Innholdsfortegnelse for 207 i The Week Junior

One of the Queen’s sons, Prince Andrew, has announced he will no longer carry out public duties on behalf of the royal family. The news came after he was criticised for a TV interview in which he tried to defend his friendship with a convicted criminal. The prince also said he would stop being a patron (official supporter) of all 230 organisations that he represented. It is reported that the Queen has cancelled a party to celebrate his 60th birthday.…

New Haven, US Protesters disrupt football match Climate-change protesters have disrupted an American football game between Harvard and Yale universities. Climate change is the long-term change in weather patterns caused by human activities. Hundreds of students ran onto the pitch to demand both universities stop investing in fossil-fuel companies. Coal, oil and gas are all fossil fuels, and burning them contributes to climate change. Police had to be called to take some of the protesters off the pitch. Lyon, France Red panda escapes from zoo On 23 November, a red panda was rescued from a garden. The three-year-old animal had been on the run for more than a week after escaping from St-Martin-la-Plaine zoo, near Lyon. A member of the public told the zoo after seeing it in a tree.…

More than 100 babies from a rare crocodile species have been discovered in the mountainous Asian country of Nepal. The endangered gharial crocodiles were found by a team from the Zoological Society of London and Biodiversity Conservancy Nepal. The find has given new hope that the species can be saved. The baby crocodiles were found along with three adult females and one adult male in western Nepal’s Bardia National Park. It’s the first time gharials have been recorded in the area for around 30 years. Project leader Ashish Bashyal said that after trekking through the jungle for hours, finally catching a glimpse of the hatchlings was a wonderful moment. He described the baby crocs as “incredibly cute”. The number of gharials has fallen by 98% since the 1940s, and they…

Scientists may have worked out a way to save ash trees from a fatal disease. Trees in the UK and across Europe are being attacked by a fungus called ash dieback, which infects and damages their stems and bark. Ash dieback can kill a young ash tree within a year, and older ones over a period of several years. The disease started in Asia (where local ash trees can usually resist it), but came to the UK in 2012. Scientists fear that it could eventually wipe out 70–95% of the UK’s ash trees. Some trees, however, have been able to resist the fungus, and researchers have now identified the genes that protect these survivors. Genes are short sections of DNA – a complex chemical that instructs each cell in every…

A sheepish grin One of around 500 lambs born in Cornwall this autumn. Sliding scales Singers from the Winchester Cathedral Choir go skating. Staring contest A cape vulture at the International Centre for Birds of Prey in Gloucestershire. Green light Protesters shine laser beams in Santiago, Chile. Wave to the crowd Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa on a wave in Nazare, Portugal. Fixing a T. wrecks Maintenance work is carried out on a robotic dinosaur in China.…

Auckland Castle, in County Durham, reopened earlier this month after more than £12 million was spent on returning the spectacular building to its former glory. The 900-year-old castle was closed in 2016 for experts to restore the inside to the way it looked in Georgian times in the late 18th century. The castle is an important historic monument because it was home to the Bishops of Durham, who governed the north of England for more than 750 years. Inside the castle, the walls have been painted lilac, pink, blue and green to match the Georgian design. The long dining room is lined with paintings by the famous Spanish artist Francisco de Zurbarán. The paintings had hung in the castle for more than 250 years but were sent to the US…

What you need ● 1 butternut squash ● 2 tablespoons olive oil ● 1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (optional) ● 100 grams spinach ● 2 tablespoons lemon juice ● 100 grams blue cheese ● Pumpkin seeds and pine nuts (optional) ● Baking tray ● Greaseproof paper ● Large bowl Instructions First set the oven to 180º C. While the oven heats up, prepare the butternut squash. You can keep the skin on or peel it, but if you keep the skin on, give it a wash with warm water first. You might need an adult to help with the next bit because cutting the squash can be tricky. Cut the top end off first, then cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Next, cut each of the…

Name: Amy “When I arrived in Sri Lanka, I knew we were going to have a great time. When I saw all of the temples and mountains, I was amazed by the beauty and nature that was growing in that land, every day becoming more and more spectacular. It was then time I had to leave to go to the Maldives (yay!) so I spent a week there and came back to Sri Lanka to take a flight to Heathrow airport. It was Easter Sunday that day. When we just landed in Colombo, my dad looked on his phone and said there were bombs set off in Sri Lanka, already 200 people had died. He showed me his phone, and I was devastated. I was in shock. When we got…

On 24 November, local elections were held in Hong Kong. It was the first time citizens have had a chance to vote since protests began in June. The protesters want the political system to be more democratic, which means the public have more of a say over who is in charge. Almost three million people voted – the highest turnout for an election in Hong Kong’s history. All but one of the region’s 18 district councils were won by pro-democracy candidates. Councillors are responsible for local issues, such as bin collections, but will also help select Hong Kong’s next leader. The protests began over a planned change to the region’s laws, but have since become about freedom for its citizens. Hong Kong is part of China but has its own…

