directly on the case, they defended domestic efforts to uphold Swiss laws.\n\"When someone in Switzerland uses illegal methods in Switzerland to steal state or business secrets, that is espionage, and we have the task to fight that,\" FIS director Markus Seiler told reporters at a briefing in Bern.\n\"The FIS is active at home and abroad,\" he said. Asked if this included Germany, he said: \"I say simply nothing.\"\nThe case is potentially embarrassing for Switzerland, which has worked hard to increase the transparency of its financial system in order to prevent international tax-dodgers from abusing its bank secrecy rules.\nTax CDs\nThe man arrested in Germany is suspected of operating since the start of 2012, although no further details were given by German authorities. Swiss media reported at the weekend that he was a former policeman who now worked for the Federal Intelligence Service.\nAuthorities in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia have purchased 11 tax CDs since 2010, and paid a total of 17.9 million euros ($19.5 million) to informants.\nIn return, the state has secured nearly 7 billion euros in revenue which would have otherwise have been lost, officials there said.\n\"The NRW financial administration acquires tax CDs, because they otherwise could not detect tax evasion,\" said Norbert Walter-Borjans, from the finance department in North Rhine-Westphalia.\n\"Anyone who now hunts the investigators protects the perpetrators,\" Walter-Borjans added.\nSpeaking at Tuesday's news conference in Bern where the spy agency released its 2017 situation report, Swiss Defense Minister Guy Parmelin said the intelligence agency \"must protect its methods and sources.\"\n\"Switzerland, and not only the banks, but also small and medium-sized companies, research institutes, and international organizations which have their headquarters here are regularly suffering cyber attacks, spy attempts and efforts to recruit their staff,\" said Parmelin, who oversees FIS.\nThe situation report outlined by Parmelin and Seiler said Switzerland was facing a \"heightened\" risk of militant attacks, with 90 individuals currently described as \"risky\" being monitored by the authorities.\n\"With all the attacks we have seen, like in Sweden and France, we see from time to time there are links to Switzerland,\" Seiler said.\n\"Switzerland is not an island,\" he added. \"Without being too alarmist, we cannot rule out that our country, being part of the West which jihadists consider as hostile to Islam, may one day be the target of a terror attack.\"\n", + "caption": "Switzerland's Defense Minister Guy Parmelin (R) and Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) director Markus Seiler attend a news conference in Bern, Switzerland, May 2, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1B080DF8-EE01-4BF0-B275-D356D4240E0C.jpg", + "id": "13097_1", + "answer": [ + "a \"heightened\" risk of militant attacks", + "Parmelin and Seiler", + "cyber attacks, spy attempts and efforts to recruit their staff" + ], + "bridge": [ + "militant attacks", + "Switzerland's Defense Minister Guy Parmelin (R) and Swiss Federal Intelligence Service (NDB) director Markus Seiler" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834361", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834361_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the destruction in the image drive away?", + "context": "Taliban Again Seize Northern Afghanistan City\nKUNDUZ, AFGHANISTAN \u2014\u00a0\nTaliban militants captured a district just outside the northern Afghan city of Kunduz Saturday, officials said.\nMahfouz Akbari, a police spokesman for eastern Afghanistan, said security forces pulled out of Qala-i-Zal district, west of Kunduz city, Saturday to avoid further civilian and military casualties after more than 24 hours of heavy fighting.\nIn a statement, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents had taken the police headquarters, the governor\u2019s compound and all security checkpoints. He said several police and soldiers had been killed and wounded.\nKunduz province map\nTaliban there before\nOver the past 18 months, Taliban insurgents have twice succeeded in seizing the town center of Kunduz for brief periods and the latest fighting underscores warnings that Afghan forces face another grueling year of fighting.\nA shopkeeper, whose name is also Zabihullah, said the situation was reminiscent of last October when Taliban forces entered the city before being driven back after days of fighting and air strikes.\n\u201cI am extremely worried. There are security forces everywhere,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone in my family is worried and if the situation gets worse, we\u2019ll have to leave.\u201d\nHeavy fighting\nAccording to U.S. estimates, government fighters control about 60 percent of the country, with the rest either controlled or contested by the insurgents, who are seeking to reimpose Islamic law after their 2001 ouster.\nAlthough the Taliban made a formal announcement of their spring offensive last week, there had been heavy fighting from the northern province of Badakhshan to the Taliban heartlands of Helmand and Kandahar in the south.\nIn the Helmand province Saturday, Gen. Aqa Noor Kentoz, provincial police chief, said at least four police officers were killed Friday night at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital.\nThe four might have been attacked by an insider, Kentoz said, and an investigation is underway.\nNo one immediately claimed responsibility.\nThere have also been several operations against Islamic State militants in the eastern province of Nangarhar, which have also involved U.S. special forces and air strikes.\nMore than 1,000 members of Afghan security forces have been killed since the start of the year, according to Afghan officials and figures cited by U.S. Congressional watchdog SIGAR, along with more than 700 civilians.\nAlso, more than 75,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the first four months of the year, according to United Nations figures.\nMore troops needed\nEarlier this year, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said he needed a few thousand more international troops to boost the Resolute Support training and advisory mission and break a \u201cstalemate\u201d with the Taliban.\nThe U.S. military is due to make its formal recommendations to President Donald Trump within the next week, a senior official told a Senate committee last week.\n", + "caption": "FILE - An Afghan man inspects a house destroyed during an air strike called in to protect Afghan and U.S. forces during a raid on suspected Taliban militants, in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Nov. 4, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1BC73A5B-32C6-4AF1-A007-BEF4244DC34B.jpg", + "id": "22693_1", + "answer": [ + "Taliban forces" + ], + "bridge": [ + "air strikes" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_06_3840447", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_06_3840447_1" + }, + { + "question": "How did the content land on the objects in the image?", + "context": "Major Serbian Newspapers Print Ruling Party Campaign Posters\nBELGRADE, SERBIA \u2014\u00a0\nIn an unprecedented move on the Serbian presidential campaign trail, the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on Thursday purchased the front pages on almost every daily newspaper to advertise its candidate, current Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.\nVucic's party bought seven out of nine daily editions, making newspaper stands look like uniformly plastered billboards. Only the independent Danas (Today) and the Informer, a staunchly pro-Vucic outlet, opted against printing the candidate's red-and-blue AV logo-emblazoned poster without any news stories.\nBlic, Belgrade's splashy middle-market tabloid, did have one news article on the cover: an interview with Vucic's 14-year-old daughter. The headline: \"I Miss My Dad.\" Serbian election laws forbid using children in political and marketing campaigns.\nThursday's cover of the Serbian daily tabloid Blic featured an interview with presidential candidate Aleksandar Vucic's 14-year-old daughter, which violates laws forbidding such coverage, Belgrade, March 30, 2017. (Courtesy Blic)\nVucic remains the leading candidate heading into Sunday's election, with forecasts indicating that he holds more than 50 percent of the vote in a field of 11 candidates. Second-place candidate Ljubisa Preletacevic Beli, who holds an estimated 10 percent of the vote, responded to Thursday's news cycle via social media by posting a photo montage of blank newspaper covers.\nBeli, which means \"the white one,\" is the moniker of communications student Luka Maksimovic, 25, who moonlights as a comedic entertainer and initially launched his campaign as a joke.\nVucic, a former information minister under former President Slobodan Milosevic, was elected prime minister in 2014 on a reformist platform that vowed to lead the Balkan nation toward democracy.\nThursday's propaganda blitz stoked fears about the overall fairness of Sunday's vote.\n\"Today's print media have revealed the real state of democracy under Vucic's rule,\" former Serbian President Boris Tadic said in a public statement. \"We are looking at the North Korean scenario for Serbia if he wins the election.\"\n\"This is the last warning for the citizens of Serbia to come out and vote in order to defend freedom and democracy,\" Tadic added, slamming Serbian news outlets as slanted and fearful of challenging Vucic.\nSNS party chief Vladimir Orlic called it a legitimate, advertisement-driven marketing strategy, rejecting criticism of Vucic and claiming that Europe backs the incumbent.\n\"When it comes to the Macedonian, Ukrainian or Romanian scenario, and calling out for protests in the streets, we could only hear that from the opposition during this campaign,\" Orlic told VOA's Serbian service. \"We care about peace and stability and we don't need street fights and smashed heads.\"\nOpposition marginalized\nThe mainstream media under Vucic's control have largely demonized most of the 10 opposition challengers, without giving them the opportunity to respond.\nIn the social media sphere, commentators called Thursday the end of Serbian news ethics, and some netizens reminisced about the front pages that accompanied the death of former Yugoslavian President Josip Broz Tito in 1980. On that day, newspapers featured hagiographic portraits and appreciations of the late totalitarian to the exclusion of other news.\nIn Serbia, the office of the prime minister carries far more real power than that of the president, as in Germany and Austria and unlike the U.S., Russia or France, where the president dominates.\nVucic has not explained why he wants to move from the office of institutional authority to the one holding mostly ceremonial powers. Some analysts have said he made the decision out of fear that his ally and Serbia's incumbent president, Tomislav Nikolic, would struggle to win a second term and lose the post to the opposition.\nThis report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Serbian service. Some information came from AP.\n", + "caption": "Seven major newspapers, featured at this vendor's kiosk in Belgrade, Serbia, hit the stands with the same front pages of the ruling candidate's campaign poster, March 30, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0285C4FA-BDF8-406E-850B-0530B746F6C7.jpg", + "id": "31194_1", + "answer": [ + "the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) on Thursday purchased the front pages on almost every daily newspaper to advertise its candidate" + ], + "bridge": [ + "newspaper" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_30_3789814", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_30_3789814_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the nation of the person on the right of the image accused of?", + "context": "Russia Analysts Skeptical About Claims Spymasters Collected Info on Trump\nMOSCOW \u2014\u00a0\nRussian politics and security analysts expressed skepticism Wednesday about claims that Russian intelligence collected information and compromising video of President-elect Donald Trump.\n\u201cIt does seem quite extraordinary in many ways and frankly hard to fully credit,\u201d says Mark Galeotti, senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations in Prague. \u201cNot because necessarily some of the individual allegations might not be true; but, the sense that any one individual could have gathered all this material.\u201d\nInformation about the material, which remains unsubstantiated, was allegedly collected by a former British intelligence agent working for a private company. He allegedly handed it over to U.S. intelligence officials who passed it on to Trump as well as President Barack Obama last week.\nMedia reports say it involved a hidden camera and sex tape made at a hotel room in Moscow when Trump visited in 2013 as well as alleged contacts between Trump\u2019s advisers and Russian officials.\nTrump denied the existence of any such tape and was quick to dismiss the claims and implication that Russia could be using any compromising information against him.\nWATCH: Trump thanks media for coming out against 'fake news'\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nTrump Thanks News Media for Coming Out Against 'Fake News'\nShare this video\n0:00:56\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:56\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 2.6MB\n360p | 2.9MB\n480p | 15.9MB\nRussians react\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday called the allegations \u201cpulp fiction\u201d and an attempt to harm bilateral ties. He denied Russia collected compromising material on anyone. \n\u201cIt\u2019s just the nature of the game,\u201d says Galeotti. \u201cYou collect everything you can in the hope it will be useful. You deny everything you possibly can deny if and when it comes to light.\u201d\nRussia\u2019s state television Channel One said the allegations were an attempt by what it called \"Democrat-leaning U.S. media\" to complicate the life of President-elect Trump.\nRussian officials and state media have been demonizing the outgoing administration of President Barack Obama and raising hopes of better relations with the United States under a Russia-friendly Trump administration. \nOn the streets of Moscow, Russians echoed that line. \u201cI think it is not true,\u201d said 25-year-old import-export manager Denis. \u201cI support the official version of the Kremlin. We don\u2019t need this. We want normal relations between our countries.\u201d\n\u201cI think they try to provoke us, but I do not understand why,\u201d 29-year-old engineer Takhir told VOA. \n\u201cI guess that it\u2019s based more on political conjecture than on any facts,\u201d said Russian political analyst Yevgeny Minchenko. \u201cAnd, I guess it\u2019s not very good for the democracy in the U.S., but, at the same time, I would say the American political system is quite flexible. I do believe in democracy in the U.S. and I guess it can handle it.\u201d\nThe first page of the Joint Analysis Report narrative by the Department of Homeland Security and federal Bureau of Investigation and released on Dec. 29, 2016.\nTiming questioned\nSome of the allegations leaked from the report, just hours ahead of Trump\u2019s first press conference after being elected, had been circulating over the last year as rumors.\nThe timing of the U.S. intelligence agencies' handing over the information to Trump, just days ahead of his inauguration as president, raised questions among some as to whether this could be a degree of payback for the president-elect\u2019s disparaging remarks about the agencies.\n\u201cThe very fact that precisely given such a sort of strong level of support by the intelligence community, that clearly has felt stung by Trump\u2019s lack of respect for them and their judgments does seem potentially indicative of some kind of connection,\u201d says Galeotti. \nThe real damage from the unsubstantiated allegations, notes Galeotti, is not likely to be against Russia or Trump but a further divide between supporters and detractors of the president-elect. \nRicardo Marquina Monta\u00f1ana, Olga Pavlova contributed to this report \n", + "caption": "A journalist points at a portrait of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, with a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin at right, during a live telecast of the U.S. presidential election in the Union Jack pub in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8B04A9F6-6F4C-4E0A-BEC3-BA5D558B8D05.jpg", + "id": "7340_1", + "answer": [ + "collected information and compromising video of President-elect Donald Trump" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Russia", + "Russian President Vladimir Putin" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_11_3672170", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_11_3672170_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who is teaching the people like those from the image?", + "context": "Iraqi Military Ponders Multipronged Offensive to Wipe Out Islamic State\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nIraq's military may try to eradicate the Islamic State's remaining forces by simultaneously attacking the terror group on multiple fronts in the hopes of taking advantage of infighting and a weakened leadership.\nThe strategy would be a bold one given the casualties Iraqi forces suffered while trying to retake Mosul.\nThe U.S. Defense Department estimated IS forces inflicted a 40 percent casualty rate on Iraq's elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) in the nine months it took for them to reclaim the city. And the U.S. commander of the global coalition against IS described the fighting in Mosul as the \"most extended and brutal combat I have ever witnessed.\"\nIraqis visit Pentagon\nBut Iraqi military officials visiting the Pentagon this week, following the declarations of victory over IS in Mosul, appeared undaunted.\n\"Very soon, we'll start military operations to liberate the remaining Iraqi areas under occupation,\" Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool said through a translator.\n\"We could start military operations toward different areas at the same time,\" Rasool added. \"We're confident that we are capable of having a number of operations simultaneously.\"\nRasool and the other government officials indicated Iraqi leaders have yet to make a firm decision on exactly how the campaign should play out, though potential targets include Tal Afar, about 60 kilometers to the west of Mosul, and the town of Hawija in Iraq's Kirkuk province.\nA member of Iraqi Federal police walks along destroyed buildings from clashes in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, July 10, 2017.\nU.S. officials have said efforts to clear Mosul of pockets of Islamic State fighters could last for weeks.\nIraqi soldiers told VOA that the remaining IS fighters, as well as women and children \u2014 all wearing suicide vests \u2014 are now launching attacks from basements and tunnels under the city.\nStriking at IS\nStill, Iraqi and U.S. officials see an opportunity to strike at IS while it is weak and still reeling from the loss.\n\"They're fighting among themselves in Hawija and Tal Afar, currently,\" Rasool said Thursday, when asked about what is left of IS leadership following the battle for Mosul.\n\"We killed a large number of the leadership, and they collapsed within their structure,\" he said.\nVehicles used for suicide car bombings, made by Islamic State militants, are seen at Federal Police Headquarters after being confiscated in Mosul, Iraq, July 13, 2017.\nU.S. officials estimate there are still a couple of thousand IS fighters spread throughout Iraq. Some analysts suggest the numbers could be even higher, and both officials and experts worry about the presence of so-called sleeper cells in all the territories that have been reclaimed from IS forces.\nAside from strongholds in Tal Afar and Hawija, IS still controls swaths of lands in Iraq's Anbar province, where they continue to enjoy some freedom of movement despite pressure from the coalition's ongoing air campaign.\nIraqi officials say continued coalition air support will be crucial for their continued success, and admit additional help will be needed.\n\"What we would like from the international or global coalition is the continuous support to Iraqi forces,\" said Brig. Gen Saad Maan, a spokesman for Baghdad Operations Command and the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior. \"This also requires additional training, and providing the basic services, and cameras, and surveillance equipment so that we'll be able to stabilize the area.\"\nTough fight ahead\nAs far as how long it will take to subdue what remains of IS, neither Iraqi nor coalition officials have been willing to say.\nIn this July 13, 2017 photo, Ali Mahdi, 9, poses for a photo while playing on his damaged street on the west side of Mosul, Iraq.\n\"It's been a tough fight. There's a lot of tough fighting ahead,\" U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday.\n\"We're there to help them fight and defeat and destroy that physical caliphate and I'm sure we'll continue to bring in air support,\" Mattis said.\nThe U.S. and other coalition partners, including Australia, Finland and Britain, have also continued to train Iraqi forces for the battles ahead.\n\"The Iraqi Security Forces and the coalition have a plan to get after them. And we will move with all due speed to do that,\" Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, Operation Inherent Resolve Commander, told Pentagon reporters on July 11. \"We'll be at it until it's done.\"\nFor their part, despite a looming referendum on Kurdish independence, peshmerga officials say their forces are ready and willing to support Iraqi military efforts to wipe out IS.\n\"We can launch a number of operations,\" said Brig. Gen. Halgwrd Hikman Ali, who was visiting the Pentagon with his Iraqi counterparts.\n\"We can launch a military operation toward Tal Afar and another one toward Al-Qa'im, and another one toward \u2014 maybe another one toward Hawija,\" he said. \"We have enough forces to liberate what is remaining.\"\nVOA Middle East Correspondent Heather Murdock contributed to this story from Mosul.\n", + "caption": "An Iraqi Special Forces soldier stands in a Mosul alley, July 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F6BE25C4-FBC5-40CE-A203-0685BE6A8482.jpg", + "id": "9697_1", + "answer": [ + "The U.S. and other coalition partners", + "The U.S. and other coalition partners, including Australia, Finland and Britain" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Iraqi Special Forces soldier", + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_14_3944538", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_14_3944538_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who selected the person with the red tie in the image?", + "context": "US Attorney Bharara Says He Was Fired After Not Resigning\nNEW YORK \u2014\u00a0\nAn outspoken Manhattan federal prosecutor known for crusading against public corruption announced he was fired Saturday after he refused a request a day earlier to resign.\nPreet Bharara, 48, made the announcement on his personal Twitter account after it became widely known hours earlier that he did not intend to step down in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' request that leftover appointees of former President Barack Obama quit.\n\"I did not resign. Moments ago I was fired,\" Bharara said in the tweet. \"Being the US Attorney in SDNY will forever be the greatest honor of my professional life.\"\nJust over three months ago, then-President-elect Donald Trump asked Bharara to remain as U.S. attorney in Manhattan and Bharara told reporters after the Trump Tower meeting that he had agreed to do so.\nBharara was appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2009. In frequent public appearances, Bharara has decried public corruption after successfully prosecuting over a dozen state lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans alike.\nSessions' decision to include Bharara's name on the list of 46 resignations of holdovers from the Obama administration surprised Manhattan prosecutors.\nWhile it is customary for a new president to replace virtually all of the 93 U.S. attorneys, it often occurs at a slower pace. Sessions lost his position as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Alabama in a similar sweep by then-Attorney General Janet Reno in 1993.\nNew York Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday that he was \"troubled to learn\" of the resignation demands, particularly of Bharara, since Trump called him in November and assured him that he wanted Bharara to remain Manhattan's top federal prosecutor.\nAfter Bharara met Trump on Nov. 30, he emerged from the meeting to say Trump had asked him to remain in the job he has held since his appointment in the summer of 2009 and he had agreed.\nSchumer said that by requesting immediate resignations, Trump was \"interrupting ongoing cases and investigations and hindering the administration of justice.\"\nBharara, who was once lauded on the cover of Time magazine as the man who is \"busting Wall Street\" after successfully prosecuting dozens of insider traders, has in the past few years set his sights on prosecuting over a dozen state officeholders -- Democrats and Republicans -- including New York's two most powerful lawmakers.\nIt also recently was revealed that Bharara's office is investigating the financial terms of settlements of sexual-harassment claims against Fox News by its employees.\nThe request from Sessions came as Bharara's office is prosecuting former associates of Democratic Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in a bribery case. Also, prosecutors recently interviewed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio as part of a probe into his fundraising. The mayor's press secretary has said the mayor is cooperating and that he and his staff had acted appropriately.\nThe request for resignations came just days after Trump last weekend claimed that Obama tapped his telephones during last year's election. FBI Director James Comey privately asked the Justice Department to dispute the claim because he believed the allegations were false. Bharara worked for Comey when he was U.S. attorney in Manhattan under President George W. Bush.\nLast week, the quick-witted Bharara initiated a new personal Twitter feed with one of his first tweets perhaps intentionally delivering multiple messages.\nIn it, he linked to an AP video of a Senate hearing focusing on whether federal prosecutors were fired for political reasons.\n\"This Senate hearing on political interference (at)DOJ was 10 yrs ago today,\" Bharara wrote. \"Is that me in the background? Boy I've aged.\"\n", + "caption": "Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (L-R), Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch hold a news conference to announce indictments on Iranian hackers for a coordinated campaign of cyber attacks in 2012", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/32138EC7-B17D-4A46-B2F5-3E6D62D43D81.jpg", + "id": "17543_1", + "answer": [ + "Barack Obama", + "None", + "former President Barack Obama" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Bharara", + "Preet Bharara" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_11_3761588", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_11_3761588_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the person with the red tie in the image speak for?", + "context": "Mattis Describes Qatar Situation as 'Difficult'\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described the diplomatic spat between Qatar and several other American allies in the Middle East as a \u201ccomplex situation\u201d that the United States needed to help solve.\n\u201cI believe that (Qatar\u2019s) Prince Thani inherited a difficult, very tough situation, and he\u2019s trying to turn the society in the right direction,\u201d Mattis told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing late Monday. \u201cBut we all agree that funding of any kind of terrorist group is inimical to all of our interest.\u201d\nMattis said President Donald Trump was focused on stopping all terrorist funding, including what he called \u201cgrey funding.\u201d\n\u201cIt\u2019s not black and white; it goes into some kind of nebulous area,\u201d he said.\nHe added that he believed Qatar is \u201cmoving in the right direction\u201d when it comes to curtailing its funding of terrorism and said the United States needed to find common ground with Qatar due to the two countries\u2019 shared interest.\nQatar\u2019s Al-Udeid Air Base is the largest American air base in the Middle East, serving as the forward operational headquarters of U.S. Central Command and the host to about 10,000 American troops.\nSaudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates have cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and stopped transportation to and from the tiny Gulf nation, accusing Qatar of funding terrorists groups including Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.\nDuring the hearing, Congressman Adam Smith (D-Washington) said he was \u201cnot clear\u201d on the administration\u2019s strategy concerning Qatar, accusing President Trump of being unhelpful Friday when he lashed out against Qatar and sided with Saudi Arabia.\n\u201cWe should be finding ways to solve that problem, not throwing gasoline on the fire,\u201d Smith said.\nAfghanistan\nWhen asked about the military strategy in Afghanistan, Secretary Mattis said he would present options \u201cvery soon\u201d to the president.\nMattis added that it was important to include the relationships between India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the U.S. strategy.\n\u201cWe are taking a regional approach to this,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause if we look at it in isolation, we\u2019ll probably have something that\u2019s lacking.\u201d\nEarlier this year, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, described the situation in the war-torn country as a \u201cstalemate.\u201d \nOfficials have said the strategy in Afghanistan needs to be flexible enough to provide the tools needed for Afghan forces to put more pressure on the Taliban.\n\u201cIt\u2019s not just about numbers of troops. It\u2019s about authorities. It\u2019s about other things we can do diplomatically and economically as well,\u201d Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. general, told lawmakers Monday. \nIncreased authorities could allow American troops to work with Afghan troops below the corps level, potentially putting them closer to fighting.\n", + "caption": "Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, left, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Defense Under Secretary and Chief Financial Office David Norquist, listen to a question as they testify at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY'18 defense bud", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/52B8BC49-E1B7-4115-9C58-BD738E35FB44.jpg", + "id": "32366_1_1", + "answer": [ + "President Donald Trump" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Mattis" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_13_3898063", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_13_3898063_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is undermining the people in the image?", + "context": "Will Sending More US Troops to Afghanistan Turn Back Taliban?\nAs Washington considers sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, analysts are skeptical whether the move would help quell a resurgent Taliban or push the insurgent group to the negotiating table.\nU.S President Donald Trump is expected to announce his Afghan policy later this month and his advisers are reportedly recommending adding up to 5,000 additional American troops.\nSecurity analysts say a troop surge would not make a difference unless additional steps are taken including reforms within the Afghan government and convincing Pakistan to break ties with militant groups in Afghanistan.\n\"The troop surge in itself won't lead to either the defeat of the Taliban, it won't even slowdown their advances,\" said Ioannis Koskinas, a senior fellow at New America, a research institute in Washington. \"It is also not going to bring them to the negotiation table. Why should they? They think they are winning and 3,000 troops is not going to dramatically change the dynamics.\"\nSpeaking Thursday during a U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said the Taliban is likely to make gains in rural areas while the government is being undermined by the country's \"dire economic situation.\"\nA U.S. watchdog estimates Taliban controls around 11 percent of districts with some 30 percent contested in battles with Afghan forces.\nAnalysts agree with Coats and other U.S. officials who say the Afghan security and military apparatus needs to be fixed.\n\"The Afghan government must start assigning merit-based appointments of competent individuals in key security posts,\" Koskinas said. \"Without strong leadership, that is currently lacking in the ministries of defense and interior, and from operational to tactical units, the surge of troops has no chance of improving security or countering the Taliban expansion.\"\nCorruption in the ranks\nFILE - Relatives carry the coffin of one of the victims a day after an attack on an army headquarters in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, April 22, 2017.\nBesides battling an emboldened insurgency, Afghan security forces face rampant corruption in their ranks.\n\"The ineffective and corrupt Afghan government is one of the problems,\" said analyst David Des Roches, who teaches at the National Defense University in Washington. \"I think the Afghan government reform should be our priority.\"\nThe watchdog, U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), has repeatedly warned that corruption and mismanagement could lead to military failure in the country.\n\"Afghanistan has enough security forces and if they are strategically used under the right leadership, they are capable of defending the country,\" said Afghan lawmaker Abdul Jabbar Qahraman, who was tasked by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to oversee anti-Taliban offensives in the southern restive Helmand province.\nAdditional U.S. troops would be most beneficial if they are used to prop up Afghan forces and enable them to succeed, analysts say.\n\"The new plan should strengthen the capabilities of the Afghan national army that the U.S. has been training,\" said Wadir Safi, a Kabul University professor of politics. \"They should get more training and equipment to eventually take over the country's defense and security.\"\nPakistan's link\nThe Durand line, on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border\nBut Taliban do not operate in Afghanistan alone.\nAfghanistan has long accused Pakistan of tolerating and supporting militant groups that have carried out attacks across their shared borders. The United States has also pressed Islamabad to do more to crack down on such groups. Pakistan rejects allegations of employing proxies from its soil, saying Pakistan itself is a victim of terrorism.\nBut analysts say a U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan must be accompanied with forcing Pakistan to crackdown on support the Afghan Taliban receive from sanctuaries on Pakistani soil.\n\"Pakistan is not helping the security situation in Afghanistan,\" analyst Koskinas said. \"Their [Pakistan] support for the Taliban has not been curbed by American carrots. But we've never really applied any sticks as complement to the carrot. The U.S. needs a separate and comprehensive strategy to influence Pakistan.\"\nPakistani defense analyst, Talat Masood believes that Islamabad should take the impending U.S. troop surge as a signal that the U.S is serious about ridding insurgency in Afghanistan and the region.\n\"Pakistan needs to cut its links with the Taliban,\" he said.\nStill, Coats conceded Thursday that Afghanistan is likely to struggle until it can either contain the insurgency or reach a peace agreement with Taliban. And analysts wonder whether the U.S. troop surge would succeed in doing that.\n\"Can you put enough pain on the Taliban that they would say we can't go on with this and we will go for a negotiated settlement?\" Des Roches asked. \"There are Pakistani safe havens whether it is due to Pakistani lack of ability or Pakistani collusion, and as long as they [Taliban] are fighting for their life, it seems unlikely that this will defeat them.\"\nVOA's Afghan, Deewa and Urdu services contributed to this report. \n", + "caption": "FILE - Afghan security forces take position during a gun battle between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Laghman province, Afghanistan, March 1, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/684BB2D8-4673-43EF-B144-404E886C04D9.jpg", + "id": "24145_1", + "answer": [ + "rampant corruption in their ranks" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Afghan security forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_11_3848242", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_11_3848242_1" + }, + { + "question": "What could the man on the front right of the image be subject to?", + "context": "Indonesia Arrests Japanese Man in Reptile Smuggling\nJAKARTA, INDONESIA \u2014\u00a0\nIndonesian authorities have arrested a Japanese man who conservationists say is a major player in the illegal wildlife trade for allegedly attempting to smuggle more than 250 reptiles out of the country.\nThe head of law enforcement at Jakarta's international airport, Ridwan Alaydrus, said Thursday that Katsuhide Naito was arrested after customs officers found 181 lizards, 65 snakes and seven turtles in his luggage.\nHe said the wildlife seized Tuesday included 12 different species, three of which are endangered.\nNaito allegedly bought the haul from poachers in northern Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo, Alaydrus said. It included green tree snakes, Borneo lizards and pig-nosed turtles, which are protected under Indonesian law. \nNaito was arrested before boarding a flight to Japan. His travel documents indicated he is a frequent visitor to Indonesia, holding Platinum Elite Plus status with the country's national airline, Garuda.\nAlaydrus said the man could be charged under Indonesia's animal quarantine law, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine.\nThe Wildlife Conservation Society's Indonesia program said it hopes Naito will also be charged under conservation laws with a maximum prison term of five years.\nThe group's crimes unit manager, Dwi Adhiasto, said Naito was a \"big player\" in the wildlife trade and was previously arrested in Australia in 2005 for smuggling 39 exotic reptiles from Southeast Asia.\nIndonesia, an archipelago of more than 13,000 islands, is home to numerous reptile species, some of which are on the brink of extinction because of deforestation and poaching.\n", + "caption": "Custom officers show a pig-nosed turtle and a Japanese suspect, Naito Katsuhide, front right, during a press conference at the quarantine facility of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, May 16, 2017. Authorities said Naito Katsuhide attemped to smuggle more than 250 reptiles out of the country.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7AB62578-D420-4FE0-8242-27FC024E7FA8.jpg", + "id": "3205_1", + "answer": [ + "three years in prison and a fine." + ], + "bridge": [ + "Naito Katsuhide" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3855849", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3855849_1" + }, + { + "question": "How common are the events that happen to the people in the image?", + "context": "Militants Storm Afghanistan\u2019s National Broadcaster\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nA group of at least four Islamic State militants, including suicide bombers, stormed an office of Afghanistan\u2019s state broadcaster in eastern Nangarhar province Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding up to 20 others.\nProvincial officials and hospital sources said four employees of the national Radio Television Afghanistan, or RTA, and at least two security personnel were among the dead.\nAfghan President Ashraf Ghani condemned the violence as an \"attack on free speech.\"\nThe assault in Jalalabad, the provincial capital, began with suicide bombers blowing themselves up and making way for others to enter the facility.\nThe raid set off fierce clashes with Afghan security forces. The firefight left the assailants dead, ending a nearly four-hour siege.\nIS through its global media outlet, Amaq News Agency, claimed the suicide raid killed 30 security personnel and media men, though the group often issues inflated tolls after such attacks.\nLoyalists of the Syria-based terrorist group are operating in several districts of Nangarhar, with Achin as their stronghold. They regularly stage attacks on Afghan and U.S. forces that are conducting major operations to eliminate IS from the volatile province, which borders Pakistan.\nThe Taliban insurgency is also active in parts of Nangarhar.\n", + "caption": "Afghan security forces arrive at the site of an attack in Jalalabad city, eastern Afghanistan May 17, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BE110245-213C-4CCA-B1B3-4BDFE8C9AFC4.jpg", + "id": "7532_1", + "answer": [ + "regularly" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Afghan security forces", + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_17_3853882", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_17_3853882_1" + }, + { + "question": "What person was also affected by the events in the image?", + "context": "Jets Pound Northwest Syria as Geneva Talks Continue\nBEIRUT \u2014\u00a0\nAt least 11 people were killed in airstrikes on Syria's rebel-held Idlib province Monday, opposition activists said, in the latest spasm of violence to mar U.N.-brokered talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the opposition.\nSeparately, there were unconfirmed reports that a top al-Qaida official was killed in an airstrike, also in Idlib.\nThe SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist groups, said Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abdulrahman, the deputy to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, may have been killed in a U.S. airstrike on an unmarked sedan Sunday evening. It cited reports circulating on jihadist social media accounts.\nThe northwestern province falls largely under the control of an al-Qaida-linked rebel coalition. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by fighting are living as refugees there.\nCivil defense members work at a site hit at dawn by an airstrike in the rebel-controlled town of Ariha in Idlib province, Syria, Feb. 27, 2017.\nImages of the vehicle purported to have been carrying Abdulrahman, known more widely by his nom de guerre Abu al-Khayr al-Masri, showed damage to the passenger compartment of the beige Kia sedan but no damage to the engine block. The roof was blown open on the right side of the vehicle.\nThe Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that a top al-Qaida official was killed in a drone strike, but could not confirm it was al-Masri.\nAl-Masri was a close affiliate to late al-Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden and was once the chairman of the organization's management council, according to a Washington Post report citing leaked U.S. intelligence documents dating back to 2008.\nIranian authorities are believed to have jailed him following the 9/11 attacks before releasing him in a prison exchange with al-Qaida in Yemen in 2015.\nA senior official at a rival jihadist faction in northern Syria urged caution over the reports, saying other top al-Qaida officials in Syria had staged their own deaths only to defect from the organization. The official asked not to be identified because of rivalries between the various factions.\nThere was no immediate comment from the Pentagon.\nThe activist-run Baladi News network published footage of rescuers searching for victims in the rubble of a block destroyed in presumed government or Russian airstrikes Monday, in the town of Areeha in northwest Syria.\nThe Syrian Civil Defense search-and-rescue group said it had counted 15 fatalities.\nThe Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least seven civilians and four other unidentified victims had been killed. It blamed the attack on government warplanes.\nThe strikes come as an opposition delegation gears up to meet Monday with U.N. mediator Staffan de Mistura in Geneva to continue talks aimed at resolving Syria's six-year-old war.\n", + "caption": "Civil defense members work at a site hit at dawn by an airstrike in the rebel-controlled town of Ariha in Idlib province, Syria, Feb. 27, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/EEFBF3DF-9560-413C-AD9B-30CB8D5A23E7.jpg", + "id": "7705_2", + "answer": [ + "Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abdulrahman" + ], + "bridge": [ + "airstrike" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3741927", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3741927_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people from the image retake?", + "context": "Afghan Forces Continue to Suffer Battlefield Casualties\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nA Taliban attack on a military base in southern Afghanistan has killed at least 11 government soldiers and wounded as many others, while a major insurgent offensive on a remote western district has triggered deadly clashes.\nA Defense Ministry statement said Tuesday the overnight Taliban assault targeted the military base in Shawali Kot district in the Kandahar province, saying ensuing clashes lasted several hours. Officials claimed at least a dozen assailants were killed.\nA regional military spokesman, Mohammad Sadiq, told VOA reinforcements were quickly dispatched to the conflict zone and Afghan forces have retaken control of the ground lost in overnight fighting.\nElsewhere in western Afghanistan, authorities said Taliban insurgents staged a major pre-dawn offensive on Qudas district in the province of Badghis, triggering fierce clashes that continued into Tuesday.\nThe fighting \u201ckilled and wounded\u201d at least eight Afghan troops, while assailants also suffered 18 casualties, provincial police chief, Abdul Rauf Taj told VOA. He said government forces beat back the offensive shortly after reinforcements arrived in the area. \nA Taliban statement, however, claimed its fighters have captured district army and police headquarters.\nOn Sunday, authorities confirmed Taliban fighters killed at least 20 Afghan troops and wounded 15 others in the southern Zabul province. The insurgent group also overran a number of security outposts, effectively blocking traffic on the main highway linking the national capital of Kabul with Kandahar.\nFILE - Coffins containing the bodies of Afghan national Army (ANA) soldiers killed in an April 21 attack on an army base are lined up in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, April 22, 2017. The attack killed more than 140 Afghan soldiers.\nPart of \u2018spring offensive\u2019\nThe Taliban has ramped up attacks across embattled Afghanistan since launching their so-called yearly \u201cspring offensive\u201d about a month ago.\nJust days before unleashing its spring offensive in late April, the Islamist insurgency staged its deadliest attack on a regional military base outside the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The raid killed more than 140 Afghan soldiers, though multiple independent sources reported a much higher death toll.\nThe United States is considering whether to send several thousand military advisers to help boost its existing train, advise and assist mission to enable Afghan forces reverse insurgent gains.\nIn a quarterly assessment released earlier this month, a U.S. government agency noted the Taliban has continued to inflict \u201cshockingly high\u201d casualties on government forces and brought more territory under its control or influence.\n\u201cAfghanistan remains in the grip of a deadly war. Casualties suffered by the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in the fight against the Taliban and other insurgents continue to be shockingly high: 807 were killed in the first six weeks of this year,\u201d said the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR.\nAbout 6,785 Afghan soldiers and police personnel were killed while another 11,777 were wounded in the first 11 months of 2016. The United Nations says civilian casualties resulting from conflict-related incidents have also hit a new high this year.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Afghan security forces inspect damages after clashes between Taliban fighters and Afghan forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Dec. 9, 2015. An overnight Taliban attack in Kandahar province killed 11 government soldiers, an Afghan Defense Ministry statement said Tuesday.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BC8ADC18-75B8-402D-9E67-C4EC4223D366.jpg", + "id": "28341_1", + "answer": [ + "the ground lost in overnight fighting." + ], + "bridge": [ + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3867011", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3867011_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person being engulfed in the image do?", + "context": "'Carlos The Jackal' Back on Trial for 1974 Paris Attack\nPARIS \u2014\u00a0\nOnce the world's most-wanted fugitive, the political extremist known as Carlos the Jackal appeared in a French court Monday for a deadly 1974 attack against a Paris shopping arcade, a trial that victims' families awaited for decades.\nThe Venezuelan-born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez is accused of throwing a hand grenade from a mezzanine restaurant onto a shopping area in the French capital's Latin Quarter. Two people were killed and 34 injured at the trendy Drugstore Publicis.\nKnown worldwide as Carlos, the 67-year-old is already serving a life sentence in France for a series of murders and attacks he has been convicted of perpetrating or organizing in the country on behalf of the Palestinian cause or communist revolution in the 1970s and '80s.\nAs the trial opened Monday, Carlos denounced it as a \"gross manipulation of justice\" 42 years after the attack. He has denied involvement and pleaded innocent.\nAsked to state his profession before the court, he called himself a \"professional revolutionary,\" and said \"I'm doing fine\" in prison - after more than 20 years behind bars.\nIf convicted of first-degree murders in the trial, which lasts through March 31, he could get a third life sentence.\nAt the time of the 1974 attack, Ramirez Sanchez was 24 years old and already had joined the organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but hadn't yet achieved worldwide notoriety.\nWhen police arrived at the scene of the attack, they found a devastated mall with all the windows shattered, multiple bloodstains and a hole in the marble slab of the ground floor where the grenade fell. The two men who died were hit by metal chips that perforated vital organs and caused internal bleeding, according to court documents.\nHis long-time lawyer and fiance, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, claims that none of the witnesses had described a man resembling her client, and that the whole case was trumped-up.\nThe case took so long to go to trial because it was first dismissed for lack of evidence before being reopened when Carlos was arrested and imprisoned in France. His lawyers repeatedly argued against holding a trial, arguing the attack was too long ago and that it won't make a difference for Carlos, already in prison for life.\n\"What need is there to hold this trial?\" asked one of Carlos' lawyers, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre. \"It's a useless trial.\"\nThe attack's victims, however, are relieved. \"The civil parties demand justice,\" said Georges Holleaux, lawyer for the widows of the two men killed in the attack and other civil parties to the case.\nProsecutor Remi Crosson du Cormier argued that the trial remains relevant today. \"Democracy has two principal enemies - totalitarianism, and terrorism,\" he said, suggesting that Carlos is among \"those who threaten democracy by their actions.\"\nThe case is being heard by a special court made up of professional judges and with no jurors, as is the custom with terrorism trials in France.\nYet an Arab language news magazine in France, Al Watan Al Arabi, published a long interview with a man it identified as Ramirez Sanchez five years after the attack. He allegedly claimed he had personally thrown the grenade into the restaurant, described the full details of the operation and explained why it was carried out. Carlos later disputed he had given the interview.\nCarlos was arrested in Sudan by the French intelligence services in 1994, in a dramatic sting.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known as \"Carlos the Jackal,\" is surrounded by French gendarmes as he leaves the Paris courthouse, March 3, 2014. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D93D66E7-B541-4422-BB93-31C6E3844E6E.jpg", + "id": "27029_1", + "answer": [ + "throwing a hand grenade from a mezzanine restaurant" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ilich Ramirez Sanchez" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763131", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3763131_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the government of the person in the image with the grey tie do?", + "context": "Trump Eager For Big Meeting with Putin, Some Advisers Wary\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Donald Trump is eager to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin with full diplomatic bells and whistles when the two are in Germany for a multinational summit next month. But the idea is exposing deep divisions within the administration on the best way to approach Moscow in the midst of an ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.\nMany administration officials believe the U.S. needs to maintain its distance from Russia at such a sensitive time \u2014 and interact only with great caution.\nBut Trump and some others within his administration have been pressing for a full bilateral meeting. He's calling for media access and all the typical protocol associated with such sessions, even as officials within the State Department and National Security Council urge more restraint, according to a current and a former administration official.\nSome advisers have recommended that the president instead do either a quick, informal \"pull-aside\" on the sidelines of the summit, or that the U.S. and Russian delegations hold \"strategic stability talks,\" which typically don't involve the presidents. The officials spoke anonymously to discuss private policy discussions.\nFILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting in Moscow, June 16, 2017.\nThe contrasting views underscore differing views within the administration on overall Russia policy, and Trump's eagerness to develop a working relationship with Russia despite the ongoing investigations.\nRussian reaction\nAsked about the AP report that Trump is eager for a full bilateral meeting, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Monday that \"the protocol side of it is secondary.\"\nFILE - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, April 27, 2017.\nThe two leaders will be attending the same event in the same place at the same time, Peskov said, so \"in any case there will be a chance to meet.\" Peskov added, however, that no progress in hammering out the details of the meeting has been made yet.\nThere are potential benefits to a meeting with Putin. A face-to-face meeting can humanize the two sides and often removes some of the intrigue involved in impersonal, telephone communication. Trump \u2014 the ultimate dealmaker \u2014 has repeatedly suggested that he can replace the Obama-era damage in the U.S.-Russia relationship with a partnership, particularly on issues like the ongoing Syria conflict.\nPotential risks \nThere are big risks, though. Trump is known to veer off-script, creating the possibility for a high-stakes diplomatic blunder. In a brief Oval Office meeting with top Russian diplomats last month, Trump revealed highly classified information about an Islamic State group threat to airlines that was relayed to him by Israel, according to a senior administration official. The White House defended the disclosures as \"wholly appropriate.\"\nIn addition, many observers warn that Putin is not to be trusted.\nOleg Kalugin, a former general with Russia's main security agency, known as the KGB, said Putin, a shrewd and experienced politician, has \"other priorities\" than discussing the accusations that Russia hacked the U.S. election with Trump, such as easing sanctions, raising oil prices, as well as next year's presidential elections in Russia.\n\"Putin knows how to redirect a conversation in his favor,\" Kalugin said.\nNina Khrushcheva, a Russian affairs professor at the New School, said Trump is in an \"impossible position.\"\n\"He can't be too nice to Putin because it's going to be interpreted in a way that suggests he has a special relationship with Russia,\" she said. \"He can't be too mean because Putin has long arms and KGB thinking. So Trump needs to have a good relationship with him but he also needs to fulfill his campaign promises of establishing better relations with Russia.\"\nThe White House said no final decision has been made about whether a meeting will take place. It did not respond to questions about the opposing views within the administration.\nBilateral meetings are common during summits like the G-20, where many world leaders and their advisers are gathered in one place.\nFILE - U.S. President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, right prior to the opening session of the G-20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, Nov. 15, 2015.\nThe meetings are typically highly choreographed affairs, with everything from the way the two leaders shake hands to the looks that they exchange and the actual words spoken offering glimpses into the state of affairs.\nThe last U.S.-Russia bilateral meeting was a 2015 encounter between Putin and President Barack Obama that began with an awkward handshake and ended with progress on the brutal civil war in Syria.\nFILE - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 28, 2015.\nThat 2015 meeting, the first in two years, involved a 90-minute sit-down at U.N. headquarters. Putin and U.S. officials later said the two leaders had made progress on issues related to Syria, which had strained their already tense relationship. For the Obama administration, cautious engagement was the name of the game, with the U.S. working tirelessly to find middle ground with Moscow on Syria, Ukraine and other issues.\nThe disconnect between Trump and his advisers in the State Department and National Security Council over Russia runs deeper than the debate over a G-20 bilateral.\nMore careful approach urged \nA former administration official who spoke anonymously to discuss classified information said that frustration is growing among foreign policy advisers over the failure of the White House to embrace a more cautious and critical approach to Russia. All 17 U.S. intelligence agencies have agreed Russia was behind last year's hack of Democratic email systems and tried to influence the 2016 election to benefit Trump.\nTrump has to directly \"say to Putin, 'We're not happy about you interfering in our election,'\" said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. \"If you don't say that, you are going to get hammered by the press and Congress and you can guarantee Congress will pass sanctions legislation against Russia.\"\n\"They also need to keep their expectations very, very modest,\" added Pifer. \"If they aim for a homerun in Hamburg, my guess is they'll strike out.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet at the United Nations General Assembly in New York, Sept. 28, 2015.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B0374817-2DCE-4DC5-AF05-F71E358D2E3A.jpg", + "id": "5436_5", + "answer": [ + "investigation into Russian meddling in the U.S. elections", + "working tirelessly to find middle ground with Moscow on Syria, Ukraine and other issues." + ], + "bridge": [ + "Barack Obama", + "Obama" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_26_3916533", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_26_3916533_5" + }, + { + "question": "How were the people in the image prepared?", + "context": "IS Posts Drone Footage of Suicide Attacks as Group Struggles to Market Self\nIslamic State propagandists posted a 42-minute video online Wednesday that included the drowning in a fish tank of an alleged Iraqi spy and the beheading of another, as well as drone footage of more than a dozen suicide bombings in northern Iraq undertaken by teenage boys and a one-legged old man. \nThe video is the latest in a sudden surge of big production propaganda material being posted by the terror group. In the past few months, the jihadists\u2019 media output had decreased significantly, likely as the result of the military pressure IS has come under across its self-declared caliphate in both Iraq and Syria.\nJust days before the IS-claimed New Year\u2019s Eve attack on the Reina nightclub in Istanbul that left 39 dead, the group released a video of two Turkish soldiers being forced to crawl on all fours before being burned alive. First posted with an Arabic language commentary on December 22 and re-released Monday with an English language voice-over, the video accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of siding with apostates and the Christian West.\nAnd just after Christmas, IS propagandists released a chilling half-hour video of child jihadists as young as nine years old participating in live-fire training exercises, shooting first at dummies and then at captives with their hands bound and trying to elude them in a debris-strewn building. In the video, captives are shown weeping after being cornered by the mini mob of indoctrinated boys, who gun them down at point-blank range.\nScenes in the video included the boys, known as cubs of the caliphate, taking Quran classes, studying execution videos and pledging allegiance to terror leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, while brandishing automatic weapons.\nFILE - \u0410 screen grab from an Islamic State propaganda video shows child soldiers, known as cubs of the caliphate, at an alleged IS training camp.\nMilitary challenges\nThe media surge is a response to the increasingly dangerous military challenge the group is facing, says former U.S. ambassador Alberto Fernandez, now with The Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based research organization that monitors jihadist propaganda.\n\u201cJust like IS has tried to surge in its overseas attacks and responded fiercely to military advances in northern Syria and Mosul, they are trying to fight against the idea that they are in an inexorable decline,\u201d he says.\nThe video posted this week recalls earlier 2014 IS productions in terms of slickness and editing techniques. \nIt begins with footage of multiple VBIED (vehicle-borne improvised explosive device) suicide attacks carried out by jihadists in Mosul. Suicide bombers are interviewed by IS videographers before bombing runs. One bomber is crippled and wheeled off to his waiting bomb-rigged vehicle in a wheelchair. As with others, his attack and its aftermath are filmed by a drone.\nAnalysts have noted in recent months a sharp drop in the output of Islamic State propaganda, which is largely credited with having helped the terror group recruit an estimated 30,000 foreign fighters. Last year, the group posted online a fraction of the videos and images it produced in 2014 and 2015, and has for months appeared to be struggling to maintain production as it has come under growing pressure from foes on the battlefield, according to researchers.\nA study released in October by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, showed there had been a plunge, with a decline from a peak of 761 releases a month in August of 2015, to just 194 a year later. \n\u201cIt is clear the organization has been forced to cut back these activities in response to the increasing amount of pressure brought to bear,\u201d concluded the West Point researchers.\nFILE - A screenshot from an Islamic State propaganda video purports to show young boys preparing to execute a group of captives.\nDwindling resources\nThey argued the decline is evidence IS finds it a challenge to devote the personnel and secure the resources to keep up production rates of its propaganda bid.\nMost of the reduction in media output has likely been a direct consequence of military offensives against the group in Iraq and Syria, which have seen the territory controlled by the jihadists reduced dramatically. Media production facilities have been destroyed and propagandists killed in airstrikes. They include two of the terror group\u2019s top propagandists, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, who personally selected execution videos and was killed in late August, and his replacement, Abu Muhammad Furqan, who was killed a month later.\nAnalysts point out the latest long-form videos produced by IS in recent weeks are less experimental and don\u2019t exhibit the more complex and demanding techniques used in IS videos in 2014 and 2015. Aside from the drone footage, less demanding filming and editing techniques are used in the video posted Wednesday.\nThe terror group\u2019s propagandists also appear to be struggling to produce multi-language versions of videos. In 2014 and 2015, videos were posted in different language versions at the same time. Now the videos tend only to be in Arabic.\n", + "caption": "FILE - \u0410 screen grab from an Islamic State propaganda video shows child soldiers, known as cubs of the caliphate, at an alleged IS training camp.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AAEDE31B-8848-4767-B8A4-9A99DE416F3D.jpg", + "id": "16579_2", + "answer": [ + "live-fire training exercises", + "Taking Quran classes, studying execution videos and pledging allegiance to terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi", + "Participating in live-fire training exercises" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Child soldiers ", + "child" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_04_3663092", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_04_3663092_2" + }, + { + "question": "How is the picture shown in the image now stored?", + "context": "Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Return to Amsterdam Museum\nAMSTERDAM \u2014\u00a0\nThe Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam welcomed home two paintings by the Dutch master Tuesday, more than 14 years after they were ripped off the museum's wall in a nighttime heist.\n\"They're back,\" said museum director Axel Rueger. He called their return one of the \"most special days in the history of our museum.\"\nThe paintings, the 1882 \"View of the Sea at Scheveningen,\" and 1884-85 work \"Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen,\" were discovered last year by Italian police investigating suspected Italian mobsters for cocaine trafficking.\nIt wasn't an easy find. The two paintings were wrapped in cotton sheets, stuffed in a box and hidden behind a wall in a toilet, said Gen. Gianluigi D'Alfonso of the Italian financial police, who was on hand at the museum to watch the ceremonial unveiling.\nThey were found in a farmhouse near Naples as Italian police seized some 20 million euros worth of assets, including villas, apartments and even a small airplane. Investigators contend the assets are linked to two Camorra drug kingpins, Mario Cerrone and Raffaele Imperiale.\n\"After years shrouded in darkness, they can now shine again,\" Dutch Minister for Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker said as an orange screen slid away to reveal the two paintings behind a glass wall.\nItaly's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said last year the paintings were \"considered among the artworks most searched for in the world, on the FBI's list of the Top 10 art crimes.\"\nThey are now back on display at the museum before being taken to its conservation studio for repair, although they suffered remarkably little damage as thieves who had clambered up a ladder and smashed a window to get into the museum in 2002 ripped them out of their frames and fled.\n\"It is not only a miracle that the works have been recovered but it's even more miraculous almost that they are in relatively unharmed condition,\" Rueger said.\nThe museum director was on vacation when the call came last year from Italian authorities who believed they had recovered the paintings. He didn't celebrate right away; he'd had calls like this before.\n\"I was hopeful but also a little hesitant because over the course of the years we had multiple occasions when people phoned us, contacted us, claiming that they knew something about the whereabouts of the works and each time it was false, the trace went cold,\" he said. \"So ... the way has been peppered with disappointment.\"\nBut museum experts dispatched to Italy to check the authenticity of the works quickly turned Rueger's doubts into delight.\n\"It was something we had secretly been hoping for for all those years,\" he said.\nThe two small works are not typical of Van Gogh's later and better-known works, but are still vital pieces for the museum's collection, Rueger said.\nThe Scheveningen seascape, with a fishing boat and rough sea under a typically gray, cloudy Dutch sky, is one of Van Gogh's earliest works and the only painting in the museum's collection painted during his time in The Hague. It suffered a missing rectangular chip from the bottom left-hand corner.\nThe painting of the church in Nuenen portrayed the village where his parents lived.\n\"He had painted as a gift to his mother, so it's a very personal and emotional connection,\" Rueger said.\nRueger said the paintings are now back for good at a museum which is home to dozens of works by Van Gogh, whose paintings fetch millions of dollars on the rare occasions they come up for auction.\n\"The security, I can assure you, is of Triple-A quality now so I'm very confident that everything is safe in the museum,\" he said.\n", + "caption": "Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rueger, left, and Jet Bussemaker, Minister for Education, Culture and Science, stand next to the stolen and recovered \"Seascape at Scheveningen\" by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh, during a press conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Tuesday, March 21, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7D4CE383-7848-4732-AD88-B0F05AC268B1.jpg", + "id": "22874_1", + "answer": [ + "behind a glass wall" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Bussemaker" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775301", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775301_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is becoming more involved in response to the attack in the image?", + "context": "Pentagon Wants to Expand US Military Efforts in Somalia\nMOGADISHU, SOMALIA \u2014\u00a0\nWith frequent suicide bombings and assaults on Somalia\u2019s hotels and military targets, the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab has proved more resilient than expected, leading President Donald Trump\u2019s administration to pursue wider military involvement here as current strategies, including drone attacks, are not enough, security experts say.\nSenior U.S. officials have said the Pentagon wants to expand the military\u2019s efforts to battle the al-Qaida-linked group. Recommendations sent to the White House would allow U.S special forces to increase assistance to the Somali National Army and give the U.S. military greater flexibility to launch more pre-emptive airstrikes.\nThe U.S. is likely to find counterterror efforts in Somalia difficult and expensive, analysts say, especially with the recent emergence of fighters pledging alliance to the Islamic State group.\n\u201cThe concern in Washington has been mounting for some time now. The Trump administration is simply reiterating what has been policy, with slight variations,\u201d said Rashid Abdi, a Horn of Africa analyst with the International Crisis Group. \u201cU.S. special forces are already on the ground. Drone attacks have been scaled up.\u201d\nAdvise and assist\nCurrently about 50 U.S. commandos rotate in and out of this Horn of Africa nation to advise and assist local troops. The commandos have accompanied Somali forces in several raids against al-Shabab fighters in which dozens of militants were killed, according to Somali intelligence officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.\nSomalia, which has been without an effective central government since the fall of dictator Siad Barre in 1991, was one of the seven predominantly Muslim countries included in Trump\u2019s recent travel ban. That executive order has since been suspended by federal courts.\nFILE - Former members of the militant group al-Shabab are held inside the prison in Garowe, Puntland state in northeastern Somalia, Dec. 14, 2016. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the shooting death of a Puntland senior official, Dec. 20, 2016.\nAl-Shabab emerged amid Somalia\u2019s years of chaos. A regional military effort several years ago pushed the extremist group from the capital, Mogadishu, and most other urban centers. But experts say that push against al-Shabab then weakened, allowing it to regroup and adapt to operating in the country\u2019s vast rural areas. It recently stepped up attacks in the capital and elsewhere.\nThe U.S. has military bases in Somalia, although it has not publicly acknowledged them. They are often used for drone attacks against al-Shabab targets. One of the largest bases is at Baledogle airfield, a former Somali air force base in Lower Shabelle region where U.S. military experts also train Somali forces, according to Somali officials.\nIn the past year the U.S. launched 14 airstrikes, nearly all drone strikes, killing some top al-Shabab leaders, including Hassan Ali Dhore and Abdullahi Haji Daud, according to a Somali intelligence official who coordinated with the U.S. on some of them. \nThe attacks have helped combat al-Shabab but have not brought the group to its knees, the official said.\nThe main successes against al-Shabab have come from the 22,000-strong African Union regional force that has operated in Somalia since 2007. But the AU force plans to withdraw by the end of 2020, and cost is a primary reason. The annual mission\u2019s budget has risen from $300 million in 2009 to $900 million in 2016, said Ahmed Soliman, an analyst with Chatham House, the London-based think tank.\nWithout the African Union troops, the fight against al-Shabab will be left to the Somali army, widely regarded as weak and disorganized. Building the army into an effective force will be the primary challenge facing the United States.\nThe U.S. military probably plans to step up training and coordination but not actually put more American boots on the ground in Somalia, Soliman said. The Black Hawk Down incident of 1993, in which two U.S. helicopters were shot down in Mogadishu and bodies of Americans were dragged through the streets, is a factor discouraging more direct U.S. involvement. Even now, the U.S. has no embassy in Somalia. \nFILE - Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also known as Farmajo, attends his inauguration ceremony in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 22, 2017.\nAl-Shabab in recent weeks has increased bombings in Mogadishu, threatening the security efforts of new Somali-American President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, during whose time as prime minister in 2010-2011 the group was expelled from the capital. The extremists continue to dominate remote towns and villages across the south and central parts of the country. \nBut a new security threat in Somalia, and a challenge to any U.S. military efforts, is the emergence of Islamic State group-linked fighters, who officials fear could expand their foothold beyond the semi-autonomous north. The fighters broke away from al-Shabab and declared allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2015. Al-Shabab sees the splinter group as a threat to its operations.\n\u201cIt\u2019s only al-Shabab that can stand in ISIS\u2019 way to expand its areas of operation \u2014 Somali forces are now too disorganized to stop them,\u201d said Ahmed Mohamoud, a retired former Somali military general. \n", + "caption": "FILE - A shopkeeper surveys the wreckage of shops destroyed by a blast in a market in the capital Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 19, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/06B2AF38-0C85-40CF-8AD0-7D8038D0A37C.jpg", + "id": "4256_1", + "answer": [ + "President Donald Trump\u2019s administration" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Somalia" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748036", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748036_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image have to take?", + "context": "Top Mexican Official Said to Tip Drug Cartel About US Probe\nMEXICO CITY \u2014\u00a0\nIn a major embarrassment for Mexican law enforcement, U.S. prosecutors said in documents made public Wednesday that the commander of a Mexican police intelligence-sharing unit was passing information on a DEA investigation to the Beltran Leyva drug cartel in exchange for millions of dollars.\nIvan Reyes Arzate was named in a U.S. district court indictment, just hours after Mexico's federal police revealed an unnamed agent had been charged with obstructing an investigation.\nWhat Mexican police commissioner Manelich Castilla did not reveal was that Ivan Reyes Arzate, the officer charged, was the commander of a federal police sensitive investigative unit. The special units, known as SIUs, were formed starting in the 1990s precisely to create more secure groups that the U.S. could feel more comfortable sharing intelligence with. Castilla said Reyes Arzate had been fired in November.\nAccording to the U.S. indictment, Reyes Arzate was caught on a wiretap in September telling a drug trafficker to get rid of his communications equipment because he was under investigation and his phones were being tapped.\nFILE - Mexican federal police officers are seen standing guard during a raid.\nHe even sent the trafficker a surveillance photo that the Mexican unit had taken of him.\nThe U.S. indictment unsealed Wednesday in Chicago says Reyes Arzate was the top commander of an SIU unit whose officers were specially trained and vetted by the United States, including weeklong training at a DEA school in Quantico, Virginia.\nA former federal police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is no longer with the agency said Reyes Arzate was probably two or three steps down in the command chain from the federal police commissioner.\n\"Reyes, in his role as supervisor over the SIU, routinely had contact and worked collaboratively with DEA agents in Mexico City,\" according to the indictment.\n'Severe integrity issues'\nMike Vigil, a former chief of international operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said there had always been a problem with the special units: The top commanders refused to submit to background or polygraph checks, even though low-level agents were vetted.\n\"The higher echelon, the higher level of the federal police, do not want to be vetted,\" Vigil said. \"So the information that goes from the vetted units to their commanders can be easily compromised.\"\n\"We have pushed for that ... they have never wanted to and I think that a lot of them have severe integrity issues, so they don't want to go through that vetting because they're afraid of what we may find out,\" Vigil said. \"A lot of them are corrupt so they don't want to be vetted. If we were able to vet them from top to bottom, it would be a great program.\"\nWhat is startling is the length and depth of Reyes Arzate's collusion with the Beltran Leyva gang, which has built a reputation of specializing in corrupting or bribing law enforcement officials.\nBeyond giving the drug trafficker detailed advice on how to evade the DEA investigation, the commander passed on to him fresh information given to him by the U.S. agency.\nFILE - Alleged drugdealer Alfredo Beltran Leyva is showed to the media by members of the Mexican Army in Mexico City, on January 21, 2008, after being captured in Culiacan, in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, along with three other members of his gang.\nAn unidentified confidential source cited in the indictment said Reyes Arzate had directly passed tips to Arturo Beltran Leyva, the cartel boss who was killed in 2009. That meant that Reyes Arzate had been a cartel mole in police agencies for at least seven years.\nThe cartel even killed a DEA informant based on information supplied by Reyes Arzate. \n'There seems to be a pattern here'\nIt raised questions about how Mexican authorities could possibly have missed such longstanding, outrageous corruption.\nStill, it's not the first time Mexico has failed to detect such deep corruption.\nThe indictment comes about a week after the attorney general for the Mexican state of Nayarit was arrested at the U.S. border on drug charges.\nEdgar Veytia was charged in the United States with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine to the U.S. from January 2013 to last month, while he was chief law enforcement officer in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit.\nThe revelations about two such-high-ranking officers could fuel continuing tensions between Mexico and the United States.\nMexican security analyst Alejandro Hope said \"there seems to be a pattern here.\"\n\"In both cases, the arrests were made without the participation of Mexican authorities. Confidence is not at its highest level.\"\nAdded Vigil: \"It detracts from the working relationship we have worked so hard to build.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - Seized weapons from alleged members of the Beltran Leyva drug cartel are taken away by federal agents after a news conference in Mexico City, June 26, 2009.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4CE54992-FCAA-4947-8F79-C1D78B9D4409.jpg", + "id": "31688_1", + "answer": [ + "background or polygraph checks" + ], + "bridge": [ + "agents" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_05_3798460", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_05_3798460_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the person in the middle of the image work for?", + "context": "Former German President Roman Herzog Dies Aged 82\nBERLIN \u2014\u00a0\nRoman Herzog, who as German president was a powerful advocate of economic reforms in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has died, the\npresident's office said on Tuesday. He was 82.\nHerzog was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union. He served as the chief justice of Germany's highest court before being elected to a five-year term as president in 1994, four years after reunification.\n\"Roman Herzog fulfilled the duties of the highest government post in his own inimitable way. He was frank, unpretentious, humorous and self-ironic,\" Merkel said.\n\"In European politics and confronting our past, Roman Herzog knew how to send important signals, through choosing the right words, or through silence, in places where there were no words, such as the former death camp of Auschwitz.\"\nGermany's current president, Joachim Gauck, described Herzog as a \"distinctive personality, who had helped shape Germany's self-image and the interactions in our society\".\nHerzog last year hit out at the big political parties for not doing more to halt the rise of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which looks poised to become the third largest party in parliament in national elections this year.\nIn 1995, during a visit to the former Nazi death camp in Bergen-Belsen, Herzog warned against the rise of new forms of exclusion and totalitarianism.\n\"So we must remain vigilant. And for that we have to remember. Only those who remember can banish dangers for the future,\" he said.\nAfter his term as president, a largely ceremonial post in Germany, Herzog also chaired the first European convention that drafted the European Union's Charter of Fundamental Rights.\n\"Today we have lost a great constitutional scholar, politician and statesman,\" said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a statement.\nMaram Stern, deputy chief executive of the World Jewish Congress, hailed Herzog as a \"great fighter for the constitutional state and for a free and tolerant society.\"\n", + "caption": "Former German President Roman Herzog, 82, (center), a powerful advocate of economic reforms in the 1990s after the fall of the Berlin Wall, has died, the president's office said, Jan. 10, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F5F06AC9-BAA7-445F-B8C9-1E6AD2A243C9.jpg", + "id": "6663_1", + "answer": [ + "Angela Merkel", + "Chancellor Angela Merkel" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Former German President Roman Herzog", + "Herzog" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_10_3670330", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_10_3670330_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who is experiencing the same problem as the man on the portrait in the image?", + "context": "Pro-Kurdish Political Figures in Turkey Join Hunger Strike\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nLeaders of Turkey's largest pro-Kurdish political party said they began a hunger strike Friday to protest prison conditions, joining other inmates who have been refusing to take solid food for up to 40 days.\nSelahattin Demirta\u015f, co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and his deputy, Abdullah Zeydan, have been jailed since November in the northwestern province of Edirne after refusing to testify in a probe linked to \u201cterrorist propaganda.\u201d HDP members make up the third-largest bloc in Turkey's parliament.\nAlso jailed are HDP co-leader Figen Yuksekdag and 10 other lawmakers from the party \u2014 all accused of ties to Kurdish militants. The HDP has denied any links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).\nHDP strongly opposes constitutional changes that will go before Turkish voters in a national referendum in mid-April.\nSeparately, Democratic Regions Party (DBP) co-chair Sebahat Tuncel, who is being held in Silivri Prison, said she and other detainees would join the hunger strike on Saturday.\nHDP officials contend that up to 5,471 party officials have been detained since the July 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, while DBP said 3,457 of its members have been held in pretrial detention since 2015.\nDemirta\u015f and the HDP have accused the government of using the state of emergency that was imposed after the failed coup as a means of suppressing dissent.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A supporter holds a portrait of Selahattin Demirtas, detained leader of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples' Democratic Party, at a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Nov. 8, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7969CF76-01AF-40AD-B74B-DCB781DA66B2.jpg", + "id": "31880_1", + "answer": [ + "his deputy, Abdullah Zeydan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Selahattin Demirta\u015f" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791372", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791372_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why have the people in the image been held by authorities?", + "context": "Group: Nigeria Must Negotiate Release of 195 Chibok Girls\nJOHANNESBURG \u2014\u00a0\nNigeria's government and military are not doing enough to ensure the release of 195 kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls held by Boko Haram Islamic extremists for nearly three years, the Bring Back Our Girls group said Tuesday.\nIt called for speedy negotiations to bring them home before next week's third anniversary of the mass abduction that outraged the world.\nThe movement also asked why two dozen of the Chibok girls freed last year have been held for months of alleged rehabilitation instead of being reunited with their families.\n\"It remains a puzzle to us that even their parents are not very informed on what the program of rehabilitation that the federal government is allegedly implementing seeks to achieve,\" it said.\nThe group published a letter sent to the government in January, saying it has never been answered. \"We are not satisfied with the conduct of the federal government and the military establishment,\" the letter said.\nNigerian officials did not respond to requests for comment.\nBoko Haram's mass abduction of 276 girls from a boarding school in April 2014 brought promises to help free them from around the world.\nDozens quickly escaped, and 21 were freed in October through negotiations with Boko Haram mediated by the Swiss government and the International Committee of the Red Cross.\nThe government denied a ransom was paid and that it freed some detained Boko Haram fighters in exchange for the girls.\nAt that time, officials said they were pressing on with negotiations and expected the release of a second group of 83 girls \"very soon.\" No more have been freed.\n", + "caption": "FILE- In this May 12, 2014 file image taken from video by Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network, shows the alleged missing girls abducted from the northeastern town of Chibok.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C5EA790A-F1FB-475A-9CB1-A384D11C018A.jpg", + "id": "4677_1", + "answer": [ + "alleged rehabilitation" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Chibok" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_04_3795420", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_04_3795420_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who will the man in the image work for if he gets his new job?", + "context": "Trump to Nominate Christopher Wray as FBI Director\nABOARD AIR FORCE ONE \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump has selected Christopher Wray, a former federal prosecutor, as his nominee to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation.\nWhite House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday the nomination is based on Wray's reputation and strong support across the political divide.\nTrump chose Wray in part because of \"the amount of praise across the board, bipartisan praise that we've seen, again, from Democrat senators and members talking about the credibility of Wray,\" Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. \"I think that shows a great choice and that the president made the right choice in picking him.\"\nSanders added that the president \"really was impressed with him.\"\nFILE - Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, May 11, 2017.\nTrump, asked by reporters about Wray at an airport in Cincinnati, Ohio, replied \"He's going to be great.\"\nIn a break with tradition, Trump revealed his selection Wednesday morning on Twitter prior to a quick trip to the Ohio River waterfront to deliver a speech on the need to upgrade waterways and other parts of the country's infrastructure.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nIf approved by Congress, Wray would replace James Comey, whom Trump fired.\nThe president's announcement comes one day before Comey is to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.\nAccording to an advance copy of his opening statement released Wednesday, Comey is to say that the president asked him the day after Trump fired Michael Flynn as his national security adviser to \"let go\" of the investigation into ties between the retired army lieutenant general and Russia.\nSenators are to question Comey about Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 election, including Trump's alleged attempts to get Comey to stop investigating possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia.\nWray led the Justice Department's criminal division from 2003 to 2005 during the administration of George W. Bush. He led probes into corporate fraud at a time when Comey was deputy attorney general, and supervised a task force of prosecutors and FBI agents created to investigate the Enron Corporation accounting scandal. That case resulted in the imprisonment of several executives.\nWray, 50, is now a criminal defense attorney at a law firm in Atlanta, Georgia.\nHe also was retained by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, an ally of the president, during an investigation of a politically motivated traffic lane closing. Two Christie aides were convicted of plotting to close bridge lanes in retaliation against a Democratic mayor who refused to endorse the governor.\nAttorney General Jeff Sessions issued a statement Wednesday applauding the president's selection of Wray, saying he is \"committed to the rule of law\" and \"is dedicated to protecting the American people from crime, gangs and terrorists.\"\nWray's nomination will end a search process that has seen several contenders withdraw their names from consideration as director of the nation's primary law enforcement agency.\nThe Twitter announcement by Trump surprised not only key members of Congress whose support could be critical for Wray's confirmation, but also many senior White House officials.\nSanders said White House officials were made aware of the decision \"at the appropriate time in order to do our jobs.\" She did not respond when asked if she first learned about the selection via the presidential tweet.\nVOA's Wayne Lee contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Christopher Wray speaks at a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/90A1F4F2-9D87-464B-85D8-F7A74582547D.jpg", + "id": "28299_1", + "answer": [ + "U.S. President Donald Trump " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Christopher Wray" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3890318", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3890318_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who are using weapons that are forcing people like the girl in the image to continue living where they are?", + "context": "Human Rights Watch: Yemen Breaking Land Mine Ban\nCAIRO \u2014\u00a0\nAn international rights group Thursday decried the use of land mines by Yemen\u2019s Shiite rebels in the impoverished Arab country at war, saying they have killed and maimed hundreds of civilians and prevented many of the displaced from returning to their homes.\nHuman Rights Watch said in a new report that the rebels known as Houthis, who are allied with the forces of the country\u2019s former president, have used land mines in at least six provinces since March 2015, when a Saudi-led coalition launched its military campaign against them.\nSteve Goose, director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch, said the Houthis and forces of Yemen\u2019s ex-President Ali Abdullah Saleh \u201chave been flouting the land mine ban at the expense of Yemeni civilians.\u201d\nHe added that Yemen had banned land mines two decades ago.\nFILE - A man waves traditional daggers, or Jambiyas, as he attends with supporters of the Houthi movement and Yemen's former president Ali Abdullah Saleh a rally to mark two years of the military intervention by the Saudi-led coalition, in Sanaa, Yemen March 26,\nThe Saudi-led coalition of mostly Arab Sunni countries has waged a campaign to dislodge the Houthis, who seized Yemen\u2019s capital and some other areas in 2014 and forced the internationally recognized government to flee the country.\nThe New York-based group cited the Landmine Monitor Initiative by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines as saying that at least 988 people were either killed or wounded by land mines in Yemen since 2015.\nThe war in Yemen has killed about 10,000 civilians and displaced nearly 3 million people.\nThe Saudi-led coalition, which is backed by the United States, has also been facing accusations of war crimes after a series of bombardments of civilians, including hits on busy markets and also hospitals, schools, and residential areas.\nIn one of the most recent incidents, HRW said a demining team lost one of its members during a clearance operation in the Nihm Mountains outside of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in January. One team member stepped on a land mine and was killed; a second lost his legs next day.\nThe rights group also cited an incident in May last year, when a young man was killed and his mother was wounded as they stepped on land mines near their home. The displaced family was returning home to the Nihm Mountains when it happened.\nDays later, one of the family\u2019s neighbors lost his legs in another land mine explosion that also killed several sheep, HRW said.\n", + "caption": "A displaced girl stands outside her family's hut at a camp for internally displaced people in the outskirts of Sanaa, Yemen, May 27, 2016. Yemen's war has killed at least 6,200 civilians and injured tens of thousands of Yemenis, and 2.4 million people hav", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F93AA2DB-0D24-45F3-B579-13D79CE640CD.jpg", + "id": "25579_1", + "answer": [ + "Yemen\u2019s Shiite rebels " + ], + "bridge": [ + "displaced" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818061", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818061_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who is the person being pointed at in the image accused of talking with?", + "context": "Several Investigations Underway on Trump-Russia Connections\nSince U.S. intelligence agencies concluded last October that Russia had interfered in the U.S. presidential election, a flurry of news reports and leaks has raised more questions than answers about the growing national controversy.\nWeeks before Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from investigations into the matter because of two previously undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, during the 2016 presidential campaign, law enforcement and lawmakers began looking into the allegations.\nFBI\nThe FBI is leading at least three separate investigations into allegations of Russian interference in the election and possible Russia-Trump connections, Reuters reported last month, citing unnamed current and former government officials:\n* The FBI's Pittsburgh field office, which is in charge of cybersecurity investigations, is seeking to identify the people who breached the Democratic National Committee's computer systems last year.\n* The bureau's San Francisco office is trying to identify the people suspected of being behind the \"Guccifer 2\" online handle, which posted stolen emails of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, John Podesta.\nFILE - John Podesta, Clinton Campaign Chairman, speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, July 25, 2016.\n* FBI counter-intelligence agents in Washington are looking into leads from informants and foreign communication intercepts.\nIn what may have been a fourth FBI inquiry related to Russia and Trump, the bureau investigated a series of conversations that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had with Kislyak but did not disclose to Vice President Mike Pence, leading to Flynn's resignation on Feb. 14.\nCongress\nIn Congress, meanwhile, at least five standing committees and one subcommittee are in various stages of investigations into Russian interference in the U.S. election and reported contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials. Among them:\n* The Senate Intelligence Committee, with jurisdiction over 17 intelligence agencies, is in the early stages of a probe launched in January. Initially focused on Russian hacking and misinformation efforts during the election, it has since been broadened to cover what committee members have described as contacts between Russian officials and the U.S. political campaigns.\nFILE - National security adviser General Michael Flynn delivers a statement daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Feb. 1, 2017.\n* The Senate Judiciary Committee, with oversight over the Department of Justice and the FBI, is carrying out its own investigation and has asked the Department of Justice for a briefing and documents related to circumstances leading up to Flynn's resignation.\n* The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, chaired by Russia hawk Lindsey Graham, announced in early February plans to investigate Russian meddling. The panel has jurisdiction over the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, as well as the FBI.\n* The House Intelligence Committee, charged with oversight of 17 intelligence agencies, is investigating \"intelligence or counter-intelligence issues\" involving Russia and the election.\n* The House Judiciary Committee, with oversight over the Department of Justice, is conducting its own investigation, with Republican members planning to write a letter to Attorney General Sessions requesting his cooperation with the Russia probe.\nAttorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during a news conference at the Justice Department in Washington, March 2, 2017.\n* The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the Congress's main investigative committee with government-wide oversight jurisdiction, is looking into leaks of classified information about Flynn and his contacts with Russia and has sent a letter to Leading Authorities, a speakers bureau, to inquire whether Flynn received any payment from the Russian government for an appearance at a Moscow gala in 2015.\nOther Congressional committees such as the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings about the Russian hacking allegations last summer. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, wrote to the White House last month seeking information about Flynn's contacts with Russia.\nBut of all of the Congressional probes, perhaps the most consequential is being led by the Senate Intelligence Committee, the panel responsible for such high-profile investigations as the inquiries into the CIA's controversial torture practices in 2014 and the 2012 militant attacks on two U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya.\nNot only does the committee have the widest jurisdiction over intelligence matters with staff and resources to investigate them, but the committee's investigation into the Russian interference enjoys the support of its ranking Democratic member, Mark Warner, even as other Republican-led congressional investigations have been criticized by Democrats as partisan.\nOptions regarding investigations\nAndrew Kent, a professor at Fordham Law School in New York who has written extensively about the investigations into Trump and Russia, said the FBI and congressional committees are focused on different aspects of the suspected Trump-Russia connections.\n\"The FBI focus is going to be at looking at whether any federal laws were broken,\" Kent said. \"The congressional committees can look a little bit more broadly and don't have a focus on whether specific laws were broken.\"\nFILE - U.S. President Donald Trump, left to right, joined by Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, senior advisor Steve Bannon, Communications Director Sean Spicer and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, speaks by phone with Russia's President Vladimir Putin in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Jan. 28, 2017.\nWhile none of the investigations is truly independent, Kent said, there are at least four options to carry out such a probe: a congressional select committee with joint Republican-Democratic control; a congressionally-created bipartisan commission similar to the 9/11 panel; a special prosecutor; or an independent counsel with the full delegated power of the attorney general.\nBut given White House opposition and Republican control of Congress, he said none of the options seem likely at the moment.\nRichard Ben-Veniste, the former chief of the Watergate Task Force that investigated former President Richard Nixon in the 1970s, said Sessions should hand over control of the investigations to Acting Attorney General Dana Boente, who is a career prosecutor.\nBoente is \"an experienced prosecutor and far more likely to be deemed credible in terms of supervising the investigation,\" Ben-Veniste said.\nFILE - Dana Boente, then-first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, leaves federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, Jan. 26, 2012.\nAnother candidate would be Rod J. Rosenstein, a career prosecutor and the current U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, who has been nominated by Trump as deputy attorney general. A confirmation hearing has been set for March 7.\n\"Senators will obviously have lots of questions for him about Trump-Russia issues,\" Kent said.\nIn Congress, while Republicans have roundly rejected Democratic calls for a select committee to investigate any Russia-Trump connections, the idea is likely to gain traction as new information comes to light, Kent said.\nWith the extent of the Trump campaign's ties to Russia unknown, Ben-Veniste said it is too early to say that the Russia questions will lead to a Watergate-style inquiry. However, he said he saw one parallel between the two high-stakes scandals.\n\"Historically we've seen similar circumstances where the party, in protecting its reputation, has said that it is unnecessary to create any special investigative apparatus to ensure the public of the integrity of the investigation,\" he said. \"Each time those initial protests are overcome and a special investigation takes place, it has been shown that there is fire behind the smoke.\"\n", + "caption": "A journalist points at a portrait of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, with a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin at right, during a live telecast of the U.S. presidential election in the Union Jack pub in Moscow, Russia, Nov. 9, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8B04A9F6-6F4C-4E0A-BEC3-BA5D558B8D05.jpg", + "id": "21827_1", + "answer": [ + "Russia", + "None", + "Russian officials" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump", + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_02_3747336", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_02_3747336_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with blonde hair in the image do?", + "context": " Poll: Few in US Support Trump's Firing of FBI Chief\nA new public opinion poll shows more Americans than not are opposed to President Donald Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey.\nThe NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey in recent days said just 29 percent of those surveyed say they approve of Trump's dismissal of Comey, who was in the fourth year of a 10-year term leading the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's top criminal investigating agency, while 38 percent disapprove. The remainder said they did not know enough to have an opinion.\nBut among those who have been closely following news of Comey's unexpected ouster, 53 percent said they disapprove and 33 percent approve.\nTrump fired Comey on Tuesday, at first saying he accepted recommendations from Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, that he be ousted because of the role he played last year in the investigation into Trump's presidential election challenger, Democrat Hillary Clinton, and the way she handled national security material on her private email server.\nBut by week's end, Trump said he had made up his mind to fire Comey regardless of the recommendations and was thinking of \"this Russia thing\" when he decided to dismiss Comey. The former FBI director had been leading the agency's investigation into the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials.\nTrump said Saturday a new FBI director could possibly be named in the next few days, but whoever it might be is likely to undergo intense questioning at a Senate confirmation hearing, delaying the time when the appointee might actually take over control of the agency. Opposition Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have called for a special prosecutor independent of the Department of Justice, which oversees FBI operations, to pursue the Russia probe.\n\"We can make a fast decision,\" Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One before flying to Lynchburg, Virginia to deliver a commencement address at Liberty University. He said it is possible he could appoint a new FBI director before heading Friday to the Middle East and Europe on his first overseas trip as president.\nNearly a dozen people are being considered, including attorneys, law enforcement officials, and lawmakers.\n\"I think the process is going to move quickly,\u201d Trump said. \u201cAlmost all of [the candidates] are very well-known. They've been vetted over their lifetime, essentially. But very well known, highly respected, really talented people and that's what we want for the FBI.\"\n", + "caption": "From left, President Donald Trump, former FBI Director James Comey and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BECBB679-B7DC-4A7C-BBF8-A2CF32EB45A0.jpg", + "id": "17853_1", + "answer": [ + "fired Comey", + "None", + "firing of FBI director James Comey" + ], + "bridge": [ + "President Donald Trump", + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_14_3851061", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_14_3851061_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the image do?", + "context": "Ex-Papal Spokesman and Catholic Luminary Navarro-Valls Dies\nVATICAN CITY \u2014\u00a0\nJoaquin Navarro-Valls, who as spokesman for two popes was the world's second-most visible Catholic luminary for nearly a quarter of a century, died on Wednesday at the age of 80, friends said.\nNavarro-Valls, a Spaniard who had degrees in medicine and psychiatry before becoming a journalist, had been suffering from cancer. He died in Rome.\nIn 1984 Pope John Paul named Navarro-Valls, a layman, to be Vatican spokesman and gave him direct access to his inner circle to a degree that no papal spokesman had before or has had since.\nThe photogenic Navarro-Valls became a celebrity in his own right, a global media personality often appearing on television to explain Catholic teachings in simple language.\n\"Joaquin Navarro-Valls embodied what Ernest Hemingway defined as courage: grace under pressure,\" said Greg Burke, the current Vatican spokesman.\nNavarro-Valls hardly ever lost his composure during his nearly 22 years at the side of John Paul, including during the twice daily medical briefings as the pope lay dying in the Vatican Apostolic Palace and the world waited.\nThe one exception was when a reporter asked him to put aside the medical details and explain how he felt as a person. Navarro became choked up and held back tears before millions watching on television.\nFor more than two decades the Polish-born Pope John Paul, his priest-secretary Stanislaw Dziwisz, and Navarro became a de-facto triumvirate in the Vatican.\nHis privileged access to the pope irritated some cardinals in the Vatican administration, who had to wait in line.\nHe occasionally took action without clearing it with the Secretariat of State, the Vatican's key administrative department. But such was his friendship with the pope that he always emerged from controversy unscathed.\nOn one such occasion in the mid 1990s he decided that the Vatican could no longer keep quiet about the pope's evidently failing health and disclosed that the pontiff was suffering from Parkinson's disease.\nPope John Paul also occasionally used Navarro for sensitive missions, bypassing the Vatican's own diplomats.\nIn 1998 he went to Cuba to negotiate directly with Fidel Castro to iron out last-minute snags over Pope John Paul's historic visit.\nDuring an all-night conversation punctuated by cigars and rum, Navarro-Valls convinced Castro to restore Christmas as a national holiday. It had been suppressed after the revolution.\nAfter John Paul's death in 2005, Navarro-Valls stayed on as spokesman for Pope Benedict for more than a year to help his transition and then left Vatican service.\nUntil his health began failing he was a director of a Rome hospital and medical school run by the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei, of which he was a member.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Former Pope John Paul II spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls arrives at a press conference at the Vatican, April 25, 2014.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5743A735-E144-42EA-850E-33EA2C17F81D.jpg", + "id": "4963_1", + "answer": [ + "explain Catholic teachings in simple language" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Navarro-Valls" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3929965", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3929965_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the people in the image fight?", + "context": "Indian Army: 3 Suspected Rebels Killed in Kashmir Fighting\nSRINAGAR, INDIA \u2014\u00a0\nThree militants were killed Tuesday in two gunbattles with government forces in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, the Indian army said.\nCol. Rajesh Kalia said police and soldiers engaged two militants in a village near Ganderbal town after cordoning off the village following a tip.\nKalia said soldiers recovered two rifles at the site of the clash.\nAn Indian army statement said another person was killed when soldiers intercepted and battled a group of militants in Sunderbani sector near the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the disputed region between India and Pakistan.\nThe statement said the group of militants had entered the Indian side of Kashmir from the Pakistani-controlled part, and fled back toward the Pakistan-administered portion after the gunbattle.\nThere was no independent confirmation of the incidents.\nBoth India and Pakistan claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety. Rebel groups in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting for independence or a merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people have been killed in the armed uprising and ensuing Indian military crackdown.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Indian soldiers block a road near the site of a gun battle at Arwani, 55 kilometers (34 miles) south of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Dec. 8, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4574ECC2-B11D-4D94-B550-B7E43FF706FE.jpg", + "id": "17181_1", + "answer": [ + "two militants", + "None", + "militants" + ], + "bridge": [ + "soldiers", + "Indian soldiers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_24_3689492", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_24_3689492_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the speaker tell the audience in the image?", + "context": "Iran Leader Rebuffs Trump's Warning on Missiles\nDUBAI, UAE \u2014\u00a0\nAyatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Donald Trump's warning to Iran to stop its missile tests, saying the new U.S. president had shown the \"real face\" of American corruption.\nIn his first speech since Trump's inauguration, Iran's supreme leader called on Iranians to respond to Trump's \"threats\" on Feb. 10, the anniversary of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. Trump had tried but failed to frighten Iranians, Khamenei said.\n\"We are thankful to (Trump) for making our life easy as he showed the real face of America,\" Khamenei told a meeting of military commanders in Tehran, according to his website.\nThe White House has said the last week's missile test was not a direct breach of Iran's 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers, but that it \"violates the spirit of that\".