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043: Current News for Kids – 16

Dec 27, 2020

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Hi, Here’s some news from across the world. We also announce our December month’s competition winner… Its Tanvi B for her creative Chocolate Laddoo. – New Strain of Covid spreads faster – Cyber Attack in US – India’s first Driverless train – Nuro – first driverless delivery vehicle – Hayabusa-2 and Change’e space samples – Lewis Hamilton Environment friendly racing – Ranjitsinh Disale’s global teacher prize Hope you enjoy listening. Thanks!

Transcripts

SEASON – 3

EPISODE 043 CURRENT NEWS FOR KIDS-16

[0.01] {Background Music}

[0.08] Siyona: Hello, hello… How have you all been this holiday period? Hope you’re all doing really well. How was your Christmas? Mine was amazing. I got about 10 gifts and enjoyed opening each and every one of them.

[0.23] Let’s quickly listen to the fortnightly news so we could know the winner of this month’s competition.

[0.31] Countries across the EU have received their first deliveries of Pfizer/ BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines. Sending this to various places is challenging as it has to be kept at ultra-low temperatures.

[0.50] While the number of Covid cases across the world has reached 80 million 61 thousand cases, it has taken another worrisome turn in the previous couple of weeks. Last week, UK discovered a new strain of the Corona virus that has probably mutated. It is known that this version of the virus spreads up to 70% faster than the original one.

[1.19] Because of this very fact, travel to and from UK has been completely shut down.

[1.26] France and other European countries have stated to see cases with this new strain. Experts say the leading vaccines developed in recent months should still work.

[1.38] This scenario has forced many people across the world to have their Christmas celebration done at home.

[1.48]

[1.52] Governments and companies around the world have recently learned that they’ve been the victims of a massive computer attack. The US government, which was probably the most affected, is still trying to understand how much damage was done by the cyberattack.

[2.11] The attack began this spring when hackers broke into the computer systems of a company called SolarWinds. This bad software allowed hackers to gain control of computer systems in many governments and important companies around the world.

[2.30] But what is a cyberattack?

[2.33] Let’s just say, it’s an online version of robbing things, where the attacker steals other peoples’ private information or money. In this case, they probably got their hands-on lot of government related information.

[2.48] So, it’s best to stay safe online! Do not click on links that look like games.

[2.56]

[3.04] Prime minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi is all set to flag off the first ever driverless train, happening in the capital city Delhi.

[3.14] The country’s first driverless train will be running on the 37-km Magenta Line, and will be connecting nation capital with nearby cities, such as Gurugram, Noida, Faridabad, Bahadurgarh, and Ghaziabad.

[3.34] Why did India take so long to have a driverless train? When Japan did it long back in 1981 in Kobe?

[3.43] It’s because of the norms which did not allow a driverless train so far. The Ministry of Housing and Urban finally changed these rules in 2015, in order to give permissions for driverless trains.

[3.59] The first fully automated driverless mass-transit rail network is the Port Island Line in Kobe, Japan.

[4.09] Nuro set to be California’s first driverless delivery service.

[4.17]

[4.23] Robotics start-up Nuro plans to start its driverless delivery operations as early as next year.

[4.31] Nuro was founded by two former Google engineers.

[4.35] The vehicle has an egg-shaped frame that is smaller than most cars in the US. It also has two temperature-controlled compartments for deliveries. Doors raise up to reveal the items once a code has been entered by the recipient.

[4.55] That’s a good use of technology during Covid times, right?

[5.02] With regards to Space news, Both Hayabusa -2 of Japan and Chang’e of China have brought back samples from space.

[5.11] Japan safely brought back a sample of jet-black chunks of rock and soil from an asteroid. They had to open up a capsule that returned from deep space a week ago. It also has world’s first sample of gas returned from deep space.

[5.31] The asteroid is believed to be one of the building blocks left over from the formation of the Solar System. How exciting! Can you imagine? That material and gas could be 4.5 billion years old.

[5.47] On the other hand, The Chang’e-5’s lander collected lunar soil and rock samples from the surface, as well as drilling down 6.5 feet (2 meters) into the moon to collect other samples. After about 19 hours on the moon’s surface, the ascent vehicle lifted up off the moon again.

[6.12] Chang’e-5 collected about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of samples. Some of the samples will be kept at Hunan University. The rest will be split up among scientists so they can be studied.

[6.31] Did You Know?

[6.33] All of China’s moon missions are named after the Chinese moon goddess, Chang’e.

[6.40] Here’s a pro-environment news.

[6.43]

[6.53] He isn’t just the world’s most successful Formula One driver ever, he’s also a key backer of a new off-road electric vehicle racing series called Extreme E.

[7.06] The plan is that super-powered electric cars will race in some of the most remote locations on earth in an effort to – the organisers say – promote sustainability and encourage the take-up of electric vehicles.

[7.21] He has setup his own team and have been designed by Formula 1 design guru. They will be racing in some of the extreme environments on earth. He hopes to raise environmental awareness to some serious issues we face today along with portraying how powerful electric vehicles could be.

[7.44] I think this is so cool for Hamilton to use his fame for environmental issues we’re facing now.

[7.51] Here’s a socially uplifting news.

[7.56] Ranjit Singh Disale Wins Global Teacher Prize for Promoting Girls’ Education in Rural India

[8.05] The annual award, Global Teacher Prize, comes with a $1 million grant, recognizes “one exceptional educator who has made an outstanding contribution to their profession.”

[8.20] Ranjit Singh Disale, an elementary school teacher from Maharashtra, India has won it this year.

[8.29] Not just that, he was generous enough to share his prize money with the other 9 finalists. Giving each of them $55,000.

[8.41] WOW!! He’s such an inspirational teacher.

[8.45] Please do read about Ranjit Singh online as he’s had an incredible journey of learning Kannada so he could translate text books for the local children to understand.

[9.00] There are a few other exciting news to share like the Gingerbread monolith that suddenly appeared in San Francisco’s Corona Heights and how Kangaroos can communicate with us, making it the first wild animal to be able to communicate with us.

[9.17] Please do look up to this news and take help from your parents to learn more.

[9.23] Now, coming to the exciting part of today’s episode. It’s the competition results time!!

[9.32] At the beginning of this month, I had announced the competition as ‘Cooking without fire’. Thanks to all who sent in their entries.

[9.43] We approached a very talented Chef, Mr Sumit Babu to be our judge and he kindly agreed. He has a YouTube channel called Keralaslive and an Instagram account with the same name too.

[9.57] The winner of this month’s competition is,

[10.04] You made chocolate laddo with Marie biscuit, cocoa powder, condensed milk and desiccated coconut powder. They really seemed super yummy!!

[10.15] The judge thought you were creative with your recipe.

[10.19] Log on to my website to see her picture on the competitions page. Thanks, a big ton for being our judge this month Mr Sumit Babu. I really appreciate it!

[10.33] Hope you all enjoyed this week’s episode. My next episode would be on the 31st, to wish you all a very happy new year. If you want to wish your loved ones this new year, send in your voice messages to +916366305959.

[10.57] Please do write your thoughts and send to siyona@littlemindchats.com. Follow and share my posts on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

[11.08] Thanks a Ton for listening. Bye!