Innholdsfortegnelse for 192 i The Week Junior

Heavy downpours have caused major flooding in India, Myanmar and other parts of South Asia. Hundreds of people have died and many more have been affected. Rescue operations are under way and millions of people have been moved to safety. What happened in India? On 14 August, it was reported that 244 people across India had died as a result of the flooding. Four days of torrential rain flooded villages and roads, forcing more than a million people to leave their homes. The worst hit region in India was the southern state of Kerala, which was left without power and drinking water. New flood warnings were issued for parts of the state on 14 August. In the neighbouring state of Karnataka, the floods were reported to be the worst in…

Between 11 and 15 August, Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha. It is the second of two major festivals celebrated by Muslims during the year. The first, Eid al-Fitr, was celebrated in June at the end of Ramadan, which is a month where Muslims fast (don’t eat) during daylight. Eid al-Adha means festival of the sacrifice. It commemorates the moment when, as told in the Qur’an (the Islamic holy book), a man called Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice (kill) his son to follow God’s will. However, before Ibrahim could do so, God provided him with a lamb to sacrifice instead (the same story appears in the Jewish and Christian faiths). During the Eid al-Adha festivities, Muslims pray and share food with their family and friends. The celebrations also mark…

Colorado, US Bear burglars break into homes Black bears are reported to have broken into more than 35 vehicles and nine houses in just 10 days in the US state of Colorado. Colorado Parks and Wildlife, which oversees the Estes Park area, says the animals are searching for food. They are very intelligent and people have been told to lock the doors and windows of their houses and cars. One bear smashed a hole through a wall to get into a house; another was filmed opening a car and getting inside. Jamaica Politician asks museum to return items A Jamaican politician has said that items taken from the Caribbean when it was under British rule should be returned by London’s British Museum. Olivia Grange, the Jamaican culture minister, said that…

Anew study by the world’s top scientists says that humans need to eat less meat and dairy and change the way we farm to save the planet from climate change. Climate change means the global changes in the Earth’s average temperature, mostly caused by humans. Rising global temperatures lead to more extreme weather events, such as floods and hurricanes. Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to power our homes, cars and factories is a major cause of climate change, yet the report says that limiting the use of fossil fuels will not be enough on its own to stop the harm being done to the planet. The report says that humans should also switch to a more plant-based diet. The two-year study was carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel…

Walk the dinosaur An unusual pedestrian crosses the road in Edinburgh. Wacky wheels Drivers dress up for a festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Cool running This athlete braves the chilly Glacier 3000 Run in Switzerland. If you go down to the woods... Bear cubs practise their climbing skills in Finland. Feeling the heat Fiery displays at the Grand Carnival in Jember, Indonesia. Slide inside Norwich Cathedral hosts an unusual visitor.…

The Edinburgh Fringe is the world’s biggest arts and culture festival. It is held for three weeks every August in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Edinburgh Fringe is an open-access festival, which means that anyone with somewhere to perform can put on a show and be included in the official programme of events. Last year, 3,548 shows took place across 317 different venues, divided into 10 categories. These include comedy, dance, exhibitions, musicals and theatre. Amazingly, the shows can take place in any venue that’s willing to host them. For example, performances have been held in a taxi and a swimming pool. The origins of the Fringe date back to 1947 and the first Edinburgh International Festival, which was put on to celebrate European culture following the end of the Second World…

The latest toy designed to work with phone and tablet apps is called Tori. When the new gadget goes on sale in October, its makers are aiming to get gamers casting spells, flying through space and laying siege to castles. It has been developed by games company Bandai Namco, which is most famous for the Pac-Man and Digimon games. Tori takes the form of a kit including a board that sits in front of a smartphone or tablet, and three objects: a wand, a miniature spacecraft and a catapult to be used on the board. These useful pieces of kit will be used to interact with apps, including a racing game called Crystal Chase, a stone-flinging adventure called Jungle Rescue, and a magical puzzle game called Shades of Light. Bandai…

