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It`s great to see you this Monday.
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I`m Carl Azuz for CNN STUDENT NEWS.
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Today`s current events coverage starts in the South Pacific.
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Vanuatu is an island country there
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with a population of about 267,000 people.
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One natural threat to the nation are cyclones.
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They can strike anywhere from December to April,
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a devastating category five storm named Cyclone Pam
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came ashore over the weekend.
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It hit populated areas, destroying homes and crops,
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causing a state of emergency and leaving thousands
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with nothing and nowhere to go.
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At least 90 percent of the homes in Vanuatu`s capital were badly damaged.
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Help is coming in from Australia, about 1,000 miles away.
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New Zealand and other countries are also sending supplies.
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Because Vanuatu is a poor nation,
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where many people live in thatched houses,
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aide workers say they`re dealing with something worse
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than a worst case scenario.
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From the South Pacific, we`re moving to the Middle East now,
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where a significant election is taking place.
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Israel is going to the polls tomorrow.
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It`s a very close race.
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Two of the major issues being debated
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include the nation`s economy and defense.
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And the U.S. government has taken an interest.
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With relations strained between President Obama
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and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
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some Democrats are working with a group
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that`s trying to get Netanyahu voted out,
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while some Republicans are trying to help him stay in.
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Israelis aren`t voting directly for their prime minister, though.
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Israeli politics is all about where you sit in this room.
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This is the Knesset, the Israeli parliament,
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the legislative branch of the government.
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And of the 120 seats here below me,
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the most important seat is right at the center of that U.
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That`s the prime minister`s seat.
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But it`s all the seats around that one that determine who gets to sit there.
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Here in Israel, voters don`t pick a particular politician.
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Instead, they vote for a political party.
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But no one party will win an outright majority.
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In fact, the most successful part in the upcoming elections
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may win as few as 25 seats, less than a quarter.
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So what happens here is that right after the elections,
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all of the political parties meet with the president.
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And they tell the president this is who we want for prime minister,
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this is who we`d like to work with in the upcoming government.
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That person then has a chance to put together a coalition government,
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to put together a majority of the seats here through political wheeling
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and dealing and trading political favors for support.
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Because of the way this works,
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winning the most seats doesn`t guarantee
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that you`re the next prime minister if you can`t make the right deals.
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Now, technically,
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61 seats is enough here in the Knesset.
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But most prime ministers want more than that.
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They want a coalition of 65 or 66 seats,
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just so they have a more secure administration.
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Oftentimes in Israeli politics,
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it can come down to one or two of the smaller parties
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in the upcoming election to decide which way the election goes.
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Because they can sometimes have that influence,
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these smaller parties are called the king makers.
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And they determine who gets to sit
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in the prime minister`s seat and who doesn`t.
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Time for the Shoutout.
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What is not a characteristic of a chameleon?
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If you think you know it, shout it out.
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Is it independent eye movement, zygodactylous feet,
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projectile tongues or regenerative tails?
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You`ve got three seconds.Go.
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Chameleons are lizards that share all of these characteristics
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except the ability to regenerate lost or injured limbs or tails.
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That`s your answer and that`s your Shoutout.
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Zygodactylous means their toes are grouped together.
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There are more than 150 known species of chameleons.
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They`re reptiles. They prefer to live in trees.
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Their tongues are as long or longer than they are.
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But the most famous characteristic, of course,
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is that they`re able to change color, some of them.
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How and why exactly might they do that?
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Always looking for Roll Call requests at cnnstudentnews.com.
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They`re chosen from each day`s transcript page.
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Midlothian, Virginia is where we`re start today.
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The Bears are watching. They`re at Bailey Bridge Middle School.
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We`ll jump to the West Coast town of El Centro.
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It`s in Southern California, not far from the Mexico border.
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Hello to The Spartans of Central Union High School.
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And out in the Pacific, on the Hawaiian island of Honolulu,
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great to hear from The Mustangs.
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They`re online at Moanalua Middle School.
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Cars are not allowed in the Italian city of Venice.
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You can take a boat through its 177 canals.
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You can walk over its 409 bridges.
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The water is getting higher,
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and not just because of rising sea levels.
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After centuries of building on the island city,
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scientists say Venice is sinking
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as much as two millimeters a year and tilting east. The effects?
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You can`t do an episode about rising sea levels
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in Venice and not have the flooding.
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It`s all to do with not just the tides and moon,
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it`s also wind affects everything.
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So you needed the right conditions.
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And in the `90s, we would get a gap.
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It wasn`t going to be much.
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I got a phone call from the producer
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saying you need to go to Venice tomorrow.
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So I went up there for the first night
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and I got set up with the water`s edge.
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And my idea was the water was going to come over the edge
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and it`s going to flow into St. Mark`s Square
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and I`m going to follow it, the trickle, until it fills up.
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It didn`t get up high enough and -- let me see, I`m going back.
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It was like 11:00 at the same time at night.
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And as I walked back to Mark`s Square, there was the water.
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It was coming up through the drains.
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The next morning, we went and filmed it properly.
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I`ll drop your end in and just put the shutter speed up slightly.
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Got it. We`ll go through this and -- and just -- just start, just rip.
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Boy. Look at this.
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I don`t know why I bothered to put on the boots.
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So we both got very, very wet.
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That`ll wake you up.
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But we got some really lovely stuff
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on the mobi (ph) going through the water.
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We`ve got a great shot of a couple carrying their baby in the tram.
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It was probably the most productive single day
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of filming we had had in the entire series.
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November 4, 1966.
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There was one particular shot which I really loved.
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Could a place literally drown?
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Built, walking past the shops.
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And under the weight of just too many people.
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I had a feeling -- welcome to Venice --
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That flooded St. Mark`s Square, it was just perfect.
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It was exactly what we needed for that episode.
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Got it. Got it.
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Georgina Harwood, a great-grandmother from South Africa,
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recently turned 100 years old, so she suited up,
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climbed on a plane and jumped out of it.
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And she didn`t just do it for the thrill of the freefall.
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Mrs. Harwood used her jump to raise money
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for the National Sea Rescue Institute,
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a group of volunteer rescuers in South Africa.
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It was the third time she`d been skydiving
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and the sprightly centenarian is planning another adventure
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-- shark cage diving. It would be a sight to see from sky to sea.
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In both cases, she`s making a plunge, she`s taking a dive,
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she`s dropping down to raise awareness
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where the sky is literally the limit.
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I`m Carl Azuz with the ups and downs
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of current events on CNN STUDENT NEWS.