 And Robin, I am your teacher in this lesson tonight and in this lesson, we're gonna talk about world news. We're gonna talk about issues around the world in a polite way. I do not like fighting in the chat so we are not going to be political. We're just gonna talk in a friendly way about the world news. And the countries that we are talking about, oh, before we get that, we are talking about these countries. I have a story from Korea where I am now Somalia, Iran, USA, UK, Pakistan, and Taiwan. These are the stories I'm gonna cover today. We're gonna learn a lot of vocabulary and we're gonna learn about the news. I am not a journalist, I am an English teacher so I do not know everything about the news so I do hope my students fill in the gaps. And of course, I do have a lot of channels, Shaw English, IELTS Insider, Daily English, Home Rec, Learn English Live. Please join and be active in my other channels. You can find the links below this video in the description. And of course, please think about becoming a YouTube channel member or join my WhatsApp group. All right, always we need support. Let's get into, oh, before we get into the news, let's just check the students that have come. Who do we have here? Kavino, hello, Nassima, hello. Buya Awkwa, I'm not sure if I say your name correctly. Hello, teacher Robin, nice to see you here. Sleepwalker is here. Now, Sleepwalker, I do purposely not talk about your country's news. Of course, your country is in the news these days. I don't talk about that. There's some news I can't touch. Carlos, hello, and sadly, meh, hello, welcome. I will talk about Iran in topic number three. Meh is here, Harry, 300, Hannah. And, sad day, hello again. Pilavi, oh, Stacy, John, I'm doing fine. I did have a bad day in the morning. Oh, I'm out of focus. I had a bad day in the morning because of the number one news that we'll talk about Arwah, hello, and Mohammed, I'm gonna talk about Iran. So, I might be doing this every week, depends on the response today, but if you join the WhatsApp group and update me on any news stories in your country, I would be very happy. Let's get to the first news, oh, I'm jumping ahead. Let's get to the first news story. I'm gonna come down to the bottom here. Of course, the big news out of South Korea, where I'm at, I've lived in South Korea 23 years, and this news is pretty shocking to me. Of course, let's take a look at the headline very quickly. South Korea mourns. So, I highlighted the word mourn, purple. What does mourn mean? That's the word I want you to focus on. South Korea mourns, wants answers, after Halloween, crush kills 153 people. A lot more were injured. So, if you don't know, last night was a Halloween party in South Korea. Every year, they usually have a party in this area called Itaewon in South Korea. I've been to Itaewon many times, but I don't go there these days because I'm too old. That's a place where the young people go to have fun and drink on the weekend. And Halloween is, they dress up, they go there. It's a big event. And 153 people died because there was just too many people pushing and pressing. Wow. You know, I talked to a lot of people today in the WhatsApp groups and they said, well, you know, in Saudi Arabia and Mecca, they had the stampede a few years back. A thousand people died. And of course, you know, soccer stadiums around the world, there's a long history of stampedes. And those are terrible incidents themselves. But, you know, when you hear, oh, there's a, you know, a lot of people to soccer stadium and stampede. Okay, that's happened a few times. And then Mecca, yeah, that's happened a few times, but this, this is just unexpected. And so many people died. Wow. So, let's take a look. Zachariah Hussain, feel sorrow, that's mourn. Yeah, you have to mourn. You feel sorrow. You think about, you think about, you feel sad and you mourn. You think about the deaths of the people. You have to consider them and try to cope or handle the situation. You have to mourn. You feel sorrow. And yeah, you're going through hard times because of the death of people. And if you saw my live stream this morning, I did a live stream where I went to, I was working near Itaewon and I walked over to Itaewon and oh, it was shocking to me to see all the police, the news reporters from around the world. It's just so sad. Oh, actually I can't talk about the morning because I'll cry. I cried this morning and I'll cry again. It's just sad. All right, let's take a look at the paragraph I have here. So shocked family members collected bodies, parents searched for children and a country sought answers on Sunday after at least 153 people were crushed to death when a crowd in South Korea surged in an alleyway during Halloween festivities. What's sought? What is the word sought? Yeah, that was my toughest life. What is sought? Let's get, well, sought is a, that's the meaning, but sought, it's a tense of what? You're talking about the meaning, but I'm more on the technical, what tense is sought and what's, well, I'm gonna help you out here. This is the past tense. What is the present tense of sought? Thank you, Murnawadi, seek. This is what I wanted to teach. So there's seeking answers, past tense. It's a little unusual, they sought answers. So think, seek, sought. Yeah, Zachariah, past of seek. That's what I wanted to focus on. So yeah, it was just young people. Of those 153 people, most of them were women. I think around 90 were women, they're age, I don't know their ages yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be really under age 25, a lot of people, young, young people, maybe some high school students, maybe younger, it's just shocking. All right, so they're looking for the answers. They're seeking the answers, they sought answers. What's the search? The last purple word, what's search? Michelle, yes, they are seeking, they are seeking the answers. Vishuddha sought asking for answers to the cause. You watched my live stream this morning, yeah. I was in E-T1. I was shocked, I didn't know what to expect. It's a