﻿[Dawn]: United Kingdom’s
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
and the third child of
Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip has announced
that he would resign from
royal duties for the
foreseeable future.
During a BBC interview
earlier this week, Prince
Andrew denied that he had
sex with a underaged girl.
He defended his
relationship with Jeffrey
Epstein, an American
financier who killed
himself last August after
being taken to jail for
sexually abusing minor girls.
Virginia Giuffre claimed
that Prince Andrew had sex
with her between 2001 and
2002 when she was 17 years
old. Prince Andrew admitted
to staying at Jeffrey
Epstein’s residence in
2010, even after knowing
that Epstein was arrested
for sex trafficking
underage girls and was a
registered sex offender.
Prince Andrew claimed
to visiting Epstein to
“properly end his
relationship between them
in an honorable way.”
-During the BBC interview,
Prince Andrew defends his
relationship with Jeffrey
Epstein saying it was a
beneficial relationship,
and did not offer an
apology to his accuser
or express sympathy to
Epstein’s victims.
This prompted a number of
major organizations and
business sponsors to
distance themselves from him.
[Alessio]: The New York
Times published more than
400 pages of Communist
Party documents showing the
role of the Chinese
government in jailing
religious and ethnic minorities.
According to other sources,
nearly two million people
of minority groups, most of
them Uyghur Muslims, have
been detained in Chinese
detention camps without due
process. The Uyghurs are
ethnic groups of people in
the Xinjiang state in
northwestern China.
Former detainees allege
the Chinese government took
them by force from their
families and placed them in
detention camps.
The camps were designated
to persecute them,
eradicate their language
and cultural heritage.
The Chinese government is
furious with the New York
Times for publishing the
documents and deny they
were persecuting
Muslim minorities.
China claims the camps
were voluntary vocational
training camps as a
national counter-terrorism
program designed to curb
Islamic extremism and help
de-radicalize its
Muslim citizens.
They accused foreign media
of discrediting China, and
that the training was
a major success and
beneficial to the domestic
security of China.
-There is a long history
of unrest and protests in
Xinjiang state, including
a 2009 police crackdown on
Uyghur Muslims which
spiraled into violence.
In April 2014, there was a
terrorist attack in Urumqi,
the capital of the
Xinjiang state.
This issue has become
controversial among both
sides at the United Nations
Human Rights Council with
22 countries condemning
China’s atrocities, and 37
countries defending
China’s policies.
[Dawn]: Germany celebrated
the 30th anniversary of the
fall of the Berlin
Wall this month.
The Berlin Wall was torn
down to reunite East
Germany and West Germany to
become a free, democratic
country. However,
researchers find that many
East Germans still feel,
even today they are treated
as "second-class citizens"
while most West Germans see
no difference.
Germans in the western
part have slightly higher
salaries and higher gross
domestic product - GDP -
than in eastern part of Germany.
Costs of living is
generally cheaper in the
East and it’s more rural there.
Women in the East are more
economically active, and
more likely to have children.
School kids in the East
score higher in reading and
math tests and they
outperform their peers in
the West when it comes to
taking high-school leaving
exams. The International
Space Station captured a
nighttime picture of
the city of Berlin.
It showed the city lights
visibly dividing East
Berlin and West Berlin.
[Alessio]: The Deaf
national Iran team withdrew
from the 4th World Deaf
Futsal Championship in
Switzerland earlier this
month to avoid playing
against the Israeli team.
Deaf Futsal is a sport
similar to football with
five players per side
on a small court.
Israel and Iran were placed
in the same group, along
with Argentina and Sweden.
The Iranian team threatened
to boycott the tournament
unless they were moved to a
group that doesn’t include
Israel. It is not the
first time Iran boycotted a
match with Israel.
Last month, the Iranian
Judo Federation - IJF -, a
hearing sports organization,
was indefinitely banned
by the International Judo
Federation over its boycott
of Israel athletes.
The ban would remain until
the Iranian team respect
the IJF’s rules and recognize
the Israeli sports team.
