It's your daily news fix – fun, free, fresh.
Hello and welcome to Squiz Kids Today.
Your fresh take on what's happening in the world around you.
I'm Bryce Corbett. It's Monday, April 7th.
In Squiz Kids today, Queensland floods seem from space.
Rare tortoises welcome hatchlings.
Mushroom mission accomplished.
And Ronan, the mind -sniffing rat.
That's what's making news, kids style.
The Lowdown. And we start the week with a stocktake of the floods in outback Queensland.
The extent of which is so huge and so devastating that disaster recovery experts were in shock over the weekend.
Try to wrap your head around this.
After receiving more rain in four days than they usually receive in an entire year, enormous parts of regional Queensland are still under water with estimates at the weekend suggesting the flooded area is more than four times the size of Victoria, bigger than the entire state of New South Wales and about the same size as the country of Egypt.
The floods are widespread that they can even be seen from space, with NASA images released over the weekend showing the footprint.
Experts reckon if the flooding were a country, it would be the 31st largest country on Earth.
And while it hasn't attracted the same sort of media attention as, say, Cyclone Alfred did last month when it barrelled down on Brisbane, the impact of these floods is expected to last for weeks, as water moves downstream and impacts communities in its path.
To all of our Squiz Kids listeners out there in rural Queensland, we're thinking of you and hoping you're safe and dry.
So you know how we talked last week about tariffs being introduced by US President Donald Trump?
Yes, yes. I know. Don't roll your eyes.
I know tariffs are about as interesting to you as watching paint dry.
But there was a lot of news around on the weekend about the impact the tariffs will have on the price of things like Nike Trainers and Nintendo Switch2 consoles.
Aha, so now you're interested.
Because Nike Trainers are made in countries like Vietnam, the tax that will be applied to them when they are shipped into the US for Americans to buy at their local Foot Locker means they will be up to $20 more expensive.
And Nintendo pressed pause over the weekend on shipments of Switch 2 consoles into the United States, as it weighed up how much more expensive the consoles will be for American gamers after tariffs are applied.
It's called global economics, people, and you can thank me for introducing your little brains to it when you turn 20.
SPIN THE GLOBE Each day we give the World Globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in...
Cambodia, where a mind -sniffing rat has set a new world record. Wait, what?!
Giant African Pouched Rats are used to detect old land mines in the country of Cambodia.
Land mines left behind from various wars that have taken place there in the last 50 years.
They do it by sniffing out the landmines which are then cleared by bomb disposal experts And the reason they train giant African pouched rats to sniff out landmines is because they are so light they can scamper across the ground without setting the landmines off.
So clever. On Friday, Ronan the landmine hunting rat was rewarded for breaking the Guinness World Record for the most landmines sniffed by a single rat.
He's discovered 109 landmines since he arrived in Cambodia to do his very important work four years ago.
Hope you got a big whack of cheddar cheese to celebrate.
And it's mushroom mission accomplished for the first astronauts to fly into space wearing Australian flag as the latest SpaceX capsule to blast off returned to Earth at the weekend, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off California.
Now remember last week how we talked about the historic mission, which would take a bunch of private citizens into orbit over the north and south pole, and how one of the experiments they'd be performing whilst up there was to see where the mushies grow in space.
Well it all went to plan and now the astronauts and the space mushrooms are back on Earth for scientists to study the results of the experiment and decide whether mushrooms will be a good source of food for human beings living on the moon.
You'd have to be a fun guy to eat mushrooms on the moon.
Fungi. Mushrooms. Get it?
Yeah alright, fair enough, definitely not one of my better dad jokes.
Animal Kingdom And for a little bit of light relief on a Monday, a shout out to the two Galapagos tortoises in a zoo in America, who have become parents for the first time, welcoming four little hatchlings into the world.
Why is that such a big deal?
Because they are both over 90 years old, which is a long time to wait to become parents.
I mean it's hard enough to do it in your mid 30s.
I can't imagine having to chase toddlers around at the age of 90.
Slow and steady wins the race, I guess.
It's a big win for Galapagos Tortoise Conservation efforts introducing four more of the endangered species into the world.
Hey team, a quick message before we hop into the quiz and a huge thank you to everyone who has signed our petition calling on the Australian Government to fund digital literacy education in our schools and help save Squizy the newshound in the process.
We hit the 10 ,000 mark signatures over the weekend, but I really want to hit 20 ,000 by the time the election rolls around in just under a month.
So, if you haven't signed, do me a solid and pop on over to the Squiz Kids website – squizkids .com .au – and add your name to this very important cause.
And tell your friends to do it too.
Time for the squizz!
this is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
In which country is Ronan the rat doing an excellent job sniffing out land mines.
The country is Cambodia.
Question number two.
The floods in Outback Queensland are so big.
If they were a country, they would be the what largest country in the world?
Would they Maybe a.
the 10th largest country, b.
the 78th largest country, or c.
the 31st largest country in the world.
Well done if you said c.
the 31st largest country.
Question number three, in which ocean off the coast of California in the United States did the spacex capsule splash down on the weekend?
Well done if you said the Pacific Ocean!
Shoutout! It's Monday, April 7.
First day of school holidays for Queensland, Victoria and the NT.
Only one week to go for most of the rest of you.
Today is also an important day in Vietnam.
It's the Hung Hoang Festival, held every year on the 10th day of the third lunar month to honour the legendary Hung Kings, who are considered the ancient ancestors and founders of the Vietnamese nation.
Today is also a special day for these Squiz kids, celebrating a birthday today and tomorrow.
Amelia from Ivanhoe, Stevie from Middletown Grange, Ernie from Balgala, Abhay and Eva from Orren Park, Tarquin and Rosalie from Ashmont, Adam from Bentley East, Harry from Brisbane and Ned who's listening all the way over there in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Great to have you aboard Ned.
And belated birthday shout -outs go to Navia from Hammond Park, Mason from Berkhdale, Ivy from Elizabeth and Belo who's listening all the way over there in Memphis Tennessee.
Fantastic to have you aboard too.
And classroom shout -outs go to Class 5b with Mrs Bazzi and Ms Islam at Halhikma College in Lakemba.
Class 3v with Mrs Vanatambi at North Kellyville Public School.
Class 1cm with Ms Chu and Mrs Moon at North Cross Christian School in Ryde.
And Class 5b with Ms Karin at Iona Presentation College in Mossman Park.
And a reminder, if you celebrate a birthday over the Coming School Holiday Break, send Send us your birthday shout -out by this Friday, April the 11th, and we'll make sure to include you in the weekly quizzes that we'll be going out each Friday of the school holidays.
Otherwise, if you've got a birthday coming up and you want a shout -out, or if you're after a classroom shout -out, drop us a line, as ever, at squizkids at thesquiz .com .au, or fill out the form on our website.
Well, that's all we have time for.
Thanks for listening to Squiz Kids Today.
We'll be back again tomorrow when Amanda dives into the deep with a shark expert in your Squiz Kids shortcut to sharks To find out what makes these ancient sea predators So fascinating...
in the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day over and out