day after, they cleaned away the bodies on the street and everything, but still you can feel, it was just a bad feeling. I cannot articulate how I felt. It was just sad and bad. And search is not necessarily about moving, it can be, but some sort of power, some sort of power, quickly some sort of power, surge. So the lights can surge if they went brighter. Any sort of surge is a power. So in the alleyway, yeah, in this case, in this context, yeah, the people suddenly started to move. Now, I don't think they're causing, they're calling it a stampede. A stampede is when people are kind of running and people are getting trampled, there was no running. There was just too many people. So that pushing, that power of pushing, people fell, people died. Good question, Stacey John. I have a question. What's the difference between an incident and an accident? Well, an accident means something happened, something happened, it was not supposed to happen. And usually in an accident, we don't blame people, usually depends on the accident, but an accident is an accident. I'm sorry, it was just, I didn't plan it, it was not intentional. An incident is something bigger. So if you have a car accident, that's very small or you dropped your coffee off the desk, that was an accident. You didn't plan that, those things happened, but an incident is something very big. That's more on an international level or a country level or even a company level, something bad happens. It doesn't have to be an accident, just something bad happens, some sort of event. Bad event is an incident. Mayschau, everyone is on a delay right now. Hello, Raid. Did you hear about this news in your country? I think it's international news. The president here says we will have, I think a week of mourning. I tried contacting some of my students. I am very worried about next week. Oh, when I take attendance in my classes next week, there are some students that I know go to E.T. Juan. I sent a message, they didn't answer me, so I don't know what's happening, but oh, I am so, even talking about it right now, my heart is beating fast because I gotta go to class next week and I gotta take attendance. And when I call the names and then if some names are, that person doesn't say here, I gotta ask what happened to that student, and I'm not ready for the answer if it's bad. It's in Twitter today, okay. Anna Maria, hello. Crowd is always, well, not in Korea. Every year before COVID, this place had Halloween parties with large amounts of people. This is not a new event in that area. Lots of people have been there before. It's just for whatever reason, something happened there. Harry, that's why I prefer staying at home sleeping, yes. Harry, that's how you should go through life. Just stay the protection of your home and just have internet friends. Therefore, you're safe and not much drama in your life. All right, let's move on to the next article. Hey, Ramdesan, let's move on to the next article. This is from Iran. Still, there are issues in Iran and I feel for them, of course. Again, I'm not a political person but I do believe in human rights and I do believe in the government and police not hurting any citizen. So, even in Korea, when I went to E.T.1 this morning, the police were there and, of course, we can film, we can do anything we want, the police. We do not, in Korea, we do not feel scared of the police. I never feel scared when I see police cars or policemen in Korea because they're not dangerous. And I know in other countries, when you see the police, you have a very different feeling. All right, let's take a look at the headline from Al Jazeera. At least 100 killed. Oh, this is not from Iran. This is from Somalia, sorry. Let's go to the Iran one because I just talked about it. Iran protests police fire on Mazah Amini mourners. Here we have the word mourners again. So they're sad because of this incident that happened a few weeks ago. And as I was saying, in Korea, we never fear the police in Korea. The police never do anything but an incident happened there. Let's take a look. Iranian police are reported to have fired live rounds. What are live rounds? When you're looking at the newspaper, they'll often say live rounds. What does that mean? Live rounds. And tear gas on protesters and in sequels. I'm not sure if I pronounced that correctly. Home city of Mazah Amini who died in custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. What are live rounds? Muhammad says the police are, police, people fear police and soldiers here in Myanmar. Yes, Myanmar is a yes, yes. The police are dangerous in Iran. No need to have much drama. Yeah, bullets, ammo. So when you see live rounds, that means they were shooting real bullets from their guns, not fake bullets, not rubber bullets, real bullets. I don't know if they're shooting at people or shooting in the air, but they were real bullets and tear gas. In the home city of Mazah Amini, she died in custody. So remember, in custody means the police were holding her. They did not arrest her. I don't think they were arrested. They were just holding her. It says after being arrested, I don't know if she was officially arrested. BBC says arrested, but I don't know if, maybe someone could tell me, was she arrested or detained? There is a big difference. Detained is, they're just holding them in custody. Arrested means there's an actual charge or something. And allegedly, newspapers, and if you're watching the news on TV and newspapers, they always have to use this word allegedly, which means it's not a fact yet. So this is for legal protection. They have to say, this is the story. We don't know if it's 100% fact. So they always use the word allegedly because that protects them, because it means they're not lying. But I think we can all agree on the story, but the newspapers always have to say allegedly to protect themselves. The last sentence there, thousands gathered near the grave of the Kurdish woman and clashed, clashed some sort of fight, not an official fight, but something, I don't know what happened