Three weeks after Kevin McCarthy became the first ever Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to be voted out of the Speaker’s chair, the House finally elected a new Speaker on 25 October, the fourth candidate to attempt election: Mike Johnson from Louisiana. Johnson was elected on his first try on Wednesday, with all … Continue reading “Found: Speaker”
At age 87, veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach says The Old Oak will be his last film and it closes the trilogy set in the north-east of England after I, Daniel Blake (Cannes Palme d’or 2016) and Sorry We Missed You (2019). It looks at the arrival of a group of Syrian refugees to be … Continue reading “Ken Loach Trying to See the Hope”
Long before it made it to the U.S. and Canada, Hallowe’en was an ancient Celtic festival, Samhain*. One of the four major Celtic festivals, it celebrated the dead. One of the major traditions at Samhain was rituals that predicted the future. This is a tasty Scottish way to do that. * /ˈsɑːwɪn/ This Hallowe’en cake … Continue reading “Halloween Cake to Tell the Future”
On 14 October, Australians voted 60-40% against a referendum proposal on a change to the Constitution that would have given Indigenous Australians a greater voice in the legislature. If approved, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice would have been a consultative body to advise lawmakers on issues affecting Indigenous Australians. Labor Prime Minister Anthony … Continue reading “Australia Says No in Indigenous Representation Referendum “
On 3 October, Kevin McCarthy became the first ever Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to be voted out of his role. He had already made the news when had had to face 15 separate votes before being elected Speaker in January – most of the opposition coming from his own Republican Party. The … Continue reading “Wanted: Speaker”
For decades, Rupert Murdoch has dominated the media, first in his native Australia, then the U.K., the U.S.A. and other countries around the world. He started with one newspaper inherited from his father in Adelaide and built an empire that has included at various times Sky TV, The Sun and The Times in the U.K., Fox … Continue reading “Succession: Murdoch Media Empire”
Radio France has an amazing website that provides resources for teachers wanting to have their pupils sing. Logically most of the songs are in French, but there are four in English and several in German. If you check out the songs available on the Ma chorale voix interactive site, click on “plus de filtres” and … Continue reading “Free Resources for Class Singing”
Akram Khan’s Chotto Desh blends dance, projections and theatre to explore the choreographer’s British-Bangladeshi identity. You can catch new tour dates in October in Paris and Cherbourg. Khan’s work fuses classical Indian dance and stories with contemporary dance. Chotto Desh means “little homeland” (Bangladesh is “the homeland of the Bengali people”). It is a child-friendly … Continue reading “Exploring British-Bangladeshi Identity”
The annual Dinard Festival celebrates British film production. This year’s edition takes place from 27 September to 1 October. There are six films in competition as well as a short film section come on an Irish film section and special events: such as a homage to Jane Birkin and a preview screening of Ken Loach’s … Continue reading “Dinard British Film Festival 2023”
26 September is the day the EU celebrates all the many languages spoken in Europe and around the world. They have lots of resources for multilingual fun in schools. This language detective game requires no preparation. There are 40 short texts in 40 different languages each time you have to choose between six possible languages. … Continue reading “European Day of Languages 2023”