Thursday, 16 February, 2023
A big week for women’s cricket; praying for rain in Kenya; meet Kang, the supervillain; and Donald Trump has a challenger.
LINKS
WPL Aussie players: https://www.foxsports.com.au/cricket/womens-premier-league-auction-28-australians-to-go-under-the-hammer-for-inaugural-tournament/news-story/543e6c725938ce336b9b86c3ee7892b8
Kenya’s day of prayer: https://apnews.com/article/weather-kenya-government-utah-william-ruto-nairobi-9a603e7cf63e49bfc70ab9c48a4c547c
Ant-Man trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNFpri-Y40
The 10 Greatest Conquerors in Human History: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSQfxeE5hc8
Dig Deeper:
Video of the WPL auction (top 5 most expensive players): https://www.wplt20.com/videos/top-5-buys-from-wpl-player-auction-2023
WPL Website, teams, players: https://www.wplt20.com/auction
US Presidential Elections explained: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdadb7qMBcE
The Ant-Man saga up to now: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi205047065/?ref_=tt_eds_center-3_ecw_cs_antman_i
Kenya drought facts and figures: https://www.icrc.org/en/document/kenya-drought-response-facts-figures-may-november-2022
Kids + Media Survey:
Are you a parent, guardian or teacher of primary school kids? Then help us paint a picture of Aussie kids and their media habits by filling out this quick, two-minute survey. Thank you in advance!
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZBTHR35
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Newshounds
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THE LOWDOWN
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It’s been a big week in women’s cricket – and although the Aussie team is continuing to dominate in T20 world cup play in South Africa, I’m actually talking about action OFF the field, in another country altogether.
You’ve heard of the IPL, right? Indian Premier League? It’s a men’s T20 competition that’s been going for 15 years, featuring teams made up of local Indian and top foreign players, like Aussies Josh Hazlewood, David Warner, and Matthew Wade.
Well, the first ever Women’s Premier League is getting underway in India next month, and even before a single ball has been bowled, the women are outperforming the men.
In late January, when rich investors bid for the right to own a women’s team, they spent over $800 million – which is DOUBLE what was paid for men’s teams back in 2008.
Then, the TV rights for the WPL were sold for $170 million.
That’s almost a one billion dollar competition, without any tickets, sponsorships, or merch sold. Whoa.
This week, all eyes were on the player auction, when the five WPL teams competed against each other to “buy” players. Not that you can own a human being, of course – the athletes were simply agreeing to play for the team that paid them the most money.
Aussie all-rounder Ash Gardener scored big, with a payday worth more than half a million dollars from the Gujarat Giants. In total, 14 Aussies will be packing their bags for India, and Ash’s Giants will face the Mumbai Indians in the season opener on March 4… I can’t wait.
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As if things weren’t bad enough for our poor friends in New Zealand, who are still reeling from the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle—the North Island was rocked by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake last night. More than 60,000 people reported feeling the quake, which struck near the capital, Wellington. At the time of recording this podcast, no damage or injuries had been reported… thank goodness. Stay safe over there, Kiwis!
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 the east African country of Kenya, where the saying “pray for rain” has been taken to a whole new level. Kenya is suffering under a terrible five-year drought, with a sixth failed rainy season predicted. And so the President, William Ruto, decided to hold Kenya’s first ever National Day of Prayer this week. Religious leaders joined the president in asking people of all faiths to spend an entire day praying for an end to the drought. I’ve put a link in your episode notes to some photos of the event, as well as pictures of, and information on, how the drought – which has been made worse by climate change – is affecting some 50 million Kenyans.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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With our own heat wave kicking in over the next few days, what better place to hang out than a lovely, cool movie theatre? It’s almost as if the Marvel franchise knew about the weather in advance.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania comes out tomorrow. Those of you in the Marvel-know will remember that after Thanos’s defeat in Avengers: Endgame, the Marvel Cinematic Universe had a super-villain sized hole that needed filling.
Meet Kang the Conqueror! Kang is played by Jonathon Majors, who took his inspiration from some of history’s most infamous men, including Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Napoleon. Infamous means that the person is famous, but for a bad quality or deed. If you’re not sure who those guys are, I’ve stuck some links in your episode notes.
No spoilers here, but watch out for the scene where the Freedom Fighters are taking on an enemy in the Quantum Realm. The dirt they are fighting in is actually manure – which is poo used as fertiliser. It was mistakenly delivered to the film set instead of regular dirt! That’s one way to make sure the actors really nail looking angry.
POLITICS AND POWER
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The United States of America is what’s called a superpower – a country so rich and so big that what it does often affects the rest of the world. When there’s an election in America, the rest of the world takes notice – and because former President Donald Trump is trying to win his old job back, people are paying special attention.
Yesterday, a former diplomat and politician called Nikki Haley announced that she would be running against Mr Trump – which is interesting, because Ms Haley once worked for Donald Trump’s government. She had previously promised to support him in 2024, but now she says it’s time for a “new generation” in the Republican political party.
The way American presidential elections work is this: first, each political party has what’s called a primary election, to decide their candidate for president. It’s in the Republican Party primaries that Ms Haley hopes to beat Mr Trump, so that she can then run for President in the main election in November, 2024.
And yes, it’s February, 2023, and we’re talking about an election in 2024. American politics is exhausting.
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Parents, teachers, and carers: While we’re on the subject of Mr Trump, you may remember that he talked a lot about “fake news” during his Presidency – and was also accused of manufacturing disinformation himself. Squiz Kids is conducting a survey about Australian kids and their media habits – to better understand how kids are getting information, and the extent to which parents and guardians of the next generation are concerned about their kids’ ability to tell online fact from fiction. Please take a moment to fill it out – the link is in your episode notes. We’ll be taking the results to the government to try to spur more action on the media literacy front – so the more of you who take that moment, the more compelling our data. Thanks.
THE SQUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- The new, billion-dollar cricket competition in India is called what?
- Why did the President of Kenya hold a national day of prayer?
- Who is Nikki Haley?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s February 16 – the birthday of Canadian singer The Weeknd, American tennis player John McEnroe, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il. That’s quite the combination, isn’t it?
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today…
Lulu and Mauli from Springfield, Will from Doreen, Jake from Williams, Max from Narrandera, Perrin from Albury, Frank from Richmond and Cian and Finn from Bali, Indonesia.
A belated birthday wish goes to … Jack from Sydney.
Classroom shoutouts today go to… the 2-5C Busy Bees with Ms Cavanagh and Mrs Kennedy at Regentville Public School, classes 5B & 4B with Miss Jensen at St Thomas More Catholic Primary School in Campbelltown, class 5/6P and Miss Price at Camden Public School, class 6EG and Mrs Glover at Mt Carmel School in Yass and class 5/6M and Mrs Meesen at Mandama Primary School in Geelong.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Women’s Premier League
- To pray for rain
- An American politician who announced she’s running for President