🌏 Queen Elizabeth II Dies At Age 96, Secret Schools For Girls In Afghanistan And More

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• 🌏 This Week’s Top Stories
• 👩 Women To Know
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Queen Elizabeth II has died at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle, her estate in the Scottish Highland, in the United Kingdom.

The Queen died peacefully on Thursday afternoon, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

With her death, her eldest son Charles has become the new king.

The Queen, who had reigned for 70 years, was placed under medical supervision on Thursday Sep. 8, with doctors being “concerned” about her health, the palace said in a statement.

Her health had appeared to deteriorate rapidly on Thursday, as she canceled a virtual meeting with members of her Privy Council on Wednesday after doctors advised her to rest, according to the New York Times.

Members of the royal family, including the Queen’s children, Prince Charles – and his wife Camilla – and Princess Anne, rushed to her side on Thursday.

Her grandson, Prince William, who is second in line to the throne, had also traveled to Balmoral, as well as his brother, Prince Harry.

The Queen had just appointed Liz Truss as the new UK prime minister on Tuesday.

More On The Queen’s Death

👑 A reporter asked this British woman about her thoughts on the Queen’s death and she gave a brutally honest answer.

👑 In his first address, King Charles paid a heartfelt tribute to his mother and pledged a lifelong service to the UK and the countries in the Commonwealth.

👑 Prince Harry and Meghan reunited publicly with Prince William and Kate for the first time since 2020 to view tributes to the Queen.

👑 A British news anchor got so used to saying “Her Majesty the Queen” that he repeatedly called King Charles “His Majesty the Queen” on air.

Also Happening Around The World

🇨🇦 At least 10 people have been killed and 18 people injured after two men went on a stabbing spree across multiple locations in Saskatchewan in Canada on Sunday Sep. 4.

🇨🇱 Chilean voters have rejected a new, progressive constitution that would have transformed the country into one of the world’s most left-leaning societies.

🇮🇷 Two LGBTQ activists in Iran have been sentenced to death for “corruption on earth”.

Secret schools for girls are cropping up all over Afghanistan after the Taliban banned girls from going to middle and high school.

Founded by parents and volunteer teachers and often funded out of their own pockets, the schools are scattered at locations such as private residences, storerooms and mosques.

“I have a lot of dreams and I have a lot of hopes,” one girl attending a secret school told France24. “I don’t want to sit at home because sitting at home is wasting time.”

Many of the teachers were driven by their desire to help young girls to continue to pursue their education after seeing them slide into depression.

“[My mother] asked me, ‘will they kill you if they discover you?’ I told her no, they will probably just hit me. So she said ‘Do it, you’ll forget a slap in an hour or two,‘“, one woman teacher who opened a private school told the Guardian.

Another woman teacher told the BBC that while they are aware of the risks and worry about them, girls’ education is worth “any risk”.

The Taliban had justified its announcement to close secondary education in March by saying that it must review school uniforms for girls.

Since, Taliban officials have said that the ban is temporary, citing reasons such as needing to change security, uniforms, teachers, buildings or the curriculum.

Although primary girls can still go to school and women can attend university, teen girls will not be able to take university entrance exams without a secondary school certificate.

“Psychologically they are under stress all the time, I can see in their eyes and behavior. They used to come with lots of energy and excitement. Now they are never sure if this will be their last day in class. You can see how they are broken,” one headteacher at a secret school told the Guardian.

More Women You Should Know About

🇽🇰 Thousands of people have taken to the streets in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, to demand justice after an 11-year-old girl was kidnapped and gang-raped by five men.

Meet Jerry Huang, a man in Taichung, Taiwan, who has invented a stroller for his pet fish so that they can go on walks with him and explore the world.

The mobile aquarium is made of acrylic and placed on a stroller.

It has a battery-powered filtration and oxygen system, as well as LED lights for trips in the dark.

Huang created the invention to give fish a glimpse of the outside world.

“It started with walking cats and dogs. Now there’s parrots and some people are walking their snakes, walking their lizards, and I’ve seen people, walk their spiders,” Huang told AFP. “What about the animals swimming in the water? Is there an opportunity to let them explore the world on the ground?”

“We all want to explore different worlds that we can’t exist in, like even taking rockets to space. So if I were a goldfish, and someone invented something for me to explore another world, I’d be over the moon,” Huang said.

More Good News For Your Week

🇪🇸 A human tower building festival has returned to Catalonia, Spain, after a two year break due to the pandemic, and it looks absolutely incredible.

🇪🇸 La Tomatina, an annual festival in Spain where people throw tons of overripe tomatoes at each other, has also made a return to the eastern town of Bunol after a two year pause.

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