Kid News This Week: Donald Trump elected US president, deadly floods in Spain, kiwi bird make a comeback, dumb Dutch thieves botch Warhol robbery
This episode's world news for kids… Donald “trumped” Harris in the race for the US White House – we give you the lowdown and look forward to what the next four years might have in store for us. Elsewhere, Spain is rocked by a crazy torrent of rain that led to deadly floods – we’ll have a special report on the clean-up from Barcelona. Plus, conservationists to the rescue in New Zealand where their beloved kiwi bird is under threat. And you won’t believe what some very dumb art thieves did to four Andy Warhol paintings they stole from a gallery in the Netherlands.
EPISODE- 188
LEELA: This week… Donald trumped Harris, but what’s it means for the next four years? Plus deadly floods in Spain, Kiwis make a comeback and more dumb thieves in the Netherlands.
OPENING STING – LEELA: “Hey, hey, hey. Listen up. New, new, newsy – Newsy Pooloozi!”
THEME MUSIC
LEELA: I’m your host Leela Sivasankar Prickitt.
MAMA: And I’m Lyndee Prickitt.
LEELA: And this is your one-stop shop for the most interesting and important news happening around the world.This week…
Donald trumped Harris in the US election – we’ll give you the lowdown and look forward to what the next four years might have in store for us.
Elsewhere, Spain is rocked by a crazy torrent of rain that led to deadly floods – we’ll have a special report on the cleanup.
Plus, conservationists to the rescue in New Zealand where their beloved kiwi is under threat! (The bird is not the nickname of the people!)
And you won’t believe what some art thieves did to four Andy Warhol paintings they stole from a gallery in the Netherlands.
OK then, let’s dive on in. First up, it’s the…
BIG NEWS STORY STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “The Big news story of the week!”
MAMA: The US election has come and gone… but, boy, it was a bit of a nail-biter, as they say.
LEELA: Yeah, even over here in India everyone at school all day was following the results. Gotta say, some people were shocked that Donald Trump won 312 electoral votes to Kamala Harris’ 226.
MAMA: And, yet others were not surprised at all. Do you know that statistically it’s rare for an election to be won by a party that has been in power when inflation has been around a long time. So I guess by that metric or barometer, Kamala Harris and the Democrats didn’t have a chance.
LEELA: And ummm, should we remind our listeners what inflation is?
MAMA: Oh, yeah, well, it’s basically the prices of goods and services increase and increase over a period of time.
LEELA: But that’s been happening all over the world – thanks to the pandemic – not just in the US!
MAMA: Try telling the voters in one country that inflation is a global problem, and they usually don’t understand or believe you. Or, at any rate, they don’t like it and the only power they have to show their unhappiness is to vote against the person in charge.
LEELA: But let’s face it – that wasn’t the only complaint against Harris. Lots of people didn’t think she took a strong enough stance against illegal immigration.
MAMA: That’s totally true. But it’s also worth remembering, that while Trump did win by a clear majority of 75 million votes, there were almost 72 million people who voted for Harris.
LEELA: Which shows how divided the US is.
MAMA: Exactly. There are going to be a lot of tricky family gatherings over the next few years… And it’s worth reminding our listeners that the Republicans also took control of the Senate.
LEELA: And they control the House of Representatives too.
MAMA: So it was quite the sweep. Which means they can make a LOT of changes.
LEELA: Which will thrill the supporters and scare the bejabbers out of the Dems, right?
MAMA: That’s pretty much it.
LEELA: So, what do the experts reckon Trump will do first after he’s sworn in on January 20th?
MAMA: Who knows! He’s a showman who likes attention, so there’s bound to be some noise early on. But a lot of people say his threat – or promise – to carry out mass deportations of illegal immigrants is just impractical. When it comes to climate issues, though, he already pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Agreement, which the Dems reversed, so that’s likely to happen again.