The annual World Pea-Throwing Championship took place in Lewes, in East Sussex, on 4 August. More than 70 contestants took part to see how far they could throw a pea, but in the end, it was Andrew Bayley who won, with a throw of 32.37 metres. This year a new rule meant that all frozen peas had to be thawed. Last year, people complained that those throwing frozen peas had an unfair advantage over those throwing fresh, soft peas, which don’t travel as far.…

You might think Snow White is just a made-up fairy tale character – but that’s not the whole story. The fairy tale was written by the Brothers Grimm, yet some people believe that it was based on the life of a girl called Maria Sophia von Erthal. Her gravestone had been missing since 1804, when the church where she was buried was demolished. However a family in Bamberg, Germany, have found it and donated it to the town’s museum, where it is now on display for visitors.…

What you need to know ● A remake is when a film is made again with the same plot and title, but featuring different actors and sometimes new technology. ● On 7 August, Disney announced that new versions of films such as Cheaper by the Dozen, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Home Alone and Night at the Museum will be shown on its new streaming service Disney+, which is expected to be launched in the UK next year. ● So far this year, Disney has already released remakes of popular films including Aladdin, Dumbo and The Lion King. Next year, it will release a remake of Mulan. If you go to the cinema this summer, it’s likely that at least one of the films on offer will be a remake.…

Since the age of four, Geert Chatrou has been whistling. He was encouraged to take it up by his father, who enjoyed whistling the music of pop band The Beatles and the classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2003, Chatrou’s sister-in-law, who had asked him to stop whistling so much, secretly signed him up for the World Whistling Championships in the US. Chatrou won several of the top prizes and began performing at concerts, including in front of the Dutch monarch, Queen Beatrix. He is now a professional whistler, performing all round the world. He told The Guardian newspaper, “The best advice is to keep it joyful. It’s really silly, but the key is not to take it too seriously.”…

Located in the village of Florencecourt in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, Marble Arch Caves is an entire underground world carved out by the flow of three underground rivers. As you explore the hidden passageways on a guided tour, you’ll see rivers, waterfalls and stalactites hanging from the ceilings of the caves. The tour lasts for 75 minutes and includes an underground boat ride. Save your breath, though: there’s a 150-step climb to get out of the caves at the end. Find out more at marblearchcavesgeopark.com…

● LIFESPAN IN THE WILD: Unknown ● HABITAT: Found in warm parts of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. They are sometimes seen around the British Isles in summer. ● DIET: Their favourite food is jellyfish, but they will also eat other small fish and sea plants. ● FUN FACT: Sunfish grow enormously over the course of their lives. The biggest adult sunfish are 60 million times larger than the size when they hatched.…

The fossilised bones of a giant parrot – thought to be the biggest bird of its kind that ever lived – have been found near St Bathans, in New Zealand’s southern Otago region. A fossil is a trace or impression of an ancient plant or animal that has been preserved in rocks. The ancient parrot was named Heracles inexpectatus (Hercules the unexpected), due to its unusual size and strength. (Hercules was a famously strong hero in ancient Greek and Roman legends.) The parrot lived around 19 million years ago in an area that was covered in lush forests. The bird would have stood about one metre tall (around the size of a small child) and weighed seven kilograms. This makes it much bigger than its modern cousin, the kakapo, which…

On 5 August, Japanese electronics company NEC Corporation showed off an early test model of its new flying car. At a testing ground near Tokyo, Japan, the vehicle successfully took off and hovered about three metres above the ground for around a minute. The car took a year to build, weighs 150 kilograms and is 3.9 metres long. Despite NEC calling its invention a flying car, many people say it is more like a human-sized drone, since it has four propellers and cannot be used for driving on the road. Last year, Japan’s government launched a project to encourage companies to build electric vehicles that can take off and land vertically (up and down), and also operate without a driver. “Japan is a densely populated country, so flying cars could…

