Attention kids of Australia, here's your chance to run the country.
Announcing PM for a Day a brand new Squiz Kids competition where we ask you, our fabulous audience, if you were Prime Minister for a day, what would you do to make Australia a better place?
The winner will win a trip to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister, visit Question Time and even get a personalised tour of Government House by none other than the Governor-General herself.
All you need to do is send a video to squizkids at thesquizcomau telling us the one thing you would do to make our country better if you were PM for a day.
But you better hurry.
You've only got until March 13 to get your entries in.
Check out our website squizkids.com.au for terms and conditions and details on how to enter.
Squiz Kids acknowledges the traditional owners of the Lands on Witchby podcast the Turrbal and Combermary people.
Squiz Kids!
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 Thursday, February 26.
In Squiz Kids today.
Tilly's go for glory, Ukraine's sad anniversary.
Kiwi Bird makes Berry bounce back and the cave-dwelling cheetah mummies.
That's what's making news, kids style.
The Lowdown.
Have you got your green and gold scarves at the ready?
Have you heated up the popcorn and got your cheering voice all warmed up?
Because, starting this weekend, we're about to launch into three weeks of football mania, as everyone's favourite Aussie athletes, the Matildas, take on the world in the Women's Asian Cup.
Competition kicks off in Perth this Sunday when the Tillys, including Mary Fowler, Sam Kerr, Hayley Razo and Mackenzie Arnold, take on the Philippines at Perth's Optus Stadium.
The Asian Cup.
As its name suggests, we'll see the likes of South Korea China, India and Japan take on the Tillys for the title of Asian champion.
Over three weeks of competition.
The best women's soccer players in Asia will be booting it out in stadiums all over the country, with the final scheduled for March 21.
Let's go!
Yesterday marked an anniversary that the world would rather not have had, as the war in Ukraine ticked over into its fourth year.
In that time, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, which are normal people like you and I, have been killed in the conflict between Ukraine and its neighbouring country Russia.
And while peace talks have taken place during the past four years and are in fact expected to happen again this week, there's no real sign of the fighting coming to an end any time soon.
It's another reminder to be thankful for living in a country that is not in the midst of a war and to never take for granted how lucky it is to go to school, to play sports on the weekend and generally go about your life without the threat of bombs overhead.
Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a new story from wherever it stops.
And today we've landed in Saudi Arabia, a kingdom in the deserts of the Middle East where archaeologists have discovered cheetah mummies in underground caves.
No, not cheetahs who have had baby cubs with them.
I'm talking about mummified cheetahs.
Animals that walked the Earth up to 4000 years ago, but whose remains have been kind of sort of preserved by a natural process of mummification.
You know, like an Egyptian mummy.
The cool part, apart from the whole cheetah mummy thing, is that scientists have managed to identify DNA in the mummies that could help them bring a long-lost subspecies of cheetah the Northwest African cheetah.
Back from extinction.
Extinction is a fancy word for when a species of animal or plant disappears from the face of the earth.
Cheetah mummy zombies.
Hmm.
Sounds like a kid's movie waiting to happen.
Animal kingdom.
On the subject of species coming back from the brink of extinction...
Melbourne Zoo this week welcomed four new snow leopard cubs to its ranks.
When mummy snow leopard Miska delivered a litter of bouncy, little bubs.
It's a great shot in the arm for snow leopard conservation efforts, with leopard numbers in the wild under pressure and the species generally being considered vulnerable to extinction.
The cubs will stay in a private enclosure with mum until April when they'll be put out on display.
Booking my tickets to Melbourne as we speak.
And speaking of species making a comeback, good news from New Zealand too, where the endangered Kakapo bird is posting a sudden increase in its numbers.
The Kakapo is one of New Zealand's favourite birds.
Flightless, curious and charismatic.
But it's notoriously bad at reproducing.
Until this season, where it's thought the flourishing of a local berry, which puts the birds in the mood for a bit of kissing and cuddling, has seen a spike in kakapo chicks this season.
Must be some magic berries.
Mew!
Every Thursday, Squizzy the News Hound pops his snout into Squiz Kids HQ to report back on fishy things he's sniffed out on the internet.
And today his nose is twitching like a crazy dog after coming across a bunch of AI-generated videos being shared on Facebook.
The videos, which are not real, show immigrants to Australia demanding special treatment from the Australian government.
As I said, They're AI-generated.
They're not real people.
They're not showing anything real.
That's happened.
Now, Squizzy and his friends at AAP Fact Check did some sniffing around and discovered that the videos were being made by somebody who wants to paint immigrants in a bad light, to make it seem like they are saying things and doing things they've never said or done.
And this, my friends, is very much the danger these days.
We have to be constantly on the lookout when we're online for stuff that is not real.
Because many times, like in this instance, the stuff is being created to create divisions in our community, to make one group suspicious of another.
And you're going to hear a lot in the coming weeks about something called a Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and something called Social Cohesion, which is a fancy term for everyone getting along together.
Because, as we've said lots of times on this podcast, tolerance of others and celebration of difference is what makes this country great.
Thanks, Squizzy, for keeping us on our toes when we're online.
And if you'd like your kids to be among the 5000 classrooms currently signed up to do Newshounds, our free digital literacy program, head to squizzkidscomau and get involved.
Stop, think, check, people.
Okay, folks, we're getting close to the cut-off date for questions for Dr Karl.
Everyone's favourite scientist has agreed to do a Squiz Kids QA and answer whatever curly question you might have for him.
So, kids, send your questions in as a class or maybe just as yourself.
Just make sure you get those questions in before next Tuesday.
Email squizkids at thesquizcomau or head to the Squiz Kids website and follow the instructions to record your question.
Music Time for the Squiz.
This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you've been listening.
Question number one.
Which country do the Matildas face off against this Sunday in Perth?
Music Well done if you had your listening ears on and you just said the Philippines.
Question number two.
In which country did archaeologists recently find cheetah mummies in a cave?
Take a bow if you said Saudi Arabia.
Question number three.
Name the species of quirky New Zealand bird that's enjoying a berry-inspired population bounce.
Yeah, that's right.
It's the Kakapo.
Shout out.
It's Thursday, February 26.
On this date, way back in 1606, a Dutch explorer named Willem Jans landed at Cape York, at the top of Queensland, becoming the first known European to set foot there, on the sunburnt continent.
It would be another 160 odd years before Captain James Cook followed suit.
It's also a special day today for these squiz kids celebrating a birthday today.
Osteen from Kensington, Ava from Vermont, South Blaze and Ava from Parabadoo, Noah from Pimble, Olivia from Irmington, Ray from Camaray and Emily from Gournong.
And a belated birthday shout out goes to Iris, who's listening all the way over there in Brooklyn in New York City.
I hope the snow is not too heavy there today, Iris.
And classroom shout outs.
Today go to Class 4W with Miss Stevens at St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Barden.
To Class Booroo 3 and Miss Schmitzer at Googong Public School.
To Class 6 Gold with Mrs Glover at Mount Carmel School, in Yass and Green Room with Mrs Bartlett at Harrington Public School.
Don't forget 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 at squizkids at thesquizcomau, 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 with the Kids vs Adults weekly news quiz.
Your chance to prove who's been paying the most attention to the week that just was.
In the meantime, get out there and have a most excellent day.
Over and out.
Thank you.