Iran currently does not
recognize Israel as a
country, and Iranian sports
teams were following a
long-standing policy not to
compete against Israelis.
[Dawn]: The Sindh province
of Pakistan approved a bill
earlier this month to
allow Deaf people to obtain
their driver licenses.
It is the first province in
Pakistan to pass the bill,
and Deaf communities in
other provinces in Pakistan
is hoping that their
provinces would also follow.
-Most countries allow Deaf
people to obtain a driver’s
license. One source
indicates that at least
twenty-six countries still
do not allow Deaf people to
obtain a driver’s license,
it is blamed on the lack of
knowledge in governments
about Deaf people and their
abilities. In other
countries that allow Deaf
people to drive private
cars, some still face
restrictions and cannot
obtain licenses to drive a
freight bus or a
commercial passenger bus.
The World Federation of
the Deaf (WFD) has issued a
statement calling on
governments around the
world to recognize the Deaf
people’s right to drive.
Research studies in many
countries demonstrate that
Deaf drivers are less
likely to cause car
accidents than hearing drivers.
[Alessio]: A nine-year-old
child will graduate from a
university soon!
Laurent Simons from
Belgium, who is studying
electrical engineering at
the Eindhoven University of
Technology in the
Netherlands, will complete
his Bachelor's
studies this December.
Simons plans to pursue a
PhD degree in electrical
engineering,
and also a medical degree.
Several prestigious
universities have invited
him to pursue his PhD
degree, but he hasn't made
a decision yet.
-Laurent Simons is one
of many child prodigies.
A child prodigy is someone
who has a high IQ and has
developed and excelled
adult-level skills at a
very young age, usually
before the age of ten.
Parents who have child
prodigies face a challenge
ensuring that their
children have a balanced
life, study and play.
[Alessio]: Venice, a
city in northern Italy is
experiencing the worst
flood in 50 years.
The water level rose 1.5
meters, and flooded more
than 75% of the city of Venice.
It caused flooding in
homes, restaurants, hotels,
museums, churches,
historical landmarks, and
other buildings. The St.
Mark's Square was flooded
at knee-high level.
Local officials estimate
that the recent flooding
caused damage at hundreds
of millions of euros, and
declared a state of
emergency for the area.
Young Italians are
volunteering to help those
who are affected
by the flooding.
-Venice is a northeastern
Italian city of less than
300,000 people.
It is built on more than
100 islands, and the city
is just one meter above
sea level which leaves the
city extremely
vulnerable to flooding.
Local officials and expert
scientists say Venice is
slowly sinking into the
ground, and facing rising
sea levels due to
climate change.
A major experimental
project costing more than
four billion euros would
build giant floatable gates
to protect Venice from
rising tides but is long
overdue due to corruption
and management.
Venice needs a better
draining system,
maintenance, improved
infrastructure, and
effective city management.
Climate change experts
predict that if no actions
are taken to control it,
Venice one day would be
completely underwater
within 100 years.
[Dawn]: Koala-sniffing dogs
have been dispatched to
the affected areas to
rescue Koala bears from
bushfires in the Australian
state of New South Wales.
The dogs are trained to
sniff out koala fur, locate
fresh koala scat, and
locate where there are live
koalas. One dog was able
to find eight koalas,
including a mom and joey.
In a separate incident, an
Australian woman rescued a
koala bear from a bushfire.
It was treated for its
burns and is still in
critical condition. More
than 350 koalas were feared
to have been killed by
bushfires in the state
alone, according
to animal experts.
-Koala bears are marsupials
native to Australia.
The Australian Koala
Foundation estimates that
there are less than 100,000
Koalas left in the wild,
possibly as few as 43,000.
The foundation has
declared them “functionally
extinct.” It means that
their population is so low.
Its population has greatly
reduced over the last
hundred years due to
threat by urbanization and
massive, uncontrolled
habitat destruction.
-Thank you for watching
WorldSign Week, visit
H3WORLD.TV for more shows,
all in International Sign.
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you can email them to
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