LEELA: I guess the big thing people want to know is will he support Russia in their war against Ukraine (or should I say, will he stop America’s support and military supplies going to Ukraine) and then there’s Israel and Gaza.
MAMA: Bingo – many people are waiting anxiously on both those fronts.
LEELA: And then, of course, as we already mentioned, there’s the inflation problem. And everyone is also so worried about China...
MAMA: Right.
LEELA: And then there’s the people that Trump will appoint to be in his cabinet
LEELA: And one of them will be billionaire Elon Musk!
MAMA: I know, right? He was loud and supportive on the campaign trail and now has a seat at the inner circle table. Famous for cutting costs at the companies he buys, it’s perhaps no surprise Trump announced that he AND another loud billionaire, the former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will be co-leading a newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
LEELA: Duh-duh-duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
MAMA: I know. I think there are going to be some stressed out US government employees. But Trump has appointed the first women ever White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles.
LEELA: That’s like the person who runs his team, right?
MAMA: More or less, yeah – it’s definitely one of the most important nonelected posts in the administration.
LEELA: Well, it’s cool it’s a woman.
MAMA: Yep. But regardless, it’s gonna be an eventful few years, that’s for sure.
LEELA: Well, we’ll do our best to keep all our listeners up to speed with the important news AND, and, and – offer a lot of OTHER super interesting news that has NOTHING to do with US politics.
MAMA: You got that right!
https://www.ehn.org/trump-exit-paris-agreement-2669760085.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/11/us/closed-border-trump-immigration-deportation/index.html
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/Series/Back-to-Basics/Inflation#:~:text=Inflation%20is%20the%20rate%20of,of%20living%20in%20a%20country.]
MAMA: So, while the Democrats are cleaning up their mess of a loss to Donald Trump, people in Spain are cleaning up another kind of mess. A much sadder mess, to be quite honest.
LEELA: That’s right. A few weeks ago, there were terrible floods along the eastern coast of Spain that swept away cars, bridges and train tracks.
MAMA: Not just that.
LEELA: Yeah, it also covered whole towns in tons and tons of icky, brown mud.
MAMA: And it was deadly too – with over 220 people killed because of the natural disaster and sadly that number is expected to go up. It all happened after deluge of rain – as much as normally rains in one year – came in just a few hours.
LEELA: Whoa – can’t even imagine how that could happen…
MAMA: Well actually, it’s not uncommon. It’s a weather phenomenon that happens sometimes during autumn and winter in Spain, but thanks to climate change, it’s happening more often AND more forcefully.
LEELA: And does this weather phenomenon have a name?
MAMA: It does. It’s called a “cold drop”, or as they say in Spain, a DANA, which is an acronym in Spanish for an isolated depression at high levels.
LEELA: Meteorologist lingo! I like it. But what does it mean exactly?
MAMA: It means when cold air blows over the warm Mediterranean waters it makes even hotter air that rises quickly and forms these big fat juicy rain clouds that can stay in the same place for hours, and hours, just pouring down rain...
LEELA: Wow. That's awful! I bet our Spanish correspondents Nina and Marcky Granena can tell us how the cleanup and recovery efforts are happening.
MAMA: They sure can.
LEELA: Well, then, over to you guys!
NINA Thanks Leela. Yeah, it’s been pretty somber around here lately.
MAMA: That means sad.
NINA: And there’s a lot of sadness because there’s a feeling like, it didn´t have to happen this way. I mean, as Leela and Lyndee explained, DANA is not uncommon.
MARCKY: In fact, back in 1957 Valencia had another very serious DANA that killed dozens of people.
NINA: And after that happened, they made some pretty big changes to their flooding emergency plan, including rerouting the whole river!
MARCKY: But it doesn´t matter how good your emergency plan is if no one knows about it.
NINA: You´re talking about the lack of emergency warnings to residents. Yeah, the way the local government warned people about the disaster was itself, a disaster.
MARCKY: It was a big hot mess.
