Tuesday, 2 February, 2021
Military coup in Myanmar; 10 year-old has a stock market windfall; Switzerland’s avalanche dog rescuers; and the Queensland school that tricked the internet.
LINKS
Malanda State School’s meteor reporting: https://www.facebook.com/MalandaSS/
Check out our parent podcast and daily news email for adults: The Squiz: www.thesquiz.com.au
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Squiz Kids is proudly supported by the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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Myanmar is a country you might not have heard of before. It’s nestled between Thailand and India, on the continent of Asia, and has some of that region’s most picturesque scenery.
But it was in the headlines yesterday for an entirely different reason.
The military in Myanmar – which is the armed forces – had staged what is called a ‘coup’ – spelt c-o-u-p – which is to say they threatened to used force to overthrow the government – arresting Myanmar’s leaders and taking control of the country themselves.
The news prompted many world leaders – including our own Prime Minister – to condemn the coup as ‘disturbing’ and ‘undemocratic’. Because the army generals have removed from office the politicians that the people of Myanmar had voted for in a recent election.
A name you will hear a lot in the coming days is Aung San Suu Kyi. She was elected by the people of Myanmar to be their leader in free and fair elections – and is very popular with them. But before that, the country was ruled by the military – and no one in the country was allowed to have a say in who led them. This is called a military dictatorship, and it was hoped they’d moved on from that.
Yesterday, Aung San Suu Kyl was arrested along with other members of her political party – but from detention, she urged the people of Myanmar to oppose the coup and prevent a return to the country being run by the army.
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 United States, where a 10 year old boy is super happy his mum didn’t buy him an XBox.
Two years ago Jaydyn Carr asked his mum for an XBox for his birthday. Instead, she bought him $80 worth of shares in a company called GameStop. It’s basically the EB Games of America. Shares are a tiny portion of a company that anyone can buy as an investment. Jaydyn’s mum wanted to teach him about money. He was none too pleased at the time. But since last week, some funny things have happened on the stock market in the US and the value of GameStop shares soared by over 1700 percent – which is A LOT. That’s seenJaydyn’s shares go from being worth $80 to almost $5000. See – there are better gifts than video game consoles…
ANIMAL KINGDOM
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Two dogs in Switzerland are being hailed as heroes after barking to save their owners who had gotten caught in an avalanche.
An avalanche is when a great big wall of snow and ice falls down the side of a mountain. The two hikers were walking in the Alps near the Italian border when they were swept away. One of them was buried completely under snow, the other one was buried over their head, but managed to stick a single hand up through the surface.
Luckily their two dogs escaped unharmed and managed to raise the alarm by barking loudly until help arrived.
A rescue helicopter was summoned by people who heard the dogs, and rescuers managed to pull the two hikers from the snow.
Reports say the hikers are now recovering in hospital – no doubt with loads of hot chocolate. And plenty of doggie treats for their faithful furry friends.
SQUIZ KIDS SALUTES
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This is the segment where we highlight extraordinary feats or great achievements. And today, we send a great big Squiz Kids salute to the kids of Malanda State School, in far north Queensland – who managed to trick the internet into believing a meteor had landed in their school yard.
With the help of teachers, parents and even the local police force – the kids created a realistic looking meteor (complete with smoke coming off it) and an impressive crater in the ground as evidence of its crash landing. They then took photos of it and posted them to social media – and even produced an excellent TV news report for the school’s Facebook page – interviewing the police and students and parents. It was all so well done that for a moment, some people on the internet thought it was real.
A valuable lesson in not believing everything you read online; always asking what the source of a piece of information is – and how truly clever Aussie school kids are.
And because you’re now probably going to ask me for the source of this story there’s a link in today’s episode notes to the Malanda State School Facebook page.
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 …
- What is the name of the country in Asia where the military has just staged a coup?
- Name the games company in the United States which is like the American version of EB Games?
- What did the kids of Malanda State School manage to trick the internet into believing had crash landed in their school yard?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s February 2 … birthday for Aussie cricketer Will Pucovski, as well as the first day that Federal Parliament sits for 2021 – which means all the politicians will head to Parliament House in Canberra today.
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today … Saxon and Scout from Canberra, Indi from Craigburn, Sierra from Elderslie, Aiden from Taroona and Gretel from Coorparoo.
Belated birthday shoutouts: Mackenzie and Malakye from Bli Bli, and Ashael and Harley from Forster.
Today’s classroom shoutouts: Class 4/5BG with Miss Binstead and Miss Goldsworthy at Woodhill State School, class 6ML at Proserpine State School, class 6P at Wenona School, class 5A at Lindisfarne Anglican Grammar School with Mr Lewis, and 3/4 Gratitude with Mrs Reid at Temora Public School.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Myanmar
- Game Stop
- Meteor