Alessio: A massive fire broke out in 24
-story apartment tower in London,
England on Wednesday. Police said six
people have died and over 74 were
injured. Families throw babies and small
children from windows on high levels to
people who caught them on the sidewalk.
One baby was reported to have been
dropped from 9th or 10th floor and was
caught by people on the ground. Over 200
firefighters battled with the fire for
over 12 hours. Residents report that
the fire started in the upper tower and
spread rapidly within half hour.
-Residents had complained of safety and
quality issues of this Grenfell Tower
building in the past. They accused
management and the City of neglect which
could lead to death. One resident
survived only because his neighbour
called to warn him by telephone. "I'm
lucky to be alive" he said, "I consider
this mass murder". A local community
group had warned about possible risk of
fire in this tower in 2013, but no
action was taken. The Mayor of London
said he is determined to get answers
to everyone's questions.
Dawn: Thailand has delivered its
harshest sentence ever for insulting the
monarchy on Facebook. The Bangkok
military court punished 34-year-old
Vichai Thepwong to 70 years imprisonment
- but cut his sentence in half when he
pleaded guilty. His crime, under the
Thai Criminal Code, is called les-majeste -
which means it is illegal to defame,
insult or threaten the monarchy.
-This law is the one of the most harsh
in the world and has been criticized by
the United Nations and human rights
groups. In recent months, several Thai
officials have threatened Facebook with
legal action if they do not remove
defamatory posts in a timely manner.
Alessio: Residents in Puerto Rico, an
island in the Caribbean have voted
overwhelmingly during a referendum to
become the 51st state of the United
States. The U.S. Congress would need to
make final decision which may be
unlikely as Puerto Rico is bankrupt with
debts of $70 billion USD. President
Trump has stated he would not rescue Puerto Rico.
-Puerto Rico has been an U.S. commonwealth -
the island went under US control over a
century ago and officially since 1952
when US officially approved it.
What happens now? Puerto Rico's governor
will appoint two senators and five
representatives to go to Washington D.C.
to request statehood.
Dawn: A new study reveals that the
international obesity problem now
affects 1 out of 10 people worldwide.
It is rising in both rich and poor
nations - and in many countries it is
increasing faster in children than
adults. In many countries, rates doubled
from the year 1980. Researchers estimate
more than 2 billion people are
currently overweight or obese.
-As global obesity levels continue to
rise, the lead researcher Dr. Ashkan
Afshin has said there is a pressing need
for better nutrition and other efforts
to prevent unhealthy weight gain but
added, "there is no single simple
solution for the problem of overweight
and obesity". There is some good news -
the researchers say modern medical
advances and other health-care steps
appear to help people with weight-
related health problems to survive longer.
Alessio: Chris Haulmark, a Deaf candidate
has announced he is running for a
U.S. congressional seat in the
House of Representatives!
He represents the US state of Kansas.
WorldSign Week interviewed Chris:
-What inspired you to run for office?
-If you win the election, what would be your areas of focus?
-What was your biggest challenge running as Deaf candidate?
-Do you have a message to the international Deaf community?
-Thank you for coming on WorldSign Week.
We will follow his campaign
with great interest.
Dawn: The Facebook social media vehicle
has now added captioning feature to
"Facebook Live" where videos are
recorded and streamed on Facebook in
real time. People who publish videos to
Facebook can now arrange with third
party to add closed captions, or turn on
the speech to text function. Not all
live videos will be captioned.
Alessio: Some of Deaf viewers are not
sure whether to applaud or critique Deaf
singer, Mandy Harvey who impressed
Judges when she appeared on the
TV show, "America's Got Talent".
-Harvey, who lost her hearing 10 years
ago, sang a song. Some Deaf viewers
criticize her for using sim-com,
"simultaneous communication" or also
known as "sign supported speech".
Others raised concerns that she is
being used as inspiration porn.
Dawn: Russian opposition leader Alexei
Navalny, who organized an anti-corruption
protest in Moscow, has been jailed for
30 days following a police crackdown.
Over one hundred anti-corruption
protests were held across Russia and
resulted in 1,750 arrests, the highest
number of arrests on any single day
under President Vladimir Putin.
-Navalny, an outspoken critic of Putin,
faces a difficult battle; Russian laws
prohibits convicted people from running
for office. He says the charges against
him are politically motivated.
The massive anti-corruption police
crackdown was widely criticized by
foreign governments and human rights groups.
Alessio: Libyan authorities report that
a militia group that controls the town
of western Zintan, has allegedly freed
Seif al-Islam, the second son and heir
apparent of Libyan dictator Gaddafi who
was captured and killed in 2011. The
group, who had held Seif for more than
five years, states that the son, Seif
was set free under an amnesty law.
-The militia group, which opposed
Libya's UN-backed government, had
refused to hand Seif over before to
authorities. Military and city officials
in Zintan condemned the decision to
release Saif and the prosecutor
general's office in the capital city
Tripoli said the amnesty did not apply
because of the severity of his crimes.
Saif is wanted by the International
Criminal Court, who says his trial in
Libya had not meet international standards.
Dawn: The rivalry between social media
giants Facebook and Snapchat continues
as they battle for online supremacy and
ad revenues. Facebook has been
criticized for copying Snapchat's
features but more recently the rivalry
got more heated when Facebook revealed
new social media tools that
mirrored what Snapchat offered.
-Although Snapchat is relatively new to
social media, it has quickly risen to
become one of the world's biggest social
media platforms. Some of Snapchat's
investors, however, are worried about
competition from Facebook and Instagram.
Snap founder Evan Spiegel has long
avoided talking publicly about
Facebook's efforts to duplicate their features.
-Thank you for watching WorldSign Week,
visit H3WORLD.TV for more shows,
all in International Sign.
See you next week.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét