Business news
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Preparation
Transcript
The first item in the news today is the recent elections that took place across the country. This was a crucial vote, which may see a dramatic change in how the country develops over the coming years. Overall, a 54.5 per cent voter turnout was registered. This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous election and six per cent above the average for the past 50 years. There has also been a slight change in demographics, with an increase in youth turnout in the 18- to 24- and 24- to 29-year-old brackets. Despite this increase, young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations.
Moving on, the global digital powerhouse ONK today posted quarterly results which were above forecast. Back in March, Tim Bolling, CEO, issued a profit warning over fears that there would be losses following the recall of their leading product, the 40d device. In fact, the company posted quarterly revenue of US$14.8 billion which represents an increase of 11 per cent from the same quarter a year ago. They also announced that they had sold 21 million 40d devices over the quarter. The company has provided the information that with this level of revenue, there will be a gross margin of 34 to 35 per cent, ultimately leading to a US$1.20 per share cash dividend awarded to shareholders.
And in our final news item we ask, will we soon be saying goodbye to coins and notes forever? The nationwide trend of using cashless payment options is increasing. There are a number of reasons for this development. A key reason for this is a growing interest in reducing the number of items people need to leave their homes with. As almost everyone carries a smartphone with them, and many people also have smartwatches, the ability to pay for things using one of these two technologies is particularly appealing. More and more retailers are accepting cashless payments and in some cases they've stopped accepting cash altogether.
Razita Khairunnisa - Universty of Tanjungpura. In my country, when an election result is fair close to fair, we'll redo the election. This happened just a few years ago.
he 2026 Peruvian general election was marked by several distinct figures, voter trends, and outcome statistics: Voter Roll & Demographics: Over 27.3 million citizens were eligible to vote in the 2026 presidential elections. This included 2.5 million new first-time voters aged 18 to 22 (representing 36.5% of total youth voters) and approximately 1.21 million overseas voters (4.4% of the total electoral roll). Voters under 30 made up roughly 26% of the electorate, while citizens aged 70 and older comprised about 9%. Voter Turnout Trends: Overall participation dropped noticeably compared to historical standards. In the first round on April 12, 2026, national turnout stood at approximately 71.9%. During the June 7 runoff, turnout reached 72%—roughly 9 percentage points lower than Peru's historical second-round average of 81%. Overseas turnout was significantly lower, registering around 33.95%. Electoral Performance: The election resulted in one of the narrowest margins in Peru's democratic history, leading to a presidential runoff between Keiko Fujimori and Roberto Sánchez. After a tight vote count in the second round, Fujimori secured the presidency.
Are you sure this B2 level or c2
That's made me frustrated
Hello nawar 715,
Level assessment is always a rather subjective matter and there are a lot of variables involved. I would say that this recording is at the upper level of B2 as it contains quite a lot of specialised lexis on the topic of elections, economics and so on. If you're familiar with terms like turnout or gross margin then the text will be much easier but if not then it will be very challenging.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Write a short overview of statistics, figures or trends that you are familiar with
To be honest, I have never been familiar with this type of topics. I'd be lying if I dared to talk about something I'm not informed about.
Internet users, smartphone adoption, e-learning, remote work.
The part I’m most familiar with is cashless payment. Personally, I can hardly remember the last time I paid with cash.
To be honest,I was resisting the use of YAPE at first.Now I don´t charge cash,I pay everything with that virtual wallet.
I have problem with the sound, don't hear anything...(((
Hello NatSta,
I'm sorry to hear you're having problems with hearing the sound. I've checked the page and the audio is working correctly so it must be a local issue. If possible, try accessing the page on a different device or using a different browser - sometimes this helps. You might also check your security settings to ensure they are not blocking multimedia components.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team