NINA: It was a dumpster fire
MARCKY: A trainwreck.
NINA: A kerfuffle.
MARCKY: It was a huuuuge clusterffff....
NINA: Failure! A failure of massive proportions because even though federal weather officials first warned of heavy rains at 7:30 in the morning, city officials didn´t alert residents until eight o´clock at night!
MARCKY: Hours and hours after the rain had started! Unfortunately, for many people it was too late. Flash floods swept through towns covering everything in thick brown mud.
NINA: It all happened so fast. People are sad. And mad. Over the weekend there was a big demonstration with 130,000 people who are upset with the local government.
MARCKY: They were sure mad at the King when he visited the disaster site!
NINA: Yeah. They threw eggs and mud at him and the queen. I mean, not nice. But I get it. People are very mad!
MARCKY: But although we may be angry, it’s important to remember, we’re all in this together, and there’s a lot of work to do.
NINA: That’s true. People are traveling to Valencia to help. Volunteers are rolling up their sleeves to clean up the mud and dig out residents.
MARCKY: And schools like ours here in Barcelona are collecting things like diapers and canned goods for the people there.
NINA: For now, the anger will stick around. With some people blaming the local government, and some people blaming the federal government, and some people blaming them both!
MARCKY: So even as streets and homes are cleared of DEBREE the mudslingingwill continue.
NINA: You got that right! In Barcelona, this is Nina Granena
MARCKY: And Marky Granena.
BOTH: For Newsy Pooloozi!
[SOURCE: https://english.elpais.com/spain/2024-10-30/at-least-51-killed-in-flooding-in-spain.html
https://wmo.int/media/news/devastating-rainfall-hits-spain-yet-another-flood-related-disaster
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/c8xpqk2l0dxo
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/01/europe/spain-floods-warning-too-late-intl/index.html
WORLD WRAP STING – LEELA: “What’s that? I’ll tell you what. That’s the halftime bell! Which means… it’s time to hear what’s making news around the rest of the world. Hold on tight, it’s around the world in 80 seconds.”
MAMA: The United Nations Refugee Agency reports more than three million people are fleeing the ongoing civil war in the African nation of Sudan. This is one of the world’s worst refugee crises in decades.
In Israel the military continues their campaigns in Lebanon, with heavy bombings along the southern regions this week which are controlled by the militant group, Hezbollah. Meanwhile, eight international aid agencies say Israel isn’t meeting demands to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
On the Isle of White in England tracker dogs and drones are trying to find four female racoons – because they escaped from a zoo. While over the US state of North Carolina, residents are told to be on their guard as 40 monkeys escaped a research center.
And talk about a ghostly Halloween party, in Ireland hundreds of people lined the streets for a Halloween parade… Only there was no procession as it was one big TikTok spreading hoax. Police told everyone to go home, suggesting the crowd had been ghosted.
[SOURCE: https://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing-notes/unrelenting-violence-sudan-drives-continued-refugee-exodus
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-finds-that-israel-is-not-impeding-assistance-gaza-2024-11-12/
https://news.sky.com/story/forty-monkeys-escape-from-research-facility-in-south-carolina-13249963
LEELA: Why thank you so much for that whippity-whappity-zippity-zappity wrap –
MAMA: Ahhhem.
LEELA: Or should I say, whippity-whappity-zippity-zappity, wrap of what’s making headlines elsewhere in the world, Mama.
MAMA: Anytime, Leela. And now it’s time for…
NATURE STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “The call of nature. Get on your safari suite. Or squeeze into your scuba gear. And get ready to hop into a jeep. Or submarine. Submarine. Because Mother Nature is calling! Nature.”
MAMA: So, Leela.
LEELA: So, Mama.
MAMA: You know I spent a few days with my fabulous kiwi friends last week, right?
LEELA: Yep, and I also know you’re not talking about those adorable little grey-brown birds with super long beaks and, sadly, the inability to fly. But two of your oldest friends from New Zealand.
