Hello everybody, and welcome to a new episode of News Bites!

I'm Ryan Drillsma…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

Taiwan is an open civic space, a billionaire goes to space, and a veteran rock star releases a new album.

All that and more, coming up next.

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台灣被列為亞洲唯一"開放"的國家

Taiwan Named Asia's Only Open Civic Space

What do you know about civil rights?

Civil rights (民權) are a set of ideas that say people should have help from the government in order to protect their freedom (保護個人自由).

But their freedom to do what?

Voting in elections (投票) - that is one civil right.

Being able to go to school - that is another civil right.

Most people think we should have civil rights because without them, many wouldn't be able to live a free and fulfilling life (圓滿的生活).

When people feel like their civil rights are under attack, they sometimes protest.

當人民覺得他們的民權被侵犯，他們有可能會上街抗議。

Actually, being able to protest is also a civil right.

But there are many countries where people are not allowed to protest.

They might go to jail.

Even news reporters (記者) talking about protests might go to jail.

When this happens we can say a country has a "closed civic space."

If you can show you don't like something the government does without getting in trouble, we call this an "open civic space."

Do you think Taiwan is an "open civic space"?

According to a new survey (調查), it is. In fact it's the only open civic space in the whole of Asia.

But the organization that made the survey, Civicus, thinks Taiwan can still improve (改善).

Laws say people can only protest in some places. But Civicus thinks people should be able to protest anywhere.

The organization is also worried Taiwan might ban the Chinese flag.

人權組織Civicus的新報告指出Taiwan還是有進步的空間，報告認為應該修正限制抗議活動地點的法律，也說台灣政府試著讓展示中國國旗成為犯罪行為，這些令人感到擔憂。

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日本億萬富翁上太空

Japanese Billionaire Goes to Space

A Japanese billionaire has blasted off to space.

A billionaire is someone that has over a billion dollars (十億元) - a very rich person.

Yusaku Maezawa has left Earth and gone to visit the International Space Station (國際太空站) in a rocket.

Maezawa said while he is there, he wants to do 100 different things that the public (公民) suggested he do.

One of those is play golf.

Before Maezawa went, he had to do a lot of difficult training (訓練).

He had to sleep in a bed that goes up and down.

And he had to spin around in a chair really fast.

He'll spend 12 days in space in total.

Maezawa said the trip is "a dream come true".

And he said people may think space travel is weird now.

But it will become common (普遍的) in the future.

Yusaku Maezawa isn't the first billionaire to go to space.

The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, has also been to space, and Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin, has, too.

Yusaku Maezawa並不是首位上太空的億萬富翁，維珍集團的創辦人Richard Branson還有亞馬遜公司創辦人Jeff Bezos都去過。

Lots of people are criticizing (批評) billionaires for going to space.

Because trips to space can cost millions or even billions of dollars.

Some people think the money should be spent on Earth to help people that don't even have enough to live their regular lives.

What do you think?

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奧茲·奧斯本將發行新專輯

Ozzy Osbourne Releasing New Album

A veteran rocker is getting ready to drop a new project.

Ozzy Osbourne says his new album will come out early in 2022.

He says he has recorded 15 songs for the album.

However, he says some of them are still a work in progress (半成品).

奧茲·奧斯本明年初將發行新專輯，會有15首歌。

Ozzy says the new album will sound similar to his 2020 release, called Ordinary Man.

He says this is because it was done by the same production team.

It will also feature guest appearances by several prominent (傑出) guitarists, including Eric Clapton.

Aside from the album, Ozzy is also preparing to finish his last ever tour, which had been delayed by the pandemic.

除了新專輯之外，奧茲也準備恢復他的告別巡演。

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So, in today's News Bites:

A new survey says Taiwan is the only open civic space in the whole of Asia.

That means people's civil rights are not under attack.

But some think Taiwan can still improve.

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And,

A Japanese billionaire has blasted off to space.

Yusaku Maezawa will spend 12 days there.

And he wants to do 100 different things in space.

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And,

A veteran rocker is getting ready to drop a new project.

Ozzy Osbourne says his new album will come out early in 2022.

He says he has recorded 15 songs for the album.

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And that's today's episode of News Bites!