Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 106 i The Week Junior

One key issue that must be resolved before the UK and the European Union (EU) can begin discussing how they’ll work together after the UK leaves the EU is how the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be affected by Brexit. Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so it will leave the EU along with the rest of the country. Ireland will remain part of the EU. At the moment people, goods and money can move freely between the two countries. When the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 this may have to change, and that is posing some problems. The 310-mile border between the two countries has a troubled history. Many people do not want what’s known as a “hard” border to be enforced after Brexit.…

10 December 1979 Daredevil completes death-defying stunt On 10 December 1979, crowds waited in anticipation at the River Blackwater at Maldon, Essex, as stuntman Eddie Kidd prepared for a death-defying motorcycle leap. Sitting on his 400cc Yamaha motorcycle, Kidd had to reach speeds of up to 100mph before he could jump over a 24-metre gap with a 15-metre drop. During the stunt, winds blew the motorcycle off balance, but Kidd was able to keep it under control and landed safely on the other side.…

What you need to know ● Coca-Cola is one of the world’s most popular fizzy drinks, but some of its drinks contain a lot of sugar, which has been linked to lots of health problems, including tooth decay and weight gain. ● The image we have of Father Christmas today owes a lot to Coca-Cola’s Christmas adverts dating from the 1930s. They showed a jolly man, wearing red, raiding children’s fridges for the fizzy drinks while he delivered toys. ● This year, Coca-Cola announced that its special red Christmas trucks decorated with fairy lights would be touring towns and cities across the UK. When they stop, employees will hand out free fizzy drinks to people. Coca-Cola is instantly recognisable, and it enjoys a particularly special place in the minds of…

In 2009, 26-year-old Matt Smith became a household name overnight when he was cast in one of the most famous roles on television: the Doctor in Doctor Who. Smith remains the youngest ever Doctor. For four years, Smith rode his Tardis through time and space – but he very nearly didn’t become an actor at all. In his early teens, Smith showed great promise as a footballer. He’d played for a variety of youth teams and had set his sights on a career in the English top division. Then, when he was 16, disaster struck. Back problems put paid to his footballing hopes and dreams. “I was low and upset,” he remembers. He got through it, though, thanks in part to his dad. “He said, ‘In life it is not…

Richmond Park in the largest park in London, covering 10 square kilometres (the size of 4,000 tennis courts). It is a Royal Park, meaning that it is owned by the British monarchy. The Royal Park is also a National Nature Reserve, home to ancient trees and rare species of bats, birds and wildflowers. Since 1637, it has also provided the perfect habitat for around 630 red and fallow deer. Visitors who spot these deer are advised to keep their distance, though. Find out more at royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park…

Beavers from wildlife parks in Kent and the Scottish Highlands were recently released into the wilds of Scotland’s Knapdale Forest, in Argyll. It is hoped that there will a thriving wild population there in the future. ● LIFESPAN IN THE WILD: Between seven and eight years. ● HABITAT: Beavers live in lodges built from branches, logs, mud and stones. The Eurasian beaver can be found living in an area that stretches from Norway to the Alps. ● DIET: These vegetarian marine mammals eat aquatic plants, bark and leaves. ● FUN FACT: The Eurasian beaver has small front paws with big claws for grabbing and digging. Their back paws are webbed, to help them swim.…

Each item of space junk is moving at 17,500mph. This is very fast if you consider the world land speed record – achieved by British fighter pilot Andy Green in Thrust SSC in 1997 – is just over 763mph. When space junk hits spacecraft, satellites or an astronaut, it causes a great deal of damage because of these great speeds. The speed at which space junk is travelling means that even small fragments can be dangerous. Being hit by a piece of space debris the size of a sugar-cube is the equivalent of standing next to an exploding hand grenade. Last year, a loose fleck of paint gouged out a chip from the window of the International Space Station. It’s possible that a fragment as small as a single centimetre…