The 2019 Jr NBA Global Championship, in which 16 girls’ teams and 16 boys’ teams played each other over the course of six days, ended on 11 August. Squads from the US won both finals. The youth tournament in Orlando, US, is organised by the NBA (National Basketball Association), the sport’s professional league in North America. Half the teams at the tournament represented regions of the US; the other half represented other parts of the world. There were players from 40 countries taking part, all of them aged 13 or 14 years old. The girls’ final was won by US Central, who beat Canada 72-35. In the boys’ final, the US West team beat Africa 70-61. Two players from the UK were picked to play for Europe and Middle East.…

The Amazing Bubble Man Louis Pearl, better known as the Amazing Bubble Man, explores the magic and science behind bubbles. His show has been a sell-out success at the Edinburgh Fringe for the past 12 years. Mark Thompson’s Spectacular Science Show Join Mark Thompson for lots of fun science experiments. Exploding elephant’s toothpaste and howling jelly babies are just two of the things you’ll get to see in this show for curious visitors of all ages. I Believe in Unicorns Michael Morpurgo’s book is brought to life in this stage production of I Believe In Unicorns. Set inside a library, the story is about a young boy called Thomas whose life changes when he meets the Unicorn Lady.…

There are lots of platform-adventure games and a fair few music-rhythm games, but not many that combine the two. Songbird Symphony does, though, and the results are a lot of fun. Its hero is a bird called Birb, an orphan who’s been brought up by his uncle. The game sees Birb set off on an adventure to find out more about his background. That means plenty of running and jumping, but your rhythm skills will also be tested when you meet characters and take part in music battles, and have to press the right buttons at the right time to match their notes. Don’t worry if your rhythm is a little bit off; the game is forgiving of mistakes and, instead of dying if you get a musical sequence wrong,…

With the famous Ashes tournament under way and the exciting Cricket World Cup finishing last month, it’s a great time for fans of the sport. It might look complicated, but it’s easy to get involved and fun to play. There are different types of cricket, such as test matches, but they all usually have two teams of 11. Each team bats or fields. If a team is batting, two of their players will be on the pitch. A bowler from the fielding team bowls the ball at one of them. Runs are scored if the batting team hits the ball to, or over, the pitch boundary. Runs are also scored when the batters run between the wickets (the sticks of wood in the ground behind each batter) as the fielding…

A Welsh explorer is believed to have become the first person to walk the length of the world’s third longest river, the Yangtze, in China. Ash Dykes began the 4,000-mile journey in July 2018. He faced many challenges along the way, including packs of hungry wolves and temperatures as low as -20° C. On 12 August, he finally completed the challenge. The Yangtze River is the longest river in the world to flow through just one country. It begins its journey at its source, on the Plateau of Tibet in the west of China, before winding its way to the East China Sea. More than 75% of the river is in the mountains. The 28-year-old explorer from Old Colwyn, in north Wales, spent two years planning his epic trek, which…

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has announced several new plans that he says will make the country safer, such as creating new prison places in England and Wales. What are the plans? The Government has said it will create 10,000 new prison places by building new prisons and expanding older ones. This will cost around £2.5 billion. Existing prisons will also be given £100 million to improve security. The Government hopes that the new prison places will reduce overcrowding as well as housing additional criminals. The official capacity of prisons in England and Wales is 75,105, but the current prison population is much higher, at almost 83,000. What else has the Government promised? The Government has also said it will hire an extra 20,000 police officers by 2022, which is…

The UK Government has launched an investigation after almost one million people across England and Wales unexpectedly lost their electricity supply on 9 August. It was the biggest power cut for more than 10 years. The power cut hit London and the south-east between 4.53pm and 5.21pm, and people in the Midlands, south-west England and Wales were left without electricity until after 6pm. The power cut caused chaos on the roads when traffic lights stopped working and there were delays and cancellations on at least 14 rail networks, affecting workers heading home. Train passengers were trapped on board services across the country for up to nine hours. The power cut happened because two major power generators connected to the National Grid system suddenly shut down. The National Grid is the…

