Innehållsförteckning för June 2022 / Issue 33 från News Bites

Hello, News Biters! You’re very welcome to another epic issue of News Bites. Right, let’s dive straight in. In this month’s feature, we’re celebrating our blue planet as World Oceans Day falls on June 8. Perhaps more than ever before, our wonderful oceans need everyone’s love and attention. As you know, a healthy ocean is vital to mankind’s very existence, and World Oceans Day is an ideal opportunity for us to learn more about our oceans –and how (and why) we can help to protect and conserve them. As always, we also travel back in time to bring you historical events worth knowing about on page 9, tour the world in Alphabet Atlas on page 11 (check out where the letter J takes us this month), and lace up our…

Meet Pigcasso You’re heard of chimps and gorillas who paint? Well, now meet Pigcasso, the painting pig! Pigcasso is a rescue pig living at a sanctuary for farm animals in South Africa. She has amazed the world by learning to paint – using her mouth to hold the brush, of course. She has held art exhibitions, appeared on TV shows, designed a watch named Flying Pig for Swatch watches – and now she has sold a painting, Wild and Free, for $24,500! That’s a record price for an artwork created by an animal. No, she doesn’t name her paintings, as some of the chimp artists who know sign language can – she leaves that to the owner of the sanctuary. But she signs each painting by dipping her nose in…

DC League of Super-Pets In cinemas: July 2022 Rated: PG Voice-starring: Dwayne Johnson as Krypto and Kevin Hart as Ace Directed by: Jared Stern When the Justice League (Green Lantern, Flash, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter) are kidnapped by one of the ultimate bad guys, Lex Luthor, Superman’s dog Krypto must kick, roll and bark into action if he’s going to save his master. To do this, Krypto assembles a team of pets from nearby shelters. He chooses well, as each animal happens to have superpowers. Aided by a pot-bellied pig who can grow and shrink in scale, a super-fast turtle (yes, we get it!), a squirrel who can zap things with his paws, and a seriously strong dog, Krypto must find the Justice League before Lex…

MAKER: Rolls Royce MODEL: Boat Tail YEARS: 2021 FUEL: Petrol TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic TOP SPEED: 250 km/h HORSEPOWER: 600 HP MATERIALS: The lower body parts like the chassis are made from carbon fibre. A strip of chrome runs from the front to the rear bumper. 5 FAST FACTS 1. The Boat Tail is seriously exclusive with only two models ever made. The car took four years to develop. Each one costs over $25 million, making the Boat Tail the most expensive new road car ever built. 2. The Boat Tail is entirely handmade and, although based on the Rolls Royce Phantom, it features over 1,000 new parts. It is a product of the coachbuilding division at Rolls Royce, which is dedicated to bespoke projects. 3. The car’s centrepiece is a…

Hello, young News Bites readers! I am a big cat called a cheetah and I live in Nigeria. I have relatives who live in southern, eastern and north-western Africa and even a few in Iran. I am the world’s fastest land animal and can accelerate from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in just three seconds. But I can only maintain this sprint for half a minute before I burn out. Speedy My body is designed for speed. I have wide nostrils and large lungs which provide plenty of oxygen to my muscles. My leg muscles consist of fast-twitch fibres which contract faster than normal muscles like yours. I have a powerful heart and strong arteries which also help to increase blood flow. My small body frame is light, and…

Singapore to host SailGP Mark your calendars! Singapore will host the eighth stage of the Sail Grand Prix season on January 14-15, 2023. It will be the first time a SailGP event has taken place in Asia. Fans in Singapore will be able to watch 10 teams do battle on hydrofoiling F50 catamarans that reach speeds of up to 100 km/h. The season began in Bermuda last month with the competitors slowly making their way east as they compete in the USA, Europe and Dubai before reaching Singapore early next year. The Singapore SailGP will also include female competitors as part of the league’s Women’s Pathway Program. Asian Games Postponed Coronavirus has caused the postponement of another sporting tournament. The 2022 Asian Games were due to take place in Hangzhou,…

They are not cuddly like pandas, magnificent like lions or cute like kangaroos. They are not a ‘flagship species’ like those animals – that is, an animal with ‘star quality’ selected to represent an environmental cause. In fact, people are terrified of some of the larger reptiles, like snakes and crocodiles! And some are so small that they are hardly visible. These might be some of the reasons why the conservation of reptiles is not often given attention. We are horrified at the possibility of ‘saying goodbye’ to our old friend the elephant or our cousins the apes, but we’re not out campaigning to ‘Save the Turquoise Dwarf Gecko’ from Tanzania, beautiful and extraordinary though this tiny creature is. Yet reptiles have their fans and, for those who study them,…

Prehistoric Perfection Scientists have discovered one of the best-preserved dinosaur fossils ever. And not only that, they believe this dinosaur was killed on the day the Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth – some 66 million years ago. The fossil even reveals the dinosaur’s skin, and it was featured in David Attenborough’s new BBC documentary, Dinosaurs: The Final Day. The fossilised remains of the Thescelosaurus (a small plant-eating dinosaur) are so good that the discovery led to Phillip Manning, a professor of natural history at the University of Manchester, calling it ‘absolutely bonkers’. Rural Navigators Researchers have recently discovered that people who grow up in the countryside have better navigational skills (that is, the ability to find one’s way from place to place) than those who grow up in large towns and…