Between 26 November and 3 December, 191 of the best table tennis players aged 18 and under competed in the World Junior Championships in Riva del Garda, Italy. England’s Tom Jarvis, aged 18, was the only British player and took part in singles and mixed doubles. Jarvis is ranked 32nd in the world and plays table tennis professionally in Sweden. He qualified from his group at the championships after beating players from Argentina and the US. He then beat Omar Ammous from Tunisia in the first knockout game, before losing to China’s Guankai Niu. In mixed doubles Jarvis was partnered with Madezhda Bogdanova of Belarus. They beat opponents from Egypt and Russia before losing to a Chinese duo in the last 16. Asian countries such as China, Japan and South…

Enchanted Christmas at Westonbirt Arboretum For three weekends in December, Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire plays host to a trail of light displays, offering a unique bit of Christmas magic. Find our more at tinyurl.com/TWJ-westonbirt Christmas at the Botanics, Edinburgh A mile-long illuminated trail takes visitors through Edinburgh’s beautiful Botanic Garden. With Father Christmas, toasted marshmallows and even singing conifers, it’s a light festival to remember. For more, see tinyurl.com/TWJ-rgbelights Waddesdon Imaginarium at Waddesdon Manor With wandering porcelain animals, dancing clocks and fluttering butterflies projected onto Waddesdon Manor, the Imaginarium – created by students from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama – is incredible. Check out tinyurl.com/TWJ-waddesdon…

For many people, Christmas isn’t complete without the angelic sound of carols. It feels magical to pause in the street and listen to a choir singing festive songs or choristers singing Christmas hymns in church. To really get into the festive spirit, however, why not join in yourself? You don’t need to have a great singing voice to go carol singing, and you don’t even have to join a choir. You could just get together a small group (including an adult) and go door-to-door carolling. Choose days and times when people will be at home and happy to answer the door, like weekends and early evenings. Maybe you could go with your family and practise with them beforehand. It might be nice to take some festive treats with you, like…

You might be about to hear a lot of that from your parents, as you start to ignore whatever they’ve left out on your bed for you, and you begin to develop your own style. While it’s exciting to dive in and start making your own fashion decisions, your parents may not agree with everything you choose. What you see as cool or stylish might be the opposite of what they think is suitable. They may also be reluctant to spend lots of money on branded gear for you, and they definitely won’t want you to wear clothes that are impractical for the weather outside. It’s the same with haircuts; it’s fine to have your own style but you don’t want anything that’s going to draw unnecessary attention, especially at…

Every year, UK households waste around seven million tonnes of food, most of which could be eaten. In an attempt to cut down on waste, Co-op supermarkets have decided to sell food past its best-before dates. Supermarkets put best-before and use-by dates on their foods to tell shoppers the point at which they should have eaten it. Use-by dates appear on foods that go bad quickly, such as fresh fish, meat products and packed salads. If you eat these foods after the use-by date, then they could make you ill. Best-before dates appear on frozen, dried and tinned foods, and are usually about quality not safety. This means that when the date has passed, the food might not taste as nice but it won’t be harmful. The scheme, under which…

After a fleeting appearance at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this month Mark Hamill will reprise his most famous role in one of the most eagerly anticipated films for decades: Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Hamill played his best-known part – and the one he will be returning to – a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Hamill was 25 when he first picked up a lightsaber and felt the force, in the first of the series, Star Wars: A New Hope. Hamill played Luke Skywalker, a young man who learns his true destiny is to be a mighty Jedi knight. Although Hamill didn’t quite spend his childhood on a remote desert planet like his character, he was still isolated. His father was an…

On 24 November, the Mexican government declared a group of islands as a marine park, making it North America’s largest ocean reserve. The reserve, which covers 150,000 square kilometres, will protect hundreds of species that include rays, sea turtles and whales. The group of volcanic islands, called the Revillagigedo Archipelago, is in the eastern Pacific Ocean, west of Mexico. The water around the four islands is home to humpback whales and fish such as tuna and sierra. Sea birds, including blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds, nest on the islands. Now that these islands and the surrounding waters are officially protected, there is a ban on fishing and mining. Building hotels on the islands is also forbidden. To make sure that the archipelago remains safe, the area will be patrolled by…

A study recently revealed that the number of artificial lights (electric lights used at home or to illuminate car parks, factories, sports stadiums and streets) used at night has risen alarmingly. Studying satellite images taken between 2012 and 2016, scientists saw that the area of the planet that is lit artificially rose by more than 2% every year – adding up to nearly 10% through the four-year study. Excessive or inappropriate use of artificial light has a special name: light pollution. Why does it matter? Well, all this artificial light, say scientists, could be affecting the sleeping patterns of people and animals. Before artificial light, people would go to sleep soon after the Sun went down and wake up when it rose in the morning. Keeping bright lights on after…

