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

I'm Ryan Drillsma…

And I'm Nancy Sun.

In today's news:

A seal spotted in Taiwan, a puppet travelling through Europe, and a big pop star retiring?

All that and more, coming up next.

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小海豹出現在鼻頭漁港

Seal Pup Spotted in Taiwan

What's that strange sound?

It's the sound of a seal pup.

A pup is what we call a baby seal.

Seals can be found in oceans around the world, but it's rare (稀有) that we see them in Taiwan.

However, a seal was spotted on October 24th, resting at a harbor (港口) in New Taipei City.

People from a diving club (潛水俱樂部) took videos of the seal and posted them to Facebook.

After this, experts determined (斷定) that it was an earless seal.

Earless seals are not endemic to Taiwan.

That means Taiwan is not their natural habitat (自然棲息地).

Earless seals prefer colder climates, like those in the polar regions of the earth.

海豹不是本地的動物，牠們比較喜歡很冷的氣候，像是南極或是北極。

Nobody can really explain why it was there.

But luckily, the experts said it was old enough to look for food and survive on its own, and it did not seem like it had been accidentally separated (分開) from its mother.

News reports said the seal was easily frightened (嚇到) by people.

Divers went to approach (靠近) the seal, to try and encourage it to swim back to sea, but the seal dove into the water and swam back on its own.

It's nice to see animals it the wild that you don't usually see with your own eyes, but it's even better that they can return to their natural habitat.

看到平常看不到的野生動物很棒，更棒的是讓牠們回到原來的棲息地。

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難民木偶過歐洲

Refugee Puppet Travels Europe

A little girl has walked 8000 kilometers across Europe to raise awareness about refugees (提高人們對難民的認識).

Well, she's not actually a little girl, but a puppet (木偶).

Little Amal is a 3.5-meter-tall puppet made of wood, fabric (布料) and other materials.

"Amal" means hope (希望) in Arabic, and that's what is hoped she has brought to people along her journey.

Amal has a person inside that controls (操作) her face, and some other people that help her walk.

She traveled through Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, and France, and finished her journey in the U.K.

And she met some famous people along the way.

She even met the Pope (教宗) in Italy.

She was created to represent (代表) the story of refugees that are fleeing (逃離) from countries where there is war, like Syria.

Many refugees go to countries in Europe where they can have a safer life.

The makers of Little Amal want to show the difficulties refugees face when traveling.

創作小木偶的人想要呈現難民在逃難途中常常遇到的難關。

When Amal reached London, she "celebrated" her tenth birthday.

A famous chef called Yotam Ottolenghi even made her a cake, and lots of children were invited to a party to celebrate with her.

The makers of Little Amal created a campaign (行動) to raise money to help refugees, and lots of people have donated (捐款).

So far, they have raised over 20,000 British pounds.

That's almost 800,000 Taiwanese dollars.

The money will provide education and job training to refugees, as well as food, shelter and medical services to those making the difficult journey to Europe.

Amal募款活動已經募到了兩萬多英鎊，這些錢將捐助難民食物、教育、工作訓練及緊急和醫療服務。

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小甜甜布蘭妮有可能不再表演

Britney May Retire From Music

A huge pop star could be done with performing.

Sources claim that Britney Spears has no desire (意願) to continue making music right now.

This information comes from people who have worked with Britney for a long time.

They say that Britney actually wanted to stop performing a long time ago.

據說小甜甜布蘭妮未來不想再表演了。

Britney recently said in court that she did not want to do several performances in recent years.

This includes her residency in Las Vegas, as well as a Europe tour in 2018.

Now that her conservatorship may be coming to an end, she is free to make her own decision (決定).

If she wants to step away from music forever, she can do so.

布蘭妮說前幾年的表演都不是她想辦的，是她被強迫的。

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So, in today's News Bites:

A seal was spotted resting at a harbor in New Taipei City.

Divers went to approach the seal.

But it dove into the water and swam back on its own.

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And,

A puppet of a little girl has walked 8000 km across Europe.

It was to raise awareness about refugees.

The campaign has raised over 20,000 British pounds to help refugees out.

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And,

Britney Spears may be retiring.

People who have worked with her say she doesn't want to make music anymore.

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