Ed Kean is known as the iceberg cowboy. With the permission of the Canadian government, he catches icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean, off the east coast of Canada, and sells the water in bottles or to drinks manufacturers. He says it is the purest water in the world. Kean first started ice-harvesting in the 1990s to supply fish factories with ice, to keep the fish fresh after they had been caught. When the local fish factory closed down, Kean realised the ice could serve another purpose. The ideal icebergs for harvesting are the size of a house and Kean uses a boat with a special hook to break chunks of ice off them. Kean says the water “tastes like water should taste”.…

If you want to save your seaside snack from a hungry seagull this summer, just try staring it down. A University of Exeter study found that the gulls are less likely to pluck up the courage to steal someone’s food if the person is looking at them directly. Researcher Madeleine Goumas bought a bag of chips at various seaside resorts, held it at arm’s length and timed how long herring gulls took to snatch the food if she was looking away, and when she was looking straight at them. Most gulls would not approach if they were being stared at, and those that did took an average of 21 seconds longer to try their luck when they were being watched. “Gulls are often seen as aggressive and willing to take…

Netflix has some serious competition after the emergence of a new streaming service called Disney+. Disney now owns more films, thanks its purchase of the 20th Century Fox film studio in March this year. With a bigger list of films to access, Disney plans to remake Home Alone and create new versions of past films such as Cheaper By the Dozen, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Night At the Museum for its brand new streaming service. Disney has already begun removing its films and programmes from Netflix in the US to prepare for the launch of Disney+. The service is expected to be ready for audiences in the US in November, and to come to the UK next year. The UK already has access to Disney’s content through a…

If an alien landed on our planet in 2019, how would it make sense of news stories and programmes created by humans? A company called Minushu is exploring that question in classrooms across Spain. The aim is to help young people to understand the news, but also to develop media literacy skills: for example, learning how to spot “fake news” – news stories that are deliberately misleading or inaccurate. To do this, Minushu has created an alien character called Nushu, who wants to understand “Earthling news”, and an app with games, stories and animated comic strips to help it out. Aimed at eight to 12-year-olds, the app uses augmented-reality (AR) technology to bring Nushu into the real world, on top of printable guides downloaded from its website. Minushu is already…

Name: Ariane “Mum and I went on the train to London. We then got onto the Tube. We walked through a busy street and arrived at The Week Junior offices. We had to sign in and got badges. We went through and had a cup of hot chocolate, some sweets and biscuits! We had a tour of the offices and met some people. We then sat with the editor and had some editing tasks to do. We clicked and dragged on the computer and made the page look exciting! Then the features editor let us choose some books from his special cupboard. We then went home. It was a fun experience and I enjoyed my day in London. ” What’s going on at your school? Have you taken part in…

We’d love to see your snaps. Send them to us at hello@theweekjunior.co.uk Don’t forget to tell us why you took them. “Here’s a photo of me and my friends drinking mango lassi. We added milk to make it easier to drink. It was delicious!” Amy “I found this emperor moth caterpillar whilst out hillwalking near Lanark.” Harry “We bumped into Jacqueline Wilson while staying with our Granny in London. She came over to have a chat and offered to have her picture taken with us.” Amelie, Charlotte and Georgia…

A semi-professional football league in England has voted to replace the referee’s whistle with a harmonica. In a pre-season friendly between Tiptree Engaine FC and Stanway Rovers Reserves, the referee, Matthew Stacey, blew into a harmonica whenever there was a foul. This is the first time that a harmonica has been used to referee a football match. A local reporter explained that there was lots of laughter whenever the referee gave a foul, and it is hoped that the use of the harmonica will lead to a more friendly atmosphere on the football pitch. So is this music to your ears, or does something sound a bit off-key?*…