\nIn remarks published on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran would not agree to renegotiate its nuclear agreement.\n\"I believe Trump will push for renegotiation. But Iran and European countries will not accept that,\" Mohammad Javad Zarif told Ettelaat newspaper. \"We will have difficult days ahead.\"\nOn the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised to tear up the nuclear deal. While his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, has not called for an outright rejection of the accord, he has suggested a \"full review\" of it.\nThe supreme leader, Iran's top authority, also said Trump has \"confirmed what we have been saying for more than 30 years about the political, economic, moral and social corruption in the U.S. ruling system.\"\nTrump responded to a Jan. 29 Iranian missile test by saying \"Iran is playing with fire\" and slapping fresh sanctions on individuals and entities, some of them linked to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.\n\"No enemy can paralyze the Iranian nation,\" Khamenei said.\n\"(Trump) says 'you should be afraid of me'. No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on Feb. 10 and will show their stance against such threats.\"\nA U.N. Security Council resolution underpinning the pact urges Iran to refrain from testing missiles designed to be able to carry nuclear warheads, but imposes no obligation.\nUnder the accord, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for relief from some U.S., European and U.N. economic sanctions. Critics of Iran said the deal emboldened Tehran to increase its involvement in wars in Arab countries, a charge Tehran denies.\nPresident Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that, in contrast to Trump's view, the nuclear deal was a \"win-win\" accord, and could be used as a stepping stone to defuse tension in the region.\n", + "caption": "Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech in a meeting with military commanders in Tehran, Feb. 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A2E23182-D21A-405E-8499-F206036B6C30.jpg", + "id": "9616_1", + "answer": [ + "We are thankful to (Trump) for making our life easy as he showed the real face of America", + "The new U.S. president had shown the \"real face\" of American corruption" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ayatollah Ali Khamenei", + "Khamenei" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_07_3709606", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_07_3709606_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who is the person with the grey hair in the image compared to?", + "context": "Obama Makes Nostalgic Trip to His Indonesia Childhood Home\nBOGOR, INDONESIA \u2014\u00a0\nFormer U.S. President Barack Obama and his family arrived Friday in his childhood home of Jakarta on the last leg of a 10-day vacation in Indonesia, where they visited ancient temples and went whitewater rafting.\nLocal television news channels broadcast live coverage of the family's arrival in the capital.\nFILE - Former U.S. President Barack Obama waves while walking with his daughter Mali and his wife, Michelle, during a visit to the 9th-century Borobudur Temple in Magelang, Indonesia, June 28, 2017.\nIndonesian President Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo later met Obama at the Bogor Palace in West Java. The grand Dutch colonial building about 55 kilometers (35 miles) south of Jakarta is famous for its botanical gardens and a herd of spotted deer that roam the grounds.\nThe two jumped into a golf cart with Jokowi at the wheel and headed off to a cafe nestled inside the lush gardens. Many Indonesians have drawn comparisons between Jokowi and Obama, who were both highly popular during their election campaigns.\nAfter Obama became president, many here viewed him as a native son and saw him as a symbol of hope and religious tolerance because of his years living in the world's most populous Muslim country.\nA statue of the boy still remembered as \"Barry\" by childhood friends was erected outside the elementary school he once attended in the capital's upscale, leafy neighborhood of Menteng.\nFILE - Former United States President Barack Obama (2nd left), his wife Michelle (3rd left) and with his daughters Sasha (center) and Malia (2nd right) go rafting while on holiday in Bongkasa Village, Badung Regency, Bali, Indonesia, June 26, 2017.\n\"This is the last opportunity for us to meet with Barry, our childhood friend who has made us so proud,\" said Widianto Cahyono, who sat next to Obama in the fourth grade and is hopeful the former president will visit his old neighborhood. \"We have long waited for a reunion with him.\"\nObama also retains a soft spot for Indonesia, where he lived from age 6 to 10. He moved to Jakarta in 1967 after his mother split up with his father and remarried an Indonesian man. They had his half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, who is traveling with the family.\nAfter her second marriage failed, Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, stayed on in Indonesia and Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his grandparents.\nDuring a 2010 presidential visit, he delighted onlookers by proclaiming in Bahasa Indonesia that bakso, a savory meatball soup, and nasi goreng, flavorful fried rice, are delicious. They are two of the country's signature dishes.\nPrior to arriving in Jakarta, Obama, his wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia visited the resort island of Bali where they stayed in the tranquil mountain enclave of Ubud, touring sweeping terraced rice paddies and rafting the Ayung river. They then traveled to the island of Java to the historic city of Yogyakarta, where Obama's mother did anthropology research. They visited Borobudur, a ninth century Buddhist temple complex, as well as the ancient Prambanan Hindu temple compound.\nObama is scheduled to speak at an Indonesian Diaspora Congress in Jakarta on Saturday.\n", + "caption": "Former U.S. President Barack Obama, left, waves at reporters as he walks with Indonesian President Joko Widodo during their meeting at Bogor Presidential Palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, June 30, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1FB45484-72EB-4B97-8022-8A8598B89F19.jpg", + "id": "17869_1", + "answer": [ + "Jokowi", + "Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Joko", + "Barack Obama" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_30_3923026", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_30_3923026_1" + }, + { + "question": "What jabs did the people from the image utilize?", + "context": "Anger Erupts in London Over Grenfell Tower's Feared Renovation Flaws\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nGrief turned to outrage Friday over a deadly high-rise tower fire in London amid reports that materials used in the building's renovation could have fueled the inferno that left dozens dead and missing as it decimated the public housing block.\nEngineering experts say outside insulation panels installed on the 24-story Grenfell Tower may have helped the fire spread rapidly from one floor to the next. The Guardian newspaper reported Friday that contractors installed a cheaper, less flame-resistant type of paneling in the renovation that ended in May 2016.\nTensions were high Friday two days after the overnight fire gutted the huge housing block, killing at least 30 people and leaving dozens missing and hundreds homeless.\nPolice officers confront demonstrators inside Kensington Town Hall, during a protest following the fire that destroyed The Grenfell Tower block, in north Kensington, West London, Britain, June 16, 2017.\nScuffles broke out near the Kensington and Chelsea town hall offices as demonstrators chanting \"We want justice!'' surged toward the doors.\nLondon has a chronic housing shortage even in the best of times, and those left homeless by the fire \u2014 already angry over what they see as government inequity and incompetence \u2014 fear being forced out of the British capital.\nThe Grenfell Tower housed about 600 people in 120 apartments. Britain's Press Association reported that some 70 people are still missing after the fire.\nLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan said people were frustrated by the lack of information about the missing and the dead as well as a lack of coordination between support services. Residents who survived the tower blaze lost everything and have no idea where they are going to live or how they will get back on their feet.\n\"The scale of this tragedy is clearly proving too much for the local authority to cope with on their own,'' Khan said in an open letter to Prime Minister Theresa May.\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nMassive Support by Londoners for Fire Victims\nShare this video\n0:01:25\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:25\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 4.0MB\n360p | 6.6MB\n720p | 30.6MB\nAfter meeting with Grenfell survivors on Friday, May announced a 5 million pound ($6.4 million) fund to help them and expressed sorrow for their plight. The package includes a guarantee to rehouse people as close as possible to where they previously lived \u2014 a poor neighborhood surrounded by extreme wealth.\n\"[This aims] to give the victims the immediate support they need to care for themselves and for loved ones,'' May said.\nBut the Conservative leader still struggled to overcome accusations that she lacked compassion because she had failed to meet with victims on her first visit to the devastated site. Police surrounded May as she left a church Friday following the meeting with survivors and protesters shouted \"Shame on you!'' and \"Coward!''\nDemonstrators hold up banners during a march in Westminster, following the fire that destroyed The Grenfell Tower block, in north Kensington, West London, Britain, June 16, 2017.\nUsing drones and sniffer dogs, firefighters continued to search the burned-out housing block that looms over the low-income community in west London.\nThe fire, which started just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, surprised many as they slept and the speed with which it spread shocked fire experts.\nMetropolitan Police commander Stuart Cundy responded to fears that the number of dead could exceed 100 by saying: \"I really hope it isn't.''\nLondon Police have launched an investigation to determine whether any crimes contributed to the blaze. May on Thursday announced a public inquiry while Khan called for an interim report on the fire to be published this summer.\nGrenfell Tower is a public housing project owned by the local government council and managed by a nonprofit known as the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organization. The group last year completed a 10 million pound ($12.8 million) renovation that included new outside insulation panels, double-paned windows and a communal heating system.\nPolice officers stand in front of the The Grenfell Tower block that was destroyed by fire, in north Kensington, West London, Britain, June 16, 2017.\nAluminum composite panels essentially consist of two thin layers of aluminum sandwiched around a lightweight insulating material. Standard versions use plastic such as polyethylene for the core, while more expensive variants use fire-resistant material.\nThe Guardian newspaper reported Friday that Omnis Exteriors supplied the aluminum composite material used in the cladding. The newspaper quoted company director John Cowley as saying the building used Reynobond PE cladding, which is 2 pounds cheaper ($2.56) per square meter than Reynobond FR, which stands for \"fire resistant.''\nThe International Building Code calls for the use of fire-resistant cores in buildings over 40 feet (12 meters) tall to slow the spread of flames.\nThe company that installed the exterior cladding, Harley Facades, issued a statement this week saying the panels are \"commonly used'' in refurbishing buildings. It did not address the exact makeup of the panels.\n\"It would not be appropriate for us to comment or for others to speculate on any aspect of fire, or its causes, in advance of these inquiries,'' managing director Ray Bailey said. \"At this time, we are not aware of any link between the fire and the exterior cladding to the tower.''\nA woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower in London, June 16, 2017.\nFamilies searching for loved ones have blanketed the area near the tower with posters. Whole families are said to be among the missing.\nNearly 110 families made homeless from the blaze are being housed at hotels in west London. Churches and community centers are providing meals and support, and donations of clothing, toys and household supplies are flooding in.\nQueen Elizabeth II and Prince William visited an aid distribution site Friday for the tower's residents and met with volunteers.\nIt may take some time though, before the families of the victims know the fate of their loved ones.\nForensic experts said the fire at Grenfell was so hot it could be compared to a cremation, which is going to make it difficult to identify those who lost their lives.\n\"When you have a fire that takes hold like that, that is literally an inferno. You get a lot of fragmentation of bodies, charring of bones,'' said Peter Vanezis, a professor of forensic medical sciences at Queen Mary University in London. \"Sometimes all that's left is ash.''\nThe scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London, June 15, 2017, after a massive fire raced through the 24-storey high-rise apartment building in west London early Wednesday.\nVanezis said the best chance to identify victims may be if firefighters find bits of teeth or bone, medical devices like pacemakers or artificial implants.\n\"The longer a fire burns, the less chance you have that there will be enough DNA left to test,'' Vanezis said.\nEven amid the chaos and the frustration, some found a moment to seek unity. A special service was held Friday afternoon at the al-Manaar Muslim Cultural Heritage Centre to pray for the victims \u2014 and for the families waiting for news.\n\"Obviously, the longer people have to wait, especially finding out what happened to their loved ones, [that] can create anger,'' said Abdurahman Sayed, Chief Executive Officer of al-Manaar. \"We're just really anxiously waiting for the authorities really, [to see] what they are going to do.''\n", + "caption": "Protesters march towards The Grenfell Tower block that was destroyed by fire, in north Kensington, West London, Britain, June 16, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A41891EF-6CFB-4740-AA61-974191528F73.jpg", + "id": "25637_1", + "answer": [ + "\"Shame on you!'' and \"Coward!''" + ], + "bridge": [ + "protesters" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903900", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903900_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who says the actions of country that shot the weapon shown on the screen in the image are dangerous?", + "context": "South Korea Moves Ahead on Defense After North Missile Test\nSEOUL/TOKYO \u2014\u00a0\nThe United States and South Korea agreed Thursday to proceed with the deployment of an advanced U.S. missile defense system that has angered China, a day after North Korea\u2019s latest test launch drew condemnation across the volatile region.\nLeaders and senior officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan spoke Thursday to discuss the latest provocation from Pyongyang, hours before U.S. President Donald Trump begins a summit with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. \nAnalysts have said Wednesday\u2019s launch of a ballistic missile from North Korea\u2019s east coast probably took place with the summit in mind as the reclusive state presses ahead with its missile and nuclear programs in defiance of United Nations resolutions and sanctions.\nTHAAD moves forward\nTrump\u2019s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, agreed in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart on the need to proceed with the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea after Wednesday\u2019s launch.\nSouth Korea and the United States say the sole purpose of the advanced THAAD system is to defend against missile launches from North Korea. However, China says the system\u2019s powerful radar could penetrate into its territory.\nDespite angry opposition from Beijing, the United States started to deploy the first elements of its advanced anti-missile defense system in South Korea last month.\nSouth Korean officials said McMaster spoke with his counterpart in Seoul, Kim Kwan-jin, Thursday morning to discuss the North\u2019s missile launch and the Trump-Xi summit.\n\u201cBoth sides agreed to pursue ... plans in order to substantially strengthen the international community\u2019s sanctions and pressure on North Korea,\u201d South Korea\u2019s presidential Blue House said in a statement. And \u201c ... both agreed to push forward the deployment of THAAD by U.S. forces in Korea,\u201d the statement said.\nSerious threat\nIn a phone call with Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said the two leaders had agreed that North Korea\u2019s latest ballistic missile launch was \u201ca dangerous provocation and a serious threat\u201d.\nAbe told reporters at his official residence he was watching to see how China would respond to Pyongyang after Xi meets Trump at the U.S. leader\u2019s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.\nIn brief comments televised nationally, Abe also said Trump had told him all options were on the table.\nThe White House said in a statement Trump \u201cmade clear that the United States would continue to strengthen its ability to deter and defend itself and its allies with the full range of its military capabilities.\u201d\nChina reticent\nTrump has repeatedly said he wants China to do more to exert its economic influence over its unpredictable ally in Pyongyang to restrain its nuclear and missile programs, but China denies it has any overriding influence on North Korea.\nOn Sunday, Trump held out the possibility of using trade as a lever to secure Chinese cooperation, while suggesting Washington might deal with Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and missile programs on its own if need be.\nAny launch of objects using ballistic missile technology is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The North has defied the ban, saying it infringes on its sovereign rights to self-defense and the pursuit of space exploration.\nU.S. officials said the missile launched Wednesday appeared to be a liquid-fueled, extended-range Scud missile that only traveled a fraction of its range before spinning out of control.\nThey said it flew about 60 km (40 miles) from its launch site near Sinpo, a port city on the North\u2019s east coast where a submarine base is located.\nMilitary officials in the United States and South Korea had initially said assessments indicated it had been a KN-15 medium-range ballistic missile, the same kind North Korea test-launched in February.\nAs well as a growing list of ballistic missile launches, North Korea has also conducted two nuclear weapons tests since January 2016. \n", + "caption": "A man watches a TV report about North Korea's missile firing with file footage, at Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, April 6, 2017. The letters read \"U.S., North, Scud missile-ER.\" ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/84BA28E6-868F-4B8A-A59D-996E4F5526CA.jpg", + "id": "26389_1", + "answer": [ + "Trump, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe " + ], + "bridge": [ + "North Korea" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798612", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798612_1" + }, + { + "question": "What group does the person being beaten in the image belong to?", + "context": "Crackdowns Have Indonesian Gay Community on Edge\nJAKARTA \u2014\u00a0\nA string of high-profile crackdowns on gay rights in Indonesia has the country\u2019s LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) community on edge.\nThere were several high profile raids of saunas and \"sex parties\" this month, including one in Jakarta where 141 men were arrested. Last week, a gay couple was publicly caned in conservative Aceh province, in the first-ever application of a 2015 sharia statute against homosexuality. And in West Java, Indonesia\u2019s most populous province, officials have announced the creation of an anti-LGBT \"task force.\u201d\nThe last two years have borne witness to unprecedented attacks on LGBT citizens in Indonesia, where gay sex is not illegal, except in Aceh. Jakarta is controlled by the central government.\nFILE - Police officers escort men arrested in a raid on a gay sauna at North Jakarta police headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia, May 22, 2017.\nLast year, there was an acute \u201cgay panic\u201d where, among other things, a transgender boarding school was shut down, a former minister called on the public to kill gay people, and the Vice President personally attacked a UN program focused on LGBT rights.\nThose sentiments never completely died down, and this year\u2019s reaction to gay rights seems even more virulent. And the issue is impossible to disentangle from the overall rise in intolerance towards minorities that was exemplified by the racially charged campaign that unseated Jakarta\u2019s Chinese-Christian governor last month.\nEcho chamber effect\n\u201cGenerally speaking, conservatives have found the perfect target in the LGBT community,\u201d said Dede Oetomo, a veteran gay rights activist based in East Java. \u201cThe increased frequency of actions is alarming.\u201d\nFILE - Two men convicted of gay sex, center, are surrounded as Shariah law officials escort them to a mosque to be publicly caned in Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, May 23, 2017.\nWith regards to the raids on sex clubs in Jakarta and Surabaya, Oetomo said, \u201cpolice usually know what\u2019s going on. The question is, why do they choose to act at a certain time?\u201d He conjectured that morality policing before the holy month of Ramadan, which started last week, was one potential factor.\nLast week in Bandung, the capital of West Java, provincial police chief Charliyan told reporters that LGBT people suffered a \"disease of the body and soul.\u201d\nBut a spokesman for the national police, Setyo Wasisto, said there were no plans to scale up the West Java task force on a national level.\n\u201cThe duty of the police to enforce the rules and laws so that everyone has the same rights,\u201d said Yuli Rustinawati, chair of the LGBT activist group Arus Pelangi. \u201cNot to be moral police.\u201d\nA checkered history\nLast October, Indonesian President Joko \u201cJokowi\u201d Widodo gave an extremely qualified defense of LGBT rights after months of anti-gay rhetoric. He denounced discrimination against gay Indonesians after asserting that \u201cin Indonesia, beliefs [generally] do not allow [homosexuality], Islam does not allow it.\u201d\nFILE - Indonesian president-elect Joko Widodo gestures as he speaks to his supporters during a gathering in Jakarta.\nGay rights are an uncomfortable topic in Indonesian public life, said Oetomo. \u201cThere is no advocacy at the highest level in Jakarta. My sense is that if the rights of governors and chief of police are willing to do something, they\u2019ll do it quietly.\u201d\nThe spike in anti-LGBT attacks follows the rising profile of one of the most virulent anti-gay voices in Indonesia, the Islamic Defenders\u2019 Front (FPI), the hardline group that organized the rallies against Jakarta\u2019s governor last year. FPI-associated vigilantes filmed the gay couple who was caned in Aceh, and FPI has promised to \u201chelp\u201d Indonesian police conduct further raids like the ones in Jakarta and Surabaya.\nBut a sexting scandal involving its leader, Habib Rizieq Shihab, degrades some of the authority by which FPI has unofficially acted as Indonesia\u2019s morality police since its founding in 1998. It is not clear if his recent arrest will lead to a respite in the LGBT crackdown.\nAn uncertain future\n\u201cThis feels like a repeat, in a way,\u201d said Fajar Zakhri, a 25-year-old gay man who lives in Jakarta and who lived through last year\u2019s LGBT crackdown. \u201cBut it's a worse repeat. Because the [recent] events sort of overlapped with one another and you can just sense this overall spirit of... they want to criminalize us.\u201d\nFILE - In this Nov. 11, 2016 photo, contestants wait backstage during the Miss Transgender Indonesia pageant in Jakarta, Indonesia.\nIt hasn\u2019t always been so in Indonesia. Transgender people, including the waria \u201cthird-gender\u201d people, have long been a part of Indonesian societies. One Sulawesi group, the Bugis people, historically recognize five genders.\nThe worst development for LGBT rights, meanwhile, is still on the table: a Constitutional Court petition banning homosexual acts between consenting adults. It was filed last May and remains an open question.\nIn the same week that Taiwan became the first Asian country to move towards formal recognition of same-sex marriage, the proposed anti-gay ban is a sobering prospect for Indonesia\u2019s LGBT community.\n", + "caption": "FILE - One of two Indonesian men is publicly caned for having sex, in a first for the Muslim-majority country where there are concerns over mounting hostility towards the small gay community, in Banda Aceh, May 23, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/63C845C4-4A3B-4671-9B61-1A3EDD0C7B9B.jpg", + "id": "14530_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "LGBT" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Gay", + "One of two Indonesian men" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3878829", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3878829_1" + }, + { + "question": "What country will take the place of a former representative among the people in the image?", + "context": "Chile Trade Head: Paths Open to New Pacific Trade Pact, Post-TPP\nSANTIAGO \u2014\u00a0\nCountries that signed up for the failed trade pact known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will meet in Chile next week, seeking a way forward on a possible future regional deal, Chile's head of international trade told Reuters.\nRepresentatives from the 12 countries that formed the TPP, plus China and South Korea, will meet for the first time since President Donald Trump pulled the United States out the TPP in January, effectively killing the accord in its current form.\nThe Chile meeting is a sign that efforts to find an alternative Asia-Pacific trade pact are moving ahead, with China now likely leading the talks after the United States dropped out.\nChile has accomplished its first goal of getting everyone together and will now seek commitments for further meetings to evaluate alternatives, Paulina Nazal told Reuters in an interview in Santiago on Wednesday evening.\n\"The objective is to confirm if the strategy of growth and openness of recent years is what we believe to be correct,\" she said. \"Do we need to include other issues? Do we need to implement policies that complement the opening of trade or not?\"\nIt was still premature to say what the future roadmap would look like, she added.\n\"What we have seen from the various delegations is that it's too open still,\" said Nazal. \"This is going to be the first meeting on how we go forward.\"\nLikely options, according to Nazal, could be to build on the base of pre-existing agreements \u2014 such as Latin America's four-country Pacific Alliance, or the proposed Southeast Asian-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).\nCountries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada had a \"similar commercial approach\" to the Pacific Alliance and had signaled an interest in joining or negotiating as a bloc, said Nazal.\n\"Others evidently feel more comfortable with the RCEP model and they could open a door to let others in.\"\nChina, which is part of RCEP talks, has argued the TPP was too complex and political rather than purely trade-based.\nCritics of the RCEP \u2014 including the former Obama administration \u2014 warned it would not include strong protections for workers, the environment or intellectual property.\nWith the election of Trump and the demise of the TPP, eyes have been on Beijing to take the lead on future trade talks.\n\"The Chinese want to be the leaders, the benchmark,\" said Nazal. \"That was not like that before.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - Trade ministers from a dozen Pacific nations gather for a meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership ministers in Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 1, 2015. Representatives from 12 countries that formed the TPP, plus China and South Korea, will meet in Chile in March 2017 in an effort to find an alternative Asia-Pacific trade pact.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/33D217FE-C116-45BF-BB8A-09A2AF28C547.jpg", + "id": "22936_1", + "answer": [ + "China" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Asia-Pacific trade pact" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_09_3757700", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_09_3757700_1" + }, + { + "question": "What had the person wearing the hat in the image not done?", + "context": "Thai Prosecutors to Seek Arrest Warrant for Red Bull Heir\nBANGKOK \u2014\u00a0\nThai prosecutors will ask police to issue an arrest warrant for an heir to the Red Bull fortune if he does not show up to face charges over an alleged hit-and-run that killed a police officer almost five years ago, officials said Thursday.\nVorayuth \"Boss\" Yoovidhya has been a no-show for meetings with prosecutors on several occasions, complaining through his attorney of unfair treatment or citing duties abroad. A recent Associated Press report revealed that he's been living lavishly, traveling to Formula One races, snowboarding in Japan and cruising in Venice.\nOn Thursday, prosecutors rejected his latest request for a delay and said he must show up by 4 p.m.\nFILE - Vorayuth \"Boss\" Yoovidhya, center, whose grandfather co-founded energy drink company Red Bull, is escorted by police in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 3, 2012.\n\"The suspect must meet prosecutors as scheduled. If he does not, it would mean he has the intention of delaying and evading the case and we will proceed with requesting an arrest warrant from the court,\" Somnuek Siangkong, spokesman for the office of the Attorney General, said at a news conference.\nIf he fails to show up, prosecutors said they will ask for the warrant to be issued Friday morning.\nVorayuth is accused of fleeing the scene of a 2012 crash in his Ferrari after allegedly hitting a police officer on motorcycle patrol.\nVorayuth has failed to show up when ordered to face criminal charges of speeding, hit-and-run, and deadly, reckless driving. Police say Vorayuth disputes the reckless driving charge, claiming the officer swerved in front of him. The speeding charge expired after a year. The more serious charge of hit-and-run, which police say carries a penalty of up to six months in jail, expires Sept. 3.\nThe reckless driving charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail, expires in 10 years if left unchallenged.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Vorayuth \"Boss\" Yoovidhya, center, whose grandfather co-founded energy drink company Red Bull, is escorted by police in Bangkok, Thailand, Sept. 3, 2012.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F2FCD5CE-10AA-4FEF-B52C-0E115BEF458E.jpg", + "id": "11300_2", + "answer": [ + "show up to face charges over an alleged hit-and-run that killed a police officer", + "show up when ordered to face criminal charges of speeding, hit-and-run, and deadly, reckless driving", + "show up when ordered" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Vorayuth \"Boss\" Yoovidhya", + "Vorayuth" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_27_3828000", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_27_3828000_2" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image getting ready for?", + "context": "Looking to Mosul's Future Amid Extreme Violence\nMOSUL, IRAQ \u2014\u00a0\nOutside a salon in East Mosul last week, while her daughter beautified the clients, Umm Safaa explained why she wouldn't allow anyone to photograph her shop.\n\u201cWhen Islamic State militants see something on TV that is good, they bomb it,\u201d she said. \u201cLook at My Beautiful Lady restaurant. Look at the perfume shop.\u201d \nA few months ago, militants attacked both businesses when they were featured on the news as signs that \u201cMosul is coming back\u201d after nearly three years under IS rule. At least 26 people were killed in the attacks, but locals said the death toll was far higher.\nOn Friday, suicide bombers hit a busy market in East Mosul while Iraqi forces in West Mosul battled for IS's last stronghold. It is not known how many people died or were injured that day, but like most days in Mosul, the violence was overwhelming.\nOfficials say 100,000 people may be trapped inside Mosul's Old City and thousands flee for desert refugee camps daily. June 15, 2017, near Hammam Alil, Iraq. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nAnd as Iraqi forces poise themselves to win the battle for Mosul city in the coming days or weeks, some locals fear that when this war is over, rebuilding infrastructure will not be enough to end more than a decade of extremist brutality and build a lasting peace.\nFrequent extremist attacks in Mosul after 2004 led to heavy-handed governance, in turn leading to popular distrust of the military, said Zainab, 40, in her East Mosul home. So when IS took over, there was little if any resistance among families who stayed in the city.\n\u201cThings are better now,\u201d she said. \u201cThe military doesn't harass us.\u201d With almost all of her furniture sold for food under IS rule, she offered a single orange plastic chair to guests, saying that improved relations between the military and the public would help quell extremism, but not necessarily mean an end to the conflict.\n\u201cWe are afraid IS may take over again in a few years,\u201d Zainab said. \u201cBefore they retreated, they wrote on building walls: \u2018We will be bigger and stronger. And we will be back.\u2019 \u201d\nAcross West Mosul, homes have holes in the walls that IS militants forced families to make so they could travel from house to house without being seen by airstrikes. Soldiers now use them in the areas they've captured to avoid IS snipers. June 23, 2017, in Mosul, Iraq. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nHostages\nWhile East Mosul struggles to recover amid ongoing attacks, much of West Mosul is a wasteland, with bodies buried in gardens and under the rubble. Dead IS fighters rot in the streets while families flee, starving and often injured from the battle that still rages in the Old City.\nAs many as 100,000 civilians trapped inside are now referred to as \u201chostages\u201d as IS militants use them as human shields in the battle.\nWATCH: Looking to Mosul's Future Amid Extreme Violence\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nLooking to Mosul's Future Amid Extreme Violence\nShare this video\n0:00:43\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:43\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 1.9MB\n360p | 3.1MB\n720p | 17.0MB\n1080p | 12.5MB\n\u201cAn airstrike hit our house, but we stayed hidden under the collapsed roof,\" said Mohammad, 16, sitting on a hard mat in a refugee camp outside the city three days after his family fled. His single foot was bandaged, and dried blood spotted his calf. His other leg was lost to a mortar strike in March.\nWhen Iraqi forces got close to his broken home, \"they shouted, \u2018Get out! Come!\u2019 \u201d Mohammad said, urging families to run to safety behind Iraqi lines. His father raced across the rooftops of neighboring houses with Mohammad on his back. \n\u201cMy parents will return here later,\u201d Mohammad added, explaining his father's absence in the camp. \u201cThey went back to find the bodies of my uncle and my cousin.\u201d Ahmed, the cousin, was 1 year old.\nOld Mosul, IS's last stronghold in the city, has narrow streets and old buildings, forcing soldiers to fight IS on foot and making airstrikes more deadly than ever, June 23, 2017, in Mosul, Iraq. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nAs people flee the Old City by the thousands, it is still unclear how long it will take before the battle is done, according to Brigadier General Mohammad al-Khodary, a spokesman for Iraq's department of defense, at a field hospital just outside the battle zone.\n\u201cJournalists keep asking when we will have victory. But it's more important to rescue the hostages inside than to capture the area,\u201d al-Khodary said.\nBy evening on Friday, dozens of wounded and dead civilians were whisked to that hospital in humvees. Soldiers said suicide bombers were fleeing, disguised as refugees. Families also were hit by airstrikes, mortars and IS sniper fire.\n\u201cThere are so many families still trapped under IS,\u201d said Iraqi Special Forces Lieutenant General Ma'an Zaid Ibrhahim. \u201cGod willing, we will free them all.\u201d\nMajor Assad al-Assadi, left, and Lt. General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi of Iraqi Special Forces, or the Golden Division, tour areas of the Old City they captured in recent days, now abandoned and in ruins. June 22, 2017, in Mosul, Iraq. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nMoving forward\nFor the Iraqi military, moving forward after the fall of Mosul will mean moving to other areas of Iraq still controlled by IS, including Tal Afar, a city located about halfway between Mosul and the Syrian border.\nFor Mosul residents, however, it will mean rebuilding neighborhoods, water and electrical infrastructure, businesses, roads and lives.\nIn East Mosul, construction already is underway. Bodies of fallen IS fighters and others have been cleared away or buried. Airstrike holes are being filled. Running water and electricity have been restored in many places. \nAfter so much destruction, however, the process is slow and costs more money than the local government has, according to Ahmed Saleh al-Jabouri, Mosul's assistant municipality director.\nConstruction is underway in East Mosul, with many roads and buildings already fixed. But officials say the distruction from IS and the war was so extensive, they don't know how long it will take to rebuild, or how much it will cost, June 8, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\n\u201cWe don't know exactly how much we need because of the extreme destruction,\u201d he said in his office in Mosul, formerly a headquarters for local IS leaders. \u201cFor example, a single car bomb can destroy an entire neighborhood.\u201d\nRebuilding lives, he added, will require more than just roads. Government workers in Mosul widely expect to be paid back salaries from Baghdad after they were cut off three years ago when IS took over, and only a few groups of government workers have started receiving any salary at all.\nAt a nearby high school, teachers say lack of salaries is cutting far deeper into recovery efforts than most people realize. Most teachers have not been paid since schools reopened in January, according to Ode Ghanem, the school principal, leaving the already crippled system staffed with deeply impoverished volunteer academics.\n\u201cOur situation would make rocks cry,\u201d said Ghanem. \u201cWe don't understand why our leaders are not crying.\u201d\nAn Iraqi soldier looks at damage done by airstrikes and car bombs in IS's last stronghold, Mosul's Old City, June 18, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\n", + "caption": "Major Assad al-Assadi, left, and Lt. General Abdul Ghani al-Assadi of Iraqi Special Forces, or the Golden Division, tour areas of the Old City they captured in recent days, now abandoned and in ruins. June 22, 2017, in Mosul, Iraq. (H. Murdock/VOA)", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/262B5A31-6D6A-4C80-A0BB-7033C4C48C23.jpg", + "id": "27192_5", + "answer": [ + "to win the battle for Mosul city" + ], + "bridge": [ + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_24_3914472", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_24_3914472_5" + }, + { + "question": "How are the people like those in the image reclaiming the city?", + "context": "Iraqi Troops Push Deeper into Mosul\nThe deputy commander of the U.S.-led coalition working to defeat the Islamic State group said Monday \"the final liberation of Mosul is drawing ever closer.\"\nBritish Major General Rupert Jones said during a briefing that Iraqi forces are going block by block to clear the final militants from Mosul, a city Islamic State seized three years ago.\nJones also said the fall of the group's de facto capital in Raqqa, Syria \"is just a matter of time,\" but cautioned that battle will not be quick or easy.\n\"Daesh are fighting for their lives, so their ability to plan and direct attacks is significantly degraded,\" Jones said, using an Arabic acronym for the militant group.\nIraqi troops backed by coalition airstrikes and ground support pushed deeper into Mosul's Old City on Sunday, with one Iraqi commander saying 65 to 70 percent of the city had been liberated.\nLieutenant Colonel Salam al-Obeidi estimated there were only \"a few hundred\" Islamic State fighters left in Mosul, and that there remained less than one square kilometer to retake from the militants.\nSpecial Report: Mosul is Falling, But Will it Stand?\nAnother commander, Staff Lieutenant-General Abdulwahab al-Saadim, predicted, \"We will finish the operation within a few days. The end is going to be very soon, it will take days.\" Iraqi troops have led the fight to retake Mosul, held by the militants since 2014, but a U.S.-led international coalition has provided air and ground support.\nEight month battle\nMuch of the Old City has been devastated in eight months of fighting, including the landmark 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri mosque and its leaning 45-meter minaret that jihadists blew up four days ago.\nWith the Iraqi advance, some in Mosul celebrated the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with children playing in squares on the eastern side of the city that had been liberated months ago. \nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nAnalyst: Mosul Must Have Multi-Sectarian Government\nShare this video\n0:02:06\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:06\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 6.0MB\n360p | 9.8MB\n720p | 59.4MB\n1080p | 42.8MB\nIn a statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, \"As our heroic forces are closer to declaring final victory over the Daesh (Islamic State) gangs, I offer my most sincere congratulations for Eid al-Fitr.\"\nEven with the possibility of an imminent Iraqi takeover of Mosul, one U.S. analyst voiced concerns that Baghdad is not prepared to assume governmental control of the city.\nMichael O'Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told Alhurra, the U.S.-owned Arabic-language satellite TV network, that he is worried \"about the potential of another extremist Sunni group emerging. Defeating one extremist group doesn\u2019t stop the surge.\"\nO'Hanlon said that after the liberation of Mosul, \"governance must be preserved and all groups must have access to governance\u2026. Otherwise Mosul can become a place where extremists can re-emerge.\nWATCH: The Brookings Institution's Michael O'Hanlon on the importance of good governance after Mosul falls\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nMichael O'Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution on the importance of good governance after Mosul falls\nShare this video\n0:00:54\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:54\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 1.9MB\n360p | 2.3MB\n480p | 11.0MB\n\"From what I hear, there is no particular concept on how to govern Mosul that\u2019s competent and inclusive,\" O'Hanlon said. \"It is not enough to have a couple of Sunnis in the government. People have to be governing, appointing jobs, building the police force. We\u2019re going to have to manage frustration and grievances and the way to do that is to have an inclusive government.\"\n", + "caption": "An Iraqi soldier stands atop a destroyed house in a neighborhood recently retaken by Iraqi security forces during fighting against Islamic State militants in west Mosul, Iraq, June 25, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D9BE2C4F-AF9D-4549-8E7D-9FF14424ED86.jpg", + "id": "24118_1", + "answer": [ + "going block by block" + ], + "bridge": [ + "forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_25_3915316", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_25_3915316_1" + }, + { + "question": "What does the man in the image think is a prerequisite to accomplish his goal?", + "context": "Thousands Protest Wider Use of Albanian Language in Macedonia\nSKOPJE \u2014\u00a0\nSeveral thousand people protested in Skopje against an agreement that would ensure the wider use of the Albanian language in the ethnically divided state.\nLast Thursday, the leader of the Social Democrats, Zoran Zaev, said he expected to be able to form a government in March after he had secured support from ethnic Albanian parties in the 120-seat parliament.\nThose parties had made their support for any potential coalition conditional on the passage of a law backing broader use of their language in Macedonia.\nBut on Monday, a movement that called itself \"For Joint Macedonia\" called on social media for people to come out on the street and protest the deal Zaev had made with the Albanian parties.\nProtesters marched from the government building to the state parliament in Skopje shouting \"This will not pass\" and sang Macedonian national songs.\n\"With one symbolic gesture we want to show how you should love Macedonia,\" said Bogdan Ilievski, a member of the movement.\nThe Balkan nation's two-year-old political crisis was triggered by a surveillance scandal that forced veteran leader of the nationalist VMRO-DPMNE, Nikola Gruevski, to resign a year ago.\nThe crisis was the worst since Western diplomacy helped drag the country of 2.1 million people back from the brink of civil war during an ethnic Albanian insurgency in 2001, promising it a path to membership of the European Union and of NATO.\nIn a snap vote in December, VMRO-DPMNE won 51 seats to the Social Democrats' 49, and neither was able to form the government without parties representing ethnic Albanians who make up one third of the population.\nThe conservative VMRO-DPMNE party had tried but failed to form a coalition.\nFILE - The leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Zoran Zaev talks to media after casting his vote during elections in Strumica, Macedonia, Dec. 11, 2016\nOn Monday Zaev asked President Gjorge Ivanov to give him the mandate to form a government and had presented him with the signatures of 18 deputies from ethnic Albanian parties.\nOn Sunday evening former prime minister Gruevski called on Social Democrats to revoke the deal, saying it was unconstitutional and jeopardised state interests.\nAlbanian is currently an official language only in municipalities where Albanians account for more than 20 percent of the population. \n", + "caption": "FILE - The leader of the opposition Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (SDSM) Zoran Zaev talks to media after casting his vote during elections in Strumica, Macedonia, Dec. 11, 2016", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FE48910F-815C-4F3A-8221-42D8242290CA.jpg", + "id": "33057_2", + "answer": [ + "support from ethnic Albanian parties in the 120-seat parliament" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Zoran Zaev" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742589", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742589_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person being interviewed in the image say was wrong with the policy?", + "context": "UN Envoy in Philippines Says War on Drugs \u2018Does Not Work\u2019\nMANILA, PHILIPPINES \u2014\u00a0\nThe U.N. special envoy on extrajudicial executions Friday issued a veiled rebuke of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s deadly campaign against illegal drugs, saying world leaders have recognized that such an approach does not work.\nAgnes Callamard told a forum in Manila that badly thought out policies not only fail to address drug abuse and trafficking, they also compound the problems and \u201ccan foster a regime of impunity infecting the whole justice sector and reaching into whole societies, invigorating the rule of violence rather than law.\u201d\nShe did not mention the Philippines by name.\nEarly critic of anti-drug campaign \nCallamard is an early critic of the Philippine president\u2019s anti-drug drive, and has been challenged by Duterte to debate his war on drugs that has left thousands of suspected drug dealers and users dead since he took office in June. \nHuman rights groups say 7,000 to 9,000 have been killed, but the government refutes that, releasing data this week showing nearly 4,600 people were killed in police operations and homicides found to be drug-related.\n\u201cIn 2016, the general assembly of the world\u2019s government recognized explicitly that the \u2018war on drugs\u2019 \u2014 be it community based, national or global \u2014 does not work,\u201d Callamard said. \nShe said that other factors exacerbate the problem, including poorly conceived policies, extrajudicial killings, deaths by criminal gangs, vigilante crimes, detention in rehabilitation centers without trial or evaluation and the breakdown of the rule of law.\nShe said U.N. member countries, in their joint commitment last year to counter the world drug problem, called instead for a multifaceted, scientific approach that promotes the dignity and human rights of individuals and communities.\nNo meeting with officials\nDuterte spokesman Ernesto Abella expressed disappointment that Callamard did not contact the government before her visit, saying \u201cshe has sent a clear signal that she is not interested in getting an objective perspective of issues that are the focus of her responsibility.\u201d\nHe said the government sent a letter to Callamard in September inviting her to visit and meet with officials to get their perspective on the drug menace. Abella failed to mention that Duterte earlier rejected Callamard\u2019s proposal to hold a private meeting and instead insisted on a public debate with her. \nCallamard refused to answer questions from media except to say that she was in the country in an unofficial capacity, solely to attend a two-day academic conference at the invitation of the University of the Philippines and human rights lawyers.\nShe invited \u201call parties, including the government, to participate fully and take stock of what is going to be debated.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, talks to the media after her speech at a drug policy forum at University of the Philippines, May 5, 2017 in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines. Callamard has rebuked Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly campaign against illegal drugs, saying world leaders have recognized it does not work. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6414D36D-97BE-4037-BBC8-78C17227AFD2.jpg", + "id": "2005_1", + "answer": [ + "can foster a regime of impunity infecting the whole justice sector and reaching into whole societies, invigorating the rule of violence rather than law", + "badly thought out policies not only fail to address drug abuse and trafficking, they also compound the problems and \u201ccan foster a regime of impunity infecting the whole justice sector and reaching into whole societies, invigorating the rule of violence rather than law.\u201d", + "fail to address drug abuse and trafficking, they also compound the problems and \u201ccan foster a regime of impunity infecting the whole justice sector and reaching into whole societies, invigorating the rule of violence rather than law.\u201d" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Agnes Callamard" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_05_3838981", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_05_3838981_1" + }, + { + "question": "What specific changes may make a better vetting process important before the relatives of the man in the image can be with him?", + "context": "Trump Signs Order Barring Syrian Refugees From US\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Donald Trump has signed two executive actions designed to enhance U.S. security, the more far-reaching of which restricts any Syrian refugees from entering the United States for an indefinite period of time.\nFriday's executive order titled \"Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,\" calls for suspension of visas and other immigration benefits to citizens of \"countries of particular concern.\"\nTwo United Nations agencies issued a joint statement Saturday just hours after Trump's order, saying \"The needs of refugees and migrants worldwide have never been greater, and the U.S. resettlement program is one of the most important in the world.\" \nThe U.N. Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration said they hope the \"U.S. will continue its strong leadership role and long tradition of protecting those who are fleeing conflict and persecution.\" The agencies said they \"strongly believe that refugees should receive equal treatment for protection and assistance, and opportunities for resettlement, regardless of their religion, nationality or race.\"\nTrump signed the order Friday at the Pentagon where he participated in a swearing-in ceremony for Defense Secretary James Mattis. Soon after the president's action protesters staged a demonstration at the main federal office building in New York.\nAs a reason for the order, the document cites the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, which were carried out by 19 foreigners who obtained visas to enter the United States without difficulty. It refers to other terrorism-related crimes committed over the past 15 years by foreign nationals who entered the United States using either short-term visas - as visitors, students or temporary workers - or as refugees seeking resettlement in the U.S.\nMotaz Alafandi of Syria shows a photo he keeps on his smartphone of his daughter Yara, 18, who lives in Montreal, Jan. 27, 2017, in Garland, Texas. Alafandi, a 49-year-old Syrian lives in Dallas while seeking asylum with his wife and three youngest children, ages 14, 11 and 5. \"I wish that Mr. President (Trump) can help in stopping the war in Syria,\" said Alafandi, who said he loves the U.S. and the American people but does hope to return one day to his homeland.\nAverting attacks\n\"Deteriorating conditions in certain countries due to war, strife, disaster and civil unrest increase the likelihood that terrorists will use any means possible to entered the United States,\" the order states, and it calls for greater vigilance and caution by American consular officials before visas are granted.\nThe order does not spell out which countries are \"of particular concern,\" although it authorizes the Department of Homeland Security to keep track of nations that do not provide adequate information about their citizens. White House officials indicated earlier this week that Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia would be an initial list of countries \"of concern,\" but the order noted additions to the list could be made at any time.\nAs reported earlier when drafts of Trump's planned action circulated in Washington several days ago, the official text forbids the entry into the United States of any Syrian refugees for an indefinite period, until the president determines \"that sufficient changes have been made ... to ensure that admission of Syrian refugees is consistent with the national interest.\"\nThe order also suspends operations of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for 120 days, while the Secretary of State and other officials reevaluate procedures \"to ensure that those approved for refugee admission do not pose a threat to the security and welfare of the United States.\" It also limits the number of refugees that may be admitted to the United States to 50,000 during fiscal 2017, the 12-month period that ends on September 30.\nDescription: Protesters chant slogans against President Donald Trump's executive order on Muslim immigration, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2017, in downtown Miami. The protesters manifested their opposition to Trump's executive order restricting immigration from some Muslim-majority nations.\nWho will be affected?\nThe president said Friday that only people who support the United States should be allowed into the country. The executive order he signed discussed identification and verification procedures that U.S. consular officers should use in extensive detail.\nUnder the general topic of terrorism, the executive order directed U.S. officials to watch for \"gender-based violence against women, including 'honor killings,\" and called for the gathering of \"any other information relevant to public safety and security.\"\n\"We don't want them here,\" said Trump. \"We want to make sure that we are not admitting into our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas. We only want to admit those into our country who will support our country and love deeply our people.\"\nPeter Brookes, a senior fellow of national security affairs at Heritage Foundation, said the ban is \u201cessentially a pause\u201d being used by the new administration to review past programs and policies. He said it was an important step needed to avoid \u201cthe problems that we have seen Europe suffer at hands of people who have either been recent refugees or come in posing as refugees.\u201d\nBrookes noted that recent gains made by coalition forces fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq are putting pressure on the Islamic extremists, making it more likely they might try to flee to other countries.\n\u201cI think ISIS is in crisis. It is under significant pressure in both Mosul and Raqqa. The caliphate is going to crumble at some point in the future and those fighters are going to go somewhere. They may try to return home or may try to go to other countries,\u201d he said.\nOthers say the threat of terrorism from refugees is overblown, however, and the U.S. has a duty to accept people from these war-torn countries.\n\u201cThere is really a very limited risk of refugees committing crimes or acts of terrorism and there is a lot of statistics about that,\u201d Benjamin Friedman, a research fellow in defense and homeland security studies at the CATO institute, said. \u201cParticularly with regards to Iraq, Libya and to a lesser extent Syria I think the United States has a unique responsibility to accept immigrants refugees included because we helped destabilize those countries.\u201d\nMark Hetfield of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, added, \"It's clear that President Trump has decided to pick on refugees. ... This is going to cost tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people their lives, because they won't find protection here. They won't find protection anywhere.\"\nSyrian refugees Dania Khatib, 5, with her mother Mahasen Boshnaq, rear, holding her brother Mohammed, 1, sits in the home of their sponsoring family, Jan. 27, 2017, in Rutland, Vt. The Khatib family arrived in Rutland this month.\nBusy courts\nFormer New York prosecutor Paul Callan said Friday that he expects the refugee order will generate a great deal of legal activity, particularly if people already in the United States are affected.\n\"You can block people from coming into the country, but once they're in, all persons have constitutional protections if they're in the United States. And certainly, if there is a claim that those constitutional rights are being violated by an executive order, that claim would go to the U.S. Supreme Court.\"\nA Syrian asylum-seeker told VOA \u201crefuges are victims, not terrorists.\u201d\n\u201cI applied for asylum from inside the U.S. in late 2014. I've been in the process for more than two years and I didn't get my asylum yet. That shows how long the vetting process is and how stringent the security checks are,\u201d said Middle East Institute resident fellow Ibrahim Al Assil.\n\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admission Program for 120 days and indefinite halt of refugee processing and admittance of Syrian refugees is in disregard for human rights,\u201d added Assil who co-founded the Syrian Nonviolence Movement, \u201cthis is a fundamental violation of the right to seek asylum in accordance with the 1951 Refugee Convention.\u201d\nThe 1951 Refugee Convention is the key document that defines the term \u201crefugee\u201d and outlines the rights of the displaced, as well as the legal obligations of States to protect them.\nPolicy review\nAlso Friday, Trump signed a presidential memorandum directed at the new secretary of defense and the Office of Budget Management, outlining their responsibilities for evaluating the nation's security policies.\nAn executive memorandum differs from an executive order in that it is directed at a specific federal agency. An executive order is always entered into the Federal Register, the official daily journal of U.S. government activity. While memoranda may not be formally recorded in the Federal Register, both types of presidential action carry the force of law.\nTrump said the memorandum regarding national security was intended to better support the U.S. military.\n\"Believe me,\" the president said, \"first I'm signing an executive action to begin a great rebuilding of the armed services of the United States, developing a plan for new planes, new ships, new resources, and new tools for our men and women in uniform. And I'm very proud to be doing that.\"\nThe memorandum, proclaiming a policy of pursuing \"peace through strength,\" said the new secretary must conduct a 30-day readiness review assessing training, equipment maintenance, munitions, modernization, and infrastructure of the current armed forces. It tasks the new secretary with submitting to the president a report and a plan within 60 days, identifying actions that can be implemented within the current fiscal years to improve readiness.\nThe memorandum says Mattis must initiate a new Nuclear Posture Review to make sure the U.S. nuclear deterrent is \"modern, robust, flexible, resilient, ready, and appropriately tailored to deter 21st-century threats and reassure\" U.S. allies.\nVOA's Nike Ching, Fern Robinson and Hasib Alikozai contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "Motaz Alafandi of Syria shows a photo he keeps on his smartphone of his daughter Yara, 18, who lives in Montreal, Jan. 27, 2017, in Garland, Texas. Alafandi, a 49-year-old Syrian lives in Dallas while seeking asylum with his wife and three youngest children, ages 14, 11 and 5. \"I wish that Mr. President (Trump) can help in stopping the war in Syria,\" said Alafandi, who said he loves the U.S. and the American people but does hope to return one day to his homeland.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A106039F-5590-46E5-826C-E77AF727B977.jpg", + "id": "28112_2", + "answer": [ + "recent gains made by coalition forces fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Syria" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_28_3696454", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_28_3696454_2" + }, + { + "question": "How did the animal in the image perhaps die?", + "context": "SeaWorld: Tilikum, Orca That Killed Trainer, Has Died\nORLANDO, FLORIDA \u2014\u00a0\nTilikum, an orca that killed a trainer at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010 and was profiled in a documentary that helped sway popular opinion against keeping killer whales in captivity at SeaWorld parks, has died.\nSea World officials said Friday that Tilikum died but did not give a cause of death. In a statement, the officials said Tilikum had faced serious health issues including a persistent and complicated bacterial lung infection. He was estimated to be 36 years old. A necropsy will be performed, according to the statement.\nThe 2010 death of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau during a performance with Tilikum after a ``Dine with Shamu'' show shocked the public and changed the future of orcas at SeaWorld parks.\nBrancheau was interacting with Tilikum before a live audience at SeaWorld Orlando when he pulled her from a platform by her arm and held her underwater. An autopsy report said Brancheau drowned but also suffered severe trauma, including multiple fractures.\nOrca breeding progam, shows stop \nSeaWorld Entertainment officials announced in March 2016 that the tourist attraction would end its orca breeding program and theatrical shows involving killer whales.\nWhile the breeding program continued, Tilikum was SeaWorld's most prolific male orca, siring 14 calves during his time at SeaWorld Orlando. He arrived at the park about 25 years ago.\nHe was noticeable for his size at more than 22 feet and 11,800 pounds.\n\u201cTilikum had, and will continue to have, a special place in the hearts of the SeaWorld family, as well as the millions of people all over the world that he inspired,\u201d SeaWorld President and CEO Joel Manby said. \u201cMy heart goes out to our team who cared for him like family.\u201d\nBorn near Iceland\nTilikum was born off the waters of Iceland and moved to Sealand of the Pacific in Canada after being captured. While at Sealand in 1992, Tilikum and two female orcas were responsible for the death of a part-time trainer who slipped and fell into their pool and was submerged by them.\nTilikum was moved to SeaWorld Orlando a short time later, and Sealand later closed.\nThe decision to end the SeaWorld breeding program and theatrical shows came six years after Brancheau's death and three years after the release of the documentary, ``Blackfish,'' which chronicled Tilikum's life and Brancheau's death.\nHer death was not the only one linked to Tillikum at SeaWorld. In 1999, a naked man who had eluded security and sneaked into SeaWorld at night was found dead the next morning draped over Tilikum in a breeding tank in the back of Shamu Stadium.\nPark attendance dips \nThe \u201cBlackfish\u201d documentary argued that killer whales, when in captivity, become more aggressive toward humans and each other. After the documentary played at the Sundance Film Festival and aired on CNN, several entertainers pulled out of planned performances at SeaWorld parks and animal rights activists increased their demonstrations outside the parks.\nAttendance at SeaWorld parks dipped, the company faced falling profits and Southwest Airlines ended its 25-year relationship with the theme park company.\nIn March, SeaWorld CEO acknowledged that the public's attitude had changed about keeping killer whales captive and that the company would end its orca breeding program.\n\u201cWe needed to move where society was moving,\u201d Manby said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Tilikum, an orca, watches March 7, 2011, as SeaWorld trainers take a break during a training session at the theme park's Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Florida.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B1F7774C-4773-4C0E-996F-779F7C2FD306.jpg", + "id": "26350_1", + "answer": [ + "serious health issues including a persistent and complicated bacterial lung infection" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tilikum " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3666198", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3666198_1" + }, + { + "question": "What would the people in the image like to see meet a lower level?", + "context": "Official: Mexico Could Leave NAFTA If Not Satisfied\nMEXICO CITY \u2014\u00a0\nMexico's economy secretary said Tuesday his country could leave the North American Free Trade Agreement if talks on renegotiating it are unsatisfactory.\nIldefonso Guajardo told the Televisa network that his country will be in a weak position at talks with U.S. President Donald Trump unless Mexico makes it clear it won't accept just anything in order to preserve the three-nation trade pact.\n\u201cIt would be impossible to sell something here at home unless it has clear benefits for Mexico,\u201d Guajardo said. \u201cIf we are going to go for something that is less than what we have, it makes no sense to stay.\u201d\nTrump has pledged to renegotiate the pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada and slap tariffs on imports.\nFILE - People belonging to farmers' associations block the El Paso to Ciudad Juarez bridge, on the Mexican side, during a protest against the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2014.\nWhile Mexico runs a trade surplus with the United States, many sectors in the country also want greater restrictions on U.S. imports, particularly farm products that many say have helped impoverish subsistence-level Mexican farmers.\nGuajardo also repeated Mexican insistence that it will not pay for a border wall that Trump has promised to build, and said it would not accept any tax or restrictions on the money sent home by Mexican migrants.\nHe also said that \u201cin the case that there are deportations [of Mexican migrants], as there have been, they have to be orderly and clearly defined.\u201d\nTrump suggested during his campaign that he would step up deportations of migrants living illegally in the United States.\nRemittances amount to about $25 billion annually and have become a major source of foreign revenue for the country. Trump has suggested that the U.S. might retain some of that money to help pay for a wall between the countries.\nTrump announced Monday that he has set up meetings with Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, saying \u201cWe're going to start some negotiations having to do with NAFTA.\u201d\nPena Nieto said he is ready to negotiate at a planned Jan. 31 meeting with Trump, and sought to chart a middle course.\n\u201cNeither confrontation nor submission. Dialogue is the solution,\u201d Pena Nieto said Monday.\n", + "caption": "FILE - People belonging to farmers' associations block the El Paso to Ciudad Juarez bridge, on the Mexican side, during a protest against the 20th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Jan. 2, 2014.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/80A96C18-CB60-4D45-BFB1-5618828E4905.jpg", + "id": "31081_2", + "answer": [ + "U.S. imports, particularly farm products " + ], + "bridge": [ + "farmers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_24_3690235", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_24_3690235_2" + }, + { + "question": "What people did the blonde person in the image talk with?", + "context": "Trump in Middle East, But Back Home Focus Still on Comey Firing\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump focused Sunday on a major address to Muslim leaders at a summit in Riyadh, but back home the day's news shows were dominated by talk of his firing of FBI chief James Comey and investigations into the Trump campaign's links to Russia.\nTwo key Trump officials, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, told interviewers that at a May 10 White House meeting with two Russian diplomats, Trump brought up Comey's ouster the day before in an effort to show how \"distracted\" he had been by Comey's investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow interests to help him win the election.\nU.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, next to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak at the White House in Washington, May 10, 2017. (Russian Foreign Ministry photo via AP)\nAccording to a New York Times report Friday, Trump told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Moscow's U.S. ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, that Comey was \"a real nutjob\" and that his removal would relieve \"great pressure.\" Some opposition Democratic lawmakers say that Trump's dismissal of the official investigating him amounts to obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense.\nAnother Times story said Comey's notes from a February meeting with Trump the day after he fired his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, showed that he urged Comey to drop his probe of Flynn's calls to Kislyak.\nMcMaster told ABC, \"The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news.\"\nTillerson told Fox News that Trump was also trying to convey to the Russians that he was \"not going to be distracted by all these issues at home that affect us domestically.\"\nRepublican Senator John McCain, a frequent Trump critic, told Fox News that he was \"almost speechless\" that Trump would describe Comey in such negative terms. The White House has not denied Trump's attack on Comey while condemning leaks of the Oval Office meeting.\n\"I don't know why someone would say something like that,\" McCain said, but stopped short of saying Comey's firing was an effort to impede the FBI's investigation.\n\"I don't think it was a wise thing to do,\" McCain said. \"Mr. Comey was highly respected and highly regarded and so I can't explain it.\"\nFILE - In this April 21, 2016 file photo, attorney and former FBI Director Robert Mueller, right, arrives for a court hearing at the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco.\nEven with Trump dismissing Comey, Robert Mueller, Comey's predecessor as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the country's top law enforcement agency, was named this past week as special prosecutor to investigate Russia's meddling in the election and whether any Trump aides colluded with Moscow to boost Trump's chances of defeating his Democratic challenger, Hillary Clinton.\nThe U.S. intelligence community has concluded Moscow hacked into the computer of Clinton campaign chief John Podesta, with the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks subsequently releasing thousands of his emails in the weeks just before last November's election, depicting embarrassing behind-the-scenes efforts by Democratic operatives to help Clinton win the party's presidential nomination.\nAnother Republican lawmaker, Senator Marco Rubio, said, \"If any president tries to impede an investigation ... no matter who it is, by interfering with the FBI, yes, that would be problematic. That would be not just problematic, it would be obviously a potential obstruction of justice that people have to make a decision on.\"\nRubio said, however, that he would reserve judgment until he has heard Comey's public testimony before a congressional panel in the coming weeks about his contacts with Trump.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A combination photo shows U.S. President Donald Trump (L) in the House of Representatives in Washington, U.S., on Feb. 28, 2017 and FBI Director James Comey in Washington on July 7, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/13907EED-4456-49DA-AF1E-6876C30ABCEF.jpg", + "id": "33204_1_1", + "answer": [ + "Muslim leaders" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3864182", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3864182_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the image with the red tie able to do?", + "context": "AP: About 4,000 More US Troops to Afghanistan\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nThe Associated Press is quoting an anonymous Trump administration official as saying the Pentagon will send almost 4,000 additional American forces to Afghanistan to assist the South Asian nation in its fight against a renascent Taliban insurgency.\nThat number is similar to previous reports from other Trump administration officials.\nA Pentagon spokesman, however, told the Reuters news agency when asked about the AP story that \u201cno decisions have been made\u201d about deploying the additional troops.\nThe AP report said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis could make the announcement about deploying the troops as early as next week.\nMattis to set troop levels\nA U.S. official said earlier this week that U.S. President Donald Trump has given Mattis the authority to set troop levels in Afghanistan.\nMattis told the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday the U.S. is not gaining in the fight to stabilize Afghanistan, and he vowed to present a strategy to Congress \u201cby mid-July.\u201d\nThe defense secretary also acknowledged that the Trump administration is in a \u201cstrategy free time\u201d concerning Afghanistan.\nHe called on Congress to provide the Pentagon with a budget, \u201cnot a continuing resolution\u201d that is \u201cpassed on time,\u201d in order to push the U.S. military through readiness shortfalls while maintaining a support role in two wars.\nCongress needs to see a plan\nRepublican Senator John McCain, the chairman of the committee, said Congress needs to see a plan on how the U.S. can move forward in Afghanistan.\nMattis equated winning in Afghanistan with the Afghan government\u2019s ability to handle the enemy\u2019s level of violence, which he said will require a \u201cresidual force\u201d of U.S. and allied forces to train Afghan troops and maintain high-end capabilities.\nThe defense secretary said the U.S. cannot quit on Afghanistan because problems that threaten the U.S. and its economy arise out of \u201cungoverned spaces.\u201d\nCarla Babb contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford, left, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Defense Under Secretary and Chief Financial Office David Norquist, listen to a question as they testify at a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the FY'18 defense bud", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/52B8BC49-E1B7-4115-9C58-BD738E35FB44.jpg", + "id": "8678_1", + "answer": [ + "set troop levels in Afghanistan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jim Mattis", + "Mattis" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3902973", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3902973_1" + }, + { + "question": "What person originally created the rule that prompted the person in the image to create the organization?", + "context": "Dutch Government Starts Crowdfunding Effort to Protect Women's Rights\nBRUSSELS \u2014\u00a0\n\u201cShe Decides\u201d is a global fundraising initiative launched by the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation last Saturday. The campaign is trying to raise money to offer family planning services to women in developing countries.\nThe crowdfunding effort was established in response to a decree signed last week by U.S. President Donald Trump. His order, also known as the Mexico City policy, prohibits federal funding to groups and organizations that support abortions.\nDutch Minister Lilianne Ploumen said in a video message she received an overwhelming amount of supporting messages from around the world after she voiced her plan to set up an international safe abortion fund.\n\u201cWe want to raise funds to make sure women and girls all over the world have access to family planning services, \" she said, \"Please join us, spread the word. It is time that she decides.\u201d\nThe first $10 million donation came from the Dutch government.\nMultinational effort\nPloumen is now actively lobbying other governments and organizations to close the $600 million funding gap.\nCanada is said to be enthusiastic about the Dutch initiative and so is Belgium.\nBelgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Development Cooperation Alexander de Croo announced he will host an international conference this spring in Brussels. The aim is to bring together \u201clike-minded countries and organizations\u201d when it comes to the topic of women\u2019s rights and family planning. De Croo said in a statement that this is an issue of human rights.\n\u201cThis White House decision has a direct impact on the lives of millions of girls and women in developing countries,\" he said. \"Information on family planning and the possibility of abortion are of great importance for the development of girls and women.\u201d\nParticipants attend the Women's March on Washington on Jan. 21, 2017 in Washington.\nThe Belgian ministry did not want to say yet which countries, institutions and companies are attending, but said the responses have been positive.\nOne of the affected organizations will be Marie Stopes International, which provides contraception and abortion services to women in 37 countries. Last year it received about $30 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development, for expanding access to contraception in developing countries.\nWill Harris of Marie Stopes International said the decree leaves the organization with a 17 percent budget cut for 2017.\n\u201cIn 2001, the last time the Mexico City Policy was re-enacted, we saw a number of European governments step up their funding commitments,\" said Harris. \"However, with aid budgets today under unprecedented pressure from the challenges of the 21st century, we can take nothing for granted.\u201d\nThe group believes without alternative funding, the impact of the decree between 2017 and 2020 will be 6.5 million unintended pregnancies, 2.1 million unsafe abortions and 21,700 maternal deaths.\nPeople hold candles as they protest in solidarity with the Women's March in Washington at the same time as the U.S. Presidential inauguration, in Brussels on Jan. 20, 2017.\nMany American Republican politicians oppose abortions, while this is not as much of a public debate in most European countries. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation says the initiative is not against President Trump or the United States, but is focusing on the millions of women they believe will not have access to information, contraceptives and abortions.\nFormer President Ronald Reagan imposed the Mexico City policy in 1984. It was repealed by President Bill Clinton, re-imposed by President George W. Bush and repealed again by President Barack Obama.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen attends a meeting of EU trade ministers at the EU Headquarters in Brussels on Nov. 11, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DFE70E14-128D-4500-AB1F-AC31942E6C9E.jpg", + "id": "117_1", + "answer": [ + "Donald Trump", + "Former President Ronald Reagan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lilianne Ploumen", + "Mexico City policy" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_30_3698678", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_30_3698678_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person with glasses in the image worried about dismissing?", + "context": "Q&A: Franken, Letterman Take on Climate Change\nLOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0\nDavid Letterman and Sen. Al Franken were both feeling frustrated about pessimism around the topic of climate change - so they got together to talk about it. Thankfully they invited some cameras along, too, with the help of Funny or Die and the Primetime Emmy Award-winning \u201cYears of Living Dangerously.\u201d\nThe fruits of their conversations can be seen in the digital series \u201cBoiling the Frog with Senator Al Franken.\u201d Their talks run the gamut from serious to funny as they take on everything from coal and carbon prices to Letterman's retirement beard in the six 5-minute shorts that begin rolling out Monday on funnyordie.com and its Facebook page with a new installment each week.\nFor Sen. Franken, it's an effort to \u201cfight back\u201d against the creeping apathy and disregard toward science and climate change.\n\u201cSince taking office, President Trump has decided to disregard science in order to repeatedly put the short-sighted interests of his friends in the fossil fuel industry ahead of the safety of our planet,\u201d Franken said. \u201cWe hope to bring some much needed attention to this critical issue and ultimately, to help encourage people in Minnesota, Dave's home state of Indiana and all Americans to make their voices heard and join the fight to combat climate change.\u201d\nLetterman recently did an episode of \u201cYears of Living Dangerously\u201d in which he traveled to India to learn about what the country is doing about power and climate.\nHe said he would \u201cdo anything on this topic\u201d and \u201canything for Al.\u201d\n\u201cHe gives me hope, he gives me faith,\u201d Letterman said.\nLetterman also spoke to The Associated Press about late-night television in the Trump era and jokes about the president that cross the line.\nThe remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.\nAP: What do you hope to accomplish with this series?\nLetterman: To me, people ought to be aware of this, people ought to have this tucked in their wallet. People ought to walk around with this every day in the back of their mind and people ought to be aware and be educated and looking forward to things that they might do to help their kids and their children's kids. I think it's better in that regard than it used to be - the current administration notwithstanding. When you travel places and I know in California the same thing is true, you see enormous solar installations, you see enormous wind farms that 10 years ago did not exist. I am aware firsthand through traveling here and abroad that people are aware of this and doing things about it.\nAP: Speaking of the current administration, late-night seems to have become mostly Trump jokes and tirades. Do you miss not being part of that?\nLetterman: Here's what I keep saying: We know there's something wrong, but what I'm tired of is people, daily, nightly, on all the cable news shows telling us there's something wrong. I just think we ought to direct our resources and our energies to doing something about it. And other people have made this point: If the guy was running Dairy Queen, he'd be gone. This guy couldn't work at The Gap. So why do we have to be victimized by his fecklessness, his ignorance? But it's just the behavior is insulting to Americans, whether you voted for him or not - and I feel bad for people who did vote for him because he promised them things that they really needed and one wonders if he's really going to come through.\nI know there's trouble in this country and we need a guy who can fix that trouble. I wish it was Trump, but it's not, so let's just stop whining about what a goon he is and figure out a way to take him aside and put him in a home.\nAP: Sen. Franken had been critical of Kathy Griffin for how she spoke out. Do you think she took it too far?\nLetterman: As you and I know, you can make jokes about anything. But you have to be prepared to answer the criticism so that's just what that was. She made a joke. Others have made jokes that were better or worse. And she just had to answer for it. ... I felt bad for her. I would not have made the joke. I think and say things to my friends that are worse. But he's so sensitive. He doesn't understand why people aren't nicer to him in the press and you just say, well, `Donnie, look at the tone of the campaign that you ran.'\nAP: In one of the episodes you tell Sen. Franken that you're constantly looking for a version of his life where what you do is truly meaningful. Do you feel like you've been able to accomplish that in your retirement?\nLetterman: No, no, and it frustrates me. I'll tell you the climate situation and gun control makes me crazy. And the fact that 30 million people in this country are hungry every day. The answer to your question, the long and the short of it, is no, and I find it deeply, deeply frustrating. That's why I would do anything with Al, I would go anywhere with Al. Because on the other hand, I always wondered about what it looked like when a celebrity got up and talked about people who didn't have shoelaces, but it's killing me. And I think Al to a certain extent felt that same frustration. He's figured out a way to do it and it's been successful. And the guy is superfunny, superintelligent and the integrity just seeps out from under his door.\nAnd one more thing: If Nat Geo or anybody else would like a project and they need a stooge, I would be first in line.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., right, and former talk show host David Letterman arrive for their conversation at 92Y in New York, May 30, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/85F63605-2DC4-406A-9A6B-315B4B3315A8.jpg", + "id": "21469_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "science and climate change", + "creeping apathy and disregard toward science and climate change" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Al Franken", + "Franken" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_10_3935778", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_10_3935778_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person the people in the image are against trying to do?", + "context": "Parents Protest US Education Secretary's School Visit \nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nDozens of parents and neighbors on both sides of the U.S. debate about school-choice issues protested against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she visited a public school near the nation's capital Thursday.\nDeVos, who was one of the more controversial choices President Donald Trump made for his Cabinet, entered the school despite the protest and visited with a group of 7- and 8-year-olds. \nMaryland Governor Larry Hogan accompanied DeVos at Carderock Springs Elementary School in Bethesda, just outside Washington. The education secretary read portions of a Dr. Seuss classic, Oh, the Places You'll Go, to the children.\nDeVos' visit last month to a public school in Washington, just a short distance from her offices at the Department of Education, also was met with protesters, who briefly barred her from entering the building.\nThe billionaire philanthropist was considered an unconventional pick for education secretary. Although she has been involved in education policy for nearly three decades, she never attended, worked for or administered a public school system.\nProtesters gather outside Jefferson Middle School in Washington, Feb. 10, 2017, where Education Secretary Betsy DeVos paid her first visit as education secretary in a bid to mend fences with educators after a bruising confirmation battle.\n'Advocate for children'\nShe describes herself as \u201can advocate for children and a voice for parents,\u201d and is \u201cespecially passionate about reforms that help underserved children gain access to a quality education.\u201d\nDeVos has long championed a policy of school choice, which allows parents to choose freely whether their children attend traditional public schools, private schools or \u201ccharter schools\u201d \u2014 independent schools operating under contract with a public school network, supported by public funds.\nCritics say DeVos' policies encourage further privatization of education in American cities and towns and undermine the public school system.\n\u201cI am very concerned about her approach to providing vouchers to people who are putting their kids in private schools or religious schools, or schools where there is little or no oversight,\u201d said Heidi Bumper, who joined Thursday's demonstration.\n\u201cWe need to support our public schools and provide funding for our public school educations,\u201d Bumper added, \u201cfor all kids.\u201d\nEducation Secretary Betsy DeVos listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a round table discussion at Saint Andrew Catholic School, March 3, 2017, in Orlando, Florida.\nChurch-state issues a concern\nOpponents of privatization contend that diverting billions of taxpayer dollars from public schools to Christian and Catholic institutions, which make up the majority of private schools in the United States, also raises concerns about the traditional American separation of church and state affairs.\nDeVos' supporters say greater choice in schools and more voucher plans can provide a lifeline for parents whose children are enrolled in underperforming schools and districts \u2014 those where student test scores and achievements are below average \u2014 and also give public educators an incentive to produce better results.\n\u201cIf schools had to compete for students, they'd have better outcomes,\u201d Carderock parent Ann Moore said.\n\u201cI think the problem is the [teachers] unions,\u201d Moore said, \u201cand I think Secretary DeVos has the right idea \u2014 minimizing the impact of the unions on education and giving parents the right to choose, especially in inner-city schools and poor performing schools in rural areas. Let's give parents options.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Protesters gather outside Jefferson Middle School in Washington, Feb. 10, 2017, where Education Secretary Betsy DeVos paid her first visit as education secretary in a bid to mend fences with educators after a bruising confirmation battle.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B857F47C-DA08-4A40-9D29-BBA2219CA62B.jpg", + "id": "5295_2", + "answer": [ + "protested against Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as she visited a public school near the nation's capital Thursday", + "encourage further privatization of education" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Protesters", + "DeVos" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_23_3779409", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_23_3779409_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who caused the person in the image to die?", + "context": "New Somali Army Chief Survives Assassination Attempt\nThe new Somali army chief, General Ahmed Mohamed Jimale Irfid, has survived a suicide car bomb attack that killed at least 15 people near his convoy in Mogadishu, government officials said.\nThe blast occurred minutes after the new Defense Minister Abdirashid Abdullahi Mohamed and former Army Chief General Mohamed Aden passed through the same road, security sources have confirmed to VOA.\nThe new Somali army chief had just attended a ceremony at the Defense Ministry, where he took over command from General Aden.\nMost of the victims of the blast were said to be civilians who were passengers in two minibuses.\nThe al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.\n\u201cWe do not know how to describe this tragedy, because there are just pieces of body parts,\u201d Mogadishu administration spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane told VOA reporter Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle\nA senior military officials who visited the scene said the suicide bomber was driving a van that tried to ram the car into the armored vehicle carrying the army chief. The vehicle was one of several carrying government officials on the road.\n\u201cThe suicide van was suspected and was stopped by police and was told to wait until officials pass through,\u201d says the official who did not want to be named. \u201cThe suicide bomber waited, two vehicles passed, he then aimed for the third vehicle, missing it narrowly,\u201d he said.\nAll officials arrived safely at the Presidential Palace after the explosion.\nThe targeting of new defense officials comes just days after the Somalia President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo declared war against the terror group. Farmajo offered a 60-day amnesty to members of al-Shabab if they renounce violence.\nFormer Somali army officer Colonel Sharif Hussein Robow says the new government leaders need to come up with a strategy to defeat al-Shabab.\n\u201cFormer governments made similar announcements calling for war against al-Shabab, they have also offered amnesty in the same the new president did, so this is not new,\u201d Robow said. \u201cThey have now made the declaration but they need to study and come up with a new way forward and seek input from people with former officials with military experience.\"\nRobow said the task ahead is not easy, given that al-Shabab is controlling many roads and large parts of the countryside.\nA 22,000 strong contingent of AU troops is operating in the country in an effort to help the Somali government expand its authority to the rest of the country.\n", + "caption": "People carry away the body of a man killed in a suicide car bomb attack, near the defense ministry compound in Mogadishu, April 9, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A109F506-4C0A-4796-A4E8-15D22B9FB49E.jpg", + "id": "1690_1", + "answer": [ + "suicide car bomb attack", + "al-Shabab militant group", + "The al-Shabab militant group" + ], + "bridge": [ + "man", + "a man killed in a suicide car bomb attack", + "killed in a suicide car bomb attack", + "attack" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_09_3802755", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_09_3802755_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who runs the place where the person on the right of the image went?", + "context": "Top US General Hears Turkey's Complaints About Kurdish Fighters\nISTANBUL \u2014\u00a0\nThe chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, met his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar Friday at NATO's Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey. Talks between the NATO allies reportedly focused on Washington's support for Syrian Kurdish militias in the fight against the Islamic State group.\nThe United States says it chooses carefully among Kurdish fighters when lending its support to Syrian rebels battling Islamic State. Ankara dismisses the Americans' arguments and says they are actively supporting the People's Protection Units, the YPG, whose fighters the Turks contend are terrorists group united with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, fighting against the Turkish state.\n\u201cTurkey has made its view on this organization (YPG) very clear,\u201d says political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor, \u201cand any step back at this moment would entail a loss of face for the government in Ankara and of course indirectly for President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan.\u201d\n'Ultimate issue for Turkey'\n\u201cIt is the ultimate issue for Turkey, and if there is no movement as far as Turkey's requests and demands, it seems that this crisis issue between the two countries will remain,\u201d Idiz added.\nU.S. Vice President Mike Pence likely will hear the same message when he discusses the fight against Islamic State on Saturday in Germany with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. The two will hold talks on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.\nThe United States and European Union agree on the PKK, which both have designated a terrorist organization. Washington maintains its military does not assist the PKK but does support the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a coalition of Syrian Arabs and Kurds that has proven itself to be by far the most effective force against Islamic State extremists in Syria.\nThe SDF is a multiethnic and multireligious alliance of militia fighters opposed to the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, but its military leadership comes from the YPG, and that is what has drawn Turkey's intense opposition.\nA Kurdish fighter from the People's Protection Units (YPG) carries his weapons as he walks the streets in the northeastern city of Hasaka, Syria, Aug. 21, 2016.\nAnkara wants YPG sidelined\nSupport from U.S. and European special forces, along with American air power, has enabled the SDF to advance to within a few kilometers of Raqqa, the large Syrian city that is the jihadists' self-declared capital.\n\u201cThe bulk of the forces advancing on Raqqa are Arabs, but I say the bulk of the forces, not all the forces. The Arab and Kurds (of SDF) actually work hand in glove (together),\u201d British Lieutenant-General Rupert Jones said in a press briefing this week by the international coalition against Islamic State. \u201cAnd my expectation is, if the SDF is the assault force into Raqqa, that is how they will operate; they will work together in concert with each other.\u201d\nExperts say such comments are infuriating to Ankara, which has been intensely lobbying Washington to exclude the Syrian Kurdish militia from plans to capture Raqqa. Earlier this week, Defense Minister Fikri Isik declared Washington was moving closer to the Turkish position, after word came that the Pentagon is working on an action plan to defeat Islamic State, as ordered by President Donald Trump.\nAnalysts point out that Ankara has so far failed to provide Washington a detailed alternate plan to using the Syrian Kurdish militia.\nTurkey's Defence Minister Fikri Isik answers a question during an interview in Ankara, Aug. 5, 2016.\nRaqqa mystery\n\u201cThis is the big mystery, because obviously, to have an operation against Raqqa, you are going to need a massive amount of ground troops,\u201d said columnist Idiz. \u201cIt's not clear what Turkey is offering and how it's planning to make up for the absence of the YPG forces, should they somehow be weeded out by the American side. So none of this has been clearly spelled out.\u201d\n\u201cI don't think personally that the American side and the allies supporting the Americans are going to change horses midstream unless there is some guarantee on what Turkey can do,\u201d Idiz added.\nExperts warn Ankara is finding itself increasingly isolated over its stance of absolute opposition to the YPG and its political wing, the PYD. \u201cTurkey has a very weak hand,\u201d warns international relations specialist Soli Ozel of Istanbul's Kadir Has University.\nOzel, who says Ankara could temper its hostility, pointed out that Erdogan reaffirmed his position that the YPG is nothing but a terrorist organization after a meeting he had earlier this month with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.\nAnkara still has some cards to play with Washington, since Turkey shares a long border with Syria and U.S. forces depend on Turkish airbases for operations against IS.\nRegional experts warn Ankara could also play spoiler to U.S. military plans to capture Raqqa, by sending Turkish military forces toward the Syrian town of Manbij. The town was liberated by Syrian Kurdish forces from Islamic State, and any battle for its control could see the YPG pulling out of an offensive against Raqqa in order to defend it.\n", + "caption": "The U.S. chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, right, and Turkey's Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar talk during a meeting in Incirlik Airbase in Adana, Turkey, Feb. 17, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AC9E5A31-04CB-43E0-A6C0-22ED7C83E47E.jpg", + "id": "32795_1_1", + "answer": [ + "NATO" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Joseph Dunford" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_18_3729907", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_18_3729907_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the woman in the image?", + "context": "Former Zimbabwe VP's Party Suffers Defeat in First Election\nHARARE \u2014\u00a0\nA new party founded by Zimbabwe's former vice president Joice Mujuru suffered a crushing defeat in its first ever election contest again President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF, showing the task she faces in her bid to\nchallenge her ally-turned-adversary.\nZANU-PF retained the rural Bikita West parliamentary constituency in Saturday's by-election after its candidate polled 13,156 votes against 2,453 votes for Mujuru's Zimbabwe People First, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said on Sunday.\nMujuru, Mugabe's deputy for 10 years, was seen as the most likely successor to the 92-year-old leader until she was purged from the ruling party in 2014 after charges she was plotting against Africa's oldest leader. Mujuru denies the charges.\nMugabe has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980. He turns 93 on Feb. 21 and has been confirmed as the ZANU-PF presidential candidate for the vote which is due in 2018.\nLast year Mujuru formed her own political party to challenge Mugabe, raising hopes that a politician who had liberation war credentials and enjoyed the support of some military generals could successfully challenge Mugabe.\nThe poor showing in Bikita West, which was marked by high voter turnout, comes at a time Mujuru is negotiation with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on a coalition pact to take on Mugabe in next year's election.\nThe MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai did not contest Saturday's vote in keeping with its decision to boycott all elections because it argues the election environment favors the ruling party.\nZANU-PF is the dominant party in parliament where it has 221 out of 270 seats in the lower house.\nMujuru could not be reached for comment on Sunday. Her spokesman Jealousy Mawarire said he could not immediately comment.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Zimbabwe's former vice president Joice Mujuru smiles while addressing supporters in Harare, March 1, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/EFAA472A-9E05-482A-842D-211D0F210C63.jpg", + "id": "8649_1", + "answer": [ + "Mugabe's deputy", + "Mugabe's deputy for 10 years" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Mujuru", + "Joice Mujuru" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_22_3686854", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_22_3686854_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the picture in the image do?", + "context": "India Protests China Move to Keep Islamic Militant Leader Off UN Terror Blacklist\nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nIndia has lodged a protest with China for its opposition to a proposal at the United Nations to put Maulana Masood Azhar, the chief of Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, on a U.N. terror blacklist.\nThis is not the first time China has stopped a move at the U.N. to designate Azhar a terrorist. Beijing blocked a similar proposal last year.\nLast month, the United States, backed by France and Britain, initiated another move to blacklist Azhar, but China has put the proposal on hold, effectively blocking it.\nChina has defended its latest move, saying conditions have not yet been met to back the proposal on Azhar, and that it had taken the step to allow a consensus representing the international community.\nBilateral implications\nAnalysts in New Delhi say the issue has become a huge irritant for India and is casting a shadow on ties between the two Asian nations. \n\u201cObviously it will impact on bilateral relations, that\u2019s for sure,\u201d said Srikanth Kondapalli, a professor of Chinese Studies at New Delhi\u2019s Jawaharlal Nehru University.\nIndian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup countered by saying that \u201cif there is a change in the Chinese position, there will be consensus also.\u201d He added that, \u201cwe hope that eventually China will also come around to accepting this view.\u201d\nIndia says China is the only country on the 15-member U.N. Security Council holding out on the proposal.\nIndia accuses Jaish-e-Mohammad and its leader, Maulana Masood Azhar, of masterminding several deadly attacks in India, including an assault on an air force base last year. Pakistan says it has found no evidence linking him to the January 2014 attack.\nThe Jaish-e-Mohammad group that Azhar heads has been blacklisted by the United Nations. If Azhar is blacklisted by the U.N. Security Council, he would face a global travel ban and asset freeze.\nIndia's nuclear desires\nBesides the continuing differences on the issue of Azhar, India is also upset by China\u2019s opposition to its entry to the main club of countries controlling access to sensitive nuclear technology.\nAlthough India is a not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States has been pushing for India to join the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). But China says exceptions should not be made for one country.\nAnalysts in New Delhi see Beijing\u2019s longstanding ties with Pakistan as the reason it\u2019s blocking the move on Azhar and on India\u2019s entry to the NSG.\n\u201cWhy are the Chinese dragging their feet on the issue? This move appears quite strange for the Indian side. Of course there is speculation that China is backing Pakistan,\u201d Kondapalli said.\nHe says the promise of improved ties after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power about three years ago has not materialized. \n\u201cThere is a cooling off that has happened in the last one, one and a half years, now,\u201d he said.\n", + "caption": "Indian protesters stamp placards with pictures of Pakistani Mujahiddeen leader Masood Azhar, left, as they condemn the attack on the Pathankot air force base in Mumbai, India, Jan.4, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/37481447-9D84-40F6-913E-13B9B6BCF652.jpg", + "id": "32304_1", + "answer": [ + "masterminding several deadly attacks in India" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Masood Azhar" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_10_3717443", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_10_3717443_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the place, that the people in the image are at, trying to promote?", + "context": "China PR Efforts Face Challenges\nBEIJING \u2014\u00a0\nChina\u2019s government spends millions of dollars each year to try to advance its views overseas, but this flood of cash has been met with setbacks, from the expulsion of Confucius Institutes at universities overseas, to student group tussles over speaking engagements for the Dalai Lama.\nIn recent months, Beijing\u2019s \"charm offensive\" in the U.S. has come under increased scrutiny, especially investments in Hollywood, raising concerns the iron-fisted Communist Party is seeking to spread its own style of censorship and control.\nBut such fears, analysts argue, are largely overblown.\nTelling \"China\u2019s\" story\nAs China\u2019s economic might expands and global influence grows, Beijing is looking to correct what it regards as inaccurate portrayals of itself. Chinese President Xi Jinping frequently talks about what he says is an effort to \"tell China\u2019s story well\" - to tell its story on its own terms.\nBeijing aims to portray China as \"a civilization that is ancient, rich,\" said Clayton Dube, director of the University of Southern California\u2019s U.S.-China Institute.\n\"With China's advanced economic strength, it's been able to invest mightily in developing modern communication technologies, investing heavily in broadcast, investing heavily in internet, websites and news-gathering and these sorts of things, but also investing in the Confucius Institutes to try to increase American understanding of China,\" he said.\nSome of this is being done openly through state media broadcasts overseas such as China Central Television, recently rebranded as China Global Television Network, or CGTN. It also comes in the form of \"advertorials\" in leading American newspapers.\nIn other cases, covertly.\nOn campuses, there are Confucius Institutes, the more than 100 Chinese language and learning centers that have a growing physical presence at universities and institutes of higher learning in the United States.\nFILE - Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the The Confucius Institute which is housed at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Friday, Jan. 21, 2011.\nThe centers claim to be a non-governmental organization, but administratively, its parent group falls under China\u2019s Ministry of Education. And in recent years, several have been shut down over concerns about transparency and the impact they were having on academic freedom.\nPhilip Clart, Director of the University of Leipzig\u2019s Confucius Institute and Professor of Chinese Studies at its Department of East Asian Studies, argues that when it comes to Confucius Institutes, they can be beneficial if handled correctly.\nClart said that while censorship and free speech issues remain a concern, these are not necessarily inherent to the program and can be avoided if there is a clear functional and institutional separation between the program and the university.\nHowever, \"if you are at a place where you don\u2019t have an independent Chinese or Asian studies department, where the [Confucius Institutes] is brought to actually for the first time offer anything, any Chinese instruction, and there is no other voice, this becomes more difficult.\"\nPackaging authoritarianism\nChinese student groups are also a growing force that at times are seen as forwarding the Communist Party\u2019s agenda overseas. For example, when Tibet\u2019s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was invited to speak at the University of California, San Diego in June, a group of Chinese students at the university launched a protest to stop his speech.\nAs the group rallied against the invitation, arguing strangely enough that the invitation to the Dalai Lama goes against \"diversity\" and \"political correctness,\" its connections to the local Chinese consulate were thrust into the limelight.\nThat incident and others highlight the difficulties Beijing faces and how the line between telling the China story well and spreading the Communist Party\u2019s propaganda can easily blur.\nFILE - A security guard walks past the logo for China Central Television (now China Global Television Network) in Beijing Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006.\nMedia inroads\nA Reuters investigation in 2015 uncovered that more than a dozen stations across the United States were airing programming from state broadcaster China Radio International in the United States.\nAnd while reaching an English speaking audience may be difficult, analysts note that the Communist Party has made major inroads when it comes to Chinese language media in the U.S.\nWhile under the radar for most part, much of the landscape is Beijing-controlled or aligned. It targets mostly ethnic Chinese who may also be exposed to English coverage, but it shapes and in some ways limits the information they receive.\nUltimately, the goal for the Communist Party is for it \"to be accepted as effective, legitimate and good,\" said Robert Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Center. But selling one-party authoritarianism is a \"pretty difficult pitch.\"\n\"People listen to China, people know China is important, but they (Beijing) really don\u2019t have a good story to tell that would convince Americans that one-party authoritarianism is, in fact, okay,\" Daly said.\nKowtowing to profits\nThe biggest challenge of them all, however, is when \"American architects of soft power cave in to Beijing for money,\" said Daly.\nThis is most commonly seen in Hollywood, but also in publishing and even gaming. In some cases, content that might in some way be undesirable to Beijing gets scrapped to ensure access to China\u2019s market.\n\"Because the size of the Chinese film market is so large, everybody wants a part of it. So everybody would like to have their films screened in China, if they have a chance,\" Dube said. \"And they know that certain films will not have a chance.\"\nDaly said this is what he calls \"purchasing power times authoritarianism.\" But it is the actions of Americans, and not Beijing, that he finds most troubling.\n\"It\u2019s not that China is strong-arming us \u2013 it is that we are bowing down in the name of profits, and that\u2019s the real issue,\" he said. \"Not what they do through the Confucius Institutes, not what they do through China Central Television or Radio Beijing.\"\nWhile some argue that more should be done to restrict China\u2019s media access to the U.S. or even investments in Hollywood, others believe that more exposure leads to better understanding, Dube said.\n\"By curtailing that openness, by curtailing that free flow of information, we are sending a signal that we are afraid of that,\" he said. \"America\u2019s great success and its soft power comes from its openness, comes from its engagement.