A group of British children who were orphaned in Syria during the country’s civil war have returned to the UK. An orphan is a child whose parents have died. They arrived on 22 November and are the first British citizens to be repatriated (sent back to their home country) from the area of Syria once controlled by Islamic State (IS). IS is an extremist terrorist movement that wanted to create a very strict new country across Syria, Iraq and beyond. Who are the children? The identities of the young people have been kept secret for legal reasons. They are all from the same family and were taken to Syria in 2015 by their parents, who wanted to join IS. What’s the situation in Syria? IS has now lost all of…

What you need to know ● A headteacher at a Brighton primary school has banned her pupils from playing “physical games” in the playground. Joanne Smith of Rudyard Kipling Primary School said her Gentle Hands programme was designed to stop students from getting injured. ● Under the new rules, pupils are allowed to touch each other if they are playing gentle clapping games, but activities such as tag are banned. ● Parents have reacted badly to the Gentle Hands scheme, saying children are bored during break times. One of the best parts of the school day is the time spent in the playground. It’s a chance to be with friends, run around and have fun. However, at the Rudyard Kipling Primary School in Brighton, things were getting too rough and…

When Asda delivery driver Habeel Khan was dropping off people’s shopping in Nottingham, he didn’t expect to end up saving a baby from a burning building. “It was just a normal day at work for me,” Khan said – until he saw a house on fire and a woman screaming that her baby was inside. Khan ran into the house with her to rescue the baby and stayed with them until firefighters arrived. For his heroics, Khan was named Asda’s Colleague of the Year. Speaking about the award, Khan said, “I didn’t really think anything of it – I just thought I’d helped out, and had done a little good deed.” Claire Wilkes, who works with Khan, said, “Habeel doesn’t think he is a hero, but we certainly do –…

A team of American inventors has solved a very sticky problem: how to stop poo from making the toilet dirty. It might seem like this problem is already easy to fix with a scrub of a toilet brush and a few flushes, but this takes huge amounts of water that could be used elsewhere. At the moment, about 141 billion litres of clean water are used to flush the world’s toilets every day. That’s more than double all the water used for cooking, washing and drinking each day throughout Africa, where clean water is scarcest. The new system, called LESS (which stands for Liquid-Entrenched Smooth Surface), was developed to cut flushes and save water. It makes poo slide down the bowl without smears, so fewer germs gather in the toilet,…

Astronomers have discovered a star with a traumatic past, a high-speed present and a lonely future. The star, called, S5-HVS1, is travelling at 3.7 million mph – or 1,056 miles per second. Astronomers think that when it was born, it had a partner star. The pair spiralled around each other as they moved through space at a fairly slow pace. Then, about 4.8 million years ago, they passed near a black hole, at the centre of our galaxy (the Milky Way), which weighs as much as four million Suns. The black hole’s powerful pull on caused the stellar pair to speed up, but when its companion was pulled into the black hole and destroyed, S5-HVS1 was cut loose and catapulted out into space. It’s now moving fast enough to completely…

On 23 and 24 November, the sixth event in the exciting new International Swimming League (ISL) took place at the London Aquatics Centre, to decide who goes to the finals in the US. British stars including Olympic champion Adam Peaty and Siobhan-Marie O’Connor, James Guy and Duncan Scott competed during the action-packed two days. Unlike at the Olympics, swimmers at the ISL win points for their team, rather than individual medals. There are eight teams from Europe and the US (although the swimmers come from all over the world). Each team has male and female swimmers. This is the first ever ISL season, and four European teams took part in the event in London: Energy Standard from Turkey; Aqua Centurions from Italy; Hungarian team Iron; and the host team, London…

Raglan Castle, Wales This castle in Monmouthshire is a sandstone building from the Tudor period (1485–1603). It was built to show off the wealth of its owners and not for defence. However, it did come under attack in 1646, during the English Civil War (1642–51). Eilean Donan, Scotland Situated on an island at the point where three sea lochs meet in Scotland, Eilean Donan castle was built in the middle of the 13th century. It was designed to protect the area from Vikings, invading warriors who sailed over from Scandinavia. Dunluce Castle, Northern Ireland This medieval ruin in County Antrim dates back to the 1500s. It is one of Northern Ireland’s most famous and most photographed landmarks. The castle stands on the very edge of a cliff and can be…

Bouldering is the sport of indoor and outdoor climbing without using ropes and a harness. It has become very popular over the past few years, and many climbing centres around the UK have set up bouldering routes for newcomers to try. Bouldering walls, which are known as problems, are usually less than five metres high. That’s lower than walls climbed with a safety rope. Soft crash mats are underneath the wall to cushion and protect you when you come off. In indoor climbing, a boulderer must work out how to move up or across a problem by reaching for coloured holds (the bits attached to the wall where you can hold on with your hands). Feet also need to be placed on holds, cracks or edges in the wall to…

