Monday, 24 October, 2022
Lismore in flood firing line again; Whale rescue in Canada; Mixed fortunes for Aussie sport; and Tay Tay breaks the internet.
LINKS
Whale rescue – VIDEO
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-63353569
Newshounds
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Stop me if you’ve heard this before … but large swathes of NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania spent much of the weekend battling rising flood waters as a huge band of wet and wild weather swept the eastern half of the nation.
Yesterday alone there were more than 120 flood warnings in place across NSW. And yes, if it seems like this is happening a lot – it’s because it is.
And there’s no one that knows that better than the residents of Lismore – in the Northern Rivers region of NSW – who were last night once again told to prepare for floods with more than 150mm of rain forecast for the region. If it floods in Lismore – it will be the third time this year.
The northern NSW town of Moree – and its 7000 residents – were ordered to evacuate over the weekend as rivers there broke their banks.
A shout out too to Squiz Kids along the mighty Murray River in Victoria – who were yesterday watching and waiting nervously to see whether floodwaters there were going to break the flood walls residents there had spent much of last week hurriedly building.
Alright, La Nina, enough – we get it. You like rain .. but seriously, haven’t you got somewhere else to be?
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Hands up if any of you out there are mad-keen gamers? Yeah – i thought as much ..
Your Minecraft, Roblox and NBA 2K is about to get a whole lot faster after work was completed yesterday on an undersea cable from WA to the Middle East.
The 9,800 kilometre cable lies on the ocean floor, two kilometres below the surface – and has a capacity of 50 terabits. Meaning gamers, YouTubers researchers and financial institutions will be able to share a massive amount of data at a tenth of a second.
I wonder if it means my Disney+ will stop buffering?
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops .. and today we’ve landed in Canada .. where wildlife rangers have pulled off a remarkable whale rescue.
A humpback whale became entangled in fishing ropes and was spotted dragging the fishing gear – including a couple of buoys – for kilometres and kilometres through the water. By attaching a satellite tracking device to the fishing ropes and then following the whale and its friends on a two hour wild whale chase – which is like a wild goose chase – but with whales, the rangers managed to get the whale to execute a nifty open-mouthed back-flip maneouvre which set it free.
The whale was last seen swimming happily away with its friends – who had stayed by its side the whole time. How good are whales? And yes, of course I’ve stuck a link to the rescue operation in today’s episode notes.
SPORT TIME
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And it was a weekend of mixed fortunes for Australian sport after our men’s national rugby league team wiped the floor with Scotland in the World Cup, the Wallaroos booked themselves a spot in the quarter finals – and our T20 men’s cricket teams copped a walloping from New Zealand.
In England, the Kangaroos cemented their position as favourites in the rugby league world cup at the weekend by thrashing Scotland 84 points to zero. That’s got to hurt.
Across the ditch in New Zealand, the Wallaroos, our women’s national rugby union team sailed into the rugby World Cup quarter finals beating Wales by 13-7 .. go you good things!
While in Sydney, the Kiwis got their revenge – and then some – when the Black Caps – New Zealands’ T20 men’s cricket team flogged the Aussies by 89 runs.
It was a stellar performance by our cuzzy bros who pulled off their biggest ever T20 victory over Australia.
What does T20 mean? Both teams each get 20 overs only to hit as many runs or claim as many wickets as they can. Australia next face Sri Lanka in Perth on Tuesday, and will need to pull their green and gold socks up if they want to make the semis.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Someone who had an altogether more successful weekend than the Australian men’s cricket team was a certain pop star by the name of Taylor Swift.
Amid a storm of hype and a global wave of anticipation, the American singer-songwriter released a brand new album on Friday – and within 24 hours it had broken the all time record for the most-streamed album in a single day in Spotify history. Whhaaaa?
The previous record was held by Bad Bunny – who clocked up 183 million streams in a 24 hour period.
And the achievements didn’t stop there … the lead track on Tay Tay’s new album Midnights, a song callled Anti Hero had it’s own good day at the office – chalking up an impressive 17,390,000 streams. And the Swifty world domination plans roll on …
NEWSHOUNDS
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Today marks the start of Global Media Literacy week .. when a spotlight is shone on the importance of doing what Squiz E the newshound tells us to do every time he pops his head into Squiz Kids HQ … namely: to STOP, THINK and CHECK anytime we come across anything on the internet that looks, as my son Flynn would say, a little bit sussy..
And to mark this important week, we’re rolling out our own classroom resource to teach you lot how to recognise misinformation when you come across it on the internet.
It’s called NEWSHOUNDS – it’s an eight part podcast and video and accompanying activity booklet affair – built like a board game – in which you join Squiz E the detective dog as he sniffs out fishy stories on the internet.
It’s fun, for a limited time it’s free – and it’s available to all classrooms now – just get your teacher to pop on over to newshounds.squizkids.com.au – or hop in via our website or jump into the link in today’s episode notes.
There are badges to be won, games to be played and certificates to be earned .. making sure by the end you’re all fully-fledged Newshounds.
Well – what are you waiting for? Get busy already… Squiz E is standing by.
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of the Australian women’s rugby union team?
- In which country did rescuers just free a humpback whale tangled in fishing line?
- Which pop singer has just broken streaming records with the release of her new album?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s October 24 … 61 days til Xmas .. but who, other than my daughter Rosie, is counting? Today also marks the start of Dilwali – the festival of lights in the Hindu, Jain and Sikh faiths .. happy Dilwali!
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Sia from Caringbah South, Oliver from Craigburn, Ella from Montmorency, Xavier from St Leonards, Oliver from Glebe, Jackson from Baulkham Hills, Elsie from Walkerville and Aarin listening over in Burnsville, Minnesota.
Belated birthday shout outs go to Stella from Vista, Sophie from Deniliquin and Evie from Totnes, England.
Classroom shouts go to…class 3F and Mr Fife at The Southport School, class 3C and Miss Timpani at Melton Primary School in Wodonga, class 6D with Mrs Gillet and Mr Booker at Telarah Public School and class 5B and Ms Hesketh at Middle Harbour Public School.
Lastly a special shoutout for Ms Garbin’s Year 2/3 class at Merredin College in WA … I have it on good authority that you have a very lovely teacher.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Wallaroos
- Canada
- Taylor Swift