It’s one of the best known charity fundraisers in the U.S.A. Since 1948, kids have been adding a civic element to their Halloween trick or treating by collecting donations for UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s fund. Trick-or-treaters used to carry a little cardboard collecting box. The iconic box disappeared during COVID in favour of online … Continue reading “Put Some Meaning in Your Halloweening”
The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be announced on 12 November. The six authors on shortlist in the running for the prize are from the U.K., Australia, Canada, the U.S.A. and, for the first time, the Netherlands. Also for the first time, five out of six are women. Get … Continue reading “Watch the Short List for the 2024 Booker Prize”
2024 marks the centennial of the birth of James Baldwin, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, civil-rights campaigner and social critic, as well as self-proclaimed American “Native Son”. Born in 1924 in Harlem, New York, Baldwin grew up in poverty, the eldest of nine children. Harlem was home to many black families who had moved from the … Continue reading “James Baldwin Centenary”
Orion Jean, 13, has one goal in life: to spread kindness and encourage other people to be kind too. At age nine, he won a competition to write a speech about kindness. He used the prize money to donate toys to a children’s hospital. Then went on to fundraise for 100,000 meals for the hungry … Continue reading “Kindness Champion”
When humans have trouble walking, they can get help with orthopaedic shoes or prosthetics. What happens when an animal has a problem? San Diego Zoo in California fitted one of its penguins with customised shoes to help with a degenerative foot condition. Lucas, an African penguin, developed a chronic condition called bumblefoot, which occurs in … Continue reading “Happy Feet”
The Booker Prize shortlist 2023 contains books by two Irish, two American, a Canadian and a British author exploring identity, family dynamics and societal collapse. All of them have been shortlisted for the first time, and two of the books are debut novels. The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize will be announced … Continue reading “Six Books for the Booker”
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”
The first of a series of lawsuits by young U.S. citizens against state and federal governments over climate change has come to trial. Held v. Montana was the subject of a two-week court case in June. Sixteen young Montanans accused their state of violating their constitutional rights to a “clean and healthful environment”; to seek … Continue reading “Teens Sue Montana Over Climate Change”
6 April every year is celebrated by people of Scottish origins around this world as Tartan Day. And a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum in Dundee examines this long-lived fabric that was considered so dangerous that it was illegal to wear it in the 18th century is now a visual reminder of … Continue reading “Tartan Day”
The winner of the U.K.’s most prestigious literary prize, the Booker, will be announced on 15 October. The six authors on shortlist in the running for the prize are from the U.K., Ireland, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and the U.S.A. Their books are overwhelmingly inspired by real historical events, from a terrible lynching in America to … Continue reading “Short List for the 2022 Booker Prize”