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038: Current news for Kids – 14

Nov 25, 2020

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Hi, Here’s my fortnightly news episode. I’ve come across some very interesting news on the internet. Ofcourse, we start with some news on Covid. Good part is about the Vaccination by oxford university. We then hear a little about protests going in various parts of the world like the Thailand, Belarus and Hong kong. In environment news, we could see how a map of all bee species in the world has been created to track the decline in bee population. There’s also the sad news about plastic in our oceans which is causing severe extinction of marine life. We go on to hear how a bunch of students have come up with a brilliant solution to stop tyre pollution. We hear to some space news on How China launches a mission to bring back some moon rock and sand just in time for Christmas. Also a record breaking Space X Falcon 9 launch. Finally, we wrap up with news about the deepest swimming pool in Poland. Also, a mysterious monolith found in Utah. Thanks for listening.

Transcripts

EPISODE 038 CURRENT NEWS FOR KIDS-014

[0.01] {Background Music}

[0.09] Siyona: Hello everyone. Welcome to my podcast Little Mind Chats. Minds are little, not our thoughts. I’m your host Siyona. Today’s episode, as I promised last Sunday is about the news from around the world.

[0.27] Covid situation at the moment is that it is

[0.42] US has most cases and highest death toll. France has recorded more than 2million cases. Spain, Italy and the UK have already recorded more than 1million cases with Germany also approaching 1million. Japan is on “maximum alert” after seeing the record number of daily cases in a third wave of infections.

[1.08] India has driven the increase in numbers in Asia, with just over nine million confirmed infections, the third-highest official total in the world after the Brazil.

[1.22] All is not grim as the. Data suggests 70% protection, but the researchers say the figure may be as high as 90% by tweaking the dose.

[1.44] That sounds a little like some good news, right? Here in India, our Prime minister has asked all the States to set up enough capability at district level to prepare for Covid vaccine programme which is likely to happen sooner or later.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51235105

[2.04] Moving on to some other major events happening in other parts of the world.

[2.10] There are protests happening for months in a few countries. Like Thailand, Belarus and Hong Kong.

[2.18] In Thailand, people have been protesting for months as they are demanding for changes to the country’s constitution and want their Prime Minister to resign.

[2.30] In Belarus, People have been protesting for 3 months since their election in August. The election, which seemed to show President Aleksandr Lukashenko winning for the sixth time, is believed to have been unfair. It has not been appreciated by many countries.

[2.51] But the worst of all protests is the one in Hong Kong which have been going on for 1 year! They are protesting against China intervening in the functioning of their government. [3.07] China passed a strict new law in July; and protest movement has been almost completely crushed since then.

[3.18] This makes me feel like we’re in a far safer country with fair democratic processes in place.

[3.29]

[3.35] There are over 20,000 species of bee, but accurate data about how these species are spread across the globe was never available. Researchers have now created a map of bee diversity by combining the most complete global checklist of known bee species around the world.

[3.58] “People think of bees as just honey bees, bumble bees, and maybe a few others, but there are more species of bees than of birds and mammals combined”, Says senior author John Ascher, an assistant professor of biological sciences at the National University of Singapore.

[4.19] But why is this mapping important?

[4.23] At least 30% of the world’s crops and 90% of all plants require cross-pollination to spread and thrive. Bees are our most important pollinators. Without them, our gardens would be bare and our plates empty.

[4.41] Unfortunately, they are on the decline. Let’s say the main reason being human activity.

[4.50] Which is why the map of bee species is an important first step in assessing the distribution and potential decline of bee populations.

[5.01] I learnt a lot about bees by watching this fun movie called ‘Bee movie’ released in 2007.

[5.13] Here’s another reason explaining why human activity is being a lot more destructive than we expect.

[5.21] A yearlong survey of Marine Life in US reveals sea animals are severely affected by plastic rubbish.

[5.30] Of the animals surveyed, around 88% are listed as threatened or endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. They included Hawaiian monk seals, Florida manatees, Steller sea lions and all six species of sea turtles found in the US.

[5.52] Around 90% of these cases, involved animals swallowing plastic, including microscopic micro-plastic particles. Turtles as young as a few days old were found with plastic in their stomachs.

