ABC Listen. Hello friends, it's Ruby here and you're listening to an episode of Newstime.
Hey Ruby! Hello! Today on Newstime, we're going to meet a strong teenager.
They can lift more than their own body weight.
We'll track down a green drink that's taken the world by storm and then we'll inspect some royal subjects in our wow of the week.
What do you say? Are you limbered up and ready to go?
I'm ready! Story number five.
How far do you travel to get your grocery shopping done?
Um, about five minutes there and back.
Three minutes there and then three minutes back.
One minute because it's just down the road.
That is very fast. Not everyone in Australia has a supermarket so close to them though.
Not too long ago, in the remote town of Baringara in Western Australia, a drive to fill up a fridge was a 10 -hour round trip.
How do you think the residents of that town felt?
Really upset and grumpy because they have to travel a really long way to get their groceries.
Tired because they will only have two hours left of their day.
Exhausted, tired and annoyed if they forget something just as they get home.
Yes, you wouldn't want to miss something on your shopping list. The people of Barangara realised that the long journey for food meant their kids were missing out on days of school and they decided to do something about it.
Because if you have to travel a really long way to get your groceries You don't get much time in school.
The townsfolk opened a community store close by and stacked it with groceries and fresh fruit and veggies.
They'll be able to have a store close enough that they don't have to take the long trip and they will be able to get outside.
Fruit and vegetables are healthy so the town will be really big and strong.
They'll feel better, they'll have fresh food so that they are healthier.
Exactly. Kids in Barangara can now chow down on delicious, nutritious food and go to school.
And when they ask the question, are we there yet?
their parents can say, actually, yes.
Story number four. If you want to play a sport, there is a lot to choose from.
from basketball to pickleball, croquet to cricket.
But one sport that requires a lot of strength is the power lifting bench press.
Here's how it works.
Competitors lie on their backs, grip a heavy barbell, pull it to their chest and then do their best to lift it up.
Not easy. How much weight do you think you could lift?
About 5 to 10 kilograms. 90 kilos?
About the weight of a table.
Impressive. Carly Young is a 14 -year -old para -athlete from New South Wales.
She lives on the South Coast and she's been powerlifting for three years.
She loves the sport.
She trains three times every week.
Carly lies down straps a belt around her waist and lifts the weight very carefully.
You need to strengthen your core muscles and your arms so that you're able to pick up the heavy weight.
Eat healthy and do lots of exercise.
You'll need to strengthen your arms and chest muscles so it would be easier to lift and you don't hurt yourself.
Carly has just competed in her first competition, the National Para Powerlifting Championships up on the Gold Coast. She was the youngest person ever to compete.
How do you think she felt?
Scared because you're in front of a big crowd.
It might be your first time and you might feel a bit anxious being in front of a lot of people.
Well, if Carly was nervous, she wasn't showing it.
She was able to lift 52 kilograms. That's more than her own body weight and even heavier than a toilet.
Carly had such a good time competing at nationals and she's already dreaming of the next competition, maybe even the Paralympics one day.
If that's your dream, you should give it a go.
Yep, Carly, keep shooting for the stars Story number three In Queensland there's a nasty critter that's been marching its way around and causing a lot of problems This is the fire ant I think they have a pretty bad bite and they are a pest and ruin your backyards They can ruin crops Clops.
I've heard that they can kill animals and native animals.
That is all very true.
Fire ants are named after the burning pain that their bite can leave. Fire ants are native to South America and they turned up in Australia about 25 years ago.
That makes them an invasive species.
They've now spread through Queensland and recently a nest of red imported fire ants was found in northern New South Wales.
It's probably like a river that connects Queensland and Sydney and then flows down that river.
They probably wanted to go somewhere else and they went to New South Wales.
Fire ants may be small but they can create a big mess.
They damage crops and they can kill native birds and turtles and frogs.
The good news is that the ant nest found in northern New South Wales has been destroyed.
But there's still a long way to go before these creatures are sent packing for good.
If you want to know more about this and hear about what people are doing to bring these fire ants under control, you can check out our special episode of Newstime all about invasive species.
It's just below this episode in the Newstime feed.
Juice, water, milk, tea, coffee.
There are lots of popular drinks around the world.
Recently, though, there's one drink that's become very, very popular.
It's called matcha.
I have heard of it and I believe it's green.
I think it's a tea.
Bingo. Matcha is a bright green tea powder made from leaves called tensha.
The powder is mixed with hot water to create matcha tea.
What do you think it tastes like?
Seaweed. It's green like seaweed and seaweed is sort of a Japanese food.
Leafy. Fruity, maybe?
hmm it's not quite fruity or seaweed it has a slightly sweet taste if a grown -up you know would like to try a matcha tea they won't have a bit of trouble right now because there's a shortage of this green powder right around the world the plant that's made of it may have run run out because of its popularity.
Yep, matcha has become a star of unmatched popularity.
In the last few years, people have been creating and sharing viral internet videos with recipes.
They think it's delicious and they want to share its deliciousness with everybody.
It's meant that more and more people want to get their hands on matcha powder.
tea farmers can't keep up with demand so there's not enough matcha to go around it could be a few years until matcha is in plentiful supply again so if you see someone who's managed to gather some of this green goodness tell them to enjoy it and now my friends let's put down our cups because it's time for this story made me go wow because it'd be pretty hard to look for diseases every year a group of people dress up in bright red uniforms jump into wooden boats and spend five days paddling down the river thames to check on king charles's animals they could be royal Royal peacocks.
Maybe birds. You're on the right track.
It's the annual census, that means the official count, of the river's swans.
Why do you think that's a tradition, counting swans on the Thames?
To check that they're all safe and sound.
And eat of diseases and that they're healthy.
That's right. Right.
The ruling monarch, who's King Charles right now, has lots of responsibilities.
And one of his titles is signer or lord of the swans.
This means the monarch oversees all of the swans in Britain's open waters.
And so every year sends a team of workers called swan uppers to count the birds and check them for diseases or injuries.
Maybe they lured them over to the edge with some food and put it on the edge while they ate it, then picked it up to check on it.
In recent years, swan uppers have found there have been fewer swans in the Thames, and this might be due to outbreaks of avian flu.
But for this year's census, they found 16 young swans on the first day.
If you got to keep track of any animal, like King Charles does with his swans, which would you choose?
Maybe dragons. Dogs.
Cheetahs because they are really fast and have spots.
And they're also called hunters.
A cheetah. Hope you can count quickly.
And with that, my friends, we've glided to the end of another swonderful countdown.
Thank you. Thanks, Ruby.
You are so welcome.
Don't forget to check out our special episode of News Time, all about invasive species, and I'll catch you again next week for another five amazing stories.
Catch you next time.
Bye, Ruby. See you later.
Or, as they say in Japan, the home of matcha, sayonara.
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