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - Chinese President Hu Jintao visits the The Confucius Institute which is housed at Walter Payton College Preparatory High School in Chicago, Friday, Jan. 21, 2011.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/CE207998-7BA8-4191-8D2B-FA7434F13E89.jpg", + "id": "333_2", + "answer": [ + "American understanding of China" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Confucius Institute" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_03_3793757", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_03_3793757_2" + }, + { + "question": "What have residences like the one in the image experienced?", + "context": "Human Rights Group Warns of Rising Violence in Rio de Janeiro\nRIO DE JANEIRO \u2014\u00a0\nAmnesty International on Thursday warned of growing violence across Brazil, particularly killings by police as law enforcement and criminals battle over turf in Rio de Janeiro, the country's second-biggest city.\nIn a report to the United Nations, which periodically monitors violence in conflict zones and other troubled areas worldwide, the human rights group highlighted the recent spike in killings by Rio police \u2014 182 in the first two months of the year, or 78 percent more than a year earlier.\n\u201cBrazil has not taken enough steps to tackle the shocking levels of human rights violations across the country, including soaring police homicide rates,\u201d Jurema Werneck, Amnesty's director in Brazil, said in a statement.\nPeople loot a truck allegedly set on fire by drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, May 2, 2017. Several public buses and cargo trucks were torched in Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday.\nCrime on the rise after budget cuts\nThe criticism comes as public security forces, grappling with budget cuts after two years of recession in Latin America's biggest country, also contend with rebounding crime.\nIn Rio, where the state government last year slashed the public security budget by more than a third, criminal gangs are battling for lucrative access to drug routes and sales points.\nGangs are also fighting to take back turf that police had occupied in the runup to the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, both of which Rio hosted.\nClashes between police and criminals in recent months have led to prolonged firefights and multiple deaths \u2014 in slums and rich neighborhoods alike. Earlier this week, criminals torched buses and a truck in Rio's outskirts, crippling traffic after a police raid.\nAuthorities have long recognized abuses among law enforcement but had in recent years successfully cut down on police violence.\n\u201cRespect for human rights is enshrined in Brazilian law,\u201d General Carlos Alberto Santos Cruz, national secretary for public security, told reporters in Rio on Thursday. \u201cWhen you train someone in public security the principal of respect for human rights is fundamental.\u201d\nDozens of guns seized by police \nSecurity and human rights experts, however, say Brazil falls far short of those principles.\nAfter police apprehended dozens of large-caliber guns following the raid this week, law enforcement hailed the seizure as a great success. But many are troubled that the guns, and the violent backdrop to the seizures, exist to begin with.\n\u201cMaybe that sort of seizure is a good thing in a war zone or a country of great instability,\u201d said Paulo Storani, a former police commander who now is a security consultant. \u201cBut here it reflects a failure of government and policy.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Policemen take up positions during an operation in Alemao slums complex, after violent clashes between policemen and drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil May 4, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AC837DE5-E3DB-450B-A74E-D618F81A954C.jpg", + "id": "30638_1_2", + "answer": [ + "Clashes between police and criminals" + ], + "bridge": [ + "slums" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838343", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838343_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person speaking in the image doing?", + "context": "Cypriot Unification Talks Carry Israeli-Turkish Pipeline Dream\nISTANBUL \u2014\u00a0\nTurkish and Greek Cypriot leaders are set to sit down Wednesday to once again seek to resolve the nearly five-decade-long division of the island. The success of the talks now carries with it potentially far reaching energy implications for the region, involving Turkey, Israel and the European Union.\nIsrael and Turkey are in talks to develop a major pipeline that would exploit the massive Leviathan gas reserves discovered off the Israel coast.\n\u201cThe best possible exploitation of the Israeli offshore facility would be through Turkey and its transfer to European Union, which would enhance the energy security of the European Union,\u201d pointed out retired Turkish ambassador Unal Cevikoz, now head of the think tank Ankara Policy Center. The EU has long been looking to diversify its dependance on Russian gas.\nThe catch is that such a pipeline from Israel to Turkey would have to pass through Cyprus or Cypriot waters. \u201cIt's only possible if Cyprus is also added into this equation, it has to become an Israel-Turkey-Cyprus trilateral cooperation. Now as long as the Cypriot problem is pending, unresolved, then it remains a big question whether we can proceed (with the pipeline) in that sense,\u201d said Cevikoz.\nTurkey's President Tayyip Erdogan talks to media after the Eid al-Fitr prayers in Istanbul, June 25, 2017.\nRegional energy hub\nThe Israel gas pipeline is part of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's strategic goal of turning Turkey into a regional energy hub. Along with obvious financial gains from transit fees, it would enhance Turkey as a powerful energy player in the region.\nTurkish Energy minister Berat Albayrak was reported in Turkish media saying he communicated via WhatsApp nearly everyday with senior Israel energy officials about the project. The pipeline is potentially the most important fruit of a rapprochement efforts between the countries since a collapse in relations after Israeli commandos killed nine Turks seeking to break Israel's sea blockade in 2010.\n\u201cThe pipeline for gas to Turkey is an export opportunity for Israel. Israeli gas could be in Turkey within two to three years,\u201d predicted Israel's General Director of National Infrastructure, Energy & Water Ministry Shaul Meridor, speaking in April this year at the Atlantic Council Istanbul Summit.\nGrowing speculation\nThe incentives from taking a giant leap toward its energy hub aspirations has led to growing speculation that Ankara could be prepared to make major concessions in the latest Cypriot reunification talks. Turkey, along with Greece and the United Kingdom, are guarantor powers for the island. Turkey's large military presence on the island remains a key obstacle to unification efforts.\n\u201cThere is a climate that people are a little more positive vis-a-vis Cyprus than they were in the past,\u201d observed Al Monitor columnist Semih Idiz. He remains skeptical, however, that energy interests can provide sufficient impetus for a breakthrough.\n\u201cPersonally having followed this (Cyprus unification efforts) for 40 years, I am not optimistic,\u201d said Idiz. \u201cI think they (gas pipelines) are very important, I think Ankara is eyeing those. But I don't think you will get any government in Turkey to conceding on Turkey's traditional and strategic interests in Cyprus for the sake of energy interests. Cyprus is a nationalist cause.\"\nIndeed, Erdogan is increasingly courting Turkish nationalist voters ahead of presidential elections in 2019. Israel appears to be making contingency plans. In April it signed a preliminary deal with the Greek Cypriot and Italian governments to construct a pipeline to transport Eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe.\nBut an Israel-Greece-Italy pipeline is predicted to be the longest, most expensive and challenging of its kind.\nThe 'Pioneering Spirit' vessel crosses the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, May 31, 2017. The strait was closed to traffic due to the transiting of the vessel, which will carry out the construction of a Turkish natural gas offshore pipeline.\nU.S. has role\n\u201cTo try build a pipeline though the Mediterranean, to Greece and to the Italian market, is very expensive and not commercially viable, it won\u2019t work,\u201d said Mithat Rende, a retired Turkish ambassador and an expert on Eastern Mediterranean energy.\nRende points out that with a U.S. company involved in developing the Israel gas field, since Washington has an incentive to use its muscle to make a breakthrough and to help shore up the strategic gain of cementing ties between key regional allies Turkey and Israel, \"there will be no need for the consent of the Greek Cypriots.\"\nThe Greek Cypriot government is the only internationally recognized administration on the island that likely would contest any pipeline using Cypriot waters without its consent, resulting in lengthy international litigation \u2014 a prospect any pipeline constructor would be keen to avoid. Ankara's pipeline aspirations seem destined to be tied to the success of the latest U.N.-sponsored efforts to reunite the divided island.\n", + "caption": "Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan talks to media after the Eid al-Fitr prayers in Istanbul, June 25, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B74EC972-2DC4-4E8C-BEB0-8BA5E1E5454A.jpg", + "id": "6660_2", + "answer": [ + "turning Turkey into a regional energy hub.", + "turning Turkey into a regional energy hub" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tayyip Erdogan" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3917915", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3917915_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the poster in the image do?", + "context": "Dual US-Somali Citizen is Somalia's New President-elect \nSomali lawmakers elected a new president Wednesday, choosing a former prime minister who is a dual U.S.-Somali citizen.\nMohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as \"Farmajo,\" was declared the winner after two rounds of voting by the Somali parliament in Mogadishu.\nFarmajo won the largest share of votes in the second round, far outdistancing incumbent leader Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and former president Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.\nMohamud conceded defeat after the vote count, and the crowd inside a venue at Mogadishu's international airport erupted into cheers. Witnesses tell VOA's Somali service that celebrations -- and celebratory gunfire -- have broken out in the streets of the Somali capital.\nThe new president was quickly sworn in and pledged to improve security, fight corruption and assist the poor.\nVotes are counted in the first round of the presidential election in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 8, 2017.\nPlanted roots in Buffalo, NY\nFarmajo, 54, has spent much of his adult life in the city of Buffalo, New York, where he raised a family and held various jobs in the the New York state government.\nBut he maintained contact with Somali politics and served eight months as Somali prime minister during 2010 and 2011, at the height of the insurgency by Islamist militant group al-Shabab.\nAl-Shabab threatened to disrupt the voting Wednesday but the election went off peacefully. African Union peacekeepers and government forces imposed tight security, sealing off all roads to the airport. All flights to and from the airport were canceled.\nSomalis walk past a campaign poster for candidate Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo on the eve of presidential elections in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 7, 2017. Graft - vote-buying, fraud, intimidation - is the top concern in a nation that Transparency International now rates as the most corrupt in the world.\nAlleged corruption \nAhead of the vote, candidates allegedly paid lawmakers millions of dollars in cash and gifts in an effort to win support. Election organizers had lawmakers drop their ballots in a transparent box, then counted the votes in front of the crowd to head off any charges of trickery.\nFarmajo faces the task of eliminating al-Shabab and stabilizing a country that has seen almost continuous conflict since the early 1990s. Al-Shabab has repeatedly sent suicide bombers into Mogadishu hotels where lawmakers, diplomats and businessmen gather, in an effort to destabilize the fragile government.\nIn addition, aid agencies have warned of a possible famine affecting hundreds of thousands of Somalis due to violence and renewed drought.\nReporters Harun Maruf and Mohamed Olad Hassan of VOA's Somali Service contributed to this report\n", + "caption": "Somalis walk past a campaign poster for candidate Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo on the eve of presidential elections in Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 7, 2017. Graft - vote-buying, fraud, intimidation - is the top concern in a nation that Transparency International now rates as the most corrupt in the world.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4C91CBBC-0E5F-4B77-99DE-97FC9FB3FAF1.jpg", + "id": "33197_3_1", + "answer": [ + "won the largest share of votes in the second round" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Farmajo" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714240", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714240_3" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image trying to do?", + "context": "As Oil Prices Dip, African Countries Spend Less on Military\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nAfrican military expenditures have finally slowed down after more than a decade of steady increases, according to a new report on global defense spending. The main reason, the report found, is a drop in oil prices.\n\u201cThe sharp decreases in oil prices has affected quite a number of African countries, namely South Sudan and Angola. This has kind of driven almost the entire regional trend,\u201d said Nan Tian, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute\u2019s (SIPRI) Arms and Military Expenditure Program, the organization that authored the report.\nThe SIPRI report found military spending in Africa in 2016 was down by 1.3 percent from the previous year and totaled about $37.9 billion.\nDespite the drop, Africa\u2019s military spending remains 48 percent higher than it was a decade ago. \u201cA few of the top spenders within these regions are generally oil economies, so the low oil prices have meant sharp cutbacks in government financing and that includes military spending,\u201d he said.\nSome of Africa\u2019s biggest spenders in recent years have included oil-rich Angola, which has sought to modernize its air force and navy, and Algeria which has tried to preserve its stability amid the collapse of Libya and the rise of extremism in North Africa. Both of those countries have slowed spending recently, Tian said.\nFILE - Nigerian soldiers ride on the armored vehicle in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Aug. 8, 2013. Nigeria is among the few African countries that have increased their military budgets in recent years.\nWeighing spending against needs\nTian said that perhaps the most important question to ask, is whether military spending in Africa is at appropriate levels.\nTen African countries have military expenditures greater than 3 percent of their GDP. The highest are the Republic of the Congo where military expenditures totaled 7 percent of GDP in 2016, and Algeria where military spending totaled 6.7 percent of GDP.\nGlobally, military spending is 2.2 percent of GDP or about $227 per person.\n\u201cYou have the security aspect also in Africa. We have the opportunity costs,\u201d Tian said. \u201cIt is the poorest continent. The question is: should this continent be spending? Are they spending enough or are they spending too much on military based on their current income levels? Should they rather be prioritizing other aspects of spending maybe health care, maybe education, maybe infrastructure?\u201d\nNot all African countries saw a decline in military spending. According to the report, Botswana\u2019s military spending grew by 40 percent, or about $152 million. Botswana is regularly noted for having a long record of peace and good governance, and is undergoing a military modernization program.\nNigeria increased its military spending by 1.2 percent to $1.7 billion as it strives to defeat the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. Similarly, Kenya and Mali increased military spending due to extremist threats in their regions.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Nigerian soldiers ride on the armored vehicle in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Aug. 8, 2013. Nigeria is among the few African countries that have increased their military budgets in recent years.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/96E22E1E-DEBF-4C34-8637-6CCF5BC74F90.jpg", + "id": "4879_2", + "answer": [ + "defeat the radical Islamist group Boko Haram" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Nigeria" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834540", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834540_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did an important member of the audience of the man in the image want to know from him?", + "context": "US Supreme Court Nominee Grilled About Bush-era Torture Program\nU.S. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch was grilled Wednesday during testimony before a Senate panel about his role in approving severe interrogation methods when he was an attorney in President George W. Bush's administration.\nThe top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Dianne Feinstein, questioned Gorsuch about why he had written \"yes\" on a document next to a question about whether a CIA torture program had produced useful intelligence.\n\"My recollection of 12 years ago is that that was the position that the clients were telling us,\" Gorsuch said. \"I was a lawyer. My job was as an advocate, and we were dealing with detainee litigation. That was my job.\"\nAnother Democrat, Senator Patrick Leahy, asked Gorsuch if he agreed with the Bush administration's premise that the president has the authority to revoke torture and surveillance laws. Leahy said the Bush administration argued that \"the law\" gave presidents the constitutional authority to circumvent such measures.\nGorsuch replied that \"Presidents make all sorts of arguments about inherent authority - they do - and that is why we have the courts, to decide.\"\nOn his third day of questioning by the Senate panel, Gorsuch defended his philosophy of judicial originalism, which focuses on the Constitution's text, saying it is meant to provide equal protection for all.\nFrom left, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the committee's ranking member Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., meet on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 22, 2017, prior to the start of the committee's confirmation hearing for Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch.\nWhen Senator Feinstein asked how the philosophy reconciles with the rights of gays and lesbians, Gorsuch noted there was precedence on the issue. \"It matters not a whit that some of the drafters of the 14th Amendment were racists, because they were, or sexists, because they were.\"\n\"The law they drafted promises equal protection of the law to add persons,\" he added.\nGorsuch tried to distance himself from reports that President Trump, White House advisor Steve Bannon and White House Chief of Staff Prince Priebus told donors they would nominate a Supreme Court justice who is \"pro-corporate and socially conservative.\"\nGorsuch responded that he speaks for himself, and not the president or anyone else.\nDemocrats have portrayed Gorsuch as a pro-corporate jurist who would tilt the legal playing field against ordinary Americans, and continued to press him on cases in which he sided with large companies over their employees.\nJudicial nominees, both liberal and conservative, historically have refused to allow themselves to be pinned down on pending legal issues during their confirmation hearings, and Gorsuch continued to do the same.\nRepublicans hold a slim two-seat Senate majority and would need eight Democrats to support Gorsuch should a filibuster necessitate a three-fifths vote to advance his nomination in the full chamber.\nDemocrats are under intense pressure from progressive activists to oppose Gorsuch, but Republicans have the option of changing Senate rules to eliminate the minority party\u2019s ability to block Supreme Court nominees should Democrats vote as a block against him.\n", + "caption": "Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil Gorsuch listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 22, 2017, as he testifies at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FB1F755A-785C-4D09-92CF-6DF08928CF51.jpg", + "id": "31731_1", + "answer": [ + "why he had written \"yes\" on a document next to a question about whether a CIA torture program had produced useful intelligence" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Senate Judiciary Committee" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_22_3777421", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_22_3777421_1" + }, + { + "question": "What happened to the person from the image?", + "context": "Angolan Leader Back in Spain a Month After Medical Trip\nLUANDA \u2014\u00a0\nAngolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos returned to Barcelona on Monday on a \"private visit,\" the government said, a month after the 74-year-old leader spent several weeks in the Spanish city receiving medical treatment.\nAt the time, private media reported that dos Santos, Angola's leader of the last 38 years, had suffered a stroke, although the government has declined to comment on his condition.\nIt did not say when he was scheduled to return from his latest trip.\nDos Santos, a Soviet-trained oil engineer and veteran of the guerrilla war against Portuguese rule, has presided over an economic boom in Africa's second-biggest oil producer since the end of a long civil war in 2002.\nSeveral private media outlets said in May he was seriously ill. The government only confirmed the medical nature of his trip after sustained demands for information from the opposition UNITA party.\nThe southern African nation of 23 million people is due to hold a general election on Aug. 23 that is likely to see dos Santos replaced as state president by defense minister Joao Lorenco, 63.\nHowever, dos Santos will remain leader of the ruling MPLA party, a position that many Angolans believe will allow him to exert considerable political influence behind the scenes should his health permit.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Angolan President and MPLA leader, Jose Eduardo dos Santos attends a party central committee at a meeting in Luanda, Angola, Dec. 2 ,2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C6B9A4BB-43E0-4E82-A3CF-8FED7AFF2791.jpg", + "id": "4894_1", + "answer": [ + "The 74-year-old leader spent several weeks in the Spanish city receiving medical treatment.", + "suffered a stroke" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jose Eduardo dos Santos", + "dos Santos" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_04_3927485", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_04_3927485_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person with grey hair in the image trying to do?", + "context": "Brexit May Never Happen, Says Top Liberal Democrat Cable\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nBritain's scheduled exit from the European Union may never happen because its main political parties are too divided on the issue, said Vince Cable, a veteran lawmaker bidding to lead the fourth largest political party, the Liberal Democrats.\nPrime Minister Theresa May's failure to win an outright majority in a snap national election last month has cast doubt on her capacity to lead Britain out of the EU, sharpening a debate on what sort of exit deal the government should seek.\n\"I'm beginning to think that Brexit may never happen,\" Cable told the BBC on Sunday. \"The problems are so enormous, the divisions within the two major parties are so enormous I can see a scenario in which this doesn't happen.\"\nCable served as business minister between 2010 and 2015 when the pro-European Liberal Democrats were the junior partners in a coalition government led by May's Conservative Party.\nHe is currently the only candidate in a contest for leadership of his party.\nThe Liberal Democrats' influence has waned since 2015, and they hold just 12 out of 650 seats in parliament.\nThey campaigned in the 2017 election to give Britons a second referendum on leaving the EU once a final deal had been agreed - something Cable described as a possible way out of Brexit.\nThe Conservatives are historically divided between a deeply eurosceptic faction and more pro-European members. That is expected to make life difficult for May when she puts Brexit legislation through parliament because she will need to unite the party to win key votes.\nThe second-largest party, Labour, is also riven by disagreement on what kind of deal would work best for Britain's economy.\nLast month Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sacked three members of his policy team after they defied his wishes by coming down in favor of Britain staying in the single European market in a parliamentary vote.\n", + "caption": "Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron, right, and former Business Secretary Vince Cable, left, campaign for the forthcoming general election, in Twickenham, Britain, June 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3F562579-4084-4CEB-B295-2F5764F22B20.jpg", + "id": "12773_1", + "answer": [ + "lead the fourth largest political party", + "None", + "lead the fourth largest political party, the Liberal Democrats" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Vince Cable" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_09_3934627", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_09_3934627_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the purpose of the man wearing a suit in the image at the location ?", + "context": "US Defense Secretary Makes Unannounced Trip to Afghanistan\nKABUL \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has arrived in Afghanistan on a previously unannounced visit to discuss the country\u2019s security situation with political and military leaders.\nMattis is expected to meet with U.S. General John Nicholson, the ground commander for international forces in Afghanistan, as well as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and other top officials.\nThe visit comes days after about 10 Taliban militants killed at least 140 people in the deadliest insurgent raid on an Afghan military base in 16 years.\nThe militants were dressed as Afghan soldiers when they arrived at the regional headquarters of the Afghan National Army in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province. \nGeneral Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesperson of the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said that the militants were allowed on the base without all of the proper checks after pleading for urgent care for a man in their vehicle who was covered in blood. \nThe Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation for the recent killings of Taliban shadow governors for Kunduz and Baghlan provinces.\nThe Afghan government is investigating the incident.\n4-Year Security Plan\nMattis is visiting as Afghans are looking to President Ghani to announce a four-year security plan for the country in the coming weeks.\nAfghan and U.S. officials say Mattis will be discussing the plan with Afghan leaders while in Kabul.\nPossible elements of the four-year plan include the provision of up to 200 U.S. helicopters and other aircraft for Afghan forces, along with doubling the number of Afghan special forces, according to U.S. and Afghan officials familiar with the ongoing discussions.\nHowever, a U.S. official stressed to VOA on Monday that the Pentagon is still working with Congress and the White House to firm up the new administration\u2019s Afghanistan policy and financial commitments before making any final planning decisions.\nWATCH: VOA Pentagon correspondent reports from Kabul \nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nMattis Makes Surprise Visit to Afghanistan\nShare this video\n0:01:31\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:31\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 4.2MB\n360p | 7.1MB\n720p | 39.3MB\n1080p | 27.0MB\n", + "caption": "U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, third right, walks with U.S. Army Command Sergeant Major David Clark, left, and General Christopher Haas, second right, as he arrives to the Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8263C5A8-74B6-4567-8BDB-89CF3404DC6D.jpg", + "id": "5682_1", + "answer": [ + " to announce a four-year security plan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "James Mattis" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3822873", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3822873_1" + }, + { + "question": "What occurred later for the person in the image?", + "context": "Pippa Middleton Marries Millionaire Hedge Fund Manager\nPippa Middleton, the younger sister of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, married millionaire hedge fund manager James Matthews on Saturday in Englefield, England.\nPrince William and Prince Harry were on hand for the lavish ceremony at a 12th century church in rural England. The wedding party also included William\u2019s children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.\nMiddleton was accompanied by her father as they arrived at the church in a vintage convertible. A large number of reporters and on-lookers gathered outside the church grounds, braving sporadic rain to catch a glimpse of the spectacle.\nThe ceremony was to be followed by a private reception at Middleton\u2019s parents\u2019 estate nearby.\n", + "caption": "Pippa Middleton arrives with her father Michael Middleton for her wedding to James Matthews at St Mark's Church in Englefield, England Saturday, May 20, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/128DBB1D-124B-4D51-9308-E5FD0134F8E4.jpg", + "id": "3169_1", + "answer": [ + "married millionaire hedge fund manager James Matthews on Saturday in Englefield", + "a private reception", + "married millionaire hedge fund manager James Matthews" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Pippa Middleton", + "Middleton" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_20_3863300", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_20_3863300_1" + }, + { + "question": "What country is not represented by the people in the image?", + "context": "India Skips China Belt and Road Summit Amid Concerns\nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nIndia skipped China\u2019s just ended Belt and Road summit citing concerns that the project runs through disputed Kashmir and analysts say New Delhi is deeply uneasy about the strategic implications of an initiative that would dramatically increase Beijing's presence in neighboring countries. But questions have also been raised whether New Delhi risks being isolated by staying out.\nIndia\u2019s criticism of a project, which Chinese president Xi Jinping has called \u201cthe project of the century,\u201d was unequivocal. \u201cNo country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d said Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Gopal Bagley pointing out the flagship initiative of the Belt and Road project passes through Pakistani Kashmir \u2014 a territory that India claims.\nChina\u2019s assertions that it does not want to get involved in the territorial dispute between the two countries has meant little to India, which believes endorsing a project spearheaded by a close ally of Pakistan would mean endorsing its arch rivals claims on the Himalayan region.\n\u201cNow by making these investments it [China] obviously has as we say put its feet on the ground and backed Pakistan,\u201d says Jayadeva Ranade, a China specialist formerly on the government\u2019s National Security Advisory Board.\nBeijing has been keen to involve India, which straddles one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in the Indian Ocean. China's ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui, told an Indian military think tank recently that the Belt and Road initiative was good for both countries and fits into India's \"Look East\" policy of strengthening ties with southeast and northeast Asia.\nBut that did little to allay India\u2019s mistrust of its giant neighbor, with which border disputes linger more than five decades after they fought a brief war, and with whom New Delhi\u2019s ties have plummeted in the past year.\nChina says its initiative, an ambitious multibillion-dollar project to build a transport network spanning 65 countries, is a new way to boost global development.\nAn attendee at a conference looks up near a portrait of Chinese President Xi Jinping with the words \"Xi Jinping and One Belt One Road\" and \"One Belt One Road strategy,\" in Beijing, April 28, 2017. The \u201cBelt and Road Forum\u201d opening Sunday is the latest in\nBut many in India believe that in addition to economics, the initiative is part of China\u2019s expansionist policies designed to extend it economic, military and diplomatic clout across Asia, up to Europe, and beyond.\n\u201cIf this is globalization, it is globalization 19th century style,\u201dsaid an editorial in the Times of India newspaper supporting India\u2019s \u201cbold\u201d decision to stay out.\nIndia is wary of how the project could massively increase Chinese influence and presence not just in Pakistan, but in other neighboring South Asian countries. Drawn by the prospect of massive infrastructure building and huge investments that could lift their economies, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Myanmar have joined the project. Sri Lanka was represented by its Prime Minister and Nepal by its deputy prime minister at the summit. These countries have signed preliminary agreements for several infrastructure and power projects.\nFILE - Map illustrating China's \"One Belt, One Road\" megaproject at the Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong, Jan. 18, 2016.\nCalling the initiative, \u201ca new kind of colonization,\u201d Chintamani Mahapatra, a professor at the School of international studies at New Delhi\u2019s Jawaharlal Nehru University, said \u201cthe OBOR [One belt, One road] project is very clearly Chinese-initiated, promoted by China with a strategic goal simply because China has a lot of money. When multiple countries are involved in a huge project like this, it should not be proposed, funded by only one country.\u201d\nForeign Ministry spokesman Bagley also underlined the need for transparency, saying that it could drive communities into debt.\nChina, however, points out that over 100 countries around the world and international organizations have got involved in the initiative, which it says has gotten a \u201cwarm response\u201d from the international community.\nChinese President Xi Jinping (center) stands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and other leaders to pose for a group photo before the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum.\nIndeed some analysts caution India on missing out on an ambitious initiative that aims to integrate Asia with Europe through a network of rail lines and ports and create new trade corridors.\nT.N. Ninan, editorial director of the Business Standard newspaper, questioned in a column if India is the last man left standing. \u201cDoes the country risk being enclosed in a geographical cocoon if it spurns a multi-continent project for which everyone else has signed up?,\u201d he asked.\nFor the time being, India\u2019s answer is to step up on infrastructure projects it has planned in neighboring countries, although these cannot match the scale and size of Chinese investments.\nBut India is not shutting the door on its participation completely on a project whose contours are still to take shape.\n\u201cIt is a possibility provided there is something worked out with regard to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor. That is a problem unless China does something to mitigate our concerns there,\u201d said Ranade.\n", + "caption": "Leaders attending the Belt and Road Forum wave as they pose for a group photo at the Yanqi Lake venue on the outskirt of Beijing, China, May 15, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F22D2CC1-785F-42EA-9379-E25149E085AB.jpg", + "id": "17352_1", + "answer": [ + "India " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Belt and Road" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_16_3852687", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_16_3852687_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image seeking?", + "context": "Conditions Deteriorating in Overcrowded Burundi Refugee Camps\nGENEVA, SWITZERLAND \u2014\u00a0\nThe U.N. refugee agency warns conditions in camps for Burundian refugees in countries of asylum are deteriorating and more land is urgently needed to accommodate the growing number of new refugee arrivals.\nTanzania, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are hosting more than 386,000 Burundian refugees. The U.N. refugee agency expects that number to exceed 1.5 million this year as refugees continue to flee political instability and abuse in Burundi.\nPeace talks between the government and opposition are stalled. Though Burundi has largely fallen off the media radar, UNHCR spokesman Leo Dobbs told VOA the crisis gripping the country remains acute.\n\u201cThere are still reports of forced disappearances, targeted assassinations and extra-judicial killings of civilians and law enforcement agents. And, also sporadic attacks by unidentified armed people. So, the situation is still quite grave and hundreds of people are still leaving ... There is still a flow, hundreds of people a week,\u201d he said.\nAs more Burundians flee into neighboring countries, the UNHCR said the pressure for land there is rising. It said the situation is most serious in Tanzania, which is hosting more than 222,000 people.\nDobbs said the UNHCR and its partners are working feverishly with the countries of asylum to find more land to ensure shelter.\n\u201cWith the problems of space, if it is not resolved and we do not get more land, then there is a danger that conditions will deteriorate and aid delivery will be affected,\u201d he said.\nBesides the urgent need for more land, the UNHCR says existing camp facilities must be upgraded, including construction of more homes, schools, health centers and better drainage systems to lessen the risk of disease.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Refugees who fled Burundi's violence and political tension wait to board a U.N. ship, at Kagunga on Lake Tanganyika, Tanzania, to be taken to the port city of Kigoma, May 23, 2015.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3BD199FB-CC26-45EB-BCBF-FC9CB3D8DE07.jpg", + "id": "4836_1", + "answer": [ + "asylum", + "wait to board a U.N. ship" + ], + "bridge": [ + "refugees", + "refugee" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_07_3709465", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_07_3709465_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the person wearing the striped shirt in the image doing?", + "context": "'You Disappeared?' A Wife Seeks Her Husband Missing in China\nGANZHOU, CHINA \u2014\u00a0\nWhen the police called, Deng Guilian was at an indoor playground watching her 3-year-old. It was 2:19 p.m., Tuesday, May 30.\nThe man on the phone said her husband had been picked up on suspicion of making illegal recordings and taking illegal photographs. He told her she didn't need to know the details, he just needed her address so he could send a formal notification.\n\u201cCould you please say that again?\u201d Deng asked.\nHer husband, Hua Haifeng, was a thousand kilometers (620 miles) away from her, in Ganzhou, a city in southeastern China where he had been investigating working conditions at factories that until at least March made shoes for Ivanka Trump's brand. He and his colleagues at China Labor Watch, a New York nonprofit, were preparing to publish a report alleging low pay, excessive overtime, crude verbal abuse and possible misuse of student labor at Huajian Group factories. The company denies the allegations.\nA man rides a motorbike outside of a Huajian Group shoe factory in Ganzhou in southeastern China's Jiangxi Province, June 6, 2017.\nDeng grew furious at the man on the phone.\n\u201cI have to take care of old people and children. All the money comes from him,\u201d she spat. \u201cYou tell me what I should do.\u201d\nThere was a pause. \u201cI don't know,\u201d the voice answered.\nShe hung up without giving her address.\nDeng, 36, had entered the swelling ranks of relatives swept up in Beijing's crackdown on human rights lawyers and labor activists. Hundreds have been detained, leaving many of their extended families with no source of income.\nBeyond financial suffering, the Chinese government wields great power over the lives of its citizens, which it can use to make things better - or infinitely worse - for those left behind. Wives, husbands, children and grandparents are left to look on solemnly as their lives are systematically dismembered until all that remains are the bones of fear: How will I feed my children? Will we keep our house? When will we see each other again?\nDeng was terrified. Standing at the playground, watching children trying to catch goldfish, she felt like she might fall down. She didn't know whom to talk to. Her husband's ailing parents didn't know what kind of work Hua did. They just knew he made money for everybody.\nAbove all, she had to protect her children, from sadness and fear and whatever else lay ahead. She would tell them lies and buy them chocolate late at night when they cried for a father they weren't supposed to know was missing. It would be days before Deng herself could eat.\n\"Papa was taken away by a monster\"\nRewind. Back to when idealism didn't seem to cost so much.\nDeng met her husband in 2006 on an online chat group for people from Nanzhang county, where they are both from. A petite woman with a quick, wide smile, Deng liked Hua because he made her laugh. Deng began working in factories after high school, helping to churn out clothes, toys and electronics across Guangdong province, the heartland of China's manufacturing boom. She sat in on information sessions Hua organized to help workers learn their legal rights, and fell in love with both the man - even though she thought he was kind of short - and his ideas.\nShe wore a white Western gown when they married in 2010. It was a simple ceremony, at home, with no rings or fancy jewelry. She believed they were on the right side of things, working to make society better for everyone, not just the rich and the lucky.\nHua's latest investigation had taken him inside the Huajian Group, which has pumped out millions of pairs of shoes a year for brands including Ivanka Trump's from factories in China and Ethiopia. In May, Hua went undercover as a worker at one of their factories in Dongguan.\nWhen he tried to travel to Hong Kong, he was blocked and taken out for lunch by the police, who warned him to stop the investigation. China Labor Watch, which has been exposing labor abuses for 17 years, says authorities had never made such a move before.\nHua kept working, turning his attention to Huajian's factory in Ganzhou, along with his colleagues Li Zhao and Su Heng.\nRight up until Sunday afternoon, Deng and Hua chatted and exchanged photos by phone: Their 7-year-old daughter, Chen Chen, in a new dress, their son, Bo Bo, in mirrored sunglasses that made him look like a little bug.\nThen Hua went silent.\n\u201cYou disappeared?\u201d Deng texted Monday afternoon, hoping to convince herself it was nothing.\nIn this photo taken in 2016 and released by Deng Guilian, Deng Guilian, left, her husband Hua Haifeng, right, and their son Bo Bo pose for a photo during a visit to a park in Chengde in northern China's Hebei Province.\nThat night, Bo Bo inexplicably burst into tears. \u201cPapa was taken away by a monster,\u201d the boy said. He told his mother he wanted a weapon so he could transform himself into the superhero Ultraman and fight the monster.\n\u201cYou do not have a weapon to transform yourself,\u201d Deng told her child. \u201cAnd you are not Ultraman.\u201d\nBut the boy insisted he would find a magical weapon and save his dad with his great new power.\n\"Each one was like a wolf\"\nDeng got the call about her husband two days after he disappeared. She soon began to regret decisions made long ago, like leaving work to take care of the family. It was what her husband had wanted, but now seemed stupid, isolating. She had only 400 yuan ($59) in cash. She didn't dare use the family credit card because Hua paid that bill, and how would he pay from jail?\n\u201cI feel so embarrassed that I do not have money,\u201d Deng said. \u201cLook at me now. I am just a housewife.\u201d\nShe took loans from family members to pay the bills. The days were anxious. The nights worse. She went to bed with her phone clutched in her hand.\nHer husband's disappearance had thrust Deng roughly back into society. She scrambled to learn about lawyers and fielded so many calls from foreign journalists she didn't have time to brush her teeth.\n\u201cI was a blank sheet of paper before,\u201d she said. \u201cNow I have no choice, I have to get to know this circle. It is hard.\u201d\nShe said she never wanted to get involved with the police or the Chinese government or, most unimaginable of all, the president of the United States and his daughter.\nIvanka Trump has not commented on the arrests. Deng wishes she would, and believes she could help. \u201cAs a wife and mother of two children, I ask Ivanka Trump to release my husband,\u201d she said.\nDeng struggled to help her husband while caring for her children. Her 3-year-old grabbed peaches from the kitchen and fed himself, but he was still hungry. She sent him and his sister off to their aunt's house for two days, without explaining why. The children kept calling to say they missed her cooking and their toys.\nThree days after the first phone call, police began searching for Deng. They knocked on the doors of family members in town, who Deng had been trying to hide the terrible news from, humiliating her in front of her neighbors.\n\u201cPeople here may think as long as someone is being taken away, this person must be evil,\u201d she said. They eventually tracked her down at her mother's house and drove her to the station around 9 p.m. that Friday night.\nFour men took her into a small room and pulled their chairs in a tight circle around her.\n\u201cEach one was like a wolf,\u201d she said.\nOne man stared at her. Another wrote down everything she said. A third examined her phone, scrolling through her exchanges with foreign journalists. \u201cYou don't know these people but you told them how old your children are and where you live,\u201d a fourth man said. \u201cDo you think that's safe?\u201d\nIt was after midnight when they let her go.\n\u201c'Do not let your husband's crime turn into something like leaking state secrets,\u201d' Deng said she was told. \u201cThey spoke so seriously. Anyway, I don't understand, but it was just terrifying.\u201d\nThe following afternoon, the post office called to say they had a letter for her. She raced over on her bicycle and tore the envelope open with a knife at home. As expected, it was the official police notice of her husband's arrest.\nShe finally knew for sure what had happened to Hua.\nFor the first time in nearly a week, Deng was hungry. She sat down to a bowl of her mother's steaming rice porridge and fried green vegetables.\nThe police called again and came by to take her to the village committee office. The Communist Party secretary of the village, a local official and a policeman began asking about her family. They took photographs of her text message exchanges with The Associated Press. They told her Hua was in serious trouble and advised her to make smart decisions.\nThey offered to help her financially, and to provide good health care to her mother, who suffers from serious diabetes. They said her home would finally get the running water her family had long sought, which would mean Deng could stop hauling well water upstairs in buckets.\nThe more these men talked, the more she grieved, until she burst. The men watched as she cried - for her sick mother, her children, her isolation, her sudden poverty, her lost husband.\nShe went home calm and determined.\nWhat she had to do was simple: Her husband needed clothing and food. She would deliver them.\n\u201cI will not be afraid,\u201d she said, using a Chinese expression, \u201cI dare to climb a mountain of swords or plunge into a sea of flames.\u201d\nDeng Guilian holds the hand of her son Bo Bo, 3, as they walk through a train station in Ganzhou in southern China's Jiangxi Province, June 7, 2017.\nBuying underwear for other people's husbands\nDeng packed a single black backpack and the next morning boarded a standing-room-only train with her son and sister-in-law for the 12-hour journey to Ganzhou, where her husband and his two colleagues were being held on allegations of using secret recording devices to disrupt Huajian's business. It was folly making a 3-year-old stand up through the night, but she figured they could camp out in the canteen car and pick on fried cucumber with pork while the child slept. His sister stayed with Hua's parents.\nEight days after Hua's disappearance, Deng arrived in Ganzhou, a relatively poor Chinese city better known for oranges than factories that sits astride a lazy brown river in southeastern China's Jiangxi province. One of its biggest corporate players is Huajian, the company that Hua, Li and Su had been investigating.\nThe shoe factory where the alleged labor violations occurred sits in a growing complex of Huajian buildings, all painted the same pale blue, including rows of Huajian apartment towers, a Huajian innovation park, a Huajian school and a Huajian swimming pool.\nThe first thing Deng did when she arrived was install her son and sister-in-law in a small hotel room with cheery yellow walls. Then she hired a lawyer. Then she went shopping.\nShe figured Hua's colleagues could also use a few things, but she agonized over what sizes to buy for the men. Li Zhao was so big she worried even XL wouldn't fit. Su Heng she'd never set eyes on. Medium seemed like a safe bet.\n\u201cI've never bought underwear for other people's husbands,\u201d Deng said, laughing.\nTwo hours later, she stumbled out in her high wedge sandals, tripping under the weight of three pairs of slippers, six pairs of shorts, six T-shirts, three towels and nine pairs of underwear. It cost 450 yuan ($66), nearly half of her rainy day fund.\nShe brought everything back to the detention center. She didn't know the center's rules and came at the wrong time, and she didn't know she had to label everything. Worse, they forbade rope and made her pull the string out of the waistband of all the men's shorts. She worried they would all fall down. She put money on meal cards for the three men.\nSummer rains washed across Ganzhou, leaving the air hot and heavy. There was no air conditioning at the detention center. When the lawyer Deng had hired, Wen Yu, came out, his hair was wet with sweat. He'd been waiting since 9 a.m. to meet Hua and sometime after 5 p.m. was finally permitted to see him for one minute, just long enough to introduce himself. Deng was not allowed to visit her husband and was anxious for news.\n\u201cWe need to try again tomorrow,\u201d Wen said.\nPolice from her hometown, Deng learned, had visited Hua in jail, urging him to write a letter telling his wife to stop talking with the foreign media. Police also threatened her brother-in-law, she said.\nWen was ordered not to speak with foreign reporters and he stopped granting interviews. On Tuesday, police visited the hotel in Ganzhou where Deng was speaking with AP journalists, sending a maid up to knock on the door, effectively cutting short the interview.\nPolice in Ganzhou and Jiangxi, as well as in Deng's hometown could not be reached immediately for comment.\nChinese state-run media began publishing photos of the evidence collected against her husband and his colleagues, claiming they had all confessed.\nBut Deng still talked. The more they tried to stop her, the more she wanted to speak.\nShe talked so much her mouth dried out and her voice grew raspy.\nWhat, she wondered, was so threatening about her story?\n\u201cI have an unknown tenacity,\u201d she said.\nLawyer hired, underwear delivered, by Wednesday it was time to go home.\n\u201cI want to stay here,\u201d Bo Bo said. \u201cI don't want to go home.\u201d\n\u201cHere, I bought you snacks, chips and chicken,\u201d Deng said. \u201cCome on, put your shoes on.\u201d\nA 10-minute taxi ride later, Deng hoisted Bo Bo to her hip and stepped through a metal gate with her sister-in-law into the cool blue of the train station. She wiped her son's nose, gave him water and played with him on the grimy floor while they waited.\nDeng hoped to rest when she got home, but expected the police would be there again for her in the morning and maybe the afternoon too, reminding her they were there, watching. She was not afraid. China is a country of laws, she believed, and as long as she didn't break them, nothing bad would happen.\nThen again, there was her husband, who she believed had done nothing wrong and was at that very moment in jail, eating bad food and sleeping by a plastic bucket used as a toilet by 20 men who had been ordered not to speak to him. At least he hadn't been beaten.\nAt 1:12 p.m., the green train to Xiangyang city eased forward, carrying Deng and her son off to an uncertain future.\n", + "caption": "In this photo taken in 2016 and released by Deng Guilian, Deng Guilian, left, her husband Hua Haifeng, right, and their son Bo Bo pose for a photo during a visit to a park in Chengde in northern China's Hebei Province.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5A22E4F8-B447-424C-83F1-F124BC86F31B.jpg", + "id": "29053_3", + "answer": [ + "investigating working conditions at factories" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Hua Haifeng" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_08_3892089", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_08_3892089_3" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the left of the image choose?", + "context": "Designer Tommy Hilfiger Leans on Model Gigi Hadid for New Collection\nLOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0\nThe thick fog hanging over Venice Beach did little to disrupt Tommy Hilfiger's carnival-esque runway show co-created by and featuring supermodel Gigi Hadid.\nHadid helped pick out the models, the music and the clothes for the TommyXGigi collection - and she walked the beachside runway first and last Wednesday, cheered by her family and Lady Gaga along the way.\n\"The clothes themselves are inspired by Southern California, inspired by Gigi, and really suited for this type of lifestyle,\" Hilfiger said in an interview.\nThe collection featured blocks of bright color, American flags and a mix of halter tops and flowing summer dresses.\nHilfiger called the 21-year-old Hadid \"the It girl of today'' and praised her sense of style. His brand has made a comeback in recent years with such partnerships and by embracing youth culture - and nostalgia.\n\"It's really a new dynamic, with social media, with e-commerce shopping, with 'buy now, wear now.' It's a whole new ballgame. Everything has changed. And everything is changing very rapidly,'' the 65-year-old designer said.\nLady Gaga - who took cell phone photos and waved to Hadid during the show - and Cindy Crawford's children, Kaia and Presley Gerber, were among the celebrities on hand. Fergie performed after the show.\n", + "caption": "Gigi Hadid, left, and Tommy Hilfiger walk the runway at the Tommy Hilfiger TommyxGigi Runway Show at Venice Beach on Feb. 8, 2017 in Los Angeles.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BA926E90-9B1F-45F9-91CC-159A66F7B5DC.jpg", + "id": "27933_1", + "answer": [ + "the models, the music and the clothes" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Hadid" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_09_3716517", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_09_3716517_1" + }, + { + "question": "How was the cause of the damage in the image kept secret?", + "context": "Bomb Strikes Pakistan Market, Kills at Least 22, Wounds 50\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nA powerful bomb ripped through a market area in northwestern Pakistan Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding more than 50 others.\nThe early morning blast occurred in Parachinar, the administrative center of the Kurram tribal district on the Afghan border.\nOfficials said an initial probe suggested a remotely controlled explosive device hidden in a sack was detonated at a time the market was crowded with shoppers.\nRescue workers and a local lawmaker, Sajid Hussain Turi, told reporters the death toll was likely to increase because many people were seriously wounded.\nPakistan army helicopters were engaged to help civilian authorities transport injured people from the remote border region to hospitals in Peshawar.\nA spokesman for the anti-state Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for what he said was a suicide attack to avenge killings of its jailed members in allegedly fake police encounters. \nKurram is part of Pakistan\u2019s seven semi-autonomous federally administered tribal districts, mostly located near the border with Afghanistan.\nThe tribal belt has long served as a shelter for local and foreign militants, but officials say recent massive army-led anti-militancy operations have largely cleared the area.\n", + "caption": "Pakistani security officals and local residents are seen gathered at the site of a bomb explosion at a market in Parachinar city, the capital of Kurram tribal district on the Afghan border on Jan. 21, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4508E219-DE25-4956-AE02-F8DDF2749841.jpg", + "id": "30083_1", + "answer": [ + "hidden in a sack " + ], + "bridge": [ + "explosive" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_21_3685950", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_21_3685950_1" + }, + { + "question": "What things were used against the people in the image?", + "context": "In Wake of Bombing, Afghans Protest, Demand President Resign\nKABUL, AFGHANISTAN \u2014\u00a0\nAfghan protesters demanded the resignation of President Ashraf Ghani\u2019s government Friday following this week\u2019s devastating truck bomb attack in Kabul, squaring off against police who fired into the air to keep them back.\nMore than 1,000 demonstrators, many carrying pictures of victims, rallied near the site of Wednesday\u2019s blast, which killed more than 80 people and wounded 460, holding Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah responsible.\nPolice in riot gear used water cannon and tear gas to block the protesters, many throwing stones, from gaining access to the road leading to the presidential palace, occasionally firing automatic weapons into the air.\nAfghans throw stones towards security forces during a protest in the wake of Wednesday's deadly bombing, in Kabul, Afghanistan, June, 2, 2017.\nAttack one of the worst\nWednesday\u2019s attack, at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, was one of the worst in Kabul since the U.S.-led campaign to topple the Taliban in 2001 and underlined the growing violence across much of the country.\n\u201cThe international community has to put pressure on them and force them to resign,\u201d said Niloofar Nilgoon, one of a relatively large number of women taking part in the protest. \u201cThey\u2019re not capable of leading the country.\u201d\nOthers demanded that the government execute prisoners from the Haqqani network, the Taliban-affiliated militant group that intelligence officials blame for the attack.\n\u201cUntil we do that, we won\u2019t have peace. The only way to get security is to punish criminals,\u201d said another protester, Asadullah, who like many Afghans goes by one name.\nAnger complicates US plans\nHowever most of the anger appeared directed against the Western-backed government, underlining growing impatience with its failure to ensure public security, almost three years after most foreign troops left Afghanistan.\n\u201cGhani! Abdullah! Resign! Resign!\u201d read one banner with the pictures of bloodstained children and held out of a car window.\nThe pressure on the government complicates the choice facing U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration, which is considering plans to increase the number of American troops in the country by between 3,000 and 5,000 to help break what U.S. commanders say is a stalemate in the war.\nTaliban insurgents now control or contest around 40 percent of the country. Even before the attack, 715 civilians had been killed in the first three months of the year after nearly 3,500 in 2016, the deadliest year on record for Afghan civilians. \n", + "caption": "Afghans throw stones towards security forces during a protest in the wake of Wednesday's deadly bombing, in Kabul, Afghanistan, June, 2, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BA948847-3523-49CE-AEBF-EAC249677431.jpg", + "id": "33318_2", + "answer": [ + "water cannon and tear gas" + ], + "bridge": [ + "protest" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_02_3883879", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_02_3883879_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with the tie in the image used to be?", + "context": "University Collection of More Than 2,700 Books Spans US Presidency\nMANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE \u2014\u00a0\nThe New Hampshire Political Library doesn't include any books about President Donald Trump, but even he likely would agree its new collection of presidential biographies, memoirs and monographs is huge.\nArthur Young of Manchester spent 25 years collecting 2,744 books on the presidency, the founding fathers and other people and events related to the nation's highest office.\nHe donated them to the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, where staff spent the last six months cataloguing them and building custom glass-front display cabinets to hold them.\nThe collection spans from George Washington to Barack Obama, and includes scholarly tomes as well as what Young considers fun works, such as a book about Teddy Roosevelt written by his valet.\n\"A book itself is an object of art, from its binding to its font,'' Young said at a dedication ceremony Friday. \"Important ideas and skillful writing are enduring treasures of our culture.''\nArthur Young, left, and his wife, Pat, hold one of the 2,744 books about U.S. presidents he donated to the New Hampshire Political Library, part of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 9, 2017.\nYoung, 76, is a former director of libraries at the University of Rhode Island, University of South Carolina and Northern Illinois University. He said he grew up in a home with thousands of books and has spent his life dedicated to the care, preservation and dissemination of books.\nHe acknowledged he hasn't read all of the presidential collection, but said he hopes they will be useful to students.\nThe collection shows how perceptions of presidents have changed over time. For example, the earliest book about Washington was written in 1931; the latest in 2009. The most recent addition is a 1,400-word book about Obama that covers his life until just before he became president.\n\"Washington is a good example \u2014 the first president continues to be cited as a model of decorum and honesty and all of those good virtues going back a couple hundred years,'' Young said. \"You learn how the presidency and its meaning changes over time.''\nNeil Levesque, director of the institute, said the donation reinforces the facility's value to scholars, journalists and the public and will provide rich research opportunities for students.\n\"The students here are going to use this for many, many years to come,'' he said.\nUntil now, the library has mainly been devoted to campaign memorabilia and other items related to New Hampshire's tradition of holding the first-in-the-nation presidential primary every four years.\nThe small room that is now lined with glass-front bookcases filled with Young's donated books had been used as a meeting space and reading room but had few actual books. Young, who has seen many libraries, called it \"beyond splendid.''\n\"I don't have to make any exaggeration to say this is the best setting for books I have ever been in, and that's not just because they used to be mine,'' he said.\n", + "caption": "Arthur Young, left, and his wife, Pat, hold one of the 2,744 books about U.S. presidents he donated to the New Hampshire Political Library, part of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, June 9, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C89E26C9-BAE6-4941-82CD-855228E368EA.jpg", + "id": "11356_2", + "answer": [ + "director of libraries at the University of Rhode Island, University of South Carolina and Northern Illinois University", + "None", + "former director of libraries" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Arthur Young", + "Young" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897133", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897133_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who was the man in the image not above board with concerning who he interacted with?", + "context": "Flynn's New Financial Forms Reveal Russia Connection\nMichael Flynn, the retired Army general whom U.S. President Donald Trump ousted as his national security adviser, has amended his financial disclosure statement, revealing his ties with Russia.\nFlynn's new filings show the Russian state-sponsored news organization Russia Today - RT - paid him $45,000 to speak at its 10th anniversary celebration. In addition, two other Russian firms paid him several thousand dollars for speeches.\nRobert Kelner, Flynn's lawyer, said Flynn's initial filing was a draft, submitted just days before his client resigned. Kelner said Flynn did not have the opportunity before stepping down to consult with the White House counsel's office and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics; part of the process for submitting the forms. Kelner said when the White House asked Flynn afterwards to complete the process, \"he did so.\"\nFlynn's amended forms were released late Friday along with scores of other financial statements from senior White House staff.\nNews about Flynn's failure to report all his financial dealings with Russia came as the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as the Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees are investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and how much interaction White House senior staff members had with Russia.\nTrump had named Flynn as his national security adviser before the president was sworn into office. Flynn served, however, as head of the National Security Council for just 24 days before he was forced to step down - not specifically because of his Russian ties, according to Trump administration officials, but because he misled Vice President Mike Pence by failing to declare his meetings with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.\nFlynn had met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the post-election transition period without advising the administration of former President Barack Obama, who was still in office at the time. The retired general also gave Pence and other White House officials a false version of his contacts with the Russian envoy.\n", + "caption": "FILE - National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaks during the daily news briefing at the White House, in Washington, Feb. 1, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DE9F257A-1D5F-4032-964D-B233DCD1B2A9.jpg", + "id": "30344_1", + "answer": [ + "Vice President Mike Pence " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Flynn" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792757", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792757_1" + }, + { + "question": "What event often shadows the destruction of the vehicles from the image?", + "context": "Indonesia Urges UN to Declare Fish Theft a Transnational Crime \nNEW YORK \u2014\u00a0\nSusi Pudjiastuti, Indonesia's minister of marine affairs, who is known for blowing up foreign fishing ships that trespass into her nation's waters, has urged the United Nations to declare illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUUF) an organized crime.\nIUUF is not a new entry in the annals of international crimes. But as more nations are working to manage their resources to prevent overfishing in their offshore and coastal waters, IUUF is a growing concern, according to the U.N.\nAlthough hard numbers are difficult to gather, the world's fisheries in 2012 produced roughly 160 million tons of fish and generated over $129 billion in exports while providing nutrition for billions of people, according to World Bank data.\nFILE - Indonesia Minister of Marine Affairs Susi Pudjiastuti speaks in Washington, Sept. 16, 2016. Pudjiastuti has been pushing to make illegal fishing a transnational crime since 2015.\nSpeaking at the U.N. Ocean Conference this week in New York City, Pudjiastuti said fishing boat crews involved in IUUF \"are involved not only in fish crimes but also smuggling drugs, weapons and other illegal economic products, even human trafficking. This disrupts domestic economic competition because the perpetrators have no cost and gain so much profit.\"\nThere is little disagreement that billions of dollars, or even tens of billions, are at stake with IUUF each year.\nDependent on ocean, fishing\nAccording to the World Bank, Indonesia, which has 2.6 million fishermen and 140 million citizens who rely on marine and coastal economic systems, claims IUUF losses up to tens of millions of dollars per year.\nPudjiastuti has been pushing to make illegal fishing a transnational crime since 2015.\nShe has the backing of General Assembly President Peter Thomson, a diplomat from Fiji, a Pacific Island nation that \"is extremely reliant on marine resources from an economic and food security perspective,\" according to a study by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.\n\"I welcome Indonesia's efforts in this field. IUUF is indeed a transnational crime,\" Thomson told VOA Indonesia. \"Ultimately, it is the responsibility of all parties, international organizations, governments, civil society, NGOs and the scientific community. This is not just an individual's responsibility but the responsibility of all of us.\"\nWith others at the conference, Thomson also spoke out against the plague of plastic waste polluting the world's oceans.\nWATCH: UN Official Peter Thomson: 'The Ocean Is in Deep Trouble'\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nUN Official Peter Thomson: 'The Ocean Is in Deep Trouble'\nShare this video\n0:01:48\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:48\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 5.3MB\n360p | 7.8MB\n720p | 52.0MB\n\"The sea is in the midst of a plastic-and-pollution disaster,\" he said. \"If we don't act, there will be more plastic than fish in 2050.\"\nIndonesians, who produce more ocean waste than any nation other than China, rallied to this issue at the conference. Among the Indonesian delegates were Melati and Isabel Wijsen, two Bali teenagers who initiated Bye Bye Plastic Bags, the community movement that aims to reduce plastic waste.\nSustainable goals\nCombating IUUF is one of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which include steps to end overfishing; end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices; and implement science-based management plans. The U.N. hopes the steps restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics.\nThe Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by all 193 heads of state via a U.N. resolution in September 2015 at a special Summit of the United Nations in New York.\nPudjiastuti is both revered and criticized for her hard-line approach to combat illegal fishing. Last year, Indonesia, made up of more than 17,000 islands, sank 60 foreign fishing ships as part of its independence day celebrations.\nIn May, Pudjiastuti was one of the recipients of the Peter Benchley Ocean Award \u2014 named after the author of Jaws. She was cited for her efforts in protecting Indonesia's marine ecosystem, as well as tackling poachers and organized crime.\nFILE - A plastic bottle lies among other debris washed ashore on an Indian Ocean beach in Uswetakeiyawa, north of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Aug. 13, 2015.\nAbout 10,000 vessels a year use to fish in Indonesian waters, but that has stopped. \"We catch them and we sink them, and it has been an effective deterrence,\" she said.\nSince taking office in 2014, after a three-decade career as a seafood entrepreneur, Pudjiastuti has blown up hundreds of vessels, but the tactic has created tensions with regional neighbors.\nChina causes concerns\nIndonesian officials are particularly worried about China's expansion of its fishing fleets and occasional forays into the waters of other countries in the region.\nIn the past, Pudjiastuti has said they have captured few Chinese vessels, which are big, fast and often accompanied by their nation's coast guard.\nBut she continues to push for an end to IUUF.\n\"It's better to have an idea that is too early than too late,\" she said. \"I am proud that Indonesia is thinking about this ahead of other countries, and that we have actually done it, not just talk about it.\"\nThis report originated with VOA Indonesia.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this image made from video, an illegal fishing vessel that was seized by Indonesia\u2019s navy is sunk in the waters off Pangandaran, West Java, Indonesia, March 14, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B4610C19-5BC8-46A0-A61F-F88861743F43.jpg", + "id": "28996_1", + "answer": [ + "independence day celebrations" + ], + "bridge": [ + "fishing" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_10_3895243", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_10_3895243_1" + }, + { + "question": "What supposedly happened to people like those in the image?", + "context": "UN Accused of Complicity in Pakistan\u2019s Alleged Unlawful, Coerced Repatriation of Afghans\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nAn international rights defender has accused Pakistan and the United Nations refugee agency of complicity in promoting \u201cunlawful and coerced\u201d repatriation of tens of thousands of Afghan refugees.\nIn a report released Monday, Human Rights Watch alleges that in response to deadly security incidents and deteriorating political relations with Afghanistan over the past two years, Pakistani authorities have mounted a concerted campaign to drive Afghans out of Pakistan.\n\u201cIn the second half of 2016, a toxic combination of deportation threats and police abuses pushed out nearly 365,000 of the country\u2019s 1.5 million registered Afghan refugees, as well as just over 200,000 of the country\u2019s estimated one million undocumented Afghans,\u201d the report noted.\nFILE - U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi talks to an Afghan refugee woman during his visit to the UNHCR's Repatriation Center in Peshawar, Pakistan, June 23, 2016.\nHRW senior researcher Patricia Gossman, while sharing details of the report at a news conference in Kabul, said the exodus amounts to the world\u2019s largest unlawful mass forced return of refugees in recent times.\n\u201cThe way Pakistan carried that out was through a range [of] abuses toward the refugee[s] and the undocumented Afghans in Pakistan. And this included, detentions, extortion, extracting bribes, the closure of Afghan schools, raids on people's homes and other threats, including from the local population that Afghans we[re] no longer welcome.\u201d\nPakistan denies coercion \nPakistani authorities maintain that areas where Afghan refugees reside have lately become security challenges and safe havens for anti-state militants, and after hosting them for four decades, host communities also want the refugees to be relocated. But Islamabad denies allegations of any concerted campaign of abuse and coercion.\nGossman warned that the refugee families pushed out of Pakistan are returning to expanding armed conflict in Afghanistan where they also face widespread destitution and a near-total absence of social services.\nThe report harshly criticized the U.N. Refugee Agency, or UNHCR, for allegedly facilitating repatriation of refugees from Pakistan, saying the agency was actually complicit in this forced return of displaced families.\n\u201cRather than saying something, speak out publicly when this concerted campaign by Pakistan began, UNHCR in Pakistan remained silent and in fact increased its cash grant to the refugees all of which facilitated the return of hundreds of thousands of people in conditions that cannot be called voluntary.\"\nFILE - Afghan refugee women, clad in a burqa, climb on a truck to be repatriated to Afghanistan, at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office on the outskirts of Peshawar, Feb. 13, 2015.\nUNHCR promptly responded to the allegations, saying it disagrees with the conclusions of the HRW report. In a statement sent to VOA, the agency said that throughout 2016, it has informed Afghans of their rights, intervened in cases of unlawful arrest and detention, and intervened in nearly 6,000 cases of arrest, securing the release of almost all.\n\u201cUNHCR does not promote returns to Afghanistan given the enduring conflict in different parts of the country and its limited absorption capacity. At the same time, the agency does help those who decide to return based on the options available to them,\u201d the agency said in the statement.\nComplex situation\nIt maintained that the multiple drivers behind the surge in the returnees are complex and influenced by shifting regional dynamics and relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan.\nFILE - Afghan refugees living in Pakistan wait to get their documents to travel back to Afghanistan, at the UNHCR's Repatriation Center, in Peshawar, Pakistan, Sept. 7, 2016.\n\u201cThey include pressures by authorities amidst broader security operations, changing attitudes among host communities, uncertainty about the renewal of refugee ID cards, economic hardship, stricter border controls disrupting trade and family ties. There was also a campaign by the Afghan government in Pakistan to encourage Afghans to return home.\u201d\nSpeaking in Kabul, Gossman also slammed Afghan authorities for encouraging the refugees to return when the conflict has worsened and the government is unable to deliver on its resettlement incentives.\n\u201cIt is very reckless and irresponsible at the very least to promise land or other advantages to people who return when that is actually not forthcoming.\u201d\n", + "caption": "FILE - Afghan refugee women sit with their babies as they wait with others to be repatriated to Afghanistan, at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office on the outskirts of Peshawar, Feb. 2, 2015.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A72EE1D1-C073-4BE8-8D70-22D9FE6356B1.jpg", + "id": "18963_1", + "answer": [ + "\u201cunlawful and coerced\u201d repatriation" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Afghan refugee" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_13_3721027", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_13_3721027_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who did the person with the red tie in the image supposedly have connections with?", + "context": "Ousted Trump National Security Adviser at Center of Russia Probe \nRetired Army General Michael Flynn, a staunch political surrogate for Donald Trump's election as president and for 24 days his first national security adviser, now is certain to be at the center of a new special prosecutor's investigation of Trump campaign links to Russian interests.\nThe 59-year-old Flynn has already been at the heart of several controversies in Trump's four-month presidency and now will face new scrutiny with the appointment Wednesday of special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the county's top criminal investigative agency.\nIn 2015, when Trump began his presidential run, Flynn was paid more than $30,000 to attend Moscow events, including one where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner celebrating the Kremlin-controlled RT television network.\nFILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) sits next to retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (L) as they attend an exhibition marking the 10th anniversary of RT (Russia Today) television news channel in Moscow, Russia, Dec.10, 2015.\nFired \nTrump fired Flynn in February from the key White House posting after routine U.S. eavesdropping on foreign officials showed he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington in the weeks before Trump assumed power in late January. Flynn had been kept on the job for 18 days after the acting attorney general, Sally Yates, had warned the White House that he could be subject to blackmail from the Russians because he had misled Pence.\nThen, a day after Trump ousted Flynn, associates of former FBI chief James Comey, whom Trump fired last week, say that the president urged Comey at a White House meeting to drop his investigation of Flynn and that Comey soon after made extensive notes about his conversation with Trump.\nThe White House says Comey's contemporaneous recollection of his discussions with Trump are not accurate, while some legal experts say that if true,Trump's efforts to end the Flynn probe could be construed as obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense.\nFILE - Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy stand as President Donald Trump shakes hands with FBI Director James Comey during a reception for inaugural law enforcement officers and first responders in the Blue Room of the White House.\nLast week, Trump said that as he was thinking of \"this Russia thing,\" he fired Comey, who was leading the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign's links to Russia. Trump has been dismissive of investigations of his campaign's links to Russia, saying that claims of Moscow's meddling in the election to help him win are an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset win over former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.\nThe Comey firing and the reports of Trump's attempt to curb the Flynn investigation led to calls from lawmakers, Democrats and some Republicans, for appointment a special prosecutor in the Russia investigation. Mueller will fill a role independent of the normal channels of authority at the country's Department of Justice.\nTrump team notified about probe \nThe New York Times said in a Thursday report that the new Trump administration named Flynn as national security adviser even though Flynn told the president-elect's transition team weeks before the January 20 inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working during the presidential campaign as a paid lobbyist for Turkish interests in the United States. Flynn was paid more than $500,000.\nThe inspector general at the U.S. Defense Department announced recently it is investigating whether Flynn sought permission for the Russian and Turkish payments after he was specifically warned when he retired from the military to not accept any money from foreign governments.\nMeanwhile, Reuters reported that Flynn and other Trump aides were in contact with Russian officials and others with Kremlin ties in at least 18 calls and emails in the last seven months of the presidential campaign ahead of the November 8 vote.\nOusted by Obama administration \nFlynn headed the Defense Intelligence Agency for two years under former President Barack Obama, until he was ousted in 2014 for his chaotic management of the spy agency.\nLater, Flynn emerged as a sharp critic of Obama's handling of national security matters, while supporting Trump's long-shot run for the presidency.\nFlynn made a speech at last year's Republican national convention that handed Trump the party's presidential nomination. Flynn led thousands of party faithful in an anti-Clinton chant, \"Lock her up!\" for the way she handled national security material on her private email server while she was the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013.\n", + "caption": "From left, President Donald Trump and former National Security Advisor Micheal Flynn.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/86A8FBFB-3BF3-4AA7-B8A8-9371FAEA4624.jpg", + "id": "16185_1", + "answer": [ + "Russia", + "None", + "Russian interests" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump", + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3860274", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3860274_1" + }, + { + "question": "What does the movement the people in the image practice do?", + "context": "In CAR, Capoeira Works Wonders for Traumatized Teens\nBANGUI \u2014\u00a0\nAfter fighting between armed Christian and Muslim groups displaced hundreds of thousands of people in the Central African Republic in 2013 and 2014, five Christian and Muslim youths returned to their homeland late last year and brought back with them something new to the country \u2013 capoeira, a Brazilian martial art combining dance, music and acrobatics. \n\u201cWe, the youth, studied capoeira a lot in the camp since we didn\u2019t have school or anything like that,\u201d explained Vicky Nelson Wackoro, who sought refuge in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for three years. \u201cAnd the capoeira for the people, it was the only means of entertainment.\u201d\nWackoro had only previously seen capoeira in movies.\n\u201cI didn\u2019t really know what capoeira was,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was my first time of practicing it in my life.\u201d\nYoung orphans practice capoeira on the grounds of their orphanage. The martial art was developed centuries ago by African slaves in Brazil, April 20, 2017. (Z. Baddorf/VOA)\nCapoeira was developed centuries ago by African slaves in Brazil.\nWackoro and a group of other Central African refugees received scholarships to study capoeira at an association in Kinshasa for three months. While there, Wackoro achieved Level 5 Orange Cord.\nWhen Wackoro and four of his fellow capoeira students returned to their homeland in November, they formed an association to share the martial art and its message of tolerance with their fellow citizens.\n \u201cIt\u2019s become a passion for us,\u201d said Oussein Christian, who is the group\u2019s president. \u201cWe really like that.\u201d\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nCapoeira for Peace in the Central African Republic\nShare this video\n0:02:30\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:30\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 7.3MB\n360p | 11.6MB\n720p | 66.4MB\n1080p | 48.8MB\nThey volunteer at the local Fondation Voix du Coeur orphanage, teaching the martial art to about 100 children every weekend. They practice in the courtyard in groups, with adults watching from the sidelines.\n\u201cOur country has just gone through a crisis. And the children are a little traumatized. And we are there to help and give them a little advice, and I think that helps to calm them down,\u201d Christian said.\nFourteen-year-old Frankie Mongbanzi, whose parents died several years ago, arrived at the orphanage in September 2016.\n\u201cWhen I came here to the orphanage, I found a big family,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m happy to play capoeira with my brothers. At the beginning it was difficult. But when the professors come to correct us (they) help us to improve.\u201d\nA young Central African Republic woman performs capoeira at an orphanage in Bangui. A group of refugees brought the martial back with them from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, April 20, 2017. (Z. Baddorf/VOA)\nChristian said their group of capoeira enthusiasts tries to impart to the orphans the values of capoeira - tolerance, fair play, discipline and respect. They hope it can help the children foster a more peaceful future for the country.\n\u201cIn the other arts like taekwondo and judo, they hit each other,\u201d Christian explained at the orphanage, \u201cbut in the capoeira, we don\u2019t hit each other. And in each \u2018round,\u2019 even if someone makes a hit, you have to say, \u2018Oh, he touched by mistake.\u2019 You hug each other and say, \u2018Excuse me, excuse me.\u2019\u201d \nThere\u2019s been a difference in the children since they started playing capoeira in November of last year.\n\u201cThe children are fighting all the time. They spar all the time. And they don\u2019t forgive each other easily,\u201d said Ange Ngasseneno, the director of Fondation Voix du Coeur orphanage. \u201cBut, I saw that with the capoeira, the children are learning to forgive each other. Today, they have learned to resolve their problem and ask for forgiveness.\u201d\nThe capoeira association also meets weekly at the capital\u2019s stadium and throughout the week in the surrounding neighborhoods. They want the organization to be an alternative for youth at risk of being recruited into armed groups.\nSeveral young orphans practice the capoeira moves needed to participate in a \u201croda\u201d \u2014 a \u201cround\u201d where the participants dance and perform martial arts moves to music, April 20, 2017. (Z. Baddorf/VOA)\nThe capoeira classes include participants of Christian and Muslim faiths.\n\u201cWe in the \u2018rounds\u2019 just play. It\u2019s not a question of religion. It\u2019s not a question of nationality. It\u2019s not a question of ethnicity,\u201d Christian said. \u201cWe are all just \u2018capoerists.\u2019\u201d\nReconciliation is an ongoing challenge for this country still struggling with divisions over religion and the impact of a bloody civil conflict.\n", + "caption": "A capoeira instructor teaches orphans the proper techniques of the martial art inside the Fundation Voix du Coeur orphanage in Bangui, April 20, 2017. (Z. Baddorf/VOA)", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DB1F1997-1659-4966-B9B7-DC897D0E6755.jpg", + "id": "6125_1", + "answer": [ + "martial art combining dance, music and acrobatics.", + "Martial arts " + ], + "bridge": [ + "A capoeira instructor and orphans ", + "capoeira" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818162", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_20_3818162_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where is it dangerous for the people in the image to travel?", + "context": "European Border Officials Paint Grim Libyan Picture\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nA bleak assessment by European border officials of the turmoil in Libya is casting doubt on the prospects for European Union efforts to work more closely with authorities in the strife-torn country to curb migration flows across the Mediterranean.\nThe internal report was disclosed as the country\u2019s Red Crescent reported Tuesday that at least 74 bodies had washed ashore on Libya\u2019s Mediterranean coast near the western city of Zawiya. It's the latest tragedy at sea after a year that has seen record numbers in migrant deaths along key smuggling routes.\nFILE- In this Feb. 3, 2017 file photo, migrants and refugees wait to be helped by members of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, as they crowd aboard a rubber boat sailing out of control in the Mediterranean Sea about 21 miles north of Sabratha, Libya.\nThe report by officials with the EU Border Assistance Mission in Libya paints a grim picture of factional dysfunction and chaos within Libyan law enforcement bodies and its ministries, which are barely operating.\n\u201cDue to the absence of a functioning national government, genuine and legitimate state structures are difficult to identify, in particular, given the dynamic and ever changing landscape of loyalties,\u201d the officials say in their 56-page report, which was leaked to the website statewatch.org.\nThe Ministry of Interior, the border officials say, is riddled with \"militias and religiously motivated stakeholders; the Ministry of Defense \"has little or no control of the armed forces,\u201d which also are militia dependent; and the Customs' General Directorate for Anti-Smuggling and Enforcement is \u201cbarely functioning due to the security situation.\u201d\nLack of accountability\nOn the Libyan police, the report notes that 70 percent of the members are thuwwars (members of armed militias), who are not accountable to any central authorities. Women won't approach the police out of fear \"they could be murdered or raped,\u201d warn the officials.\nThe judicial system has \u201cin essence collapsed,\u201d according to the report.\n\u201cFew courts are operational because both court premises have been bombed and judicial actors [prosecutors, judges and defense lawyers] encounter threats and dangers in the line of their duties. Attacks targeting the judiciary directly affect the administration of justice and the rule of law and terrorism,\u201d according to the report.\nThe Libyan Coastal Guard (LCGPS) is one of the few law enforcement bodies praised by the European border officials. It notes the guards have little in the way of equipment to patrol Libyan waters and intercept and rescue migrants.\nFILE - African illegal migrants wait to receive medial assistance after being rescued by coast guards, in Tripoli, Libya, April 11, 2016. More than 100 migrants were rescued by two coastal guards on Monday after their boat started sinking in the sea.\nThe LCGPS fleet consists of only four fast 14.5-meter-long boats, three small fiberglass boats and an undefined number of dinghy boats of just 12 meters long. The Libyan coastal guards own also four large Coastal Patrol Vessels, but all are currently in Naples for maintenance.\n\"Despite the lack of technical means, the LCGPS has rescued more than 13,500 immigrants in close cooperation with the Italian Guardia Costiera,\" the report says.\nThe report estimates there are at last 1,500 militia groups in the country.\nFILE - Migrants are rescued by the Italian Navy in the Mediterranean Sea, in this picture released on Jan. 28, 2016 by Italian Navy.\nSix years after the start of the uprising against Libya\u2019s dictator Moammar Gadhafi, exactly what should replace him is still being fiercely contested.\nThe militias are complicating the efforts of a United Nations initiative led by special envoy Martin Kobler from securing any agreement between rival powers in the country.\nU.N. Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Martin Kobler listens to an African migrant during a visit to a detention camp in Tripoli, Libya, Feb. 21, 2017.\nCompeting governments\nLibya is split between a parliament in the east, two competing governments in Tripoli, one of which is recognized by the international community, and the powerful warlord Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who has made no secret of his wish to become the North African country\u2019s military ruler.\nFILE - Smoke billows from a factory after an airstrike by forces loyal to former general Khalifa Haftar, in Benghazi, Libya, Oct. 22, 2014.\nWarring Libyan factions last week agreed tentatively on an Egypt-brokered \"road map\" to heal divisions with the creation of a joint committee to negotiate reconciliation and elections by February 2018.\nDoubts about 'road map'\nBoth Fayez Seraj, prime minister of the U.N.-brokered government in Tripoli, and Haftar visited Cairo, but they did not negotiate face-to-face, meeting separately with Egyptian military officials. Analysts are doubtful about the prospects for the \"road map,\" arguing that it has much chance of success as the stalling U.N. initiative.\nFILE - General Khalifa Haftar speaks during a news conference at a sports club in Abyar, a small town to the east of Benghazi.\nLast month, EU members states agreed to channel about $210 million in migration and border projects to try to curb migrants from crossing the Mediterranean. But it isn\u2019t clear how much of those resources will be directed to Seraj\u2019s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord in Tripoli. Officials say no decisions as yet have been made on where the money will go.\nFILE - Fayez Seraj, flanked by members of the Presidential Council, speaks during a news conference at the Mitiga Naval Base in Tripoli, Libya, March, 30, 2015.\nIn their report, the European border officials cautioned: \"All in all there will need to be a legitimate political counterpart/Libyan government with a minimum of control over different institutions and their respective leadership. Without this, it will be unlikely that any institution, lacking basic control and identity of its staff, would be able to absorb and benefit from training and equipping in a sustainable manner.\"\nThe border officials propose a phased approach \"to regain control of the public space\" by establishing areas of legality, \"expanding from selected areas in Tripoli to greater Tripoli, combining all entities along the Criminal Justice Chain.\"\nThe challenge to that approach was made clear Monday when a convey carrying Seraj and the chairman of his State Council, Abdulrahman Sewehly, reportedly was shot at near the Rixos hotel in downtown Tripoli. In a statement, Sewehly accused Khalifa Ghell, the head of a rival government, of trying to assassinate him.\nGhell has denied his men were involved in the shooting. A spokesman for the GNA, Ashraf Tulty, said the motorcade had been hit by gunfire as it passed through Tripoli's Abu Salim district. It was unclear who was behind the shooting or whether it was a targeted attack, he said. \nThe Libya-Italy smuggling route across the Mediterranean last year saw record numbers in migrant drownings \u2014 4,579 as compared to 2,869 deaths in 2015 and 3,161 in 2014. Last year, 181,459 migrants and refugees crossed the Mediterranean, a 17-percent increase from 2015.\n", + "caption": "FILE- In this Feb. 3, 2017 file photo, migrants and refugees wait to be helped by members of the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, as they crowd aboard a rubber boat sailing out of control in the Mediterranean Sea about 21 miles north of Sabratha, Libya.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/389C4501-B172-47DD-B023-964FD86D428E.jpg", + "id": "11476_2", + "answer": [ + "None", + "Libya-Italy smuggling route across the Mediterranean", + "along key smuggling routes" + ], + "bridge": [ + "migrant", + "migrants and refugees" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_21_3733500", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_21_3733500_2" + }, + { + "question": "What offenses did the people in the image commit?", + "context": "Obama: Chicago Video Shows 'Terrible Toll' of Racism\nU.S. President Barack Obama says the video that has surfaced of four black suspects in Chicago torturing a mentally disabled white teen \"allows us to see . . . the terrible toll that racism, discrimination and hate takes on families and communities.\"\nThe suspects have been charged with hate crimes after they allegedly livestreamed video on Facebook for nearly a half hour of themselves inflicting suffering on the young man.\n\"We don't benefit from pretending that racism doesn't exist and hate doesn't exist. We don't benefit from not talking about it,\" the president said. \"The fact that these things are surfacing means we can solve them.\"\nProsecutors in Cook County, Illinois, announced hate crime and aggravated kidnapping charges Thursday afternoon against Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper, all 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24.\nVideo of the incident shows four black attackers repeatedly stabbing and punching an unidentified white man who had been tied up and had duct tape placed over his mouth.\nThe video also shows the attackers forcing the mentally disabled man to drink water out of a toilet and roughly cutting some hair off his scalp before putting ash from a cigar on the bleeding wound.\nThroughout the video, the attackers can be heard yelling profane comments about white people and President-elect Donald Trump. At one point, the attackers also forced the victim to say a profane comment against Trump.\nAccording to police, the victim was held captive for between 24 and 48 hours before he was spotted by patrol officers wandering down a street near the scene of the attack.\nOnce spotted by police, the victim was taken to the hospital and identified as a person who had been earlier reported missing from a nearby suburb.\nThe victim was a classmate of one of his attackers, and apparently went with them willingly at first, police said.\n", + "caption": "A combination photo shows four people charged with felonies for the beating of a man with mental health issues.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A28C9DEC-BEF7-41D4-A401-F11988754ECA.jpg", + "id": "5264_1", + "answer": [ + "Beating of a man with mental health issues.", + "hate crime and aggravated kidnapping" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Four people charged with felonies ", + "Prosecutors in Cook County, Illinois, announced hate crime and aggravated kidnapping charges Thursday afternoon against Jordan Hill, Brittany Covington and Tesfaye Cooper, all 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24." + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3665515", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3665515_1" + }, + { + "question": "What what stolen from the blonde person in the image?", + "context": "Alanis Morissette's Ex-Manager Gets 6 Years in Jail for Stealing $7M\nLOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0\nA business manager who stole more than $7 million from Alanis Morissette and others was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $8.6 million in restitution.\nJonathan Todd Schwartz, 47, wept and apologized at the hearing, saying he took full responsibility for his behavior and would have a life of shame because of it.\n\"I alone am responsible for the devastation,\" he said, adding: \"I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness.\"\nHe could have faced more than 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to wire fraud and tax crimes but Judge Dolly Gee hewed to sentencing guidelines that suggested around five to six years.\nIn a victim statement at the hearing, Morissette had urged a stiff sentence, saying Schwartz had stolen her trust and her money for years.\n\"He did this in a long, systematic, drawn-out and sinister manner\" that would have bankrupted the singer within three years had the thefts continued, Morissette said.\nSchwartz acknowledged stealing nearly $5 million from Morissette between May 2010 and January 2014 and more than $2 million from five unnamed clients when he worked at GSO Business Management, a firm that touted relationships with entertainers such as Katy Perry, 50 Cent and Tom Petty.\nSchwartz was a high-flying partner making $1.2 million a year, according to court papers. His crimes cost the firm at least $2 million above what insurance covered, led to layoffs of about a dozen employees and is expected to cause some $20 million in financial fallout because of the blow to the firm's reputation, according to founder Bernard Gudvi.\nThe embezzlement was discovered by a new money manager Morissette hired.\n\"It was at this time, I realized he also stole my dreams,\" she said.\nWhen the firm was contacted about the apparent theft, Schwartz made \"wild accusations\" that his former client was in the throes of drug addiction and mentally unstable, Gudvi said. Schwartz also falsely claimed he invested the money in an illegal marijuana growing business.\n\"As the walls were closing in on the scheme to steal client funds ... he was unable to turn away from the lies,\" Gudvi wrote in a letter to the court. \"The worse things became, the more easily he seemed to dispense with the truth.\"\nSchwartz has blamed the crimes on a gambling addiction but prosecutors said he took the money to finance a lavish lifestyle and never showed sincere regret.\n\"Every expression of remorse he has made and every purported act of self-improvement he has taken occurred only after he realized he had no 'choice' to do otherwise,\" Assistant U.S. Attorney Ranee Katzenstein said in court papers.\nSchwartz, who was fired, had offered financial guidance to some of the biggest stars and was said to represent Beyonce and Mariah Carey, who both appeared at a fundraiser last year in support of a heart disease charity he founded.\nSchwartz penned a mea culpa in The Hollywood Reporter last month. He said his father was a gambling addict who abandoned his family and he sought refuge in sports betting and drugs to deal with the stress from his business.\n\"The spiral I was in was toxic,\" Schwartz wrote. \"Winning did not make me feel better but losing was intolerable. If I lost, then I had to make it back and when I lost again, the hole I had dug got deeper and deeper. I felt weak and powerless, terrified by my internal demons that I was turning into my father.\"\n", + "caption": "Singer Alanis Morissette, left, arrives with attorney Allen Grodsky at U.S. federal court for the sentencing in the embezzlement case of her former manager Jonathan Todd Schwartz, May 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A4E01F43-A5B0-4FCF-90D3-CD369917021C.jpg", + "id": "22812_1", + "answer": [ + "nearly $5 million" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Morissette" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3837567", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3837567_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person not wearing glasses in the image become?", + "context": "Exhibit of JFK Photos Opening at Smithsonian\nAn exhibition of photographs capturing President John F. Kennedy's life is opening ahead of the 100th anniversary of his birth.\nThe exhibit is called \"American Visionary: John F. Kennedy's Life and Times.\" It opens Wednesday at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. JFK would have turned 100 on May 29.\nThe 77 photos going on display were collected from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Getty Images, private collections and Kennedy family archives, among other sources.\nThe museum says Kennedy was photographed more than any politician of his era. Curators say the photos capture the spirit of optimism that accompanied his rise to the presidency.\n", + "caption": "Joseph P. Kennedy, left, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, is seen with his son, John F. Kennedy, Jan. 5, 1938, in New York. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FA0B8C38-9F2D-4FCB-92C0-48728DB766B4.jpg", + "id": "13422_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "President" + ], + "bridge": [ + "John F. Kennedy" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834124", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_02_3834124_1" + }, + { + "question": "What nations will the person in the middle of the image talk about?", + "context": "Indonesian President to Visit Australia for Talks on Trade, Security\nSYDNEY \u2014\u00a0\nIndonesian President Joko Widodo is making his first visit to Australia Saturday, in a sign that tensions early this year have eased and relations between the two Asia-Pacific neighbors are stable.\nAustralia\u2019s relationship with its heavily populated northern neighbor is often turbulent. It soured when Australia supported East Timorese independence from Indonesia in 2002. \nMore recently in 2015, diplomatic tension rose when Jakarta executed two members of an Australian drug trafficking gang despite pleas for mercy from Canberra. In January, Indonesia briefly suspended bilateral military ties after a dispute at an Australian Special Forces base in Perth. \nOptimism for trade progress\nThose anxieties have soothed, and there is optimism that Widodo\u2019s visit will see meaningful progress on a free trade agreement.\nAaron Connelly, an analyst at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, says ties between the two countries are in good shape.\n\u201cThe remarkable thing here is that despite that background of irritation that we see on occasion, relations between the two are actually pretty good,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cMinisters on both sides have good relationships with their counterparts, and you also have Australian feelings towards Indonesia at a high.\n\u201cIn our Lowy Institute poll last year we asked Australians to rank countries on a thermometer from zero to 100, and Indonesia ranked at 56 degrees, which is the highest result we have ever seen in 11 years of polling,\u201d he added.\nSouth China Sea also on agenda\nWidodo and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are also expected to discuss the dangers posed by radicalized fighters returning home from the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Tensions over the South China Sea are an additional topic on the agenda, along with the possibility of joint navy patrols in the area.\nWhile significant, the Indonesian leader\u2019s visit to Sydney will be brief. He arrives Saturday and flies home after lunch Sunday.\nHe was forced to cancel an earlier state trip to Australia last November because of violent disturbances in Jakarta. \n", + "caption": "Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center) participates in a meeting with Australian business leaders during his visit to Sydney, Australia, Feb. 25, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9F30C2B7-F997-4C84-B372-66D5C1A44AE6.jpg", + "id": "33276_1_3", + "answer": [ + "Iraq and Syria" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Widodo" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_25_3739549", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_25_3739549_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was said during the thing the people in the image listened to?", + "context": "Erdogan: Last Year's Coup Plotters Should Be Beheaded\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says those behind last year's failed coup in Turkey are \"traitors\" who should be beheaded.\nErdogan spoke as Turkey celebrated the anniversary with a national holiday, unveiling a \"Martyrs Memorial\" on the iconic Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul to commemorate the estimated 250 people who died in clashes opposing the coup. The bridge, renamed Saturday as Martyrs Bridge, was the scene of clashes between civilians and military tanks.\nPeople gather for a ceremony marking the first anniversary of an attempted coup at the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, July 15, 2017.\nIn a speech later in the day, Erdogan said the perpetrators of the coup should be killed or imprisoned in a facility like the United States' Guantanamo Bay prison. He said if Turkey's parliament passed a law authorizing the death penalty for those instigators, he would sign it.\n\"They showed no mercy when they pointed their guns at my people,\" Erdogan said, referring to the coup leaders. \"What did my people have? They had their flags \u2014 just as they do today \u2014 and something much more important: They had their faith.\"\nThousands march\nSaturday's marchers waved hundreds of red Turkish flags emblazoned with the star and crescent. Thousands marched through the streets of Istanbul in an act of unity, converging at the bridge where Turkish citizens clashed with tanks and members of the military who were trying to assume control. Some of the marchers carried photographs of those who died in the fighting, which included a bomb attack on parliament.\nPeople listen to the speech of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of a coup attempt at the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, July 15, 2017.\nOpposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu made a statement Saturday, too. His recalled the changes in Turkey since the coup attempt that culminated in a referendum in April that awarded Erdogan sweeping executive powers.\n\"This parliament, which withstood bombs, has been rendered obsolete and its authority removed,\" Kilicdaroglu said. \"In the past year, justice has been destroyed. Instead of rapid normalization, a permanent state of emergency has been implemented.\"\nThe Turkish government also marked the anniversary by firing nearly 7,400 additional civil servants.\nDivisions widen\nErdogan had previously dismissed at least 100,000 civil servants he characterized as supporters of the aborted coup and arrested another 50,000 people. The scale of the purge has widened political divisions in Turkey, with government opponents denouncing it as an attempt to silence Erdogan's detractors.\nAt a special parliamentary session Saturday, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim described the aborted coup as \"Turkey's darkest and longest night,\" which was \"transformed into a bright day.\"\nGiant posters designed by the Erdogan administration have been placed on billboards in Istanbul displaying images portraying significant events such as the surrender of opposition troops.\nThe U.S. State Department issued a statement Friday applauding Turkish people \"of all backgrounds and political views\" who \"took to the streets to preserve the rights and freedoms of their democratic society.\"\n\"Their actions continue to remind us that the preservation of democracy requires perseverance, tolerance, dissent and safeguards for fundamental freedoms,\" the statement added.\nSavas Altay weeps as he visits an outdoor exhibition featuring photographs of July 15, 2016, coup attempt, in Istanbul, July 14, 2017. Turkey commemorates the anniversary with events honoring about 250 people who were killed while trying to oppose coup-pl\nOpposition rally \nThe celebrations are occurring less than one week after the opposition leader, Kilicdaroglu, organized the largest opposition rally in Turkey in years.\nKilicdaroglu called for a full explanation of what happened on the night of the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, including when government authorities first learned the uprising was afoot.\nThe Turkish opposition says that Erdogan's government is moving toward authoritarianism, while the Turkish leader says that the crackdown on rights is necessary to thwart security threats to the ruling government.\nErdogan claims the coup was led by a cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who has been living in self-imposed exile in the United States for nearly two decades. Gulen denies any involvement.\nIn a statement released Saturday, Gulen said the Turkish government's \"treatment of innocent citizens during the past year is dragging Turkey into the category of the countries with the worst record of democracy, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms in the world.\" Gulen's statement also said the Turkish people \"are being rallied en masse around hate messages.\"\nAbout 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured last year when a disgruntled army faction commandeered tanks and warplanes in a bid to overthrow Erdogan after 1\u00bd decades in power. Thirty-five coup organizers were also killed.