North Korea is one of the world’s most secretive countries, but it has been in the news a lot lately. On 28 November, North Korea announced that it had tested a type of weapon called an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). ICBMs are rockets that can fly over very long distances. Because they fly across continents, they are known as intercontinental missiles. North Korea claims that its ICBMs could strike the US. It’s not the first time North Korea has tested these weapons. Some people are now worried that North Korea is close to working out how to fix miniature nuclear explosives on top of ICBMs, making them capable of causing serious destruction. The US president, Donald Trump, has said he will “handle” the situation, but what is behind North Korea’s…

You may have tried origami – the Japanese art of paper folding. Now, researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are using the same technique to create robotic muscles, that are soft, light and capable of lifting up to 1,000 times their own weight. The muscle is made from folded plastic or sheet metals. This creates a “skeleton” that will lift, twist or flex according to the way it has been folded. This structure is placed in a sealed bag that acts like skin. This skin-like layer is soft, and allows the muscle to move and to expand or contract when air or liquid is pumped into or sucked out of it. It’s thought that the muscles could one day be used in deep-sea exploration missions, or…

The trailer for Marvel’s latest Avengers film has smashed all previous records to become the most-watched trailer in a single day. Avengers: Infinity War follows the squad of superheroes as they battle to save Earth from the evil, intergalactic baddie, Thanos (played by Josh Brolin). Within 24 hours of its release, the trailer had racked up a whopping 230 million views – that’s 30 million more than the previous record holder. Infinity War will bring together all of Marvel’s most exciting heroes, including Iron Man, Captain America, Dr Strange and Black Widow, as they fight to stop the gigantic Thanos from collecting the Infinity Stones. Thanos, also known as the Mad Titan, hopes to use the six powerful Infinity Stones to enslave the galaxy, while bringing death and destruction. You’ll…

On 4 December, the US Supreme Court (America’s highest court) announced that it had agreed to allow the enforcement of US president Donald Trump’s ban on people from several mostly Muslim countries. During his presidential campaign, Trump promised his supporters that he would ban Muslims from entering the US. One of his first acts as president was to try to prevent travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country. He claimed that they were a threat to national security. Many people objected to this and several courts around the US ruled that the ban was not legal. Since then, Trump has extended it to include Chad, which is a mostly Muslim country, and North Korea and Venezuela, which are not. Iraq and Sudan are…

On 4 December, a report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said poverty now affects almost 14 million people in the UK, including four million children and 1.9 million pensioners. What is poverty? When you think of poverty, you perhaps think of people in developing countries who don’t have enough food to eat or who live in very basic accommodation. In the UK, people are said to be living in poverty when they do not have enough money to pay for their basic needs, such as rent and heating. Parents in poverty do not have enough money to let their children join in with activities such as school trips, and some may have trouble paying for clothes or school lunches. How is poverty measured? Officially, people are said to…

New York, US Peace Diamond raises millions On 4 December, an enormous diamond that was mined in Sierra Leone, West Africa, was sold for £4.8 million at an auction in New York. Some of the proceeds from the sale will be used to help improve the lives of people in the village where it was discovered. The Peace Diamond, as it is known, is more than six centimetres wide and 2.5 centimetres deep – it is the 14th largest diamond ever found. The money could pay for clean water, schools, medical facilities and roads. Malta Arrests made over death of journalist Three men have been charged with killing the investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. On 16 October, Caruana Galizia died when a bomb exploded under her car. She wrote a…

Los Angeles, US, is most famous for Hollywood – one of the world’s most important centres of cinema. While studios spend millions making blockbusters, however, things are less rosy in other parts of the city. Ron Finley has spent much of his life in South Los Angeles, where riches aren’t so easy to come by. A former fashion designer, Finley became fed up when he realised that fresh fruit and veg was in short supply in his poor neighbourhood. He decided to plant a public vegetable garden to ensure that money was no obstacle to a healthy diet. He overhauled a disused bit of public land and launched an organisation to educate people about the benefits of a healthy diet. Today he calls himself the Gangsta Gardener and hopes to…