MAMA: You’re right. I did not spend several days hanging out with two flightless birds. My girlfriends are very flighty, thank you very much.
LEELA: Ha ha…!
MAMA: Well, you did set me up for that.
LEELA: I did…
MAMA: So, yes, people who come from New Zealand – an archipelago (or group of islands) way down past Australia – are often nicknamed Kiwis after their national bird.
LEELA: The adorable, flightless – and nocturnal (as it happens) kiwi.
MAMA: Which is sadly endangered.
LEELA: But never fear! There is a program underway to help bring the kiwis back.
MAMA: For more on this story, let’s cut across to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington, to Elise Ackerley.
LEELA: Well, then, over to you, Elise.
ELISE: Thanks, Leela.
So, centuries ago, there were around 12 million kiwis that wandered New Zealand.
But then – as you heard on Newsy Pooloozi just a few weeks ago – humans came to the island and unintentionally brought and their nasty rodents and predators with them.
(Remember hearing about that in Episode 182? Well, have a listen if not!)
Yes, we’re talking rats, ferrets and stoats and dogs – that like easy prey.
Like… a bird that can’t fly!
Especially, the small baby chicks, surprise, surprise.
Well, by 1998, there were a mere one-hundred-thousand kiwis left.
Crazy, right?
Yup, less than one percent of how many used to be here.
And today, there are only around sixty-eight-thousand left – and if we don't do anything, kiwis could be extinct in a few generations.
But, enough with the numbers.
Enter the kiwi-loving conservationists. (Phew!)
They’re laying countless traps all over cities and towns to create predator-free environments for the birds to thrive.
There are also sanctuaries dotted around the country.
They’ve also created hatcheries, where experts gently take the kiwi eggs from their burrows and keep them in incubators so they can hatch and grow until they’re strong enough to go into the wild.
I can tell you that in the hills near my school many hikers and mountain bikers are delighted to see more and more kiwis now.
Some are even wandering into people’s backyards.
The idea is to get the population back up to 100,000 by 2030.
And they might just make it.
So, watch this space.
In Wellington, New Zealand, I’m Elise XXX, reporting for Newsy Pooloozi.
LEELA: Oh, wow – I hope they make it. I LOVE kiwis!
MAMA: Me too! The birds AND the people, in fact.
LEELA: Thanks so much for that report, Elise, keep us posted!
MAMA: And finally, let’s see what the lucky dip machine has for us this week.
ODDBALL STING – VARIOUS VOICES: “Step right up, step right up… Have a go at the lucky dip machine… What’s it gonna be today, eh? An oddball, no doubt!”
LEELA: Well, this is strange. But… not so strange.
MAMA: And what exactly do you mean by that?
LEELA: Well, today’s oddball is about yet morethieves who didn´t manage to get away with the crime they were trying to commit!
MAMA: Ah ha! Another “dumb thief” story. We could run a whole special episode on that… It started for us way back in 2020 in Episode 16 (when you sounded so young and cute) –
LEELA: Not again…!
MAMA: Yes, well, those were some dumb thieves in Hong Kong who had no idea about the value of what they’d stolen and cut in half…
LEELA: Then in 2022 in Episode 94there was a mishap with a thief who got stuck in a... well, you´ll just have to listen and find out!
MAMA: Loved that one.
LEELA: And there were the one about the “hot” piece of art that kept getting passed around like a hot potato by thieves after it was stolen from a gallery in Netherlands?
MAMA: I do indeed! But if our listeners don´t check out Episode 158 from last year to hear it again!
LEELA: In fact, today’sdumb thief story is alsofrom the Netherlands. And I know just the person to tell us more. Let’s cut across to our Newsy Pooloozi reporter in Amsterdam, Tofunmi Fagade for this latest curious case of the dumb thieves.
TOFUNMI: Thanks, Leela and Lyndee. And you´re absolutely right. This is another dumb thief story from right here in Holland! And once again, it involves art.