\n", + "caption": "People listen to the speech of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of a coup attempt at the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul, July 15, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5D4BEAA7-FD5F-4B0F-AD6C-6D97BB9AAEA7.jpg", + "id": "23311_3", + "answer": [ + "he perpetrators of the coup should be killed or imprisoned " + ], + "bridge": [ + "speech" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_15_3945394", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_15_3945394_3" + }, + { + "question": "Who is the nation of the people in the image becoming closer to?", + "context": "China Raising Threat Level Against Taiwan, but Sparing Drastic Actions\nTAIPEI \u2014\u00a0\nChina flexed a military muscle and hit at Taiwan\u2019s foreign relations over the past month as warnings against closer ties with the United States, a long-time protector of self-rule on the island that Beijing considers its own. But so far Beijing is keeping more extreme retaliation measures in reserve. \nIn late December and again last week, a formation including the Liaoning aircraft carrier plied waters around Taiwan, which is 160 kilometers southeast of China. Last month, the African nation Sao Tome and Principe severed two decades of formal relations with Taiwan to recognize China. Last week Nigeria cut informal ties with Taiwan, saying it\u2019s not a country.\nWarnings from China \nThose moves are meant to warn Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen against growing closer with the United States since her surprise phone call Dec. 2 to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and in light of her trip to the Americas Jan. 7-14, experts say. The United States sells Taiwan arms and has a law allowing it to help Taiwan defend itself. \nBut China has spared the more salient threats of the past in case Tsai cools toward the United States and seeks talks with Beijing, experts say. \n\u201cInternational space was given to Taiwan, quote unquote, and as someone born and brought up in Taiwan we hate to acknowledge that, but space was given to Taiwan on the basis of understanding that there is no tension across Taiwan Straits,\u201d said Joanna Lei, chief executive officer of the Chunghua 21st Century think tank in Taiwan.\n\u201cOnce that tension is increased, then it\u2019s no denial that Taiwan\u2019s international space will be reduced, and that will be something Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s government has to grapple with and has to have a reaction to,\u201d she said. \nChina sees Taiwan as part of China \nChina sees Taiwan as part of its territory, despite the island\u2019s self-rule since the 1940s, and insists the two sides eventually unify. It worries that Taiwan\u2019s autonomy will get a boost if Taiwanese leaders deepen relations overseas, especially with the United States. \nIn 1995 and 1996, China fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait in what was seen then as an attempt to discourage Taiwanese from electing an anti-Beijing president. As late as 2005, senior Chinese officials threatened to use force against Taiwan if needed. \nFILE - Taiwan's \"frogmen\" Marines perform covert landing drills just a few kilometers from mainland China on the outlying island of Kinmen, Taiwan.\nPeople of Taiwan react \nBut those measures fanned anti-China sentiment in Taiwan, helping to install presidents who vowed to stand up to Beijing. Tsai, in office since May, has frustrated China for her unwillingness to hold talks on grounds that both sides belong to one country. But she has kept her tone toward Beijing polite, avoiding words or actions to upset it. \nBeijing is expected to avoid more drastic measures, such as buying off a series of Taiwan\u2019s remaining 21 diplomatic allies or testing missiles, but continue with milder threats. \nChina waiting on Trump \n\u201cChina must fear President-elect Trump because of Trump's unpredictability,\u201d said Coen Blaauw, executive director of the Washington-based, pro-Taiwan advocacy group Formosan Association for Public Affairs. \u201cThey must feel they need to do something in response to recent signals from the Trump camp in support of Taiwan, but stopping short of conducting missile tests. \n\u201cSo sailing the Liaoning aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait was probably the strongest signal they could think of given the circumstances,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is hard to imagine China going beyond that.\u201d \nThe cut in ties with Sao Tome and Principe still leaves Taiwan enough foreign allies to give it a voice in the United Nations, where China blocks Taiwan itself from participation. Nigeria did not have a diplomatic relationship and does not rank among Taiwan\u2019s top trading partners. \nTsai\u2019s travels this month took her to four Central American countries where she tightened relations. \nThe aircraft carrier, which passed through the Taiwan Strait Wednesday en route to northern China, entered Taiwan\u2019s air defense identification zone, but avoided its territorial seas. \nEconomic pressure \nThe number of group tourists from China to Taiwan declined 27 percent from May, when Tsai took office, over the following five months. The trend, which first began around the time of Tsai\u2019s January 2016 election, is seen as pressure by Beijing to pinch the island\u2019s economy without a more severe hit, such as cancelling trade or investment deals. \nBeijing may be watching now what follows Tsai\u2019s meeting Jan. 8 with Republican Senator Ted Cruz. The encounter may have built a bridge with the party that won control of the U.S. Congress in November. Tsai\u2019s 12-minute phone call to Trump in early December outraged China, which had grown used to U.S. leaders shunning contact with Taipei since the 1970s. \nWashington broke formal ties with Taiwan in 1979 in favor of the larger and faster-growing China. \nA stronger link with Trump following Tsai\u2019s call December 2 could bring Taiwan more military exchanges and more access to advanced weapons for defense against China. Taiwanese leaders also want a free trade deal that would help local exporters. \nThe warnings are seen as soft so far \u2013 they have incited little sustained outrage or fear in Taiwan \u2013 but could escalate if Taiwan's president does anything new that offends China. \n\u201cShe\u2019s not taking any chance, so that\u2019s why she\u2019s holding herself back. It\u2019s her view that it\u2019s better not to really irritate China more,\u201d said Shane Lee, political scientist at Chang Jung Christian University in Taiwan. \nBut some people in her Democratic Progressive Party, which includes a hard-line anti-China faction, hope for less holding back. Others in Taiwan want stronger China ties to boost trade and investment. \u201cShe is facing a lot of pressure from both within the party and from the society in general,\u201d Lee said. \n", + "caption": "FILE - Taiwan's \"frogmen\" Marines perform covert landing drills just a few kilometers from mainland China on the outlying island of Kinmen, Taiwan.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6045A2D9-0A58-4DBA-9C8C-A31702A28F91.jpg", + "id": "23111_2", + "answer": [ + "the United States" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Taiwan" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_16_3677804", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_16_3677804_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image negotiate?", + "context": "Centerpiece of Trump\u2019s Second Day in Saudi Arabia: Address to 50 Leaders \nRIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump will deliver an address Sunday in Riyadh to dozens of Arab and Muslim leaders at a regional summit focusing on combating extremism.\nAhead of the speech, the U.S. president has been meeting with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss differences with Iran and how to deal with the country, and how to crack down on Islamic militancy.\nEarlier Sunday, on the second day of his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, Trump held bilateral talks with the Arab leaders of Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nIn talks with Bahrain's King Hamad Isa Al Khalilfa, Trump said \"Our countries have a wonderful relationship together, but there has been a little strain, but there won't be strain with this administration.\" The Trump administration decided this year to go ahead with the multi-billion-dollar sale of military jets and related equipment. The sale had been held up during the Obama administration by human rights concerns.\nTrump accepted an invitation to visit Egypt during his meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Trump said, \u201cWe will absolutely be putting that on the list very soon.\u201d Trump said there are \u201csome very important talks going on with Egypt\u201d and acknowledged the country\u2019s help with the release of U.S. aid worker Aya Hijazi, who had been held captive for three years.\nSissi told Trump the U.S. leader has \u201ca unique personality\u201d that allowed him \u201cto do the impossible.\u201d Trump said, \u201cI agree.\u201d\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nTrump was also overheard complimenting el-Sissi's shoes.\nU.S. President Donald Trump meets with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 21, 2017.\nIn talks with Bahrain\u2019s King Hamad Isa Al Khalilfa, Trump said, \u201cOur countries have a wonderful relationship together, but there has been a little strain, but there won\u2019t be strain with this administration.\u201d The Trump administration decided this year to go ahead with the multibillion-dollar sale of military jets and related equipment. The sale had been held up during the Obama administration by human rights concerns.\nHe next met with the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nWith Trump were Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Senior White House Adviser Jared Kushner, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell were among those present.\nAddress to Muslim leaders\nBut the centerpiece of the day, if not the visit, will be his address to leaders of 50 Muslim-majority countries.\nIn a draft of his upcoming speech obtained by The Associated Press, Trump will urge the Muslim leaders to \u201cdrive out the terrorists from your places of worship.\u201d \nIt is a surprising turn for the president in the wake of his \u201cAmerica First\u201d rhetoric and campaign statements calling for a \u201cMuslim ban\u201d backed by subsequent orders attempting to limit travel on six Muslim-majority countries.\nSaudi Arabia is an unprecedented destination for an initial overseas visit by any U.S. president, but the oil-rich nation, which has deep, long-standing energy and defense ties to the United States, was not named in the travel bans.\nArms deals signed\nOn Saturday, Trump and his host, Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz, signed a nearly $110 billion agreement to bolster the military capabilities of Saudi Arabia.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nThe defense deal, effective immediately, was one of a series agreements the two countries signed to enhance their military and economic partnerships, including a second defense pact with options valued at up to $350 billion over the next 10 years.\n\n\u201cIt was a tremendous day,\u201d Trump said while meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Nayef at a Riyadh hotel. \u201cJobs, jobs, jobs,\u201d the president said in a reference to the potential job creation opportunities the agreements provide.\nThe White House said in a statement earlier that the defense deals would create new opportunities for U.S. companies in the Middle East and support \u201ctens of thousands\u201d of new jobs in the U.S. defense industry.\nThe White House statement also said the deals would help the countries more effectively address common threats.\n\u201cThis package of defense equipment and services supports the long-term security of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region in the face of Iranian threats, while also bolstering the kingdom\u2019s ability to contribute to counterterrorism operations across the region, reducing the burden on the U.S. military to conduct those operations,\u201d the statement said.\nIncluded in the defense agreements is a $6 billion pledge to assemble 150 Lockheed Martin Black Hawk helicopters in Saudi Arabia, which is expected to result in the creation of 450 jobs in Saudi Arabia.\nThe military package also includes combat ships, tanks, missile defense systems and cybersecurity technology.\nAdditionally, American conglomerate General Electric said Saturday that it had signed $15 billion in agreements with Saudi organizations. Saudi Aramco said it expected to sign $50 million in deals with U.S. companies in an attempt to diversify the kingdom\u2019s economy beyond oil exports.\nSaudi King Salman presents President Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh.\nTrump receives kingdom's highest honor\nEarlier Saturday, King Salman presented Trump with the kingdom\u2019s highest civilian honor during a meeting at the Royal Court in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.\nThe two leaders also signed a vision statement vowing to work closely to combat terrorism as Trump\u2019s wife, Melania, daughter Ivanka, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner looked on.\nAfter Trump and the others entered the court to the music of bagpipes, King Salman decorated him with the gold King Abdulaziz al-Saud Medal.\nPresident Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are greeted by King Salman shortly after arriving at the Royal Terminal of King Khalid International Airport, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh.\nThe trip began with King Salman greeting the Trumps at the airport. They walked along a red carpet into the Royal Hall, a terminal at the airport, where they talked briefly. Minutes later, the Trumps and the Saudi king left the airport in a motorcade, heading to the city along a route with deserted streets.\n", + "caption": "Saudi King Salman presents President Donald Trump with The Collar of Abdulaziz Al Saud Medal at the Royal Court Palace, Saturday, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3052C346-9CA6-4131-9644-F65784871B01.jpg", + "id": "33362_4", + "answer": [ + "a nearly $110 billion agreement to bolster the military capabilities of Saudi Arabia" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863841", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863841_4" + }, + { + "question": "What substances did the person in the middle of the image sell?", + "context": "Mexico's 'El Chapo' Pleads Not Guilty to Drug Charges in NYC\nMexican drug kingpin Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges of running a massive drug-trafficking operation in North America and overseeing killings and kidnappings.\nThrough his court-appointed lawyers, Guzman entered a not-guilty plea Friday in a New York City federal court. No bail was sought.\nGuzman answered questions through an interpreter standing next to him.\nIn this photo provided U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, Jan. 19, 2017, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.\nGuzman arrived in New York from Mexico late Thursday following his surprise extradition. He was arraigned in a 17-count indictment that carries a mandatory life prison term upon conviction of running a criminal enterprise, and additional maximum sentences of life in prison stemming from other drug charges, according to Robert Capers, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York.\n\"Today marks a milestone in our pursuit of Chapo Guzman,\" Capers told reporters Friday.\nU.S. attorney Robert Capers, left, speaks during a news conference in Brooklyn, N.Y., announcing charges against Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman as the alleged architect of a three-decade-long web of violence, corruption and drug traffickin\nProsecutors say Guzman's Sinoloa cartel operated for decades in much of North America and reaped billions of dollars by dispersing cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine throughout the United States.\nGuzman is accused of money laundering and drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder in cities throughout the United States, including Chicago, Miami and New York.\nThe convicted cartel boss has spent the past year fighting extradition. He has twice escaped from maximum-security prisons in Mexico. Guzman last escaped from Altiplano prison in 2015 after maneuvering through a kilometer-long tunnel that had been dug by his associates. He was recaptured a year ago.\nA caravan of police vehicles shuttles Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman across the Brooklyn Bridge from a court appearance in Brooklyn to a Manhattan jail facility, Jan. 20, 2017.\nU.S. prosecutors agreed to not seek the death penalty as a condition of the extradition of Guzman.\nGuzman's attorney said his extradition was politically motivated.\nCapers said the U.S. government was also seeking a $14 billion forfeiture order as part of its prosecution.\n", + "caption": "In this photo provided U.S. law enforcement, authorities escort Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, Jan. 19, 2017, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/30B1369E-9F62-48B9-9A87-06B94CF49CB6.jpg", + "id": "9777_2", + "answer": [ + "cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine", + "Cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine", + "none" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Joaquin \"El Chapo\" Guzman", + "Guzman" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_20_3685482", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_20_3685482_2" + }, + { + "question": "What is the acronym of the project the people in the image are protesting?", + "context": "Anti-Dakota Pipeline Protesters: Camp Cleared, But Opposition Ongoing \nA nearly year-long standoff at Standing Rock between Native American \u201cwater protectors\u201d and U.S. military engineers has ended, after state and local police evicted the last of the protesters. \nPolice teams began to move into the Oceti Sakowin camp near Cannonball, N.D. around mid-morning Thursday, working to clear buildings of the several dozen protesters who remained. Shortly after two p.m. and some four dozen arrests later, they declared their job was done.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nPolice attempt to clear the Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., February 23, 2017.\n\u201cSymbolically the closing of the camp was a tough day for the water protectors, the tribes and those across the world standing in solidarity with Standing Rock,\u201d said Phillip Ellis, a spokesman for Earthjustice, the nonprofit environmental law organization representing the Standing Rock Tribe in its challenges against the pipeline.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nThe Dakota Access Pipeline, owned by Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners (ETP), was designed to transport a half a million barrels of crude oil a day more than 1,600 kilometers from the Bakken oilfields in northwest North Dakota to refineries and other pipelines in Illinois. By mid-2016, the pipeline was all-but-completed, save for a segment planned to run under Lake Oahe, a reservoir formed by a dam on the Missouri River in land seized from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.\nDuring the final weeks of Barack Obama\u2019s presidency, the Army Corps of Engineers delayed a decision that would have allowed ETP to begin underwater drilling, and called for additional environmental impact studies. \nBut in January, President Donald Trump issued a directive calling on the Department of the Army and the Army Corps to take all \u201cnecessary and appropriate steps\u201d necessary to permit construction and operation of the pipeline, citing the \u201cnational interest.\u201d He noted that the DAPL and XL Keystone pipeline together would create thousands of new jobs for Americans.\nEllis maintains that Trump and the Army Corps of Engineers have acted in violation of the law and an 1868 treaty with the Sioux.\nPolice detain a man in an attempt to clear the Oceti Sakowin camp in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., February 23, 2017.\nIn January, the Administration said it would work closely with all parties involved as the pipeline project developed. In his regular press briefing Thursday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said, \u201cour team has been in contact with all the parties involved.\u201d\nHowever, Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault II released a statement shortly afterwards, saying, \u201cThat claim is absolutely false\u2026We repeatedly asked for meetings with the Trump Administration, but never received one until the day they notified Congress that they were issuing the easement.\u201d\nrenderExternalContent(\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/nVTiW5MJ-jQ?&&fs=1\")\nPipeline safety\nThe oil industry has long contended that transporting oil through pipelines is far safer than by truck or train. But studies have shown this may not be the case:\nThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requires all oil spills and other industrial accidents to be reported to the U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s National Response Center, information which the Center makes available on its public website.\nThe environmental non-profit Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LBB) recently examined the accident history of ETP and its Sunoco subsidiary. Their findings show that ETP/Sunoco was cited in 69 accidents during 2015 and 2016. The majority of them \u2013 51 percent \u2013 involved pipelines. The spills ranged in type and magnitude; in all, more than 111,000 gallons of pollution ended up being released into the environment and tens of thousands of gallons flowed into ponds, streams and rivers.\n\u201cWhat our report focused on is the fact that Energy Transfer Partners, whether in pipelines, refineries on shore or other infrastructures, has a history of polluting drinking water sources,\u201d said Anne Rolfes, LBB\u2019s founding director. \u201cAnd our feeling in looking at this information is that the Standing Rock Sioux are absolutely right in being concerned about their drinking watyer because this company has a past.\u201d\nETP did not respond to VOA\u2019s request for comment.\nLooking forward\nThe protests may have ended, but the fight against the pipeline will continue, say organizers. \nOn February 14, the tribe filed a motion in federal court, asking a judge to set aside Trump\u2019s pipeline reversal to be set aside.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve asked for an expedited schedule so we can get a ruling on this case before oil starts flowing through the pipeline,\u201d said Ellis. \u201cThe judge initially gave a 3 week schedule to rule on this motion. He has yet to set a court date, but we expect it could happen by the first week of March.\u201d\nIn the meantime, organizers and supporters plan a march on the White House March 10th, said Ellis, \u201cto peacefully - but powerfully - show solidarity with indigenous people around the world.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Opponents of the Dakota Access oil pipeline march out of their main camp near Cannon Ball, North Dakota, U.S., February 22, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/54E98003-E50F-40C2-A62F-FC04722C0407.jpg", + "id": "1534_1", + "answer": [ + "DAPL" + ], + "bridge": [ + "pipeline" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_24_3738682", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_24_3738682_1" + }, + { + "question": "What about the location makes the event in the image surprising?", + "context": "Death Toll in Peru Climbs to 67 from El Nino Rains, Floods\nLIMA, PERU \u2014\u00a0\nThe number of people killed in Peru following intense rains and mudslides wreaking havoc around the Andean nation climbed to 67 Friday, with thousands more displaced from destroyed homes and others waiting on rooftops for rescue.\nAcross the country overflowing rivers caused by El Nino rains damaged 115,000 homes, collapsed 117 bridges and paralyzed countless roadways.\n\"We are confronting a serious climatic problem,'' President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski said in a statement broadcast live Friday afternoon. \"There hasn't been an incident of this strength along the coast of Peru since 1998.''\nA man looks at the flow of the Huaycoloro river in Lima, Peru, March 16, 2017.\nThe highly unusual rains follow a series of storms that have struck especially hard along Peru's northern coast, with voracious waters inundating hospitals and cemeteries, and leaving some small villages entirely isolated.\nOn Thursday, the National Police rescued eight people who had been trapped for three days in Cachipampa and removed the body of an 88-year-old man killed in the floods. In the highlands along the department of La Libertad, dramatic video showed crashing water inundating several buses and trucks, killing at least five people.\nRescuers were searching Friday for survivors.\nEven Peru's capital city of Lima, where a desert climate seldom leads to rain, police had to help hundreds of residents in an outskirt neighborhood cross a flooded road by sending them one-by-one along a rope. The muddy water channeled down the street after a major river overflowed. Some residents left their homes with just a single plastic bag carrying their belongings.\nIn total, more than 65,000 people in nearby Huachipa were unable to either go to work or return to their properties.\n\"There's no way to cross,'' said Henry Obando, who was rescued after leaving the factory where he works and making his way toward a rooftop where officers created a zip-line to cross. \"Many people are trying to get to their homes.''\nA woman is pulled to safety in a zipline harness in Lima, Peru, March 17, 2017.\nThe storms are being caused by a warms of the surface waters in the Pacific Ocean and are expected to continue for another two weeks. Kuczynski declared Peru's Central Highway in a state of emergency Friday and announced he would be boosting funds for reconstruction. He said he was optimistic the country was in a strong position to make a swift recovery but urged resident to use caution.\n\"This hasn't ended,'' he warned. \"And it will continue for some time more.''\nIn 1998, another El Nino event brought heavy rainfall to the nation's coast, causing landslides, ripping apart homes and leaving hundreds dead.\n", + "caption": "Rescuers help people cross a flooded street after a massive landslide and flood in the Huachipa district of Lima, Peru, March 17, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/515643FB-3D6E-4ADB-8AB1-F411003AA4B2.jpg", + "id": "30324_1", + "answer": [ + "a desert climate seldom leads to rain" + ], + "bridge": [ + "cross a flooded street" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_17_3771141", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_17_3771141_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who will the person in the image not be able to be near?", + "context": "Washington Girds for Days of Anti-Trump Protests\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nWashington turned into a virtual fortress on Thursday ahead of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration, with police ready to step in to separate protesters from Trump supporters at any sign of unrest during the festivities.\nSome 900,000 people, both Trump backers and opponents, are expected to flood Washington for Friday's inauguration ceremony, according to organizers' estimates. Events include the swearing-in ceremony on the steps of the U.S. Capitol and a parade to the White House along streets thronged with spectators.\nOn Thursday, police cars lined much of Pennsylvania Avenue, the parade route, as workers unloaded crowd control fences from flatbed trucks, erected barricades and marked off pavement with tape.\nA protester yells as others gather for a march on the Capitol Building, Jan. 18, 2017, in Washington.\nNumbers of protests, rallies are up\nThe number of planned protests and rallies this year is far above what has been typical at recent presidential inaugurations.\nU.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said police aimed to keep groups separate, using similar tactics as employed during last year's political conventions.\n\u201cThe concern is some of these groups are pro-Trump, some of them are con-Trump, and they may not play well together in the same space,\u201d Johnson said on MSNBC.\nAbout 30 groups totaling 270,000 people have received permits to stage demonstrations, both for and against the New York businessman in Washington around the inauguration. That number includes some 200,000 people who police say they expect to attend Saturday's Women's March on Washington, an anti-Trump protest.\nDemonstrators hold banners as they protest in opposition of President-elect Donald Trump, at McPherson Square, in Washington, Jan. 14, 2017.\nBikers support Trump\nTrump opponents have been angered by his comments during the campaign about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims and his pledges to scrap the Obamacare health reform and build a wall on the Mexican border.\nThe Republican's supporters admire his experience in business, including as a real estate developer and reality television star, and view him as an outsider who will take a fresh approach to politics.\nBikers for Trump, a group that designated itself as security backup during last summer's Republican National Convention in Cleveland, is ready to step in if protesters block access to the inauguration, said Dennis Egbert, one of the group's organizers.\n\u201cWe're going to be backing up law enforcement. We're on the same page,\" Egbert, 63, a retired electrician from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said at the group's site along the parade route.\nSWAT personnel keep watch beside the Washington Memorial in Washington, Jan. 19, 201.\nSecurity cordon\nAbout 28,000 security personnel, miles of fencing, roadblocks, street barricades and dump trucks laden with sand are part of the security cordon around three square miles of central Washington.\nA protest group known as Disrupt J20 has vowed to stage demonstrations at each of 12 security checkpoints and block access to the festivities on the grassy National Mall.\nPolice and security officials have pledged repeatedly to guarantee protesters\u2019 constitutional rights to free speech and peaceable assembly.\nAaron Hyman, fellow at the National Gallery of Art, said he could feel tension in the streets ahead of Trump's swearing-in and the heightened security was part of it.\n\u201cPeople are watching each other like, \u2018You must be a Trump supporter,\u2019 and \u2018You must be one of those liberals,\u2019\u201d said Hyman, 32, who supported Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election.\nVendors sell their President-elect Donald Trump wares in Washington, Jan. 19, 2017.\nBan on umbrellas eased\nAnti-Trump protesters will stage at a rally in New York on Thursday evening. Mayor Bill de Blasio, filmmaker Michael Moore and actor Alec Baldwin, who portrays Trump on \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d will take part in the event outside the Trump International Hotel and Tower.\nOne of the Washington protests will feature a haze of pot smoke as pro-marijuana activists light up to show their opposition to Trump's choice for attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, a critic of legalization.\nFriday's crowds are expected to fall well short of the two million people who attended Obama's first inauguration in 2009, and be in line with the one million who were at his second in 2013.\nSecurity officials have eased a ban on umbrellas at the ceremony due to a rainy weather forecast, allowing people to use small umbrellas.\n", + "caption": "A protester yells as others gather for a march on the Capitol Building, Jan. 18, 2017, in Washington.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D4EF6182-7A8E-4EC9-958F-927A2CED5BF8.jpg", + "id": "6766_2", + "answer": [ + "Trump supporters", + "protester" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump supporters", + "protestor" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_19_3683672", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_19_3683672_2" + }, + { + "question": "When was the taller person in the image removed?", + "context": "Helmut Kohl, Chancellor Who United Germany, Dies at 87\nBERLIN \u2014\u00a0\nHelmut Kohl, the former German chancellor credited with forging the reunification of East and West Germany in 1990, has died at age 87.\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday, \"A life has ended and he who lived it will go down in history. ... It will take some time before we realize what we have truly lost.\"\nFormer U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who backed Kohl's effort to push through a speedy reunification when the opportunity presented itself, said Friday that Kohl was \"a true friend of freedom, and the man I consider one of the greatest leaders in postwar Europe.\"\nFormer U.S. President Bill Clinton, who served during Kohl's final years in office, called the tall, burly, lifelong politician \"the most important European statesman since the second World War.\"\nPolitical life\nKohl served 16 years as German chancellor, presiding over West Germany from 1982 to 1990 and serving as the first chancellor of the reunified Germany from 1990 to 1998.\nFILE - Helmut Kohl stands in front of an election poster, June 26, 1975, during an election campaign for the West German 1976 general election.\nBorn in Bavaria in 1930, Kohl's father and older brother served in World War II; his brother died in the war while still a teenager. Kohl joined the Hitler Youth at age 15, like most German boys his age, and was briefly put to work unearthing bodies after Allied bombing raids.\nShortly after the end of the war, Kohl joined the newly formed Christian Democratic Union, helped found the party's youth organization, and thus began a life of public service.\nHe rose to Germany's highest office through a series of local positions, championing domestic policies such as education reform and transportation.\nElected chancellor in 1982, he lost no time in reaching out to repair Germany's diplomatic relationships strained by the two world wars and their aftermath.\nFILE - Helmut Kohl (R) stands hand in hand with former French President Francois Mitterrand (L), Sept. 22, 1984, during their visit to the former Verdun battlefields.\nIn 1984, he and then-French President Francois Mitterand shook hands at an emotional remembrance ceremony of the Battle of Verdun, a long, brutal struggle between French and German forces in northeastern France during World War I. The meeting cemented a close political relationship between the two men even as it symbolized reconciliation between the two nations.\nKohl used the same gesture to make amends with the United States two years later, meeting with U.S. President Ronald Reagan at a G-7 summit in Bonn in 1985.\nThe visit was not universally praised, however, as the two leaders paid a joint visit to a German military cemetery where a number of Nazi officers were buried alongside German soldiers. The two also visited the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp together, paying tribute to the Jewish victims of Germany's ugly past.\nFILE German Chancellor Helmut Kohl walks with retired German Air Force General Johannes Steinhoff (frt) and former President Ronald Reagan accompanied by retired U.S. General Matthew Ridgway through the German military cemetary in Bitburg, May 5 1985.\nReconciliation\nAs the crescendo of reconciliation continued to rise, Kohl met in 1987 with East German leader Erich Honecker, the first time the leaders of East and West Germany sat down together since the country was split between democracy and communism at the end of World War II. The stage was set for the pinnacle of Kohl's career and a turning point in German history.\nWhen an East German official announced in November 1989 that all East Germans could travel freely to the West, Kohl lost no time in pushing forward with his reunification proposals. He met with Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev in February 1990 to gain approval for his plan, and by October of that year, both halves of Germany had voted to become one again.\nKohl's popularity was at a high. But over his next two terms, the difficult reality of merging the communist east with the capitalist west had taken their toll on the economy and e unemployment rate. Kohl was voted out in 1998.\nThe years following were not so rosy. The Christian Democratic Union was damaged by revelations that it had accepted illegal campaign donations. Kohl first denied taking any illicit funds, but later admitted to receiving millions of deutschmarks in illegal donations and declined to name the donors of the funds.\nIn 2001, Kohl's wife, Hannelore, the East German he married in 1960, committed suicide. Some said her long battle with photosensitivity was to blame; others said it was her husband's financial scandal.\nSeven years later, Kohl suffered a debilitating stroke and soon thereafter married his female companion, Maike Richter, who was 35 years his junior. His health continued to suffer.\nCriticisms\nKohl's relationships with his political successors began to suffer, too, as he began speaking out against their policies toward the end of his life.\nEven Merkel, once his prot\u00e9g\u00e9e, was not spared his barbs. After airing his grievances in a book titled \"Out of Concern For Europe,\" Kohl was quoted in the press saying, \"That woman is destroying my Europe!\"\nHelmut Kohl, former German Chancellor sits in front of a large photograph of himself during a news conference to promote his new book, 'Erinnerungen 1982-1990' (Memories 1982-1990) in Berlin, Nov. 2, 2005.\nYet, at the end, Kohl was hailed not just as the man who helped Germany heal, but also one of the architects of European integration. He had a long list of awards for his work, including the Vision for Europe award for his reunification achievements, the Charlemagne Prize with Francois Mitterand for their contribution to Franco-German relations, and the Henry Kissinger Prize for exceptional contributions to transatlantic relations.\nKohl was also named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state for his work on European integration.\nEuropean Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ordered flags at EC headquarters in Brussels to fly at half-staff after news Friday of Kohl's death. He called Kohl \"my mentor, my friend, the very essence of Europe.\"\nKohl's political party, the Christian Democratic Union, tweeted: \"We mourn. #RIP #Helmut Kohl.\"\nFlowers sit in front of the house of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Oggersheim, Germany, June 16, 2017.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Helmut Kohl (R) stands hand in hand with former French President Francois Mitterrand (L), Sept. 22, 1984, during their visit to the former Verdun battlefields.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5A1DC23B-A2FE-4DFA-AACD-367AEB78C0DB.jpg", + "id": "32990_3_3", + "answer": [ + "1998" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kohl" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903412", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903412_3" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the image with the handcuffs trying to do?", + "context": "Russian Prosecutors Move to Block Online Calls for Protests\nMOSCOW \u2014\u00a0\nRussian prosecutors moved Friday to block calls on social networks for more street protests in Moscow and other Russian cities following a wave of rallies that have cast a new challenge to the Kremlin.\nTens of thousands of demonstrators turned out in Moscow and other cities Sunday to rally against official corruption in the largest outpouring of discontent in years.\nThe Prosecutor General's office confirmed Friday it has requested the state communications watchdog to block pages on social networks calling for more protests this Sunday in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.\nRussian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who organized Sunday's unsanctioned protest, is serving a 15-day sentence on charges of resisting police. More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested in Moscow, and many have been sentenced to brief jail terms and fines.\nFILE - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested during March 26 anti-corruption rally, gestures during an appeal hearing at a court in Moscow on March 30, 2017.\nThe U.S. and the EU have criticized the crackdown and urged Russia to release all detainees, but President Vladimir Putin has rejected the criticism as meddling in Russia's internal affairs.\nWithout naming Navalny, Putin, who faces re-election in March 2018, has denounced those protest organizers who try to use anti-corruption slogans in \"narrow selfish political goals.\"\nNavalny has declared his intention to run for president and vowed to appeal a conviction that bars him from the race, which he denounced as politically driven.\nFaced with a tough challenge, the Kremlin is mulling a response.\nPutin on Thursday vowed to fight corruption, but also warned that the government wouldn't allow any breach of law. He drew parallels with the Arab Spring uprisings in Africa and the Middle East and protests in Ukraine that toppled a Russia-friendly president in 2014.\n\"Everybody should act in political processes within the framework of the law. All those who go outside this law should bear punishment in accordance with Russian legislation,\" Putin said.\nThe protests have shaken Russia's sleepy political scene and reinvigorated the opposition after years of relentless official crackdown, showing public readiness to brave draconian laws which make repeated participation in unsanctioned protests punishable with prison terms and hefty fines. \nFILE - Police detain a protester in downtown Moscow, Russia, March 26, 2017.\nIn contrast with the past, when opposition demonstrations were mostly limited to Moscow and St. Petersburg, Sunday's rallies engulfed dozens of provincial cities and towns. In another new phenomenon, the rallies also saw large attendance by school and university students.\nPutin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, dodged a question about Putin's reaction to a statement from prominent film director Alexander Sokurov, who urged the Kremlin to listen to the protesters' demands and refrain from using force to avoid \"political catastrophes.\"\n\"They were grabbing teenage students by their legs and carrying them away in a very brutal, violent way,\" Sokurov said Tuesday while receiving a movie award. \"The government makes a grave mistake when it treats students like that. You shouldn't start a civil war with schoolchildren and university students, you should listen to them!\"\nPeskov, speaking Friday in a conference call with reporters, said only that Putin is ready to listen to arguments by Sokurov and other cultural figures, but doesn't always agree with their views.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who was arrested during March 26 anti-corruption rally, gestures during an appeal hearing at a court in Moscow on March 30, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/CD6FAE5B-0C16-46E8-BCC6-2B4B4817A735.jpg", + "id": "3313_2", + "answer": [ + "Navalny has declared his intention to run for president and vowed to appeal a conviction that bars him from the race", + "run for president", + "run for president and vowed to appeal a conviction that bars him from the race" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Alexei Navalny", + "Navalny" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3790952", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3790952_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who are the people in the image supporting?", + "context": "Groups, Individuals Helping White Extremists Shed hate\nATHENS, GEORGIA, U.S.A. \u2014\u00a0\nThe Celtic cross tattoo on Shannon Martinez's leg gives away her past.\nA victim of sexual assault at age 14 and never quite able to meet her parents' expectations, Martinez sought out other angry teens. By 16, she was a skinhead spouting white supremacist rhetoric, giving stiff-armed Nazi salutes and tagging public property with swastikas. She favored racist fashion statements \u2014 like the symbol on her right calf.\nFortified by the love of an adopted family, Martinez left the skinheads behind. Today she's helping others do the same as part of an emerging U.S. movement that helps people quit hate organizations.\nModeled loosely upon organizations that formed in Europe years ago to combat extremism, groups and individuals are offering counseling, education and understanding to extremists seeking a way out.\nLife After Hate\nNow a 42-year-old mom who homeschools her kids at their house in Georgia, Martinez volunteers with Life After Hate, a leading organization dedicated to helping people leave white supremacy. On Facebook, she shares her story with others who've left or are looking to leave extremism.\nChristian Picciolini, founder of the group Life After Hate, poses for a photograph in his Chicago home, Jan. 9, 2017. Picciolini, a former skinhead, is an activist combatting what many see as a surge in white nationalism across the United States. He's doing it by helping members quit groups including the Ku Klux Klan and skinhead organizations.\n\"We act as a group of people who understand each other,\" said former skinhead Christian Picciolini, an old friend of Martinez who founded the Chicago-based Life After Hate. \"We understand the motivations of where we came from and why we joined. We understand what keeps people in. And we help each other detach and disengage from that ideology and provide a support system for them as they go through that transformation.\"\nFounded in 2009, Life After Hate was awarded a $400,000 Justice Department grant in the closing days of the Obama administration \u2014 funding that could be endangered if the Trump administration decides to refocus a federal program combatting violent extremism solely on Islamic radicals, as is being considered.\nLeaving hate behind\nWhile several other grant recipients are dedicated to countering radical Muslim ideology, Life After Hate concentrates specifically on showing white extremists there's another way.\nThe group operates a website where people who want to explore leaving white extremism can submit contact information. It also conducts educational and counseling programs including the Facebook group where members sometimes chat with extremists trying to change their lives, Picciolini said.\n\"I started the organization ... because it was so difficult to leave that movement,\" he said. \"Even though I'd abandoned the ideology, I wasn't ready to give up my community and my power and my identity, and I knew how hard it would be for other people to leave this type of ideology or this type of movement.\"\nAnother group, One People's Project, was started by Daryle Lamont Jenkins of Philadelphia. Aside from monitoring racist groups, Jenkins \u2014 who is black \u2014 confronts white nationalists at public gatherings and talks one-on-one with willing white supremacists as he can, trying to show them there's a way other than hate. Some have never met a black person, he said.\nIn this Saturday, April 23, 2016 photo, members of the Ku Klux Klan participate in cross burnings after a \"white pride\" rally in rural Paulding County near Cedar Town, Ga. Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the KKK died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. Membership dwindled, a unified group fractured, and one-time members went to prison for a string of murderous attacks against blacks. Many assumed the group was dead, a white-robed ghost of hate and violence.\nJenkins' work is similar to that of Daryl Davis, a black musician from Maryland who has gained notice for trying to talk people out of the Ku Klux Klan.\nMark Potok, a senior fellow with the liberal Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, said it's hard to determine exact numbers, but around 100,000 people might be members in hate groups and several hundred thousand could be linked informally.\nPotok said exit organizations began in Europe in the 1980s to counter the rise right-wing militants there.\n\"I do think that this is a particularly important moment for this kind of exit work to be happening because we have seen in the last year, year and a half, a real legitimization of these views,\" he said.\nPresident Donald Trump's election with the support of neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan has lent a new sense of urgency to opponents of white supremacy.\n\"The Trump election has absolutely lit a fire under the butts of the white nationalists,\" Martinez said. \"It is like, 'Our time is coming.'\"\nFormer skinhead Shannon Martinez, left, talks with some of her children in their home in Athens, Georgia, Jan. 11, 2017. A member of the racist group starting in her teen years, Martinez quit decades ago and is now worried about a possible rise in extremism in the United States.\nMartinez said she grew up in metro Atlanta in a relatively normal family but rebelled after being sexually assaulted at a party. She got involved in the punk scene, which led to the skinhead movement.\nMartinez said she was on a path to prison or an early death when she moved in with the family of her skinhead boyfriend, who was away for Army training. His mother showed unconditional love that pulled her out of the abyss, Martinez said.\nToday, she looks at photos of herself from her skinhead days and fights back tears.\n\"I was filled with rage and anger and the skinheads were the angriest people that I knew and I was kind of like, 'Those are my people.' And the ideology was a means of taking something that was ethereal, something that was unnamable, an anger and a rage that I felt, and giving it a focal point,\" she said.\nShane Johnson was born into extremism. His father and many of his father's relatives were part of the Klan, he said, so there was only one real way for him to go as a youth in northern Indiana.\nShane Johnson poses with his dogs outside his home in Tippecanoe, Indiana, Jan. 12, 2017. Johnson was born into extremism. He eventually joined a skinhead group in addition to the KKK but finally decided to quit after getting arrested, stopping drinking and meeting the woman who is now his wife. Leaving was a real fight, though, as even relatives jumped him at a gas station one night after learning he wanted to quit.\n\"We were known as the Klan family,\" he said. \"I got my first Klan robe when I was 14.\"\nJohnson eventually joined a skinhead group in addition to the KKK but finally decided to quit after getting arrested, stopping drinking and meeting the woman who is now his wife. Leaving was a real fight, though, as even relatives jumped him at a gas station one night after learning he wanted to quit.\n\"When I dropped out they beat the holy hell out of me,\" he said.\nSince then, Johnson has tried to cover some of his racist tattoos with new ones and wears long sleeves to hide remnants of the past he regrets. Life After Hate is helping him numerous ways, Johnson said, including showing him how to read the Bible without seeing it as a treatise on racial separation, as he had been taught.\nJohnson, now 25 and living in rural Indiana, isn't ready to begin counseling others about leaving extremism; he still sometimes longs for his racist buddies and their ways. But he said his own story is proof that hate doesn't have to be permanent.\n\"You can get out,\" he said.\n", + "caption": "In this Saturday, April 23, 2016 photo, members of the Ku Klux Klan participate in cross burnings after a \"white pride\" rally in rural Paulding County near Cedar Town, Ga. Born in the ashes of the smoldering South after the Civil War, the KKK died and was reborn before losing the fight against civil rights in the 1960s. Membership dwindled, a unified group fractured, and one-time members went to prison for a string of murderous attacks against blacks. Many assumed the group was dead, a white-robed ghost of hate and violence.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/2EEED23A-8E82-4F4D-BD25-8EF5784F6451.jpg", + "id": "21809_3", + "answer": [ + "Donald Trump's election", + "Donald Trump", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ku Klux Klan", + "members of the Ku Klux Klan" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_21_3733514", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_21_3733514_3" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image not do?", + "context": "Nauru President: Australia's Refugee Policy \u2018Working Well\u2019\nSYDNEY \u2014\u00a0\nNauru's president said Thursday that Australia's controversial policy of sending asylum seekers to his Pacific island nation was \u201cworking well,\u201d as he met with the Australian prime minister amid questions over the fate of hundreds of refugees languishing at Nauru's Australian-run detention camp.\nThe meeting in Sydney between President Baron Waqa and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull follows fresh scrutiny of Australia's asylum-seeker policy sparked by a resettlement deal between Australia and the U.S.\nAustralia refuses to settle any asylum seekers who try to arrive by boat, insisting the tough policy is necessary to dissuade migrants from attempting the dangerous ocean crossing from Indonesia. Instead, the government pays Nauru and Papua New Guinea to house them in conditions condemned by human-rights groups.\n\u201cWe know who our friends are, and we know it is great to work alongside you in our fight against people smuggling,\u201d Waqa told Turnbull ahead of their meeting. \u201cI think the program is working well.\u201d\nNauru\nFuture of program in doubt\nBut the future of the program remains in doubt, following a spat it prompted between Australia and the U.S.\nLast year, Australia said it would take in an unspecified number of Hondurans and Salvadorans from a U.S.-led program to resettle refugees currently in a camp in Costa Rica. Shortly after, the Obama administration said the U.S. would accept up to 1,250 refugees living on Nauru and Papua New Guinea who have been rejected by Australia for attempting to arrive by boat.\nPresident Donald Trump was infuriated by the deal, which led to a tense phone conversation with Turnbull that strained ties between the two countries. Trump later tweeted that the agreement was \"dumb.\" He ultimately, albeit reluctantly, agreed to honor the deal, but has said the refugees will be subjected to \"extreme vetting.\" There are few details on what that means.\nNo questions\nWaqa and Turnbull did not take questions from journalists ahead of their meeting, offering only brief comments of praise for each other.\n\u201cI want to thank you for the great cooperation that Nauru shows in working together with us to combat this scourge of people smuggling,\u201d Turnbull told Waqa. \u201cYour efforts in collaboration are so appreciated.\u201d\nWaqa will also meet with Foreign Minister Julie Bishop on Thursday, and will meet with officials in Canberra and Brisbane later this week.\n", + "caption": "Nauru President Baron Divavesi Waqa, left, meets with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Sydney, April 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1004A93E-4078-4BE2-A52D-BEE02698BA3D.jpg", + "id": "24213_1", + "answer": [ + "take questions from journalists" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Waqa and Turnbull" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798619", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798619_1" + }, + { + "question": "What will the person with the grey hair in the image do?", + "context": "Syrian Peace Talks Recess With Agenda, Promise to Resume\nGENEVA \u2014\u00a0\nSyria's warring parties are going home with \"a clear agenda\" for future negotiations, a U.N. mediator said Friday, as a fourth round of intra-Syrian talks wound up after nine days of intense discussions, largely mired in matters of \"procedure\" interspersed with issues of \"substance.\"\nThough no breakthrough on a political settlement was achieved and none was expected, the general mood among the participants was one of relief and a slight sense of accomplishment that this round of peace negotiations had ended without any dramatic walkout by either the government or opposition delegations, as has been the case previously.\n\"It has not always been easy going,\" Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, said in Geneva. \"We had some difficult, tough meetings, but we also had some very constructive meetings.\"\nDe Mistura predicted there would be a lot of posturing and negative rhetoric from the opposing sides about the state of the negotiations, now that the latest round had ended. However, he generally dismissed such theatrics as \"a part of politics.\"\nDialogue 'is what matters'\n\"I heard what I heard during the private discussions, in formal and informal discussions,\" de Mistura said. \"I had a feeling that the sides want to find a dialogue. That is what matters.\"\n\"And,\" he added, \"that gives me some feeling that we are moving in the right direction.\"\nDe Mistura will travel to New York to report on the talks to the U.N. secretary-general and the Security Council. While there, he said, he hoped to set a date to resume the next round of Syrian talks this month.\nWhen the parties return to Geneva, he said, they will be pursuing a framework agreement based on Security Council Resolution 2254, which forms the basis for a political transition to a postwar government.\nThis formula contains three \"baskets\" of issues to be fleshed out: credible, nonsectarian governance; the drafting of a new constitution; and free and fair elections under U.N. supervision.\nFILE - People inspect the damage at a site hit by a barrel bomb in the rebel-held area of Old Aleppo, Syria, July 11, 2016.\nDebate over 'terrorism'\nDe Mistura said the government and opposition delegations also agreed to include a fourth \"basket\" of issues, addressing \"strategies related to counterterrorism, security governance and medium-term confidence building measures.\"\nThe Damascus government's delegation in Geneva reportedly had insisted that anti-terrorism measures must be added to the agenda as a condition for continuing negotiations. \nSyrian opposition groups initially objected to this provision, but later agreed to go along after de Mistura reportedly assured them that the government's use of barrel bombs and chemical weapons against civilian targets would be part of the discussions.\nSyria's six-year civil war has taken a heavy toll in lives lost, people displaced and infrastructure destroyed. More than 400,000 people have been killed, and more than 11 million have been displaced, either within the country or as refugees abroad. Well over half of Syria's population of nearly 23 million needs humanitarian assistance.\nMilitary solution a 'fantasy'\nDespite this dismal picture, the U.N. envoy acknowledged there were still people in Syria who believed in the possibility of a military solution to this crisis.\n\"That is fantasy,\" he declared. \"Only a political solution \u2014 but a political solution that addresses the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people \u2014 can solve this crisis.\"\nDe Mistura said he was looking forward to the fifth round of intra-Syrian talks and thought that \"we have prepared everyone to actually engage not only on methodology, but also on substance\" regarding the four \"baskets\" of issues.\n\"The train is ready. It is in the station. It is warming up its engine,\" he said. \"Everything is ready. It just needs an accelerator, and the accelerator is in the hands of those who were attending this round.\"\n", + "caption": "U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, right, prepares to shake hands with Syria's main opposition High Negotiations Committee leader Nasr al-Hariri upon his arrival for a meeting during Syria peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 27, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/728ECD98-51F5-40ED-8F5D-49CCF537A69F.jpg", + "id": "11599_1", + "answer": [ + "shake hands with Syria's main opposition High Negotiations Committee leader Nasr al-Hariri upon his arrival", + "travel to New York", + "pursuing a framework agreement based on Security Council Resolution 2254, which forms the basis for a political transition to a postwar government" + ], + "bridge": [ + "De Mistura", + "None" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748796", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748796_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who were the organization of the people in the image concerned about?", + "context": "One of London Bridge Attackers Was Known to Police\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nBritish police have named two of the three men who carried out Saturday's terror attack in London.\nKhuram Shazad Butt, 27, was married with two children and lived in east London for a number of years, they said. Butt was a British citizen who was born in Pakistan, moving with his parents to Britain as a toddler. Police admitted he was known to counterterror officers and the intelligence services, but officials insist there was no sign he was planning an attack.\nThe other named attacker was Rachid Redouane, 30. He claimed he was a Moroccan-Libyan and lived for several years in Ireland.\nAssistant Police Commissioner Mark Rowley said an investigation into Butt began two years ago, but \"there was no intelligence to suggest that this attack was being planned and the investigation had been prioritized accordingly.\"\nFILE - Forensics investigators work as a white van is carried away from London Bridge, after attackers rammed a hired van into pedestrians on London Bridge and stabbed others nearby killing and injuring people, in London, Britain, June 4, 2017.\nThe two men's names were released as Britain's security services are facing awkward questions about their surveillance policies.\nButt was a recognized Islamic State follower in the streets around his home in the Barking district, where he tried to recruit children and proselytized openly in a nearby park, sparking a complaint to police by a local resident. \nButt also appeared in a television documentary last year in which he was pictured unfurling an Islamic State banner and later arguing with police during a London protest organized by radical preacher Anjem Choudary, a convicted IS recruiter.\nInsufficient response\nLast month, community and mosque leaders in Manchester and neighbors of Salman Abedi, the British-Libyan who carried out the May 22 concert bombing in the city, accused the security services of missing several opportunities to identify him as a high-risk militant. At least five times, locals warned the police of their fears about the 22-year-old suicide bomber. One community worker said he contacted authorities after Abedi said being a suicide bomber was OK.\nForensic police investigate an area in the London Bridge area of London, June 5, 2017.\nNeither Britain's domestic intelligence service MI5 nor the Manchester police responded to the claims, but lawmakers have demanded to know why Abedi was seen just as a peripheral figure and one not requiring surveillance and investigation.\nSimilar questions are being raised again in the wake of the van-and-knife attack in the London Bridge district of Britain's capital. \nButt's parents are reported to have been asylum seekers from Pakistan. According to local media, the man, nicknamed Abz, worked at various times for a fast-food outlet, a clothing store and the London Underground system. \nA onetime friend of the alleged ringleader also told the BBC that he had warned police, alerting them to comments made about previous terrorist attacks in Britain and of his alarm at the man's increasingly extremist beliefs. The former friend said Butt was a keen follower of American radical preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril and would watch YouTube videos of the cleric.\n\"He used to listen to a lot of Musa Jibril,\" the ex-friend told the BBC. \"I phoned the anti-terror hotline. I spoke to the gentleman. I told him about our conversation and why I think he was radicalized ... I did my bit, I know a lot of other people did their bit, but the authorities did not do their bit.\"\nSecurity strategy review\nA senior Conservative official told VOA that there is deep frustration in Downing Street about Saturday's attack and the fact that at least one of the assailants was known to the authorities. Prime Minister Theresa May promised to review Britain's counterterrorism strategy, holding out the prospects of enhanced powers for the security services and longer jail sentences for extremists. She said she wants to take a tougher line with internet providers and social media businesses that allow extremist material on their sites.\nCommuters walk past a police officer on London Bridge in London, June 5, 2017.\nAmong the measures being recommended by security chiefs, according to government officials, is the power to require those on terror watch lists to wear electronic tags, a ban on the sale of unregistered SIM cards, and a ban on immediate vehicle rentals, requiring renters to wait two hours and for rental firms to run checks on them with the police.\nPolice and counterterror officers launched further raids early Monday in east London. A police spokesman said \"a number\" of people had been detained. Local residents reported hearing bangs and gunshots during the raids. On Sunday, police arrested 12 people \u2014 seven women and five men \u2014 in connection with Saturday's terror attack. One of the men has since been released from custody.\n", + "caption": "Forensic police investigate an area in the London Bridge area of London, June 5, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3B7D07E3-9CF4-4066-B2A4-76B309F4445D.jpg", + "id": "25294_3", + "answer": [ + "Butt " + ], + "bridge": [ + "police" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_05_3887866", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_05_3887866_3" + }, + { + "question": "Why is the weapon in the image deployed?", + "context": "US Secretary of State Tillerson Visits South Korea in Midst of Transition\nSEOUL \u2014\u00a0\nNewly appointed U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit this week with caretaker conservative officials in Seoul, who might all soon be swept from power.\nSouth Korea is in the midst of disruptive political change with liberal opposition leaders, who don\u2019t see eye to eye with the United State on North Korea policy, poised to win a soon to be held presidential election.\nLast week\u2019s Constitutional Court decision to uphold the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye set in motion a 60-day deadline for scheduling a new presidential election. President Park\u2019s sudden downfall was caused by a domestic scandal, her alleged connection to a multi-million dollar influence bribery scheme involving top Korean conglomerates.\nBut the upcoming election is also expected to be a referendum on Park\u2019s hardline foreign policy positions to deal with the increasing North Korean nuclear threat through coercive pressure only, using increased economic sanctions and military deterrence.\nProtesters with portraits of impeached President Park Geun-hye march towards the presidential house during a candle light vigil calling for her arrest in Seoul, South Korea, March 11, 2017.\nUnited front\nThis week, Tillerson is likely to see only scenes of unity when he visits with American military forces in South Korea engaged in joint exercises, that include the nuclear powered aircraft carrier the USS Carl Vinson, in a show of force to counter North Korea\u2019s advancing nuclear and missile capabilities.\nNorth Korea has warned it would launch \"merciless\" attacks if the carrier infringes on its sovereignty or dignity during the drills.\nTillerson will also likely hear only words of support for U.S. policy when he meets with Acting President Hwang Kyo-ahn and South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister Yun Byung-Se. Both conservative interim officials echo the U.S. on the need to increase North Korean sanctions to pressure the Kim Jong Un government to dismantle its' nuclear arsenal in return for security guarantees and economic aid.\nAny compromise in this position, many conservatives say, will only legitimize North Korea as a nuclear state.\nThae Young Ho, the former deputy head of the North Korean Embassy in London until he defected to the South last year, argues further that any negotiations are futile because North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will never give up his nuclear arsenal.\n\u201cI am absolutely sure that the only way to solve the North Korean nuclear issue fundamentally is the elimination of the Kim Jong Un regime,\u201d said Thae.\nA Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.\nTHAAD\nBoth sides will likely voice strong support for increased deterrence, especially the controversial THAAD missile defense system that can potentially intercept a nuclear-armed North Korea ballistic missile at a high altitude.\nWashington and Seoul have both defended THAAD, as well as expanding the scale of joint military drills in South Korea, as a necessary security measures in the face of North Korea\u2019s numerous ballistic missile launches and nuclear tests conducted in the last year.\nBoth also want to resolve through talks China\u2019s strong opposition to THAAD as an unnecessary and provocative military escalation, and its concern that the system\u2019s powerful radar could be used to monitor others in the region. Beijing is reportedly retaliating by restricting the operations of some South Korean companies, and limiting imports and tourist visas.\nFor some advocates, THAAD has become an issue of maintaining national sovereignty in the face of Chinese pressure, as much as it is a needed defensive measure.\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to find out whether the South Koreans are willing to give up their sovereign right to defend themselves and if South Korea is willing to accept becoming the Chinese vassal,\u201d said Grant Newsham with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo.\nThe Democratic Party's candidates for the presidential primary Moon Jae-in, Choi Sung and Lee Jae-myung (R-L) attend an event to declare their fair contest in the party's presidential primary in Seoul, March 14, 2017.\nSouth Korea first\nBut while the U.S. priority may be to prevent North Korea from developing a nuclear-armed long-range missile that could reach the American mainland, liberals in South Korea want to first reduce the risk of war on the Korean Peninsula.\nMoon Jae-in, the leading presidential candidate from the Democratic Party of Korea, wants to take a less confrontational approach to deal with the current reality, rather than hoping for the collapse of the Kim government.\n\u201cWe can\u2019t deny that the ruler of the North Korean people is Kim Jong Un. We have no choice but to recognize Kim Jong Un as a counterpart, whether we put pressure and impose sanctions on North Korea or hold dialogue,\u201d said Moon.\nThe liberal presidential candidates also value the strong U.S. military alliance and support international sanctions on North Korea, but they argue that the punitive-only approach has failed to force North Korea to the negotiating table. In fact, they point out, Pyongyang has accelerated nuclear and ballistic missile testing at an unprecedented rate in the last year despite the increased international sanctions imposed on them.\nLiberal leaders advocate a return to engagement polices that might rebuild trust and reduce tensions through exchanges and selective economic aid and joint ventures.While the South Korean Sunshine policy of engagement that began at the turn of the century ultimately failed to stop the North from developing nuclear weapons, they argue it did have some success in slowing the pace of progress. Advocates say it may be worth the effort to try again, to focus on fostering long-term peaceful internal change through economic interaction.\n\u201cYou got to be really honest and accepting what has not been working, and what has been working, and try to see a new approach,\u201d said Bong Young-shik with the Yonsei University Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul.\nSome leading opposition candidates also oppose THAAD as an American military escalation aimed at China that would do little to protect South Korea from the thousands of missiles and artillery North Korea has already in position near the border.\nKeeping China as an engaged economic and diplomatic partner, they say, is more in South Korea\u2019s interest than siding with the U.S. on THAAD.\nThe South Korean liberal coalition won the majority in the National Assembly last year, and is ahead in presidential election public opinion polls.\nYoumi Kim contributed to this report\n", + "caption": "A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptor is launched during a successful intercept test, in this undated photo provided by the U.S. Department of Defense.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D3EF3CE5-25B5-4F54-95F9-5892E776CF25.jpg", + "id": "1330_2", + "answer": [ + "intercept a nuclear-armed North Korea ballistic missile" + ], + "bridge": [ + "THAAD" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_15_3766567", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_15_3766567_2" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image receiving?", + "context": "China Names New Navy Chief\nBEIJING \u2014\u00a0\nChina has appointed a new naval chief, state media said on Friday, citing as confirmation his comments at an official function, which were attributed using the new designation.\nThe change comes at a time when China's rapid military development has alarmed its neighbors, particularly through the expansion of its naval fleet to back its growing assertiveness over territorial claims in the South China Sea.\nThe new PLA Navy commander is Lieutenant Admiral Shen Jinlong, who had led China's South Sea fleet, said the China Daily, the official English-language newspaper. \"Although the Navy did not disclose when the transition took place, observers believe it was this week,\" it added.\nThere was no formal announcement of the change, but a statement on the Ministry of Defense website used the new title for Shen.\nIn 2014, Shen led several Chinese warships at the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) international maritime exercises around the Hawaiian islands, the first time China had participated in large-scale U.S.-led naval drills.\nLater, he made an official military visit to San Diego. Shen, 60, replaced outgoing naval commander Wu Shengli, 71, who was described by another state-run paper, the Global Times, as having stepped down after reaching retirement age.\nWu still retains his position on the powerful Central Military Commission, the China Daily said, but added that his new duties were unclear.\nIn its fleet-building efforts, state media have said, the PLA Navy commissioned 18 ships in 2016, including missile destroyers, corvettes and guided missile frigates, and has said it is building a second aircraft carrier.\nRegional naval officials say Chinese ships now increasingly track and shadow U.S. and Japanese warships in the contested South China and East China seas, even during routine deployments.\nChina says it has no hostile intent and wants to manage the disputes through two-way talks with the other claimants. But Beijing has been involved in a diplomatic spat with Washington over ship and aircraft patrols in the region.\nChina claims almost of the energy-rich South China Sea, through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and has been building up military facilities, such as runways, on the islands it controls.\nBrunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2016, photo, Chinese Navy officials stand in front of the ship Daqing, in San Diego. China has appointed the former head of its southern fleet as the new commander of its increasingly powerful navy. Vice Adm. Shen Jinlong takes command of a sprawling force that is growing in both size and modernity as China seeks to assert its regional maritime claims and project strength far from its shores.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B2C7CDDF-966F-460C-8920-BFB2821840C6.jpg", + "id": "12610_1", + "answer": [ + "a new naval chief", + "None", + "18 ships in 2016, including missile destroyers, corvettes and guided missile frigates" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Chinese Navy officials", + "China" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_20_3685188", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_20_3685188_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the left of the image endorse?", + "context": "Xi Calls for Cooperation, Offers Billions for Infrastructure\nBEIJING \u2014\u00a0\nChinese President Xi Jinping called Sunday for closer cooperation among countries across Asia and Europe in areas from anti-terrorism to finance, as officials from dozens of governments met to promote a Beijing-led initiative to expand trade links across the region.\nSpeaking to an audience that included Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of 29 other countries, Xi outlined the most ambitious political vision yet for the \u201cBelt and Road Initiative,\u201d a multibillion-dollar project to build ports, railways and other facilities. It covers an arc of 65 countries reaching from the South Pacific through South and Central Asia to Europe and Africa.\nThe initiative would provide some of the $7 trillion of investment in infrastructure the Asian Development Bank says the region needs this decade. But governments including Russia, the United States and India are uneasy that China is using its status as the second-largest global economy to expand its political influence.\nXi insisted his government has \u201cno desire to impose our will on others.\u201d But he also called for economic integration and cooperation on financial regulation, anti-terrorism and security \u2014 all fields in which China\u2019s economic heft would give it a prominent voice.\n\u201cWe should foster a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security and create a security environment built and shared by all,\u201d Xi said. He called for stepped-up action against terrorism and what he called its root causes of poverty and social injustice.\nIn a reminder of the potential security threats facing the region, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile Sunday that flew for a half-hour and reached an unusually high altitude of 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles). The launch was seen as a challenge to a new South Korean president who was elected last week and came as U.S., Japanese and European naval forces gathered for war games in the Pacific.\nChinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum at the China National Convention Center in Beijing, May 14, 2017. Xi offered tens of billions of dollars for projects that are part of his signature foreign policy initiative linking China to much of Asia, Europe and Africa.\nXi foreign policy initiative\nThe \u201cBelt and Road\u201d is Xi\u2019s signature foreign policy initiative. The two-day meeting that started Sunday gives him a platform to promote his image as a global leader and an advocate of free trade in contrast to President Donald Trump, who has called for import restrictions.\nXi said Beijing will contribute an additional 100 billion yuan ($14.5 billion) to the Silk Road Fund set up in 2014 to finance infrastructure projects. He said his government will provide aid worth 60 billion yuan ($8.7 billion) to developing countries and international organizations.\nTwo Chinese government-run banks also will set up lending facilities valued at a total of 380 billion yuan ($55 billion) to support the initiative, Xi said.\nPutin sees danger in protectionism\nSpeaking after Xi, Putin echoed the Chinese president\u2019s theme that economic development would help to nurture political stability. The Russian leader said the rise of trade protectionism is creating a \u201cbreeding ground for international extremism and terrorism.\u201d\n\u201cRussia believes that the future of the Eurasian partnership is not just about fostering ties between a few countries and economies,\u201d Putin said. \u201cIt should change the very political and economic landscape of the continent bringing Eurasia stability, prosperity.\u201d\nXi said Beijing plans to announce dozens of new investment and other agreements during the two-day event.\nNo major Western leaders\nOther leaders at the gathering included Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan and President Michelle Bachelet of Chile. No major Western leaders attended, though Britain, France and Germany were represented by top finance officials.\nThe U.S. delegation was led by Matt Pottinger, special assistant to Trump and senior director for East Asia at the National Security Council.\nThe United States and other governments have said \u201cBelt and Road\u201d is a natural outgrowth of China\u2019s status as the biggest global trader and they welcome the investment. But they also have expressed concern Beijing might undermine human rights and international standards for lending or leave poor countries with too much debt.\nMost of the Chinese financing is loans, instead of grants.\nInternational Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde speaks during the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing, May 14, 2017.\nIndia criticism\nIndia delivered an implicit criticism of China\u2019s initiative Saturday in a statement that said such an initiative should meet international norms and not create unsustainable debt.\nIndia has objected to Chinese state-owned companies working in the Pakistani-held part of Kashmir, the Himalayan region claimed by both sides. New Delhi sees that as an endorsement of Pakistan\u2019s control.\n\u201cNo country can accept a project that ignores its core concerns on sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d the statement said.\nSome diplomats and political analysts say Beijing is trying to create a political and economic network centered on China, push the United States out of the region and rewrite rules on trade and security.\nXi promised to avoid forming a \u201csmall group\u201d of allies, which he said might harm regional stability.\nInstead, he said, Beijing wants \u201cpartnerships of friendship\u201d and a \u201cbig family of harmonious coexistence.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) stands with Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right) and other leaders to pose for a group photo before the opening ceremony of the Belt and Road Forum the China National Convention Center in Beijing, May 14, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/442B015C-A814-4B60-A733-2655620D46C4.jpg", + "id": "20161_1", + "answer": [ + "economic development", + "None", + "the Chinese president\u2019s theme that economic development would help to nurture political stability" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Putin", + "Vladimir Putin" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_14_3850859", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_14_3850859_1" + }, + { + "question": "What nation is upset over the tech in the image?", + "context": "South Korea Says China Lacks Understanding About THAAD\nSEOUL \u2014\u00a0\nChina is retaliating over South Korea's agreement to host the U.S. THAAD missile defense system because it does not understand it is aimed only at defending against North Korea, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam said on Thursday.\nSouth Korean firms feel they are being retaliated against in China because of China's objections to the deployment of the missile system, which China sees as a threat to its security.\nLim, answering questions from members of parliament, said South Korea had explained to China the system was to defend against North Korea's missile threat but China did not appear to fully understand that point.\nSouth Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo told parliament China's concern about the THAAD system's radar was unfounded.\n\"The THAAD system is the most minimum defense mechanism\nagainst North Korea's nuclear missile threats. China has been overly assessing the radar and excessively protesting against its deployment,\" Han said.\nBeijing has complained strongly against the THAAD deployment in South Korea, but has not officially said the government has been pressuring South Korean businesses in China in retaliation.\nLim told lawmakers Lotte Group had seen pressure from China with several of its stores closed, while South Korea's flight and tourism operators have also experienced discriminatory tactics from China.\n\"We have not made an official calculation on the financial damage that could potentially result from China's actions, but if this continues it could have a significant impact,\" the vice foreign minister said.\nU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in Tokyo on Thursday that China had a major role to play in reining in North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, carried out in defiance of U.N. resolutions and sanctions.\n", + "caption": "In this photo provided by U.S. Forces Korea, trucks carrying U.S. missile launchers and other equipment needed to set up the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system arrive at the Osan air base in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, March 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4E064C77-BFA3-4E8D-8B26-665F256FFDDD.jpg", + "id": "19520_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "China" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Terminal High Altitude Area Defense", + "THAAD" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_16_3768990", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_16_3768990_1" + }, + { + "question": "How did the people like those in the image fight back?", + "context": "Thousands March Against Trump Administration Policies on Climate Change\nThousands of people gathered across the country to march in protest of President Donald Trump's environmental policies, which have included rolling back restrictions on mining, oil drilling and greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The demonstrators sat down for 100 seconds to mark Trump's first 100 days in office.\n", + "caption": "Demonstrators sit on the ground along Pennsylvania Ave. in front of the White House in Washington during a demonstration and march, April 29, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E2BA6A25-B335-4EAB-949E-01760E930622.jpg", + "id": "18167_2", + "answer": [ + "gathered across the country to march in protest of President Donald Trump's environmental policies", + " sat down for 100 seconds", + "sat down for 100 seconds to mark Trump's first 100 days in office" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Demonstrators", + "demonstrators" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_29_3831282", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_29_3831282_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who will give the person in the left of the image feedback?", + "context": "President Orders Executive Branch to Identify Wasteful Spending\nWHITE HOUSE \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order to begin the process of reorganizing the federal government, something he called \"long overdue.\" \nDuring his first Cabinet meeting earlier in the day, the president said the purpose of the directive is to make government \"less wasteful and more productive.\"\nBut critics previously have expressed concern that the process could lead to a compromise of government functions, especially in public health and national security. \nJust prior to the signing in the Oval Office later, the president declared this \"a major step to making the federal government efficient, effective and accountable to the people.\"\nPresident Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, March 13, 2017.\nThe order requires a self-examination by every executive department and agency to identify wasteful spending and how services can be improved.\nAsked if there's a numeric goal or a mandated savings of a certain amount of money, Press Secretary Sean Spicer, at a news conference earlier in the day, replied, \"there's no set number that we're driving down to.\" \nRather, the goal, he said, is for agencies to look at themselves and their programs to determine if they are \"bloated or duplicative or, frankly, just outdated or in need of technological advances.\"\nAccording to Trump at the signing ceremony, there is \"duplication and redundancy everywhere\" in the federal government, with \"billions and billions\" of dollars being wasted on activities. \nThe director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, will oversee the process, working with experts inside and outside of the federal government \"and seeking input from the American people themselves,\" the president said.\nFILE - The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, speaks to reporters during a daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, Feb. 27, 2017.\n\"We will then work with Congress to implement these recommendations,\" he added.\nCato Institute economist Chris Edwards, who edits an online guide to government downsizing, said of the executive order: \"It can't hurt. \u2026 It's a good start.\"\nAs for government entities being tasked with looking for costs savings internally, Edwards told VOA that is a good idea because \"it's often difficult for lawmakers to determine what's going on in agencies.\"\nAchieving big savings in the federal budget, according to Edwards, will only occur after lawmakers identify whole programs that can be eliminated or placed in the hands of the individual 50 states. \n\"It'll ultimately be up to Congress what they want to cut,\" Edwards said.\nMonday's executive order comes after one issued January 30 to reduce regulations and control regulatory costs.\nThe president's chief strategist in the White House, Steve Bannon, has called for a \"deconstruction of the administrative state,\" and last month the president declared that the federal government would have to \"do more with less.\"\n", + "caption": "President Donald Trump looks toward Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, left, after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 13, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/93F741F2-A040-4C66-BC98-02030CA7D277.jpg", + "id": "13730_1", + "answer": [ + "the American people", + "American people", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Mick Mulvaney" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3764283", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_13_3764283_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the issue that the woman in the image is dealing with?", + "context": "Uganda Hosting Donor Summit to Raise $8B for Refugees\nADJUMANI, UGANDA \u2014\u00a0\nThis week, Uganda welcomes U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other high-level international guests and donors for the two day Refugee Solidarity Conference (Thursday 6/22 and Friday 6/23). The conference in Kampala hopes to raise $8 billion to support refugees in Uganda for the next four years.\nAt the border separating Uganda from South Sudan, exhausted women and children arrive daily, hungry and dehydrated. Aid workers give them fortified biscuits.\nUganda hosts 1.2 million refugees from at least five African countries. Nearly one million have fled the conflict in South Sudan, and most have arrived in the past year. The local food supply is stretched to the limit.\nThe U.N. World Food Program was forced to cut food rations to refugees last month, says WFP country representative El Khidir Daloum.\n\"Yes, we have been forced to reduce the distribution for the month of May by 50 percent, but that is mainly due to the physical availability of food and arrival of food in the country,\u201d he said.\nFunding is also inadequate.\nThe United Nations and 57 other aid organizations working in northern Uganda, appealed for $1.4 billion to provide food and shelter this year, but only 18 percent of the funds has been received.\nAmnesty International researchers visited the refugee settlements in Uganda and Deputy Regional Director Michelle Kagari says the refugees have already suffered greatly.\n\"There is one woman who has nine children, her and her children witness their father being killed, not to mention the trauma of fleeing the Equatoria's,\" she said. When they arrived in Uganda, because there is no capacity for them to get additional support, she is now supposed to build a shelter herself, find food for the children, deal with the trauma of the children.\"\nFILE- A South Sudanese refugee woman sits with her child at a refugee collection center in Palorinya, Uganda, Feb. 16, 2017.\nUganda is known for its progressive approach to refugees, there are no refugee camps, but settlements where refugees build round mud huts and get small plots of land to farm. They are also allowed to work in Uganda.\nBut the massive influx from South Sudan, as many as 2,000 people a day during the past year, is taking a toll on the host communities.\nUganda is hosting this week\u2019s Refugee Solidarity Summit in an urgent plea for help says Uganda State Minister for Refugees Musa Ecweru.\n\"A district that was supposed to host 300,000 people is now hosting 600 to 700,000 people. In that district, they are competing for trees that are used as fuel for energy,\" said Ecweru. \"They are competing for drugs that are supposed to be used by the host communities in the health centers. ... So there are so many things that are under pressure, so we want the international community to support us and lift the pressure.\"\nFood security is a particular concern given the hunger and famine in South Sudan and drought in East Africa.\nAt the Maaji refugee settlement 25-year-old Jennifer Fonne is eight months pregnant and struggling to have two meals a day.\n\u201cAs you can see, children are crying here because of hunger, we are not getting anything to buy for our children food. As I have three children, but food is not enough for us. We are just eating green vegetables, but no proteins,\u201d she said.\nBack at he border, the scene is the same. More families arrive, sweating in the scorching heat, carrying their belongings.\nThe government says Uganda will not shut its doors to people in need, but the country cannot bear this burden alone.\n", + "caption": "FILE- A South Sudanese refugee woman sits with her child at a refugee collection center in Palorinya, Uganda, Feb. 16, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7EDAAE1C-40CD-44AF-AAC5-6BF9F42A6F04.jpg", + "id": "2779_1", + "answer": [ + "Food security" + ], + "bridge": [ + "South Sudanese refugee" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_19_3906642", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_19_3906642_1" + }, + { + "question": "What event are the people in the image taking advantage of?", + "context": "Britain Wants Social Media Sites Cleared of Jihadist Postings\nIslamic State propagandists are seeking to capitalize on last week's terror attack in London, which left five people dead and 40 injured, by flooding YouTube with hundreds of violent recruitment videos.\nThe online propaganda offensive comes as Britain demands social media companies scrub their sites of jihadist postings.\nAmber Rudd, the country's interior minister, has vowed to \"call time\" on internet firms allowing terrorists \"a place to hide\" and has summoned some of the leading social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, for what is being dubbed by British officials as \"showdown talks\" later this week.\nRudd says she is determined to stop extremists \"using social media as their platform\" for recruitment and for operational needs.\nFloral tributes to the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack are placed outside the Palace of Westminster, London, March 27, 2017. Attacker Khalid Masood is believed to have used the messaging service WhatsApp before running down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbing to death a policeman.\nBritain's security services are in a standoff with WhatsApp, which has refused to allow them access to the encrypted message the London attacker sent three minutes before he used an SUV to mow down pedestrians on Westminster Bridge and stabbed to death a policeman outside the House of Commons.\nBritish security services are powerless to read that final message, which might cast light on whether the attack was a \"lone wolf\" or one aided and directed by others. Police investigators believe the terrorist acted alone and have seen no evidence that he was associated with IS or al-Qaida.\nWhatsApp, which has a billion users worldwide, employs \"end to end encryption\" for messages, which the company says prevents even its own technicians from reading people's messages.\nOfficials want voluntary action\nRudd and other government ministers have launched a media onslaught, saying they are considering legislation to require online companies to take down extremist material. They argue this wouldn't be necessary if the companies recognized their community responsibilities.\nFILE - Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd speaks during a vigil in Trafalgar Square, London, March 23, 2017.\nRudd told the BBC that Facebook, Google and other companies should understand they are not just technology businesses, but also publishing platforms. \"We have to have a situation where we can have our security services get into the terrorists' communications,\" she argued. \"There should be no place for terrorists to hide.\"\nBritish Foreign Minister Boris Johnson joined in the condemnation of social media and online companies. \"I think it's disgusting,\" he told The Sunday Times. \"They need to stop just making money out of prurient violent material.\"\nAt a security conference last week in the United States, Johnson called for action.\n\"We are going to have to engage not just militarily, but also to stop the stuff on the internet that is corrupting and polluting so many people,\" he said. \"This is something that the internet companies and social media companies need to think about. They need to do more to take that stuff off their media \u2014 the incitements, the information about how to become a terrorist, the radicalizing sermons and messages. That needs to come down.\"\nRecruiting criminals\nThe furor over extremist use of the internet was fueled Monday by front-page articles in the Times and Daily Mail newspapers highlighting the IS propaganda videos posted on YouTube since last Wednesday's slaughter in the British capital. The high-definition videos, some of which contained references to the London attack, include gory scenes of beheadings and \"caliphate violence\" carried out by child adherents of the terror group.\nFILE - In this photo released on April 25, 2015 by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, young boys known as the \"lion cubs\" hold rifles during a parade after graduating from a religious school in Tal Afar, Iraq.\nU.S. and European officials have long complained online companies are, in effect, aiding and abetting terrorism. A year ago in January, much of the U.S. national security leadership of the Obama administration sat down with Silicon Valley chiefs to discuss jihadist use of the internet to recruit and radicalize people and plot attacks.\nAlso last year, British spy chief, Robert Hannigan, singled out messaging apps as especially worrisome for the security services, saying they had become \"the command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals \u2014 precisely because they are highly encrypted.\"\nSome cooperation\nAfter initial resistance to complaints from Western governments, Facebook, Google and Twitter have in recent months been more cooperative with authorities and have removed large amounts of extremist material. Twitter said in the second half of 2016 it suspended 376,890 accounts for violations related to promotion of terrorism.\nBut some services have resisted providing governments with encryption keys, or so-called back doors.\nApple has developed encryption keys that message users can use that are not possessed by the company. Apple's chief executive, Timothy Cook, argued last year, \"If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too.\"\nSilicon Valley chiefs say they fear violations of privacy and their priority is their customers, not national security, an argument that has resonated since former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed the extent of electronic surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies.\nLast year, WhatsApp was blocked several times in Brazil for failing to hand over information relating to criminal investigations. \nMessages sent on a rival service by Telegram are also encrypted, but after bad publicity and immense pressure from Western governments, the company does provide a backdoor for security and law-enforcement agencies.\nNot that access to encrypted communications always helps.\nSunday, it emerged that German police knew the Christmas market attacker in Berlin who drove a truck into a crowd of shoppers was planning a suicide attack. Police had intercepted his Telegram messages nine months before the attack.\nA police recommendation that he be deported was declined by state government prosecutors because they feared the courts would reject the request.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this undated file photo released by a militant website, which has been verified and is consistent with other AP reporting, militants of the Islamic State group hold up their weapons and wave flags on their vehicles in a convoy on a road leading leading to Iraq, while riding in Raqqa, Syria. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8E01FD55-B9E7-4704-92BE-12E4FF29618A.jpg", + "id": "28219_1", + "answer": [ + "last week's terror attack in London" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Islamic State " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3783658", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3783658_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the image with the black tie say?", + "context": "'Doomsday Clock' Moves Closer to Midnight; Trump Largely Blamed\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nAtomic scientists on Thursday moved the hands of their symbolic \"Doomsday Clock\" 30 seconds closer to midnight, in large part, they announced, because of the words of one man \u2014 President Donald Trump. \nA physicist, a career ambassador and a retired navy admiral at the National Press Club presided over the annual unveiling of the cardboard clock, showing the hands now at two-and-a-half minutes to midnight, representing an increased risk of global disaster.\n\"This is historic. The clock has not been closer to midnight in 64 years,\" said Arizona State University theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss.\n\u201cWe\u2019ve never moved the clock a half minute,\u201d \u2014 a break from the full-minute ticks, explained Rachel Bronson, the executive director and publisher of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. \"That\u2019s because words do matter. The stakes are so high.\u201d\nThose unveiling the 2017 clock told reporters the rhetoric of newly-inaugurated Trump to impede progress in nuclear disarmament and climate change was a key factor in deciding the time change. \nThe new president, they acknowledge, also can single-handedly help send the hands of the Doomsday Clock moving backward to safety.\nProviding an \u2018opening\u2019\n\"We have to give him the opening,\" former U.S. ambassador to Russia Thomas Pickering told VOA when asked whether he believes Trump will be swayed by news of the clock's advance to midnight. \"Hopefully he will hear\" the suggestions from scientists and others advocating a re-start of arms reduction talks with Russia and raising the alarm about the effects of climate change.\nOther factors affecting the clock's movement this year are the growing risks from cyberattacks and emerging technologies in life sciences. \nThe Doomsday Clock has faced criticism over the decades as more art than science. Its \"back and forth\" movement is ridiculed, while the scientists behind it are labeled scaremongers.\n\"When it comes to nuclear weapons people have become complacent,\" Krauss told VOA. \"So we owe it to the world to risk being labeled scaremongers just to encourage people to think about the problem.\"\nThe Doomsday Clock was created in 1947 by a group of concerned scientists who had been involved with the top secret Manhattan Project, which built the first nuclear weapons, as a response to nuclear threats. \nSince then, the minute hand of the clock has moved backwards and forwards. Its closest warning of apocalypse was amid the commencement of atmospheric thermonuclear weapons testing in 1953 by the United States and Soviet Union.\nThe farthest the hands have moved from midnight was in 1991 when the clock read 11:43 p.m. following the Threshold Test Ban Treaty entering into force.\n", + "caption": "From left, Lawrence Krauss, theoretical physicist, chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Board of Sponsors; Thomas Pickering, co-chair of the International Crisis Group and former U.S. ambassador to Russia; and David Titley, a nationally known expert in the field of climate, the Arctic, and national security, unveil the Doomsday Clock during a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, Jan. 26, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8B65F3A5-84B0-4F73-8E57-FF8221DE99AE.jpg", + "id": "8097_1", + "answer": [ + "This is historic. The clock has not been closer to midnight in 64 years", + "The clock has not been closer to midnight in 64 years" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lawrence Krauss" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_26_3694203", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_26_3694203_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with the red tie in the image praise?", + "context": "Saudi Arabia Announces Indonesia Investments as King Visits\nBOGOR, INDONESIA \u2014\u00a0\nSaudi Arabia pledged $1 billion in development finance for Indonesia and expanded cooperation in other areas, deepening ties with Southeast Asia's biggest economy as the Saudi king and a huge entourage arrived Wednesday for a 9-day visit.\nEnthusiastic crowds lined the route of King Salman's heavily guarded motorcade as it arrived in Bogor, near the capital Jakarta, where official events were held at an imposing presidential palace.\nHe was earlier welcomed at Jakarta's Halim airport by President Joko \"Jokowi\" Widodo and the minority Christian governor of Jakarta, Basuki \"Ahok\" Tjahaja Purnama, who is fighting a tough election battle after being charged with blaspheming the Quran.\nAt a joint news conference, the countries' foreign ministers affirmed Saudi Aramco and Indonesian oil company Pertamina's plans for a $6 billion refinery joint venture in Cilacap in central Java. The two countries also signed 11 agreements that included a Saudi commitment to provide $1 billion of financing for economic development and cooperation to combat transnational crime such as people smuggling, terrorism and drug trafficking.\nSalman is on a tour of Asian countries to advance the kingdom's economic and business interests. On his first stop in Malaysia, Saudi Aramco signed a $7 billion deal to take a 50 percent stake in a Malaysian oil refinery. Salman will also visit Brunei, Japan, China and the Maldives, the official Saudi Press Agency has reported.\nThe first visit of a Saudi monarch to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, in nearly a half century generated blanket media coverage.\nLive broadcasts showed the octogenarian Salman exiting his plane at Halim using a gold-colored escalator sent from Saudi Arabia for the visit, with a portable lift carrying him the final meter or so to the ground.\nSalman will spend six of his nine days in Indonesia vacationing on the resort island of Bali, a predominantly Hindu part of the Indonesian archipelago.\n\"As the world's biggest Muslim nation, Indonesia will always have a special bond with Saudi Arabia,\" said Jokowi. \"Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are two big countries that have important influence in the region, and our countries should continue to improve cooperation both in bilateral and international contexts.\"\nIndonesia practices a moderate form of Islam and has a democratic secular government, but Saudi-funded institutes in the country are known to spread a highly doctrinaire interpretation of the Quran. They are tolerated in part because Indonesia wants to at least maintain its annual quota of citizens who can enter Saudi Arabia to participate in the hajj to Islam's holiest city.\nJokowi said he appreciated that Indonesia's hajj quota, which was reduced in the aftermath of the 2015 hajj disasters, had been restored and expanded for 2017 with 221,000 pilgrims allowed from Indonesia.\nThe Indonesian government said Salman's entourage and related delegations number about 1,500 people. They have booked out four hotels in a posh Jakarta neighborhood for the week and about 10,000 police and soldiers have been deployed for security, including for Salman's Bali trip.\nStatues of naked men and women at the Bogor palace were removed or covered out of courtesy to the Saudi visitors. The same step was taken when Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Indonesia in January.\nIndonesia has said it hopes for $25 billion of new investments from Saudi Arabia. The two leaders discussed possibilities including three oil refineries, a power plant and infrastructure such as roads, housing and sanitation.\nAside from the two countries having a common faith, Saudi Arabia employs hundreds of thousands of Indonesians despite a government ban on sending domestic workers there following the execution of an Indonesian maid in 2011.\n", + "caption": "Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, assists Saudi King Salman, center, to walk during their meeting at the presidential palace in Bogor, West Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, March 1, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0A299C82-83F6-48ED-918D-948CC93C251D.jpg", + "id": "28542_1", + "answer": [ + "Indonesia's hajj quota" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jokowi " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_01_3745381", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_01_3745381_1" + }, + { + "question": "What body is against the person on poster in the image?", + "context": "EU Takes Legal Action Against Hungary on NGO Law\nBUDAPEST, HUNGARY \u2014\u00a0\nThe European Union launched legal action against Hungary on Thursday because of new rules governing civic groups that receive funds from abroad.\nThe European Commission said that the law approved by Hungary's parliament in June could prevent nongovernmental organizations \"from raising funds and would restrict their ability to carry out their work.\"\nThe commission also took a new step in another infringement procedure against Hungary launched in April over amendments to the law on higher education that could force Budapest-based Central European University to close or leave Hungary.\nThe commission said its conclusions about the higher education law did not change after Hungary's initial response and it still considers the law to be incompatible with EU standards such as academic freedom and the right to education.\nFILE - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives at a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 9, 2017.\nBoth cases are part of the Hungarian government's multifaceted campaign against Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros. He founded CEU in 1991 and his Open Society Foundations help support many of the groups affected by the NGO law. His ideal of an \"open society\" contrasts with Prime Minister Viktor Orban's expressed desire to turn Hungary into an \"illiberal state.\"\nGovernment defiant\nThe Hungarian government reiterated its position regarding the \"Soros network\" in its response to the commission's legal action.\n\"The government is ready to face infringement proceedings with relation to the NGO Act,\" said Justice Ministry State Secretary Pal Volner. \"These are organizations that want to weaken Hungary's defense capabilities in the fight against illegal immigration.\"\nCivic groups getting more than about $26,700 from abroad have to register with the courts, reveal detailed information about donors giving more than $1,850 and identify themselves as being foreign-funded on their websites and media publications.\nThe commission, the EU's executive body, also raised concerns about the NGO law regarding the free movement of capital and the protection of the personal data of donors.\n\"Civil society is the very fabric of our democratic societies and therefore should not be unduly restricted in its work,\" EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said. \"We have studied the new law on NGOs carefully and have come to the conclusion that it does not comply with EU law.\"\nHungary's government says it wants to ensure transparency among the NGOs, some of which say they won't comply with the regulations they believe are discriminatory. The government says foreign-funded NGOs that advocate for asylum seekers, like the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, are opposed to Hungary's interests.\nMigration opponent\nOrban is a staunch opponent of migration and says a large influx of Muslim migrants would irrevocably change Europe's ethnic and cultural character.\nIn the CEU case, Orban and other officials said for months that the amendments were a purely educational matter. However, Orban's chief of staff revealed recently that the conflict was tied to Soros' advocacy for migration and refugees.\n'We, CEU and Fidesz [the ruling party], peacefully coexisted side by side in the past years. The changes came about when George Soros announced a program about having to open Europe's borders and call in a million immigrants a year,\" Janos Lazar, Orban's chief of staff, said last week.\nHungarian government posters portraying financier George Soros and saying \"Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!\" are seen at an underground stop in Budapest, Hungary, July 11, 2017.\nThe government is also carrying out an anti-Soros media campaign, with billboards, posters and TV ads depicting a smiling Soros and the caption \"Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!\"\nHungarian Jewish groups have raised concerns about what they see as the campaign's anti-Semitic overtones.\nHungary has one month to reply to the commission's arguments, and both cases could be eventually referred by the commission to the EU Court of Justice.\n", + "caption": "Hungarian government posters portraying financier George Soros and saying \"Let's not allow Soros to have the last laugh!\" are seen at an underground stop in Budapest, Hungary, July 11, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9C227B75-E4F7-4867-BBFC-12FD1D2232AB.jpg", + "id": "27815_3", + "answer": [ + "the Hungarian government" + ], + "bridge": [ + "George Soros" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_13_3943251", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_13_3943251_3" + }, + { + "question": "How did compatriots of the man in the image enter a neighboring country?", + "context": "Qatari Hunters Kidnapped in Iraq Freed After Complex Regional Deal\nA group of Qatari falcon hunters who were kidnapped in southern Iraq in 2015 are reportedly free after a complex regional deal that included a swap between rebels and regime forces in four Syrian towns, Iraqi and Syrian sources told VOA.\n\"The release operation of all hostages is complete now,\" Shakhawan Abdullah, a member of the Iraqi parliament's security committee, told VOA.