[6.06] An estimated 15 million metric tonnes of plastic enter the oceans every year. The report states, adding that this is equivalent to around two bin lorries per minute. Oh, my God! What are we doing to our earth??

[6.23] Oceania, the world’s largest ocean conservation group, is recommending companies reduce the amount of plastic produced and offer plastic-free alternatives, and that governments pass policies to help reduce single-use plastics.

[6.41] Remember, this is a study just on one part of the world. I’m sure this issue exists in all of our seas and oceans. I think it’s very important for children like us to think of ways to stop plastic usage.

[6.59] And guess what, a bunch of young people are working on exactly that!

[7.04]

[7.11] Their idea has just won a runners-up prize at the International James Dyson Awards.

[7.18] They say that Tyre wear is the second largest contributor of microplastics in the environment. They discovered that, Tyre particles, as they are produced are positively charged. And so, they used a combination of electrostatics and airflow around the spinning wheel, to capture them into a removable device.

[7.43] The four graduates are from 4 different countries, UK, India, Hong Kong and US. They met at the Imperial college of London and royal college of Art in London.

[7.57] Emission analytics claim that pollution from tyre wear can be 1000 times worse for the environment than car exhaust emissions. Well that surprised me!

[8.12] The tyre particles can be re-used for new tyre production, outsoles of shoes, upcycled into recycled carbon black used in inks and dyes.

[8.25] These bunch of students just proved that anything is possible if we put our mind to it.

[8.32] Now let’s have a look at some space news.

[8.35]

[8.42] It’s more than 40 years since the Americans and the Soviets brought home lunar rock and “soil” for analysis.

[8.50] China aims to be the third country to achieve this feat, which will be an extremely complex thing to do.

[8.59] China’s robotic Chang’e-5 spacecraft departed the Wenchang launch complex on a Long March 5 rocket early on Tuesday morning, and if successful, should return to Earth in mid-December. A Christmas present from the moon to the scientists, I guess…

[9.20] It’s a multi-step process that involves an orbiter, a lander-ascender and finally a return component that uses a capsule to survive a fast and hot entry into Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the mission.

[9.37]

[9.48] SpaceX just launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets for a record seventh time. The booster carried a full stack of 60 Star link internet satellites into orbit and then perfectly landed on the sea.

[10.05] The flight also marks the 100th launch of a Falcon 9 rocket.

[10.11] Wow, Space x and Elon Musk never seem to stop inspiring me. I’d advise you to take your parents’ help and understand more about the great things SpaceX is achieving.

[10.26] Let’s wrap up with some fun or say strange news.

[10.31]

[10.36] A newly opened business in Poland is offering training services for scuba divers in its 148-foot-deep pool-the deepest swimming pool in the world.

[10.51] It holds more than 280,000 cubic feet of water – the same amount as 27 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The pool is designed for scuba training and will be used to train divers for the Polish army and firefighters, officials said.

[11.12] The business also features a hotel with underwater views, a tunnel for spectators to watch the divers, restaurant and several meeting rooms.

[11.26]

[11.31] Authorities in Utah said they are investigating the origins of mysterious monolith

spotted sticking out of the ground in a rural area in the southwest part of the state.

[11.47] The Utah Department of Public Safety said members of the Aero Bureau were in a helicopter helping to count bighorn sheep for the state Division of Wildlife Resources when they spotted something far more unusual on the ground.

[12.05] Pilot Bret Hutchings said the silver-coloured metal monolith was seen sticking out of the ground in the middle of some red rock. He said the structure appeared to be 10-12 feet high and seemed to have been intentionally planted, rather than merely dumped out of an aircraft.

[12.26] Well, I hope that news sounds strange enough to wrap up today’s news episode. Please do send across your feedback to siyona@littlemindchats.com .

[12.38] I’d appreciate if you could share my podcast with your friends and family. Do follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

[12.47] Oh! And don’t forget, tomorrow is the last day for our November month’s competition, ‘Best out of Waste’. Please do mail them quick! To siyona@littlemindchats.com .

[12.59] Thanks a ton for listening! Bye…