Here’s what happened this time:
So, a group of not-so-bright art thieves broke into the MPV Gallery an hour away from Amsterdam.
They were trying to steal four works from Andy Warhol... who my mom* tells me is an American artist who not only made Campbell soup cans famous… (whatever that means!), but also that phrase, everyone gets “15 minutes of fame.”
Anyway… His art is super important, apparently, so stealing it was a big deal.
So much so that used a bomb to destroy the front of the gallery, then nabbed the four prints.
But – and here’s the stupid thief part – the thieves couldn´t fit the artwork into their get-away car!
I mean, queue the facepalm sound effect!
So, with time running out, the geniuses decided to rip two of the prints out of their frames, which clearly damaged them.
And the other two pictures?
Well, they were left right there on the sidewalk – still in frames!
Amateurs. Clearly.
Oh, plus all of this was caught on security camera.
So, not surprisingly one suspect has already been caught.
I guess – as Warhol would say – he’s now getting his “15 minutes of fame.”
In Amsterdam, this is Tofunmi Fagade, reporting for Newsy Pooloozi!
LEELA: Oh, nice one, Tofunmi! I like what you did there…
MAMA: But here’s a little fabulous fact, there’s evidence Warhol actually did not come up with the saying. The French supposedly have been saying it since the 19th century! But it still applies today.
LEELA: And I guess it means, that sooner or later, everyone will gain even a little quote-unquote fame in their life, right?
MAMA: Yep. And, hey, listers, Newsies… If you want yours, why not reach out to us here at Newsy Pooloozi and join our reporting team?
LEELA: Absolutely! We’re waiting for you!
FAB FACTS STING – LEELA: “And it’s time to wrap up the podcast with the top five fab facts heard today. Here goes…”
MAMA: FAB FACT NUMBER 1 – Donald Trump has many people wondering what the next four years hold for the US and the world. What day will be sworn in as President of the USA?
January 20
LEELA: FAB FACT NUMBER 2 – Spain got knocked by a horrible torrent of rain that dumped a year’s worth of rain in just a few hours – after a weather phenomenon of cold air blowing over warm waters that’s happening more frequently. What’s that called?
A cold drop
LEELA: FAB FACT NUMBER 3 – Conservationists and kiwi-lovers from New Zealand are taking part in a major restoration project, aiming to increase the bird’s population to 100,000 by 2030.
How many kiwis were there centuries ago – before humans inhabited the island?
12 million
LEELA: FAB FACT NUMBER 4 – And what’s so special about these grey-brown birds?
They have long beaks, are nocturnal and can’t fly.
MAMA: FAB FACT NUMBER 5 – Some dumb thieves botched a robbery of four Andy Warhol pieces in the Netherlands. What every day object did he make famous?
Campbell Soup cans
And don’t forget, if you want to test yourself later on, then go to the Lucky Dip page of our website, newsypooloozi.com, that’s pool-o-o-z-i, and take this quiz online in your own time!
LEELA: And that almost brings us to the end of this episode of Newsy Pooloozi! But first…
MAMA: Shout out to Bridget Joseph who wrote to us to say, “A very well produced podcast. The effort is incredible and so is the podcast. I look forward to it every week!!”
LEELA: Wow – well thank you very much, Bridget. You’ve made our week!
MAMA: Absolutely! Thank you. And thanks to the lovely Jyoti Chauhan for her production work and Julie Noce for helping write this episode!
THEME MUSIC
LEELA: If you enjoyed this dip in the coolest pool of news and information then HIT subscribe button on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Alexa or wherever you get your podcasts.
MAMA: While you’re at it… Give us a good rating. Or better still, leave us a review! Go on – we’ll read it out loud if you do…
LEELA: And don’t forget to check out our website – that’s newsypooloozi.com – p-o-o-l o-o-z-i.com
Alrighty then, see you next week in the happy, splashy giant Newsy Pooloozi!
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