Thursday, 19 May, 2022
Melbourne teen our youngest Everest climber; No more Maccas in Russia; Cody Simpson’s big night in the pool; and here come the aliens.
THE LOWDOWN
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A Melbourne teenager has become the youngest Aussie to ever climb Mt Everest – reaching the top of the world’s highest mountain earlier this week, and doing it with her mum.
19 year-old Gabby Kanizay stood on the rooftop of the world alongside her mum Jane and took in the amazing view for an entire hour after having climbed to the summit of the 8, 849 metre high mountain.
And then what do you suppose she did straight after? Pop into a long, hot bath? Flop in front of the nearest telly to watch some more YouTube? No – she celebrated her achievement by promptly climbing to the top of the mountain next door – a peak called Lohtse which stands at a piddling 8516 metres high.
Lohtse is the world’s fourth highest peak.
Incredible.
You might have noticed that there are lots of Mt Everest stories in the media at the moment – including the excellent one Amanda shared with us yesterday about the British man Kenton Cool – and yes, that is his name – who climbed Everest this week for the 16th time. That’s because it’s coming into summer in the northern hemisphere – which marks the start of the Everest climbing season.
Of course, no one climbs Everest without the help of a local guide, or Sherpa – who are the often unsung heroes of every Everest ascent. The sherpa helping Gabby to the top of the world said she was one of the kindest people he’d ever climbed alongside. Which we think is about the nicest thing anyone could say about a person.
Well done Gabby!
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 Russia, where people are saying dosvidanya—that’s Russian for goodbye—to Big Macs, McFlurries, and McNuggets. That’s because McDonald’s is pulling out of Russia, selling every single one of its 850 restaurants there in response to the war in Ukraine.
McDonald’s first opened in Moscow, the Russian capital, in 1990. Its Golden Arches were seen back then as symbols of peace—the end of the Cold War between America and the Russian-led Soviet Union. But 32 years later, Russia invaded Ukraine. The head of the global fast food giant said that it was impossible to ignore the harm caused by the war. Maccas will continue to pay its 62,000 Russian staff until new restaurant owners take over…so there’s that.
SPORT TIME
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All eyes were on a swimming pool in Adelaide last night as Australia’s best swimmers battled it out for a spot on the Commonwealth Games team.
Pop singer-turned-butterfly swimmer Cody Simpson caused most ripples in the pool and out, touching the wall third behind Matt Temple and Olympic gold medallist, Kyle Chalmers to qualify not only for the Australian Commonwealth Games team – but also the upcoming world championships. Not bad for a kid who, at 13, quit swimming to pursue a music career. Multi-talented…
Other swimmers making a splash last night (DAD JOKE ALARM) – oops there goes the dad joke alarm – included superfish Mollie O’Callaghan and Shayna Jack – who emerged from the cloud of controversy that’s been hovering over her to win a spot on the Comm Games team.
The next Commonwealth Games will be held in Birmingham, in England, at the end of July – where our swimmers know a good showing and a swag of medals will help position them for the next Olympics in Paris in 2024. Oh la la.
AEC – MID ROLL
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A message from our podcast partner the Australian Electoral Commission, or AEC.
This Saturday is a big one…. no, not my birthday… It’s the day, every three years, that your parent’s troop off to the local primary school, squirrel themselves away inside a cardboard box and scribble numbers down on a piece of paper. It’s the Federal Election people! (CHEER) The AEC are the ones in charge of running it and counting all those votes. So who better to explain the ins-and-outs of an election. Why is voting so secretive? What’s a political party and why don’t those parties have fairy bread? And how is it possible that if you laid every pencil used on election day end to end it would go from one end of Tassie to the other? All these questions and more are answered in our special election eve Q&A episode with the AEC’s resident cardboard voting booth expert, Evan Ekin-Smyth – if you;re listening on a podcast app, it should play straight after this episode or look for it on the Q+A page of our website – squizkids.com.au. You’re welcome.
SPACED OUT
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Do you sometimes look up into the night’s sky and wonder if there are aliens up there somewhere? Do you watch Star Wars movies or the Mandalorian and see all those fantastical creatures and wonder if maybe they’re out there somewhere? Well you’re not alone – and this week, for the first time, the United States government admitted it should maybe do something more to investigate alien life forms.
You’ve heard of UFOs right? Unidentified Flying Objects … believed by some people to be spaceships from outer space … well high-ranking military people testified before a US Congress hearing on Tuesday – and while they didn’t give away too much about their investigations – they did confirm they were appointing a new task force to gather evidence and see what it can turn up.
Because who doesn’t love the idea of alien spaceships? Hundreds of Hollywood films and cartoons afterall can’t be wrong …
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
1. Which hamburger chain has permanently closed down all of its restaurants in Russia?
- What does the acronym UFO stand for?
- Which Aussie city does our youngest ever Everest climber, Gabby Kanizay come from?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s May 19… (CELEBRATE/PARTY HORNS) .. it’s our 500th episode! (CHEER) … that’s 500 times, give or take, that i’ve been in your ears … 500 times we’ve hung out together … and they said we’d never last … A huge thank you to all Squiz Kids listeners for being so awesome and supportive – we appreciate every single one of you – now excuse me while i go and have a lie down …. meanwhile if you like what we do, please be sure to tell your friends – we’d love to be around for another 500 episodes and that’s the only way we grow …
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today …
Jayden from Vermont South, Tulley from Merimbula, NAtalie from Craigburn Primary School, William from Hornsby and Ryan from Westleigh.
Belated birthday shout outs go to…Angus from Sydney, Eliza from Applecross and Camretta from Katherine.
Classroom shout outs go to…Class 3WD and 3B with Mrs Ball and Miss Dyer at St John The Baptist Catholic School in Adelaide, class 5N at St Joseph’s School in Chinchilla and class 5C and Ms Corry at St John’s Anglican College in Forest Lake.
And it’s a special shout out to Ms Cath Nelson and her class at St Mary’s Parish School in Hay and Ms Kohler and Grade 4 at William Clarke College – who both recently became fully fledged members of Squiz Kids for Schools. A very warm welcome aboard!
The S’Quiz Answers:
- McDonalds … or Maccas
- Unidentified Flying Object
- Melbourne