there with the officers. So that's happening in Iran. And I think the president said, the protests have to stop. The protests have to stop, which is sad. I wonder if people will still continue to protest. Again, it's not my politics, but again, at a basic level, I do support. I don't support governments and police that hurt the people. I like Korea, which we're never scared of the police. They clashed, they faced, faced off. We could say faced as an idiom for clashed, we could say faced off or a phrasal verb, faced off, which would mean some sort of fighting, faced off, or in spoken English, hello, because of the hijab and Mohammed, how old are you, Mohammed? Are you a young person or an older person? I do realize this is more of a generational issue with the hijab. The younger people, they have access to the phone and they see around the world what's happening. So it's harder for every country, it's harder for the older generation to keep the traditions. When there is a new international culture growing from the phone, and apps like TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube now, we're changing the young people around the world. And I would say they're becoming a little more progressive because of phones. Thank you, Lavanya, got me a super sticker. Lavanya is my super student because I couldn't afford coffee today. Now Lavanya gave me some coffee budget. Thank you very much, Lavanya. I really appreciate that. In Iran, I don't know, maybe does the media report on these issues in Iran? I'm not sure. Oh, Mohammed's 24. So Mohammed might, again, I don't want to get political, but Mohammed, take care of yourself, Mohammed. And Salome, if you're watching, I'm gonna move on to the next topic. I'm gonna go back to the, okay, Mohammed says we're in a bad state. I understand that. That's why I'm talking about this issue for the second time. All right, number two, we went back at least 100 killed, 300 hurt in heinous Mogadishu car bombings. Mogadishu, I believe is the capital city of Somalia or one of the major cities of Somalia, the country in Africa, 100 killed, 300 hurt in heinous car bombings. What is heinous highlighted there? Sleepwalker jumps in right away, disgusting, awful. Yeah, something is terrible. It is heinous, very, very bad, heinous, heinous. You wanna emphasize, it is a top level of bad. There are synonyms, many synonyms for bad. Bad, awful, terrible, horrible, disgusting, awful. I said awful twice. Anyway, heinous is at the top. So that's happening in Somalia. At least 100 people have been killed and 300 wounded in two car bomb explosions in the capital Mogadishu. Okay, it says capital city Mogadishu, blaming the Al Shabab armed group. And what is an armed group? They have arms, what does armed mean? Hainous can be ugly too. She looks heinous, terrible, ugly. And Sleepwalker, people with guns, yes. Armed, if you are armed, that means you have a weapon. Doesn't have to be a gun, could be a knife. Any sort of weapon means you're armed. Armed group, they are militants or terrorists, however you wanna phrase that. And Ramdesan, yeah, a group with weapons, an armed group. So the Al Shabib, they were linked to Al Qaeda, a terrorist group. I don't know why, from what I know of Somalia, that is a chaotic place. That's not a happy place in the world in Somalia. So if anyone from Somalia is here, let me know. I have questions. The last sentence there, the death toll from the twin blasts is expected to rise further. So what is the death toll? The number of dead people. So the toll is amount, death toll. You'll see the news always uses this expression, death toll, the amount of people dead. How many people died? They're gonna use the death toll from twin blasts. And I thought that's a good way to express two explosions because there's two car bombings and they expressed it. Instead of two explosions, they used another way to express that as twin blasts. So that's good writing from Al Jazeera. Twin blasts, two explosions, double explosion. Yeah, the number of deaths. So what is happening in Somalia? I think this was some education ministry or minister or the education department, something like that. I don't know in detail the issue, the article didn't go in but it's bad, you know, car bombings in your country. Yeah, I'm gonna say that's a bad thing wherever you are. And that's not the way to solve any issues. It just makes it worse. The ministry of education, there you go. Ministry of Education, Arwa Abdi, thank you. I'm sorry I'm late. Okay, we're better late than ever. So you gotta think, you know, the first story, South Korea and the Iran, and we got a lot of bad news this week, but I promise you, not everything we talk about will be bad. I try to bring in some neutral or happy news. Let's go on to number four. Musk in control of Twitter, ousts, top executives. Okay, so this is Elon Musk in control of Twitter. We are on YouTube right now and Facebook, Twitter. I don't really use it. Do you use Twitter? A Rumdy Sun says, why news use the most advanced vocabulary isn't mandatory. The news uses formal words. These are usually precise words, not really slang. And, you know, not all newspapers use the most advanced vocabulary. So some newspapers use easier English. Some newspapers use more advanced English. This is from AP News Associated Press. I would say they're just normal news. And I'm not bringing in the worst. All the vocabulary I talk about in this lesson, you should know. It's all important. So I am editing what I teach you. I am teaching you what you should know. So if I have something highlighted in purple, you should know that. That's why I'm doing this. And, all right. I'm looking for people who use Twitter. I don't use it. Mayshell uses Twitter. What do you use Twitter for? Oh, I also learn English from Twitter. That's interesting, Mayshell. I don't use Twitter, but some of my friends use it. All right, so we have oust, which Zachariah Hussein fires. Yeah, if you oust something, you kick it out, you get it out. It's not necessarily, in this case, it's fired, but