OFFICIAL NAME: Jamaica POPULATION: 2,905,365 CAPITAL: Kingston AREA: 10,992 km² Mountains: Blue Mountains, John Crow Mountains, Don Figuero Mountains Major Rivers: Black River, Rio Cobre, Rio Grande OFFICIAL LANGUAGES: English MONEY: Jamaican Dollar Where is Jamaica? Jamaica is a small island in the Caribbean Sea about 1,000 kilometres south of the US state of Florida. With Puerto Rico, Cuba and Hispaniola it makes up the chain of islands called the Greater Antilles. The Landscape Jamaica is a mountainous island, but it has plenty of good farming land. It is famous for its beaches which attract many visitors to the island. Agriculture and tourism are the two biggest industries in Jamaica. History The first people to live in Jamaica were gentle American Indians called the Tainos. They named the island ‘Xaymaca’,…

Angkor Wat is in northern Cambodia. It is one of over a thousand temples spread across the Angkor region. It was built in the first half of the 12th century as a Hindu temple in honour of the god Vishnu, but by the end of the century it had become a Buddhist temple. Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument in the world. It was built by Emperor Suryavarman II as the state temple and political centre of his Khmer empire. In the Khmer language, ‘Angkor’ means ‘capital city’ and ‘Wat’ means ‘temple’. Building Angkor Wat was an enormous task. To create the moat around the temple, over two million tonnes of sand and silt were moved. This would have required thousands of people working together at one time. Angkor…

The first rocket to reach space was a German V-2 rocket during World War II. After Germany was defeated in the war, Britain launched three of these V-2 rockets. In 1947, the US sent the first animals into space on a V-2 rocket – fruit flies! After that, many animals of different kinds, from apes to tortoises, were sent into space as experiments – and many of them died. In 1949 the first primate, a rhesus monkey called Albert II, was launched into space by the US. Tragically, he died upon re-entry after a parachute failure caused his capsule to hit the ground. Cold War In 1957, the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which included Russia) launched Sputnik I, a satellite that orbited Earth every 96 minutes. Its radio…

Man City Swoop for Haaland The hottest young prospect in European soccer is coming to the English Premier League. Erling Haaland will join Man City from Borussia Dortmund on July 1 in a $105 million transfer deal. The 21-year-old averaged almost a goal per game during his two years with Dortmund and is one of the most coveted strikers in Europe. A host of major clubs were interested in signing Haaland, including Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Read Madrid, but he chose Manchester City and the chance to work with one of the sport’s great coaches – Pep Guardiola. Haaland has signed a five-year contract with City and, despite the large transfer fee, it represents a fantastic piece of business by the Premier League giants. Many believe Haaland is worth three…

Get Out of Jail Early We all know that reading is important. But, in the country of Bolivia, prisoners have discovered that reading can get them released from jail early! ‘Books Behind Bars’ is a programme based on a similar set-up in Brazil. Both these countries experience severe overcrowding in their prisons. Bolivia lacks the resources to offer education or other help to people in many of the jails, and the system is so slow in some places that people might wait years before going to trial. In 47 of Bolivia’s prisons, 865 inmates are now reading books and taking tests to check for understanding. Other than a bit of entertainment, what is to be gained by these inmates? Depending on how much they read, they can take hours, days,…

JUN 12 1929 Anneliese Marie Frank, known as Anne, was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929. Her mother was Edith Hollander Frank. Her father, Otto, owned a good business. Anne had a sister, Margot, who was three years older than her. The Franks were Jewish and quite well off. Life was good for them in Germany. All that was about to change, however. Germany in the 1930s Nazi Party leader, Adolf Hitler, became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. He soon set about making Germany the most powerful country in the world. Hitler didn’t like Jews. His Nazi government began bringing in laws to make life difficult for the Jewish community. Moving House Otto Frank decided to move to Amsterdam, and Anne came to the Dutch capital in…

CROSSWORD TIME ACROSS 1 Hollywood superstar Dwayne Johnson, formerly known as ‘The _______’ (4) 3 Nik: the first person to walk directly across Niagara Falls on a tightrope ________:(8) 5 The capital city of Jamaica (8) 6 The game Janken is also known as ‘Rock, Paper, _______’ (8) 9 Complete this latest Spider-Man movie title: Spider-Man: No Way________(4) 11 Angkor Wat is in northern ___________(8) 12 The name of Elon Musk’s auto company (5) 14 This type of fly was first in space (5) 16 Andy: famous American pop artist _______(6) 19 ‘The more that you, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.’ _______(4) 21 Jamaica is a small island in this sea (9) 22 Maker of the iPhone (5) DOWN…

The captain of a boat is the person who is in charge of it. They are sometimes described as the heart of the vessel and take care of everything to do with it. Everything the captain says should be treated as a command by everyone on board because it could be a matter of life and death. The captain is not only in charge of the safety of the boat – he or she is also in charge of the safety and comfort of all those on the boat including both passengers and crew. Where does a boat captain work? A boat captain can work on a boat anywhere in the world that has an ocean, sea or inland waterway. If the boat is sailing close to the shore, within…