\nThe 26 Qataris \u2014 some of whom are members of the ruling family \u2014 were taken to Doha by a Qatari plane that left Baghdad International Airport on Friday evening.\nThe group was kidnapped by a group of 100 armed men in December 2015 during a hunting trip in the Muthanna governorate of southern Iraq, a famed desert spot for falcon hunters.\nNo group publicly claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. Qatari and Iraqi officials said that based on intelligence reports, they were certain the hostages had been taken in Iraqi Shi'ite territory by militias with close ties to Iran.\nLittle information had surfaced since their abduction as to their whereabouts or condition. It was unclear whether the hostages were initially kept in Iraq or moved to Iran or Syria, Iraq's Abdullah said.\nIn April 2016, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said one of the hunters and an Asian worker on the trip had been freed.\nParty of God Brigade\n\"Government officials say the hostages were held by Shi'ite civilians, but our investigations point to Kataib Hezbollah,\" Abdullah told VOA. Kataib Hezbollah, or Party of God Brigade, is a Shi'ite paramilitary group with close ties to Iran and the Syrian regime.\nFILE - A Qatari man prepares his falcon to participate in a contest during Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sealine desert, Qatar, Jan. 29, 2016. A group of Qatari falconers was kidnapped by armed men in December 2015 during a hunting trip in the Muthanna governorate of southern Iraq, a famed desert spot for falcon hunters.\nBut the complex deal to release of the hostages emanated from Syria and was reached between the Syrian regime and Syrian rebels last month, sources said.\nIt reportedly included an agreement to evacuate people and rebels from Madaya and Zabadani, predominantly Sunni towns in northwest Syria that have been besieged since June 2015 by the Syrian army and fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement.\nIn return, people in the villages of Foah and Kefraya, most of whom are Shi'ites, were allowed safe passage. Residents have been encircled by rebels and al-Qaida-linked Sunni jihadists since March 2015.\nFILE - A Qatari man prepares to release his falcon during the Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sealine desert, Qatar, Jan. 29, 2016. The participants at the contest compete to see whose falcon is fastest at attacking its prey.\nThe hostages would have been released earlier, sources told VOA, but the evacuation was halted following a suicide bombing April 16 that ripped through a convoy of buses coming from Foah and Kefraya, killing 126 people. There was no claim of responsibility, and movement of people from villages has continued.\nAccording to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the deal was drafted by Qatar \u2014 which backs the opposition to the Syrian regime \u2014 following negotiations between representatives of Iran, Hezbollah and a Sunni Islamist rebel alliance.\nA person involved in the negotiations told The Associated Press that Qatar paid tens of millions of dollars to Shi'ite groups and to the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee and Ahrar al-Sham, which are involved in the freeing of villagers.\n'Completely humanitarian' effort\nA Qatari source told CNN that Qatar had helped sponsor the deal to free Syrian villagers but denied it was linked to the hostages being freed.\n\"In regards to the four-towns agreement in Syria, Qatar has sponsored negotiations since the beginning of 2015,\" the source told CNN. \"It's completely humanitarian and has nothing to do with Qatari hostages in Iraq.\"\nFILE - A man sits next to his falcon as he waits to participate in the Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sealine desert, Qatar, Jan. 29, 2016.\nIraq's Interior Ministry said the hostages were interviewed after they were freed and before being handed over to Qatari authorities.\nEarlier, during his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said his government was doing its best to free the group.\n\"Qatari citizens came to Iraq with official visas granted by the former interior minister, and they should have been under the protection of the Interior Ministry specifically, but unfortunately they were kidnapped,\" Abadi said. \"We have exerted a great deal of effort to secure their release, to obtain any information that would lead to their release.\"\nIraqi parliament member Abdullah told VOA that members of parliament would demand an investigation of the hostage release process and connections to Syria.\n\"The issue, as it stands now, is very unclear to us. We will have many questions when the parliament meets next week,\" Abdullah told VOA.\nVOA's Mehdi Jedinia contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A Qatari man prepares his falcon to participate in a contest during Qatar International Falcons and Hunting Festival at Sealine desert, Qatar, Jan. 29, 2016. The kidnapping of 26 Qataris in December 2015 in the Iraqi desert while hunting, including members of the country's royal family, has highlighted the risks of pursuing the \"sport of kings\" at a time of heightened regional turmoil. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E198DBEF-495A-4F3E-8B6A-1DB9DE8862C2.jpg", + "id": "28569_1", + "answer": [ + "with official visas granted by the former interior minister" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Qatari" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_21_3820640", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_21_3820640_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the image evidence of?", + "context": "Preterm Births in US Increase for a Second Year\u00a0\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nNew government data show the health of pregnant women and babies in the U.S. is getting worse, and a report by the National Center for Health Statistics shows the number of babies born prematurely has been increasing since 2014.\nPreterm American births increased in 2016 and 2015 after seven years of steady declines. Prematurity rose by 2 percent in 2016 and by 1.6 percent the year before.\nStacey Stewart, president of the March of Dimes, a nonprofit U.S. group that works to eliminate prematurity and birth defects, called the increase \u201can alarming indication that the health of pregnant women and babies in our country is heading in the wrong direction.\u201d\nExpand health care\nStewart called on Washington to expand access to quality prenatal care and promote proven ways to help reduce the risk of preterm birth. Noting that the U.S. Senate is considering a health care bill that many Americans believe would reduce health benefits for poor families and change coverage for maternity and newborn care, Stewart said now \u201cis not the time to make it harder for women to get the care they need to have healthy pregnancies and healthy babies.\u201d\nIn the U.S., about 400,000 babies born each year before the 37th week of pregnancy are considered preterm. No one knows all the causes of prematurity, but researchers have discovered that even late-term \u201cpreemies\u201d face developmental challenges that full-term babies do not. Several studies show that health problems related to preterm births persist through adult life, problems such as chronic lung disease, developmental handicaps and vision and hearing losses.\nAfrican-American rates\nResearch also shows that African-American women are 48 percent more likely to bear a child prematurely than all other women. And African-American infants born with birth defects are much more likely to face severe outcomes, compared to other U.S. newborns.\nAfrican-American women in general are worse off than low-income white women, Stewart said.\n\u201cWe want to make sure that all babies have access to opportunities to be delivered at full term,\u201d she told VOA, \u201cthat mothers have the opportunity to have healthy pregnancies and deliver their babies full term, and we know we must do a much better job in African-American and Hispanic communities and in other communities of color,\u201d to make sure that solutions are available.\nThe report from the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the government\u2019s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that preterm rates rose in 17 of the 50 U.S. states, and that none reported a decline.\nThe incidence of low birth weight, a risk factor for some serious health problems, also rose for a second straight year in 2016. Again, rates of low birth weight babies were higher for African-Americans than for other racial groups.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Melinda Star Guido lies in an incubator at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dec. 14, 2011. At birth, Melinda Star Guido tipped the scales at 9 1/2 ounces. Most babies her size don\u2019t survive, but doctors are preparing to send her home.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1BF64EB0-A7A6-4094-8093-E7BFC19279F1.jpg", + "id": "5907_1", + "answer": [ + "the health of pregnant women and babies in the U.S. is getting worse", + "An alarming indication that the health of pregnant women and babies in our country is heading in the wrong direction. " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Melinda Star Guido ", + "babies" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_30_3922550", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_30_3922550_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who is the person with the blue tie in the image going to speak to next?", + "context": "US Expands Sanctions Against Russia, Ukraine Separatists\nThe United States Treasury Department announced additional sanctions Tuesday against Russia, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and individuals and companies associated with them.\nThe move comes on the heels of a White House meeting Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.\nThe increased sanctions is in response to continued Russian support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Prior to his meeting with Trump, Poroshenko stressed the importance of taking such action before the U.S. president\u2019s meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.\nThe sanctions will target 38 individuals and business entities linked to the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine. The penalties will remain in place until Russia meets the terms of 2014 and 2015 peace accords reached in Minsk, Belarus.\n\u201cThese designations will maintain pressure on Russia to work toward a diplomatic process that guarantees Ukrainian sovereignty,\u201d U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in a statement. \u201cThere should be no sanctions relief until Russia meets its obligations under the Minsk agreement.\u201d\nAmong those sanctioned are two high-level Russian officials, Deputy Economy Minister Sergey Nazarov and Russian MP Alexander Babakov.\nUkrainian President Petro Poroshenko, second from right, in the front, meets with servicemen at a military mobile hospital during his visit to Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 14, 2017.\nNazarov, who oversees Russia's humanitarian aid programs in separatist-controlled areas of Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, has been designated for materially assisting and sponsoring the separatist campaigns and advocating international investment in Crimea.\nBabakov, Putin's special liaison for expatriates, voted in favor of annexing Crimea in 2014 on the grounds that Moscow is obligated to represent ethnic Russians living abroad.\nRussia\u2019s largest arms producer, Kalashnikov Concern, has been designated along with a number of small Russian-owned banks for operating in Crimea, along with Oboronlogistyka, a Russian Defense Ministry subsidiary in charge of procurement and provisioning for the annexed Black Sea peninsula.\nKPSK, one of Russia's top corporate property underwriters, has been designated for insuring the Kerch Bridge project, which, if completed, would link Crimea and mainland Russia.\nThe action follows moves by lawmakers last week to pass a bill to limit the White House\u2019s authority to lift sanctions against Russia without congressional approval. The bill passed with 98 votes in the Senate and now moves on to the House of Representatives.\nThe Trump administration had pushed back against the Senate bill.\n\u201cI would urge Congress to ensure any legislation allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions,\u201d Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told lawmakers last week.\nUkrainian President Poroshenko said he received strong assurances of U.S. support for his country from Trump during Tuesday's meeting.\nTrump is expected to meet with Putin at the upcoming Group of 20 (G-20) summit slated for July 7-8 in Hamburg, Germany, under the theme \u201cShaping an Interconnected World.\u201d\nOksana Bedratenko and Oleksiy Kuzmenko of VOA's Ukrainian Service contributed to this article.\n", + "caption": "President Donald Trump, right, speaks during a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, June 20, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/74C7029B-B6C2-48EC-ACAD-13E472C2B962.jpg", + "id": "22716_1", + "answer": [ + "Putin" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_20_3909028", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_20_3909028_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who does the person wearing the uniform in the image have accounts of?", + "context": "Top US Military Officials 'Not Refuting' Russia Arming Afghan Taliban\nKABUL \u2014\u00a0\nDays after the brazen Taliban attack on an Afghan military base, top U.S. military officials are \"not refuting\" reports Russia has been arming the insurgent group.\n\"We continue to get reports of this assistance and, of course, we had the overt legitimacy lent to the Taliban recently by the Russians that really occurred late last year,\" said U.S. General John Nicholson, the ground commander for international forces in Afghanistan.\nNicholson made the comments Monday in Kabul alongside U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who made a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan, after stops in Qatar and Djibouti.\nFILE - U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, meets with the defense minister and other members of the Afghan delegation at Resolute Support headquarters, in Kabul Afghanistan, April 24, 2017.\nMattis noted Russia is choosing to be a strategic competitor in a number of areas, including in the war-torn South Asian country.\n\"We will engage with Russia diplomatically, we will do so where we can, but we will have to confront Russia when what they are doing is contrary to international law or denying the sovereignty of other countries,\" Mattis told reporters in the Afghan capital, where he also met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.\nDeadly attack\nThe U.S. defense secretary's visit Monday comes days after about 10 Taliban militants killed at least 140 people April 21 in the deadliest insurgent raid on an Afghan military base in 16 years.\nThe militants were dressed as Afghan soldiers when they arrived at the regional headquarters of the Afghan National Army in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province.\nFILE - Coffins containing the bodies of Afghan national Army (ANA) soldiers killed in April 21's attack on an army headquarters are lined up in Mazar-i-Sharif, northern Afghanistan, April 22, 2017.\nGeneral Mohammad Radmanesh, a spokesperson of the Afghan Ministry of Defense, said that the militants were allowed on the base without all of the proper checks after pleading for urgent care for a man in their vehicle who was covered in blood.\nThe Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation for the recent killings of Taliban shadow governors for Kunduz and Baghlan provinces.\nThe Afghan government is investigating the incident and, on Monday, President Ghani announced that Defense Minister Abdullah Habibi and Army Chief of Staff Qadam Shah Shahim were stepping down in the aftermath of the siege.\nMattis on Monday noted the \"barbaric\" nature of the attack and the challenges associated with the mission.\n\"2017 is going to be another tough year for the valiant Afghan security forces and the international troops who have stood, and will continue to stand, shoulder to shoulder with Afghanistan against terrorism,\" he said.\nThe defense secretary said there was a \"pretty low standard\" for the Taliban to join the Afghan political process, noting they \"need only to renounce violence and reject terrorism.\"\nLong-term US-Afghanistan policy\nMattis traveled to Afghanistan as U.S. President Donald Trump has directed a review of U.S. policy for the country and as Ghani looks to announce a four-year security plan for his nation in the coming weeks.\nU.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis looks out over Kabul as he arrives via helicopter at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2017.\nPossible elements of the four-year plan include the provision of up to 200 U.S. helicopters and other aircraft for Afghan forces, along with doubling the number of Afghan special forces, according to U.S. and Afghan officials familiar with the ongoing discussions.\nHowever, a U.S. official stressed to VOA on Monday that the Pentagon is still working with Congress and the White House to firm up the new administration's Afghanistan policy and financial commitments before making any final planning decisions.\nWhen asked by reporters Monday about deploying more U.S. forces to Afghanistan amid what General Nicholson has called a U.S. stalemate with the Taliban, Mattis said he was \"owed some degree of confidentiality\" on what he will recommend to Trump.\n\"Right now we are engaged in defining the challenge [and] the way ahead with a whole lot of nations. There is no one nation that is going to carry all of this,\" Mattis said.\n", + "caption": "U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, right, and U.S. Army General John Nicholson, left, commander of U.S. Forces Afghanistan, hold a news conference at Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, April 24, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0FD7E908-C0DB-4736-A0BB-6767EF8B8C6E.jpg", + "id": "14285_1", + "answer": [ + "Russians", + "None", + "legitimacy lent to the Taliban recently by the Russians" + ], + "bridge": [ + "General John Nicholson", + "John Nicholson" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3823356", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_24_3823356_1" + }, + { + "question": "How many others became like the body in the image?", + "context": "IS Claims Responsibility in Deadly Sinai Attack\nIslamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack that killed at least 23 soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula.\nIS made the claim late Friday in a statement on its website. Egyptian officials said a suicide car bomber had attacked a military checkpoint in northern Sinai earlier in the day.\nIn the wake of the attack, which occurred near the border town of Rafah, dozens of masked militants descended on the site in vehicles and shot at the 60 soldiers present with machine guns, security officials said.\nWhen the attack subsided, the militants apparently took weapons and ammunition from the checkpoint before fleeing, the officials said. Some militants were killed in the shootout, and some of their vehicles were abandoned.\nAccording to the IS statement, a second car bomber struck an army convoy sent to reinforce the embattled soldiers. That claim was circulated by supporters and picked up by the U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.\nThe Friday attack was considered one of the deadliest against the military in the past two years. Egyptian army officials said they had foiled other attacks in the area during the day, part of a coordinated effort.\nOn Saturday, meanwhile, Egyptian police said they had killed at least 14 militants in raids carried out at a training camp near Ismailia. Officials said the militants were wanted in connection with recent attacks on security forces in the Sinai.\nEgypt has been battling an IS insurgency on the peninsula since 2013, when the military ousted Islamist President Mohamed Morsi after mass protests.\nSome information for this report came from AP.\n", + "caption": "Men carry the coffin of a soldier who was killed a day earlier in the Sinai Peninsula, during a funeral in 10th of Ramadan, a city about 60 kilometers north of Cairo, July 8, 2017. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for attacking a remote Egyptian army outpost in the Sinai Peninsula.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A41FAC67-2E6C-474D-9ACC-BEE6871E2830.jpg", + "id": "18009_1", + "answer": [ + "at least 23", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "coffin of a soldier", + "killed" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3934158", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3934158_1" + }, + { + "question": "How was the person with the hat in the image fostered?", + "context": "Israel-Germany Row Shines Spotlight on Anti-Occupation Group\nTEL AVIV \u2014\u00a0\nFormer Israeli combat soldiers who were thrust into the center of a recent diplomatic row between Israel and Germany, say the sudden international spotlight has given them a bigger stage to speak out against Israel's 50-year rule over millions of Palestinians.\nBreaking the Silence is a group of ex-soldiers-turned-whistleblowers who view Israel's open-ended occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state as an existential threat to their country.\nSince 2004, the group has collected testimony from more than 1,100 fellow soldiers who describe the dark side of that rule, including seemingly routine mistreatment of Palestinian civilians stripped of basic rights. The veterans hope such accounts by former fighters will carry weight and spark public debate about the moral price of the occupation.\nPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top officials in his nationalist government have a starkly different view. They have branded Breaking the Silence as foreign-funded subversives who are trying to defame Israel and its military.\nMost recently, Netanyahu even seemed willing to rattle Israel's relationship with key European ally Germany to score points against Breaking the Silence, which has 16 paid staffers, several dozen volunteers and an annual budget of about $2 million.\nTwo weeks ago, he said he would not receive German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel if the visitor stuck to plans to meet with Breaking the Silence. Gabriel chose the soldiers instead. Netanyahu, who also serves as foreign minister, said that shunning visitors who meet with Breaking the Silence is now official policy.\nThe fallout continues this week. The dispute has cast a shadow over what would otherwise have been a routine Israel visit by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Media reports suggest Steinmeier will praise the group during a speech Sunday, but not meet with its representatives to avoid another spat with Netanyahu.\nYehuda Shaul, a co-founder of Breaking the Silence, said the recent attention has been a mixed blessing.\nThe focus on the diplomatic dust-up \"diverts a lot of attention from the real issue, what goes on in the occupied territories,\" he said in an interview at the group's office, tucked away in an old walk-up in a grubby industrial area of Tel Aviv.\n\"On the other hand, it gives us more stages to speak about it,\" said Shaul, citing more media attention and public speaking invitations that draw larger audiences.\nIsraelis have been bitterly divided over what to do with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands they captured in June 1967. Israel annexed east Jerusalem immediately after the war and retains overall control over the West Bank, with enclaves of Palestinian self-rule. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and has enforced a border blockade of the territory since it was seized by the Islamic militant Hamas two years later.\nMany Israelis support the idea of Palestinian statehood in principle, but believe it's not safe to cede war-won territories now. Fears were stoked by three Israel-Hamas wars since 2008 and an escalation of regional conflicts. Meanwhile, partition is increasingly difficult, with 600,000 Israelis already living on occupied lands and settlements expanding steadily.\nNetanyahu has said he is willing to resume partition talks with the Palestinians, but gaps remain wide. A majority of his Cabinet ministers oppose a two-state solution and some even call for annexing parts of the West Bank, raising fears among some Israelis that their rule over disenfranchised Palestinians will become permanent.\nShaul said he and his comrades are the true patriots, not those clinging to occupied territories.\n\"I believe Jews have a right to self-determination in the Holy Land. But I refuse to accept that the only way I will be allowed to implement my right to self-determination is if I strip my neighbors, the Palestinians, of the exact same right I demand for myself,\" he said. \"A permanent occupation is the most anti-Zionist position one can ever have because it says we are doomed to live in a sin.\"\nThe beginnings of Breaking the Silence go back to Hebron, the West Bank's largest Palestinian city, where hundreds of troops guard roughly the same number of Jewish settlers in an Israeli-controlled center partly off limits to Palestinians.\nShaul, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home, spent more than a year of his compulsory three-year army service in Hebron at the height of an armed Palestinian uprising of bombings and shootings that erupted in 2000.\nHe became increasingly disillusioned with his army mission, which he felt was largely aimed at making Palestinians fear him and his comrades. He said that while his parents and grandparents fought against armies to defend Israel, \"the stories I can tell you about is breaking into houses in the middle of the night to intimidate people and seeing children crying and peeing in their pants.''\nIn 2004, Shaul and dozens of members from his unit presented a photo exhibit about Hebron in Tel Aviv.\nSince then, the group has collected recorded testimony from hundreds of soldiers, including those who fought in recent Israel-Hamas wars. Some of the soldiers described an atmosphere in which the mission and safety of the troops trumped other considerations, such as the lives and property of Palestinians.\nMore than 100 soldiers have gone on the record, while the rest remain anonymous, for fear of repercussions, but are known to the group's researchers who check their stories, Shaul said. The research department was able to flag four false testimonies by right-wing activists trying to undermine the group's credibility, he said. All material is submitted to the military censor before publication to avoid inadvertent harm to Israel's security, he added.\nCritics allege that the group is hiding behind anonymous testimony to smear Israel soldiers and help Israel's enemies press future war crimes charges at the International Criminal Court. They say the group, which does not call for a boycott of Israel, nonetheless feeds into what many Israelis believe is a global trend of unfairly singling out and delegitimizing Israel.\nDeputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely recently said her office is urging European countries to stop funding what she called \"anti-Israel organizations,\" including Breaking the Silence. \"We will ask our friends in the world to respect this red line and to stop contributing to this organization,'\" she said.\nSome of the group's defenders in Israel said they believe it and other anti-occupation organizations are being targeted in an escalating government assault on Israel's civil society.\nAmos Oz, Israel's most famous living author, has said the ex-soldiers play a critical role in Israel's society, comparing them to biblical prophets who spoke uncomfortable truths. \"Moral impulse is a matter of utmost existential importance,\" Oz said in a November speech that media reports said would be cited by the German president.\n", + "caption": "Yehuda Shaul, front, co-founder of Breaking The Silence, and Irish author Colm Toibin visit Susiya archaeological park, south of Hebron, West Bank, July 12, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E2EFA4C3-AE3E-4D8E-B6AE-52FC8248CA70.jpg", + "id": "8506_1", + "answer": [ + "more media attention and public speaking invitations that draw larger audiences", + "in an Orthodox Jewish home" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Shaul", + "Yehuda Shaul" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841251", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841251_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the image with the blue coat concerned about?", + "context": "Europe Left Uneasy by Trump's Message\nROME \u2014\u00a0\nWhite House press spokesman Sean Spicer declared Saturday night Donald Trump\u2019s first overseas trip as U.S. president had been a success in a tweet posted as the American leader was flying back to Washington \u201cafter very productive 9 days.\u201d\nJust hours earlier President Trump told American troops stationed in Sicily he had strengthened bonds with allies.\nThat isn't how Europe leaders and most of the continent\u2019s media see it.\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel spelled out publicly her fears that the traditional western alliance is now under threat both from the Trump presidency and Brexit.\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nTrump Sends Mixed Messages During First Foreign Trip\nShare this video\n0:02:13\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:13\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 6.4MB\n360p | 10.2MB\n720p | 62.3MB\nSpeaking at a rally in Germany, she said: \u201cThe times in which we can fully count on others are somewhat over, as I have experienced in the past few days.\u201d\nWhile acknowledging that Germany and Europe should strive to maintain good relations with the U.S. and Britain, Merkel also said, \u201cWe need to know we must fight for our own future as Europeans for our destiny.\u201d\nPresident Donald Trump speaks to U.S. military troops and their families at Naval Air Station Sigonella, May 27, 2017, in Sigonella, Italy.\nEuropean reaction \u2014 especially in the key capitals of Berlin and Paris \u2014 to the Trump visit is very different from the White House\u2019s characterization; and \"success\" isn\u2019t a word being used.\nEuropean officials say they now are convinced Europe will have to go it alone more \u2014 something they expected would be the case after Trump was elected.\nFor them, Washington is no longer the dependable ally. And that broadly has been the view of Europe\u2019s press. Headlines all week have been providing a counterpoint to the White House version of meetings. Belgium\u2019s Le Soir headlined one front-page story: \u201cTrump shoves his allies.\u201d\nAnd Germany\u2019s financial newspaper Handelsblatt dubbed him \u201cBoor-in-Chief.\u201d\nDisappointment\nThe Europeans had hoped Trump\u2019s visit might mark a reset in transatlantic relations roiled by his election \u2014 that the U.S. president would be persuaded to see the world through their eyes more. But from Brussels to Sicily, there were uneasy smiles, awkwardness and no disguising rifts on a range of issues \u2014 from trade and immigration to sanctions on Russia and climate change.\nEuropean leaders and officials complained to the media that Trump and his advisers were ignorant of basic facts, notably on transatlantic trade. \u201cEvery time we talked about a country, he remembered the things he had done,\u201d one official told Belgium\u2019s Le Soir. \u201cScotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two-and-a-half years to get a license and that did not give him a very good image of the EU.\u201d\nGerman officials told S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung that Trump and his aides were under the impression America had separate trade deals with each individual EU country.\n'America First' message\nFrance\u2019s Le Monde newspaper said: \u201cDuring this visit, President Trump maintained his line \u2018America First,\u2019 refusing to take a step to improve U.S.-European relations.\u201d It faulted him for failing to make a clear statement reaffirming Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, guaranteeing mutual assistance in the event of armed attack, and for lecturing European leaders on financial burden-sharing.\nFrom left, British Prime Minister Theresa May, U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg listen to Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel as he speaks during a working dinner meeting at the NATO headquarters during a NATO summit.\nThe German magazine Der Spiegel pounced on the closing photo-op of a midweek meeting between Trump and newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron in which the two men appeared locked in a hand-wrestling match as a visual metaphor of the U.S. president\u2019s European trip.\nWATCH: Trump Meets French President Macron\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nTrump Meets French President Macron\nShare this video\n0:00:26\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:26\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 1.4MB\n360p | 2.3MB\n480p | 12.1MB\n\u201cThe Frenchman grabbed Trump's hand and squeezed hard,\u201d the magazine noted. \u201cTrump squeezed back. For a moment, they looked like opponents locked in a wrestling match. Trump wanted to let go, but Macron squeezed even harder until his knuckles turned white,\u201d was the Der Spiegel\u2019s description of an iconic almost sumo-like standoff between the two leaders.\nBody language\nOther European media outlets focused their attention on the shove President Trump gave Montenegro\u2019s prime minister, Dusko Markovic, in order to position himself to the front for a group photo-opportunity of NATO leaders.\nMontenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, center right, after appearing to be pushed by Donald Trump, center, during a NATO summit of heads of state and government in Brussels, May 25, 2017.\nAside from body-language, European media attention Saturday focused on the brevity of the communiqu\u00e9 concluding the two-day G-7 summit in Sicily Saturday \u2014 half-a-dozen pages long, compared to 32 pages last year \u2014 which many editorial writers saw as advertising the absence of consensus between the U.S. and the other G-7 members.\nTrump\u2019s refusal to reaffirm the 2015 Paris pact on climate change aimed at reining in greenhouse gas emissions was the headline dispute of the G-7 summit in the cliff-top town of Taormina on Sicily\u2019s Ionian coast, but European commentators noted that across the board there was very little meeting of minds.\nItalian newspapers noted the disappointment of Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in his efforts to get U.S. backing for a new partnership between G-7 nations and Africa involving aid and investment in a bid to stem the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean.\nDeadlock over climate change\nEuropean newspapers have now taken to dubbing the G-7 as \"G-6 plus one\" \u2014 a characterization prompted partly by German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s remarks on the summit deadlock over climate change.\n\u201cThe whole discussion on the topic of climate was very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory,\u201d Merkel said as the summit of the leaders of the world's most economically advanced nations was drawing to a close. \u201cHere we have a situation of six against one, meaning there is still no sign of whether the U.S. will remain in the Paris accord or not,\" she added.\nU.S. President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel speak with Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi as they attend a round table meeting of G-7 leaders and Outreach partners at the Hotel San Domenico in Taormina, Italy, May 27, 2017.\nThe Guardian newspaper\u2019s Jon Henley, the paper\u2019s European affairs correspondent, argued in his assessment of Trump\u2019s visit: \u201cIt may, mercifully, have passed off without apocalyptic mishap, but Donald Trump\u2019s first transatlantic trip as U.S. president still left European leaders shaken.\u201d\n", + "caption": "FILE - G-7 leaders, from left, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Donald Trump, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, pose for a family photo at the Ancient Greek Theater of Taormina, May 26, 2017, in Taormina, Italy. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/784A1091-35E7-435E-9F30-A4588C86E1E1.jpg", + "id": "3854_1", + "answer": [ + "the traditional western alliance is now under threat both from the Trump presidency and Brexit", + "the traditional western alliance" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Angela Merkel", + "German Chancellor Angela Merkel" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_28_3874324", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_28_3874324_1" + }, + { + "question": "What might the person in the image try to do?", + "context": "Britain's Top Diplomat Hints Assad Could Remain Syria's President Under Peace Deal\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nBritain's foreign minister says Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to seek another term as Syria's president if any agreement is reached to end the country's nearly six-year-long civil war.\nThe United States and its Western allies have long insisted that Assad must relinquish power in Syria as part of any peace agreement. But the latest remarks by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson could signal a possible major shift in policy by one of Washington's closest partners.\nNeither British Prime Minister Theresa May nor U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned Syria during their joint news conference at the White House Friday. Johnson did not accompany the British government chief on her visit to the U.S., but he discussed the situation in Syria with members of Parliament in London.\nTime to re-evaluate\nJohnson said the transition of power in Washington since Trump's inauguration should prompt all sides involved in the Syrian conflict to re-evaluate their positions. Taking note of the U.S. president's planned telephone discussion on Saturday with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, Johnson admitted that taking a new approach toward Syria would have potential drawbacks.\nBut speaking to the international relations committee of the House of Lords, the upper house of Parliament, Johnson said there is now a need to be \u201crealistic about the way the landscape has changed\u201d and seek a fresh approach to the Syrian crisis.\n\u201cIt is our view that Bashar al-Assad should go. It's been our long-standing position,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cBut we are open-minded about how that happens and the timescale on which that happens.\u201d\nSyria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to French journalists in Damascus, Syria, Jan. 9, 2017.\nMeeting with Bannon\nJohnson discussed foreign policy and other issues earlier this month with senior members of Trump's team, including chief strategist Steve Bannon, in New York. Long known as a gadfly within Britain's Conservative Party, and for his outspoken, irreverent views, Johnson was a journalist and served as mayor of London until 2016, when his strong support for Brexit, Britain's breakaway from the European Union, catapulted him into the job of serving as his country's top diplomatic post in May's Cabinet.\nRussia has sought to impose its influence as a power broker in the Syrian civil war, and Trump has repeated his desire to have a good relationship with Russia.\nRussia question dodged\nA White House adviser said Trump and Putin may discuss lifting U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia after its annexation of Crimea and support for secessionist groups in Ukraine. Speaking at his news conference with Britain's May, Trump did not answer directly when asked if he planned to ease any of the financial measures targeting Russian businesses.\nIf there is an agreement to end the civil war in Syria, Johnson said in London Thursday, Assad should be allowed to run for president in elections overseen by the United Nations. Russia and Iran have made similar proposals, saying Assad should be free to seek re-election during a future political transition period.\nThe 51-year-old Syrian government leader, trained as an ophthalmologist, has ruled his country since 2000, after the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who had tightly controlled Syria for three decades.\n", + "caption": "Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to French journalists in Damascus, Syria, Jan. 9, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/EAC1C1FC-5136-4C4C-BA1E-1B8A8F9D0557.jpg", + "id": "3426_2", + "answer": [ + "seek another term as Syria's president" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Bashar al-Assad" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3696043", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3696043_2" + }, + { + "question": "What happened to the person in the middle of the image?", + "context": "South Korea Execs Jailed in Scores of Humidifier-Cleaner Deaths\nSEOUL, SOUTH KOREA \u2014\u00a0\nA South Korean court sentenced the former head of Oxy Reckitt Benckiser to seven years in prison Friday after the company\u2019s disinfectant for humidifiers killed scores of people and left hundreds with permanent lung damage.\nThe Seoul Central District Court ruled that Shin Hyun-woo, Oxy chief from 1991-2005, was guilty of accidental homicide and falsely advertising the deadly product as being safe even for children. Seven years is the maximum prison term the court could issue. \nChoi Chang-young, chief judge of the case, said the disaster could have been prevented if Shin and others in the company, a subsidiary of British consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc, had tried to ensure the chemicals\u2019 safety. \nRetailers found guilty, too \nFormer and current officials at Oxy\u2019s research and development department were also sentenced to prison terms of between five and seven years. However, the judge acquitted John Lee, Google Korea\u2019s CEO, who was chief at Oxy Reckitt Benckiser from 2005 to 2010, citing a lack of evidence proving he knew about the products\u2019 risks while in charge. \nExecutives at Lotte Mart, Homeplus and other retailers were also found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three to five years for selling the toxic product without assuring its safety. \nThe consumer product disaster affected many households in South Korea, where infants and pregnant women often battle dry winter seasons with humidifiers, and the rulings could set a precedent for punishing businesses that put profit ahead of safety. \nHazard undiscovered for years \nThe fatal disinfectant was first sold by Oxy in 2001 and later by other companies seeking to tap demand from hygiene-conscious consumers. The hazards of breathing in the disinfectants were discovered in 2011, when authorities investigated mysterious lung diseases that were killing pregnant women and concluded the disinfectants were to blame.\nThe government halted sales and urged victims to come forward to report their cases. After prosecutors launched investigations, Reckitt Benckiser, whose products caused the most injuries and deaths, apologized last year and promised to compensate them.\nA family member of a victim of toxic humidifier disinfectants weeps during a press conference against the court's sentence in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 6, 2017. Family members and victims wanted harsher sentences.\nMore than 5,000 cases believed to be related to the disinfectant products had been reported to the government as of December, including about a thousand deaths. The government is still reviewing cases.\nA group of victims said Friday they were unhappy with the ruling because prosecutors had sought harsher sentences for those implicated in the case. Prosecutors had urged that Shin be sentenced to 20 years in prison. \n", + "caption": "Lim Seong-joon (center), a victim of toxic humidifier disinfectants, speaks to the media at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Jan. 6, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D67CD26D-AF62-4F2C-9EDA-A5E2229B0A92.jpg", + "id": "1530_1", + "answer": [ + "injuries", + "victim of toxic humidifier disinfectants", + " permanent lung damage", + "permanent lung damage" + ], + "bridge": [ + "humidifier", + "Lim Seong-joon", + "toxic humidifier disinfectants", + "victim of toxic humidifier disinfectants" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3665487", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_06_3665487_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people like the one in the image not do for others?", + "context": "Freed South Sudan Political Detainee Calls for Release of Others\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nA former political detainee in South Sudan says more than 30 such prisoners continue to be held against their will, despite a vow from President Salva Kiir to release them.\nLeonzio Angole Onek, dean of the college of applied and industrial sciences at the University of Juba, is calling on the president to stick to a recent promise and release 32 prominent detainees identified in December by rights group Amnesty International.\nOnek said living up to that pledge would be consistent with the August 2015 peace deal aimed at ending South Sudan\u2019s civil war. \n\u201cIf President Kiir really wants forgiveness, he should release all of the detainees\u201d as well as the prisoners being held by the national security service, he told VOA\u2019s South Sudan in Focus program.\nThe 32 men and hundreds of others were detained for opposing Kiir, the embattled president at the center of South Sudan\u2019s civil war. Rebel forces have been fighting to oust him since December 2013, amid accusations that Kiir has concentrated power in the hands of his own Dinka tribe.\nKiir used a national day of prayer last Friday to order the release of General Elia Waya Nyipoch and Major General Andria Dominic, both detained since last May. Onek said he considered the gesture a good first step.\nThe two generals were set free Tuesday, according to government officials.\nDire conditions for detainees\nIn May 2016, Amnesty International released a report detailing what it described as \u201cappalling\u201d conditions for South Sudanese political detainees. The report said most of the detainees were never charged with an offense, but were being held in dire conditions and fed only once or twice a day.\nFILE - South Sudan's President Salva Kiir, left, accompanied by army chief of staff Paul Malong, right, waves during an independence day ceremony in the capital Juba, South Sudan, July 9, 2015. Kiir is being called upon to stick to a promise he had made to relase a group of political prisoners.\nOnek, who was held at the Jebel Detention Facility between December 2015 and late April 2016, corroborated that report. He said that he was housed in a shipping container-like room at the facility.\n\u201cI could not sleep in the night. There was very little oxygen so my brain was kicking off and I was having nightmares,\u201d he said.\nOther prisoners lived in hot, crowded quarters, eight to a room, and locked up 24 hours, seven days a week, he says.\nOnek said the guards would not feed them enough. \n\u201cWe were eating beans and maize meal once a day and sometimes we had difficulty,\" he said. \"We cannot even have the one-time-a-day meal, we could go without food for two days.\u201d\nHe said he became very ill while imprisoned, and suspects other detainees have suffered similar illnesses, but have not been treated.\nBoth Onek and Amnesty International said they have received information that detainees have died in captivity, but Amnesty said it could not verify any deaths.\nOnek emphasized he was never given access to a lawyer or charged with a crime. He said during the five months he was imprisoned, he had no idea why he was there.\nBut now, he said he\u2019s ready to move on.\n\u201cWe do not want to dwell in the past, we want to go forward,\u201d he said. He suggests it would help if the government could accept responsibility for its abuses and pay the families of those detained, \u201cin a way admitting and saying, \u2018All of us have sinned, let us forgive each other and let us move forward,\u2019\u201d Onek said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A prison guard walks along a perimeter wall at a prison in Rumbek, Lakes state, South Sudan, Feb. 19, 2014. Supporters are calling for the release of 32 prisoners detained in South Sudan allegedly for opposing the government of President Salva Kiir.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9D377065-EBE2-42DB-89B2-300528A6C4F3.jpg", + "id": "23409_1", + "answer": [ + "feed them enough" + ], + "bridge": [ + "guards" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_14_3765558", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_14_3765558_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why was the person covering their face in the image exiled?", + "context": "Malaysia, North Korea Escalate Diplomatic Battle With Travel Bans\nMalaysia is barring all North Koreans, including diplomats and embassy staff, from leaving the country, while North Korea is banning all Malaysians from leaving its territory, as the two nations continue a diplomatic battle kicked off by last month's killing of the half-brother of North Korea's leader.\nThe decisions Tuesday followed earlier moves to expel each other's ambassadors.\nMalaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said North Korea is \"effectively holding our citizens hostage\" and that he hopes the decision is reversed immediately in order to prevent further escalation.\nThe North Korean move was announced by state television, saying its ban would be in place until the safety of its citizens in Malaysia is guaranteed.\nKim Jong Nam, the half-brother of Kim Jon Un, was attacked February 13 at an airport in Kuala Lumpur with what Malaysian investigators say was VX nerve agent.He died 20 minutes later.\nFILE - Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, gestures toward his face while talking to airport security and officials at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Feb. 13, 2017.\nMalaysian authorities have charged a Vietnamese woman and an Indonesian woman with murder, saying they were the ones who rubbed the substance on Kim's face.Police are still seeking several other suspects they believe are connected to the killing, including several North Koreans.One North Korean suspect was detained for several weeks before being deported.\nNorth Korea has not confirmed the dead man is Kim Jong Nam, and has rejected the Malaysian investigation in the case and any suggestions that it was behind the killing.\nKim Jong Nam was the older estranged brother of Kim Jong Un.Kim Jong Nam was once considered the heir apparent to lead North Korea, but he fell out of favor with their father, the late dictator Kim Jong Il, after a failed 2001 attempt to enter Japan on a forged passport to visit Disneyland.\nSince then, Kim Jong Nam had lived in virtual exile, primarily in the Chinese territory of Macau.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Kim Jong Nam, exiled half brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, gestures toward his face while talking to airport security and officials at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Feb. 13, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B990C230-E12B-4234-ADBA-A00CBDB3C50B.jpg", + "id": "3269_2", + "answer": [ + "a failed 2001 attempt to enter Japan on a forged passport to visit Disneyland." + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kim Jong Nam" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_07_3752660", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_07_3752660_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the left in the image disprove of?", + "context": "Russia: No US Coalition Jets Allowed in Syrian De-escalation Zones \nMOSCOW \u2014\u00a0\nA deal to establish \u201cde-escalation\u201d zones in Syria went into effect at midnight Friday (2100 UTC). Russia says the zones are now closed to aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition.\nU.S. Defense Department spokesman Major Adrian Rankine-Galloway told VOA on Friday that \"we certainly welcome any effort, any international effort to reduce the violence, to allow humanitarian assistance to reach those areas of Syria that need them, and ultimately a political resolution to the ongoing crisis there.\"\nHe continued with a warning: \"I should point out that there will be no sanctuary for ISIS.\" He said the work \"with partnered forces on the ground to defeat ISIS and to reclaim their so-called capitals in Iraq and Syria will continue unabated.\"\nAlexander Lavrentyev, Russia's envoy to the peace talks in Kazakhstan, said Friday in remarks covered by Russian media that \"the operation of aviation in the de-escalation zones, especially of the forces of the international coalition, is absolutely not envisaged, either with notification or without,\" he said. \"This question is closed.\"\nRussia, Turkey and Iran agreed to a Moscow-proposed deal Thursday to establish the so-called \u201cde-escalation\u201d zones in Syria to try to end the six-year conflict.\nRepresentatives of the three Syria cease-fire guarantor nations signed a memorandum to that effect at the end of the latest round of peace talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.\nThe proposal calls for taking measures to reduce fighting in four designated areas of Syria where rebels not associated with Islamic State terrorists control significant territory.\nRussian lead negotiator on Syria Alexander Lavrentyev, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura attend the fourth round of Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, May 4, 2017.\nProgress on peace?\nDespite what appears to be progress after four rounds of talks in Astana, there remains a great deal of skepticism about whether such a deal can be implemented.\nNo details were released on how the three countries, which support different sides in the conflict, would attempt to end the violence. And while the Syrian government voiced its support for the agreement, neither Damascus nor the Syrian rebels signed any deal.\nMembers of the Syrian opposition delegation in Astana walked out of the meeting Thursday shouting their dissatisfaction with Iran being part of the talks. The head of the opposition delegation, Mohammed Alloush, did not attend the second day of talks.\nThe rebel delegation suspended its participation Wednesday over ongoing airstrikes, but members returned to the table for the final day of talks.\nWhile Russia and Iran support the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey backs the rebels.\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as he leaves after their meeting in Putin's residence in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, May 3, 2017.\nTurkey - Russia agree on Syria\nBut during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s joint news briefing with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi Wednesday, Erdogan concentrated on condemning terrorism rather than Assad\u2019s government.\nDespite an earlier fallout over Syria, Putin declared a returning to normal cooperation with Turkey and expressed confidence they could set up \u201cde-escalation\u201d zones.\nBut analysts say there is much yet to be negotiated on Syria and remaining differences between Turkey and Russia.\nThe United States and some Arab countries back rebel groups that want to overthrow Assad. The U.S. sent its highest level official yet to observe the talks in Astana - Acting Assistant Secretary of State Stuart Jones.\nThe Kremlin\u2019s plan is similar to calls by U.S. President Donald Trump for \u201csafe zones\u201d in Syria, and Putin said Trump seemed to support the idea when the leaders talked Tuesday by phone.\nMore details, concerns and objections are expected to be aired in the coming weeks.\nKazakhstan\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the next round of expanded Syria talks in Geneva is set for late May while the next Russia, Turkey and Iran-brokered Astana meeting is set for mid-July.\n", + "caption": "Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, as he leaves after their meeting in Putin's residence in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, May 3, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/935573FE-6C27-4EA8-BFBA-FC8D1232D4B5.jpg", + "id": "564_3", + "answer": [ + "terrorism" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Erdogan" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_05_3839096", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_05_3839096_3" + }, + { + "question": "What did some of the people in the image instigate?", + "context": "3 Key Foreign Ministers Join Talks Aiming to Reunify Cyprus\nGENEVA \u2014\u00a0\nThe top diplomats from Britain, Greece and Turkey on Thursday joined U.N.-hosted talks aiming to reunify long-divided Cyprus, as the negotiators tackle crucial security issues for the east Mediterranean island where tens of thousands of Turkish troops are stationed in the breakaway north.\nThe arrival of Foreign Ministers Boris Johnson of Britain, Nikos Kotzias of Greece and Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey means years of efforts to reunify Cyprus have reached high-level diplomacy, tackling security issues for the first time. Security is pivotal to any deal to end the 43-year split because it strikes at the heart of fears among both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.\nThe ministers were hoping to make progress that could pave the way for their prime ministers to join, a possible signal that a wide-ranging accord also involving issues like governance, property and territory could be on tap. Britain is a former colonial overseer in Cyprus, and today operates two military bases on the island.\n\"The prime minister will travel to Geneva if there are signs that a resolution is achievable,\" Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos told reporters in Athens, referring to Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. A spokesman for Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said he, too, was waiting for signs of progress from the foreign ministers.\nEuropean Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres were also participating in the talks. Guterres was expected to speak to reporters later Thursday.\nTurkey stationed some 35,000 troops in the breakaway north following the 1974 coup by Greek Cypriots hoping to unify Cyprus with Greece. The minority Turkish Cypriots see Turkey's military might as their sole insurance against any Greek Cypriot hostility if a peace deal unravels, and insist on keeping the troops as part of a final accord.\nGreek Cypriots consider a Turkish troop presence as a threat and an instrument of Ankara's influence on the island. They insist that Turkey, which is not a European Union member state, should neither keep troops on the island nor have the right to intervene militarily in Cyprus, which is part of the 28-country EU bloc.\nGreek Cypriot President Nicos Anasastaides and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have been leading a string of delicate, closed-door meetings in Geneva since Monday to iron out a host of outstanding issues. U.N. envoy for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said Wednesday that progress has been made on a number of fronts, but that work remained.\nThe Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities exchanged maps Wednesday outlining the zones that each community would control in a hoped-for federation, before the maps were placed in U.N. vault for safekeeping \u2014 a sign of the delicate nature of the proposals to both sides.\nNeither Anasastaides nor Akinci have spoken publicly to reporters about the talks since Monday.\n", + "caption": "European Foreign ministers attend the Cyprus reunification talks at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 12, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6945E8CE-4E1D-47AD-B361-41F5BCE3B0C7.jpg", + "id": "24348_1", + "answer": [ + "efforts to reunify Cyprus" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Foreign Ministers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_12_3673362", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_12_3673362_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image trying to open up?", + "context": "Hospital Bombing Coincides with Thai Military Rule Anniversary\nBANGKOK \u2014\u00a0\nA bomb blast at the military training hospital in central Bangkok this week coincided with the third anniversary of the rise to power of the present military leaders in the May 2014 coup.\nThe 2014 coup brought an end to months of street protests against the civilian government led by Yingluck Shinawatra, with the junta promising early elections.\nMonday\u2019s bomb blast in a reception room of the hospital left 25 people injured, some seriously, from shrapnel wounds and broken glass.\nThe blast is the third since early April and so far no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.\nPolice investigators work at the lobby of Phramongkutklao Hospital, a military-owned hospital that is also open to civilians, in Bangkok after a bomb wounded more than 20 people, May 22, 2017.\nInvestigation of 'inhumane act'\nPanitan Wattanayagorn, a security advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, said the police investigations were making headway, accessing closed circuit TV footage and intelligence agency reports.\n\u201cThe incident may be conducted by some groups who are quite experienced so [authorities] are now beginning to narrow down the possibilities of these suspects [able] to make a bomb this way and to target a hospital this way, it comes down to just a few groups only in Thailand that can be able to do this,\u201d Panitan told VOA.\nThai forensic experts carry evidence as they leaves from a site of bomb blast at the Phramongkutklao Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, May 22, 2017.\nThe bombing was condemned by political parties and human rights groups. Thailand National Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaichit called the attack \u201can inhumane act.\u201d\nNew York-based Human Rights Watch said the bombing of a hospital that also treated civilians was \u201can unjustifiable act of lawlessness.\u201d\nPolitical parties and opponents of the military government were also quick to condemn the bombing.\nSpeculation about divisions in military\nBut Somarn Lertwongrath, a senior member of the Pheau Thai Party, denied politicians\u2019 involvement in the bombings, but adds the attack raises concerns of divisions within the armed forces.\n\u201cI think the military themselves have a problem now at the moment. I think there will be more attacks soon,\u201d Somarn told VOA.\nOn Tuesday reports said security officials had placed the northern city of Chiang Rai on high alert after the Bangkok bombing with stepped up security.\nGovernment advisor Panitan said \" it depends on the public at large if they feel threatened, if they [have to] change their ways of life, if they become the victim of these kinds of acts,\u201d Panitan said.\nFILE - Protesters push Thai soldiers with shields during an anti-coup demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand, May 25, 2014.\nTight control since 2014\nThailand\u2019s political landscape has been kept under wraps since May 2014, with the government making dozens of arrests of those critical of the government or of charges of L\u00e8se Majest\u00e9, through criticism of the Thai Royal Family.\nThe populist parties led by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra \u2014 himself ousted in a 2006 coup \u2014 and his younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra, frequently challenged the existing political order of military and bureaucracy.\nThis in turn triggered street demonstrations as pro-Thaksin governments faced accusations of corruption and abuse of power.\nSince 2014 the military has kept a tight grip on power by arresting activists, threating political parties and dozens have been charged under tough laws protecting the Royal family as well as a tight reign over the media and online websites.\nFILE - Thailand's former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, center, walks through supporters as she leaves the Supreme Court in Bangkok, Thailand, Tuesday, May 19, 2015.\nNew constitution will still have strong controls\nA new constitution passed by a referendum last year is being completed with the passing of organic laws through the National Assembly before a general election slated for late 2018.\nBut charter critics say tight constitutional restrictions over the role of political parties, a non-elected upper house or Senate, a non-elected prime minister, and military representatives in the senate, have all raised concerns.\nThe military has found support in the central regions, especially within Bangkok, after years of political street demonstrations.\nBut in the north and northeast, political loyalties remain with the parties linked to former Prime Minister Thaksin.\nCriticism of military rule\nUbon Ratchathani University lecturer, Thitipol Phakdeewanich, said the military\u2019s tough stance in the northeast undermines the political atmosphere ahead of the elections.\n\u201cWe need a democratic environment not a kind of authoritarian environment before democracy. Because everything is under control how can we ensure that we would actually have a good result in the elections,\u201d Thitipol said.\nBut Democrat Party senior leader Kiat Sittheeamorn said once a government is in place, opportunities for charter reforms may occur.\n\u201cEveryone now understands the situation a bit better, so whoever is elected to run the next government they will have to be very cautious, but yet at the same time they have to follow a certain strategy that is outlined [in the charter],\u201d Kiat said.\nThailand\u2019s democratic outlook will remain guided by the military, whose role in the parliament will extend over the next five year transition period.\nGotham Areeya, a lecturer at Mahidol University, said the military\u2019s influence will be extended for some time.\n\u201cIt would be democracy Thai military style for a while. So what I call liberal democracy has to wait. So the so-called Thai military style of democracy trying to impose itself through the new constitution and also through the control of the media, and they review legislation. So it\u2019s kind of a legal state \u2013 the use of law not really the rule of law,\u201d Gotham said.\n", + "caption": "Police investigators work at the lobby of Phramongkutklao Hospital, a military-owned hospital that is also open to civilians, in Bangkok after a bomb wounded more than 20 people, May 22, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6BD5FD6C-1043-4FD3-84AE-29D7D374ACBA.jpg", + "id": "19718_2", + "answer": [ + "TV footage and intelligence agency reports", + "None", + "closed circuit TV footage and intelligence agency reports" + ], + "bridge": [ + "police", + "Police investigators" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3866956", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3866956_2" + }, + { + "question": "How do people describe the person in the image with the blue tie?", + "context": "Russia's US Ambassador an Unlikely Figure at Center of Controversy\nRussia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, is a low-key veteran diplomat who associates say is one of the most unlikely diplomats to wind up in the center of controversy.\nKislyak, whose conversations with close associates of U.S. President Donald Trump have repeatedly embarrassed the new administration, is 66 years old, married, with an adult daughter.\nHe has been a part of the Soviet and Russian foreign ministries since 1977. His posts have included the Soviet mission to the United Nations; Russia's Permanent Representative to NATO; Russian ambassador to Belgium; and Deputy Minster of Foreign Affairs.\nHe has been Russian ambassador to the U.S. since 2008 and can frequently be seen casually strolling around Washington.\nMichael McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014, calls Kislyak \"a very successful ambassador who is \"underrated\" in Washington.\n\u201cI am impressed by him,\" McFaul told a forum at George Washington University on Friday. \"When I was in the government, sometimes he would drive me nuts because he was so active in developing relationships with individuals across our government. \u201c\nObservers describe Kislyak as friendly and say he likes to open the Russian Embassy for dinners and teas for journalists and Washington officials.\nKislyak once lamented that while Russia and the U.S. \"were able to to end the Cold War ... we weren't able to build post-Cold War peace.\"\nHe is also known for forcefully defending his government's positions. For example, he has denounced the mass demonstrations that ousted Ukraine\u2019s Russia-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014 as the \u201cunconstitutional forceful overthrow\u201d of an elected government.\nLike other Russian officials, Kislyak has also blamed Kyiv for the fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, which has killed more than 9,750 people.\n\u201cWhat is portrayed as a Russian aggression in reality is a war of the government of Ukraine against their own people. So I would advise our friends not to misrepresent what is happening on the ground: government forces killing Ukrainian citizens. Nothing else, and nothing more,\" he said.\nVOA's Nike Ching at the U.S. State Department contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, right, walks with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the U.S., as he arrives for the G8 Summit at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., May 18, 2012. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/742841EF-42F9-41B8-ABBE-E82EF6A24525.jpg", + "id": "7604_1", + "answer": [ + "friendly", + "one of the most unlikely diplomats to wind up in the center of controversy" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Sergey Kislyak", + "Kislyak" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748103", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_03_3748103_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image do?", + "context": "Indian Girls Hunger Strike to Protest Dangerous School Commutes\nMUMBAI \u2014\u00a0\nMore than 80 girls went on a hunger strike in northern India to protest the harassment they faced on the way to school, drawing attention to the dangerous commutes that are a key barrier to girls' education in the country.\nThe teenagers, from grades nine and 10, ended the strike after eight days on Wednesday, when the education minister of northern Haryana state said he would add two grades to their school so they would not have to go to another village to complete their high school education.\nThe girls said they were harassed by young men on motorbikes who made lewd comments, tugged at their clothes and took pictures of them on their mobile phones as they walked or cycled to school everyday.\nFor grades 11 and 12, the girls would have had to travel 3 km (2 miles) to another school. They had said they would drop out, as the extra distance would mean more harassment.\n\"A principal has been appointed, and admissions will start for the 2017-18 session on Thursday itself for the new classes,\" Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma told reporters.\nTelevision images showed the girls, in blue and white uniforms, slumped in the laps of their mothers and other students before they ended their fast. Some were hospitalized after they fainted.\nWhile literacy levels in India have steadily climbed as enrollment surged, the dropout rate remains high.\nAbout 18 percent of students dropped out before grade 10, according to official data. A survey by nonprofit Save the Children found the dropout rate for girls is as high as 70 percent.\nThat has led to an uneven national literacy rate of 65 percent for women compared to 82 percent for men.\nReasons for dropping out range from poverty to lack of facilities such as toilets, which affect adolescent girls more, said Soha Moitra, a director at nonprofit Child Relief and You (CRY) in Delhi.\nTo address these problems, officials passed the 2009 Right to Education Act promoting free, compulsory education for children up to age 14, and have introduced efforts to build more toilets under a national cleanliness campaign.\nPrime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed the importance of educating girls with the \"Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao\" (save your daughter, educate your daughter) campaign.\nBut the issue of unsafe commutes is unresolved, Moitra said.\n\"Especially in villages and small towns, students may have to walk through open fields and lonely neighborhoods,\" she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.\n\"Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable because of the lack of safe public transport.\"\nA 2014 poll by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked India the fourth most dangerous place for a woman to take public transport.\nWith a patriarchal society and cultural preference for sons, Haryana has among the lowest sex ratios with 879 females per 1,000 males, compared to the national average of 943.\nThe state also has a high incidence of violence against women.\nEarlier this week, Haryana police said a 23-year-old woman was gang-raped and murdered by men who smashed her skull with bricks.\n\"The issue is no longer if girls want to study. It's an issue of safety. If we cannot guarantee that, how can we blame them for dropping out of school?\" Moitra said.\n", + "caption": "More than 80 schoolgirls in northern India go on hunger strike, May 18, 2017, to protest harassment they faced on the way to school, drawing attention to the dangerous commutes.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0C0FC65A-676E-4079-8D26-43F10268D1F5.jpg", + "id": "4823_1", + "answer": [ + "went on a hunger strike", + "go on hunger strike" + ], + "bridge": [ + "schoolgirls", + "girls" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3855817", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_18_3855817_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is happening near the place in the image?", + "context": "AP Fact Check: US Budget Not Down Payment on New Border Wall\nThe Trump administration says its budget compromise with Congress includes hundreds of millions of dollars in border wall funding. Those funds might be for the border, but they're not to build the new \"big beautiful wall\" that President Donald Trump has promised.\nAn AP Fact Check finds that the White House is claiming that the budget deal provides more than it really does.\nThe funds included in the bill for border security can be used to repair existing fencing and barriers along the border. But those are merely repairs to projects that were started years ago under previous presidents.\nThe White House also says that attacks on border agents have decreased. In fact, attacks on border agents are up, not down. \n", + "caption": "FILE - Workers continue work raising a taller fence in the Mexico-US border separating the towns of Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, Jan. 25, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FAF375E8-D38F-431F-8CF7-269C2250EF67.jpg", + "id": "16514_1", + "answer": [ + " attacks on border agents are up", + "None", + "attacks on border agents" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Mexico-US border", + "border" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_03_3835977", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_03_3835977_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was used to cause the damage in the image?", + "context": "Palestinian Opens Fire in Israeli Market, Injuring Four\nPETAH TIKVA, ISRAEL \u2014\u00a0\nA Palestinian man opened fire in an Israeli market on Thursday, injuring four people, before being arrested by police, Israeli authorities said.\nPolice spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man from the West Bank opened fire with an automatic weapon in the city of Petah Tikva, 10 km (six miles) east of Tel Aviv. He shot two people in the legs and two others were also injured.\n\"The terrorist was captured,\" he said. \"We're trying to understand how he arrived in the area.\"\nA wave of Palestinian street attacks, including vehicle rammings, shootings and stabbings, began in October 2015 and has slowed but not stopped completely.\nIsrael blames the violence on incitement by the Palestinian leadership.\nThe Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies that and says assailants have acted out of frustration over Israeli occupation of land sought by Palestinians in peace talks that have been stalled since 2014.\n", + "caption": "A bullet hole is seen on the windshield of a bus at the scene of a shooting attack in Petah Tikva, Israel, Feb. 9, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0FF31BA1-D338-4C80-B582-58B498D472E2.jpg", + "id": "4556_1", + "answer": [ + "automatic weapon", + "an automatic weapon" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Petah Tikva" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_09_3716704", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_09_3716704_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image trying doing?", + "context": "Persistent Rain Stops Search for Indonesia Landslide Victims\nPONOROGO, INDONESIA \u2014\u00a0\nIncessant rains Sunday halted the search for at least two dozen people missing after a landslide swept into a village on Indonesia\u2019s main island of Java.\nFour excavators working under cloudy skies dredged the mud, sand and rocks, pilling the debris up to 20 meters (66 feet) high.\nChief of staff of the local army, Lt. Col. Jemz Ratu Edo, said two bodies were discovered before the search was suspended because of heavy rain. One body had been found Saturday.\nThe landslide hit 23 houses and farmers harvesting ginger in Banaran village in East Java province\u2019s Ponorogo district.\nSutopo Purwo Nugroho, the spokesman for Indonesia\u2019s Disaster Mitigation Agency, said 27 people were missing, while the local army chief, Lt. Col. Slamet Sarijanto, said that according to villagers, 38 people were buried by the landslide.\nRescuers from the disaster agency along with soldiers, police officers and volunteers are searching for the missing. Access to the site was hampering the effort.\nThe landslide, 800 meters (half a mile) long and 20 meters (66 feet) high, according to Nugroho, overturned vehicles, shattered and buried buildings, and left a massive scar on a hillside where lush vegetation had been torn away.\nSeasonal rains cause frequent floods in Indonesia, the world\u2019s largest archipelago nation, where many of the country\u2019s 256 million people live in mountainous areas or fertile, flood-prone plains near rivers. \n", + "caption": "Rescuers inspect the damage in a neighborhood hit by a landslide in the village of Banaran, Ponorogo, East Java, Indonesia, April 1, 2017. More than two dozen people were reported missing Saturday after the rain-triggered landslide struck a village on Indonesia's main island of Java. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/754C64E6-768A-4492-A293-335F17FCDC47.jpg", + "id": "19990_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "searching for the missing" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Rescuers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792770", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792770_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with glasses in the image do?", + "context": "Lebanon's Aoun Visits Riyadh to Mend Fences with Saudi Arabia\nBEIRUT/RIYADH \u2014\u00a0\nLebanese President Michel Aoun, an ally of Iran-backed Shi'ite group Hezbollah, flew to Saudi Arabia on Monday on his first visit abroad since his October election hoping to ease tensions rooted in the rivalry between Riyadh and Tehran.\nAoun would like his trip, part of a tour that will also take him to Qatar, to result in a lifting of travel advisories imposed by some Gulf states last year on nationals visiting Lebanon, which severely damaged its tourism sector.\nLebanon is caught up in regional rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Riyadh appeared to disengage from Lebanon over the past year as it became increasingly occupied with struggles against Iran in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Bahrain.\nIn each case, the two rivals back opposing sides.\nIn February, Riyadh cancelled a $3 billion aid package for the Lebanese army and also advised big-spending Saudis not to visit Lebanon, which relies heavily on tourism.\nThis coincided with a financial crisis at the Saudi Oger construction firm belonging to the Hariri family, Saudi Arabia's main ally in Lebanon.\nTensions also cast a shadow on the fate of an estimated 750,000 Lebanese nationals living and working in Saudi Arabia and in other Gulf Arab states, who transfer between $7 and $8 billion each year to support extensive families.\nTies began to thaw after Aoun was elected in October in a deal that also saw Lebanon's leading Sunni Muslim politician, Saad al-Hariri, appointed prime minister.\nIn a statement on Monday, Hariri said Aoun's Riyadh visit was an important step to \"normalize Lebanon's relations with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.\"\nWhile visiting Beirut in November, Saudi Prince Khaled al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca and also a nephew of King Salman bin Abdulaziz, invited Aoun to visit his country.\nThe Lebanese Presidency said in a statement that eight ministers would accompany Aoun on his visit, due to last until Wednesday. Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk, who is accompanying Aoun, said on Saturday that the president would discuss the military grants to Lebanon which were put on hold last year.\nAoun, who will meet the Saudi king, will also seek to activate economic, investment, aid and trade cooperation, including the frozen military aid. He said there would be a group meeting of all the ministerial delegation and then bilateral meetings between ministers.\nIn talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Lebanese delegation will discuss making the issuance of work visas for Lebanese easier.\nAoun was also expected to discuss possible Qatari help to free nine kidnapped Lebanese army soldiers believed to be held by Islamic State militants.\n", + "caption": "A handout picture released by the Lebanese photo agency Dalati and Nohra shows Riyadh governor Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz (R) greeting Lebanese President Michel Aoun (L) upon his arrival in Riyadh, Jan. 9, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/981FB237-8CF1-4A77-BE67-FB79933E3E5F.jpg", + "id": "7646_1", + "answer": [ + "flew to Saudi Arabia on Monday", + "flew to Saudi Arabia" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lebanese President Michel Aoun", + "Michel Aoun" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_09_3669443", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_09_3669443_1" + }, + { + "question": "What does the person in the right of the image going to do?", + "context": "Tech Titans Gather at White House to Modernize Government\nWHITE HOUSE \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump on Monday announced he wants to see up to $1 trillion of tax savings over the next decade by a \u201csweeping transformation of the federal government\u2019s technology.\u201d \nTrump told the American Technology Advisory Council in the White House State Dining Room that \u201cwe\u2019re embracing big change, bold thinking and outsider perspectives to transform government and make it the way it should be and at far less cost.\u201d\nA slew of high-tech heavyweights, some of whom have criticized President Donald Trump\u2019s policies, huddled at the White House on Monday as the administration kicked off its \u201ctechnology week.\u201d\nThe chief executive officers of 18 companies held meetings with White House and other Trump administration officials to generate ideas to attempt to transform and modernize government services.\n\u201cIn addition to the trillion in cost we can take out, probably we can add another two trillion [dollars] on the numerator in terms of digital business by getting the public and the private sector in full cooperation under your administration,\u201d Bill McDermott, the CEO of enterprise software company SAP, told Trump. \nAlso speaking to the group, one of the world\u2019s most successful venture capitalists, John Doerr, contended that there is also a \u201ctrillion dollars of value locked up in government databases. The Kleiner Perkins chairman told the president that \u201cif you set the data free the entrepreneurs are going to do the rest.\u201d\nJeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, the world\u2019s largest online shopping retailer, recommended government, for its transformation, \u201cuse commercial technologies whenever possible\u201d to save taxpayers\u2019 money. He also said it was impossible to overstate that investment is needed in machine learning and artificial intelligence.\nPat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer of VMware, right, speaks during an American Technology Council roundtable in the State Dinning Room of the White House, June 19, 2017, in Washington.\nThe CEO of cloud computing company VMware, Pat Gelsinger, echoed that, saying \u201cwe deeply believe that we need to be planting those seed corns for our children and grandchildren.\u201d\nMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella also agreed, saying increasing competitiveness could be achieved through government spending in research. And the native of India told the president the United States should maintain an \u201cenlightened immigration policy,\u201d noting he was the beneficiary of such a policy. \nThe corporate leaders at the table with the president on Monday cumulatively represented more than $3.5 trillion in market value, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters.\n\"Today we've assembled a very impressive group of leaders from the private sector and are putting them to work here today to work on some of the country's biggest challenges that will make a very meaningful difference to a lot of its citizens,\" White House senior advisor Jared Kushner said as the White House kicked off the day of meetings.\nKushner, who is President Donald Trump\u2019s son-in-law, says the goal is to \"work to modernize the government's technology infrastructure.\"\nWhite House senior adviser Jared Kushner welcomes technology company leaders to a summit of the American Technology Council at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, U.S. June 19, 2017.\nThere is outside skepticism about whether the president\u2019s goal \u2013 at least in monetary terms \u2013 can be achieved.\n\u201cI do not understand how or where that trillion-dollar number comes from,\u201d veteran Silicon Valley engineer Leslie Miley told VOA. \u201cThere is no basis for that claim so, as an engineer, I would not believe it until I saw a breakdown.\u201d\nThe sprawling federal government maintains more than 6,000 data centers, some of the systems stretching back more than a half century.\nThe Department of Defense is still using floppy disks in some of its computer systems, Kushner noted.\nApple CEO Tim Cook told Trump that computer coding should be a required subject in every public school and that \u201cthe U.S. should have the most modern government in the world, and today it doesn\u2019t.\u201d\n\u201cTim Cook is right, we should,\u201d Miley, who has worked at Apple, Google, Slack and Twitter, told VOA. \u201cHowever, with key leadership positions in the government unfilled, it's going to be difficult getting a strategy in place and executed.\u201d\nMonday\u2019s White House event included working sessions over four hours focused on citizen services, cloud computing, analytics, cybersecurity, big data, purchasing and contract reform, talent recruitment and retraining, government and private sector partnerships, H1-B Visas and future trends, according to a White House official.\nOther prominent administration participants included Vice President Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Gen. H.R. McMaster, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert, Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and three cabinet secretaries: Steven Mnuchin of Treasury, John Kelly of Homeland Security and Wilbur Ross of Commerce.\nOther participating Silicon Valley chief executives included Eric Schmidt of Alphabet (parent company of Google), Brian Krzanich of Intel, Steven Mollenkopf of Qualcomm, Shantanu Narayen of Adobe and Ginni Rometty of IBM.\nSeveral of those attending on Monday also were at a similar meeting Trump convened last December before his presidential inauguration.\nNotably absent from this second meeting was Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and SpaceX, who recently quit as an outside economic advisor to the president in protest of Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.\n", + "caption": "Tim Cook, Chief Executive Officer of Apple, speaks as President Donald Trump, right, and Jared Kushner, White House Senior Adviser, left, listen during an American Technology Council roundtable in the State Dinning Room of the White House, June 19, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/92D3858B-D412-4CD4-B618-A218EAB00D73.jpg", + "id": "7456_1", + "answer": [ + "transformation of the federal government\u2019s technology", + "a \u201csweeping transformation of the federal government\u2019s technology" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_19_3906936", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_19_3906936_1" + }, + { + "question": "What category of crime caused the incident in the image?", + "context": "Terrorism, Violence Killed Nearly 7,000 Civilians in Iraq in 2016\nThe United Nations said Monday that terrorism and other acts of violence in Iraq killed at least 6,878 civilians and wounded another 12,388 last year.\nBut the casualty figures may actually be higher because they do not include civilians who were killed or injured in Iraq's western Anbar province during the months of May, July, August and December.\nThe numbers \"have to be considered as the absolute minimum,\" according to the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).\nThe U.N. said civilian casualty figures for December are lower compared to previous months, despite noticing an increase in terrorist bombings toward the end of the month that targeted civilians.\n\"There is, no doubt, an attempt by Daesh (an Arabic acronym for Islamic State) to divert attention from their losses in (the Iraqi city) of Mosul and, unfortunately, it is the innocent civilians who are paying the price,\" said Jan Kubis, Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for Iraq.\nUNAMI reported that 7,512 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2015.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Citizens inspect the scene after a car bomb explosion at a crowded outdoor market in the Iraqi capital's eastern district of Sadr City, Iraq. UNAMI reported that 7,512 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2015. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A348E8AE-CF71-4CB2-B9BB-A855E2D1D3F4.jpg", + "id": "5927_1", + "answer": [ + "terrorist", + "Terrorism and other acts of violence " + ], + "bridge": [ + "A car bomb explosion", + "bombings" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_03_3660925", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_03_3660925_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was brought to notice about the person on the right of the image?", + "context": "Nunes to Step Down From Russia Hacking Investigation \nThe Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes says he is temporarily stepping down from the panel's investigation into alleged Russian hacking during the 2016 election campaign, after ethical complaints were lodged against him.\nThe House Ethics Committee is investigating whether Nunes may have made an unauthorized disclosure of classified information last month during a hastily arranged news conference.\nWatch: House Intelligence Chairman Steps Aside in Russia Probe\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nHouse Intelligence Chairman Steps Aside in Russia Probe\nShare this video\n0:01:45\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:45\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 5.1MB\n360p | 7.7MB\n720p | 45.8MB\n1080p | 32.5MB\nNunes said he had come into the possession of classified material that indicated members of Trump\u2019s campaign had conversations \u201cincidentally collected\u201d by U.S. intelligence agencies while surveilling foreign targets.\nNunes said \u201cseveral leftwing activist groups\u201d filed accusations of impropriety against him with the Office of Congressional Ethics, and he would temporarily step back from the investigation until the charges are cleared up.\nTwo government watchdog groups, Democracy 21 and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed the complaint, which alleges Nunes\u2019s characterization of what was in the classified documents violated House ethics rules, even though he didn\u2019t disclose the specific information found in the documents.\nNunes called the accusations \u201cbaseless\u201d and politically motivated, though he said he would step down from the investigation of the charges because it is \u201cin the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress.\u201d\nHe said he would continue to fulfill his other duties as committee chairman, but said Representative Mike Conaway will take charge of the investigation, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney.\nThe House Ethics Committee released a statement acknowledging the investigation, though it cautioned it \u201cdoes not itself indicate that any violation has occurred, or reflect any judgment on behalf of the Committee.\u201d\nAnyone can file a complaint with the OCE. It is up to the office to determine the validity of the complaint and forward it to House Ethics Committee when appropriate.\nNunes did not brief the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, on the documents before sharing them with President Donald Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan, a move that led Schiff and other Democrats to question Nunes\u2019s ability to run an independent investigation.\nSchiff said Thursday he was appreciative of Nunes\u2019s decision to step down and said it would give the investigation \u201ca fresh start moving forward.\u201d\nWATCH: Rep. Adam Schiff's reaction\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nSchiff's Reaction to Nunes's Decision to Temporarily Step Aside From Russia Probe\nShare this video\n0:00:58\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:58\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 2.1MB\n360p | 2.4MB\n480p | 14.0MB\n\u201cAs I understand it now, the materials that the chairman viewed at the White House, and that I subsequently viewed, are now being made available to the full committee. I think that\u2019s a very positive step, as well,\u201d he said.\nRyan also applauded Nunes\u2019s decision to step down, saying it would be a distraction if stayed on the investigation while dealing with the ethics complaint.\n\u201cDevin Nunes has earned my trust over many years for his integrity and dedication to the critical work that the intelligence community does to keep America safe,\u201d Ryan said.\n", + "caption": "House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., right, accompanied by the committee's ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., talks to reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March, 15, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BBCC549A-DDA9-4EB4-9DE3-E8E256CEC6EE.jpg", + "id": "28059_1", + "answer": [ + "ethical complaints" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Devin Nunes" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798824", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_06_3798824_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where will the person in the purple tie in the image go?", + "context": "Trump Sees 'Interesting,' 'Difficult' Talks With China's Xi \nWHITE HOUSE \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Donald Trump is to host Chinese President Xi Jinping beginning Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in the southern United States. But the atmosphere may not turn out to be as warm as the Florida weather.\nTrump telegraphed on Twitter his prognosis for his first encounter with China's president, saying it will be a \u201cvery difficult\u201d discussion, since the U.S. can \u201cno longer have massive trade deficits and job losses.\u201d \nAt a White House meeting last week, Trump told U.S.-based manufacturers they will find it \u201cinteresting\u201d to watch his meeting with Xi.\n\u201cI look very much forward to meeting him and the delegation. And we'll see what happens,\u201d Trump said. \nThe Chinese leader likely won't arrive empty-handed.\n\u201cI foresee that the Chinese will send Xi here with a pretty large and generous gift package, in terms of domestic infrastructure investment here in the United States, and help President Trump to create jobs that he had promised to the voters,\u201d Stimson Center Senior Associate Yun Sun told VOA.\nChinese President Xi Jinping, right, attends a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic at the Great Hall of the People, March 30, 2017 in Beijing, China.\n'Something crazy could happen ...' \nSome China watchers caution that not everything may go according to script, as this early in the Trump administration much is still unwritten. \n\u201cSomething crazy could happen unexpected, certainly. You know one tweet could change the trajectory of the meeting to some extent,\u201d says Scott Kennedy, deputy director of China studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). \u201cBut I expect it's going to be a lot of complaining without a lot of negotiation, specifically, and then the Chinese will leave nervous, anxious. And eventually the other shoe will drop.\u201d\nThere is a significant chance \u201cTrump makes a comment which Xi could read as a shift in U.S. policy,\u201d predicts Cato Institute policy analyst Eric Gomez. \u201cHowever, given Trump's struggle with facts I suspect that Xi will also place greater value on U.S. actions rather than words.\u201d\nGomez tells VOA considering the new administration's demonstration that \u201cits word is not always its bond, Xi would be foolish to take every statement at face value.\u201d\nThere is also a perception, both in Washington and Beijing, of an ideological split in the Trump White House between a nationalistic-driven, anti-China faction and a more pragmatic group, especially in terms of trade policy.\nWhite House press secretary Sean Spicer addresses reporters during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, April 3, 2017.\nMeeting a test for Trump\nSome analysts see Xi's primary goal during the visit is to get a sense of the man in the White House with whom he'll be presumably negotiating for years to come.\n\u201cThis is really to test Donald Trump's mettle,\u201d says Harry Kazianis, who directs defense studies at The Center for the National Interest.\nWhite House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has noted several \u201cbig problems\u201d between the United States and China.\n\u201cEverything from the South China Sea to trade to North Korea. There are big issues of national and economic security that need to get addressed,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cAnd I think there's going to be a lot on the table when it comes to that over the two days that they will talk.\u201d\nThe president, before getting to the White House last year, talked tough about China. He vowed punitive trade measures. But there has been no such action, so far.\n\u201cThe 45 percent tariff on Chinese exports to the United States \u2014 that has not happened. The currency-manipulator label that he promised has not happened,\u201d notes Yun.\nIn this Dec. 2, 2016 photo released by Taiwan Presidential Office, Dec. 3, 2016, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump through a speaker phone in Taipei, Taiwan.\nOne China policy\nChina's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, sent White House senior adviser, Jared Kushner, who is the president's son-in-law, drafts of a joint statement the two countries could issue at the conclusion of the summit, according to The New York Times.\nClose attention will be paid to any final wording on the One China policy \u2014 a highly volatile issue for Beijing, which considers Taiwan a renegade province.\nThe United States switched it diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing in 1979. But the policy was recently thrown into disarray when Trump accepted a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan's president.\nXi reportedly would not get on the phone with Trump until the U.S. president reaffirmed the policy.\nTrump's America-first agenda and desire to reduce Washington's global leadership comes as China is extending its reach around the world, noted the South China Morning Post, the leading English-language daily in Hong Kong, in an article headlined \u201cTrump vs Xi: prepare for a clash of views on big global issues.\u201d\nWatch related video report\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nTrump Sees 'Interesting,' 'Difficult' Talks With China's Xi\nShare this video\n0:02:23\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:23\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 6.9MB\n360p | 10.1MB\n720p | 61.7MB\n1080p | 44.9MB\nSome Trump stances favor China\nThe Trump administration is actually viewed as taking some stances helpful to China's goals, such as withdrawing the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact and, so far, it has not authorized any \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d exercises in the disputed South China Sea waters and airspace Beijing claims as its own. It has kept in place, however, some Obama administration polices Beijing does not like, such as reaffirming Washington's defense treaty with Tokyo that covers the Senkaku islands, held by Japan and claimed by China.\nOn the navigation patrols by the U.S. military, which China deems provocative, \u201cI wouldn't be surprised if the new administration would look to take more robust measures than the Obama administration,\u201d says Andrew Small, senior Transatlantic fellow with the Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.\nBut on territorial issues during the meeting in Florida this week, Small on VOA's Encounters program, predicted \u201cthere won't be a consensus reached on this.\u201d\n'Trade is the wild card'\nIt is a region, however, where the United States retains tremendous leverage due to its vast alliance relationships \u201cthat have withstood the test of time,\u201d compared to China only being able to point to North Korea as a significant ally, said Kazianis on the same VOA program.\nBut America's reputation in the Asia-Pacific region has been somewhat tarnished with the Trump Administration's rejection of the TPP.\n\u201cI\u2019m afraid China is the winner out of this new trade policy,\u201d laments Small.\n\u201cTrade is the wild card. If the administration takes the very hardline positions that Trump promised during the campaign, then America's China policy would be much more confrontational than it was under the Obama administration,\u201d says Gomez at the Cato Institute.\nThe senior advisor on China at CSIS, Christopher Johnson, expresses concern that top Chinese government officials regard the U.S. president akin to an Asian businessman or a potentate, \u201cwith whom they can sort of have a very transactional relationship.\u201d \nThat \u201ccaricature-like assessment\u201d could lead to disappointment for Xi, cautions Johnson, who expects President Trump to stand firm when it comes to his belief on the trade imbalance.\nKazianis agrees, predicting that when it comes to trade \u201cPresident Trump in private is going to take a very hard line.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, attends a meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic at the Great Hall of the People, March 30, 2017 in Beijing, China.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/C6828046-86BF-445A-81C6-5B9F1EF840B9.jpg", + "id": "19696_2", + "answer": [ + "Mar-a-Lago resort in the southern United States", + "Mar-a-Lago resort", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Chinese President Xi Jinping", + "Xi Jinping" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_04_3795213", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_04_3795213_2" + }, + { + "question": "What are the things the people in the image are requesting?", + "context": "Kenya Doctors' Strike Takes Deadly Toll on Poor\nNAIROBI \u2014\u00a0\nDoctors in Kenya's public health facilities have refused to work since December. They are demanding the government implement an agreement it signed in 2013 to raise salaries and improve working conditions. However, the strike is taking a deadly toll on the nation's poor.\nJared Ochieng lost his son Lamarck to complications from leukemia.\n\"If it were not for the strike, I would have not lost my son,\" Ochieng said.\nLamarck was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago. When he started experiencing complications in early February, the family took him to the nearest hospital, Kenyatta National Hospital, one of approximately 2,500 public health institutions affected by the nationwide strike.\nFILE - Doctors are seen operating on a cancer patient at a Nairobi hospital. The Kenya Cancer Association says it is getting reports of three deaths a week \u2014 a 50 percent increase compared to this time last year. (R. Ombuor/VOA)\n\"When I got there, the doctor who was concerned with the disease that my son was suffering from was nowhere to be found because of the strike,\" Ochieng said. \"I lost my son when he was in Kenyatta, when they were making arrangements to take the boy to Texas [Cancer Facility].\"\nThe center is a private facility in Nairobi, but the high cost makes it an option of last resort for many Kenyans. Some cancer patients have had to suspend treatment until public doctors return to work.\nThe Kenya Cancer Association says it is getting reports of three deaths a week \u2014 a 50 percent increase compared to this time last year, says program director Moses Osani.\n\"The doctors' strike has significantly affected the cancer patients in that most of them have had interrupted treatment,\" Osani said. \"For example, if someone had to go for a cycle of eight weeks and at the sixth week, doctors went on strike, then their treatment was interrupted, which means they probably had to seek treatment elsewhere.\"\nThe strike has also affected emergency medical services.\nJudy Nabwani says her son was hit by a speeding vehicle. Twelve hours later, she traced him to a country referral hospital where only basic first aid had been administered.\n\"He could not move or talk,\" Nabwani said. \"He was just lying there.\"\nShe said that a nurse told her the doctors were on strike and that the best thing to do was to refer him to a private hospital. He died before he could be moved. Nabwani said her son would not have died if he had been attended to on time.\nHis cause of death was internal bleeding due to brain injury.\nFILE - A riot policeman stands guard as doctors chant slogans after their case to demand fulfilment of a 2013 agreement between their union and the government that would raise their pay and improve working conditions in Kenya, Feb. 13, 2017.\nThe striking doctors have refused to resume work, even after union leaders were arrested. The government has said it does not have the funds to implement the collective bargaining agreement it signed in 2013.\nKenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union spokesperson Dr. Davis Ombui told VOA the union is pushing for much-needed improvements to the health system.\n\"So far, we actually empathize with the situation,\" Ombui said. \"We know many Kenyans are losing their lives. Even us as doctors, we have relatives, we have friends, we have family and it has affected us all. But the narrative we are sticking to is that we cannot go back and supervise deaths as it were.\"\nIn addition to raising salaries, the 2013 deal called for the government to hire nearly 5,000 doctors over a four-year period and equip hospitals with the necessary machines and drugs.\nHopes are high that negotiations underway will end the strike, but for families of the deceased, it is too late.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A riot policeman stands guard as doctors chant slogans after their case to demand fulfilment of a 2013 agreement between their union and the government that would raise their pay and improve working conditions in Kenya, Feb. 13, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/795D338F-9A30-481E-8DF3-026575422893.jpg", + "id": "6187_3", + "answer": [ + "Fulfillment of a 2013 agreement between their union and the government that would raise their pay and improve working conditions in Kenya", + "raising salaries, the 2013 deal called for the government to hire nearly 5,000 doctors over a four-year period and equip hospitals with the necessary machines and drugs" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Doctors", + "doctor" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742053", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_27_3742053_3" + }, + { + "question": "What does the person with sunglasses in the image want?", + "context": "Aerosmith's Nearing 50 Years But Plans to 'Keep Going'\nMUNICH \u2014\u00a0\nAerosmith may be approaching its 50th anniversary, but its members say the band's not going anywhere.\nFrontman Steven Tyler and Joe Perry both say the band will keep playing. That's despite the title of their tour, 'Aero-Vederci Baby!' \u2014 which seems to play on \"arrivederci,'' Italian for \"goodbye till we meet again.''\nThat appeared to hint it could be a farewell tour for the band after their run of dates in Europe.\n\"From my point of view, I think that we are going to keep going,'' Perry said, adding he wanted to see Aerosmith remaining \"pretty active over the next few years.''\nTyler joked that they simply couldn't think of another name for the tour and added that \"as long as the band is playing the way it is right now, it is going to be for a long time.''\nFrom left : Tom Hamilton, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer of the U.S. rock band Aerosmith pictured during a photo call in Munich, Germany, May 25, 2017.\nTyler also has joked that he's taken up smoking.\n\"I started smoking on this tour because the band sounds so good I have to do something wrong,'' he said in an interview last week ahead of the band's Munich date.\nFor now, Perry is looking forward to playing Download Festival in Donington in the U.K. on June 11.\n\"It is kind of like playing Madison Square Garden in New York City,'' he said, adding that \"you've got to bring your A-game.''\nNext stop for the tour is Friday in Krakow, Poland.\n", + "caption": "From left : Tom Hamilton, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer of the U.S. rock band Aerosmith pictured during a photo call in Munich, Germany, May 25, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/CC18A37F-9B32-44AC-9205-B56DD9ADAA1C.jpg", + "id": "23405_2", + "answer": [ + "to see Aerosmith remaining \"pretty active over the next few years" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Perry" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3881772", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3881772_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with glasses in the image uphold?", + "context": "Russia: 'Too Early Yet' to Know Whether Ties with US Will Improve\nThe Kremlin says it is \"too early yet\" to know whether U.S. and Russian relations will improve after hours of contentious talks Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.\nPutin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the tone of the Moscow meetings had been \"fairly constructive,\" and reflected a need for the world's two biggest nuclear powers \"to maintain a dialog to search for solutions.\" But he said Putin used the meeting to tell Washington why there is a \"deadlock\" in their current relations, chiefly in the dispute over last week's chemical weapons attack in Syria and the missile attack ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump in response.\nTrump declared Wednesday that U.S. relations with Moscow \"may be at an all-time low,\" a sentiment Tillerson echoed at a news conference after meeting with Putin and Lavrov. Tillerson pointed to a lack of trust between the two countries.\nOn Thursday, Trump adopted a more optimistic tone, saying on his Twitter account, \"Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!\"\nPutin told an interviewer on Russian state television on Wednesday that relations between the two countries have deteriorated this year since Trump took office three months ago.\nThe immediate point of contention between Moscow and Washington is how an April 4 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 85 people and sickened hundreds in Syria occurred. Tillerson said the United States is \"quite confident\" that it \"was planned and it was directed and executed by Syrian regime forces.\" But Lavrov gave no ground on the Russian claim that the sarin gas assault was either a provocation by Syrian rebels or was triggered when Syrian warplanes struck a rebel munitions depot holding sarin gas.\nCall for 'thorough, honest' investigation\n\"We have insisted that we have a very thorough investigation,\" Lavrov said at a news conference with Tillerson. \"We want an honest investigation.\"\nRussia's top diplomat said Moscow will not \"shield anyone\" responsible for the attack.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov listens to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, right back to the camera, during their talks in Moscow, Russia, April 12, 2017.\nTrump, in an interview, said Putin was partly to blame for the Syrian conflict, now in its seventh year, for backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he called an \"animal.\"\nTillerson's trip to Moscow represented the highest-level contact between the United States and Russia since Trump took office in January. The two countries are at odds over multiple issues, including Moscow's continued support for rebels in eastern Ukraine battling against the Kyiv government, and the U.S. intelligence community's declaration that computer hackers, acting on orders from the Kremlin, interfered in last year's U.S. presidential election.\nTillerson said Wednesday Russian meddling in the U.S. election was a serious problem that has been \"fairly well established.\"\nLavrov protested that Russia is the victim of \"very slanderous attacks,\" and added, \"I have to say once again ... no one has shown us a single fact. Give us the evidence of Russia's illicit involvement in U.S. politics,\" Lavrov said, \"and we will respond.\"\n'Potential' for improved relations\nThe U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian airbase last week escalated tensions in the Syrian conflict, Lavrov said. He added, however, that he believes Moscow and Washington have \"great potential\" to improve their relationship.\nThis satellite image released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows a damage assessment image of Shayrat air base in Syria, following U.S. Tomahawk missile strikes, April 7, 2017.\nTillerson said, \"We need to attempt to put an end to this steady degradation which is doing nothing to restore the trust between our two countries or to make progress on the issues of the greatest importance to both of us.\"\nThe U.S. envoy said the two countries \"have agreed to establish a working group to address smaller issues and make progress towards stabilizing the relationship. So that we can then address the more serious problems. Foreign Minister Lavrov and I agreed we would consider further proposals made about the way forward in Syria, including consulting with our allies and coalition members and we will continue discussions about how to find a solution to the Syrian conflict.\u201d\nAlexander Vershbow, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, professed a guarded optimism \u2014 with a caveat.\n\"I think it's a good thing that the Russians and the U.S. have agreed to re-establish the deconfliction line, because it's in no one's interest to have an incident in the skies over Syria that could make a very difficult relationship even more difficult,\" he told VOA during an interview at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. \"That being said, I'm not sure there's all that much meeting of the minds on what needs to happen to bring about an end to the war in Syria.\"\nFILE - NATO Deputy Secretary-General Alexander Vershbow speaks during a media conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, March 24, 2016.\nRegardless of U.S.-Russian ties, Vershbow, a former deputy secretary-general to NATO, said the April 4 chemical weapons attack precludes any political future for Assad.\n\"The problem of Assad is still very fundamental. It's not a question of 'we don't like him in the international community,' it's that the Syrian people, after all the destruction he has committed against them \u2014 and then even using chemical weapons despite supposedly giving them up \u2014 it's just inconceivable that he could be accepted as part of a solution by the people of Syria. So, Russia used to say they're not wedded to Bashar al-Assad, but it looks like they've gotten remarried again. And that's going to be a difficult issue going forward,\" he said.\n\"The situation is more difficult today, bilaterally, than it was three, three-and-a-half years ago, and the stakes are higher,\" Andrew Kuchins, a Eurasian affairs expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA's Russian Service, referring to Syria's largest chemical weapons attack of August 21, 2013. \"But I think that sort of structural dynamic [of U.S.-Russian diplomatic ties], and therefore the possibility of a way out, is still there.\"\nPutin: 'Where's proof against Syria?'\nPutin discussed the general decline in U.S.-Russian relations with the state television channel Mir before his meeting with Tillerson.\n\"It can be said that the level of trust at the working level, especially at the military level, has not become better, but most likely has degraded,\" Putin said. \"Where is the proof that Syrian troops used chemical weapons? There isn't any. But there was a violation of international law. That is an obvious fact.\"\nTrump had praised Putin as a strong leader during his long campaign for the White House, but on Wednesday he highlighted the Russian president's role in the Syrian civil war. \"Frankly, Putin is backing a person that's truly an evil person,\" Trump said, referring to Assad. \"I think it's very bad for Russia. I think it's very bad for mankind.\"\nMisha Gutkin of VOA's Russian Service contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, enter a hall prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia, April 12, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DE94B2DD-2FC5-4468-A3EC-2F1730AD86B1.jpg", + "id": "13216_1", + "answer": [ + "Russian claim that the sarin gas assault was either a provocation by Syrian rebels or was triggered when Syrian warplanes struck a rebel munitions depot holding sarin gas", + "the Russian claim", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Lavrov", + "Sergey Lavrov" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808576", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808576_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the name of the person who created the rubble in the image?", + "context": "Terror Plot in Mecca Targeted Grand Mosque\nAuthorities in Saudi Arabia said they averted a plot targeting the Grand Mosque in Mecca during the final hours of Ramadan.\nA man accused of planning the attack on Islam's holiest places blew himself up in Mecca during a gunfight with police, Saudi Interior Ministry officials said Saturday.\nFive people, including one woman, were arrested in a series of police raids in Mecca and in the kingdom's Red Sea port of Jeddah, police said.\nThe five people arrested were thought to be part of the same militant group, but there was no word on the identity or affiliation of the bomber who blew himself up on Friday. Saudi authorities stopped short of naming the Islamic State group as the source of the terror plot, but IS has a long history of antipathy toward the Saudi royal family.\nSecurity operations continuing\nSaudi Arabia's Interior Ministry spokesman, Major General Mansur al-Turki, told state-owned Al Arabiya Television the incident in Mecca was not the first potential terror attack that security forces had averted recently, but added, \"We hope it is the last, especially concerning the Grand Mosque.\"\nAl-Turki gave no further details, but said security operations were continuing.\nBoth Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah condemned the alleged plot against Mecca, which Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said was another sign that \"terrorism is rampant and growing now across the whole world.\"\nThis June 23, 2017, photo by the Saudi Press Agency shows the scene of a suicide bombing after a police raid in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Police said the bomber shot at them when they tried to raid the three-story house and then blew himself up.\nMessages of support for Saudi Arabia, as well as worldwide condemnation of any violence aimed at the Grand Mosque, poured in from throughout the Arab world.\nThe alleged terror plot leader had been staying in an apartment near the Grand Mosque for several weeks, authorities said. Anticipating a possible attack during the last hours of Ramadan, police raided the suspect's hideout Friday.\nBlast collapsed building\nAfter an exchange of gunfire seen by bystanders and Muslim pilgrims visiting Mecca, the alleged bombmaker set off an explosion that killed him and collapsed the three-story building where he was living in the central part of the city, in the Ajrad al-Masafi neighborhood.\nThe blast injured six foreign visitors to Mecca and five police officers, authorities said.\nThere was no word on when or how the plotters' attack on the Grand Mosque was to have taken place.\nSunday marks the feast of Eid al-Fitr in Saudi Arabia and most of the Muslim world, a celebration that brings to a close the holy month of Ramadan, a time of fasting and prayers.\nSecurity officials in Saudi Arabia have been on alert during the final week of Ramadan for possible attacks by jihadists who oppose the Saudi royal family's stewardship of the holy sites of Islam. The Islamic State group has carried out a number of deadly attacks in the kingdom in recent years, but did not immediately take responsibility for the blast in Mecca.\nIslamic State is believed to have carried out a suicide attack last year, on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, near the Prophet's Mosque in the city of Medina. Four Saudi security officers were killed during that incident.\nThe Grand Mosque in Mecca, the largest Muslim house of worship in the world, surrounds Islam's holiest place, the Kaaba \u2014 the black cube that Muslims around the globe turn toward when they kneel to pray.\n", + "caption": "This June 23, 2017, photo by the Saudi Press Agency shows the scene of a suicide bombing after a police raid in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Police said the bomber shot at them when they tried to raid the three-story house and then blew himself up.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F22CA556-70D8-40DE-B715-73AE0AAEBED1.jpg", + "id": "582_2", + "answer": [ + "no word on the identity or affiliation of the bomber" + ], + "bridge": [ + "bomber" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_24_3914153", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_24_3914153_2" + }, + { + "question": "What snubbed the people in the image?", + "context": "Libyan Coast Guard Has Dangerous Encounter with German Rescue Boat\nA Libyan Coast Guard ship picked up more than 350 migrants at sea Wednesday after a potentially deadly encounter with a German rescue boat.\nNo casualties were reported, and all the migrants rescued off the coastal city of Sabratha are safely back in Tripoli.\nA Libyan navy spokesman said the migrants were packed on a wooden boat. As the Coast Guard vessel approached, another boat from the German rescue group Sea Watch came dangerously close to ramming the Libyan ship.\nSea Watch was apparently attempting to drive off the Libyans, saying it is unsafe for the migrants to be taken back to Tripoli.\nIt is unclear if Libyan authorities plan to take any legal action against Sea Watch.\nTens of thousands of African and Middle Eastern migrants try to reach the European Union every year through Libya. They\u2019re looking to escape poverty, war and terrorism. Many die making the hazardous Mediterranean crossing on poorly built boats or pay human traffickers thousands of dollars only to be abandoned at sea.\nLibya has been in turmoil for years and migrants living there or passing through say they are subject to a range of abuses.\n", + "caption": "Migrants are detained at Abosetta base in Tripoli, Libya, May 10, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/762047FD-D431-4954-B9A2-5F1FB7A5F33C.jpg", + "id": "20237_1", + "answer": [ + "a German rescue boat", + "Sea Watch", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Migrants", + "migrants" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_10_3846820", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_10_3846820_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person wearing the hat in the image become?", + "context": "Russian Rights Activist: 'There Absolutely has to be Pressure from Below'\nMOSCOW \u2014\u00a0\nIldar Dadin, a 34-year-old critic of Kremlin policy from the Moscow region, gained fame not only in Russia but also far beyond its borders in December of 2015 when he became the first Russian to be criminally convicted for peaceful protest.\nEarlier, in 2014, the State Duma, the lower house of Russia\u2019s parliament, adopted amendments to the country's criminal code introducing criminal penalties for \"repeated violation of the procedure for holding rallies.\" In the opinion of many lawyers and human rights defenders, that decision by the parliamentarians directly violated the Russian constitution, which enshrines the right of citizens to peaceful street protests.\nDuring the period 2011-2015, Dadin was subjected to detention and administrative punishments for participation in protests, and these cases later formed the basis of the criminal case against the activist. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in December 2015.\nFILE - Ildar Dadin is shown participating in a rally in support of a detained anti-government activists at Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, Russia, April 6, 2014.\nIn the fall of 2016, Dadin said through his wife that he was tortured and beaten in the prison where he was serving his sentence, located in the northwestern Russian region of Karelia. That provoked a strong reaction in Russia and abroad. His case attracted great public attention and the activist was transferred to a prison colony in eastern Russia.\nIn early February, the Russian Constitutional Court ordered that the country's Supreme Court should review Dadin's case, but upheld the provision mandating the prosecution of repeated violations of the procedure for holding rallies. Later in the month, the Supreme Court overturned Dadin's conviction and ordered his release from prison.\nDadin was released on February 26, having served a year and two months in prison.\nIn an interview with VOA\u2019s Russian service, Ildar Dadin discussed torture in Russian prisons, street protests, human rights protection and the need for penalties for human rights violations.\nQuestion: How you have changed, having been jailed for exercising your rights?\nAnswer: The certainty of my belief in what I was doing has only strengthened. This is as it should be. Plus, there is the knowledge that a very terrible evil is taking place in our prisons and colonies that I previously did not know about. This further gave me confidence that I was doing the right thing, because this shouldn't happen.\nQ:How would you describe the work that you are now doing?\nA: I am fighting for goodness and justice. In particular, for laws and human rights here to be not only on paper but also implemented in reality. Because the law says that torture is prohibited, but in practice it is widely practiced in jails and prisons. On paper, we have it written that citizens have inalienable constitutional rights, but in fact it turns out that officials who view themselves as rulers and us as slaves trample on all our constitutional rights. They repress people who advocate that the government uphold constitutional rights.\nQ: What was the main thing that struck you in prison? What was the most depressing thing?\nA: The saddest thing for me is that these sadists who beat and torture people have devised a great many ways, a whole range of humiliations, to crush human dignity, to break a person. And also, the fact that these people are trying pass off these actions as being legal. They pass off as law pure mafia methods of pressuring a person, of breaking them by any means, outright banditry and evil. \u2026 These people are evil posing as good, and therefore are super evil. I am sure that this is primarily being done to subordinate people, to turn prisoners into slaves, and to rob those slaves.\nQ: How can the use of torture in the Russian prison system be changed?\nA: For starters, I think you need to achieve the principle of the inevitability of punishment, inevitability of accountability. For example, I now want to do everything possible so that people from the colony where I served time, who hold official posts and have used their official powers to commit crimes, are jailed, not only because they tortured me (while I was there, I heard them torturing, beating and mocking people), but because\u2026 the principle of the inevitability of accountability should be applied to other criminals, to other heads of colonies in other regions of Russia\u2026 In my opinion, as long as criminals who hide behind their uniforms and commit crimes are not jailed, it will be a direct example that they can continue to do this. My wife sent a letter from one of those incarcerated in IK-7 (the colony where Dadin served time). In January, the authorities there approached this convict and threatened: \"As soon as everything calms down we will cut your legs off.\u201d\nQ: How do you assess the prospect of street protests in Russia? How successful can they be?\nA: I do not know the exact answer to that question. Logic and experience suggest to me that nothing can happen generally without street protests, because there absolutely has to be pressure from below, from ordinary citizens. As smart and good as the human rights defenders may be, under the constitution, the power is with the people. It is precisely the demands of the people that need to be seen -- their statements that they are confirming the human rights defenders are telling the truth, that they agree with the demands of the human rights defenders. I think this is essential. Human rights defenders must be supported by the citizens on the streets. I now plan to engage in more human rights advocacy \u2013 to write complaints to government agencies that should uphold the rule of law, must prosecute criminals. But it seems to me that we should never move away from street activity. Ordinary citizens always have to validate these demands by human rights defenders.\nQ: Do you think that the system decided to punish you as example to others?\nA: I am 100 percent sure of this. Because they did not need to punish me personally, but above all wanted to show my example to others, so that they do not dare to participate in street protests. When I was still under house arrest, some of the boldest of my fellow human rights defenders came to me and told about how they had to set out for protests with an eye on this article (of the Russian Criminal code introducing criminal responsibility for \"repeated violations of the procedure for holding rallies\u201d) and count how many of them had been detained before. And in the course of the proceedings in the so-called Constitutional Court, in an explanatory note to the law that introduced this article of the Criminal Code, it was written that we need a repressive measure, because it is a \"stop measure\" to stop the protests, because people still continue to come out. The word \"repression\", \"repressive\" is definitely there; they they do not even conceal it.\nThis report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Russian Service.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Russian opposition activist Ildar Dadin (center) speaks to journalists as his wife Anastasia Zotova (left) smiles upon leaving a prison in Rubtsovsk, Russia, Feb. 26, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/40FC55B8-5B5B-41A5-8629-0722415A14CD.jpg", + "id": "28035_1", + "answer": [ + "the first Russian to be criminally convicted for peaceful protest" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ildar Dadin" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_08_3754895", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_08_3754895_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why is the man speaking in the image in this country?", + "context": "Britain Faces Migration Dilemma as it Looks to Commonwealth for Post-Brexit Trade\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nBritain has indicated that is will seek a so-called \"hard\" exit from the European Union, likely to include leaving the Single Market, the world\u2019s largest free trade bloc. The country is looking for new trading partners around the world, but the government will find it difficult to balance voters\u2019 demands for lower immigration with the need for new free trade deals.\nThe British government says its vision is of a more global Britain, trading freely with growing economies like India and China once it is outside the European Union.\nForeign Secretary Boris Johnson visited several Indian cities last week, eager to build bridges before Britain drops out of the European Union.\n\u201cWe may be leaving the EU, we may be we may be taking back control of our borders. But my Indian friends, I say to you, that does not mean we want to haul up the drawbridge,\u201d he said.\nBut critics say Britain is doing just that even as it asks India to open trade talks.\nTightening of visa system\nEducation is a major British product. But numbers of Indian students in Britain are falling fast, halving in just five years. India blames Britain\u2019s tightening visa system.\nBritish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during the International University Students' Parliament debate at Presidency University in Kolkata, India, Jan. 19, 2017.\nPratik Dattani is British director for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.\n\u201cIt is not all one way traffic, that the UK can sell internationally and not bring anything in,\" said Dattani. \"There has to be an open policy in terms of allowing immigration.\u201d\nThat could be a tough sell to Britons who voted to leave the EU hoping it would cut immigration.\nBritain is hoping for flexibility. At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Indian ministers voiced willingness to discuss a deal. But no formal talks can take place until after Britain has left the European Union. Even then, a deal would likely take years to reach agreement, says Dattani.\n\u201cIndia and the EU have been negotiating a free trade agreement for seven or eight years. And many of the areas that have meant it has taken such a long time have been asks from the UK itself,\u201d said Dattani.\nSeeking new trade deals\nBritain says it will look to the Commonwealth for new trade deals when it leaves the European Union. A Commonwealth heads of government meeting is due to take place later this year in London.\n\"That is an opportunity really for the British government to show the rest of the Commonwealth, of which India is a massive part, that Britain is open for business,\" he said.\nDespite the big ambitions, analysts say Britain will find it difficult to strike quick trade deals after it leaves the European Union. That has raised fears in London that businesses could face a so-called cliff edge the day Britain leaves the bloc.\n", + "caption": "British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during the International University Students' Parliament debate at Presidency University in Kolkata, India, Jan. 19, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BF8B3F1B-1947-4C41-80FA-94CD1A955AD3.jpg", + "id": "33426_1", + "answer": [ + "to build bridges before Britain drops out of the European Union" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_23_3687811", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_23_3687811_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the man in the image do?", + "context": "Japan First Lady's Praise for School Removed Amid Scandal\nTOKYO, JAPAN \u2014\u00a0\nThe Japanese first lady's endorsement of a private elementary school run by a man with ultra-nationalistic views has been removed from the school's website amid an escalating controversy over the low price the school paid for government land.\nThe property in Osaka was sold in 2016 for 134 million yen ($1.2 million), one-seventh of its appraised price, Japanese media reported. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has denied he or his wife, Akie, had any influence over the land deal. Abe, however, said he was aware that Akie served in an honorary position for the school whose president is a passionate supporter of the prime minister's views. \nThe same school operator runs a kindergarten with a curriculum said to resemble that of pre-World War II Japan. It plans a similar approach for the new elementary school, which is set to open in April, pending final approval by Osaka prefecture.\nThe scandal has dominated parliamentary debate, with opposition lawmakers summoning finance and education ministry officials to clarify how the school obtained the large discount.\nOpposition Liberal Party lawmaker Masato Imai told reporters that the land deal must be scrutinized further because it's the taxpayers' money. \u201cAs honorary principal, Mrs. Akie Abe has served as a billboard for the school with various problems. We believe she bears a responsibility at least indirectly, if not directly.\u201d\nNobutaka Sagawa, an official at the Finance Ministry, which oversees state land transactions, told parliament this week that industrial waste had been found on the land after the initial appraisal and the deduction involved the cleanup cost. He denied any illegality or political influence in the process. Officials said the waste removal was not compulsory, and they could not confirm whether the school had actually done it.\nAkie Abe agreed to become honorary principal of the elementary school, \u201cMizuho no Kuni\u201d (The Land of Rice),\u201d after her visit a few years ago to the kindergarten run by Yasunori Kagoike.\nTelevision footage from her September 2015 visit shows, she told the kindergartners' parents, \u201cMy husband also thinks that education policy here is excellent.\u201d\nIn a message posted on the school website, she wrote that she was deeply impressed with Kagoike's \u201cpassion for education\u201d and that the school's moral education fosters Japanese pride and strong principles among children. The message and her photo, which were on the website on Wednesday, were no longer there on Thursday. Phone calls to the school were not answered.\nThe school and Kagoike have also drawn attention over a note distributed to parents of the kindergartners that criticized Koreans and Chinese, prompting Osaka prefectural officials to question the school, which later apologized. Similar statement was also posted on the kindergarten website. \n\u201cI haven't done anything wrong,\u201d Kagoike told TBS radio interview on Monday. \u201cI think evil political power and non-conservative media are trying to crush our plans for a school that respects history and tradition, and is conservative.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Opposition lawmakers Kiyomi Tsujimoto, right, and Masato Imai speak to reporters after visiting Osaka, western Japan, this week to investigate a scandal on a new elementary school in Tokyo, Feb. 23, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/85E33312-0144-4C5C-A4BE-AEC6CE5B80F6.jpg", + "id": "14024_1", + "answer": [ + "told reporters that the land deal must be scrutinized further", + "None", + "told reporters that the land deal must be scrutinized further because it's the taxpayers' money" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Masato Imai" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_23_3736792", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_23_3736792_1" + }, + { + "question": "What event inspired the paintings of the two men in the image?", + "context": "Trump, Putin Set to Speak by Phone\nU.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are expected to have a telephone conversation Saturday. It will be the two world leaders\u2019 first talk since Trump was sworn in as president. \nThey spoke after Trump won the presidential election in November and said they would like to normalize relations between their two countries.\nThe U.S. leader has said he wants to have a better relationship with Russia and Putin than his predecessor, Barack Obama. Trump has raised the possibility of lifting sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama administration.\nTrump\u2019s critics are uneasy with his relationship with Putin. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has said Trump was Putin\u2019s \u201cpuppet,\u201d while U.S. intelligence agencies have allegedly briefed the president on Russia\u2019s interference in the U.S. presidential election to favor Trump\u2019s chances of winning.\nTrump rejects the notion he won the election with Russia\u2019s help.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Traditional Russian wooden dolls depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are displayed for sale at a street souvenir shop in St. Petersburg, Russia, Jan. 20, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A77841E7-3357-42B7-B8A0-22857A599D8E.jpg", + "id": "3590_1", + "answer": [ + "telephone conversation" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695150", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695150_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the man represented by the puppet do to upset citizens", + "context": "Argentina Announces New Gas Price Hike as Part of Fiscal Effort\nBUENOS AIRES \u2014\u00a0\nArgentina will raise gas prices an average 24 percent for consumers and companies starting April 1 in its latest bid to cut subsidies, control spending and reduce the country's high fiscal deficit, the government said on Friday.\nPrices will rise between 19 percent and 34 percent for homes and up to 46 percent for companies, Energy Minister Juan Aranguren said at a news conference.\n\"The increase will end up at an average 24 percent nationwide for the residential and commercial sectors starting tomorrow, April 1,\" he told reporters.\nThe government held a public hearing on the price rise on March 10. The Supreme Court halted an earlier attempt at raising gas prices in August, saying the government did not hold a required hearing prior to announcing the increase.\nThe Argentine government sets gas prices for the country and has been raising them over the last few months.\nPresident Mauricio Macri has implemented a number of market-friendly reforms since taking office in December 2015, including taking the country out of default to return to global credit markets and cutting subsidies after years of free-spending populism left a gaping fiscal deficit.\nHis government expects the deficit to fall from 4.2 percent this year to 3.2 percent in 2018 and 2.2 percent in 2019.\nProtesters gather at Plaza de Mayo during a demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 30, 2017.\n", + "caption": "Protesters march holding a giant puppet representing President Mauricio Macri during a demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 30, 2017. Unions and social groups are protesting the adjustment policies of Argentina's President. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/73D483F0-3DD7-4A26-955B-FDEDD4C559F5.jpg", + "id": "3897_1", + "answer": [ + "raise gas prices an average 24 percent for consumers and companies" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Argentina " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791567", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791567_1" + }, + { + "question": "What killed the person the people in the image are looking for?", + "context": "Mosul Battle: Searching for Bodies in IS Rubble\nMOSUL, IRAQ \u2014\u00a0\nLike most teenagers in Mosul, Iraq, Dhyab Idris Abdulghani dropped out of school once Islamic State (IS) militants took over and changed textbooks into pro-violence treatises.\nDuring their nearly three-year rule of his area, he sold ice cream and juice from a cart on the street.\nThen the war for Mosul came to their neighborhood. As Iraqi forces pushed in, the 17-year-old and his family ran. He held a small cousin while IS militants fired at them from behind.\nTwo weeks later, IS bullets still whiz down the street near where the teenager's body lay slumped against a wall amid personal effects of other civilians shot down. Children\u2019s shoes, photo albums and spare clothes are scattered over bloodstains in the rubble.\nHazzam Abdulghani, right, and his brother examine a body to see if it their 17-year-old nephew, Dhyab Idris Abdulghani, in Mosul, Iraq, June 15, 2017.\nIt\u2019s 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday and Hazzam Abdulghani can\u2019t tell if the rotting corpse is that of his nephew, but then, he spots prayer beads in a pocket. He holds them in the air and shouts: \u201cDamnation on Daesh!\u201d\nInside IS territory, the Arabic acronym \u201cDaesh\u201d is forbidden, but where Iraq is in control, only the pejorative term for the jihadist group is used.\nContinued fire\nHazzam Abdulghani's brothers, two other uncles of the dead 17-year-old, duck their heads and race across the street as IS continues to fire.\n\u201cThese were his prayer beads,\u201d Abdulghani said. \u201cWe need to call an ambulance to take him away.\u201d\nHazzam Abdulghani holds up prayer beads he finds on the body, cursing IS and saying he knows now it is his nephew in Mosul, Iraq, June 15, 2017.\n\u201cIt\u2019s been 13 or 14 days,\u201d the other uncles say, seeming more shocked at the state of their nephew's body than his death. They had tried to search this spot since he went missing, but it was an active war zone closed off by the military until now.\n\u201cWe are dying in so many ways,\u201d Abdulghani said. \u201cWe are dying by airstrikes, mortars and sniper fire. We are dying because we have no food or clean water.\u201d\n\u201cI have a friend in the Old City whose two babies starved to death,\u201d adds his brother. The three men nod. This is not an unusual story these days.\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nSearching for Bodies Amid Islamic State Rubble in Mosul\nShare this video\n0:01:26\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:26\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 4.0MB\n360p | 6.8MB\n720p | 37.3MB\nHazzam Abdulghani calls his nephew's father by cellphone to say the body of his eldest son, Dhyab, hadbeen found.\n\u201cWe will bury him, but don\u2019t bring his mother,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s too much.\u201d\nNot found\nA few blocks away, a family waits listlessly in a small patch of shade near a makeshift military base. Civilians aren\u2019t allowed further into the battle zone.\nLess than a week before, the family had fled IS, even though they were confident Iraqi forces would soon win the neighborhood.\n\u201cThere was no food and there was gunfire everywhere,\u201d said Waffaa Mohammad, as Sergeant Hussain el-Ghorabi of the Iraqi Federal Police joins the family.\n\u201cMy cousin\u2019s house was hit by an airstrike,\u201d she tells him. \u201cThere are 23 bodies still under the house.\u201d\n\u201cOnly one small boy of 8 years old survived,\u201d adds another cousin.\nAhmed Ghalibi, a fighter with the Emergency Response Division says the upcoming battle for Old Mosul, IS's last stronghold in the city, may prove to be the most difficult battle to date in Mosul, Iraq, June 15, 2017.\nGhorabi explains the procedures for finding lost bodies and gives Mohammad a number to call. \u201cIf they aren\u2019t here by noon, call me,\u201d he said.\nMohammad appears dubious. The family had been waiting on the edge of the war zone for four days. \u201cThey are all dead,\u201d she said. \u201cWe just want their bodies. Nothing else.\u201d\nNext phase\nIt is not clear when the next and potentially final phase of the battle for Mosul will begin.\n\u201cThis is the Old City,\u201d explains Hazzam Abdulghani, drawing a map on the top of an upside down garage pail as he waits for authorities to pick up his nephew\u2019s body. \u201cAlong the outside, there are parking lots. Even civilians can\u2019t drive inside.\u201d\nMilitary trucks and Humvees could never squeeze in, he said.\nThe areas that Iraqi forces have recently won may be larger than the Old City, he adds, but not nearly as many families were inside.\nThe United Nations estimates that 100,000 civilians may still be trapped in the Old City, IS\u2019s last and most tightly held stronghold here. More than 230 civilians have been killed by IS sniper fire in recent weeks, and hundreds of others from airstrikes, according to the U.N.\nCivilians who have fled IS in Mosul say the death tolls are far higher.\nIraqi soldiers say the Old City is surrounded, but the frontlines are fluid as IS continues to fight to expand, taken in Mosul, Iraq, June 15, 2017.\nAnd the coming battle could prove to be the most difficult fight Iraqi and coalition forces have faced to date, adds Ahmed Ghalibi, a soldier with the Emergency Response Division, an Iraqi front-line fighting force.\n\u201cThey will fight like someone who will die,\u201d he said, leaning on his truck under a bridge, where civilian families gather to be transported out of the war zone after they flee. \u201cThey have lots of guns that they haven\u2019t used yet.\u201d\nThe remaining IS militants in the Old City, he explains, are their best fighters, holed up with their families and bent on killing as many people as possible before they die.\nThe Old City is all but completely surrounded, Ghalibi added, but front lines are fluid, as IS occasionally advances into areas it once fled.\nNew, or rarely used tactics may become more commonplace as militants become more desperate, he said. They expect homes, and sometimes refugees, to be wired with bombs, more homemade chemical weapon attacks, and militants forcing families to help them try to escape.\n\u201cWhen ISIS started, they were attackers,\u201d Ghalibi said. \u201cNow they are defenders. They are defending their families, their religion and their lives.\u201d\nPhotos by VOA's Heather Murdock in Mosul, Iraq\nMosul Battle: Searching for Bodies in IS Rubble\n", + "caption": "Hazzam Abdulghani holds up prayer beads he finds on the body, cursing IS and saying he knows now it is his nephew in Mosul, Iraq, June 15, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6C260B56-5DBA-4A9F-8691-DBA595B638F6.jpg", + "id": "1694_3", + "answer": [ + "IS militants", + "IS militants fired at them from behind", + "IS bullets", + "airstrikes, mortars and sniper fire" + ], + "bridge": [ + "his nephew in Mosul, Iraq", + "Hazzam Abdulghani", + "Abdulghani", + "IS" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903616", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_16_3903616_3" + }, + { + "question": "Why do some people in the image not go to the place in the image?", + "context": "UN: Thousands of Children Traumatized by War in Ukraine\nGENEVA \u2014\u00a0\nHundreds of thousands of children are paying a heavy price in the three-year conflict between the government of Ukraine and Russian-backed rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk in the eastern part of the country.\nAlthough the war has taken thousands of lives and injured many more, the U.N. children's fund said the conflict has been all but forgotten by the world and become an \"invisible crisis\" to all except those forced to suffer from ongoing violence, abuse and deprivation. \nAmong those hardest hit are the more than 200,000 children living along the \"contact line,\" a 15-kilometer zone that divides government and rebel-controlled areas where the fighting is most intense.\n\"These are children that are surviving death, that are living constantly with the sound of shelling, that have witnessed death. Some children have even witnessed the death of loved ones,\" said Giovanna Barberis, UNICEF's Ukraine representative.\nFILE - A local resident holds his children in a basement which is being used as a shelter following shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.\nBarberis has frequently traveled to the contact line and seen the hardships and suffering of the children, who live in a state of constant fear and uncertainty. The trauma has taken a huge emotional and psychological toll, according to Barberis.\n\"Parents, teachers, school directors and psychologists describe striking behavior changes among children as young as 3 years old,\" she said. \"Children are very anxious. They wet their beds. They have nightmares. In some cases, they act quite aggressively and often withdraw from their families and friends.\"\nBarberis said some children no longer seek safety in bomb shelters because they think such attacks are \"normal now.\"\n\"Families and children are getting used to living in a very abnormal and exceptional situation,\" she said. \"But this does not mean that they cope well with the situation.\"\nEscalating hostilities\nThere have been multiple violations of the Minsk peace agreement since it was signed in September 2014 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics.\nIn its latest report on the situation in Ukraine, the U.N. Human Rights Mission found that a sharp escalation of hostilities between January 29 and February 3 had \"a devastating impact\" on all aspects of life for civilians living along the contact line. It said seven civilians were killed and 46 wounded in those six days.\nIn addition, \"Several hundreds of people are isolated and deprived of basic necessities,\" according to the report. The nearest grocery store is seven kilometers away, and children crossing the contact line have \"to walk up to three kilometers to go to school.\"\nFILE - A Ukrainian serviceman speaks with a schoolboy in the village of Chermalyk, eastern Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015.\nUNICEF's Barberis told VOA that it often was not safe to go to school, so children had difficulty gaining regular access to education.\n\"We have estimated that from the beginning of the conflict, something like 740 schools were damaged or destroyed,\" she said, \"and just these last few weeks, when we had the deteriorating situation of the areas along the contact line \u2026 something like seven schools were damaged.\"\nBarberis said children in eastern Ukraine require urgent and sustained support to help them come to grips with the daily trauma of war. However, she noted, UNICEF has received less than one-third of the $31.2 million it needs to support children and families affected by the conflict.\n\"Children should not have to live with the emotional scars from a conflict they had no part in creating,\" Barberis said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A local resident holds his children in a basement which is being used as a shelter following shelling in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6C68BADE-4903-4AA5-B5FB-E9A02B8D2A62.jpg", + "id": "31132_2", + "answer": [ + "they think such attacks are \"normal now.\"" + ], + "bridge": [ + "shelter" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_07_3801221", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_07_3801221_2" + }, + { + "question": "Why is the man on the right likely smiling?", + "context": "Ukraine Cease-fire in Effect But Doubts Persist as to Sustainability \nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nA cease-fire in eastern Ukraine aimed at halting fighting between Ukrainian government forces and Moscow-backed separatists went into effect Monday. Ukrainian officials, however, warn it is at risk of falling apart.\nUnder the cease-fire announced in Munich by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, both sides are supposed to abide by the two-year-old Minsk agreement and withdraw heavy weaponry from the front lines.\nYet, just hours before the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany announced this latest truce, a separatist leader was issuing military threats.\nAlexander Hug, chief of a monitoring mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, says there has been a significant reduction in armed incidents, noting that only small-arms fire was heard in the Donetsk region after the truce took effect at midnight, local time.\nBut Hug warned Monday that conditions for a flare-up were present as \u201cheavy weapons remain on both sides of the contact area where they shouldn't be.\u201d\nFILE - Tanks are seen in the government-held industrial town of Avdiyivka, Ukraine, Feb. 2, 2017.\nUnlikely to hold \nAnalysts say the cease-fire is unlikely to hold, given that the underlying causes for the conflict remain unaddressed. Ukrainian officials are also skeptical, saying this truce will likely follow the pattern of the previous four cease-fires -- an immediate, but short-lived, reduction in violence, followed by an increase in clashes.\nThe previous cease-fires in a conflict that has left nearly 10,000 dead lasted for little more than a day.\nLate Sunday, before the cease-fire went into effect, the warring sides traded mortar fire around the government-held town of Avdiyivka on the outskirts of Donetsk.\nOn Friday, Oleksandr Zakharchenko, leader of the Moscow-backed separatists in Donetsk Oblast, announced he was not bound by any deal involving the withdrawal of heavy weapons from the front. He also claimed the Ukrainian military will try to seize settlements in the buffer zone under the guise of the truce.\nA key condition in the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements, which were mediated by Moscow and European governments, is that neither side should retain heavy weapons in the \u201ccontact area.\u201d As reaffirmed in the cease-fire deal, both sides are to withdraw artillery systems with calibers of 100mm or more 50 kilometers from the contact line. Grad multiple rocket launchers may be no closer than 70 kilometers, while larger missile systems have to be at least 140 kilometers from the front.\nA Ukrainian soldier shows pieces of shrapnel in a crater left by an explosion in Avdiivka, Ukraine, Jan. 31, 2017.\nRussian maneuvers \nOvershadowing the cease-fire are growing concerns in Ukraine that Moscow is maneuvering to pressure or persuade the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to accept a trade-off for peace in east Ukraine. The New York Times reported Sunday that Trump\u2019s personal lawyer and a former business associate met with a pro-Moscow Ukrainian lawmaker last month in New York to discuss a peace plan that involves the de facto recognition of Russia's annexation of Crimea.\nKremlin officials maintain they had no knowledge of the meeting and called the peace plan absurd. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to talk about,\u201d President Vladimir Putin\u2019s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.\nBut Ukrainian officials told VOA they fear Moscow's maneuvers and worry some Trump advisers are eager to use Ukraine as a bargaining chip in a bigger strategic play to reset U.S.-Russian relations.\nAsked about the meeting, Ukraine's ambassador to Britain, Natalia Galibarenko, told the BBC: \u201cWe are not trading our territories. We are not going to say, \u2018Let us abandon Crimea and in return, let us see peace in Donbas'.\u201d\n\"Donbas\" refers to the part of southeastern Ukraine that encompasses the country's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.\nUnited States Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko meet for bilateral talks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 18, 2017.\nUS support \nOver the weekend, before the New York Times story was published, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko attended a security conference in Munich, where he met with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Poroshenko was upbeat, emphasizing that he was reassured by firm pledges of support from Pence.\n\u201cWe have once again received a powerful signal that the U.S.A. stands with Ukraine, that Ukraine is among the top priorities for the new U.S. administration,\" Poroshenko said. \"The issue of Crimea and decisive struggle for the liberation of Crimea also remain among priorities.\"\nThe White House also stressed solidarity with Ukraine.\n\u201cThe Vice President underscored U.S. support for Ukraine\u2019s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and self-determination and underlined that the United States does not recognize Russia\u2019s occupation and attempted annexation of the Crimean peninsula,\u201d according to a White House statement.\nDozens have died in the Donbas region in recent weeks amid an escalation in fighting there between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists, especially around Avdiyivka.\nTravel documents \nMeanwhile, Putin signed an order recognizing travel documents issued by the de facto separatist authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, further raising Ukrainian doubts about the sustainability of the truce. The Ukrainians claim the order effectively means Moscow has broken the Minsk agreement.\nBut the Kremlin argues the order only temporarily recognizes the separatist-issued documents and is in response to humanitarian need. The OSCE has warned the decision could reduce the chances that the cease-fire will hold.\n", + "caption": "United States Vice President Mike Pence, left, and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko meet for bilateral talks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Feb. 18, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6EC38303-68C7-49CA-B0D7-A1AC2C0C328F.jpg", + "id": "21146_4", + "answer": [ + "he was reassured by firm pledges of support from Pence" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Poroshenko " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_20_3732028", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_20_3732028_4" + }, + { + "question": "What does the person with the red tie in the image believe is the cause of the trouble?", + "context": "FBI: US Soldier Arrested for Trying to Help IS Has Long History of Threats \nThe FBI says an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant arrested for allegedly trying to help Islamic State has a long history of making threats and pro-extremist statements.\nIkaika Kang has made his first court appearance in Honolulu and was ordered to remain behind bars.\nUndercover FBI agents posing as Islamic State contacts arrested Kang on Saturday after he allegedly pledged his loyalty to IS, talked about wanting to \"kill a bunch of people.\" He had also gone shopping with an undercover agent for a drone to give to IS fighters.\nAccording to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court, the Army reprimanded Kang as early as 2011 for threatening to kill fellow soldiers and praising Islamic militants.\nKang had lost his military security clearance in 2012 and later had it reinstated.\nThe FBI says the Army feared Kang was becoming radicalized and turned his case over to federal investigators in 2016.\nSince then, Kang allegedly said the Pulse shooter who killed 49 at a gay nightclub in Orlando \"did what he had to do.\" Kang has also been heard lauding Hitler and calling for the mass murder of Jews.\nThe FBI says Kang turned over classified military documents to an undercover agent posing as an Islamic State member.\nKang was an air traffic controller at Wheeler Army Airfield in Hawaii. He had served in Iraq and Afghanistan.\nKang's court-appointed lawyer, Birney Bervar, said his client may be suffering from combat-related mental health issues.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Birney Bervar, center, addresses reporters outside the federal courthouse in Honolulu, July 10, 2017. Bervar was appointed the attorney for Ikaika Kang, a 34-year-old active duty soldier who has been accused of trying to aid the Islamic State.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FB32A42E-D75E-4D51-86DA-230B170DB586.jpg", + "id": "28895_1", + "answer": [ + "combat-related mental health issues" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Birney Bervar" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_11_3938119", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_11_3938119_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the purpose of the thing the people in the image are against?", + "context": "Revised US Travel Ban Triggers Mixed Reaction\nIraq, now removed from U.S. travel restrictions, praised the new executive order President Donald Trump signed Monday, while Sudan, still included in the ban, reaffirmed its opposition to the measure.\nIraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Jamal, in comments to the Associated Press, said the revised U.S. order removing Iraq from the ban list will \"enhance\" U.S.-Iraqi cooperation in the fight against Islamic State extremists. \nSecretary of State Rex Tillerson said Iraq's removal followed a State Department review on improving vetting of Iraqi citizens in collaboration with the Iraqi government.\nThe order's 90-day ban on the issuance of new visas applies now to citizens of six majority-Muslim countries \u2014 Iran, Syria, Yemen, Libya, Somalia and Sudan.\nAfrican leaders express disappointment\nThe Sudanese foreign ministry issued a statement Tuesday expressing regret and disappointment at Trump's order.\n\"Khartoum is furious because it is involved in a process that was supposed to lead to all U.S. sanctions being lifted,\" said Mohamed Naji, managing editor of the Sudan Tribune news website in Paris. \"This long negotiation began under President George W. Bush. ... In this context, Khartoum is wondering if there has been a setback in the process, especially given that President Trump's executive order lists Sudan among states sponsoring terrorism.\"\nIn Nigeria, the government released a travel advisory suggesting people to postpone any plans to go to the United States until the Trump administration's immigration policy is clear.\nAbike Dabiri-Erewa, senior special assistant on foreign affairs and diaspora to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, said the advisory is about telling people to be cautious.\n\"Just in the last few weeks, we had a few cases of people that were sent back from the airport, basically visitors coming into America, sent back from the airport to their country,\" he said. \"So we are saying that if your trip is not that essential, maybe you should just watch and see.\"\nHomeland Security Secretary John Kelly delivers remarks on issues related to visas and travel after U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban order in Washington, March 6, 2017.\nRepublicans laud ban, Democrats criticize\nBack in the United States, several key congressional Republicans congratulated the Trump administration for its revisions to the order, while a leading Democrat and several human rights organizations sharply criticized it as \"racist and anti-Islamic.\"\nThe split had House Speaker Paul Ryan praising the new order, saying it advances \"our shared goal\" of protecting the United States. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he believes the new directive, unlike the earlier order, will not be seen as a religious ban and will pass legal scrutiny. The previous executive order was suspended following legal challenges and the revised version was aimed at overcoming those objections.\nGraham said he believed the new order to be \"a ban on individuals coming from compromised governments and failed states.\"\nDemocratic Senator Bernie Sanders voiced sharp disagreement with his Republican colleagues, describing the new ban as singling out Muslims in \"an attempt to divide us up.\"\n\"This isn't about keeping America safe,\" Sanders said.\"A president who respected our traditions of religious freedom would not have resorted to hateful, anti-Islamic rhetoric to justify [the] ban.\"\nPeople gather to protest President Trump's new travel ban order in Lafayette Park outside the White House, March 6, 2017.\nRefugee organization calls ban 'gift for extremists'\nThe International Rescue Committee, which provides humanitarian aid to 40 countries and resettles vetted refugees in 28 U.S. cities, described the new order as a threat to 60,000 already-vetted refugees left stranded in crisis zones.\n\"This ban doesn't target those who are the greatest security risk, but those least able to advocate for themselves,\" the IRC said in a statement. \"Instead of making us safer, it serves as a gift for extremists who seek to undermine America.\"\nThe IRC also touted the U.S. resettlement program, saying it is regarded as \"the world's most successful and secure.\" It said there has not been a deadly terrorist attack by a refugee since the U.S. resettlement program was launched in 1980. \nAmnesty International described Trump's replacement order as \"the same hate and fear with new packaging.\" An Amnesty statement also warned that the order will generate \"extreme fear ... for thousands of families by, once again, putting anti-Muslim hatred into policy.\"\n", + "caption": "People gather to protest President Trump's new travel ban order in Lafayette Park outside the White House, March 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F829E330-4EAB-4B25-BDEB-29B0CEA5B482.jpg", + "id": "6782_3", + "answer": [ + "\"enhance\" U.S.-Iraqi cooperation in the fight against Islamic State extremists.", + "ban on the issuance of new visas" + ], + "bridge": [ + "ban", + "new travel ban order" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_06_3752057", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_06_3752057_3" + }, + { + "question": "Who is responsible for having the photos in the image displayed?", + "context": "9/11 Tribute Museum Expands Space for Personal Stories\nNEW YORK \u2014\u00a0\nA museum that tells the stories of the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks will reopen Tuesday in a new space, a little farther from the World Trade Center memorial but with triple the exhibition space of the temporary quarters it occupied for a decade.\nThe 9/11 Tribute Museum was originally founded in 2006 as a temporary shrine to the victims in the years that the larger, better known National September 11 Memorial and Museum was under construction and even after it opened in 2011. \nThe Tribute Museum offered daily guided tours of the rebuilt World Trade Center site led by people with close personal connections to the tragedy, including attack survivors, first responders, recovery workers and relatives of the dead.\nA visitor to a preview of the 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York looks a display with artifacts from the World Trade Center site, June 8, 2017.\nMore than 4 million people have visited the museum, originally called the Tribute Center and co-founded by CEO Jennifer Adams-Webb and the September 11th Families' Association, causing it to outgrow its original home in a space formerly occupied by a delicatessen.\nThe new space, a few blocks away, is 36,000-square-feet, about half of which is exhibition space. It is located on the ground and second floors of a high-rise building.\n\"Originally, when we started, we weren't sure where we were going,\" said Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son, Jonathan, died in the attacks. \"We realized, as the years went on, that we are making an impact.\"\nArtifacts on display at the museum include \"missing persons\" posters that were hung throughout the city in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, when families still held hope that their loved ones would be found alive. Other items on display include a death certificate, a boarding pass for someone who was on one of the flights, and a section of window from one of the hijacked planes.\nThe helmet and turnout coat, left, belonging to firefighter Jonathan Ielpi and the badge and gun belonging to police officer John Perry, who both died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, are on display at the 9/11 Tribute Museum in New\nOn a tour of the space last week, Ielpi, a retired firefighter, stopped before one display that left him in tears: his son's helmet and fire department jacket.\n\"It is crucial that we pass on the understanding of 9/11 to future generations and the tremendous spirit of resilience and service that arose after the attacks,\" said Ielpi, who helped carry his son's body from the rubble.\nIelpi had nothing but praise for the much larger National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which serves as the country's principal institution that tells the 9/11 story through interactive technology, archives and filmed narratives. He said the institutions \"complement each other,\" with the Tribute Museum able to truly personalize the experience of the day through the volunteer guides.\nThe new space cost $8.7 million. Private and public funds for it include donations from American Express, Zurich North America and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the Trade Center site.\nThe museum also offers programs for visiting schoolchildren who were not even alive on Sept. 11, 2001.\nTwo 357 Magnum revolvers, encrusted in in melted concrete, recovered from the World Trade Center site are displayed at the 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York, June 8, 2017.\nLee Skolnick, whose firm designed the exhibit layout, said the Tribute Museum's power comes from the survivors, relatives and recovery workers who lead the tours and who have agreed to share their personal stories.\n\"The fact that survivors, responders and citizens discovered the 'seeds of service' growing out of unimaginable tragedy is a testament to the power of the human spirit and an amazing life lesson for us all,\" said Skolnick. \"What can you do for others, for the world?\"\n", + "caption": "Photographs of some of those who died during the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pa., are on display at the 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York, June 8, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/22E80E7F-2545-495B-9E79-D6D3CA1CECBF.jpg", + "id": "26383_1", + "answer": [ + "CEO Jennifer Adams-Webb and the September 11th Families' Association" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tribute " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897573", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_12_3897573_1" + }, + { + "question": "What event led to the man on the image to be cheered for?", + "context": "France Elects Macron\nPARIS \u2014\u00a0\nVoters in France have elected centrist Emmanuel Macron president, rejecting the anti-EU, anti-immigrant policies of rival Marine Le Pen.\nWith nearly all votes counted, France's Interior Ministry put Macron's lead at 66.06 percent, with Le Pen coming in at 33.94 percent.\n\u201cA new page of our long history is turning tonight,\u201d Macron told supporters Sunday following a bruising campaign in an election driven by anti-establishment sentiments \u2013 the first in modern history in which mainstream parties were shut out of a French presidential race.\n\u201cI want it to be a page of hope and renewed trust. The renewal of our political life will begin as early as tomorrow. The moralization of our political life, acknowledging its plurality and our democratic vitality will be at the heart of my action from day one,\u201d Macron said.\nPresident-elect Emmanuel Macron is seen on a giant screen near the Louvre museum after results were announced in the second round of voting in the 2017 French presidential elections, in Paris, France, May 7, 2017.\nContentious campaign\nSunday culminated a presidential election campaign that many French considered the country's most acrimonious and contentious in recent memory.\nConcession by Marine Le Pen came quickly on Sunday, but she vowed to fight on with efforts to mobilize voters in her crusade against globalism and a liberal immigration policy that has allowed for France\u2019s Muslim minority to grow.\n\u201cI have called Macron because I have the best interests of France in mind and I wanted to wish him the very best,\u201d she told supporters on Sunday. \u201cI call on all patriots to join us to take part in the decisive political fight that is starting tonight. More than ever in the forthcoming months, France will need you.\u201d\nElection campaign posters for French centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are posted in front of a polling station in Henin Beaumont, northern France, May 6, 2017.\nU.S. President Donald Trump reacted on Twitter to the results of the French presidential election, congratulating Macron on a \"big win\" and saying he very much looks forward to working with him.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nSurveys heading into Sunday predicted that Macron would win the election with a solid lead over Le Pen.\nThere was little surprise, but much relief among his supporters, who filled the main courtyard of the Louvre Museum for a celebration.\n\u201cI feared Marine Le Pen because she sowed division in this country,\u201d said Frank Kamandoko, a reveler waving a large French flag at the Louvre Sunday night. \u201cThat is why I had no choice but to support Emmanuel Macron,\u201d said Kamandoko, a French citizen originally from the Central African Republic. \nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nFrance Elects Macron, Rejects Le Pen\nShare this video\n0:02:42\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:42\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 7.5MB\n360p | 12.1MB\n720p | 73.5MB\nAt 39, Macron a former banker and economy minister, becomes France\u2019s youngest president. He is pro-EU but wants reforms to make the grouping more democratic, and has warned that continuing business as usual with the European Union will trigger a Frexit, or a French exit similar to Britain\u2019s.\nFrance\u2019s deep divisions were clear in a final, vicious debate in which the anger, bitterness and personal dislike between the two candidates were on display when the two traded insults last week, something observers say hurt Le Pen\u2019s numbers.\nSupporters of Emmanuel Macron celebrate near the Louvre museum after projections were announced in the second round voting in the 2017 French presidential elections, in Paris, France, May 7, 2017.\n\u2018What is his plan?\u2019 \n\u201cI am sick of this campaign,\u201d said voter Jasmine Youssi after being among the first to cast ballots at a polling station in the 12th district of Paris. \u201cIt is the first time there has been such an aggressive campaign. It was repetitive. I stopped watching TV because it would make me sick. I am so glad it is over,\u201d she told VOA. \nTurnout was less than expected, with voter disgust and anger causing many to abstain or submit blank ballots. French officials say 4 million abstained. \nStill, many braved the rain in Paris and turned out steadily throughout the day.\nOn Paris streets, posters of Macron and Le Pen were pasted side by side, both often defaced with Macron\u2019s nose cut out and Le Pen\u2019s eyes scribbled over.\n\u201cIt says that the people are for neither one nor the other. The French are in distress,\u201d said voter Brigitte Levoir as she glanced at posters outside a polling station in the Paris suburb of Drancy. \u201cWe could perhaps be afraid of Le Pen, but we should be afraid of Macron as well. What is his plan? He has none. We should be afraid of them both. I want De Gaulle to come back to the world and establish some order,\u201d she told VOA.\nIn Pictures: French Voters Select New President in Key Election\nIn the end, it was fear of Le Pen that apparently weighed more on voters than anything else in a society that is proud of its long tradition of openness.\n\u201cThe majority of French people are afraid of Marine Le Pen, are afraid of the far right,\u201d said Eric Dupin, a political analyst in Paris. \u201cIf they get to power, they will grow divisions in French society in a very dangerous way with the risk of violence. So, in a reasonable way, the French voted Macron against Marine Le Pen,\u201d he told VOA. \nThe vote was historic, and seen by many as a turning point in French politics.\nFrance voted for change, but not revolution.\n", + "caption": "Incoming French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech in front of the Pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris, May 7, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1C0FF68D-8E08-40EA-90D8-0CED8C48B74B.jpg", + "id": "3683_1", + "answer": [ + "Macron's lead at 66.06 percent" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Emmanuel Macron" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841148", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_07_3841148_1" + }, + { + "question": "What boosted the approval of the show the people in the image star in?", + "context": "Satire Thrives in Times of Political Uncertainty\nU.S. President Donald Trump declared in his inauguration speech January 20, \"From this day forward, it's gonna be only America first! America first!\" At the time, he probably had no idea he was touching off a viral video sensation that would inspire people in countries around the world to mock not only him, but their own countries.\nA talk show host in the Netherlands started it. Comedian Arjen Lubach aired a video on his talk show extolling the virtues of the Netherlands in a bid for runner-up. It is narrated in English by Dutch-American actor Greg Shapiro, who imitates Trump's voice.\n\"We speak Dutch,\" the video says. \"It's the best language in Europe. We've got all the best words. All the other languages failed.\" The video also calls the Spanish \"total scumbags,\" describes a dike designed to protect the sea-level nation from flooding as \"a great, great wall,\" and labels its banking system \"the best tax-evasion system in the world.\"\nThe video's tagline: \"We totally understand it's going to be America first. But can we just say the Netherlands second? Is that OK?\"\nSoon, German talk-show host Jan Boehmermann produced a similar video and challenged talk-show hosts in other countries to do the same. The German video called the Dutch \"bad people\" and touts the German tradition of Oktoberfest as \"the best beer festival God ever created.\"\nAt Boehmermann's instigation, the trend became an organized contest called \"Every Second Counts\" and grew to include more than two dozen entrants. Non-eligible groups produced videos as well, notably one claiming to be produced by inhabitants of Mars who warn that Trump may trigger nuclear disaster. The tagline: \"So, we know it's America first. But if America blows up -- second America on Mars?\"\nFILE - Saturday Night Live Weekend Update's Colin Jost (left) and Michael Che are seen at a T-Mobile event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 5, 2017. Saturday Night Live has seen its ratings soar during the presidential campaign as well as after the election.\nRising ratings\nIn the United States, political satire has been growing in popularity since the Trump administration took office, with the live comedy-sketch program Saturday Night Live enjoying its most-viewed season in 22 years. On the show, popular comedians have mocked President Trump, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, among others.\nTalk show host Stephen Colbert, whose The Late Show with Stephen Colbert specializes in political satire, has enjoyed five straight weeks of ratings success over his competitor Jimmy Fallon, who hosts the long-running Tonight Show.\nFallon has been criticized for being too easy on Trump, while Colbert has skewered the president and his administration, recently mocking Trump's use of the word \"bloodbath\" to quip that the new Republican health care plan \"does not cover bloodbaths.\"\nThat the United States' polarizing new leader has inspired a surge of satire is not surprising to Sophia McClennen.\n\"Satirical mockery, political comedy, and 'laughtivism' are some of the most powerful weapons in our anti-Trump arsenal,\" wrote the professor of international affairs at Pennsylvania State University, in Salon last month. She said satire always emerges in times of political crisis because it helps expose untruths and combat a culture of fear.\nFILE - Late Show host Stephen Colbert records a skit on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, July 17, 2016. Colbert is known to use his show to regularly roast President Donald Trump and members of his administration.\nGetting to know the players\nKatie Hayes, editor of the student newspaper The Montage at St. Louis Community College in Missouri, wrote on February 22 that satire not only provides a pressure-release valve, it also helps to educate.\n\"People pay attention when you make them laugh,\" Hayes said. \"Since Saturday Night Live has begun impersonating key players in our government, Americans are able to identify them.\"\nA good example is Steve Bannon, the controversial right-wing figure who serves as the president's chief strategist. He has been portrayed on SNL as the skeletal figure of Death, silently peering over the president's shoulder in the Oval Office.\nKellyanne Conway, a presidential aide who was recently photographed kneeling on a couch in the Oval Office, was skewered on SNL by comedian Kate McKinnon kneeling on a couch on the sidelines of various skits.\nComedy also allows for the expression of dissent.\nChristopher Irving, a humanities instructor at Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida, said the primary reason for the surge in comic portrayals of current U.S. politics \"might stem from the simple desire to be involved in the discussion about how well or how poorly [President Trump] is doing the job. The alternating current produced by a joke carries much farther than a bitingly critical observation, regardless of the medium.\"\nComedy for change?\nComic performers in Washington, D.C., are certainly having a satiric field day this year.\nJoe Kaplan of political revue group Hexagon, says a Conway sketch may figure in this year's annual show, with an actress explaining Trump's actions through a popular 1960s doo-wop song. The show opened Friday and promises plenty of jokes about the president, Congress and current events.\nFILE - Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is seen during a recording of one of his shows in New York City, Sept. 16, 2017. Fallon, too, has taken on politicians but is seen as softer compared to some of his competitors.\n\"The best comedy is found in truth,\" Kaplan says. \"One of the songs I wrote is called It Doesn't Matter.... The whole premise of the song is how facts don't matter anymore in Trump's world.... I made the last line poignant, rather than funny, because these are serious times we're living in. You have to make some light of it to get by.\"\nAn ongoing question: Do these jokes have any power to effect change in the current political climate?\nMary Dalton, professor of communication, film studies, and women's, gender, and sexuality studies at Wake Forest University, is co-editor of the book The Sitcom Reader: America Viewed and Skewed.\n\"Satire is not just making fun of something, it's a way of pointing out what's wrong with a desire to lead to change as a correction,\" she said. She acknowledges that comedy is not the most direct method to effect change, but says, \"If you lay the foundation for something, if you drive the message home often enough, sometimes things click into place.\"\nStress relief\nKen Rynne is a Washington, D.C., comic who runs a small satire outfit called Planet Washington. He writes and performs his own musical comedy shows. He calls the Trump administration \"the new abnormal.\"\nRynne is vocal on social media about his opposition to many policies and people associated with the Trump administration. But at the end of the day, he says, his decision to leave a higher-paying job to skewer people in the political world - a transition he calls \"my rags from riches story\" - boils down to the most immediate results: stress relief, and fun.\n\"There's nothing that beats making people laugh,\" he said. Whatever the political leanings of his audience, Rynne says, \"you should leave the show lighter than you came.\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - Saturday Night Live Weekend Update's Colin Jost (left) and Michael Che are seen at a T-Mobile event in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 5, 2017. Saturday Night Live has seen its ratings soar during the presidential campaign as well as after the election.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AFFE96B9-F75A-4483-801C-822E99FDAF3C.jpg", + "id": "26159_2", + "answer": [ + "the Trump administration" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Saturday Night Live" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_10_3760485", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_10_3760485_2" + }, + { + "question": "What does the person whose name is on the sign in the image have?", + "context": "US Political Divide Seeps Into Football, Super Bowl\nBOSTON \u2014\u00a0\nNot even the grandest of American sports spectacles is immune to the nation\u2019s deep political divisions.\nFans of the New England Patriots football team have spent nearly two full seasons being reminded of the close friendship between President Donald Trump and their team\u2019s three top figures: owner Robert Kraft, quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick. \nAs the Super Bowl approaches, that has put the typically united Patriots Nation at odds over how hard to celebrate a team chasing its fifth Super Bowl win under Brady and Belichick. New England faces the Atlanta Falcons February 5. \nNew England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, left, celebrates with head coach Bill Belichick after winning a football game, Dec. 14, 2014, in Foxborough, Mass.\nSome fans in the northeastern states that backed Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November presidential election say they\u2019re struggling to reconcile their football loyalties with their distaste for Trump. \nMany other fans \u2014 more than 1 million people voted for Trump in Massachusetts alone, Clinton won by less than 3,000 votes in New Hampshire, and Trump picked up one of four electoral votes in Maine \u2014 say critics are injecting politics where it doesn\u2019t belong. \n\u201cIt\u2019s pathetic. We have a double standard where if you admit you like Trump, you get blasted by the media,\u201d said Brian Craig, a Lowell, Massachusetts, Republican who voted for Trump. \u201cIf Brady endorsed Hillary, no one would care.\u201d\nHarder to put politics aside \nPlenty of people put politics aside when they root for their teams. But after an election that magnified the country\u2019s deep differences of opinion, the Super Bowl matchup offers easy foils for anyone inclined to play politics. \nTrump\u2019s friendship with Brady has been fodder for sports talk radio and local news in New England since September 2015, when one of Trump\u2019s trademark red \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d hats was spotted in Brady\u2019s locker and the quarterback said it would be great if the GOP hopeful in a crowded primary field won it all. \nMost of Atlanta is represented by longtime Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who has been excoriated by Trump because he boycotted the inauguration and doesn\u2019t consider Trump a legitimate president because of intelligence reports of Russian involvement in the election. Trump won Georgia in November with more than 2 million votes. \n\u201cIt\u2019s been very tough,\u201d said Segun Idowu, a Boston civil rights activist who grew up in Massachusetts, went to college in Atlanta, voted for Clinton and will likely be rooting for the Patriots. \u201cThe Trump versus Lewis metaphor seems apt to me.\u201d\nPatrick Dugan, a Clinton voter from West Hartford, Connecticut, said his Patriots fanhood has become \u201cincreasingly lukewarm\u201d because of the team\u2019s Trump connections. \n\u201cYou can\u2019t put that genie back in the bottle,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s out there at this point. And once it\u2019s out there, it colors how you look at them, whether you want it to or not.\u201d\nTrump campaign \nTrump drew attention to his relationships with the Patriots several times throughout his campaign and leading up to his inauguration, including an election eve rally where he read a glowing letter from Belichick and claimed Brady voted for him, prompting a denial from the quarterback\u2019s supermodel wife, Gisele Bundchen. \nBrady, for his part, hasn\u2019t revealed his vote and questioned this week why his long friendship with Trump is \u201csuch a big deal\u201d after being asked whether he called the Republican to congratulate him, as Trump claimed in a speech attended by Kraft the night before his inauguration.\n\u201cIf you know someone, it doesn\u2019t mean that you agree with everything they say or do,\u201d Brady said. \nIndeed, few recent marriages of sports and politics have caused this much hand-wringing. There was relatively little furor when basketball megastar LeBron James, fresh off winning a title for the Cleveland Cavaliers, endorsed and stumped for Clinton in his home state of Ohio, which Trump won anyway; or when now-ousted Bills coach Rex Ryan introduced Trump at a campaign rally in Buffalo last year. \nAs president, Trump drew on his sports connections when he tapped New York Jets owner Woody Johnson as the next U.S. ambassador to Britain. And Peyton Manning, the retired Denver Broncos quarterback who won the Super Bowl last year, joined Trump and other leaders in Philadelphia Thursday night as Republican lawmakers gathered to map out their congressional agenda. \nConversations on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks show the Patriots have certainly won over some new fans because of the Trump ties. \nAnd many in Patriots Nation are certainly dreaming of sweet revenge if NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has to hand the championship trophy to Brady. Goodell suspended Brady for four games at the start of this season for using underinflated footballs in a playoff game, a case that wound through two federal courts and spurred lots of disdain for Goodell among Patriots fans.\n\u201cI want the Falcons to win for normal sports fan reasons, but I want the Patriots to lose in embarrassing fashion for political reasons,\u2019\u2019 said Todd Moye, who grew up in Atlanta and now lives in Fort Worth, Texas. \nAs the Super Bowl approaches, some skeptical New Englanders say they\u2019ve made their peace with politics and, for now, are just focused on the game.\n\u201cI have family members who support Trump. I\u2019m not going to write them off, either,\u201d said Clinton voter Jack Peterson of Fairhaven, Massachusetts. \u201cYou just try to compartmentalize.\u201d\n", + "caption": "FILE - A New England Patriots fan holds a sign referring to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, head coach Bill Belichick and President Donald Trump during the first half of the AFC championship NFL football game between the Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers in Foxborough, Mass., Jan. 22, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/F248BEF3-C185-4E4E-A6D2-82B4D2ADDDF3.jpg", + "id": "1623_1", + "answer": [ + "close friendship between President Donald Trump" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tom Brady" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695127", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_27_3695127_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with blonde hair in the float?", + "context": "Trump Rebuffs Reports of White House Chaos\nU.S. President Donald Trump is trying to knock down reports that his White House is engulfed in turmoil.\n\"Don't let the FAKE NEWS tell you that there is big infighting in the Trump Admin.,\" Trump wrote in a comment on his Twitter account Tuesday. \"We are getting along great, and getting major things done!\"\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nTrump offered his commentary after several days of accounts in major U.S. news outlets that he was angry at his staff for their handling of controversies that have erupted around him.\nIt was Trump's latest broadside against mainstream U.S. publications and television networks, which have published or aired numerous stories depicting behind-the-scenes accounts of Trump's White House, often based on anonymous accounts or leaked documents.\nTrump has assailed the stories, repeatedly calling them the product of \"fake news\" and what he claims are fictitious, unnamed sources.\nMuch of the conflict has centered on Trump's own actions or those of his aides, who then have been left to defend Trump's unsubstantiated claim that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his Trump Tower headquarters in New York last year and contacts his aides have had with Russians in the run-up to the November election and since then.\nFILE - White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon listens at right as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on cyber security in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.\nCaught on camera \nThrough a window, a CNN television camera captured pictures, but no sound, of a heated exchange last Friday in the White House Oval Office between Trump and aides.\nThe accounts of White House turmoil have reported Trump was particularly incensed that Attorney General Jeff Sessions removed himself from oversight of the Justice Department's probe into the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion Russia meddled into last year's U.S. presidential election in an effort to help Trump win.\nTrump had said he did not think Sessions needed to recuse himself, but the attorney general did just that, leaving Trump angered at his aides for their handling of the controversy.\nSessions, a vocal Trump supporter last year, had been asked at his Senate confirmation hearing in January whether he had had any contacts with Russians during the campaign and he said he had not. But it came to light, after Sessions had taken office as the country's top law enforcement official, that he had met twice last year with Moscow's ambassador to Washington.\nSince then, Sessions says that he had met with Sergey Kislyak in his capacity as member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, not as part of Trump's presidential campaign.\nFILE - President Donald Trump walks with former President Barack Obama on Capitol Hill in Washington.\nUnproven wiretapping allegation \nTrump sparked more controversy with his claim that his predecessor, Obama, had wiretapped him in the weeks before the election.\nThe publisher of the Newsmax Media website, Christopher Ruddy, a friend of Trump's, wrote Sunday the president told him, \"This will be investigated. It will all come out. I will be proven right.\"\nRuddy said he has never seen Trump as angry as he was over the handling of the Sessions matter and then complaints from both opposition Democrats and Republican colleagues of Trump that his wiretap claim was unfounded.\nTrump has denied any links to Russia, but several of his aides have met with Kislyak.\nTrump ousted his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, after just 24 days on the job after he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak.\n", + "caption": "FILE - White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon listens at right as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting on cyber security in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/CF97B73F-22DD-4B8B-B267-16CCC82AD8E4.jpg", + "id": "25906_2", + "answer": [ + "that former President Barack Obama wiretapped his Trump Tower headquarters" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_07_3753837", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_07_3753837_2" + }, + { + "question": "Why do people not like the person in the suit in the image?", + "context": "Conservative Drops out of Iran Election to Back Hard-liner\nTEHRAN \u2014\u00a0\nA conservative candidate dropped out of Iran's presidential election on Monday to back a hard-liner, state television reported, narrowing the field of those hoping to unseat moderate President Hassan Rouhani.\nThe report said Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf made the decision to boost the chances of hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi, believed to be close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.\nQalibaf's decision brings the number of candidates competing in Friday's election to five, though more may drop out in the coming days to solidify support for other candidates.\nThis election marked Qalibaf's third presidential campaign, having previously lost running to the left of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 and to the right of Rouhani in 2013.\nAlso, many residents in the country's capital had been angry at Qalibaf and Tehran authorities after a massive January fire at a historic high-rise caused the building to collapse, killing 26 people, including 16 firefighters.\nRaisi, a former attorney general, serves as the head of the Imam Reza charity foundation, which manages a vast conglomerate of businesses and endowments in Iran. Qalibaf's dropping out may serve to get him more votes in his challenge to Rouhani.\nThe election is largely viewed as a referendum on the 2015 nuclear deal struck with world powers shepherded by Rouhani's administration. That deal saw Iran limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of some economic sanctions.\nRouhani remains the favorite as every Iranian president since 1981, when Khamenei himself took the presidency, has won re-election.\nHowever, most Iranians have yet to see the benefits of the nuclear deal. Raisi has been campaigning on that, proposing populist cash payments for the poor that have proven popular in the country in the past under Ahmadinejad.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Iranian presidential candidate, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who is also Tehran's mayor, points, during a campaign rally in Tehran, Iran, June 12, 2013.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/35B076FC-1BA9-4F0A-8C76-D48C2C41D098.jpg", + "id": "6389_1", + "answer": [ + "a massive January fire at a historic high-rise", + "Many residents in the countries capital had been angry at Qalibaf and Tehran authorities after a massive January fire at a historic high-rise caused the building to collapse " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Qalibaf", + "Mohammmad Bagher Qalibaf" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_15_3851550", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_15_3851550_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image do?", + "context": "NATO Agrees to Send More Troops to Afghanistan\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nNATO allies have agreed to send more troops to Afghanistan, and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the alliance has filled nearly three-fourths of the gaps in requirements for its mission in the war-torn country.\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that 15 nations had already pledged additional contributions to Resolute Support, the NATO mission to Afghanistan, and further announcements from other nations were expected.\nStoltenberg told reporters in Brussels that thousands of troops had been requested to help train and support Afghan security forces, but he did not say how many would deploy.\nLater in the day, Mattis said nations were stepping up to fill the requirement gaps needed to carry out the international mission to stabilize Afghanistan.\n\"We've filled 70 percent of those gaps right now, and I'm very, very optimistic that based on what I heard here, they'll be filling the rest,\" Mattis said.\nFinalizing strategy\nHe said that he was finalizing his strategy proposal to take to President Donald Trump based on what NATO allies offered in Brussels and what General Joseph Dunford, the top U.S. general, recommends upon his return from Afghanistan.\n\"That decision will be made, obviously, by our president. It will be informed by what I picked up here by our allies for our military commanders in the field,\" Mattis said.\nMattis told reporters that the international coalition in Afghanistan \"may have pulled our troops out too rapidly.\"\nFormer President Barack Obama cut American military support in the country from about 100,000 U.S. troops in May 2011 to fewer than 10,000 American troops over four years.\n\"Mattis and Trump are just repairing a mistake, in effect, that I think President Barack Obama made. And it is, in a sense, more properly carrying out Obama's own strategy than Obama himself did,\" Michael O'Hanlon, a senior defense analyst at the Brookings Institution, told VOA.\nO'Hanlon added that by restoring just a few thousand more international troops, the coalition could get enough advisers into the field with some of the key Afghan units to \"hopefully really stabilize the situation.\"\n", + "caption": "U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, left, speaks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a meeting of NATO defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, June 29, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5D0B7EAF-4250-4DB7-AB2E-541EE5B20EC4.jpg", + "id": "13907_1", + "answer": [ + "pledged additional contributions to Resolute Support", + "filled nearly three-fourths of the gaps", + "send more troops to Afghanistan" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jim Mattis", + "NATO defense ministers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_29_3921200", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_29_3921200_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the blue suit in the image charged for?", + "context": "Christian Teachers at North Korean Academy Vulnerable to Arrest\nSEOUL, SOUTH KOREA \u2014\u00a0\nThe recent detention of two American educators by North Korean authorities is raising questions about whether the Christian-funded academy where they taught should be operating in this highly repressive state, where proselytizing is a serious crime.\nNorth Korean state media confirmed this week that Kim Hak-song, a Chinese-Korean and naturalized U.S. citizen, who was working as an agriculture researcher at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), was arrested on suspicion of \u201chostile acts\u201d against the state.\nA PUST accounting instructor, Kim Sang Dok, a U.S. citizen who also goes by the name Tony Kim, was arrested in April on the same vague charges at the Pyongyang International Airport.\nIt is unclear if these two American citizens were apprehended for trying to spread Christian beliefs in North Korea, which is a capital crime and considered an existential threat to the unquestionable authority of the ruling Kim family. But their connections to the Christian-funded school and North Korea\u2019s precedent of charging missionaries with \u201chostile acts\u201d suggest the pretext of illicit religious activities may be used to justify their arrests.\nConstant surveillance\nA spokesman for the university said the arrests of the two faculty members were \u201cnot connected in any way with the work of PUST.\u201d\nThe school, founded in 2010 by Korean-American evangelical Christian James Kim educates the children of the North Korean elite. There are 500 undergraduate students and 60 graduate students.\nKorean-American writer Suki Kim taught English at PUST in 2014 and later documented her experience in the book, Without You, There Is No Us: Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea\u2019s Elite. \nDuring a 2015 Google Talk seminar, she described how the faculty was always under surveillance, their classes recorded, movements restricted, and how her government counterpart minder would casually refer to topics she included in personal emails.\n\u201cSo I would say (in an email) for example I woke up today at 4 a.m., or whatever, and then the minder would repeat that to me. He would say, \u2018Did you get up at 4 a.m. this morning? You must be tired,\u2019\u201d Suki Kim said.\nVulnerable situation\nAlthough the school adheres to the government prohibition on proselytizing, it also attracts many evangelical Christians to become volunteer faculty members that receive no income for teaching. Kim Hak Song, who was arrested this week, had been doing missionary work in China before joining PUST.\nSuki Kim recently wrote in the Washington Post that while PUST complies with the restrictions on overt religious activities, their long-term mission is to convert North Koreans, \u201cthrough seemingly unconditional kindness, with the hopes of those beneficiaries eventually turning to the religion out of gratitude.\u201d\nShe also wrote that the American evangelicals on the PUST faculty are in a particularly vulnerable situation if the Kim Jong Un government wants to send a political warning to the United States, and that, \u201cthe timing of North Korea\u2019s arrest of Tony Kim is no accident.\u201d\nTensions between North Korea and the United States have risen over Pyongyang\u2019s nuclear and ballistic missile tests. U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressuring China to increase sanctions on Pyongyang to halt its nuclear program and has emphasized the United States would consider the use of military force to respond to future tests.\nNorth Korea in the past had detained Americans to gain outside concessions for their release, which sometime involved high-profile U.S. missions sent to secure the release of detainees.\nFILE - In this combination of file photos, U.S. citizens Otto Warmbier on March 16, 2016, left, and Kim Dong Chul on April 29, 2016; are escorted at court in Pyongyang, North Korea.\nSanctions\nPUST spends roughly $2 million annually on operating expenses, the school said in a statement. Much of it comes from Korean churches in the United States and South Korea. The education is free, and the curriculum includes electronic and computer engineering, international finance, and agriculture and life sciences.\nSupporters say this type of assistance and engagement will change hearts and minds over time, and foster constructive future relationships between the next generation of North Korean leaders and the outside world.\nHowever critics like Joshua Stanton, a Washington-based attorney and author of the One Free Korea blog, has accused the school of providing vital technical training to future North Korean hackers and has called for PUST to be suspended in accordance with United Nations sanctions prohibiting activities that may contribute to the \u201cproliferation sensitive nuclear activities or ballistic missile-related programs.\u201d\n\u201cOne could hardly invent a better demonstration of how \u2018engagement\u2019 has failed to change Pyongyang than a hostage crisis at PUST,\u201d he recently wrote in his blog.\nKorean-American Kim Dong Chul is also serving 10 years on espionage charges and Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in 2016 for removing a propaganda poster from a hotel.\nYoumi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this combination of file photos, U.S. citizens Otto Warmbier on March 16, 2016, left, and Kim Dong Chul on April 29, 2016; are escorted at court in Pyongyang, North Korea.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6DCEE021-63F2-405A-8636-5AACF34AD98A.jpg", + "id": "14422_2", + "answer": [ + "espionage", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kim Dong Chul" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_12_3849013", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_12_3849013_2" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person lying down in the image receiving treatment for?", + "context": "Doctors Stop Giving Cancer Drug to China\u2019s Nobel Laureate \nBEIJING \u2014\u00a0\nA Chinese medical team charged with treating imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo has stopped using cancer-fighting drugs so as not to overwhelm his severely weakened liver, raising concerns that China\u2019s most prominent political prisoner is critically ill.\nThe team decided to stop use of an inhibitor drug for advanced liver cancer in light of Liu\u2019s rapidly deteriorating liver functions, according to a statement Friday on the website of the First Hospital of China Medical University.\nIt said a traditional Chinese medicine anti-tumor treatment was also suspended while low-molecular heparin had been added to treat venous thrombosis developing in Liu\u2019s left leg.\nSituation not optimistic\nThe latest statement appears to be part of an effort by Beijing to show it is providing Liu with the best possible care, amid questions about his prison conditions and international calls for him to be freed to seek treatment abroad.\nZeng Jinyan, a close family friend in contact with Liu\u2019s brother-in-law Liu Hui, confirmed Friday that Liu\u2019s situation was not optimistic.\nCiting Liu Hui, Zeng said the inhibitor drug, Sorafenib, has failed to work on Liu Xiaobo.\n\u201cHe is yet to see any improvement after two to three weeks, but its side effects are causing his liver functions to badly deteriorate with severe accumulation of abdominal fluid,\u201d Zeng wrote in a statement posted online. \u201cSo the drug must be suspended, and the focus has shifted to preserve his liver and to give his body a chance to breathe.\u201d \nLiu was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer in May while serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms that would end China\u2019s one-party rule. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, the year after he was convicted and jailed by a Chinese court.\nCalls for his release\nIn the years since, China has ignored international calls to free Liu while isolating him to the degree that he\u2019s been unable to convey any message to the outside world. His wife, Liu Xia, has been under strict house arrest in Beijing despite never being accused of any crime. Even after he was transferred to the hospital in the northeastern city of Shenyang under a medical parole, Liu, his wife and family members were largely prevented from communicating with the outside.\nIn her statement, Zeng repeated the call that Liu should be freed and allowed to seek treatment overseas. Before then, Liu\u2019s doctors should be able to speak freely about his medical treatment, and Liu should be transferred to a top international hospital in China, she wrote. \nAlthough the Chinese government has so far showed no sign that it would free Liu or allow him to travel overseas, it has acceded to family requests to allow liver cancer experts from Germany, the U.S. and elsewhere to join the Chinese medical team treating Liu. \nApart from the hospital\u2019s statements, China has released little information about Liu\u2019s situation, and supporters who have visited the Shenyang hospital have been unable to locate him. \nChina has rejected outside calls for his release as interference in its domestic affairs, and it\u2019s unclear if any foreign experts had yet arrived in Shenyang. \n", + "caption": "Video clips show China's jailed Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo lying on a bed receiving medical treatment at a hospital, left, and Liu saying wardens take good care of him, on a computer screens in Beijing, June 29, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FFE916E4-073E-4228-B92B-4BB4FE463C02.jpg", + "id": "3835_1", + "answer": [ + "advanced liver cancer" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Liu", + "Liu Xiaobo" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3932225", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3932225_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was used to retry the legislation that would affect the person in the image?", + "context": "Trump Administration Appeals Latest Travel Order Stay\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nThe Trump administration is appealing the stay placed on President Donald Trump's executive order banning entry to people from six majority-Muslim countries and halting refugee admissions.\nA U.S. federal judge extended a suspension of the travel order Wednesday, placing a preliminary injunction against Trump's order at the request of the state of Hawaii. U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson had temporarily prohibited the government from enforcing the order in a March 15 decision.\nBoth orders apply nationwide.\nWatson wrote that the circumstances that led to his initial decision have not changed, including Hawaii's argument that remarks by Trump and his associates have singled out Muslims.\nThe judge said the state has sufficiently established a likelihood it would succeed in challenging the ban on the grounds it violates a constitutional clause that requires government actions to have a primarily secular purpose.\nThe government appeal was filed in the ninth circuit court of appeals Thursday. The ninth circuit has already played a role in the travel ban saga, upholding a temporary stay placed on the earlier executive order limiting travel signed by the president.\nNoor, 8 (C) sits with her sister Maryam, 18, and their mother Nadia Hanan Madalo, 46 (R) as they wait in an airport bus in Irbil, Iraq, March 15, 2017. An Iraqi family has landed in the United States as a federal court blocked a travel ban that would have\nMuslim ban to extreme vetting\nTrump's campaign for president once included a call to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, a policy that was later changed to advocating \"extreme vetting\" for people from countries with a link to terrorism.\nThe Trump administration has insisted the current executive order is not a Muslim ban, and the president has argued it is necessary to protect national security. It includes barring the issuance of new visas to people from Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Sudan for 90 days, and suspending the refugee program for 120 days. During those periods, reviews of vetting procedures and how to strengthen the screenings are supposed to take place.\nWatson said the government has argued the courts should ignore the context surrounding the order. \"The court will not crawl into a corner, pull the shutters closed, and pretend it has not seen what it has,\" he wrote.\nThe government argued that any injunction should apply only to the visa ban and not affect suspending refugee admissions, but the judge said \"it makes little sense to do so.\"\nPresident vows to fight back\nTrump has vowed to continue fighting legal challenges to his order, taking them up to the Supreme Court if necessary.\nHawaii's Department of the Attorney General expressed confidence that higher courts will continue to side with its position. \"We believe the court's well-reasoned decision will be affirmed,\" it said on Twitter.\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\nThe travel ban is also being challenged in a federal case originating from the state of Maryland. That case is only limited to the suspension of visas to the six countries, and a District Court judge issued a similar prohibition against the government enforcing it.\nBut the Justice Department has appealed that decision to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has scheduled arguments for May 8.\nA group of attorneys general from 12 states have filed briefs with the 4th Circuit in support of Trump's executive order, arguing it does not amount to a Muslim ban. The states include Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia.\n", + "caption": "Noor, 8 (C) sits with her sister Maryam, 18, and their mother Nadia Hanan Madalo, 46 (R) as they wait in an airport bus in Irbil, Iraq, March 15, 2017. An Iraqi family has landed in the United States as a federal court blocked a travel ban that would have", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8E3697BB-CCEF-4FB5-9A1A-18BBB58423B5.jpg", + "id": "6268_2", + "answer": [ + "An appeal on the stay placed on President Donald Trump\u2019s executive stay banning entry to people from six majority-Islamic countries and halting refugee admissions. ", + "The ninth circuit" + ], + "bridge": [ + "travel ban", + "An Iraqi family " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791238", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_31_3791238_2" + }, + { + "question": "What caused the people in the image to hide?", + "context": "IS Attacks Show Iran's Vulnerability to Terror\nTehran has bragged for years that Islamic State could not deeply penetrate inside Iran, saying it kept a chokehold on any IS roots by arresting possible suspects and monitoring movements along its borders.\nBut Wednesday's attacks, claimed by IS, on Iran's parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that left at least 12 people dead, exposed Iran's vulnerability, analysts say. It shows, too, that IS will follow through on its threats to terrorize Iran, which it sees as a battlefield enemy and religious persecutor.\nIS has long accused Shiite-led Iran of executing thousands of the Sunni minority in the country.\nIraq's Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary force has inflicted hundreds of casualties on IS and driven IS from land outside Mosul. In Syria, Iran has been a major military backer of the Syrian regime, first in its war with rebel groups across the country and later against IS.\nFILE - A Shiite fighter clashes with members of the Free Syrian Army rebel group in the town of Hatita, in the countryside of Damascus, Syria.\nCombat troops in Syria\nAbout 10,000 Iranian combat troops are in Syria fighting alongside thousands of fighters from Hezbollah, Lebanon's Tehran-affiliated Shiite militia, and assorted Shiite militias made up of renegade Pakistanis, central Asians and other nationalities.\n\"With its direct involvement in fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, a retaliation from IS shouldn't be a surprise to authorities in Iran,\" said Alex Vatanka, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.\nIran intelligence has boasted about layers of security applied by agents protecting the country from IS infiltrations. Several times in recent months, Iranian officials have spoken about breaking up IS-related terror cells and arresting IS-affiliated militants planning attacks inside Iran.\n\"We have built a complicated network of security nets from Karbala all the way to Tehran that allows us to trace every single move of Daesh [IS],\" Hojatoleslam Toyserkani, representative of Iran's supreme leader to the Basij paramilitary forces, said last week.\nUntil Wednesday, the alleged security veneer seemed intact even though officials' claims of the public's protection from IS lacked many details, including when alleged incidents took place, the identity of most suspects, and concrete links to IS. \n\"Iranian authorities were good in preventing IS from conducting operations inside Iran, but this attack put a crack on the bubble of invincibility Tehran tried hard to project,\" analyst Vatanka said.\nWednesday's twin synchronized attacks on two of the most visible and secure sites in the capital were intended by IS to put Tehran on notice, analysts said.\nMembers of Iranian forces are seen during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017.\nVideo of attack\nIS-affiliated Amaq social media released a video allegedly showing the attacker storming a parliament office, shooting at staff and shouting IS slogans in Arabic.\n\"IS wants to send a message that despite all security measures, they can conduct attacks and tarnish Iran's intelligence reputation,\" Karim Pourhamzavi, an extremism analyst at Macquarie University in Sydney, told VOA.\nIn March, IS issued a video threatening Iran and promising to conquer the country soon. The 36-minute Persian-language clip was narrated and hosted by several Persian speakers with heavy Baloch accents.\nThe speakers allege that more than 18,000 Iranian Sunnis have been executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. One of the speakers urges Sunnis to join the group \"to defend their dignity and regain the pride taken away by Iranian Shia authorities.\"\nBut several opinion polls have shown little Sunni interest in joining IS.\nStill, Wednesday's attack had people in Tehran wondering if IS has more support than Iran leaders let on. It marks the first time the Sunni Muslim group admitted it staged an attack in the majority Shiite Muslim country.\n\"The timing of the attack and good knowledge about the entrances of parliament are hints that may make us think that they had insiders or having access to some precise information before conducting the attack,\" said Mohammad Ghorbani, a Tehran-based reporter who covers terrorism issues.\nFILE - Smoke raises behind an Islamic State flag in Iraq, Nov. 24, 2014.\nPresence likely to grow\nStill, in the long run, some analysts think it's doubtful IS will forge a deeper presence in Iran.\n\"IS have always conducted attacks inside countries using local agents and supporters,\" Emad Abshenasan, a Tehran-based extremism analyst, told VOA. \"IS has no base in Iran, and even its minority Sunni population do not favor or support IS or its ideology.\"\nBut by getting more involved in conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Iraq, Tehran is exposing itself more to possible terror at home, analysts said.\n\"As Tehran deepens its engrossment in regional conflicts and into affairs of the Arab world, it makes itself more susceptible to these kinds of attacks partially, directly, or indirectly supported or directed by its contenders in the region,\" analyst Vatanka said.\n", + "caption": "Members of Iranian forces take cover during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/781A4F27-0EAC-4BAE-A47C-D77C6B735984.jpg", + "id": "5494_1", + "answer": [ + "attacks, claimed by IS, on Iran's parliament" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Iranian" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3891182", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3891182_1" + }, + { + "question": "What does the person in the middle of the image not want?", + "context": "China Raising Pressure on Taiwan, Gently\nTAIPEI, TAIWAN \u2014\u00a0\nChina is slowly tightening its grip on self-ruled Taiwan to make it break a nearly year-old political deadlock, but it\u2019s avoiding any tough measures that it can\u2019t reverse if relations improve, analysts say.\nA Chinese official said at an annual parliament session in Beijing this month that the government will revise official language related to its claim to sovereignty over Taiwan, which has been self-ruled for 70 years. It\u2019s not clear what statements the revisions would cover.\nBut experts in Taipei believe neither that change nor any other move is likely to rattle Taiwan before the Communist Party\u2019s year-end congress, which could decide changes in the senior Chinese leadership as well new mandates on relations with other governments.\nChinese President Xi Jinping (center) listens during the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, March 3, 2017. The head of China's legislative advisory body, Yu Zhengsheng, said China continues its firm opposition to Taiwan's formal independence and insistence that its leaders accept that the self-governing island is part of China.\nChance to break deadlock\n\u201c(Chinese President) Xi Jinping himself or the party center does not want Taiwan to become a hot potato before the 19th party\u2019s congress,\u201d said Alexander Huang, strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan. \u201cThey would not do anything dramatic if there is no specific issue to be dealt with.\u201d\nTaiwan has indicated it might make an overture to China within the year.\n\u201cThe second half of the year might be a good chance to break the deadlock in cross-Strait relations,\u201d Chiu Chui-cheng, deputy minister with Taiwan\u2019s Mainland Affairs Council, said Thursday without elaborating.\n\u201cThe Council thinks that a lot of international and regional changes since the start of the year are affecting development of the cross-Strait situation,\u201d Chiu said. \u201cTo handle international, regional, cross-Strait and domestic uncertainty, the government must stay calm, rational, and control risks and seize opportunities while cautiously promoting cross-Strait policies.\u201d\nEconomic, diplomatic pressure\nIn the meantime, China could use more economic and diplomatic pressure to push Taiwan toward a resumption of dialogue that stopped after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen took office in May. Tsai\u2019s party includes advocates of Taiwan\u2019s de jure independence from China to consecrate self-rule. Independence is a red line for Beijing, but surveys indicate most Taiwanese prefer autonomy.\nThat type of pressure will probably mean more cuts in Taiwan-bound group tourism, which fell 30 percent from May through December. China would also continue to bar Taiwan from United Nations events and from joining sub-agencies such as the International Civil Aviation Organization.\nBut it could also reverse any of those moves, said Huang Kwei-bo, associate diplomacy professor at National Chengchi University in Taipei.\n\u201cTo make Taiwan poor, that\u2019s one thing, and another is in international space to make it less convenient for Taiwan,\u201d he said. \u201cThe result I think is that just Beijing wants to remind Taiwan people if cross-Strait relations are not good, this is what you\u2019re going to see. Basically whatever mainland China does, they will be able to reverse any of it.\u201d\nFavors likely\nAnalysts in Taiwan also expect China will offer favors to Taiwanese investors who back Beijing\u2019s views on relations. It will also push for more people-to-people exchanges, especially among youth, Huang Kwei-bo said.\nAccording to convention, delegates at the year-end congress in Beijing would give Xi another five-year term as party chairman, auguring political stability for China as a whole and in turn for its relations with Taiwan.\n\u201cAs a rule, when authority in Beijing is strong and steady, Beijing\u2019s measures toward Taiwan are more flexible,\u201d said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor in Taiwan. Measures are \u201charsh\u201d when authorities are being challenged, he said.