it's not always fired. You get something out. You oust it, you remove it, get it out. Here's another expression, axed for fired. And yeah, forcing to leave. You kick it out, get out, oust. Lavinia has a Twitter account. That everyone that may have a Twitter account doesn't mean you use it. Bernawati to force someone out of his position. So yeah, musk in control of Twitter, ousts top executives. So he went in and kicked them out. Let's look at the little article paragraph I wrote here. Elon Musk has taken control of Twitter and ousted the CEO, chief financial officer and the company's top lawyer. Musk is in charge of the social media platform. The value of this deal is around $44 billion. That's a big deal. So big event in the USA, I guess the world, right? If we're all using Twitter, I used, I tried to market my channels, YouTube, my content on all social media, but it's very difficult for me to do anything on Twitter. And actually this live stream is being broadcasted on Twitter also, but usually nobody watches it on Twitter. So I failed on Twitter. I don't know how many, I think I have about, I don't know, I'm gonna take a quick look. I don't check Twitter. How many followers do I have on Twitter? I have 1,778 followers, which is a lot, but considering my other platforms have more followers, Twitter is quite low. Anyway, oh, Lavani uses this for every day. So you get your news from Twitter, you're studying. Salma says, Twitter is more for gossip and clashes in my opinion. It seems like a toxic place where people just yell at each other about political obedience from the sun. $44 billion is a significant amount of money, yes. Twitter does not make a lot of money. I think Elon Musk is buying Twitter for the power because a lot of politicians, a lot of movie stars, a lot of important people use Twitter. So it's a good place to control, to have power, not to make money. I don't think Twitter makes much money. It might in the future. And Rum D Sun has two Twitter accounts, two. All right, well, that's the US news, the big US news. Let's move on to the UK. The UK. Sunak pledges to fix trust's mistakes after becoming third UK PM in seven weeks. All right, what is a pledge? What is a pledge? Mjad, hey man, welcome. And Rum D Sun, I promise, yes. When you make a pledge, you make a promise, a strong promise. Hey, Shal, Twitter's toxic, but good for learning spoken English, I think. Well, good to know. Hey, everyone, go to Twitter for learning English. Whatever, go wherever you like to learn English. I see the world most top news and what happens in the world, so I use it. I follow Lavanya. Do you follow any English people tweets? I don't know how to express that. I may make a promise. So Rishi Sunak is the new Prime Minister in the UK and he pledges the promise to fix Liz Truss's, the previous Prime Minister's mistakes and he's the third UK Prime Minister in seven weeks. So they have a lot of transfer in power and this might be amazing, especially to Sleepwalker and other people in your country. How long has your current Prime Minister or President been in power? Mjad, yeah, thank you, Mjad. Make a promise. How long has your current leader of your country been in power? Because look at this, in the UK, three, they had the transfer of power. Let's take a look at the article. Rishi Sunak officially became Britain's third Prime Minister in seven weeks on Tuesday acknowledging, I highlighted acknowledging that mistakes were made by his predecessor as he sought, there we see sought again, to bring stability to the UK after months of political and economic turmoil. So what does it mean when we acknowledge, when we acknowledge something? Aware of, yeah, that's one sense, but when you acknowledge mistakes were made, what is it trying to tell us when they're using that word, acknowledge? Sama, oh, five years and a half, he took a second mandate up to 2027, you know, that's pretty long. And Zachariah, yeah, in this case, acknowledge means admit, not trying to hide. He came in and said, yes, we made, or Liz trusts his government made mistakes. So he acknowledged, he admitted it, recognized, yep. So they did not try to hide it. When you acknowledge something, you own up to it. You admit, yes, we made mistakes. What's a predecessor? Excuse me. Most of Twitter's other country's news is English language. I don't know any English channels. You should, I recommend, you know, what I like about English is it's around the world. So I notice in Korea, Koreans get news in their language, Korean, but the news is controlled in Korean, right? The newspaper companies and the government, you know, they control everything Koreans know about their country and sometimes think about their country and they censor. So I always tell my students, if you really wanna know the truth on some issues, yeah. Read the news in English, because, you know, I have a lot of issues here. I can look at CNN, America, their opinion. I can look at BBC, the UK opinion. I can look at Al Jazeera, Reuters, Associated Press. I got all these international news sources that don't always share the same opinion, but in a country with one language, it's difficult to get the truth. And predecessor, yeah, previous, so everyone repeat after me, predecessor. And there we have sought again. We mentioned before, seek past tense sought. And what is the turmoil? He wants to bring stability because right now there's chaos, no order. You wanna bring order, stability, everything calm down after months of political and economic turmoil. What is a turmoil? Liz Tress was a prime minister for a month and a little bit or something. And then Boris Johnson before her. Amjad, here in Iraq, government had lots of mystic. Hey, Amjad, in every country, every country, the government has mistakes. Economic shock, turmoil. Yeah, the turmoil is a kind of chaos. Instable, sorry, unstable, instable, no, unstable. A lot of chaos, turmoil. A lot of confusion and chaos. Turmoil is not a good word you wanna express. So political and economic turmoil means is very chaotic and not