Do you have a flair for photography and a love of food? If so, then this could be the competition for you. Pink Lady® apples is offering 30 young winners the chance to attend a professional photography workshop with David Loftus, the most published food photographer in the world. His pictures have been used in recipe books by chef Jamie Oliver. Loftus will spend two hours with 30 young photographers to teach them how to get the best from their camera or phone, with a specific focus on food. He’ll be joined by the CBBC presenter and former Celebrity MasterChef contestant Barney Harwood. The skills and knowledge picked up from David and Barney at the workshops could even help you to snap some stunning images to enter in the Young…

On 25 November, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, released a plan of action to protect it. His Contract for the Web aims to improve the online world by tackling abuse, fake news and the invasion of privacy, among other issues. The World Wide Web is made up of all the pages found on the internet. The internet is the network connecting all of the world’s computers together. Whether it’s used for education, entertainment or socialising, 30 years after it was invented, the World Wide Web has become something that most people can’t imagine living without. Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist. He invented the World Wide Web in 1989 when he was working at CERN, a centre for scientific research based in Switzerland. He was…

1 December 1955 Rosa Parks challenges race law On 1 December 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, in the US, a woman called Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. From the 18th to the mid 20th century, there were laws in the US that meant black and white people had to live separately. They had to live in different areas of town and go to different schools. Parks inspired thousands of other black citizens to protest, eventually forcing Alabama and other parts of the US to change these laws.…

Laurent Simons is about to become the world’s youngest university graduate, at just nine years old. Simons is studying electrical engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. He is on track to complete the three-year course in just nine months, and the university says he is three times smarter than any other student they’ve had. Once he’s graduated, Simons wants to study medicine. His plan is one day to build a full artificial body. He does find some time to relax as well, though. When he’s not studying, Simons enjoys playing video games Fortnite and Minecraft, as well as playing outside with his puppy Sammy.…

The critically endangered gharial crocodile is one of the rarest and strangest-looking reptiles on the planet. Males can grow more than five metres long and weigh up to 250 kilograms. Unlike all other crocodiles, they have a long and very narrow snout which they use to catch fish and crustaceans (crabs and similar animals). Male gharials have a large lump on the end of their snouts. They used to be found in several countries, including Bangladesh and Bhutan, but there are now only a few hundred mature adults surviving in small populations in India and Nepal.…

Researchers using cutting-edge technology have found that rare Gouldian finches are using waterholes in northern Australia. The team found traces of the finches’ DNA – the chemical that carries all the information about an animal’s characteristics – left in the water, proving that they had been drinking there. ● LIFESPAN IN THE WILD: About six years. ● HABITAT: Small colonies in trees and termite mounds. ● DIET: A mix of seeds and insects. ● FUN FACT: If a red-headed female finch mates with a red-headed male, she will produce equal numbers of male and female offspring. If she chooses a black-headed mate, she will produce more males than females.…

A royal rescue, 1881 The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh were rescued by the RNLI off the coast of Devon when their small boat nearly capsized (turned over) in the sea. The Duke of Edinburgh was the son of the Queen’s great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria. The Suevic rescue, 1907 When a ship from Australia, heading to Liverpool, became stranded off the Cornwall coast, the RNLI rescued all 456 passengers on board. The rescue, which took 16 hours in total, still holds the RNLI record for the largest number of people saved in one go. Operation Dynamo, 1940 With Nazi Germany closing in on France during the Second World War, many troops from the UK, France and Belgium became stranded in Dunkirk, northern France. The RNLI helped to save the soldiers, ferrying…

Even today, 4.2 billion people – over half the world’s population – do not have a safe and clean toilet, and more than 600 million people have no toilet at all, and have to go to the loo in the open. This increases the risk of germs from the poo getting mixed up with the water supply, which can spread serious stomach diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid. The United Nations says that diarrhoea caused by the lack of clean toilets kills about 315,000 young people every year. It declares a World Toilet Day every November to highlight how going to the loo is not so easy for many people around the world.…

Sam Bird and Alexander Sims The British drivers won the first two races of the new Formula E season in Saudi Arabia. Bird drives for the Envision Virgin Racing team and Sims, who is part of BMW i Andretti, won his first ever Formula E race. The next race will be held on 18 January in Santiago, the capital of Chile, in South America. The series will finish in London next summer. ● All the cars are powered by an electric battery. ● There are 14 Formula E races between November 2019 and July 2020 on city street circuits around the world. ● Spectators are encouraged to travel to races using public transport, which creates less pollution. ● Formula E fans can vote for a driver to get a five-second…

In recent months, some of the most popular gamers on YouTube have started playing Minecraft again and making videos about it, reminding their fans how fun the game can be. That’s good timing, because a brand new Minecraft game has just been released for iPhone and Android smartphones. Minecraft Earth is in “early access” mode, which means it’s still being developed, and there may be the odd bug. Like the original Minecraft, it’s about crafting, building and battling monsters (“mobs” in Minecraftspeak). The twist is that the new game has you doing all this in the real world around you. Like Pokémon Go, it uses augmented-reality (AR) technology and your phone’s camera to show digital stuff – in this case blocks and mobs – appearing on the scenery wherever you…