\nTsai\u2019s government and officials in Beijing have never talked because they cannot agree on how to regard each other \u2014 as two parts of China per Beijing\u2019s view or against a backdrop that recognizes Taiwan\u2019s self-rule. Chinese leaders talked regularly with the eight-year government of Tsai\u2019s predecessor, Ma Ying-jeou. Ma\u2019s government and China signed more than 20 deals that stimulated trade and investment between the two sides.\nChina and Taiwan have been separately ruled since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s, when Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s Nationalist lost to the Communists and re-based in Taipei.\n", + "caption": "Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) listens during the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, March 3, 2017. The head of China's legislative advisory body, Yu Zhengsheng, said China continues its firm opposition to Taiwan's formal independence and insistence that its leaders accept that the self-governing island is part of China.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/266FDD82-2A51-4832-B18D-6081858B1004.jpg", + "id": "16496_2", + "answer": [ + "None", + "Taiwan to become a hot potato before the 19th party\u2019s congress" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Xi Jinping" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_17_3770214", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_17_3770214_2" + }, + { + "question": "How did people like those in the image complain?", + "context": "Peaceful Protests Mark End of G-20 Summit Hours After Riots\nHAMBURG, GERMANY \u2014\u00a0\nTens of thousands of peaceful protesters took to the streets Saturday to demonstrate against the Group of 20 summit in Hamburg, hours after masked rioters clashed with police, burned cars and looted businesses.\nMarching on a route close to where some of the worst violence unfolded overnight, protesters chanted, sang, danced and played music as world leaders wrapped up their two-day summit in the German port city.\nAn eclectic crowd of families with infants, Kurdish groups, Scottish socialists and anarchists waving flags and shouting anti-capitalist slogans progressed through the city, accompanied by thousands of police officers.\nThousands of people attend a protest against the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017.\nDespite the mayhem late Friday and early Saturday, many officers patrolling the march removed their helmets and appeared relaxed as the huge crowds passed by. Organizers said 78,000 demonstrators participated, while police estimated the crowds at 50,000.\nThe big gathering came after aggressive riots overnight in the city's Schanzenviertel neighborhood, which is only a few hundred meters from the summit grounds. Hundreds of special riot police went into buildings to arrest rioters wearing black masks, while being attacked with iron rods and Molotov cocktails. About 500 people looted a supermarket in the neighborhood, as well as smaller stores. Cars were torched and street fires lit as activists built barricades with garbage cans and bikes.\nA man looks through the broken window of a shop in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017. Anti-globalization activists rioted for a second night as Hamburg hosted the Group of 20 leaders.\n'Not the slightest justification'\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed shock and anger about \"violence and uninhibited brutality\" that broke out in Hamburg.\n\"There is not the slightest justification for looting, arson and brutal attacks on the life of police officers,\" Merkel said, adding that the security forces did \"excellent work\" and thanking them on behalf of all the summit participants.\nA few thousand rioters, some of them from elsewhere in Europe, created havoc in the city. They battled riot police for two consecutive days and nights, expressing rage against capitalism and globalization and calling for open borders to let all refugees enter Europe.\nTheir anger was not so much focused against President Donald Trump or other leaders, but directed against police as symbols of authority.\nPolice arrested 143 people, and 122 activists were temporarily detained. Injuries to 213 officers have been reported since protests started Thursday night. Police and firefighters said they did not have information about how many protesters and other civilians had been hurt.\nHamburg, Germany's second-largest city, has a strong radical left scene, and many critics had warned well before the summit that its dense streets would be almost impossible to control and that clashes would be likely.\nBut German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said, \"Any criticism of the location of the meeting misjudges cause and effect.\"\nProtesters block a road during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017.\n\"These were unbounded violent excesses out of a desire for destruction and brutality,\" de Maiziere said. He added that police and judicial authorities must take a tough stance against such crimes and that the arrests were appropriate.\nSite choice defended\nMerkel also defended the choice of Hamburg as venue for the summit, saying a big city was needed to accommodate all the participants at hotels. She said she and her finance minister would consult with Hamburg's city government about how to help people affected by the violence repair the damage.\nMany residents showed frustration with the violence and destruction unleashed in their neighborhood.\nLaura Zeriadtke watched the full-scale clashes unfold from her street-level apartment window and witnessed about 30 black-clad anarchists tearing down a construction fence across from her home and using it as a shield to push back riot police.\n\"It was a civil war,\" Zeriadtke said.\nWomen hold up megaphones during a protest against the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017.\nLudwig Geiss, a 65-year-old longtime resident living in the same building as Zeriadtke, said that he'd gotten used to the many protests in the alternative neighborhood, but had never experienced anything like the G-20 chaos.\n\"I know the scene, but what happened yesterday ... puts it all in the shadows,\" Geiss said as he was evaluating the damage outside his apartment. \"I'm not staying here another night.\"\nPolice called on witnesses of the riots to upload photos and video footage on their server to help with the investigation and prosecution of violent activists.\nHowever, most protesters expressed their views peacefully, asking for quick action on climate change and solutions to the migration crisis.\nDuring the protest marches on Saturday afternoon, activists of the Attac group rolled a giant globe along the road, while others carried signs with slogans such as \"Money for bread, not bombs\" and \"We are many, you are 20.\"\n", + "caption": "Protesters block a road during the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3A6DDD7C-1D75-47AB-862F-6B108B1A3401.jpg", + "id": "6673_4", + "answer": [ + "chanted, sang, danced and played music", + "protesters chanted, sang, danced and played music as world leaders wrapped up their two-day summit in the German port city." + ], + "bridge": [ + "Protesters ", + "Protesters" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3934155", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3934155_4" + }, + { + "question": "What nation did the person in the red tie in the image speak ill of?", + "context": "Trump, Pope Francis Set to Meet at Vatican\nROME \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump met Wednesday with Pope Francis at the Vatican, underscoring the emphasis during his first foreign trip on the three Abrahamic faiths. \nThe two men had a clash of words last year when Trump was running for president with a major pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.\nThe pope said anyone who thinks of building walls instead of bridges \"is not Christian,\" a comment that Trump called \"disgraceful.\"\nLater, after meetings with Italian leaders, Trump travels on to Brussels for a NATO summit. On Friday and Saturday, the president is back in Italy, specifically on the island of Sicily, for the Group of Seven summit.\nDuring his earlier stop in Israel, Trump declared Tuesday that both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are \"ready to reach for peace.\"\nTrump made the remark alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech at the Israel Museum. Trump had held talks with Netanyahu on Monday and met him again on Tuesday after a brief visit to the West Bank for a one-hour discussion with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.\n\u201cWe know that peace is possible if we put aside the pain and disagreements of the past and commit together to finally resolving this crisis which has dragged on for nearly half a century,\u201d Trump added in his speech at the museum, shortly before departing Israel for Rome, adding that Israelis and Palestinians \u201ccan make a deal.\"\nThere was no specific mention in any of Trump\u2019s remarks in Israel to \u201coccupation\u201d or the \u201ctwo-state solution\u201d \u2013 a pair of major sticking points for the Palestinians.\n\u201cHead spinning: Never has a U.S. president expressed so much confidence in a conflict-ending peace agreement with so little prospect of success,\u201d tweeted Aaron David Miller who was a U.S. negotiator on the Middle East in both Republican and Democratic administrations.\nU.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shake hands before beginning their meeting at the Presidential Palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, May 23, 2017.\nAbbas meeting \nEarlier Tuesday, speaking alongside Trump in Bethlehem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the fundamental problem for the Palestinians is with the Israeli occupation and settlements and Israel\u2019s failure to recognize Palestine.\n\u201cThe problem is not Judaism but occupation,\u201d added Abbas.\nAbbas, who has seen his political support from his constituents weaken, reiterated a willingness to accept the two-state solution and the 1967 borders.\nTrump, in Bethlehem, vowed to do \u201ceverything I can\u201d to bring peace to the Middle East, echoing sentiments of several of his predecessors who tried and failed to achieve the same goal.\nHis effort to broker peace comes early in a Trump administration distracted by a domestic political firestorm, part of it self-ignited by the president\u2019s own comments.\nThe U.S. president arrived in Israel on Monday after a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, where Trump said King Salman assured him Riyadh wants peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.\nIn public remarks on Monday, Netanyahu warned that \u201cit will not be simple,\u201d but also expressed cautious optimism that \u201cfor the first time in many years and the first time in my lifetime, I see a real hope for change.\u201d\nAt the prime minister\u2019s residence Monday evening, Trump praised Netanyahu, elected to his fourth term in 2015, for \u201cworking very hard at it. It\u2019s not easy\u2026America stands ready to assist in every way we can,\u201d noting, \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of love out there.\u201d\nThe status of Jerusalem, which both the Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capitals, is also a major complication to a solution.\nThe Palestinian Authority controls the West Bank and is seated in Ramallah. The militant group Hamas controls the Gaza Strip.\nHamas has said that Trump\u2019s labeling it as a terrorist organization demonstrates the American president cannot be a fair broker for peace.\nMap of countries President Donald Trump will visit during his first overseas trip\nVatican is next stop \nTrump on Wednesday is to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican, underscoring the emphasis during his first foreign trip on the three Abrahamic faiths.\nBefore leaving Italy, Trump will meet with the Italian president and prime minister prior to a Thursday flight to Brussels.\nIn Belgium, the American leader will make remarks at the new headquarters of NATO amid concern among alliance members about Trump\u2019s commitment to the organization.\nOn Friday and Saturday, the president is back in Italy, specifically on the island of Sicily, for the Group of Seven summit.\n", + "caption": "U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shake hands before beginning their meeting at the Presidential Palace in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, May 23, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3BCF2130-F659-40D9-9C5A-D3B141A63A93.jpg", + "id": "9833_2", + "answer": [ + "Israel", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "President Mahmoud Abbas", + "Mahmoud Abbas" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3866892", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_23_3866892_2" + }, + { + "question": "What makes the man in the red tie particularly prepared to speak to the man on the left", + "context": "Advocates Hope Trump Can Still Make a Deal With North Korea\nSEOUL, SOUTH KOREA \u2014\u00a0\nDespite U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s comments that it may be too late to strike a deal to halt North Korea\u2019s advancing nuclear program, advocates for engagement argue that Trump is uniquely positioned to reach a breakthrough toward resolving the increasingly tense security situation on the Korean Peninsula.\n\u201cI have some kind of hope that President Trump, that he would come up with a quite unimaginable deal with North Korea that could really bring peace to the Korean Peninsula,\u201d said Moon Chung-in, a professor emeritus at Yonsei University in Seoul.\nSouth Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally to oppose a plan to deploy an advanced U.S. missile defense system called Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, near the U.S. Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 20, 2016.\nDefense first\nTrump this week emphasized bolstering U.S. military capability in the region, including deploying the THAAD missile defense system in South Korea to counter North Korean leader Kim Jong Un\u2019s efforts to accelerate the country\u2019s nuclear and missile development capabilities.\nIn an interview with Reuters Thursday Trump said, \u201cIt\u2019s very late. We\u2019re very angry at what he\u2019s done.\u201d\nIn the last year, North Korea conducted two nuclear tests, a satellite launch using banned intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) technology, and fired numerous short and midrange missiles from submarines and mobile land based launchers.\nBefore taking office in January Trump sent out a tweet saying, \u201cIt won\u2019t happen!\u201d in response to the North Korean leader\u2019s public message saying his country is prepared to conduct an ICBM test. And in February the U.S. president stood alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to condemn a North Korean midrange missile test.\nAn employee walks between front-end loaders which are used to move coal imported from North Korea at Dandong port in the Chinese border city of Dandong, Dec. 7, 2010.\nLosing strategic patience\nOn Thursday Trump again put the onus on China to restrain its economically dependent ally in Pyongyang and said his predecessor, President Barack Obama, should have resolved the issue of North Korea\u2019s increasing nuclear capabilities.\nBeijing\u2019s recent ban on all North Korean coal imports brought a rare rebuke from Pyongyang\u2019s official KCNA news agency Friday that said China \u201cis dancing to the tune of the U.S.\u201d\nThe Trump administration has called on China to apply more economic pressure, but few think Beijing is ready to abandon its ally.\n\u201cThe mistake will be to say, \u2018Oh, great, the Chinese are shutting down the border. They\u2019re going to solve the problem for us.\u2019 That\u2019s the wrong way to understand what\u2019s going on,\u201d said John Delury, an associate professor of Chinese studies at Yonsei University in Seoul.\nThe Obama administration\u2019s policy of strategic patience, which relied on increasing sanctions and diplomatic isolation, failed to pressure Pyongyang to suspend its nuclear program. \nCritics say the policy failed, in large measure, because Beijing will not enforce harsh measures that might result in instability at its border, the collapse of the Kim government, and the increased power and influence of the United States and South Korea in the region.\nBreaking the cycle\nThis stalemate has accelerated a cycle of North Korean provocations in defiance of United Nations resolutions banning the country\u2019s nuclear and missile programs, followed by international condemnation and further sanctions that so far have had only limited impact.\nPyongyang\u2019s relentless efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland add new urgency to devise a strategy against this threat to U.S. security.\nAnalysts say there are no good military options to take out the North\u2019s nuclear and missile facilities without triggering a deadly counter attack on allies South Korea and Japan, and even possibly starting a full scale war.\nThus, engaging North Korea is the only realistic way to reach a peaceful resolution. But that would require the Trump administration to take the initiative.\n\u201cIf the U.S. does not move, Pyongyang will not move, and the stalemate will continue and a stalemate could become more risky and dangerous,\u201d Moon said.\nThe dealmaker\nChina\u2019s ban on North Korean coal along with informal talks that are being organized between former U.S. officials and North Korean representatives could offer Trump an opportunity to open a new channel of dialogue.\nTrump, who sees himself as a dealmaker and who has been critical of his predecessors, could be willing to break with the past and try a more unconventional approach.\n\u201cDonald Trump is uniquely positioned to move on that and he is strangely immune to criticisms that would stop a Democrat or a Republican dead in their tracks,\u201d Delury said.\nAny deal to get even a temporary nuclear freeze from Pyongyang will require real concessions that could include the suspension of U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises and later more incentives like a formal peace treaty and other security guarantees and economic assistance to reach the ultimate outcome of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.\nThe political winds in South Korea also seem to be changing with liberal pro-engagement forces gaining popular support in the wake of conservative President Park Geun-hye\u2019s impeachment amid a corruption scandal. If the country\u2019s Constitutional Court rules in favor of the impeachment, a new presidential election will follow soon.\nOf course negotiations would require time and intense coordination, and could be undone by North Korean provocations and violations, as has happened with past agreements, but advocates say it may be time to try again.\nUnder a 2005 \u201csix party\u201d joint agreement with South Korea, the United States, China, Russia and Japan, North Korea agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid, security guarantees and improved diplomatic ties.\nBut Pyongyang failed to live up to its commitment and conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.\nYoumi Kim contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A TV screen shows pictures of U.S. President Donald Trump (right) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 10, 2016. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B3287123-08F7-4724-803F-1E44C2845A5A.jpg", + "id": "3072_1", + "answer": [ + "he is strangely immune to criticisms that would stop a Democrat or a Republican dead in their tracks" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_24_3738115", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_24_3738115_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the person in the middle of the image accused of saying?", + "context": "Muslim Groups Criticize Wilders' 'Moroccan Scum' Comments\nTHE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS \u2014\u00a0\nMuslim organizations in the Netherlands have criticized disparaging comments about Moroccans made by anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, but say they are just the latest in a long string of insults.\nLaunching his campaign Saturday for the Netherlands' March 15 parliamentary election, Wilders criticized what he called \"Moroccan scum\" for making the Netherlands unsafe.\nEbubekir Ozture, director of the Muslim umbrella group Contact Organ Muslims and Government, on Sunday called Wilders comments \"reprehensible,\" but added, \"It is not the first time and probably won't be the last time,\" that Wilders has used such language.\nWilders was convicted late last year of inciting discrimination and insulting a group for anti-Moroccan comments he made before and after local elections in 2014. He branded the conviction \"political.\" \n", + "caption": "Firebrand int-islam lawmaker Geert Wilders, center, talks to media during his election campaign stop in Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, Feb. 18, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A0FD2EBC-C4EC-49F7-8975-2165D4ABB633.jpg", + "id": "3179_1", + "answer": [ + "disparaging comments about Moroccans" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Geert Wilders" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_19_3730780", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_19_3730780_1" + }, + { + "question": "What things do the people in the image sell?", + "context": "UN Reports Increase in Afghan Opium Poppy Cultivation Area \nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nA new United Nations survey says the total area under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 10 percent, from 183,000 to 201,000 hectares, compared to the previous year, leading to a significant rise in the production of illicit opium.\nThe report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says potential opium production was up 43 percent, reaching 4,800 tons in 2016.\n\u201cIn fact, the value of opiates produced in that country is equivalent to a considerable portion of the country's economy in 2016 - some 16 percent of the GDP - and was worth more than two-thirds of the entire agricultural sector of the country,\u201d the UNODC noted in the report.\nThe illicit economy is fueling insecurity, violence and insurgency among other problems to discourage private and public investment in Afghanistan, the UNODC reiterated.\n\u201cThe cultivation provided labor for an estimated 235,100 full-time jobs in 2016, and the sales of opium poppy and derivatives constituted the main source of income of opium poppy farmers, accounting for up to 57 percent of the annual household income,\u201d according to the UNODC.\nAfghanistan remains the world\u2019s largest opium producer and exporter, despite a U.S. investment of $8.5 billion to help counter the illicit narcotics economy, which produces an estimated 80 percent of the world\u2019s heroin, says an American government agency.\n\u201cThe narcotics industry, coupled with rampant corruption and fraud, is a major source of illicit revenue,\u201d the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, noted in its latest quarterly report.\nFILE - Afghan boy walks through a poppy field to harvest opium, the main ingredient in heroin, in the Khogyani district of Jalalabad, east of Kabul, Afghanistan.\nThe narcotics trade also undermines governance and rule of law throughout Afghanistan, SIGAR said.\nU.S. anti-drugs authorities say that a \"symbiotic relationship\" exists between the Taliban-led insurgency and traffickers.\nThe traffickers, they note, provide weapons, funding and material support to the insurgency in exchange for protection, while insurgent leaders traffic drugs to finance their operations.\nThe commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, said last December the opium trade provides about 60 percent of the funding for the Taliban insurgency.\n", + "caption": "FILE - farmers harvest raw opium at a poppy field in the Zhari district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E4A02474-8C39-41C9-8600-84BE8C09AF2D.jpg", + "id": "10876_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "opium poppy and derivatives" + ], + "bridge": [ + "farmers" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_19_3861837", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_19_3861837_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who used to pay the people like those in the image?", + "context": "Sources: Iran to Bankroll Pro-Government Militia Fighters in Syria\nThe Syrian government has asked Iran to take over the supervision and payroll of thousands of Shi'ite militiamen fighting alongside Russian and Syrian troops in support of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a government source and a news report.\nThe pro-opposition Syrian news website Zaman Al Wasel reported that it obtained a Syrian defense ministry document saying the Assad regime has approved a plan to give Iran responsibility for paying foreign fighters \u2013 mostly Shi'ites of varying nationalities. Shi'ite fighters mostly are paid in cash from Iran, the Syrian government and coffers of the Lebanese-based, pro-Iranian Hezbollah, according to analysts.\nIran would foot the bill alone in the future, a Syrian official told VOA on the condition of anonymity, confirming the Al Wasel report.\n\u201cThe number of Shia militia has increased dramatically during the last two months,\u201d the official said. \u201cWhile a big part of these militia were recruited by Iran, a relatively big part was recruited by the Syrian government directly. We are speaking about more than 50,000 militants from different nationalities. The Syrian government requested that Iran provide for all of the mentioned militias.\u201d\nThe document from Al Wasel put the number of fighters to be paid at 88,733 \u2014 a figure analysts say is exaggerated. They estimate that about 10,000 Iranian combat troops are in Syria fighting alongside thousands of fighters from Lebanon's Tehran-affiliated Shiite militia Hezbollah and assorted Shiite militia made up of renegade Pakistanis, central Asians and other nationalities. Since January 2013, more than 1,000 members of Iran\u2019s elite Quds Force or other elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) units have been killed fighting in Syria.\nTehran says its forces are in Syria to protect the Zeinab Shrine in Damascus, a Shi'ite holy site. But since 2011, Iran has been a major backer of the Syrian regime in its war with rebel groups across the country, at first sending advisers, then forces from the IRGC and expanding far beyond the shrine area.\nIran has long expressed a desire to command a unified army in the region, particularly in Syria, and its growing power in Syria and Iraq is causing unease in Western capitals. In an interview with the Mashregh news agency last August, Mohammad Ali Falaki, an IRGC leader, announced formation of a unified army in Syria which appears to have come to loose fruition.\n\u201cIt would hardly be abnormal for Iran's IRGC to be controlling yet more Shia jihadists,\u201d said Talha Abdulrazaq, a researcher at the University of Exeter's Strategy and Security Institute.\nIn the long run, the formation of a unified army in Syria under Tehran supervision appears very practical, analysts say.\n\u201cIt seems plausible that the Syrian government shift the responsibility for management and organization of the militias, especially where financial burden is concerned,\u201d said Rasool Nafisi, a Middle East affairs expert in Washington.\nAsserting its military prowess would help Iran push its political agenda in the region, some analysts believe.\n\u201cThe bigger and more advanced army you control, the stronger voice you have,\u201d said Daryoush Babak, a Washington-based retired Iranian military adviser.\nBut unifying Assad supporters under Tehran\u2019s umbrella could worsen sectarian conflict in the region between Shi'ites and Sunni, analysts say.\nIran is looking for any chance to increase its influence and gain an upper hand against Saudi Arabia, its strongest rival in the war of minds and hearts, analysts say. Saudi Arabia and Iran support rival groups in Syria's civil war. And In a speech in Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump accused Tehran of contributing to instability in the region.\n\"Tehran and Riyadh \u2026 keep contradicting each other to prove whose ideology leads the region,\" said Nafisi.\nWhile Syria has relied on Iran militarily in the fight against rebels and Islamic State, it\u2019s unlikely to grant Tehran a controlling foothold in the country, analysts say.\n\u201cIn Syria, it is not likely to happen as long as the Assad regime harbors ambitions of regaining sovereignty rather than being reduced to an Iranian protectorate,\u201d said Alfoneh.\nVOA\u2019s Noor Zahid contributed to this report.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A Shi'ite fighter clashes with members of the Sunni-dominated Free Syrian Army rebel in the town of Hatita, in the countryside of Damascus, Syria, Nov. 22, 2013.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5C8FAD1E-22DA-4E6F-A9BF-FA39A7262D1D.jpg", + "id": "31042_1", + "answer": [ + "The Syrian government" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Shi'ite" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_28_3874390", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_28_3874390_1" + }, + { + "question": "What sub-type of craft did the one in the image approach?", + "context": "US Navy Ship Changes Course After Iranian Vessel Interaction\nPENTAGON \u2014\u00a0\nIranian vessels came within 550 meters of a U.S. Navy ship Saturday in the Strait of Hormuz, in what a Navy official told VOA was an \u201cunprofessional and unsafe\u201d encounter that forced the U.S. ship to change direction.\nIranian Revolutionary Guard attack craft surged in front of the USNS Invincible surveillance ship and sat in the water, forcing the American ship and other vessels to go around, the Navy official told VOA.\n\u201cIt is not safe to do something like that,\u201d the Navy official said. \u201cJust having to go around them in narrow water like that can cause some issues.\u201d\nThe USNS Invincible did not receive any communication from the small, lightly armed Iranian boats during the incident.\nThe encounter comes just days after an Iranian frigate came within 140 meters of the Navy ship on Thursday in the Gulf of Oman.\nWhile the ships came closer to each other in Thursday's incident, the Navy official identified the encounter as \u201cunprofessional, but safe\u201d because the ship's crew at least \u201cknew what the other ship was doing.\u201d\n\"\n", + "caption": "FILE - One of the five military vessels from Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps that approached a U.S. warship hosting one of America's top generals on a day trip through the Strait of Hormuz, July 11, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/43ADC1EE-EA62-4F1F-AEE5-9775B96DD319.jpg", + "id": "24935_1", + "answer": [ + "surveillance ship" + ], + "bridge": [ + "vessels" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_06_3751504", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_06_3751504_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person depicted in the imitation in the image going to do?", + "context": "Demonstrators Protest Afghan President's Australia Visit\nCANBERRA, AUSTRALIA \u2014\u00a0\nHundreds of protesters demonstrated against the Afghan president's visit to Australia on Monday, calling for his government to end discrimination against the Hazara ethnic minority and to refuse to repatriate asylum seekers rejected by Australia.\nThe protesters gathered outside Government House, where Ashraf Ghani met with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on the first visit to Australia by an Afghan president.\nHazara protester Barat Ali Batoor said the security situation in Afghanistan had deteriorated too much for members of the Hazara community for the Afghan government to continue to accept asylum seekers rejected by Australia. Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia in 2011 to accept failed Afghan asylum seekers.\n\u201cThere needs to be a moratorium on any more forced repatriations,\u201d Batoor said.\nBond between countries is strong \nGhani arrived in the Australian capital, Canberra, late Sunday.\nAustralian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the visit reflected a strong bond between the two countries.\n\u201cDuring this visit, discussions will focus on our ongoing security and development cooperation to help Afghanistan in its efforts to become more prosperous, secure and self-reliant,\u201d Turnbull said in a statement.\n\u201cIn particular, we will seek to enhance partnership between our nations in a number of fields including women's and girls' empowerment, public sector capacity building and agricultural productivity,\u201d he added.\nGhani to honor Australia troops\nGhani will lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial on Monday before he meets with Turnbull.\nAustralia has lost 41 troops in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.\n", + "caption": "Protesters with a cutout of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani demonstrate against his visit to Australia outside Government House where Ghani met with Governor-General Peter Cosgrove, in Canberra, April 3, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/4E6474D2-47D8-4ACC-8E1A-330334633F8E.jpg", + "id": "26774_1", + "answer": [ + "lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial on Monday" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Ghani" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_03_3793712", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_03_3793712_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the company of the vehicle in the image do?", + "context": "Computer Outage Grounds British Airways Flights From London\nBritish Airways canceled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports Saturday as a global IT failure caused severe disruption for travelers on a busy holiday weekend.\nThe airline said it was suffering a \"major IT systems failure\" around the world. It didn't say what was causing the problem but said there was no evidence of a cyberattack.\nSeveral hours after problems began cropping up Saturday morning, BA suspended flights up to 6 p.m. (1700GMT) because the two airports had become severely congested. The airline later scrapped flights from Heathrow and Gatwick for the rest of the day.\nPassengers at Heathrow reported long lines at check-in counters, flight delays and failures of BA's website and mobile app.\nOne posted a picture on Twitter of BA staff writing gate numbers on a white board.\n\"We've tried all of the self-check-in machines. None were working, apart from one,\" said Terry Page, booked on a flight to Texas. \"There was a huge queue for it and it later transpired that it didn't actually work, but you didn't discover that until you got to the front.\"\nAnother traveler, PR executive Melissa Davis, said she was held for more than an hour and a half on the tarmac at Heathrow aboard a BA flight arriving from Belfast.\nShe said passengers had been told they could not transfer to other flights because \"they can't bring up our details.\"\nPassenger Phillip Norton tweeted video of an announcement from a pilot to passengers at Rome's Fiumicino airport, saying the problem affects the system that regulates what passengers and baggage go on which aircraft. He said passengers on planes that have landed at Heathrow were unable to get off because there was nowhere to park.\nHeathrow said the IT problem had caused \"some delays for passengers\" and it was working with BA to resolve it. Some BA flights were still arriving at Heathrow Saturday afternoon, while many were listed as \"delayed.\"\nThe problem comes on a holiday weekend, when thousands of Britons are travelling.\nBA passengers were hit with severe delays in July and September 2016 because of problems with the airline's online check-in systems.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A British Airways jet arrives at a hanger after landing at Heathrow airport in London July 4, 2013. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BB475A59-E8A0-42A0-A3B9-F77B8AC4C834.jpg", + "id": "32527_1", + "answer": [ + "canceled all flights from London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports" + ], + "bridge": [ + "British Airways" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_27_3873676", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_27_3873676_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the middle of the doorway in the image do?", + "context": "McMaster: Trump's FBI Comments to Russians Were Aimed at Cooperation \nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nU.S. President Donald Trump raised the firing of his FBI director in a meeting with Russia's foreign minister to explain why he had been unable to find areas of cooperation with Moscow, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday.\n\"The gist of the conversation was that the president feels as if he is hamstrung in his ability to work with Russia to find areas of cooperation because this has been obviously so much in the news,\" H.R. McMaster said in an interview on ABC's \"This Week with George Stephanopoulos.\"\nReports that Trump boasted to Russian officials of firing former FBI director James Comey to relieve \"great pressure\" from a law-enforcement probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election engulfed his administration in turmoil just as Trump left for his first foreign trip as president on Friday.\n\"I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,\" Trump said during a May 10 meeting with Russian officials, according to a report by The New York Times that cited a document summarizing the meeting and an unnamed U.S. official.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denied that Comey had come up during the meeting, according to Interfax news agency.\nMcMaster also said in Sunday's interview that the central purpose of Trump's conversation with Lavrov and Russia's ambassador to Washington was to confront Russia on areas where the United States considers them disruptive, such as Syria.\nMcMaster criticized sources who told reporters that Trump had disclosed highly classified information to the Russian officials in the meeting about a planned Islamic State operation.\n\"In a concern about divulging intelligence they leaked actually not just the information from the meeting, but also indicated the sources and methods to a to a newspaper. I mean it doesn't make sense,\" McMaster said.\"\n", + "caption": "U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, second left, at the White House in Washington, May 10, 2017. (Russian Foreign Ministry photo via AP) ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/25D5D340-F56A-4E22-959D-B64AAC81037D.jpg", + "id": "19472_1", + "answer": [ + "denied that Comey had come up during the meeting", + "None", + "denied that Comey had come up during the meeting, according to Interfax news agency" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Sergei Lavrov ", + "Sergey Lavrov" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863984", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863984_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the blonde person in the image accuse the other of?", + "context": "Trump to Make Understated Vatican Visit \nROME \u2014\u00a0\nWhen U.S. President Donald Trump and his wife Melania arrive Wednesday at the Vatican for a planned 20-minute audience with Pope Francis and Roman Catholic Church leaders they will be received with far less pomp than in Saudi Arabia.\nTheir arrival at the Vatican will be via what\u2019s in effect a side-entrance to the Holy See, Porta del Perugino, a consequence of the pope\u2019s request the faithful not be disturbed in St. Peter's Square on the eve of Ascension Day. The pope is scheduled to hold his regular general audience in the square shortly after meeting Trump.\nFILE - A view of St. Peter's Square during Easter Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, at the Vatican, April 16, 2017.\nThe understated arrival, though, is reflective of an eagerness by both the White House and the Vatican to lower expectations. American and Vatican officials have been nervous in the run-up to the meeting.\nTense exchanges\nThe two men have never met, but they have traded pointed exchanges. Last year, in February, Trump accused Francis of allowing himself to be used as a political pawn by the Mexican government on the issue of migration. The pontiff responded by questioning then-candidate Trump\u2019s Christian faith, saying his plan to build a wall on the border with Mexico had no basis in the Gospel. \u201cA person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges is not Christian,\u201d the pontiff told reporters while flying to Mexico.\nFILE - Pope Francis speaks to journalists aboard the flight from Mexico to Italy, on Feb. 18, 2016.\nThat drew a harsh retort from Trump, who replied to Francis' comments with a three paragraph statement in which he warned the Vatican could be attacked by Islamic State terrorists and then church leaders would be grateful if he were in the White House. \u201cFor a religious leader to question a person\u2019s faith is disgraceful,\u201d Trump said.\nSince then the pair have not argued directly, but the pope, the spiritual leader of America\u2019s 50 million Catholics, has clearly been at odds with Trump on a range of issues, including climate change, asylum-seekers and nuclear arms.\nFILE - Pope Francis stands, looking across the Rio Grande towards Texas along the US-Mexico border, in Cuidad Juarez, Mexico, Feb. 17, 2016.\nBridging the divide \nEarlier this month, though, Francis was more conciliatory, saying the upcoming Trump visit offered an opportunity to listen to each other. \u201cI never make a judgment about a person without listening to them,\u201d the pontiff said. He followed up by saying, \u201cI will say what I think; he will say what he thinks.\u201d\nIn recent weeks there have been intense discussions about the agenda for the meeting, and, a Vatican official told VOA, they aimed to avoid \u201cmishap\u201d and to stage a partial reconciliation between the pope and the president. For the White House, a good visit at the Vatican will help further the goal of presenting Trump as a figure eager to unite three religions, Christianity, Judaism and Islam, in the fight against Islamic militants.\nPresident Donald Trump delivers a speech to the Arab Islamic American Summit, at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center, May 21, 2017, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.\nPapal aides told Corriere della Sera newspaper Sunday, \u201cthe meeting will be fine.\u201d Although the paper commented that it wasn\u2019t sure if this were a prediction, a wish or a prayer. An official told the newspaper that Melania Trump\u2019s attendance was being seen by some papal aides as useful, as it would likely help to prevent the encounter from becoming too hard-edged.\nBut for all their differences, the pope, who is highly political, is guided by a deep wish to forge unity and to build consensus and he sees disagreement as a useful dynamic, argue some Vatican-watchers. In Argentina, as a cardinal he strove to nurture relationships with diametrically opposed politicians and to build trust with them and between them, acting as a pastor.\nAmerican Catholics \nFrancis will also likely be mindful that six in 10 white American Catholics backed Trump in the November elections. There is already considerable tension between the Vatican and American Catholics, especially over the church\u2019s handling of child abuse by parish priests.\nWhile some U.S. and Italian reporters are anticipating the meeting between the pair as a possible prize-fight between ideological pugilists, some who know the pontiff say he will search for common ground and may focus on the downsides of globalization to the need to combat human trafficking.\nAusten Ivereigh, who has written a book on the pontiff, argued Sunday in Crux, a U.S.-based independent Catholic media outlet, \u201cPope Francis wants to be in a relationship with world leaders, whomever they are, and whatever their views, so that when the opportunity to work together arises, the bond is there.\u201d\n", + "caption": "A combination of file photos shows Donald Trump (L) speaking at a campaign event in Charlotte, North Carolina, July 26, 2016, and Pope Francis looking on during his Wednesday general audience at Saint Peter's Square, March 19, 2014. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8FE0FA4F-7F6F-499E-88D5-C8F2AB40ED1D.jpg", + "id": "7127_1", + "answer": [ + "allowing himself to be used as a political pawn by the Mexican government on the issue of migration", + "of allowing himself to be used as a political pawn by the Mexican government" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Trump", + "Donald Trump" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_22_3864914", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_22_3864914_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image able to do?", + "context": "Analysts: Don't 'Gut' Darfur Peacekeeping Mission With Funding Cuts\nNAIROBI \u2014\u00a0\nAhead of a June deadline to renew Darfur's joint African Union and United Nations peacekeeping mission in Darfur, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said her administration wants \"proof\" Sudan's government is making progress toward peace and protecting civilians in the region.\nThe Darfur mission, known as UNAMID, costs $1 billion per year. The Trump administration has expressed interest in cutting back on the overall U.N. peacekeeping budget. But analysts say while the mission merits some streamlining, it still serves a purpose.\nSudan's foreign minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, argued conditions in Darfur have improved significantly from 2003, when the conflict began.\nFILE - Military personnel patrol in Tabit village in North Darfur, Nov. 20, 2014, as region's joint peacekeeping mission, UNAMID, continues to seek access to Tabit since earlier this month to investigate media reports of an alleged mass rape of women and\n\"Now there are no rebel movements in Darfur, no fighting in Darfur, IDPs are returning back to their places, and peace is prevailing in Darfur,\" he said.\nAmnesty International's Sudan researcher, Ahmed Elzobier, disagreed, saying the benchmarks for progress outlined previously by the Obama administration have not been fulfilled. \"We see reports every day that there is attacks on IDPs in Darfur,\" he said.\n\"The second benchmark is facilitation of humanitarian access in different parts of Darfur, especially in Jebel Mara, and this is not taking place at the moment, added Elzobier. \"The third one is progress on the peace talks, between the armed groups in Darfur and the Sudan government. This was suspended since August 2016.And nothing has happened. And the fourth one, which is inter-communal fighting ... this is still happening every now and then.\"\nPeacekeepers deployed to Darfur in 2007. Violence broke out in the region in 2003 when Khartoum was accused of unleashing local Arab tribes on ethnic Africans rebelling against the government for alleged discrimination. Unrest has continued in the years since.\nA prisoner leaves the national prison, after 259 prisoners from Darfur rebel movements were released according to the general amnesty decision of the President Omar al-Bashir, in Khartoum, Sudan, March 9, 2017\nProgress eases sanctions\nThe United States lifted some sanctions against Sudan in January, with then-President Barack Obama citing \"positive actions\" by the Sudanese government, including progress in ending military aerial bombardments in Darfur.\nA State Department official said there could be a permanent revocation of sanctions in six months if progress continued, a timeline that coincides with the renewal of the UNAMID mandate.\nZach Vertin, a fellow at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center, said the U.N. mission in Darfur could be updated to reflect \"current realities.\"\n\"Things have definitely changed, but it remains a complex security environment with lots of overlapping security concerns, criminality \u2014 these kind of things,\" he said.\"So I think the Trump administration has been pushing for major peacekeeping cuts and while streamlining the mission is welcome, gutting it is not.\"\nAnalysts worry that a large, abrupt cut to the UNAMID presence could impact humanitarian assistance and civilian protection in Darfur.\n\"UNAMID has been a failure by any reasonable peacekeeping standards, but failing doesn't mean they haven't provided some protection,\" said Eric Reeves, a senior fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.\n\"That protection would disappear with the kind of cuts that are being mooted within the debates at the Security Council,\" he added.\nThe government of Sudan does want UNAMID to leave, but carefully, said its foreign minister.\n\"We want a careful exit strategy in accordance with the agreement signed between us and the A.U. and the U.N. And on the basis of that, we are accepting any reasonable evaluation in all places where UNAMID is based,\" said Ghandour. \"So we are not talking about an immediate, total exit. We are talking about an exit strategy on the basis of conditions on the ground.\"\nIn March, Ambassador Haley accused the U.N.'s peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO, of \"aiding a government that is inflicting predatory behavior against its own people.\" She also said the United Nations should have the \"decency and common sense to end this.\"\nMONUSCO's mandate was renewed at the end of March, but with a reduction of 3,600 in the troop ceiling.\nThe mandates for peacekeeping missions in Mali, southern Lebanon, and the Central African Republic will also come up for renewal before the end of the year.\n", + "caption": "FILE - United Nations African Mission In Darfur, UNAMID peacekeepers patrol the refugee camp of Zamzam at the outskirts of the Darfur town of el Fasher, Sudan, April 13, 2010. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8366D2AD-E2D0-4B23-9EF1-5AE8F048304E.jpg", + "id": "22674_1", + "answer": [ + "provided some protection" + ], + "bridge": [ + "UNAMID" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808960", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_13_3808960_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why is the crowd gathered around the man in white", + "context": "Pope Visits Italian Region Rebuilt After Deadly 2012 Quake\nCARPI, ITALY \u2014\u00a0\nGreeted by tens of thousands of faithful, Pope Frances on Sunday visited Italy's northern Emilia Romagna region that has largely rebuilt from pair of deadly quakes five years ago, an example meant to give hope to central Italy, which is still reeling from more devastating temblors last year.\nFrancis' first stop was the quake-damaged Duomo cathedral of Carpi, where he laid a bouquet of white flowers at the foot of a statue of the Madonna inside. After years of restoration, the cathedral reopened just last weekend.\n\"There are those who remain buried in the rubble of life,\" the pope said in his homily before an estimated 20,000 gathered in the piazza outside the cathedral for an open-air Mass. \"And there are those, like you, who with the help of God rise from the rubble to rebuild.\"\nAnother 50,000 people watched the Mass on large screens throughout the city of 70,000.\nDuring his daylong visit, the pope also will meet with families who lost loved ones in the quake and hold a discussion with priests, nuns and seminarians.\nThe Emilia Romagna model of rebuilding after the magnitude-6.1 and magnitude-5.8 quakes that killed 28 people in 2012 has often been cited as exemplary. It included bringing together politicians, entrepreneurs and bishops to decide common priorities.\nThe papal visit was meant to give a sign of gratitude for the rebuilding, the archbishop of Carpi, Monsignor Francesco Cavina, told the Italian Bishops' Conference television TV2000. But he said it's also \"a sign of hope that rebuilding is possible for the people of central Italy, who unfortunately suffered what we did much more dramatically.\"\nA magnitude-6.1 quake on Aug. 24 in Italy's central regions of Umbria, Abruzzo and Marche killed nearly 300 people, toppled thousands of buildings including churches, historic buildings and museums, and rendered many town centers uninhabitable. It was followed by a series of quakes in October, including the strongest in Italy in nearly four decades at magnitude 6.6, that toppled and damaged a higher number of structures, but didn't provoke further deaths since the most vulnerable areas had already been evacuated.\nAuthorities have estimated the damage from the 2016 central Italian quakes at more than 23.5 billion euros ($25 billion), compared with 13.5 billion euros from the 2012 Emilia Romagna temblors.\n", + "caption": "Pope Francis waves as he leaves after celebrating a Mass in Piazza Martiri Square, in Carpi, northern Italy, for a one-day pastoral visit to Carpi and Mirandola, April 2, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9324C04C-B9BF-4B4C-A8E6-8E249FF3598C.jpg", + "id": "5837_1", + "answer": [ + "gathered in the piazza outside the cathedral for an open-air Mass" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Pope" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792890", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_02_3792890_1" + }, + { + "question": "Whose decision does the man in the image believe makes ethnic rivalries more difficult?", + "context": "UN Urges Israeli-Palestinian Calm, Return to Talks\nUNITED NATIONS \u2014\u00a0\nThe U.N.'s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process warned Tuesday that Israeli-Palestinian tensions have been heightened in the aftermath of a Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.\n\u201cAll stakeholders must avoid any unilateral action that would prejudge a negotiated final status solution,\u201d Nickolay Mladenov told council members via a video link from Jerusalem.\nIn the past week alone, four Israeli soldiers were killed in a Palestinian truck-ramming attack, while on Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian during clashes near Bethlehem.\nThe council adopted resolution 2334 on December 23, 2016. The United States, which in the past has blocked similar resolutions to protect its ally, Israel, abstained from the vote, allowing the measure to go through.\nIsrael expressed its anger at the outgoing Obama administration for allowing its adoption and announced it would limit diplomatic and business cooperation with countries on the Security Council that voted in favor of the resolution, including cutting several million dollars in foreign aid to council member Senegal.\nIsrael was further angered by a French-sponsored conference Sunday in Paris intended to reaffirm the international community's position that a two-state solution is the only answer to the decades-old conflict and urge the two parties to return to the negotiating table. Israel did not attend the conference.\n\u201cOver 70 nations met in the City of Lights without our presence to discuss how we should make peace,\u201d Israel's U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon told the council. \u201cWhat arrogance!\u201d\nIsrael's Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon addresses a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East at U.N. headquarters in New York, Jan. 26, 2016.\nIsraeli retaliation\nHe said that in the aftermath of resolution 2334 Israel has decided that \u201cenough is enough\u201d and is reassessing its relationship with several U.N. organizations. \u201cOur first step is to suspend more than $6 million from our annual contributions to the U.N. for 2017.\u201d Danon said that money represents the portion of the U.N. budget allocated to \u201canti-Israel bodies\u201d within the U.N. system.\nDespite the United States' strong and continued support for the State of Israel, including a 10-year, $38-billion package of military aid for the country signed in September, President Barak Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have had an often fraught relationship. Israel's envoy did not attempt to conceal his government's relief that president-elect Donald Trump, who has expressed strong public support of Israel and anger at its treatment at the United Nations, is about to take office.\n\u201cWith this new administration comes the hope the United States will return to its policy of rejecting unfair and biased Security Council resolutions and promoting direct and genuine dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians,\u201d Danon said.\nPalestinian Ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour addresses a U.N. Security Council meeting on the Middle East at U.N. headquarters in New York, Jan. 26, 2016.\nPalestinians expect results\nPalestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour called resolution 2334 a \u201cturning point\u201d and wagging his finger at the 15 council members said, \u201cFollow up must begin immediately and all must uphold their obligations, including each and every one of you members of the Security Council, it is your resolution; it is your duty to see that it is completely implemented.\u201d\nMansour said the resolution, which also demands Israel \"immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem,\" could provide \u201cthe way back from the brink\u201d that the two sides need.\n\u201cThe international community must act now to revive the possibility of peace,\u201d Mansour said.\n", + "caption": "FILE - United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, speaks during a press conference in Gaza City, Feb. 17, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9B1088FA-E21D-477C-9AC7-B834A7C540FA.jpg", + "id": "25832_1", + "answer": [ + "Security Council " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_17_3680130", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_17_3680130_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with sunglasses in the image make?", + "context": "Audio Message Heightens Concern About Nigerian President's Health\nAn Eid-el-Fitr message from ailing Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, congratulating Muslims for ending the annual Ramadan fasting ritual, has turned into controversy and created more concern about his health.\nThe one-minute audio message was reportedly arranged by aides to debunk social media rumors that Buhari, who is in London for receiving medical treatment for an unspecified illness, has suffered a speech impairment. \nInstead, the president's quiet, shaky and frail voice has heightened Nigerians' fears that the president is not getting better.\nrenderExternalContent(\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/7dOQtwzwMrQ?&&fs=1\")\nThe message lacked Buhari\u2019s usual brash and authoritative tone.\n\"I thank you very much for including me in your prayers during the blessed month,\" he said, before asking God to give Nigeria a good harvest and \"peaceful co-existence.\"\nHassan Maina Kaina, a reporter for VOA's Hausa Service in Abuja, reports that many Nigerians do not even believe that the voice belongs to Buhari. Some are now demanding photos and videos of the president to assure the country that he is alive.\nHowever, Baba Abba, a former state governor who worked with Buhari in the 1980s, confirmed that the voice was indeed the president\u2019s.\nAside from his illness, Buhari's choice to speak in Hausa is kicking up controversy. Many non-Hausa speakers, particularly those in the Igbo-speaking southeast and Yoruba-speaking southwest, are upset that the president did not speak in English, the country\u2019s official lingua franca.\nBuhari\u2019s media aide Garba Shehu was reported to have said that Buhari spoke in Hausa because he was interviewed by the BBC Hausa Service, a claim the BBC denied.\nFILE - Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari (right) is welcomed by Nigeria Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left) upon arrival from his medical vacation in Abuja, Nigeria, March 10, 2017.\nLater, Nigerian media organizations reported that the audio was recorded, edited and distributed to selected friendly media organizations in the North.\nA former member of Nigeria\u2019s House of Representatives, Junaid Mohammed, said he wondered what the president and his aides hoped to achieve by releasing the audio clip.\nBuhari, 74, has been in London for medical treatment since May 7, after a seven-week stay there earlier this year. Officials have refused to disclosed the nature of his illness or say where he is hospitalized.\nDespite assurances by his wife, Aisha Buhari, that he was gaining strength and \u201cwould soon return,\" Nigerians have remained largely skeptical. Buhari has looked gaunt in his occasional photos and public appearances, and has done little official business, letting his deputy, Yemi Osinbajo, handle business as acting president.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari (right) is welcomed by Nigeria Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left) upon arrival from his medical vacation in Abuja, Nigeria, March 10, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/EE1E392D-046A-470A-BBD1-4B22B8D216F0.jpg", + "id": "19209_2", + "answer": [ + "one-minute audio message", + "None", + "An Eid-el-Fitr message" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Muhammadu Buhari" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3918610", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3918610_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person on the screen in the image warn about?", + "context": "Russia-West Tensions Exposed at Moscow Security Conference\nMOSCOW \u2014\u00a0\nTensions between Russia and the West over security in Europe, the Middle East and Asia have surfaced at an annual defense conference in Moscow. Major flashpoints include the situation in Syria and NATO expansion.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov gave a stark warning about the expanding threat of terrorism and conflict across the globe at the opening Wednesday of the two-day Moscow Conference on International Security.\n\"The situation in the world is not becoming more stable or predictable, rather the opposite,\" he said. \"In front of our eyes we see that tension on both global and regional levels is on the rise. Further erosion of international law is obvious, so are attempts to use force to promote personal interests, to strengthen own security at the expense of others' security, to contain by all means the process of a formation of a polycentric world order.\"\nWatch: Russia-West, Syria Tensions Exposed at Moscow Security Conference\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nRussia-West, Syria Tensions Exposed at Moscow Security Conference\nShare this video\n0:03:19\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:03:19\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 8.8MB\n360p | 13.3MB\n720p | 77.8MB\n1080p | 53.3MB\nMiddle East\nAs if to underscore the point, Israeli missiles hit a suspected Iranian arms depot in Damascus just hours after Lavrov and Israel's Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met on the sidelines of the security conference.\nIsraeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman attends the Moscow Conference for International Security in Moscow, Russia, April 26, 2017.\nThose airstrikes also symbolize the complicated nature of Russia's relationship with Israeli and Iran, says analyst Alexey Malashenko via Skype.\n\"Russia is playing a very difficult game between Israel and Iran,\" he said. \"It creates some problems. \u2026 I think similar situation will continue. So, Russia will keep the normal relations with both countries.\"\nRussia says it wants a global alliance against terrorists and is fighting them in Syria just like a U.S.-led Western alliance has been doing.\nBut Western and Arab states say Russia is defending Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and they accuse him of responsibility for a chemical attack on civilians this month that Moscow and Damascus blame on Syrian rebels.\nThe Western alliance wants Assad out of power, but the Kremlin fears losing its ally in Damascus would mean losing regional influence.\n\"Maybe the problem of Bashar al-Assad, his presidency, is most painful problem for Kremlin because indeed, it has to be replaced, and Putin and in Kremlin they understand it. That's no doubt,\" Malashenko said. \"But, anyway, by whom it's possible to replace him, who will come instead of him? This is a problem.\"\nNATO\nAnother problem, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, is the gradual expansion of the NATO Western military alliance into eastern Europe.\n\"NATO is a military and political bloc and not a group of stamp collectors. It follows a course of projecting its power and bringing more and more states into its orbit,\" Shoigu said at the conference opening. \"The recent decision to make Montenegro an alliance member is the latest proof of that. Podgorica's military potential is close to zero, but its geographic location allows [the alliance] to strengthen control over the Balkans.\"\nFILE - U.S. Senator John McCain, right, shakes hands with Montenegrin army officers in Podgorica, Montenegro, April 12, 2017. McCain has congratulated Montenegro for its upcoming NATO membership.\nMontenegro's opposition held protests Tuesday against joining NATO. Many fear joining the Western alliance could upset relations with Russia, or even lead to a military clash.\nAlso this week, U.S. fighter jets arrived in Estonia, and British typhoon jets went to Romania, as NATO reassures members concerned about Russian aggression.\nTrust is almost completely eroded between NATO and the Kremlin, says the Carnegie Moscow Center's Petr Topychkanov via Skype.\n\"It all started from Yugoslavia in 1990s, but then Georgia war, NATO extension, missile defense programs \u2014 United States and NATO \u2014 and, of course, the most recent and the most important thing was the Crimea annexation by Russia.\"\nOn East Asia, Russian President Vladimir Putin and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe discussed North Korea's nuclear program.\nRussia agrees to pressure Pyongyang to give up its nuclear ambitions, but only through the U.N. Security Council.\n", + "caption": "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is seen on a screen speaking at the Moscow Conference for International Security in Moscow, Russia, April 26, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D945FA9C-F01C-452E-AAA9-805354D2C940.jpg", + "id": "21319_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "the expanding threat of terrorism and conflict across the globe" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Sergei Lavrov" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_27_3828475", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_27_3828475_1" + }, + { + "question": "What makes the organization of the woman in the image believe that human rights are being violated?", + "context": "Syria Rejects Amnesty's Report of Mass Hangings As 'Untrue'\nBEIRUT, LEBANON \u2014\u00a0\nSyria's justice ministry on Wednesday rejected an Amnesty International report of mass hangings of as many as 13,000 people in a prison near Damascus, calling the allegations \u201ctotally untrue\u201d and part of a smear campaign.\nThe ministry's statement, published by Syria's state-run news agency, came a day after Amnesty released its report, based on a year of research and interviews with 31 former detainees of the Saydnaya prison near Damascus and over 50 former guards, prison officials, judges and experts.\nAmnesty's report included chilling details from witnesses who saw various stages of the killings, down to the actual implementation and last- minute wishes of the men hanged, most of whom were civilians.\nIn Damascus, the justice ministry said \u201cmisleading and inciting\u201d media outlets carried the Amnesty report with the intention to smear the Syrian government's reputation on the world stage - particularly after recent \u201cmilitary victories against terrorists groups.\u201d The government refers to all armed opposition as \u201cterrorists.\u201d\nIt also called the allegations \u201cbaseless\u201d and stated that executions in Syria follow due process and various stages of litigations. It also questioned testimonies of survivors who are currently outside of Syria. \u201cWhy didn't the Syrian authorities execute them and why were they released if others were executed?\u201d it said.\n\u201cThe justice ministry denies and condemns in the strongest terms what was reported because it is not based on correct evidence but on personal emotions that aim to achieve well-known political goals,\u201d the statement said.\nThe statement also said the report refers to judges and lawyers among those executed. However, there is no such reference in the report - Amnesty only states that it interviewed former judges and lawyers and that human rights defenders were among those imprisoned in Saydnaya.\nThe statement published on SANA Wednesday morning appeared to have been taken down later. It was not immediately clear why.\nSaydnaya has become the main political prison in Syria since 2011, according to witnesses. Amnesty said Damascus did not respond to its own request for comment ahead of the report's publication. Syrian government officials rarely comment on allegations of torture and mass killings. In the past, they have denied reports of massacres documented by international human rights groups, describing them as propaganda.\nAmnesty said its investigation revealed that Syrian authorities hanged between 5,000 and 13,000 people over the course of four years in Saydnaya - known by detainees as the 'slaughterhouse' and operated by the military police. The hangings took place once, sometimes twice a week, after trials that last only a few minutes, the report said.\nOther rights groups have found evidence of widespread torture leading to death in Syrian detention facilities. In a report last year, Amnesty found that more than 17,000 people have died of torture and ill-treatment in custody across Syria since 2011, an average rate of more than 300 a month.\n", + "caption": "Lynn Maalouf, deputy director of research at Amnesty International Middle East and North Africa, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0F8A6F6A-CFE9-4E95-AA22-7121D928F3E0.jpg", + "id": "27511_1", + "answer": [ + "a year of research and interviews with 31 former detainees of the Saydnaya prison near Damascus and over 50 former guards, prison officials, judges and experts" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Amnesty" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714623", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_08_3714623_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person wearing the tie in the image do?", + "context": "No Prosecution in Over-Budget Colorado VA Hospital\nDENVER \u2014\u00a0\nThe Justice Department has declined to prosecute two Veterans Affairs Department executives after lawmakers accused them of misleading Congress about massive cost overruns at a Denver-area VA hospital.\nThe House Veterans Affairs Committee asked for a perjury investigation last fall, claiming the executives repeatedly gave false testimony that masked serious problems with the hospital construction project.\nThe Justice Department told lawmakers in a May 19 letter that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman of Colorado released the letter to The Associated Press Thursday.\nU.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo. (front), makes a point while Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., looks on during a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee field hearing, May 20, 2016, in the State Capitol in Denver.\nThe decision means no one has yet been fired or charged since the cost of the hospital ballooned to nearly $1.7 billion, almost triple earlier estimates.\nThe VA has said everyone involved in the problems has retired or was transferred or demoted.\nThe hospital is still under construction in the Denver suburb of Aurora and is expected to be finished next year.\nThe VA executives targeted by lawmakers were Glenn Haggstrom, then the top official in charge of construction projects, and Stella Fiotes, director of the VA\u2019s Office of Construction and Facilities Management.\nNeither returned phone messages seeking comment Thursday. VA spokesman Paul Sherbo said the agency had no comment.\nMultiple investigations concluded that the VA bungled the project, providing insufficient oversight, approving lavish design elements, failing to get the designers and builders to agree, and trying to use a complicated form of construction contract that agency executives didn\u2019t fully understand.\nThe VA\u2019s inspector general, an internal watchdog, said last year that Haggstrom knew the project was veering toward huge cost overruns but didn\u2019t tell lawmakers when he testified before Congress in 2013 and 2014. That prompted lawmakers to call for the perjury investigation of Haggstrom and Fiotes.\n", + "caption": "U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo. (front), makes a point while Rep. Ann Kuster, D-N.H., looks on during a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee field hearing, May 20, 2016, in the State Capitol in Denver.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/52A7FBA0-A18D-438D-BD8F-CE5B577CEF14.jpg", + "id": "29511_2", + "answer": [ + "released the letter to The Associated Press " + ], + "bridge": [ + "Mike Coffman" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_09_3893435", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_09_3893435_2" + }, + { + "question": "Where did the people similar to those in the image demonstrate?", + "context": "Marchers Across US Call for Impeachment of President Trump\nLOS ANGELES \u2014\u00a0\nDemonstrators hoisting signs and chanting anti-Donald Trump slogans marched through downtown Los Angeles to urge Congress to impeach the president.\nThe Los Angeles march was one of several similar gatherings Sunday across California and the nation.\nOrganizers say they believe the president has violated the U.S. Constitution and obstructed justice.\nOne banner called the president an \"Illegitimate Corrupt Puppet.\"\nMarcher John Meranda tells the Los Angeles Times he has attended five recent anti-Trump marches. The 56-year-old says he's most recently frightened by the Republican proposal to cut billions of dollars from the Medicaid program.\nA smaller group of pro-Trump protesters gathered nearby outside Los Angeles police headquarters. The Trump supporters say they're unconcerned about allegations that Trump tried to thwart an FBI investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.\n", + "caption": "Protesters rally outside a Trump hotel to call for the impeachment of President Trump, Sunday July 2, 2017, in New York. A statement from the organizer's website said President Trump \"has been in blatant violation of the Constitution\" and that the House o", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/7921D5D9-F733-4C55-A42F-CB9148A02218.jpg", + "id": "23634_1", + "answer": [ + "outside Los Angeles police headquarters" + ], + "bridge": [ + "protesters" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_02_3925324", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_02_3925324_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where have the people like those in the image been fighting?", + "context": "Syria, Rebels Reach New Evacuation Deal for Besieged Cities\nThe Syrian government and rebels opposing President Bashar al-Assad have reached an agreement to evacuate civilians from towns besieged by fighters from both sides.\nFor several years, rebels have besieged the northwestern towns of Foua and Kefraya, while pro-government forces laid siege to Zabadani and Madaya near Damascus.\nThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the six-year conflict in Syria, said the evacuations are due to begin April 4. The agreement also put in place a cease-fire in the towns. The Observatory said those areas were calm Wednesday.\nThe four towns have been the subject of previous deals to allow people to leave and to allow in deliveries of humanitarian aid. The United Nations and aid groups have complained at times of a lack of access to the towns despite the agreements.\nThe U.N. has also repeatedly called on all forces in Syria to stop the using sieges as a tactic in their fight.\nSyria's conflict began in March 2011 as peaceful protests against Assad before spiraling into a complicated civil war that now includes pro-government forces, various rebel groups, Islamic State fighters, airstrikes by Russia and a U.S.-led coalition, and Turkish forces operating in northern Syria.\nThe U.N. says 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance and about 5 million refugees have fled the country.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A rebel fighter stands with his weapon near evacuees from the Shi'ite Muslim villages of al-Foua and Kefraya as they ride buses in insurgent-held al-Rashideen, Syria, Dec. 20, 2016.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/5633B857-C38D-4D3E-9623-1C1D4CEB1628.jpg", + "id": "21045_1", + "answer": [ + "Foua and Kefraya", + "Zabadani and Madaya" + ], + "bridge": [ + "rebel fighter", + "rebels" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_29_3786415", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_29_3786415_1" + }, + { + "question": "What describes the ideology of the person with the black tie in the image?", + "context": "Valls to Face Hamon in French Socialist Runoff\nCenter-leaning Manuel Valls will face more liberal Benoit Hamon in a runoff Sunday (January 29) when French left-wing voters will choose their candidate to confront conservative and nationalist rivals in the April-May presidential election.\nHamon, a former education minister, won more than 36 percent of the vote, with former prime minister Valls trailing at 31 percent, according to nearly complete results from polling stations.\nA defiant Valls, 54, told his supporters the Socialist primary runoff would be \"a clear choice between unachievable promises and a credible left.\"\nHamon, 49, said he offered hope to a party ailing after five years under President Francois Hollande beset by economic sluggishness and mass protests.\nWith Europe shifting to the right and the deeply unpopular Hollande ruling himself out, the competition is expected to be tough for the Socialist nominee in the race for the two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7. \nThe far-right National Front party of Marine Le Pen, running against conservative former prime minister Francois Fillon, and 39-year-old former economy minister Emmanuel Macron, is generally expected to dominate the first round, reflecting a wider populist backlash in Europe and the U.S., where President Donald Trump took office Friday.\n", + "caption": "French Socialist candidates Benoit Hamon, left, will face Manuel Valls, right in a runoff election Jan. 29, with the winner facing conservative and nationalist rivals in the April-May presidential election.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/B983E89F-83D9-45F8-B139-568D7EB2A8A1.jpg", + "id": "24067_1", + "answer": [ + "liberal" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Benoit Hamon" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_23_3687681", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_23_3687681_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people operating the vehicle in the image near?", + "context": "Spokesman: Iraqi Forces Launch New Push in Mosul's West\nBAGHDAD \u2014\u00a0\nJust after dawn Thursday morning, Iraqi forces began a push along the northern edge of Mosul's western half where Islamic State group fighters are holding onto a cluster of neighborhoods, according to the spokesman for the ministry of defense.\nIraqi forces are happily facing \"victory or martyrdom,\" in the battle against the extremists, Yahya Rasool said in a statement released by his office. Iraqi army and federal police divisions are participating in the push along with the elite rapid response units who fall under federal police command, Rasool said.\nThe front lines in western Mosul have inched forward for months as IS fighters have used a claustrophobic battle space and hundreds of thousands of civilians as human shields to slow Iraqi troops. On the southern edge of Mosul's west, Iraq's federal police are just a few hundred meters (yards) from Mosul's al-Nuri mosque.\nThe mosque is a hugely symbolic prize as it is where IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made a rare public appearance in July 2014 and declared the group's self-styled caliphate after IS seized almost a third of Iraq. But the mosque lies inside Mosul's old city where some of the toughest fighting is expected to unfold due to the narrow streets, according to coalition officials. Iraqi forces now appear to be moving to surround the old city before launching an operation to clear it.\nThe fight for Mosul's west has been slow and deadly to Iraqi forces and civilians caught in the crossfire. During a congressional hearing in March, Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said the fight for Mosul had left 774 Iraqi security forces dead and 4,600 wounded. Iraq's military does not release casualty information for its forces.\nMore than six months of fighting has killed and wounded more than 8,000 civilians, according to the United Nations, a number that only counts people transferred to hospitals from frontline clinics.\nHundreds of thousands of people are still trapped inside the Mosul neighborhoods under IS control and some 419,000 people have been forced to flee western Mosul alone since the fighting began there, according to a U.N. statement released this week.\nMosul fell to IS nearly three years ago and the operation to retake it was launched in October. Iraqi forces declared the city's eastern half \"liberated\" in January.\n", + "caption": "In this Tuesday, May 2, 2017 photo, a humvee of the Iraqi Federal Police drives through an abandoned street in western Mosul, Iraq. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/AD16EC88-05D3-450F-9A00-31C057AF7250.jpg", + "id": "28424_1", + "answer": [ + "Mosul's al-Nuri mosque" + ], + "bridge": [ + "federal police" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3837337", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3837337_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why are people like those in the image leaving their homes?", + "context": "Risk of Death from Starvation Grows in Africa\nGENEVA \u2014\u00a0\nUnited Nations and international aid agencies warn the chances are growing for mass deaths from starvation in the Horn of Africa, Yemen, Nigeria, and South Sudan. Lack of money is pushing the humanitarian crisis ever closer.\nAid agencies are haunted by the specter of the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa, which killed more than 260,000 people, half of them children under age five. They do not want a repeat of that tragedy, but say they fear the severity of the current humanitarian crisis gripping Yemen, the Horn of Africa and neighboring countries could result in an even worse outcome.\nFILE - In this photo taken Feb. 25, 2017, displaced Somali girls who fled the drought in southern Somalia stand in a queue to receive food handouts at a feeding center in a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia.\nThe U.N. refugee agency reports hunger and conflict are forcing increasing numbers of people to flee within their countries and across borders in search of food and refuge. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards says refugee numbers are escalating.\n\u201cConsecutive harvests have failed, conflict in South Sudan coupled with drought is leading to famine and outflows of refugees, insecurity in Somalia is leading to rising internal displacement, and rates of malnutrition are high, especially among children and lactating mothers,\u201d he said.\nEdwards says in the Dollo Ado area of southeast Ethiopia, acute malnutrition rates among very young newly arriving Somali refugee children are running between 50 and nearly 80 percent.\nAid agencies have been scaling up their humanitarian operations in northeastern Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, where more than 20 million people are experiencing famine or are on the brink of famine.\nFILE - Somalis displaced by the drought, arrive at makeshift camps in the Tabelaha area on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, March 30, 2017.\nBut Edwards tells VOA the efforts may be doomed to failure, he warns problems will reach catastrophic levels unless funds are received.\n\u201cWhat we are looking at is the need for funding across the international community,\" he said. \"This is really is an absolutely critical situation that is rapidly unfolding across a large swathe of Africa from west to east. It does need urgent addressing from a really concerted international action.\u201d\nEarlier this year, the United Nations launched an appeal for $4.4 billion to provide life saving assistance in the four famine-affected countries. As of now, only 21 percent of that amount has been received, far from enough to avert a humanitarian catastrophe.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this photo taken Feb. 25, 2017, displaced Somali girls who fled the drought in southern Somalia stand in a queue to receive food handouts at a feeding center in a camp in Mogadishu, Somalia.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FC564B81-AEAF-4388-BDB0-4D6FA72CFC30.jpg", + "id": "6251_2", + "answer": [ + "Risk of death from starvation ", + "hunger and conflict" + ], + "bridge": [ + "flee", + "Displaced Somali girls " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_11_3805441", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_11_3805441_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the middle of the image construct?", + "context": "Britain\u2019s Celebrities Urge Government to Admit More Child Refugees\nLONDON \u2014\u00a0\nMore than 200 of Britain\u2019s top celebrities, including movie stars Ralph Fiennes, Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch, and playwrights Tom Stoppard and David Hare, have called on the British government to reinstate a resettlement program for child refugees.\nOnly 200 unaccompanied children have been accepted under the nine-month plan. Another 150 will be admitted in the next few weeks before it is closed.\nIn an open letter Tuesday addressed to Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Theresa May, the celebrities describe as \u201ctruly shameful\u201d the decision to stop the program. \u201cThe idea that as a country we will slam the door shut after just 350 children have reached safety is completely unacceptable,\u201d they wrote.\n\u201cThe country we know and love is better than this,\u201d they added.\nThe plan to admit lone child refugees wandering in Europe after fleeing the Mideast was never a government idea in the first place. The government set it up reluctantly after lawmakers and peers passed an amendment to new immigration legislation last April. The lawmakers expected the number of unaccompanied children admitted would be more like 3,000. It took five months after the passing of the amendment for the government to resettle any child refugees stranded in Europe.\nBritain\u2019s \"red-top\" tabloid newspapers reacted furiously when the first handful of child refugees, who had been at a camp in Calais, were admitted under the plan, arguing on the basis purely of photographs that they weren\u2019t kids. They raised the specter the resettled refugees posed a security risk, which some observers say influenced the government\u2019s already jaundiced attitude toward the program.\nFILE - One Syrian and five Afghan boys wave on the platform of the Calais train station, northern France, as they leave for Britain, Oct. 13, 2016.\nThe amendment creating the program was proposed by Alf Dubs, a Labour peer who as a six-year-old was one of 669 mostly Jewish children who fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 and were admitted into Britain thanks to the voluntary efforts of a young British stockbroker, Nicholas Winton.\nIn their letter, the celebrities noted the plan wouldn\u2019t match Winton\u2019s efforts in wartime Europe by the time it is closed. Nor, they argue, will it compare favorably to Britain\u2019s Kindertransport humanitarian program, which ran between November 1938 to September 1939 and oversaw the admittance of 10,000 mostly Jewish children who fled Nazi Europe.\nThe wartime government agreed to speed up the immigration process by issuing travel documents to the Kindertransport children on the basis of group lists, rather than individual applications.\nAnnouncing the winding down of the so-called \"Dubs scheme\", government Minster Amber Rudd argued last Thursday, \u201cit acts as a magnet and encourages people traffickers.\u201d She said most vulnerable children were stuck in camps in Jordan and Lebanon, from where the government still intends to bring 3,000 to Britain, the number lawmakers were led to believe would be admitted under the Dubs amendment.\nActress Joely Richardson (C) stands with Alf Dubs and demonstrators portraying Paddington Bear, during a protest highlighting the plight of child refugees, outside the Home Office in London, Oct. 24, 2016.\nBut refugee campaigners doubt the sincerity of the government when it comes to increasing the tally of refugees from the Mideast and Horn of Africa. Especially as a separate, accelerated arrangement to bring in unaccompanied refugee children who have family members already living in Britain is to be scrapped also.\nThe government\u2019s argument the \"Dubs scheme\" incentivizes children to make perilous journeys across Europe that risk them falling into the hands of people traffickers, is dismissed by refugee campaigners. They say with or without resettlement plans in Europe and Britain refugees will keep coming.\nFILE - Two members a group of unaccompanied minors (R and 2nd R) from the Jungle migrant camp in Calais stand outside an immigration centre after being processed after their arrival in Britain, in Croydon, south London, Oct. 18, 2016.\nEnding the program will put child refugees more at the mercy of traffickers, argues Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, a London-based rights group.\n\u201cThe absence of a comprehensive approach to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, particularly the absence of safe migration options for vulnerable people fleeing war has been the single greatest factor to increase the risk of human trafficking in Europe over the past two years,\u201d he said.\nThe comparisons campaigners and Alf Dubs have drawn with the Kindertransport and the Holocaust has drawn impassioned rebuttals from opponents. \u201cNeither the Syrian civil war, brutal and unspeakable as it is, nor any other current conflict can be compared to the Holocaust,\u201d argues commentator Melanie Phillips.\nWriting in The Times newspaper, she said. \u201cToday\u2019s migrant crisis is part of a mass movement of people, not all of them refugees, which threatens to engulf western Europe ... It is nauseating that the Holocaust is being used as an emotional bludgeon, so that anyone who supports restrictions on today\u2019s migrants is not only attacked as a heartless monster, but also for somehow betraying the memory of the victims of Nazism.\u201d\nIn January 2016, Europol, a European Union agency, estimated 10,000 child refugees had disappeared after arriving unaccompanied in Europe. The agency said it feared many had become victims of exploitation. European authorities estimated that nearly 90,000 unaccompanied children from the Middle East and Africa sought asylum in Europe in 2015.\n", + "caption": "Labour peer Alf Dubs (C) poses with protestors as he delivers a petition to Number 10 Downing Street opposing the closure of a government scheme to bring unaccompanied child refugees to Britain from Europe, in London, Feb. 11, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BCB3DEF5-BA10-4852-A371-EE50F10D02DD.jpg", + "id": "15147_1", + "answer": [ + "The amendment creating the program", + "a resettlement program for child refugees", + "Dubs scheme" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Alf Dubs" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_14_3723947", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_14_3723947_1" + }, + { + "question": "Why did the people in the image agree to peace?", + "context": "Colombian Rebels Release UN Hostage\nColombian officials say a United Nations contractor was released by dissident FARC rebels Wednesday after he was taken captive two months ago.\n\"We are very grateful for the decision to release him unharmed. He is in good health,\" the director of the U.N. Information Center in Bogota, Helene Papper said.\n\"We are currently making all the logistical arrangements to transfer him to Bogota,\" Papper said of the former hostage, identified by the French news agency as Harley Lopez, a Colombian national.\nFormer members of the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, seized their hostage while he was working on a project to replace coca with legal crops such as coffee and fruit.\nNearly 300 dissidents, who rejected a peace deal between the rebel group and Colombian government last year, want to take over coca cultivation and cocaine trafficking that were abandoned when the FARC agreed to lay down its weapons.\nThe May kidnapping coincided with a U.N. Security Council meeting in the Andean country to discuss the peace accord which ended more than five decades of conflict.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A United Nations observer shakes hands with a rebel of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) before a meeting in La Carmelita, Colombia, March 1, 2017. A FARC splinter group on Wednesday released a U.N. contractor it had taken hostage in May.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/25D62421-7569-4791-87A3-A70E53BE5AA7.jpg", + "id": "6589_1", + "answer": [ + "a United Nations contractor was released by dissident FARC rebels Wednesday after he was taken captive two months ago.", + "to discuss the peace accord which ended more than five decades of conflict." + ], + "bridge": [ + "U.N.", + "United Nations" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3929307", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_05_3929307_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who feels sure they know what caused the effects on the person in the image?", + "context": "Suspected Mosul Mustard Gas Victims Recovering; Foul Smells Remain \nMOSUL AND IRBIL, IRAQ \u2014\u00a0\n\"Some soldiers said the house has to be destroyed,\" said Dhia Deen, a taxi driver on the street next to the site of the alleged worst chemical attack in Mosul. \"Even our cows are getting sick.\"\nThe home that was bombed in early March does not have to be pointed out. Weeks after the incident, the smell is still rancid and neighbors complain of watering eyes and skin problems. \nRegardless of the apparent danger, a crowd of children burst into the home of their neighbor, Natham Hamad, eager to show us the hole in the ceiling and the bomb now planted in the floor.\nAt the home of Natham Hamad, neighbors point out where the bomb still lies in his foul-smelling living room in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nThey are smart enough to cover their mouths and noses with their shirts, and avoid touching anything. The inside of the home is coated with something that looks like yellow sulfur powder.\nThe smell inside is overwhelming. The neighbors soon scurry out of the house and away from the door. \"The smell is better than it was,\" said Ahmed Farah, a carpenter. \"But when it rains, it gets really bad.\"\nDespite the apparent danger, children enter the contaminated house freely in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nShortly after the attack early this month, local officials said the Hamad home and at least four other civilian houses in eastern Mosul were bombed by Islamic State militants with weapons containing homemade chemical poisons. International Committee of the Red Cross doctors said patients' symptoms indicated mustard gas. \nSome Iraqi officials later said that they had not seen evidence IS has the capacity to deploy chemical weapons. Others in Mosul qualified that statement, saying IS has only the capacity to use crude homemade chemical weapons that emit non-deadly poisons.\nIn the neighborhoods that were hit, families say they care less about what hit them than about getting it cleaned up. But chemical cleanup requires some expertise, and cannot be done with soap and water, says Yahya Kassim, a 51-year-old father of seven who was hospitalized after a bomb emitting foul-smelling black oil fell in his yard in early March.\nOutside Yahya Kassim's house, the chemical smell is still pungent, but has been weakened after a neighbor paid someone to remove some of the poisoned debris in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\n\"They should come to my house and smell it,\" he said in the yard. The smell is less pungent than it was last week because a neighbor paid for the removal of some of the poisoned bricks scattered in the attack. But the sickening odor returns in the rain, he said. \n\"Or tell them to call me,\" he added. \"I'll explain what happened.\" \n'Contingency planning'\nAt an Irbil hospital on Friday, Hamad's wife and five children are recovering and are planning to be released Saturday.\nThe family is better but they still have damaged immune systems, said Dr. Johannes Schad of ICRC.\nWeeks after the bombings, locals near suspected chemical attacks say they are still developing symptoms, like this man's rash, in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nAt least 15 patients have been treated in Irbil in recent weeks for symptoms consistent with chemical attacks, including blistering skin, and respiratory and eye problems. Near the bombings in Mosul, dozens of people tell us they have experienced symptoms but have very little access to health care.\nAnd while there have been no new reports of suspected chemical weapons in recent weeks, international organizations continue to build capacity, preparing for more victims of chemical weapons.\n\"You can see this is some kind of chemical agent,\" Schad said. \"We are contingency planning. The situation is getting more tense.\"\nIraqi forces say the battle for Mosul has never been fiercer than now, as it moves in on the last quarter of the city held by IS. In previous months, militants often fled as Iraqi forces moved in. Now, they are surrounded and fighting back with everything they can.\nThe battle for Mosul's Old City is expected to be one of the deadliest fights amid operations that have displaced nearly 275,000 people since October in Mosul, Iraq, March 23, 2017. (H. Shekha/VOA)\nAs the fighting gets more intense, the humanitarian crisis surrounding the war has become overwhelming, with nearly 275,000 people displaced since operations began in October. Trauma centers have seen at least 5,000 civilian patients.\nAnd among the displaced could soon be Hamad and his family, as his home is no longer livable. \n\"I don't know where we will go,\" he said, standing by the hospital room door. \"Even if we go to friends or relatives, we can stay only for a few days.\"\nTest results\nIn Mosul, patients released weeks ago show us ICRC documents that call them \"suspected victim[s] of mustard gas,\" but no one we speak to has received formal test results. \nYahya Kassim, 51, says he was tested for chemical poisoning weeks ago after his house was bombed, but he still hasn't seen any results in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)\nThe ICRC says they have not received results of tests taken in early March. In Mosul, local police confirm the presence of chemicals in the bombs, but locals have not been told exactly what hit them.\n\"First they told me it would be a few hours for the results,\" Kassim said. \"Then they told me the United Nations will get the results.\"\nThe United Nations said it is not mandated to carry out an investigation of the suspected IS chemical weapons in Iraq, although it has condemned the attacks.\nAt the hospital, Hamad says his family expects to receive the information after they are released.\n\"Thank God,\" he said. \"At least my children are better.\"\n", + "caption": "Weeks after the bombings, locals near suspected chemical attacks say they are still developing symptoms, like this man's rash, in Mosul, Iraq, March 22, 2017. (H. Murdock/VOA)", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/1CFFA88F-D7F3-4745-AD8F-D236B3436A1A.jpg", + "id": "27310_5", + "answer": [ + "International Committee of the Red Cross doctors" + ], + "bridge": [ + "symptoms" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_24_3780549", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_24_3780549_5" + }, + { + "question": "How much of their own money is the organization of the man in the image investing in their new fund?", + "context": "Softbank-Saudi Tech Fund Becomes World's Biggest With $93B of Capital\nRIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA \u2014\u00a0\nThe world's largest private equity fund, backed by Japan's Softbank Group and Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund, said Saturday that it had raised over $93 billion to invest in technology sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics.\n\"The next stage of the Information Revolution is under way, and building the businesses that will make this possible will require unprecedented large-scale, long-term investment,\" the Softbank Vision Fund said in a statement.\nJapanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, chairman of Softbank, a telecommunications and tech investment group, revealed plans for the fund last October, and since then it has obtained commitments from some of the world's most deep-pocketed investors.\nIn addition to Softbank and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the new fund's investors include Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment, which has committed $15 billion, Apple Inc., Qualcomm, Taiwan's Foxconn Technology and Japan's Sharp Corp.\nThe new fund made its announcement during the visit of President Donald Trump to Riyadh and the signing of tens of billions of dollars' worth of business deals between U.S. and Saudi companies. Son was also in Riyadh on Saturday.\nAfter meeting with Trump last December, Son pledged $50 billion of investment in the United States that would create 50,000 jobs, a promise Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win.\nFILE - A Saudi man explores a website on his laptop in Riyadh, Feb. 11, 2014.\nSaudi tech access\nThe fund may also serve the interests of Saudi Arabia by helping Riyadh obtain access to foreign technology. Low oil prices have severely damaged the Saudi economy, and policymakers are trying to diversify into new industries.\nThe PIF signaled an interest in the tech sector last year by investing $3.5 billion in U.S. ride-hailing firm Uber.\nSaturday's statement did not say how much the PIF had committed to the fund, but previously it had said it would invest up to $45 billion over five years. Softbank is investing $28 billion.\nThe new fund said it would seek to buy minority and majority interests in both private and public companies, from emerging businesses to established, multibillion-dollar firms. It expects to obtain preferred access to long-term investment opportunities worth $100 million or more.\nOther sectors in which the fund may invest include mobile computing, communications infrastructure, computational biology, consumer internet businesses and financial technology. The fund aims for $100 billion of committed capital and expects to complete its money-raising in six months, it added.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Softbank Group's Masayoshi Son and humanoid robot Pepper deliver a presentation at the Softbank World 2015 in Tokyo, July 30, 2015. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3A505DE0-34FC-4268-9461-B1D77899221C.jpg", + "id": "30389_1", + "answer": [ + "$28 billion" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Softbank" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_20_3863488", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_20_3863488_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the additional functions of the tool that was created in response to protests like the one in the image?", + "context": "Pakistani Province Launches App for Women to Report Harassment\nLAHORE, PAKISTAN \u2014\u00a0\nA smartphone application enabling women to report incidents of harassment to police in Pakistan's Punjab province went live this week as authorities step up efforts to promote women's safety in one of the worst provinces for crimes against them.\nWith a click of a button, users who feel threatened can call an emergency response police team who should be able to track their location via a built-in global positioning system (GPS).\n\"Though the app primarily covers street harassment, it also has a feature for woman who is inside the house and is suffering physical violence to call for help,\" said Fauzia Viqar, chair of the Punjab Commission on the Status of Women, a body promoting women's rights, which was involved in the launch of the app on Thursday.\nShe said users can also use the app to mark unsafe locations and access a toll-free helpline which provides information on laws to protect women's rights among other services.\nDomestic abuse, economic discrimination and acid attacks make Pakistan the world's third-most-dangerous country for women, a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll showed.\nAbout 500 women are killed in Pakistan every year at the hands of relatives over perceived damage to family \"honor\" that can involve eloping, fraternizing with men or any other infraction against conservative values.\nA study by the Aurat Foundation, a Pakistani women's rights group, in 2013 found that Punjab province alone accounted for 5,800 crimes against women - 74 percent of crimes against women in the whole of Pakistan.\nWomen's rights campaigners welcomed the launch of the app but expressed concern not all women would have access to it.\n\"It can ensure timely rescue. But it may not be effective in rural areas where people are generally poor and do not have smartphone,\" said Romana Bashir, who heads women's rights organization, the Peace and Development Foundation.\nShe also said there was a need to raise awareness among police officers of violence against women.\n\"We often have complaints of police themselves sometimes misbehaving with the complainants of harassment. They need to be educated on gender issues so that women trust them,\" Bashir told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.\nLast year, the province of Punjab, Pakistan's largest, passed a law giving legal protection to women from domestic, psychological and sexual violence.\nBut since the law's passage, many conservative clerics and religious leaders have denounced it as being in conflict with the Muslim holy book, the Koran, and the constitution.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Pakistani women stage a rally to protest against domestic violence and sexual harassment as well as to demand greater economic opportunities. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8D672A6C-0C56-4E5A-9A49-F206D8459208.jpg", + "id": "60_1", + "answer": [ + "mark unsafe locations and access a toll-free helpline which provides information on laws to protect women's rights among other services", + "A smartphone application enabling women to report incidents of harassment to police", + "feature for woman who is inside the house and is suffering physical violence to call for help", + "mark unsafe locations and access a toll-free helpline" + ], + "bridge": [ + "a rally to protest against domestic violence and sexual harassment", + "Pakistani women", + "protest against domestic violence and sexual harassment", + "app" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_05_3664679", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_05_3664679_1" + }, + { + "question": "What else did the people in the image do?", + "context": "Police Clamp Down in Indian Kashmir on Anniversary of Militant Leader's Death\nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nThousands of troops patrolled Indian Kashmir on Saturday as authorities imposed widespread restrictions to foil protests planned for the anniversary of a local militant leader, Burhan Wani, whose killing in 2016 by armed forces has pulled the Himalayan region into a fresh spiral of violence after several years of relative peace.\nInternet services were shut down and police raised barricades between neighborhoods. Shops and businesses remained closed in the Kashmiri capital, Srinagar.\nPolice fired tear gas in at least four places where protesters attempted to march in the streets.\nThe tightest security was in Tral village around the house of Wani, who had joined the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group and is regarded as a hero in Kashmir. He belonged to a new rank of social media savvy young rebels who used Facebook and other social media to draw fresh recruits.\nThe call for a strike to mark Wani\u2019s killing was given by local Kashmiri separatist leaders and by a Pakistan-based militant commander, Syed Salahuddin, whom the United States last week added to its list of global terrorists.\nViolent protests\nKashmir has been restive ever since widespread violent street protests that erupted after his killing.\n\u201cThe mood is defiance, not much has changed in the past one year since his killing,\u201d said Shujaat Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir newspaper. Calling Wani a \u201ctrigger\u201d for a situation that had been simmering for a long time, Bukhari said \u201cHe became a rallying point, in a way he united Kashmiris in their anger and angst against the Indian state.\u201d\nMembers of a Kashmiri youth group hold posters of young rebel leader Burhan Wani, killed by Indian troops last year, while chanting anti-Indian slogans during a rally to mark the first anniversary of his death, in Lahore, Pakistan, July 8, 2017.\nThe present round of unrest in India\u2019s only Muslim majority region has shattered a long spell of relative calm that Kashmir witnessed following a violent separatist insurgency in the 1990s.\nAnd this time, civilians are playing a greater role in the unrest. Many young students are taking part in street protests, where crowds pelting stones often target security forces. Officials estimate that about 100 local youth have joined the ranks of militants, and in villages it is not uncommon for people to resist counter militancy operations.\nLacking 'political engagement'\nAnalysts say New Delhi\u2019s failure to engage in a political dialogue in the region is fanning the anti-India sentiment.\n\u201cThe continuous absence of political engagement in Kashmir and the continuous denial on part of Delhi that says there is nothing to be addressed politically has made the situation more complex in the past one year,\u201d according to Bukhari.\nIndia blames Pakistan-based militant groups for stoking the unrest in Kashmir. Pakistan denies the allegation.\nMeanwhile, Indian officials said two civilians were killed and two children were wounded by gunfire from Pakistani troops along the line of control that divides the region between the two countries.\nEven as the situation in Kashmir has deteriorated, cross-border shelling between Indian and Pakistani troops also has become more intense, with each side accusing the other of violating a mutual cease-fire.\n", + "caption": "An Indian policeman uses a slingshot to hurl stones towards protesters during a clash on the anniversary of the killing by Indian forces of Burhan Wani, a commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen militant group, in downtown Srinagar, July 8, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/54F7261C-A82A-4889-AC25-76613D7D0A3A.jpg", + "id": "16570_1", + "answer": [ + "Patrolled Indian Kashmir ", + "raised barricades between neighborhoods", + "Hurl stones towards protesters " + ], + "bridge": [ + "police", + "An Indian policeman " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3933962", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_08_3933962_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who first obtained the materials from the image?", + "context": "Police in Thailand Say Ivory Trade Crackdown Successful\nBANGKOK \u2014\u00a0\nEfforts by Thailand's government to curb sales of ivory have been successful, following criticism of widespread trafficking in the country, police said Friday.\nPolice announced that since January, officials have seized two elephant tusks and 422 tusk fragments in a single case, while in all of last year they seized 99 tusks and 22 tusk fragments in multiple cases.\nDeputy Police Commissioner Gen. Chalermkiat Sriworakhan said the drop in the number of cases showed that strict enforcement had deterred traffickers.\n\u201cWe have made serious efforts to block elephant ivory from being smuggled into the country and sent on to another country,\u201d Chalermkiat said, referring to past smuggling schemes. Now, \u201cif they do get in the country, we do not let them leave,\u201d he said.\n\u201cIf we are able to block ivory from being smuggled out of the country then we will destroy it,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have been able to effectively arrest more and more suspects with tangible results.\u201d\nDeputy Police Commissioner Gen. Chalermkiat Sriworakhan talks to reporters at Royal Thai Police Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, July 7, 2017. Police in Thailand are claiming great success for a government policy to curb trafficking in ivory.\nNew laws, amendments\nThailand had been considered to have the largest unregulated ivory market in the world and had been threatened with sanctions on the trade of protected wildlife species, but it introduced new laws and amendments in 2014 and 2015. The Elephant Ivory Act regulates the domestic ivory market and criminalizes the sale of African elephant ivory.\nThe wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC praised Thailand for a large drop in sales of ivory items resulting from the crackdown aimed at shedding the country's image as a center for the illicit trade in wildlife goods.\nIts survey of Bangkok markets found a decline in the amount of ivory openly for sale from a high of 7,421 items in 2014 to 283 products in June 2016. Measured over a slightly longer period of time, the drop was even more dramatic. In December 2013 the number of ivory items openly on sale was 14,512, according to earlier surveys by TRAFFIC.\n\u201cThailand's legal reforms have paved the way for greater control of the domestic ivory market and it's certainly something other countries in the region should emulate, especially Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar,\u201d Kanitha Krishnasamy, acting regional director for TRAFFIC in Southeast Asia, said in an email Friday. \u201cFurther to these efforts, it's important also to test products in the market to ensure that no African elephant ivory is in the marketplace.\u201d\nBiggest demand from China\nPoachers have killed tens of thousands of African elephants for their tusks to meet demand for ivory in Asia, putting the species at great risk. Thailand became a major transit hub and destination for smuggled tusks, which are often carved into tourist trinkets and ornaments. The biggest demand comes from China.\nKrishnasamy said illegal online trade is another part of the problem affecting Thailand.\n\u201cMonitoring and enforcement of trade taking place online is extremely crucial to make sure that ivory items not on sale in the physical market haven't moved online,\u201d she said.\n", + "caption": "Ivory tusks are displayed after being confiscated by Hong Kong Customs in Hong Kong, July 6, 2017. Hong Kong Customs seized about 7,200 kilograms of ivory tusks on July 4, 2017, from a container from Malaysia. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/DC9657C1-8151-41E4-93D9-EAB94D9CEF3E.jpg", + "id": "21367_1", + "answer": [ + "Poachers", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "ivory", + "Ivory tusks" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3933212", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_07_3933212_1" + }, + { + "question": "What group is responsible for the conditions of the people in the image?", + "context": "9 Killed in Suspected Boko Haram Militants Attack in Niger\nOfficials in Niger say suspected Boko Haram militants have killed nine people and abducted dozens more in an attack on a southern town.\nLocal officials said Monday that the gunmen came into the village of Ngalewa, near the country's border with Nigeria, on camels and horses. They said the militants took around 30-40 people, mostly women and children, late Sunday and threatened to hold them until other extremists are released from prison.\nThe town is near the city of Diffa, where another attack took place on Wednesday, also blamed on Boko Haram militants. In that incident, two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a refugee camp in the town, killing two other people and injuring 11.\nBoko Haram's insurgency began in northeastern Nigeria in 2009, but has since spread to Chad, Cameroon and Niger. The insurgency has claimed 20,000 lives and displaced more than two million people. Boko Haram says it is fighting to create an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.\nNigeria's army, with the help of troops from neighboring countries, has pushed the militant group out of a large tract of land \u2014 about the size of Belgium \u2014 which the militants had controlled until early 2015.\nHowever, suicide bombings and gun raids in mostly busy public areas, such as mosques and markets, have continued in northeast Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon and Niger.\n", + "caption": "People walk through the debris at a camp for people displaced following an explosion by Islamist extremists, in Maiduguri, Nigeria, June 8, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/D08718C9-16D9-4B4F-8744-0B5E94C82EA3.jpg", + "id": "5641_1", + "answer": [ + "Islamist extremists", + "Boko Haram" + ], + "bridge": [ + "people", + "explosion" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_03_3926685", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_03_3926685_1" + }, + { + "question": "What other people are acting like those in the image?", + "context": "Colombia to Up Public Sector Wages by 6.75 Percent, as Teachers Strike\nBOGOTA \u2014\u00a0\nColombia will raise the salaries of public employees by 6.75 percent this year, President Juan Manuel Santos said on Wednesday, a move which may help end a more than three-week-long teachers strike.\nThe deal with seven public employee unions, which will increase the wages of 1.2 million workers, including educators, doctors, judges and members of the police and military, comes amid the teachers strike and various other walkout actions by public workers.\nThe increase is 1 percent above the 2016 inflation figure and will be retroactive, applicable from Jan. 1 of this year.\n\"This government prides itself on listening and looking for solutions through dialogue, without sacrificing the principles of authority and responsibility in the management of the budget,\" Santos said in a televised address.\nThe government also reached a deal this week to end a 21-day civil protest in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura which stymied exports, especially of coffee.\nThe powerful Colombian Federation of Education Workers (Fecode) union, which represents some 350,000 teachers, has not yet backed down from its strike, which has kept 8 million public school students out of classes since mid-May.\nDespite salary increases in recent years, many teachers say their salaries are not adequate compensation for work which often requires extensive and expensive higher education and training.\n\"I call on all the teachers of this country to return to classes and together we can guarantee the education of Colombia's children and young people,\" Santos said.\n", + "caption": "Colombian teachers and unions protest, demanding better salaries and working conditions, in Bogota, Colombia, June 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/A18611E1-8593-4A72-B934-D1F0B49E55FC.jpg", + "id": "5390_1", + "answer": [ + "public workers", + "educators, doctors, judges and members of the police and military" + ], + "bridge": [ + "unions", + "protest" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3891149", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_07_3891149_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the body in the image agree upon?", + "context": "US House Leaders Unite in Call for Humanity in Wake of Shooting Rampage\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nThe top Republican and Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives, often at sharp odds over contentious government policies, joined Wednesday in a common plea for humanity in the immediate aftermath of a gunman's attack on a congressman and four others at a baseball field.\n\u201cWe are united, we are united in our shock, we are united in our anguish. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,\u201d House Speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican leader, told a hushed and packed chamber hours after the shooting in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. Representative Steve Scalise, the third-ranking Republican, was wounded while practicing for a charity congressional baseball game.\nIn this image from House Television video, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., speaks June 14, 2017, on the House floor at the Capitol in Washington, as he talks about the shooting in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.\n\u201cI ask each of you to join me to resolve, to come together, to lift each other up and to show the country, to show the world, that we are one House, the people's House, united in our humanity,\u201d Ryan said. \u201cIt is that humanity which will win the day, and it always will.\u201d\nIn this image from House Television video, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks June 14, 2017, on the House floor at the Capitol in Washington, as she talks about the shooting at the Republican congressional baseball practice.\nThe leader of the minority Democrats, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, said, \u201cTo my colleagues, you're going to hear me say something you've never heard me say before. I identify myself with the remarks of the speaker. They were beautiful remarks, Mister Speaker. Thank you so much for the sentiments that they represent. Thank you so much.\n\u201cAgain, we are not one caucus or the other in this House today,\u201d Pelosi said. \u201cBut I \u2014 we speak for each other in saying that we send our thoughts and prayers to our colleague, Steve Scalise. Personally, we have our Italian-American connection, so as soon as I heard his name, I was filled with concern as I would be for anyone here, but we had that special connection, so our hopes and prayers. And I said to the speaker, I'll be asking you every five minutes, how is Steve coming along.\u201d\nRyan's and Pelosi's statements calling for a sense of decency at a time of violence echoed those of President Donald Trump.\nIn a White House address, Trump said, \u201cWe may have our differences, but we do well in times like these to remember that everyone who serves in our nation's capital is here because above all they love our country. We can all agree we are blessed to be Americans.\u201d\nMajority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., left, arrives for a Republican caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 23, 2017.\nTwo of the shooting victims were U.S. Capitol Police officers, Krystal Griner and David Bailey, assigned to guard Scalise since he is one of the House leaders. The two officers apparently were the only law enforcement officers at the scene when the gunfire erupted.\nRyan and others said that without the two officers returning fire at the gunman, identified by police as James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois, many might have been killed. Hodgkinson later died at a Washington hospital.\nThe House speaker said he spoke with both Bailey and Griner and \u201cexpressed our profound gratitude to them. It is clear to me based on various eyewitness accounts that without these two heroes, Agent Bailey and Agent Griner, many lives would have been lost.\u201d\n", + "caption": "In this image from House Television video, House Speaker Paul Ryan addresses a hushed and packed chamber hours after the shooting of Representative Steve Scalise, June 14, 2017, Ryan said, \"We are united in our anguish. An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.\" ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/3E790F2F-D0EE-413F-85BE-6CE76193D0FF.jpg", + "id": "26216_1", + "answer": [ + "a common plea for humanity" + ], + "bridge": [ + "House" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_14_3900540", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_14_3900540_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person wearing the green shirt in the image mention?", + "context": "Ivanka Trump Gets West Wing Office, Access to Classified Info\nU.S. President Donald Trump's older daughter, Ivanka, now has an office in the West Wing of the White House and will have access to classified information, even though she is not a government employee.\nIvanka Trump will not have an official title, but must abide by the ethics rules that apply to government workers, according to her attorney, Jamie Gorelick, who also said the first daughter will not be paid a government salary.\nThe White House did not respond to requests for comment about the younger Trump's role.\nA statement from Ivanka Trump said she will continue to offer her father \"candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life.\"\nIvanka Trump was an effective surrogate for her father on the campaign trail and moved her young family to Washington. She has signaled plans to work on issues like maternity leave and child care.\nIvanka Trump has been a visible presence at the White House. On Friday, she participated in a meeting on vocational training with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.\nGermany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Ivanka Trump (R) talk before a meeting with US President Donald Trump and business leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House, March 17, 2017 in Washington, D.C.\nExempt from anti-nepotism laws \nShe joins husband Jared Kushner in the West Wing, the epicenter of executive government power, where he serves as a senior adviser.\nFederal anti-nepotism laws prohibit relatives from being placed in government positions; but, the Justice Department recently said the president's \"special hiring authority\" authorized him to appoint Kushner.\nGorelick said the Justice Department clarified the president could consult family members as private citizens, a role she maintained would be played by Ivanka Trump.\nThe first daughter continues to own her clothing and jewelry company but has turned over daily management to the company's president. She has also established a trust, managed by her husband's siblings, to provide additional oversight.\nGorelick said the company cannot make new deals with any foreign state and the trustees must confer with her over any new agreements. She said Ivanka Trump will be able to veto proposed business deals.\nIvanka Trump, 35, has relinquished her leadership role in the Trump Organization, from which she will receive fixed payments instead of a share of the profits.\n", + "caption": "Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and Ivanka Trump (R) talk before a meeting with US President Donald Trump and business leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House, March 17, 2017 in Washington, D.C.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/6888097F-963A-4B5C-8440-AD6B2BA069E0.jpg", + "id": "33650_2_3", + "answer": [ + "vocational training" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Angela Merkel" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775256", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_21_3775256_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person the people in the image support blast?", + "context": "Dutch PM Bars Turkish Minister as Rally Dispute Escalates\nANKARA/ROTTERDAM \u2014\u00a0\nThe Netherlands barred Turkey's foreign minister from landing in Rotterdam on Saturday in a row over Ankara's political campaigning among Turkish emigres, leading President Tayyip Erdogan to brand its fellow NATO member a \"Nazi remnant.\"\nThe dispute escalated in the evening as Turkey's family minister was prevented by police from entering the Turkish consulate in the Rotterdam while hundreds of protesters waving Turkish flags gathered outside demanding to see the minister. Turkey's foreign ministry said it did not want the Dutch ambassador to Ankara to return from leave \"for some time.'\nTurkish authorities sealed off the Dutch embassy in Ankara and consulate in Istanbul in apparent retaliation and hundreds gathered there for protests at the Dutch action.\nPresident Erdogan is looking to the large number of emigre Turks living in Europe, especially in Germany and the Netherlands, to help clinch victory next month in a referendum that would give the presidency sweeping new powers.\nRiot police stand outside the Netherlands consulate as the supporters of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stage a protest in Istanbul, March 11, 2017.\nGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will do everything possible to prevent Turkish political tensions spilling onto German soil and four rallies in Austria and one in Switzerland have been canceled due to the growing dispute.\nErdogan has cited domestic threats from Kurdish and Islamist militants and a July coup bid as cause to vote \"yes\" to his new powers. But he has also drawn on the emotionally charged row with Europe to portray Turkey as betrayed by allies while facing wars on its southern borders.\nThe Dutch government had banned Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu from attending a rally on Saturday in Rotterdam but he said he would fly there anyway, saying Europe must be rid of its \"boss-like attitude.\"\nCavusoglu, who was barred from a similar meeting in Hamburg last week but spoke instead from the Turkish consulate, accused the Dutch of treating the many Turkish citizens in the country like hostages, cutting them off from Ankara.\n\"If my going will increase tensions, let it be ... I am a foreign minister and I can go wherever I want,\" he added hours before his planned flight to Rotterdam was banned.\nSanctions threat\nCavusoglu threatened harsh economic and political sanctions if the Dutch refused him entry, and those threats proved decisive for the Netherlands government.\nIt cited public order and security concerns in withdrawing landing rights for Cavusoglu's flight and said the threat of sanctions made the search for a reasonable solution impossible.\nPolice start to remove demonstrators outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam, Netherlands, March 11, 2017.\n\"This decision is a scandal and unacceptable in every way. It does not abide by diplomatic practices,\" Cavusoglu told reporters in Istanbul on Saturday evening.\nDutch anti-Muslim politician Geert Wilders, polling second ahead of Wednesday's elections, said in a tweet on Saturday: \"To all Turks in the Netherlands who agree with Erdogan: Go to Turkey and NEVER come back!!\"\nDutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: \"This morning on TV (the Turkish minister) made clear he was threatening the Netherlands with sanctions and we can never negotiate with the Turks under such threats. So we decided ... in a conference call it was better for him not to come.\"\nOnce the foreign minister had been prevented from landing in Rotterdam, Turkey's family minister decided to travel to the city by road from neighbouring Germany instead but was stopped by police in the Dutch city.\n\"We have been stopped 30 metres from our Rotterdam consulate and we are not allowed to enter,\" Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya wrote on Twitter.\n\"Nazi remnants, fascists\"\nAddressing a rally of supporters, Erdogan retaliated to the decision to prevent the Turkish foreign minister from visiting Rotterdam.\n\"Listen Netherlands, you'll jump once, you'll jump twice, but my people will thwart your game,\" he said. \"You can cancel our foreign minister's flight as much as you want, but let's see how your flights will come to Turkey now.\"\n\"They don't know diplomacy or politics. They are Nazi remnants. They are fascists,\" he said.\nRutte called Erdogan's reference to Nazis and Fascists \"a crazy remark\". \"I understand they're angry but this is of course way out of line,\" he said.\nPolice block off the street outside the Turkish consulate in Rotterdam where a crowd gathered to await the arrival of the Turkish Family Minister Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya, who decided to travel to Rotterdam by land after Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's flight was barred from landing by the Dutch government, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, March 11, 2017.\nErdogan chafes at Western criticism of his mass arrests and dismissals of people authorities believe were linked to a failed July attempt by the military to topple him.\nHe maintains it is clear the West begrudges him new powers and seeks to engineer a \"no\" vote in the referendum.\nBarred from the Netherlands Cavusoglu arrived in France on Saturday ahead of a planned speech to Turkish emigres in the northeastern city of Metz on Sunday, a Reuters witness said.\nEarlier, an official at the Moselle regional prefecture told Reuters there were currently no plans to prevent the meeting from going ahead.\nA member of the Union of European Turkish Democrats also said on Saturday via a Facebook post that the Turkish foreign minister would no longer come to Switzerland for a planned event on Sunday after failing to find a suitable venue.\nZurich's security department, which had unsuccessfully lobbied the federal government in Bern to ban Cavusoglu's appearance, said in a statement on Saturday evening it was relieved the event had been canceled.\n", + "caption": "Supporters of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wave flags outside the Dutch consulate to protest, in Istanbul, March 12, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/24F66ED6-EEB6-41B2-AA3A-717F22F32E1A.jpg", + "id": "21327_1", + "answer": [ + "Netherlands", + "None", + "the decision to prevent the Turkish foreign minister from visiting Rotterdam" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Tayyip Erdogan", + "supporters" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_11_3761272", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_11_3761272_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the opponents of the people in the image doing?", + "context": "Afghan Forces Launch Major Anti-IS Offensive\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nAfghan troops, backed by American air support, Sunday launched a major offensive against Islamic State, or IS, bases in the eastern Nangarhar province.\nA regional military spokesman, Shirin Aqa, told reporters in the provincial capital of Jalalabad that security forces have been tasked to clear Kot and Haska districts of IS militants before extending the action to other districts. Afghans refer to IS by its Arabic acronym of Daesh.\nHe said that both military and police forces have been involved in the counter-IS operation and they will be provided with air support by US forces if needed. The army spokesman explained that the offensive will continue until the threat is eliminated in the area.\n\u201cWe can confirm that the United States is providing combat enabling support, to include air support, to our Afghan partners,\u201d said U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland in a written statement sent to VOA.\nFILE - IS Khorasan group mounts a flag in tribal region of Afghanistan, Nov. 2, 2015.\nIS affiliate, Islamic State Khorasan Province or ISK-P, has been trying to establish a foothold in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2015.\nBut U.S. counterterrorism airstrikes and repeated ground offensives by Afghan forces have prevented the loyalists of the terrorist group from extending their extremist activities beyond a few districts of Nangarhar.\nThe top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, told a congressional hearing in Washington this past Thursday that the Afghan government along with U.S. counterterrorism forces have achieved significant successes against IS in within the last year.\nGen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 9, 2017, before the Senate Armed Services Senate Committee.\nThe general said that initially the group was active in 11 districts in Nangahar but it has now been confined to a only few districts.\n\u201cWe have reduced their fighters by half, their territory by two-thirds, we have killed their leader, in fact their top 12 leaders and continue to disrupt their operations,\u201d said Nicholson.\nWATCH: Video report\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nUS Commander in Afghanistan: Afghan Government Protecting People Over Territory\nShare this video\n0:01:55\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:01:55\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 5.4MB\n360p | 8.3MB\n720p | 53.8MB\nIS militants have also come under attack from the rival Taliban insurgency in parts of the country.\nThe eastern Afghan province borders Pakistan and General Nicholson says that fighters from the anti-state Pakistani Taliban as well as outlawed Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan mostly fill IS ranks in Afghanistan.\n", + "caption": "FILE - In this photograph taken on December 3, 2016, Afghan security forces take positions following an operation against Islamic State (IS) militants in Pachir Wa Agam district of Nangarhar province.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/ED12A58F-72E4-43EE-9940-A1FF95917EAE.jpg", + "id": "12301_1", + "answer": [ + "trying to establish a foothold in Afghanistan", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Islamic State", + "Afghan security forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_12_3720118", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_12_3720118_1" + }, + { + "question": "What was the name of the vehicle which struck the one in the image?", + "context": "US Navy Holds Memorial Service for 7 Sailors Killed in Crash\nTOKYO \u2014\u00a0\nThe U.S. Navy paid tribute on Tuesday to seven sailors who were killed when their destroyer collided with a merchant ship off Japan.\nThe Japan-based 7th Fleet said more than 2,000 sailors and their families attended the ceremony in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo. They lined the streets waving flags in memory of the victims.\nThe USS Fitzgerald, carrying nearly 300 crew members, and Philippine-flagged container ship ACX Crystal collided in waters off Yokosuka in the pre-dawn hours of June 17. Severe damage to the right side and bottom of the guided-missile destroyer flooded the berths of 116 sailors. Navy divers found the bodies of the seven in the ship after it returned to Yokosuka.\nThe container ship has left Yokohama, where it was investigated by Japanese authorities, for repairs of its damaged bow at an unspecified shipyard in Japan, its owner, Dainichi Investment Corp., said. It said the ship's captain and several other crew members stayed behind for further questioning by the Japanese coast guard.\nA damaged part of USS Fitzgerald is seen at the U.S. Naval base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, June 18, 2017.\nThe 7th Fleet said its theater was filled to capacity for the ceremony honoring the sailors.\nAdm. Scott Swift, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, surveyed the ship's damage and praised its crew for saving it from sinking, it said.\n\u201cIt's stunning, absolutely stunning, while we mourn the loss of the seven sailors, that more were not lost,\u201d Swift said in a statement. \u201cThere was no understanding of what had happened at the moment of impact ... but there was complete understanding of what needed to be done.\u201d\nThe Navy is investigating what happened aboard the warship. Japanese authorities are investigating the container ship and its crew members.\nOrdinarily, Japan has the right to investigate maritime collisions in its territorial waters, but in the case of U.S. warships, the U.S. Navy has the primary right to do so under a bilateral Status of Forces Agreement, making it uncertain whether Japan will have access to the U.S. probe.\n", + "caption": "A damaged part of USS Fitzgerald is seen at the U.S. Naval base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, June 18, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/759AE474-E0A7-47AE-A524-759BE0D945A2.jpg", + "id": "5065_2", + "answer": [ + "ACX Crystal", + "Philippine-flagged container ship ACX Crystal" + ], + "bridge": [ + "USS Fitzgerald" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3917882", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_27_3917882_2" + }, + { + "question": "Who elevated the person in the middle of the image?", + "context": "Activists: Hong Kong to Arrest Democracy Leaders\nHONG KONG \u2014\u00a0\nHong Kong police on Monday told at least nine organizers of 2014's pro-democracy demonstrations they will face charges, protest leaders said, an ominous sign just a day after a new Beijing-backed leader was chosen, vowing to unite society.\nThe move, which has already provoked anger and disbelief among democrats, heightened political tension in the Chinese-ruled city, with a protest rally to be held outside police headquarters in the Wanchai bar district on Monday night.\nFormer chief secretary Carrie Lam was chosen by a 1,200-person committee to lead the city, pledging in her victory speech to unite political divisions that have hindered policy-making and legislative work.\nBut the timing of the telephone calls, almost 2\u00bd years after the protests brought parts of the city to a standstill for months, is unlikely to help heal wounds.\nA man takes a selfie with Carrie Lam, chief executive-elect, a day after she was elected in Hong Kong, China, March 27, 2017.\nSociology professor Chan Kin-man, one of the core protest leaders, said police told him he would be charged with three crimes, including participating and inciting others to participate in \"public nuisance\".\n\"I am already mentally prepared for this, but I am very worried about Hong Kong's future,\" Chan told Reuters.\nIt wasn't immediately clear why authorities had waited so long to pursue the charges. The police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.\nAsked by reporters about the timing, Lam said she couldn't intervene with prosecutions carried out by the administration of incumbent leader Leung Chun-ying.\n\"I made it very clear that I want to unite society and bridge the divide that has been causing us concern, but all these actions should not compromise the rule of law in Hong Kong and also the independent prosecution process that I have just mentioned,\" said Lam, who will take office on July 1. Chan, however, disputed this.\n\"The message is strong. Carrie Lam said she wanted to mend the society, but the message we got today is prosecution. I don't see how the society's cracks can be mended,\" Chan told Reuters.\nHong Kong returned from British to Chinese rule in 1997, with the promise of a high degree of autonomy and other freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, but Communist Party rulers in Beijing never hid their anger at the protests which they deemed illegal.\nLawmaker Tanya Chan said at least nine protest leaders including herself received calls from the police notifying them of their charges.\nCarrie Lam waves after she won the election for Hong Kong's next Chief Executive as Woo Kwok-hing stands next to her in Hong Kong, March 26, 2017.\nAnother protest leader, University of Hong Kong law professor, Benny Tai, confirmed to Reuters by text he had been contacted by police.\nLam met with incumbent leader Leung Chun-ying earlier on Monday. They shook hands and both expressed confidence in a \"smooth and effective\" leadership transition.\nLam was Leung's deputy as chief secretary for the past five years and is known as a tough, though competent administrator.\nThe next few months will be critical for Leung and Lam, with Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to pay a visit on July 1 to celebrate Hong Kong's 20th anniversary of the handover, with large protests expected.\nPart of the public mistrust towards Lam stems from her close working relationship with the staunchly pro-Beijing Leung, who protesters say ordered the firing of tear gas on protesters in 2014.\nBalance\nAll of Hong Kong's three other post-handover leaders have struggled to balance the demands of China's stability-obsessed Communist Party leaders, with the wish of many residents to preserve the global financial hub's liberal values and rule of law that have long underpinned its economic success.\n\"She has been elected pretty much solely on the support of Beijing,\" said political scientist Ma Ngok.\n\"If that's the case, she might have a lot of debts that she has to repay to her supporters in Beijing.\"\nStudent activist Joshua Wong, 20, one of the leaders of the student-led \"Umbrella Movement\" protests in 2014, said last week Lam's victory was \"a nightmare\" for Hong Kong.\n\"Theoretically, the chief executive is a bridge between the central government and the Hong Kong people,\" he said. \"But Lam will be a tilted bridge. She will only tell us what Beijing wants and won't reflect what the people want to the communist regime.\"\n", + "caption": "Protesters raises an umbrella and placard reading: \"I want genuine universal suffrage\" to protest as former Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, center, declares her victory in the chief executive election of Hong Kong while former Financial Secretary John Tsang, left, and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing stand with her in Hong Kong, March 26, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/140BAC88-D1D7-4C40-AF43-47C055A1408D.jpg", + "id": "33032_1_2", + "answer": [ + "a 1,200-person committee" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Carrie Lam" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3783202", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_03_27_3783202_1" + }, + { + "question": "What in the image is trying to be figured out?", + "context": "Questions Linger in Wake of Kabul Attack\nA massive suicide truck bombing rocked a highly secured diplomatic area of Kabul on Wednesday morning, killing 90 people and wounding as many as 400. The attack left a scene of mayhem and destruction in the Afghan capital.\nA look at some of the lingering questions after the attack:\nHow was this possible?\nInvestigators will seek to understand how insurgents managed to get an explosives-packed tanker truck into one of the best-protected areas of Kabul. The Wazir Akbar Khan district is home to most of the capital's foreign embassies as well as several major government institutions, including the Presidential Palace.\n\"No one could even imagine that would take place in Wazir Akbar Khan,\" said General Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, a former deputy interior minister. \"I would call it a security and intelligence error.\"\nCan the government protect the capital?\nThe bombing raises serious questions about the Afghan government's ability to provide basic security. Insurgent groups have been on the offensive ever since the drawdown of NATO troops from the country in 2014.\nThe first half of 2017 has seen a particularly successful string of terrorist attacks in the capital, including a twin suicide bombing March 1 that killed 22 people and a coordinated March 8 assault on a military hospital that killed 50 people.\nWho did it?\nAs of late Wednesday night in Kabul, no one had claimed responsibility. The vast majority of such devastating attacks recently have been undertaken by either the Taliban or the local affiliate of the Islamic State group.\nThe Taliban has been waging a guerrilla war against Kabul for more than a decade \u2014 ever since being ousted from power by a U.S. invasion in 2001 in the aftermath of 9/11. The Islamic State group is a more recent development, forming in the last few years and largely made up of dissident former Taliban militants. IS has been battling the Taliban for control of certain parts of Afghanistan while also regularly targeting the government.\nYarmand said he didn't think the Taliban were behind it, saying they \"don't have the ability to carry out such big attack, and if they did, they would have claimed responsibility.\"\nThe former Interior Ministry official repeated a common belief among Afghan government officials: The Pakistani intelligence services have played a role in the string of terrorist attacks plaguing Kabul. Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied such accusations.\nIs there a diplomatic solution?\nSo far, it doesn't appear likely.\nThere have been multiple attempts to launch peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, but all have faltered. The most recent initiative, brokered by Pakistan, collapsed and spawned even more public distrust and animosity between Kabul and Islamabad.\nWhat's more, as long as the Taliban and other insurgent groups can demonstrate the ability to strike deep in the heart of the most secure parts of Kabul, the impetus to negotiate will likely be reduced. Yarmand said there doesn't appear to be much desire to negotiate on the part of the Taliban leadership or its rank and file.\n\"For now, their supporters need them to be in fight with the Afghan government,\" he said.\n", + "caption": "Security forces inspect near the site of an explosion where German Embassy is located in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2017. A massive explosion rocked a highly secure diplomatic area of Kabul on Wednesday morning, causing casualties and sending a huge plume of smoke over the Afghan capital. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/2A4C65A4-6A49-4A5D-8B2A-FA809A391AD5.jpg", + "id": "20622_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "how insurgents managed to get an explosives-packed tanker truck into one of the best-protected areas of Kabul" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Kabul", + "explosion" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3881656", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_31_3881656_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the people in the image say they talked about?", + "context": "Trump, Turnbull: US-Australian Relations Strong, Long-lasting\nU.S. President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull have pledged long-term friendship between the two countries, despite rumors of strife between them stemming from a phone call earlier this year.\n\u201cWe have a great relationship,\u201d Trump told reporters after meeting with Turnbull late Thursday ahead of a dinner honoring U.S. and Australian veterans of a pivotal World War II battle. He called stories that he had once hung up the phone on the prime minister \u201ca little bit of fake news, as the saying goes.\u201d\nIn remarks at the dinner, Trump said he and Turnbull had discussed \u201ccrucial issues ranging from international security to trade.\u201d He said the two leaders had \u201creaffirmed the tremendous friendship\u201d between the two countries and the \u201cvital importance\u201d of a continued alliance with one another.\nWatch: Related video report \nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nTrump Smoothes Relations With Australian PM at WWII Battle Anniversary\nShare this video\n0:02:07\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:02:07\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 6.2MB\n360p | 10.7MB\n720p | 58.6MB\n1080p | 43.4MB\nConfidence and trust\n\u201cWe are confident and we trust each other,\u201d Turnbull said of the countries\u2019 relationship during his remarks. He and Trump also expressed gratitude to a handful of elderly veterans of the Battle of Coral Sea, which occurred 75 years ago this week.\nNoting that Australian and U.S. forces worked together to repel Japanese forces trying to take control of the Pacific waters near Australia, Turnbull said, \u201cour nation\u2019s freedom was secured by the bravery of the men on those ships. And the men on the planes who flew through everything the enemy, and the weather, threw their way.\u201d\nTurnbull concluded his remarks with a tribute to the current members of the U.S. and Australian military forces, saying, \u201cYou keep us free.\u201d\n/*= 0; i--) {\nvar elm = all[i];\nvar tag = elm.tagName.toLowerCase();\nif (tag !== \"a\" && tag !== \"p\")\nall[i].parentNode.removeChild(all[i]);\n}\n} else {\nthisSnippet.innerHTML = \"Twitter Embed Code does not contain proper Twitter blockquote.\";\nreturn;\n}\nif (!window.twttr && !d.getElementById(sId)) { //async request Twitter API\nvar js, firstJs = d.getElementsByTagName(\"script\")[0];\njs = d.createElement(\"script\");\njs.id = sId;\njs.src = \"//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js\";\nfirstJs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, firstJs);\n}\nthisSnippet.parentNode.style.width = \"100%\";\nthisSnippet.appendChild(bquote);\nvar renderTweets = function () {\nif (window.twttr && window.twttr.widgets) {\nwindow.twttr.widgets.load();\nwindow.twttr.events.bind(\"rendered\", function (e) {\n//fix twitter bug rendering multiple embeds per tweet. Can be deleted after Twitter fix the issue\nif (e.target) {\nvar par = e.target.parentElement;\nif (par && par.className === \"twitterSnippetProcessed\" &&\ne.target.previousSibling && e.target.previousSibling.nodeName.toLowerCase() === \"iframe\") {\n//this is duplicate embed, delete it\npar.removeChild(e.target);\n}\n}\n});\n}\n}\nrenderTweets();\n};\nthisSnippet.className = \"twitterSnippetProcessed\";\nrender();\n//if (d.readyState === \"uninitialized\" || d.readyState === \"loading\")\n// window.addEventListener(\"load\", render);\n//else //liveblog, ajax\n// render();\n})(document);\n\u201cAmerica and Australia are old friends and really natural partners, and with your help will remain so for a very, very long time to come,\" noted Brendan Thomas-Noone, a research fellow at the United States Studies Center at the University of Sydney. He says officials in Canberra will be relieved tensions caused by that testy phone call three months ago have eased.\n\u201cI think it did shock the Australian side quite a bit, but obviously three months on and the fact Vice President Pence and President Trump now have reaffirmed the deal, definitely will calm some nerves I think in the government,\" Thomas-Noone said.\nAustralia\u2019s Labor opposition leader, Bill Shorten, suggested that Turnbull had been disrespected by being forced to wait for three hours for a brief meeting with the U.S. President. However, many Australian commentators believe the delay was caused by understandable domestic political necessities. President Trump had delayed traveling to New York for the 30 minute meeting to remain in Washington while the healthcare bill replacement passed the House of Representatives.\nTurnbull, however, seemed unperturbed.\nAnalysts believe the Australia-U.S. relationship has been reset following the leaders\u2019 meeting in New York, where they discussed economic and national security concerns, as well as migration issues. A bilateral military alliance dates back to the early 1950s.\nLate arrival to New York\nTrump arrived in New York later than planned, delaying his scheduled meeting with the prime minister by several hours while he remained in Washington until the House of Representatives signed a pivotal health care bill that would replace the Affordable Care Act. Getting rid of the health care reform plan nicknamed Obamacare was one of Trump\u2019s key campaign promises.\nDespite the wait, the two leaders were all smiles following a short meeting after Trump arrived in New York.\nFILE - In this Jan. 28, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.\nThis is the first face-to-face meeting between the two men since Trump abruptly ended an introductory phone call with Turnbull in February. Trump objected to a pre-existing agreement between Washington and Canberra that the U.S. would accept some refugees currently in Australian custody.\nTrump reportedly called the deal \u201cdumb\u201d and \u201cthe worst deal ever\u201d before ending the call. He also is reported to have told Turnbull that he had spoken to four other world leaders that day, but that his phone call with Turnbull \u201cwas the worst call by far.\u201d\nTurnbull later denied reports that the American president had hung up on him. He said in a radio interview: \u201cThe call ended courteously, that\u2019s all I want to say about that.\u201d\nAfter the dinner, Trump is not expected to go to his Manhattan headquarters, Trump Tower, but instead will spend the weekend at his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.\nPhil Mercer contributed to this report from Sydney, Australia\n", + "caption": "President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shake hands during their meeting aboard the USS Intrepid, a decommissioned aircraft carrier docked in the Hudson River in New York, May 4, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0CD29EF3-8C51-4E99-B580-DF6DC401DDD5.jpg", + "id": "16700_1", + "answer": [ + "\u201ccrucial issues ranging from international security to trade.\u201d", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Turnbull", + "President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838167", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_04_3838167_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who was the person wearing sunglasses in the image close to?", + "context": "Khmer Rouge Tribunal Explains Limits on Prosecutions\nPHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA \u2014\u00a0\nThe U.N.-backed Cambodian tribunal trying Khmer Rouge leaders for atrocities committed while they ruled the country acknowledged Monday that only a handful of former high-ranking officials will face justice for their crimes.\nThe tribunal explained in a statement the dismissal in February of a case against Im Chaem, a middle-ranking Khmer Rouge district chief whom prosecutors had charged with crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination and enslavement.\nThe statement said the court's co-investigating judges concluded that Im Chaem was not high-ranking enough to fall into the category of senior leaders, and she also did not qualify for prosecution as a person \"most responsible\" for atrocities, because the evidence of specific crimes attributed to her did not meet acceptable legal standards.\nIt pointed out, however, that dismissal of the case against Im Chaem, who is in her seventies, \"does not equate to a statement that no crimes were committed by a charged person.\"\nFILE - Im Chaem spoke to VOA from her home in Anlong Veng district in Udder Meanchey province, April 20, 2017. (Sok Khemara/VOA Khmer)\nAs a district chief in the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, Im Chaem allegedly ran a forced labor camp to construct an irrigation project and was accused of responsibility for the deaths of possibly thousands of laborers.\nThe tribunal's statement also said that under the agreement that was negotiated to establish the tribunal, no other Cambodian courts have jurisdiction over human rights violations committed by members of the communist Khmer Rouge, whose harsh 1975-79 rule is generally considered responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people from execution, overwork and neglect of medical care.\nThe absence of an alternative court to try such cases means \"only a certain small group of people will ever be prosecuted in the courts of Cambodia for the atrocities\" during Khmer Rouge rule, it said.\n\"It is undoubtedly difficult for the public and the victims to accept that even the soldiers who routinely killed small children by bashing their heads against trees or who had competitions about who could kill the greatest number of people, should not face justice,\" the statement said.\n\"In many domestic criminal justice systems, such conduct would attract a whole life sentence without parole and in some countries possibly even the death penalty for each individual act of each individual offender.\"\nThe agreement to limit such cases to the U.N.-assisted tribunal \"was a conscious political choice during the negotiations, balancing the call for integration of the remaining Khmer Rouge into society against the desire for some form of judicial closure for the horrendous suffering of the victims,\" the statement said.\nThe tribunal has already convicted two high-ranking Khmer Rouge leaders, Khieu Samphan, the 85-year-old Khmer Rouge head of state, and Nuon Chea, the 90-year-old right-hand man to the group's late top leader, Pol Pot. A second trial of the two on separate charges was recently concluded and is awaiting a verdict.\nAlso convicted earlier was the head of its prison system, who ran a torture center in Phnom Penh. Cases against a handful of other suspects are in the judicial pipeline.\nThe head of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which has collected massive amounts of detailed evidence about the Khmer Rouge, said he was disappointed with the statement's explanation.\nIts redaction of the evidence against Im Chaem \u2014 based on the rule of presumption of innocence \u2014 means that the public at large is unable to judge the correctness of the decision to dismiss the case, Youk Chhang said in an email.\nHe accused the co-investigating judges of \"compromising justice.\"\nThe tribunal's statement said the evidence collected by the center dealing with the charges against Im Chaem could not be taken into account because it was gathered in a manner not suitable for legal purposes.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Khieu Samphan, second from right, former Khmer Rouge head of state, and Noun Chea, left, who was the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologist and No. 2 leader, are seen on a screen at the court's press center of the U.N.-backed war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aug. 7, 2014. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E485D52F-1B48-4094-8B43-9B80529F18F7.jpg", + "id": "16135_1", + "answer": [ + "Pol Pot", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Nuon Chea", + "Noun Chea" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_10_3936201", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_07_10_3936201_1" + }, + { + "question": "What section of the place in the image was affected?", + "context": "Monitor: IS Launches Attack on Syria\u2019s Deir el-Zour\nA Syrian monitor says Islamic State militants have launched an attack on government-held areas of the Syrian city of Deir el-Zour.\nThe British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports several explosions rocked the eastern city in the intense offensive.\nThe monitor reports that more than 30 people have already died in the fighting, including 20 IS jihadists and 12 regime fighters.\nOfficials say the Syrian government used warplanes to beat back the militants.\nUnconfirmed reports say dozens of people have been killed.\nThe Islamic State group controls most of Deir el-Zour province, but government forces have maintained control of the provincial capital.\nThe capital has been under siege by IS fighters since 2014, but government forces have been able to hold out because of supplies dropped to them from the air.\nAccording to the monitor, IS jihadists had been preparing for Saturday\u2019s offensive for some time, recently bringing in reinforcements and extra ammunition.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Plumes of smoke rise from explosions in Deir el-Zour, 450 km northeast of Damascus, Syria, Oct. 29, 2012. Islamic State militants have reportedly launched an attack on government-held areas of the city.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/72107206-FCF5-4321-B9A6-593053BA1194.jpg", + "id": "24469_1", + "answer": [ + "eastern" + ], + "bridge": [ + "city" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_14_3676143", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_14_3676143_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the opinion of the man in the center as concerns foreign military aid", + "context": "Duterte Says Didn't Seek US Support in Marawi \nCAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, PHILIPPINES \u2014\u00a0\nPresident Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday he did not seek support from Washington to end the siege of a southern Philippines town by Islamist militants, a day after the United States said it was providing assistance at the request of the government.\nDuterte told a news conference in Cagayan de Oro City, about 100 km (62 miles) from the besieged town of Marawi, that he had \"never approached America\" for help.\nWhen asked about U.S. support to fight the pro-Islamic State militants in Marawi City on the island of Mindanao, Duterte said he was \"not aware of that until they arrived.\"\nThe cooperation between the longtime allies in the battle is significant because Duterte, who came to power a year ago, has taken a hostile stance towards Washington and has vowed to eject U.S. military trainers and advisers from his country.\nIt is unclear whether the pro-American military went over Duterte's head in seeking U.S. help.\nThe Philippines military said on Saturday U.S. forces were providing technical assistance but had no \"boots on the ground\", confirming a statement from the U.S. embassy in Manila which said the support had been requested by the government.\nBlack smoke from continuing military air strikes rises above a mosque in Marawi city, southern Philippines, June 9, 2017.\nThe seizure of Marawi on May 23 by hundreds of local and foreign fighters has alarmed Southeast Asian nations, which fear the ultra-radical group Islamic State is trying to establish a stronghold on Mindanao that could threaten their region.\nThe Pentagon, which has no permanent presence in the Philippines but for years has kept 50 to 100 special forces troops in the south of the country on rotational exercises, confirmed it was helping the Philippine military in Marawi.\nIt said in a statement on Saturday it was providing Philippine forces with security assistance and training in the areas of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. It said it had an additional 300 to 500 troops in the country to support regular training and activities, without giving further details.\nA U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said support included aerial surveillance and targeting, electronic eavesdropping, communications assistance and training. A U.S. P-3 Orion surveillance plane was seen over the town on Friday.\n'Our soldiers are pro-American'\nDuterte, who declared martial law on Mindanao \u2014 an island the size of South Korea \u2014 after the Islamist fighters overran Marawi, said that under martial law he has authority over the defense department.\nHe did not say the armed forces had gone over his head but noted that, because of years of training from the United States, \"our soldiers are pro-American, that I cannot deny.\"\nPresidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement U.S. forces were participating directly in combat operations, which is prohibited by Philippines law.\n\"The fight against terrorism, however, is not only the concern of the Philippines or the United States but it is a concern of many nations around the world,\" he said. \"The Philippines is open to assistance from other countries if they offer it.\"\nAs of Saturday the number of security forces killed in the battle for Marawi stood at 58. The death toll for civilians was 20 and more than 100 had been killed overall.\nAt least 200 militants are holed up in a corner of the town.\nAn estimated 500 to 1,000 civilians are trapped there, some being held as human shields, while others are hiding in their homes with no access to running water, electricity or food.\nOne of the main Islamist factions dug in around the heart of the city is the Maute group, a relative newcomer amid the throng of insurgents, separatists and bandits on Mindanao.\nMaute joined forces with Isnilon Hapilon, who was last year proclaimed by Islamic State as its Southeast Asia \"emir.\"\nMilitary officials believe Hapilon is still in the town.\nThe military has said it is aiming to end the siege by Monday, the Philippines' independence day.\n", + "caption": "Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte (C) with Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana (L) and General Eduardo Ano, talks after visiting wounded soldiers, at a military camp in Cagayan De Oro, June 11, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/88E0D5AB-64FF-427E-A031-DF96632B31D9.jpg", + "id": "5830_1", + "answer": [ + "has vowed to eject U.S. military trainers and advisers from his country" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Duterte" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_11_3895688", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_11_3895688_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the middle of the image doing?", + "context": "Indonesian President to Visit Australia for Talks on Trade, Security\nSYDNEY \u2014\u00a0\nIndonesian President Joko Widodo is making his first visit to Australia Saturday, in a sign that tensions early this year have eased and relations between the two Asia-Pacific neighbors are stable.\nAustralia\u2019s relationship with its heavily populated northern neighbor is often turbulent. It soured when Australia supported East Timorese independence from Indonesia in 2002. \nMore recently in 2015, diplomatic tension rose when Jakarta executed two members of an Australian drug trafficking gang despite pleas for mercy from Canberra. In January, Indonesia briefly suspended bilateral military ties after a dispute at an Australian Special Forces base in Perth. \nOptimism for trade progress\nThose anxieties have soothed, and there is optimism that Widodo\u2019s visit will see meaningful progress on a free trade agreement.\nAaron Connelly, an analyst at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank, says ties between the two countries are in good shape.\n\u201cThe remarkable thing here is that despite that background of irritation that we see on occasion, relations between the two are actually pretty good,\u201d Connelly said. \u201cMinisters on both sides have good relationships with their counterparts, and you also have Australian feelings towards Indonesia at a high.\n\u201cIn our Lowy Institute poll last year we asked Australians to rank countries on a thermometer from zero to 100, and Indonesia ranked at 56 degrees, which is the highest result we have ever seen in 11 years of polling,\u201d he added.\nSouth China Sea also on agenda\nWidodo and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are also expected to discuss the dangers posed by radicalized fighters returning home from the conflict in Iraq and Syria. Tensions over the South China Sea are an additional topic on the agenda, along with the possibility of joint navy patrols in the area.\nWhile significant, the Indonesian leader\u2019s visit to Sydney will be brief. He arrives Saturday and flies home after lunch Sunday.\nHe was forced to cancel an earlier state trip to Australia last November because of violent disturbances in Jakarta. \n", + "caption": "Indonesian President Joko Widodo (center) participates in a meeting with Australian business leaders during his visit to Sydney, Australia, Feb. 25, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9F30C2B7-F997-4C84-B372-66D5C1A44AE6.jpg", + "id": "33276_1_1", + "answer": [ + "making his first visit to Australia" + ], + "bridge": [ + "President Joko Widodo" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_25_3739549", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_25_3739549_1" + }, + { + "question": "What will playing the games in the image do?", + "context": "In Lebanon Gyms, Playtime and Escape for Syrian Children\nBEIRUT \u2014\u00a0\nEvery Sunday, the gymnasium along Beirut's airport highway echoes with the shouting and laughter of dozens of Syrian children enjoying a rare escape from a grim and confined life in exile.\nThe Sport 4 Development program, run by the U.N. children's agency, aims to bring 12,000 children, mostly Syrian refugees, to blacktops and turf pitches this year to teach the basics of soccer and basketball, and to ease the pain of war and displacement.\n\u201cWe try to get them out of their stressful environments and the frights that they've lived through,\u201d said Maher Nakib, 40, the technical director of Hoops Lebanon, the sports association behind the project.\nOf the one million Syrian refugees the U.N. says are living in Lebanon, more than half are under 18 years old. Syrians here face legal and other forms of discrimination, and many parents are hesitant to let their children play outside in the crowded alleys of Beirut's poorer neighborhoods, where most of the refugees live.\nThe monthlong Hoops program provides a safe environment where the children can blow off steam, as well as learn self-confidence and teamwork.\n\u201cThey come back home and they're too tired to fight,\u201d smiles Fatima Tayjan, a refugee from the Syrian city of Aleppo who has enrolled three of her four children in the program. When her family of six returns home to their crowded two-bedroom apartment, the children have \u201creleased all their energy and they are ready to talk to each other,\u201d she said.\nMaram al-Malwa, a 17-year-old paid volunteer who came up in the program, recalls her own feelings of isolation when she and her family fled from Aleppo to Lebanon five years ago. \u201cIt was a new country, even a new accent,\u201d she said.\nBut now she is irrepressible, rising on the balls of her feet when she speaks and helping coaches reach through to children in the group activities. She is one of a handful of the children pulled aside for a six-month mentorship on leadership and coaching. \n\u201cYou grow, you experience victories, setbacks, you learn to fight for yourself, and you become more confident,\u201d she said.\nWhen hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes or were forced into Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, they set to work mending the national fabric through schools, scouts, and athletics, with the support of Arab nationalist groups.\nBut Syrians have not been able to count on the same sense of solidarity. And as the U.N. and aid groups have struggled to assist the nearly 5 million Syrian refugees scattered across the region, the focus has been on schooling, aid and shelter, with few resources left over for cultural or recreational activities. \n\u201cChildren won't necessarily express themselves unless you give them an outlet, and sports are an excellent medium to do so,\u201d said Nakib, the technical director.\nRania Qadri, who fled from Syria's southern Daraa province, said she saw her oldest daughter change before her eyes.\n\u201cShe used to be introverted, she wouldn't speak to anyone,\u201d she said. \u201cNow she comes home and tells me, `I've made friends, we've been playing soccer, we've been playing games and sports.\u201d'\nStaffers are trained to identify struggling children, those who lash out and those who retreat into their shells. Psychologists meet with parents weekly to discuss healthy relationships and domestic violence.\nThe group sessions often bring to light domestic disputes, learning disabilities or experiences of sexual violence. The children are then referred to specialized non-governmental organizations for further support.\nIn other cases, children will reveal that they are not enrolled in school, and staffers will direct them to organizations that can help. Two-thirds of Syrian children in Lebanon do not attend school, according to U.N. figures, in part because the country's underfunded public education system has been overwhelmed by the new arrivals.\nOn a recent Sunday, the children lined up to dribble through cones, shoot layups and learn cheers and stretches.\n\u201cYou see a lot of cases of shyness or stubbornness, and you immediately see them change when they're here,\u201d said al-Malwa, the teenage volunteer. \u201cI feel like I'm responsible, like I'm in charge of a group.\u201d \n", + "caption": "Syrian refugee girls attend a basketball training session at a private sports club, southern Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 19, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/BFE19A73-644A-48F0-837E-39D7AA8AA446.jpg", + "id": "16922_1", + "answer": [ + "ease the pain of war and displacement", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "basketball" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_23_3736367", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_23_3736367_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is happening to the place of the people in the image?", + "context": "Freebies, Symbols, Funding: India's Key Election Features\nNEW DELHI \u2014\u00a0\nAt 1.3 billion people, India is the world's largest and arguably the most chaotic democracy. Elections are a complicated logistical exercise that blends colorful pageantry with more serious political issues. A village fair atmosphere takes over rural India as people troop to the nearest voting stations. \nFive key states - Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand - are currently in the middle of elections to choose local legislatures. The voting began Feb. 4 and ends on March 8. Votes from all the state polls will be counted on March 11. A look at some of the key election features: \nElection symbols\nA bottle, an air conditioner, a television set, a lantern, an arrow, a bicycle, a loaf of bread - these are not shopping items but some of the many objects voters will see on the electronic voting machines as symbols for the dozens of political parties and independent candidates in the fray.\nSymbols have been allocated to political parties since India's first national election in 1951. Since barely a fifth of the population could read or write in the early 1950s, the symbols were introduced on ballot papers to help the unlettered cast their votes. Nearly three-quarters of Indians can now read but the icons remain evocative symbols of the major political groups.\nIndia's best-known political symbols are the lotus flower for the governing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the outstretched hand or palm for the main opposition Congress party.\nThe newest political party in the country, the Aam Aadmi Party, or the Common Man's Party, chose the broom as its election symbol, reflecting their claim that they mean to sweep clean the political system.\nThe choice of symbols still available for selection with the country's independent Election Commission includes an electric pole, cricket bat, pliers and even food items including a coconut and a cauliflower. Also available: a toothbrush and nail clippers. \nFreebies\nElection season in India is the time when political parties offer freebies in return for the votes.\nOn offer this year are promises of laptops, smartphones, spice grinders, fans and loan waivers. The governing BJP is even offering sugar and clarified butter at low prices in northern Punjab state. \nIn the past, farm workers got cows and goats in a southern state. Freebies are a fact of life in Indian politics. Some 270 million people - nearly 22 per cent of the country's population - live in poverty, making giveaways particularly attractive to voters.\nThe election-season freebies, however, raise questions about a fair playing field for smaller parties and independent candidates.\nIn the absence of laws barring such campaign promises, the practice continues. In India's northern Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, the state's top elected official, is promising free smartphones. In the previous 2014 election, he fulfilled his promise of free laptops for students after winning the vote. \nHis main challenger, the BJP, also promised laptops, free internet and cooking gas to those who vote for them.\nElection funding\nAnonymous cash donations to political parties, running into billions of rupees (hundreds of millions of dollars) are seen at the heart of India's endemic corruption.\nOnly a quarter of the annual income of the two main political parties, the BJP and the Congress party, comes from known sources and are declared in their tax returns. The rest is from anonymous donors, according to the Association of Democratic Reforms, a non-political group working for governmental and electoral reform. \nCorruption is a top issue in the elections, which came on the heels of a surprise Nov. 8 announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi eliminating the country's highest denominated currency bills in what he called an attack on tax fraud and graft.\nThe government also appears to have taken some steps to bring transparency to party funding.\nOn Feb. 1, India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced in his budget speech that political parties will not be allowed to accept donations of more than 2,000 rupees ($29) in cash from an individual donor, instead of the 20,000 rupees ($295) allowed at present. \nA powerful regional group, the Bahujan Samaj Party, showed all donations it has received so far to be anonymous - below the legal limit of 20,000 rupees per donor. \nBut several economists say that if the government were really serious about transparency, it should ban all cash donations.\n", + "caption": "FILE - A supporter lifts a bicycle, the party symbol of the Samajwadi Party (SP), during a joint election campaign rally by Uttar Pradesh state.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/FD83795E-E341-4C14-8FC5-FDEC98D269DB.jpg", + "id": "7258_1", + "answer": [ + "elections", + "Elections" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Uttar Pradesh", + "Uttar Pradesh state" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_10_3717417", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_10_3717417_1" + }, + { + "question": "What things have happened to people like those in the image?", + "context": "Refugees, Migrants Risk Death as Bitter Cold Grips Europe\nGENEVA \u2014\u00a0\nU.N. aid agencies are appealing to authorities in Europe to assist and protect thousands of refugees and migrants trying to survive the harsh winter weather that is gripping the continent. They say people in Greece and the Balkan states are most at risk.\nCecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said Friday that her agency had transferred hundreds of people to better accommodations on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios over the past few days, but she noted that about 1,000 people, including young children, were continuing to live in unheated tents and dormitories on the island of Samos.\nShe said that UNHCR also has provided heated accommodations and relief items to more than 82 percent of the 7,300 refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants living in Serbia. \nA migrant wakes up after spending the night inside a crumbling warehouse that has served as a makeshift shelter for hundreds of men trying to reach Western Europe in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 12, 2017. Migrants have been exposed to freezing temperatures and snow as extreme winter weather gripped Serbia and other parts of Europe in the last week.\nHowever, Pouilly said, more must be done. She says her agency has received disturbing reports of refugee and migrant deaths as they move across Europe.\n\"We are extremely concerned by reports that several refugees and migrants have lost their lives trying to enter or move across Europe, including five deaths since the beginning of the year, due to the freezing weather,\" she said.\nOver the past few days, she noted that the bodies of two Iraqi men, who had died from the effects of cold and exhaustion, were found in southeastern Bulgaria after they had crossed from Turkey.\nIn the same region, the body of a young Somali woman was found, while two Somali teenagers traveling with her were hospitalized with frostbite.\n\"The Bulgarian authorities have reinforced patrols in the area since to prevent fatalities due to the weather,\u201d Pouilly said.\nHowever, Pouilly said, reports indicate that authorities in all countries along the Western Balkans route were continuing to push refugees and migrants out of their territories. \n\"In several cases, refugees and migrants have alleged that police have subjected them to violence,\" she said. \"Many have also reported that their phones were confiscated or destroyed, thus preventing them from calling for help once stranded.\"\nShe called these and other practices \"simply inacceptable\" and said they must be halted. She also expressed deep concern at abuses committed against refugees and migrants by criminal gangs, \"including kidnapping, physical abuse, threats and extortion.\"\nMigrant Petram Mehdi, 2, from Tehran, Iran, stands by the window of his family's shelter at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens, Jan. 12, 2017.\nUNICEF, the U.N. Children's Fund, also has raised the alarm over the increasingly dire situation of children exposed to freezing cold weather conditions on the Greek islands. \nSarah Crowe, UNICEF spokeswoman, said thousands of children and their families have been living in limbo for many months on end. She said they were living under \"intolerable conditions\" in extremely overcrowded camps.\nBecause it's the off-season for tourism and few visitors are arriving, the agency appealed to Greek authorities to allow the refugees and migrants living out in the open to stay in the hotels, hostels and homes that are essentially empty.\nCrowe said children were unable to go to school and had no access to proper health services while they were stuck on those islands.\n\"We call on the authorities to speed up the process of relocation to bring these families to the main islands if accommodation, proper accommodation cannot be found on the islands,\" she said. \"Children are particularly prone to respiratory illnesses at a time like this. We do not want to see this happen. It is about saving lives, not about red tape and keeping to bureaucratic arrangements.\"\nMeanwhile, the International Organization for Migration has reported a steep decline in the number of Mediterranean migrant arrivals so far this year as compared to the same period last year.\nIOM reports that 1,159 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece and Italy through January 12, compared to 22,590 during the first 12 days of 2016.\n", + "caption": "A migrant wakes up after spending the night inside a crumbling warehouse that has served as a makeshift shelter for hundreds of men trying to reach Western Europe in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan. 12, 2017. Migrants have been exposed to freezing temperatures and snow as extreme winter weather gripped Serbia and other parts of Europe in the last week.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/CEBBAA5F-CB01-40EB-9AD2-B8A91E90ED52.jpg", + "id": "19657_2", + "answer": [ + "lost their lives trying to enter or move across Europe, including five deaths since the beginning of the year, due to the freezing weather", + "kidnapping, physical abuse, threats and extortion" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Migrants", + "migrants" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_13_3675473", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_13_3675473_2" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person with the black tie in the image offer?", + "context": "Putin: I Can Prove Trump Passed No Secrets\nRussian President Vladimir Putin says President Donald Trump never passed any classified information to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov when they met last week in Washington, and he has the transcripts to prove it.\nSpeaking Wednesday alongside Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Putin said Lavrov never passed the purported secrets on to him, and he would be happy to hand over the transcripts of the conversation.\nTrump has been defending himself this week after media reports claimed he shared sensitive intelligence with Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak.\nU.S. President Donald Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, left, next to Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak at the White House in Washington, May 10, 2017. (Russian Foreign Ministry photo via AP)\nThe president and his aides have denied Trump shared any information that would have compromised sources or methods of gathering intelligence. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called Trump\u2019s discussion with Russian diplomats \u201cwholly appropriate.\u201d\n\"I'm not concerned at all,\" said McMaster, who sat in on the Oval Office meeting.\nNews accounts of the meeting claim the classified information involved a possible Islamic State plan to smuggle bombs hidden in laptop computers aboard airliners.\nPutin said the anti-Russian sentiment in America is damaging the country and not allowing Trump to govern properly. He accused Trump\u2019s detractors of suffering from \u201cpolitical schizophrenia.\u201d\n", + "caption": "Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni attend a joint news conference at the Bocharov Ruchei state residence in Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, May 17, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E5C4816B-D75C-4940-BDF4-97520AFE8B84.jpg", + "id": "18369_1", + "answer": [ + "to hand over the transcripts of the conversation.", + "hand over the transcripts of the conversation", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Putin", + "Vladimir Putin" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_17_3854023", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_17_3854023_1" + }, + { + "question": "Who was responsible for the event in the image?", + "context": "German Aid Worker, Afghan Security Guard Killed in Kabul\nISLAMABAD \u2014\u00a0\nUnknown gunmen have killed a German aid worker and her Afghan security guard in Kabul before kidnapping a Finnish woman who worked for an aid organization.\nA Finnish Foreign Ministry spokesperson is reported to have confirmed a Finn has been taken hostage, and that there is no information yet on the kidnappers.\nThere has been no claim of responsibility.\nThe overnight violence took place outside a guesthouse on the Darulaman road of the capital city, housing staff of the Swedish charity Operation Mercy, according to the Afghan Interior Ministry.\nMinistry spokesman Najib Danish said a third foreigner was rescued and an investigation into the incident is under way.\nIncidents of kidnapping for ransom in Kabul have long posed a challenge for Afghan authorities and have discouraged foreign nationals from moving freely in the city.\nSeparately, Taliban insurgents have killed 20 Afghan police personnel and wounded at least a dozen more in the volatile southern province of Zabul.\nProvincial Governor Bismillah Afghanmal told VOA the casualties occurred late Saturday after insurgents attacked security outposts in the Shajoy district. He added that assailants also suffered major casualties but gave no figures.\nThe governor said fighting was still raging in the area. Security officials have confirmed to VOA the Taliban has overrun several outposts.\nThe conflict zone is located on the main highway linking Kabul with the southern city of Kandahar.\nLocal officials are reported to have made calls to Afghan television stations in their bid to seek attention after failing to get hold of senior authorities for help.\nA Taliban spokesman, while claiming responsibility for killing Afghan forces and capturing outposts, said its fighters are currently attacking more than a dozen \"enemy\" posts in the area to try to capture them.\nThe Islamist insurgency has ramped up its so-called spring offensive across Afghanistan in a bid to extend its territorial control. The Taliban controls or influences nearly 50 of 407 Afghan districts.\nThe fighting comes as U.S. President Donald Trump is considering whether to send additional troops to the embattled country to strengthen NATO's existing mission of training, advising and assisting Afghan security forces to enable them reverse insurgent gains.\n", + "caption": "An Afghan boy looks at the entrance gate of a house, where a German aid worker and an Afghan guard were killed last night, in Kabul, May 21, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/9F31D2C2-F620-44BE-9DED-AA8D3CE9AA91.jpg", + "id": "6968_1", + "answer": [ + "Unknown gunmen" + ], + "bridge": [ + "the entrance gate of a house, where a Germain aid worker and an Afghan guard were killed last night", + "German aid worker and her Afghan security guard" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863855", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_21_3863855_1" + }, + { + "question": "Where are the people in the image headed?", + "context": "Iraq Paramilitary Troops Take Strategic Town West of Mosul\nBAGHDAD \u2014\u00a0\nA senior leader with an Iraqi government-sanctioned paramilitary force says his troops have captured a key town west of the city of Mosul from the Islamic State group.\nDeputy Head of Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, says in a statement that the troops entered the center of strategic Baaj town Sunday morning.\nAl-Muhandis said the progress is a \"big and qualitative achievement\" in the U.S.-backed operation to retake Mosul, which was launched in October. The town, near the Syrian border, is considered one of the important supply lines for IS through Syria.\nThe Iran-backed PMF \u2014 an umbrella group of mostly Shi'ite militias also known as Hashed al-Shaabi in Arabic \u2014 has largely operated since October in the desert west of Mosul, trying to cut IS supply lines.\n", + "caption": "FILE - Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) ride in military vehicles on the Iraqi border with Syria, Iraq, May 30, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/10DEF93B-B079-4B5F-B911-02ABB7FF2179.jpg", + "id": "17624_1", + "answer": [ + "None", + "Mosul", + "Baaj town" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Popular Mobilization Forces" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_04_3886168", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_04_3886168_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the person in the image tell reporters?", + "context": "Mattis: US 'Not in Iraq to Seize Anybody's Oil'\nU.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Monday the United States does not intend to seize oil from Iraq, something President Donald Trump has in the past advocated as \"spoils\" for U.S military activity there and to prevent the Islamic State group from selling it. \nMattis spoke to reporters traveling with him to Iraq for an unannounced visit, which came on the second day of a military offensive to push Islamic State from the western part of the city of Mosul. \n\"I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America, have generally paid for our gas and oil all along, and I'm sure that we will continue to do that in the future,\" Mattis said. \"We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil.\"\nLater in Baghdad, Mattis also vowed to support Iraq through the fight against the Islamic State group.\n\"I assure you we are going to stand by you through this fight. We will stand by you and your army in the future so that your sovereignty is protected by the Iraqi forces and no one else,\" he said.\nWATCH: Mattis on Iraqi oil\nVideo size\nwidth\nx\nheight\npixels\nMattis: 'We\u2019re not in Iraq to Seize Anybody\u2019s Oil'\nShare this video\n0:00:16\n\u25b6\n0:00:00\n/0:00:16\n\u25b6\n\u25b6\nDirect link\n270p | 718.2kB\n360p | 807.7kB\n480p | 4.8MB\nWhen asked if the United States would stay in Iraq after the battle for Mosul had ended, he said, \"I imagine we'll be in this fight for a while and we'll stand by each other.\"\nLt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, who commands the U.S.-led coalition working to defeat Islamic State, was more explicit. \"I don't anticipate that we'll be asked to leave by the government of Iraq immediately after Mosul. I think the government of Iraq realizes this is a very complex fight and they're going to need the assistance of the coalition even beyond Mosul.\"\nOn Monday, Iraqi forces advanced into the southern outskirts of Mosul on the second day of a push to drive Islamic State militants from the city's western part. Forces targeted a hill that overlooks the city's airport, entering the village of Abu Saif.\nMattis' stop in Iraq includes meetings with Townsend, as well as with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other Iraqi officials. Mattis is working on his own plan to accelerate the fight against Islamic State, which Trump ordered on January 28 be delivered to him within 30 days.\nAs the Mosul offensive began Sunday, Mattis said the U.S. role, which has been to conduct airstrikes and serve as advisers to Iraqi troops, will remain the same. \n\"The attack into the city is something I don\u2019t want to go into details about because I owe confidentiality to the troops who are actually making the attack. At the same time, we are very close to it if not already engaged in that, in that fight,\" he said. \"The U.S. forces continue in the same role that they were in East Mosul and the coalition forces are in support of this operation, and we will continue as you know with the accelerated effort to destroy ISIS.\" \nIraqi troops pushed Islamic State out of the eastern part of Mosul last month after a campaign that lasted more than 100 days. U.S. military officials have warned the fight for the western part of the city will likely be much tougher.\nIraqi special operations forces, regular army and federal police units are taking part in the offensive along with government-approved paramilitary forces.\nThe United Nations warned Sunday that hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk in Mosul.\n\"The situation is distressing. People, right now, are in trouble,'' Lise Grande, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said in a statement. \"We are hearing reports of parents struggling to feed their children and to heat their homes.\"\n", + "caption": "U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, center, is greeted by U.S. Ambassador Douglas Silliman as he arrives at Baghdad International Airport on an unannounced trip, Feb. 20, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/52E4888F-01C7-4D08-A8D6-51DD0E66B35F.jpg", + "id": "1904_1", + "answer": [ + "\"I think all of us here in this room, all of us in America, have generally paid for our gas and oil all along, and I'm sure that we will continue to do that in the future,\" Mattis said. \"We're not in Iraq to seize anybody's oil.\"", + "the United States does not intend to seize oil from Iraq" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Jim Mattis", + "U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_20_3731703", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_20_3731703_1" + }, + { + "question": "What are the people in the image discussing?", + "context": "Tillerson, Lavrov to Discuss Syria, Ukraine Wednesday\nU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Wednesday in Washington to discuss Syria, Ukraine and other issues.\n\"On Syria, the secretary intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict,\" the State Department said in a statement Monday.\nThe announcement comes as U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says the U.S. will closely examine Russia's plan to establish \"de-escalation\" zones in Syria.\n\"The devil is always in the details,\" Mattis said Monday when asked about the initiative. \"We will look at the proposal, see if it can work.\"\nCol. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian General Staff, (from left) Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and Lt. Gen. Stanislav Gadzhimagomedov attend a briefing in Moscow, May 5, 2017. The sign on top of the map reads Syrian safe zones.\nSyria de-escalation zones \nRussia, Turkey and Iran agreed to a Moscow-proposed deal last week to establish the so-called \u201cde-escalation\u201d zones in Syria in an effort to end the six-year conflict. \nThe proposal calls for taking measures to reduce fighting in four designated areas of Syria where rebels not associated with Islamic State militants control significant territory.\nThe plan emerged from the latest round of peace talks that Russia, Iran and Turkey held in Astana, Kazakhstan. The U.S. had a senior official at the meeting, but is not a signatory to the agreement.\nThe initiative went into effect at midnight Friday. Russia said the zones are closed to aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition.\nFILE - Russian lead negotiator on Syria Alexander Lavrentyev, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov and U.N. Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura attend the fourth round of Syria peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.\nPeace talks \nThe Astana peace talks are separate from a United Nations effort to bring Syria's warring sides together for negotiations aimed at stopping the fighting and launching a political transition with a new constitution and elections.\nU.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura said Monday he hopes the Astana de-escalation plan will be fully implemented and help set a good tone for the next round of U.N.-led talks between the Syrian government and rebels due to begin May 16 in Geneva.\n", + "caption": "FILE - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, enter a hall prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia, April 12, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/8BDFF696-9954-4CF3-96C8-D133954D9831.jpg", + "id": "1317_1", + "answer": [ + "Syria, Ukraine, and other issues", + "Syria, Ukraine and other issues" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Rex Tillerson Sergey Lavrov", + "Rex Tillerson", + "Rex Tillerson, right, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_09_3844027", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_05_09_3844027_1" + }, + { + "question": "What is the person in the image with the blue tie?", + "context": "Obama Prepares for a Busy Retirement, More Freedom\nWASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0\nFor Barack Obama, there's a presidential library to build, hundreds of millions of dollars to raise, causes to champion and a book to write. And don't forget that long-promised vacation with his wife.\nLooming retirement is looking like anything but for the 44th president.\nObama's next chapter starts Friday when he becomes an ex-president. He'll be freer to speak his mind, set his own schedule and make some money.\nAlready, Obama is looking ahead to the book he wants to write, and has had talks with Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel about arrangements that could include speaking gigs.\nAt 55, Obama will be a relatively young ex-president, with plenty of time for a second act. He's ruled out running another campaign for political office - so has his wife - but he has pledged to stay active in the national conversation.\nWith President-elect Donald Trump headed to the White House, Democrats are eager for Obama to play the role of shadow-president, offering direction to those Americans who feel they lost their political compass the day Trump was elected.\nObama has said he has plenty of ideas for how his party can revive itself, but after eight years as president, his role will be to offer guidance, not to micromanage.\n\"I think it's appropriate for me to give advice, because I need some sleep,\" Obama told NPR last month. \"And I've promised Michelle a nice vacation. My girls are getting old enough now where I'm clinging to those very last moments before they are out of the house.\"\nObama is expected to keep a low profile for the first few months after Trump's swearing-in.\nFollowing some relaxation time with his wife and daughters in an unnamed location, the family will return to Washington, where they've rented a mansion in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood.\nObama has repeatedly praised George. W. Bush for giving him room to operate without having the ex-president publicly second-guess him at every turn. Still, Obama has reserved the right to speak out against Trump if he pursues policies the president finds particularly odious, such as a ban on Muslim immigration or mass deportation of children brought to the U.S. illegally.\n\"The party is in bad state and there are no clear, obvious voices for Democrats yet,\" said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University. \"If there's anyone who could stand up to a President Trump, it's going to be former President Obama.\"\nObama may re-emerge in a more public way around the time he releases his book - probably sometime next year - and goes on a promotional tour. Obama's chief White House speechwriter, Cody Keenan, is expected to stay with his boss to help him craft the sequel to Obama's two previous best-sellers.\nThough Obama has yet to fully settle his plans, four individuals familiar with Obama's thinking said over the last year that he's discussed post-presidency arrangements with Emanuel, a leading talent executive. One of Emanuel's brothers is Obama's former chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.\nIt's unclear whether Obama will sign with Ari Emanuel. But the discussions suggest Obama has been looking to Hollywood for inspiration about ways to engage creatively and on multiple fronts, such as digital media and television. Emanuel didn't respond to a request for comment.\nWhatever direction he chooses, Obama will not be pressed financially. He can expect to fetch an advance of more than $20 million for his book, said Keith Urbahn, a literary agent at Javelin DC who's handled best-sellers for top political figures.\n\"Half of the country still looks at him as their leader,\" Urbahn said. \"From a publishing perspective, he will probably end up with the highest advance of any ex-president in history.\"\nIt won't be long until Obama and his wife start raising money for the Barack Obama Foundation, which is developing his presidential library and center in Chicago. The price tag is expected to approach half a billion dollars.\nThe Obamas will have to hire personnel in the coming months as they engage more heavily in designing the center. While it will be several years before the library is up and running, the foundation has left open the possibility it might start some programming sooner.\nFormer White House aide Amy Brundage, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said it would use 2017 to \"build upon the work that has begun\" to create a center that inspires people to take on big challenges.\nObama also plans to stay involved in his My Brother's Keeper initiative, recently renamed the \"Task Force on Improving the Lives of Boys and Young Men of Color and Underserved Youth.\" He is also teaming up with former Attorney General Eric Holder on the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a new initiative to improve Democrats' hand when political districts are redrawn in 2020.\nThe hub of Obama's activity will be his personal office, to be housed in the World Wildlife Fund headquarters not far from his rented home. For the first six months, he'll also have a government-funded office overseeing his transition to ex-president.\n", + "caption": "President Barack Obama (R) is joined onstage by first lady Michelle Obama and daughter Malia, Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, after his farewell address in Chicago, Illinois, Jan. 10, 2017. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E0E957C0-D42B-4B39-8293-FB7166CD8991.jpg", + "id": "2493_1", + "answer": [ + "ex-president", + "President" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Barack Obama", + "Barack Obama " + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_16_3678122", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_01_16_3678122_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did the blonde person in the image do?", + "context": "EU Envoys Back Keeping Sanctions Against Russia over Ukraine\nBRUSSELS, BELGIUM \u2014\u00a0\nThe European Union's top diplomats vowed Monday to uphold sanctions against Russia for destabilizing conflict-torn Ukraine, despite confusion over how U.S. President Donald Trump plans to manage his relations with Moscow.\nDetermined to wait no longer for a clear message from Washington, EU foreign ministers said their economic sanctions must remain in place until Russian President Vladimir Putin respects his promise to work for a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine and ensure that heavy weapons are withdrawn from border areas.\nEU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini underlined that the EU will never recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and insisted all sides must respect the Minsk peace agreement aimed at ending the fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists.\n\"I cannot say where the U.S. administration stands on this, but I can say where the Europeans stand on this,\" Mogherini said.\nFighting has escalated over the past week in eastern Ukraine, killing at least 36 people, including civilians, and wounding dozens. More than 9,800 people have died since the war began in 2014.\nThe EU imposed a series of rolling economic sanctions against Russia in July 2014. They include economic and diplomatic measures, like the cancellation of top meetings, and travel bans and asset freezes on people linked to the annexation of Crimea or accused of interfering with Ukraine's territorial integrity.\nSome of those measures were renewed in December until July 31.\n\"The U.K. will be insisting that there is no case for the relaxation of the sanctions, every case for keeping up the pressure on Russia,\" British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said.\nLithuanian Foreign Minister Linus Antanas Linkevicius described the developments in eastern Ukraine as \"highly unpredictable.\"\n\"It could erupt at any time,\" he said. \"The sanctions must be preserved, to say the least. We see no reasons why we should lift our review. We see no improvement.\"\nEU member countries were rattled by Trump's generally benevolent view of Putin during the election. Trump has repeatedly praised Putin and signaled that U.S.-Russia relations could be in for a makeover under his leadership, even after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.\nDanish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen said he was reassured by declarations from the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, suggesting that sanctions over Crimea will remain in place.\n\"If the Americans change direction - I don't think they will - EU will have to play a stronger role,\" Samuelsen said.\nThe past has shown, he warned, that \"every time there is a vacuum, someone will step in and fill the void.\"\n", + "caption": "European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, center, arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 6, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/65ED07E2-0AFD-422F-BB0A-EBEB90807E5F.jpg", + "id": "5189_1", + "answer": [ + "Underlined that the EU will never recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, and insisted all sides must respect the Minsk peace agreement aimed at ending the fighting in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russia-backed separatists.", + "underlined that the EU will never recognize Russia's 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Federica Mogherini" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_06_3707864", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_02_06_3707864_1" + }, + { + "question": "What must the people in the image do?", + "context": " Venezuela Braces for \u2018Mother of All Marches\u2019 Wednesday\nCARACAS, VENEZUELA \u2014\u00a0\nAs Venezuela\u2019s center-right opposition prepares to stage \"the mother of all marches\" Wednesday to protest President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s efforts to consolidate power, the besieged leader has called for a countermarch and declared plans to expand the country\u2019s civilian militias.\nMaduro, speaking to thousands of uniformed militia members assembled Monday at the presidential palace in Caracas, said they must determine whether they are \"with the homeland or with the betrayal of the homeland.\"\nThe president announced a goal to ramp up their ranks to half a million, from the current 100,000, and to arm each with a gun. On Sunday, he\u2019d ordered military troops to fan out nationwide.\n\"We are going to mobilize, to fight, to continue fighting to prevent any intention of the right to subvert the constitutional order,\" added Diosdado Cabella, vice president of the ruling United Socialist Party.\nThe Maduro supporter, a lawmaker in the National Assembly, said he expected about 60,000 motorcyclists to ride in support of the government Wednesday.\nRecent violence\nAt least five people have been killed in two weeks of protests, with security forces firing rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons. The turbulence erupted after the Venezuelan Supreme Court\u2019s March 30 announcement that it would strip the opposition-controlled National Assembly of its legislative powers. The court \u2013 stacked with appointees of Maduro and his predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez \u2013 reversed its position in the wake of domestic and international outcries about an attempted power grab. \nThousands of Maduro\u2019s opponents are expected to turn out in the capital Wednesday at 10 a.m. local time to pressure his administration to respect the assembly\u2019s autonomy, schedule long-delayed elections, free political prisoners and restore other democratic norms. \nWhile the main march is planned for Caracas, Unidad Venezuela, a coalition of opposition parties, also is organizing marches in each of the country\u2019s 24 states, according to the group\u2019s Twitter account.\nDemonstrations also are planned at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington starting at noon local time.\nVenezuelan pro-government supporters set fire to an effigy of U.S. President Donald Trump, shown with photos of Argentine President Mauricio Macri, left, and National Assembly leader Julio Borges in Caracas\u2019 Enero neighborhood, April 16, 2017.\n Conflicting messages\nOn Monday, Maduro called on his followers to defend the country against alleged plans to overthrow him. \u201cDo not hesitate for a second,\u201d he warned.\nVenezuela\u2019s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, assured Maduro of professional soldiers\u2019 loyalty. And the country\u2019s foreign minister, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, also expressed solidarity with her boss and against outside forces such as the \u201cimperialist\u201d United States. \n\"We will continue defeating them in the international field,\" Rodr\u00edguez tweeted late Monday. \"There will be no imperial force on Earth that crushes the spirit of the sovereign people of Venezuela.\"\nBut the leftist government\u2019s opponents also are appealing to military and civilian troops to back their cause.\n\"We know that behind those shields are Venezuelans who accompany us in this struggle for a change,\" the National Assembly\u2019s president, Julio Borges, said in a tweet Tuesday. \nThe National Socialist Party has ruled Venezuela for 17 years. Economic pressures have mounted in recent years, especially since the price of oil \u2013 Venezuela\u2019s chief export \u2013 began falling in 2014. Venezuelans face chronic, severe shortages of food, medicine and other basics in what once was Latin America\u2019s wealthiest country.\nWednesday\u2019s mass protest falls on a significant date for Venezuelans: On April 19, 1810, Venezuelans began their quest for independence from Spain.\nFILE - Opposition marchers protest the Maduro government in Caracas April 10, 2017. Massive pro- and anti-government demonstrations are planned for Wednesday in Venezuela.\nConcern over bloodshed\nMaduro faces intensifying pressure, from internal political foes and from international bodies such as the Organization of American States, to back off from violence. \nOn Monday, Latin American leaders counseled against further bloodshed.\n\"We view with serious concern the militarization of Venezuelan society. We call for good sense,\" Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said in a tweet Tuesday, according to the AFP news service.\nColombia is among 11 Latin American countries \u2013 including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico \u2013 urging peaceful demonstrations Wednesday. They called upon Venezuela\u2019s government to respect the constitutional right to peaceful protest.\nOn Tuesday, the Venezuelan Penal Forum, an NGO, said security forces in the country have carried out 538 arrests since early April. It said that as of Monday, 241 people were being detained. It also reported multiple instances of torture and cruelty to detainees.\nVOA's Carol Guensburg and VOA Spanish service intern Goldy Fogel contributed to this report from Washington.\n", + "caption": "Militia members stand at attention during a ceremony with Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro at Miraflores Palace in Caracas, April 17, 2017.", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/27DE2A6D-A67B-4705-B261-DDF8EDCA5BD0.jpg", + "id": "19113_1", + "answer": [ + "determine whether they are \"with the homeland or with the betrayal of the homeland.\"" + ], + "bridge": [ + "Militia members" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_18_3815670", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_18_3815670_1" + }, + { + "question": "What caused the event in the image?", + "context": "UPS Gunman Who Killed 3 Had Filed Overtime Grievance\nSAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. \u2014\u00a0\nA United Parcel Service driver who opened fire during a meeting with co-workers had filed a grievance that he was working excessive overtime and appeared to specifically go after the three drivers he killed before fatally shooting himself.\nJimmy Lam, 38, filed the grievance in March complaining of too much overtime and requesting that the package delivery company relieve him of working extra hours going forward, Joseph Cilia, an official with a Teamsters Union local that represents UPS workers in San Francisco, told The Associated Press.\nDuring a Wednesday morning meeting, Lam walked up to driver Benson Louie and shot him. As his co-workers frantically fled the room, he shot Wayne Chan in the back, and then walked up to him and \u201cfinished him.\u201d Mike Lefiti was fleeing from the building when Lam went out onto the street and shot him, Cilia said witnesses told him.\n\u201cIt's senseless. I can't think of anything. Why him? Why them?\u201d Cilia asked. \u201cI can't put it together.\u201d\nOfficials late Wednesday confirmed San Francisco residents Louie, 50, and Chan, 56, and 46-year-old Lefiti, of Hercules, were killed in the shooting. \nTwo other UPS employees were wounded, but Cilia said both were released from the hospital.\nAmid a barrage of gunfire, some workers sought refuge on the roof of the four-story facility, while others ran outside and pounded on the windows of a public bus, witnesses said.\n\u201cThey were screaming, 'Go! Go! Go!'\u201d said Jessica Franklin, 30, who was riding to work when the bus made a regular stop in front of the UPS facility. \u201cAs they got on the bus, they were all ducking.\u201d\nAuto shop owner Robert Kim said he saw \u201ca mob of UPS drivers\u201d running down the street screaming \u201cShooter! Shooter!\u201d\nThe shooting prompted a massive police response in one of the city's industrial neighborhoods, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from downtown San Francisco, Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin told reporters.\nUPS spokesman Steve Gaut said the shooter was a company employee. A San Francisco Police Department official identified Lam, 38, and said he's from San Francisco but had no immediate details on his background.\nThe official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.\nLefiti's cousin, Mack Toia, told KGO-TV he was at the UPS facility waiting to pick up Lefiti when shots rang out. He left his van and saw his cousin sprawled on concrete behind a gate, Toia said.\n\u201cThe police officers were right on the scene just like that. I got to touch him, but I couldn't hug him,\u201d Toia said. \u201cThey just pushed me away because they were trying to resuscitate him.\u201d\nCo-worker Isaiah Miggins said he saw Lefiti, known as \u201cBig Mike,\u201d as he arrived for work just before 9 a.m., a few minutes before the shooting started. \u201cHe was a joyful man. Always happy,\u201d Miggins said.\nOn social media, heartbroken family members of Lefiti recalled him as a warm-spirited man devoted to his children and family. A photo on his Facebook page shows Lefiti in his brown UPS uniform holding a trophy. He also posted photos of his UPS truck and an award for 15 years of service to the company in 2015.\nChaplin said police have not determined a motive.\nA 30-year-old tech worker who lives across the street from the warehouse said he heard up to eight gunshots.\n\u201cThey were all in rapid succession,\u201d said Raymond Deng. \u201cIt was like tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat, tat.\u201d\nDeng watched from his window in the Potrero Hill section of San Francisco as workers fled the building. He said another group of about 10 people gathered on the roof and held up their hands waving for help.\n\u201cI saw police officers go up from the ramp and then storm the buildings,\u201d he said. \u201cIt's crazy.\u201d\nOfficers found two victims outside and others inside and pulled the wounded to safety as they confronted the gunman, who was armed with an \u201cassault pistol,\u201d Chaplin said.\n\u201cThe suspect put the gun to his head and discharged the weapon,\u201d Chaplin said, adding that police did not fire any shots. Two guns were recovered at the scene, he said.\nThe shooting occurred the same day a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice in Virginia, wounding U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and several others.\n", + "caption": "Emergency vehicles are parked and police gather outside a UPS package delivery warehouse where a shooting took place, June 14, 2017, in San Francisco, California. ", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/E8DDE8DE-B8C1-469E-BD6D-F918806A4F27.jpg", + "id": "1303_1", + "answer": [ + "A United Parcel Service driver", + "A United Parcel Service driver who opened fire during a meeting with co-workers", + "working excessive overtime", + "shooting" + ], + "bridge": [ + "shooting", + "a shooting" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_15_3901698", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_06_15_3901698_1" + }, + { + "question": "What did people do in response to the weapon in the image?", + "context": "Syria Faces Panic, Bluster and Uncertainty in Wake of US Retaliation\nFirst there was panic, then bluster.\nThe alert the U.S. military gave Russia on Thursday of an upcoming cruise missile strike was quickly circulated by Russian officials to their Syrian counterparts. Fearing the al-Shayrat air base might not be the only target, many fled Damascus or hustled their families out of the Syrian capital, according to a Syrian businessman with links to the government of President Bashar al-Assad.\nThe reaction, he told VOA, was much the same back in August 2013 when Assad loyalists had expected then-U.S. President Barack Obama to match words and deeds and order airstrikes on government targets in the capital as punishment for the use of sarin gas on a rebellious Damascus suburb.\nAs the sun rose Friday in Damascus and the cruise strike appeared to be over, panic turned into bluster.\nSyria's information minister, Ramez Turjman, shrugged off the strike.\nFILE - This Oct. 7, 2016, satellite image released by the U.S. Department of Defense shows the al-Shayrat air base in Syria. The U.S. blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles on April 7, 2017.\n\"I believe this strike was limited in time and space, and it was expected,\" he told Syrian state television in a phone interview.\nState media relayed a terse statement from the country's military command, accusing the United States of an outrageous act of aggression as it confirmed the missile strike had targeted an air base in central Syria, \"which had led to losses.\"\nThe governor of Syria's Homs province, Talal Barazi, also interviewed on Syrian state television, and again by phone, said the strike and any further targeting by the U.S. wouldn't divert the government. \"Syrian leadership and Syrian policy will not change,\" he said.\nShift in dynamic\nIn its broader outlines, say analysts, maybe the war policy of the Assad regime won't be changed because of one barrage of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles. But at the very least, it will give the regime pause before using chemical weapons again, says Charles Lister, an analyst at the Middle East Institute, a Washington research institution.\nFILE - A still image taken from a video posted to a social media website on April 4, 2017, shows people lying on the ground, said to be in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, after what rescue workers described as a suspected gas attack in rebel-held Idlib, Syria.\nLike other analysts, Lister argues the dynamic in Syria has been shifted. While the intervention \u2014 punishment for the alleged use earlier this week of sarin gas by the government on a town in Idlib province that left more than 80 dead and hundreds injured \u2014 may have been limited, he says, the strike is \"a big development.\" \n\"Regional states will feel empowered to re-back opposition\" to Assad, he added.\nIt also leaves Damascus guessing about whether the missile strike is just a warning, or marks a turning point. And U.S. officials appear to want to keep the Assad government off balance. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters Friday that he hoped Assad's government had learned a lesson but added it was ultimately \"the regime's choice\" if more U.S. military action would be needed in the future.\nAirfield damage\nFor all of the regime's bluster, the attack on al-Shayrat will have hurt militarily, say analysts. While the full scale of the damage that was inflicted by the U.S. remains unclear \u2014 U.S. officials say they are still assessing the results \u2014 it does appear extensive. \"The places we targeted were the things that made the airfield operate,\" said Davis.\nA pro-Assad Emirates-based news outlet, al-Masdar, reported that cruise missiles struck both runways and a hangar. It said that 15 fighter jets had been damaged or destroyed and that fuel tankers exploded, causing several large blasts and a massive fireball that was still raging several hours after the strike.\nIn this photo made from the footage taken from Russian Defense Ministry official website April 7, 2017, an aerial view shows shelters for aircraft at a Syrian air base after it was hit by U.S. strike in Syria.\nSome reports suggest that at least one of the two main runways is now unusable.\nTurkish presidential spokesperson \u0130brahim Kal\u0131n talked about \"the destruction of al-Sharyat air base,\" saying Friday in Ankara, \"It marks an important step to ensure that both chemical and conventional attacks against the civilian population do not go unpunished.\"\nThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based watchdog that relies on activists on the ground for its information, says the base, which covers an area more than eight square kilometers and has two runways as well as dozens of buildings, silos and storage facilities, was \"almost completely destroyed.\" The attack damaged more than a dozen hangars, a fuel depot and an air defense base, the observatory said.\nIf true, then the Syrian military will feel the loss of the base and likely face a severe challenge in the coming days in operations in northwest and central Syria. Al-Sharyat has been crucial in recent weeks in the regime's efforts to repel a rebel offensive in Hama.\nFor the opposition, the missile strike holds out the hope that its cause is not totally lost \u2014 despite U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson telling reporters that the strike did not mean the wider U.S. policy on Syria had changed.\nThe Syrian National Coalition, the main political opposition group, welcomed the U.S. attack, saying it puts an end to an age of \"impunity\" and hoped it was just the beginning.\nStrike\u2019s consequences\nQuestions remain about what the consequences of the attack will be. If it is a one-only action, then it may only limit the Assad government's use of chemical weapons and nerve agents. However, analysts \u2014 and no doubt regime strategists, too \u2014 are trying to fathom whether the strike will draw the U.S. deeper into the Syrian war. Will other red lines be drawn by the Trump administration, for example, when it comes to barrel bombs being dropped on civilians?\nFILE - U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after the U.S. fired a barrage of cruise missiles into Syria Thursday night in retaliation for this week's gruesome chemical weapons attack against civilians, at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, April 6, 2017.\nAnd what will be the impact on the effort by the U.S. and its allies to expel Islamic State fighters from the terror group's de facto capital of Raqqa? U.S. airstrikes on IS, and a ground presence of hundreds of U.S. Marines and special forces in northern Syria, have benefited from an arrangement among the U.S., Russia and Syria established to avoid their warplanes tangling in the crowded airspace over northern Syria.\nThe Kremlin said Friday it is suspending an air safety agreement with the U.S. in response to the missile strike, and the Russian military announced it is reinforcing Syrian air defenses.\nOther uncertainties are thrown up by the cruise strike.\nAlberto Fernandez, a former U.S. ambassador, warns there could be an impact in the battle for Mosul, Iraq, and says \"Iraq bears careful watching.\n\"That is where Iranian proxies could orchestrate a response,\" to the U.S. cruise attack, he said.\nIran, a staunch Assad ally, condemned the U.S. missile strike, warning it was \"dangerous.\" Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city. IS militants took control of Mosul in 2014 and, in October of last year, Iraqi military forces launched an offensive to retake the city.\n", + "caption": "U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducts strike operations while in the Mediterranean Sea which U.S. Defense Department said was a part of cruise missile strike against Syria, April 7, 2017. (Ford Williams/Courtesy U.S. Navy/Hand)", + "image": "https://gdb.voanews.com/0C7496BA-1774-4C83-BDF9-F147EEDB49A3.jpg", + "id": "21449_1", + "answer": [ + "fled Damascus or hustled their families out of the Syrian capital", + "circulated by Russian officials to their Syrian counterparts", + "None" + ], + "bridge": [ + "missile", + "U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS Porter" + ], + "voa_example_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_07_3800962", + "voa_image_id": "VOA_EN_NW_2017_04_07_3800962_1" + } +] \ No newline at end of file