stable. Meltdown is a good word, but I think meltdown is too strong. Meltdown would be very, that's too strong. So turmoil is not as strong as meltdown. Meltdown is just something collapsed. Turmoil, ups and down. What's the instability, it's instability, unstable situation, confusing. Here, I'm not explaining it enough. I'm gonna go to my assistant teacher, Oxford. I try not to use dictionary so I can kind of get the nuance of a word. All right, so turmoil, a state of great worry in which everything is confused and nothing is certain. So basically, confusing and unstable and people are worried. But Rishi Sunak, what makes him extra significant is he's a person of color because his parents, I believe they came from India and he is still a practicing Hindu, great. Very progressive for the UK. Turbulence in the economy, turbulent in the economy. Yep. I think every country has political and economic turmoil. That's just, isn't that normal condition of a country? Nothing special. All right, let's go on to number six. All right, this was recommended by someone in my WhatsApp group. Thousands attend Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif's funeral. See the first Indian PM in UK. Well, he is not Indian. He was born in the UK as far as I know. So technically he's from the UK, he's British. His parents certainly were born in India, but I'm sure they immigrated to the UK and I don't know if they have dual citizenship, but yeah, he's the first Prime Minister of Indian descent. His ancestors descend, he descended from his ancestors from India. Zachariah, he may be of color, but he is a privileged background. That is 100% true of almost all politicians. So he's, as I read, he's very rich, but usually politicians do have a privileged background. So I don't think that really makes him that special, but let's judge him by his actions, not his background. Always judged by the actions. All right, thousands attend Pakistani journalist, Arshad Sharif's funeral. Let's take a look. Thousands of people chanted revolution as journalist Arshad Sharif was buried after being shot and killed under mysterious circumstances in Kenya. Sharif was among the top news anchors in Pakistan. The Kenyan police have acknowledged, and we see acknowledged, the journalist was shot dead in what they call the case of mistaken identity. So from what I know, this journalist was in Kenya and he was shot in the car or something and yeah, it says mistaken identity, the people that shot him thought he was someone else. So yeah, let's go back to Chant. Sleeparker says, speak out loud, Chant. Speak out loud, but many people, yeah, are saying it together. Many people are together saying this, revolution, revolution, or whatever they would say in their local language. Many people, revolution, revolution, revolution. Powerful words. And then we have under mysterious circumstances is a common expression. Under mysterious circumstances, which means looks suspicious. We cannot trust the truth of the story. Something is strange. Something is off if it's under mysterious circumstances. Something doesn't make sense. So that journalist was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances, very suspicious. The Kenyan police have acknowledged. So they admitted the journalist was shot dead in what they call the case of mistaken identity. All right, something. And yeah, I think the Pakistani people have a right to ask questions and demand the truth. Getting a top journalist shot and killed under mysterious circumstances. I don't want to give an opinion, but I would agree that, hey, we need to ask a lot of questions and there needs to be more transparency from the Kenyan government and the Pakistani government and the police. Anyone involved, there has to be absolute transparency because your top journalist is killed because of mistaken identity. They thought he was someone else. I don't know. Anyone from Pakistan in the group? Yeah, chant can be sometimes a sing, a song. Revolution, revolution. How about everyone watching me now? Let's chant revolution, revolution. Maybe it's dangerous to chant that in your country. Hitmen involved. Maybe, I don't know the full story. It just doesn't look good. Bravo, bravo for Mike's English Lab. All right, let's go on to number seven. 120,000 parade at Taiwan Pride Celebration despite rain. I want you to focus on that despite. So what is a Pride celebration? Nothing, he just spoke the truth and exposed the corruption. So there you go. We have motive to kill him. Ask questions. Can we say bravo in English? Yes, you just saw a native speaker use bravo in English. Yes. So despite, in spite of, I think that's what Zachariah was trying to say, sleepwalker in spite of. So kind of, you're going into that, although family, although despite in spite of. Anyway, what is Pride celebration? Let's start, glad to see you. What's the topic? You can see on the screen 120,000 parade at Taiwan Pride Celebration despite rain. Anyone know what Pride? Well, no one's answering. Maybe they don't want to answer. So 120,000 parade at Taiwan Pride Celebration, a Pride parade is for the gay community, lesbian gay by trans queer community. If I know a lot of people in your country right now, you probably don't have a Pride parade, but in a lot of English speaking or Western aligned countries, we have the Pride parade once a year where the gay community comes out and they have a parade on the street. So let's read the article here. It says 120,000 paraded in the streets of Taipei as the city's 20th annual annual every year. Pride events celebrated the LGBTQ community Saturday in spite of the rainy weather. So I highlighted in spite of because in the title they're using despite and in the article they're using in spite of. It's the same thing. You can use both are interchangeable. Well, I don't want to say 100% interchangeable. They mean the same thing, but the grammar will have to be altered a little bit. And Taiwan has become the first place in Asia to recognize, what is that? To recognize same-sex marriage in 2019. This is a festival, it's a parade. So the group, any parade, they're just walking down the street celebrating. That is a parade. It's not a parade. It's a little different than festival. Admit it, recognize. So in this case, to it recognize is more of an official legal acknowledgement or admission. So Taiwan, Asia is pretty conservative. Like I'm sure a lot of people watching now you are from conservative countries that do not support the gay community. And the same thing in Asia, China, Japan, even here in Korea, they don't really have so much support for the gay community. So Taiwan is kind of special in Asia because they do support the gay community. They have the pride celebration, the pride parade. They have that in Korea too, with a lot of people protesting that against the pride parade. But Taiwan is very progressive because they recognized, so officially and legally same-sex marriage, man-man, woman-woman marriage in 2019. That is very progressive for Asia. Of course countries like my home country, Canada, we recognized same-sex marriage 20 years ago and America has recognized that. But certainly Taiwan, I know Sama, I think France recognizes same-sex marriage, right? Yeah, we have pride parades in Korea. Yeah, I've seen them and I've, so it's good for a country to accept that, but I don't wanna get too political. So yeah, good for Korea to allow people to have their parade and they legalized it. Is it legalized in your country? That's why I like Taiwan. It is very shocking to me because Asians are very conservative, very traditional. It's still, I'm sure like your countries, if someone is gay or lesbian, they will probably keep that a secret in Korea, in Japan, in China. Thailand is very open. Thailand is completely different. Thailand is very, very open, but I consider Taiwan more on the conservative side. Yes, in 2013, okay, we were late compared to other European countries, okay? Now, interesting point, Zachariah Hussein says Western influence. And this is something I don't agree with, that people are blaming like Americanization, Western influence. I think that's just modernization. That is not Western thought or, you know, you guys, this is an opinion and you guys are free to disagree with me and I'm not gonna be angry. I'm just giving out an opinion. So don't cancel me. People say, oh, that's Americanization or that's Western influence. I think it's modernization. I think human rights is not an American idea. Americans might be very first on making laws, but it's not an American idea. Human rights is a world. Every country believes in human rights and protecting human rights, protecting women, protecting minorities, protecting certain groups that the majority might not like. So I consider that modernization. If a country finally realizes, hey, we need to protect these groups or hey, we have to give these groups a voice or hey, we should not discriminate against these groups or we should try to help or talk to these groups. I don't consider that Western influence. I just consider that modernization. The country is modernizing or there, you're gonna disagree. Again, if you're coming from a religious angle like you are very religious, then what I said might not apply. Obama used to pressure Africa to accept his ideals. Yeah, America does pressure countries to modernize. Not just on these issues, but financial regulation. Like the newspapers, and your country will point out, oh, Obama is pushing us to accept gay people, but Obama or the States is also pushing hey, less corruption, hey, financial regulation, hey, democratic representation. So Obama is not just going around the world or pushing one thing. He is pushing many things. And yeah, it's up to the country to decide what we're ready for. And Taiwan was ready early. France was a little bit, not so ready in Europe, but every country will make these big changes as they modernize. And yeah, some countries are not ready for some progressive thought. And I'm not ready for some progressive thought. Anyway, that's that article. So of the seven articles that we got through without fighting too much, I'll just do a quick review. We talked about Korea. I was in the Taiwan this morning. Terrible, terrible issue. I'll just see if there's an update on how many people died or what's happening here. It's still at 153, 56 men, 97 women. 20, oh, I can't even read this. 26 foreign nationals. So 26 people that are not Korean. 26 people that are not Korean from 14 different countries. Yeah, I can't read that. So we talked about the Korean issue. Yeah, the parents certainly don't deserve, or the victims certainly don't deserve that this shouldn't have happened, right? Young people shouldn't be dying for any reason, especially when they're trying to have fun. We had lockdowns for two years. And of course, young people are eager to go out and have a good time. I don't blame them, but it's up to the police to make sure it's safe. Was this the first such? Korea always has incidents. Seems like every year in Korea, there's an incident where probably every country, but for crowding and people died, I believe this is the first incident. But there have been big incidents in the past where young people have died, and I'm not gonna talk about that because I'll start crying again. All right, so that was the first one we talked about. We did talk about Mogadishu, the country, Somalia. You know, it's one of those chaotic countries that I hope they get organized. I hope they have good leadership, not corruption. They really need good leadership there to fix up the country. We talked about Iran again, this issue, the struggle in Iran. I hope, I'm gonna give some opinion here. I hope this issue just doesn't end. I hope it keeps going. I hope the Iranians continue to put pressure on the government and the police. A country, a citizen should not fear the police. The police are not supposed to be the weapon of the government. The police are there to protect the citizens. So just on that point alone, in any country, you have to convince me that what the police