Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Recently, Vladimir Putin was elected President of Russia.
The official count of votes said he won with a clear majority of the votes (more than 50 per cent) but many people believe that his supporters stuffed the ballot boxes with false voting cards and that he really shouldn’t be President.
Canada’s rich people are getting richer and the country’s poor people are getting poorer.
That’s because the gap — or distance — between the amount of money the richest and poorest people earn at their jobs is widening.
The richest Canadians earn 10 times more than the poorest.
That means if the average rich person earns about $100,000 a year, the poorest earns only about $10,000 for a whole year.
A new report by an international organization called the OECD* said the same thing has been happening in many countries including the United States.
It has been happening since the 1990s, before the new millennium.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) is going to elect a new leader.
The NDP is Canada’s official opposition party.
The leader of the NDP was Jack Layton. He passed away last August from cancer.
It will be hard to fill his shoes, because he was well respected and liked not just by members of his own party, but by Canadians across the country.
There are nine candidates vying to be leader of the NDP.
On Sunday night they held a leadership debate.
A debate is when candidates talk about the issues, and say why they think they’d make the best leader.
When Xenia Benivolski heard about the problems in Attawapiskat, she wanted to do something to help.
The people in the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat are living in terrible housing conditions, often without heat or running water.
Temperatures there drop to -20C at night.
The community has declared a “state of emergency.”
Benivolski set up a Facebook page, asking people to donate items to help the community.
“Then people started Tweeting it… and it just kind of snowballed,” says Stephanie Guthrie, a friend who is helping with the drive. “You see something (like this) happening and you just can’t not do anything.”
Almost a year later, the effects of Arab Spring are still being felt.
Last December, the people of North Africa started what is being called “Arab Spring.”
Arab Spring refers to a series of uprisings by the people in a number of Arab countries.
The citizens rebelled when they could no longer put up with dictators and their cruelty.
They forced the President of Tunisia to flee to Saudi Arabia and the President of Egypt to quit his job and move away.
For more than a month, the people of Occupy Toronto staged a peaceful protest on behalf of what they call “the 99 per cent.”
They built a tent village in St. James Park in downntown Toronto and camped there.
They set up a media centre, so TV news stations, newspapers and websites like Teaching Kids News could get information about them and their cause.
They used “social media” tools like Twitter and Facebook to communicate with each other.
This allowed them to talk to each other and let people know what was happening at all times.
A brand new political party, the Coalition pour l’avenir du Quebec (Coalition for the Future of Quebec), was launched last Monday.
A coalition is a group of people, often from different backgrounds, with the same goals.
This makes six registered political parties in the Province of Quebec, where the Liberals are in power and the Bloc Quebecois is in second place.
The leader of the the new party is Francois Legault.
He is known to Quebecers as a separatist, someone who would like to see Quebec separate from Canada to become its own country.
But last week Legault spoke as though separation was not as important to him as it once was.
A number of countries in Europe are having problems with their finances and their leaders.
This year, four prime ministers in Europe have quit their jobs or been forced out of office.
That’s because their countries have spent more money than they make and now they can’t pay their debts.
Some of the countries are making deals with other countries in Europe and the International Monetary Fund for a “bailout.”
A bailout is a loan to a country to keep it from going bankrupt.
The richer countries agree to put in more money to save the poorer countries.
Italy’s prime minister is stepping down.
On Tuesday, Silvio Berlusconi announced that he will resign.
His announcement came after a key vote in parliament indicated that he does not have the support of the majority of parliament.
Italy is in the midst of an “economic crisis” – the country has borrowed more money than it can pay. It has too much “debt.”
Other countries, like Ireland, Portugal and most recently Greece have had similar crises.
However, Italy’s problem is much bigger and arguably more of a problem for the whole European Union (EU). The European Union is a partnership of 27 countries in Europe.
Italy is more than $2.6 trillion in debt.
Greece is having a crisis over its money and its leaders. Greece’s crisis is affecting other countries in Europe.
Over time, Greece has borrowed a lot of money–more than it can pay back.
The European Union (EU) is a partnership of 27 countries including Greece.
The EU countries have been working together to come up with a plan to help Greece repay the money it owes.
If Greece can’t figure out a solution for its problems, it may go bankrupt or be forced out of the European Union.
