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.
The car maker, Subaru Canada, has had to take one of its radio ads off the air.
The ad tells people that “roads are an unpredictable place, so drive with confidence.”
It then tells people that Subaru cars are very safe.
To demonstrate what it means by “unpredictable place,” the ad describes a truck driver who hasn’t slept in two days and is nearly asleep at the wheel.
The trucker is also described as eating a bag of ketchup potato chips while he’s driving.
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.”
Rhinos are being poached in South Africa.
“Poaching” is when people (“poachers”) illegally kill a wild animal.
This year so far 341 rhinos have been poached in South Africa.
That’s the most, ever, for one year.
Rhino horns are believed by some people, particularly in Asia, to be able to cure ailments like nosebleeds and fevers.
No one knows if this is actually true.
Students at the Etobicoke School of the Arts had a special guest at their anti-bullying assembly last week.
Lady Gaga sent the Toronto school a specially recorded video message.
The student council president, Jacques St. Pierre, is a huge fan of Lady Gaga.
He had sent emails to several celebrities, asking them to help launch the school’s anti-bullying campaign.
He was thrilled when Lady Gaga read his email and responded.
St. Pierre was the only student at the school who knew about the video until the assembly.
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.
Nearly a month ago, the northern Canadian First Nations community Attawapiskat declared itself to be in a “state of emergency.”
This week, as winter sets in and snow is on the ground in the remote community, they are finally getting some attention–and some help.
In Canada, a state of emergency is normally declared when something terrible happens to a place, such as an earthquake, flood or large fire.
It’s a signal to the country’s government that “we need help, immediately.”
In this case, the state of emergency is that the people of Attawapiskat, in northern Ontario are living in conditions that are worse than those in many third-world countries.
One reporter described going to Attawapiskat as, “like stepping into the fourth world.”
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.