are doing, are they protecting the government or are they protecting the people? Never should a policeman hurt someone who did not hurt someone else. I mean, if I'm shooting people, yeah, the police should hurt me, but if I steal something, I didn't hurt anyone. They shouldn't hurt me. They should put me in jail, but they shouldn't hurt me. And of course, he jab, nobody should be hurt because of heat, no one should die. That's really inexcusable. I always hope peaceful, peaceful, peaceful action. It's not Western culture. I heard people, I think the gay is not Western culture. I think gayness is in every country, but certainly the country accepting the people like America accepts the gay community and gay marriage and their pressure in Korea to do that. And Korea is gonna say, well, that's your Western American thinking. No, no, I think it's just, I think it's modernization. I think eventually every country will have to face and accept certain groups in their country. I always avoid the crowd, yeah, avoid the crowd. Yeah, Korea is progressing, I agree. Korea is progressing on this issue, but they're not, a few more years, they might accept it. They're getting there, they're getting there. It's important to allow, don't force countries. Allow the people to be educated on the issue and I know a lot of people, we want change today. That would be great, but that is not the best way. If you're insisting change immediately, you're gonna have clashing, but gradual change gets, I think the country will change faster if more people are not pressure or a little pressure, but the people accepted themselves through education. Anyway, Elon Musk took over Twitter, kicked out the top people. He's in charge of, now he's in charge of a media company. He's more powerful now, he is more powerful. I have no opinion on this, whether it's good or bad, let's judge from his actions, let's see what he does. And of course, Lavanya, what is your opinion of a gay relationship? I'm okay, it doesn't involve me. I do not think any group, whether they're gay or religious or a different race, I don't think any group should be oppressed and gay relationship, that's fine. It doesn't involve me and they're doing their own thing and I think they should be protected because it's not just about any group. Women or even religious groups, they should all be protected from other people who don't agree. Thank you for sharing. I had a bad experience with my hijab in police a few years ago. I do remember we had a video chat and you were a little concerned about the, I don't know what you call them, the morality police or whatever. Yeah, stay safe, stay safe. You know, you say I hope everything will be fine soon and that kind of implies that everything goes back to normal and personally, I don't want that. I want some sort of change. So there might, you know, transition periods in countries are ugly as Iran is going through now. There is some sort of, I hope there's some transition in thinking and it's gonna be messy, it's gonna be ugly but I hope change comes. What I really don't want is it goes back to how it was before. So I hope everything is fine soon, but with change. Cab Diva Asak, please your voice slow. Wow, I speak so slow already. Sorry, man. Zachari, meanwhile in France, women with hijab are harassed while the nude ones are encouraged. I think the word nude is a little strong, but yeah, women wearing sexy clothing. Yeah, that's a good point. I can't really argue against that because the opposite of hijab or the Burqa would be Western, I don't want to say modern. I want to say Western culture where not Western because I see it in every country now. The girls, especially wearing a very sexy tight clothing. Yeah, I don't think that should be encouraged, but for me, both cases, it's up to the person doing that. I think France just doesn't want their culture to be like that. So very complicated issues. I can't really comment on that. Zachariah who's in laws against certain people. Western countries are very open to that, but yeah, I can't comment. So Zachariah, Leila, this has nothing to do with Islam. Islam is all about tolerance. Again, there's so many countries that follow Islam and in those countries, there's so many different groups that interpret the religion in different ways as every religion. So if I go to Indonesia, their brand of Islam is very different if I go to Saudi Arabia, right? It's the same religion, but you'd think it's completely different by the cultures in those countries. It addresses our personal option. Zachariah, Hijab is part of Islam. Well, there's a lot of countries that, yeah, I don't think there's debate on that. I think it's if I'm a woman and I'm not Muslim, can I, you know, that's one issue. That's not the issue. You know, I'm not gonna get into this because I don't know. I'm not Muslim. I don't live in those countries. So my opinion is not important. The burqa, yeah, the burqa, okay. Salman, you're gonna get me in trouble. The burqa. So I'll set to Zachariah. What do you think of the burqa? Don't ask me, I'll ask Zachariah. What do you think of the burqa, Zachariah? We're getting me canceled. That's what we're doing, Palavi. Anyway, we also talked about the UK Prime Minister change. His parents were from India. So he's of Indian descent. He's of color, very progressive for the UK. I'm very happy that Rishi Sunak is Prime Minister. I'm not, I don't know about his politics. So I don't know, I'm not happy about that, but I am happy that he represents, you know, person of color and a different religion. I am happy about that. Drink first. I don't know, I have coffee money, Harry. Excuse me. Leave the topics, yeah, good advice. And thousands of Pakistani journalists are shadowed at Sharif's funeral. Yeah, he was killed under mysterious circumstances. So I hope the Pakistani government and the Kenyan government are transparent. That's the words I wanna use. Transparent means open and honest. They're not hiding anything. They are telling the truth, which is good for governments to do, right? And