On Earth we produce about 1.8 billion tonnes of waste every year. To make matters worse, we are cluttering up space with our junk, too. Thankfully, scientists from Surrey Space Centre at the University of Surrey in Guildford have a plan to get it cleaned up. There are about 7,500 tonnes of trash in orbit around the Earth. This includes an estimated 500 million pieces of man-made rubbish such as old satellites, nuts and bolts, used rocket boosters and bits of objects that have crashed into one another and smashed into pieces. In 2009, for example, a Russian satellite collided with a US satellite. Both were destroyed and created more than 2,000 pieces of junk bigger than 10 centimetres, along with thousands of smaller fragments. The rising amount of rubbish…

There are many mysteries in the natural world that scientists have tried to solve, but one of the most exciting is the legend of the yeti, or the abominable snowman, said to live in Asia’s Himalayan Mountains. It is described as a kind of man, beast or mixture of the two. Charlotte Lindqvist, of the University of Buffalo in the US, is an expert on bears. She travelled across the world and collected nine samples of teeth, hair or bone from the remains of creatures that had been identified as yetis, and managed to extract DNA from all of them. DNA is a chemical that carries information about living things. Lindqvist studied the DNA and found that eight of the samples were from bears. The ninth one came from a…

Recycling needed Tens of thousands of abandoned bikes piled up in Nanjing, China. Lunar light This supermoon looks as if it is trying to hide behind Corfe Castle in Dorset. A supermoon happens when the Moon is close to Earth and appears bigger than usual. Winter wonderland A walker takes a snowy stroll through Whitby, North Yorkshire. Spot the real Santa People dressed as Father Christmas at Saint Nicholas Day in Verbier, Switzerland. Paw patrol A dog stands to attention for retiring soldiers in Suqian, China. Frozen fish A man stands on the ice to catch fish from a frigid lake in Van, Turkey.…

For many people in the UK, the most important day in winter is probably Christmas Day – a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s not the first sacred festival to fall around the end of December, however. The 21 December is winter solstice, the darkest day of the year. Whereas at the summer solstice the Sun light up the land during the year’s longest day, winter solstice is the opposite – the year’s longest night. Before Europeans celebrated Christmas, they marked the winter solstice. It’s not just the longest night – it also marks the return of the Sun; after the winter solstice, the days begin to lengthen once more. In the dark depths of winter, light became a very important symbol. Vikings in Scandinavia would…

Bearables are a cute way to code Getting hands-on with electronics is a popular way to learn about coding, particularly with computer kits, such as the Raspberry Pi and BBC micro:bit. A new gadget called Bearables allows you to create electronics that can be worn. They are a range of woodland-themed badges that can be sewn onto clothing, but they also have their own batteries and LED lights, which flash in 12 patterns. The idea is that they connect to motion and light sensors to control them, or you can connect them to a Raspberry Pi or micro:bit and use them to customise the patterns using code. They’re fun for the Christmas disco, but also a great way to practise coding. BLAST OFF! In 2016, a school in West Yorkshire…

What you need Paper A pen or pencil Something cool to draw Instructions Blind drawing is all about transferring what you see straight onto the paper. Never look at your hand while you’re drawing – only look at the object you’re sketching. Start at the top left-hand corner of the object you’re drawing and slowly follow the outside of it with your eyes, moving your pen or pencil along with your gaze. Don’t take your drawing tool off the paper, just let it follow the line of your vision. The picture might look a bit odd at first but keep practising and you’ll find that soon the blind drawings often look even better than normal ones.…

Leaping into a moving plane Jumping out of a plane can be an impressive feat but a pair of French wingsuit fliers have taken it to the next level. Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet, also known as the Soul Flyers, managed to land inside a plane travelling at 85mph from the top of a Swiss mountain. Wingsuit flying is an extreme sport in which people soar through the air wearing a suit that has extra material between the arms and legs – creating wings similar to those of flying squirrels. The thrill seekers spent months training for their stunt. Police apprehend alpacas Police officers are used to responding to calls of a burglary or catching people speeding in their cars, but one force in the US recently received a rather…