the last one was the gay pride parade. So yeah, we talked about a lot of sensitive topics. And yeah, I don't wanna trigger anyone. Trigger means I touch some sensitive spot and I'm sure probably everyone, I touched a little bit sensitive spot, but I'm just talking about the news. I gave some opinion, but if you're upset, that's fine. Don't worry about it. You're free to express yourself or disagree in the chat because I wanna learn too and I don't know all about these issues. I'm ignorant about everything. And of course, if my students put stuff on the chat and they say a different opinion, I do read it. I do listen. I asked in the WhatsApp group, does anyone have any news from the country and you did not answer? Thank you, thanks a lot, Zachariah. All right, I will end this live stream in two or three minutes. So any final comments, let me know. And we'll come back to big screen. Let's go back to news. Stacey, there's a lot of terrible news around the world. It never ends, but I believe there are also people who are trying to make a better place. Stacey, I personally believe the world is getting better. Without a doubt, the world is getting better. You say, I hope we can hear happy news more than bad news in the future. Yeah, I don't think I had happy news today. I'll try to bring in more happy news. But I do believe the world is getting better. I do believe this phone and the world being on the mobile phone is making the world better because all these countries are seeing and hearing and watching what people are doing in other countries. They're learning, they can support them, they can change their own society. So I think the mobile phone is making a better world. My opinion, what do you think? Is the mobile phone making a better world? So thanks, Stacey. Yeah, what do you think, Stacey? Lavi, when did you ask? Maybe you're not in the group. I asked it in world English one, world English two, I don't think you're in those groups. Layla is busy with her family. Her sister had a new baby, so she has to help out. We miss Layla. Let's start. In Indonesia, it is up to the people how they want to dress themselves, even if they are Muslim, for sure they're not allowed wearing swimsuits in public places. Well, your first sentence contradicts your second sentence. You say it's up to the people how they dress themselves. But in your second sentence, you say, no, it's not up to the people. There are restrictions. So let's start. Your first sentence, second sentence, conflict. It's not up to the people. There are rules. Zachary, no news is good news. No news can mean the people are silent because they're scared of being killed. Well, I was eating dinner for a while. It seems like a lot of things happening here. All right, thank you, made by Lavanya. Okay. No, Robin, I get for it. I think it's wasting time and spoiling kids with tech. Oh yeah, if Zachary, I would agree with that. Of course, there's pros and cons. But if a nation needs to change and there's some sort of revolution and they can communicate very quickly with each other. Remember, 20 years ago, we're using landlines for communication. So if something is happening in another city, the government just cuts the landline. But now we have so many different ways to communicate. It's easier for countries to have change if they need it. At a macro level. At a micro level, if we're looking at the kids, yeah, what are they doing on TikTok? Get the kids off of TikTok. TikTok is trash. And YouTube, what do you guys do on YouTube? Oh, you're studying English. But you know, my channel, Sean English, people around the world, they don't have an English teacher in their community, their town, their village. They don't have an English book. They have Wi-Fi and they can go on and learn English. So just with YouTube teaching English, it reaches out and helps so many people, not just learn English, have more job opportunities, get more information. I think there's more pros for the phone, but certainly it is opinion. And you are right to say, it is wasting time, I waste time. And spoiling kids with TikTok and rubbish, I would agree with that statement. Robin, maybe we'll discuss some articles, scientific or something. Yeah, that's, you know, sleepwalker, I did look at an article, an academic article, and I thought it was about English, studying English. They did some research and I was like, should I talk about this? And you know, not for daily English homework. So I might do that in the future for learning English, a life or IELTS Insider, but not for the daily English homework. But I did consider that, it is a good idea. Your live stream, oh, thanks a lot. What's your recommendation for news website teacher? BBC, CNN, like I put up headlines here. I think you can handle, if you could handle my headlines and my first, you know, if you could read the headline and the first paragraph, you got the main points of the story. Just practice it. And you saw a lot of my news articles kept repeating the same words. Two articles used worn, two articles used sought, two articles used acknowledge, and they're from different sources. So they're repeating the same words again and again. So if you just start reading the newspaper, you're gonna start seeing the same words pop up many times science is interesting. Yeah, okay. I think everyone wants me to bring in something really, really difficult. Thank you, thank you. YouTube is a university. Yes. Oh, sleepwalk, yes, some research data comparison. Maybe I'll start with my research papers. All right. Take care, everyone. Thanks for coming. And I will talk about headlines in the future. So if you're in the WhatsApp group here, let me put up the WhatsApp description below. Join the WhatsApp group and say, hey, Robin, I just watched your live and I'll put you in the right group. I have many WhatsApp groups. So I'll put you in the right group for whatever group. Let's see if anyone's heard. Okay, I'm gonna end the live stream now. Thanks for coming, everyone. And see you in the WhatsApp group. Bye, everyone, take care.