World Children's Day, Bushfire Precautions and Mascara Brushes for Hedgehogs - Today's Biggest News

Today people all over the country prepared for some wild weather. There were catastrophic fire conditions in Western Australia and South Australia, and dangerously smoggy air in some eastern parts of Australia.

This morning, authorities were warning people in South Australia and Western Australia to be prepared for a day of catastrophic fire conditions. The temperature reached above 40 degrees in parts of SA and more than 100 schools and kindergartens were closed.

Lots of people and animals have left danger zones in case of an emergency, including 8 year old Ila who has left her home in the hills with a bag of essentials.

The Red Cross visited their school a few months ago and taught them about being fire ready. Authorities organised extra supplies and firefighting gear including this massive air-tanker on standby in case of an emergency!

Meanwhile, some fires are still burning in Queensland and New South Wales and smoke pollution is also a big problem, especially in Sydney where there's been a thick haze over the city. It's been a really bad start to the fire season but people are working hard to keep each other safe.

APOLLO 12 ANNIVERSARY
Today is the 50th anniversary of an important but slightly forgotten NASA mission Apollo 12. That one also went to the moon like Apollo 11 but some interesting things happened on the way!

For starters the rocket was struck by lightning TWICE just after taking off then there were all the onboard shenanigans! One of the astronauts brought a mixtape and they spent the whole trip on the moon laughing and singing!

WORLD CHILDREN'S DAY 2019
Today is World Children's Day but this year it's getting a bit of a shake up. UNICEF Australia has changed the name to #WorldChildrensSay encouraging kids to talk about all of the big issues that matter to them.

If you could change the world...what would you do? UNICEF's been asking kids across Australia what they would change about the world...and they've got some pretty good answers

UNICEF reckon kids only get asked about the little things, but kids are affected by big issues too, so that's what World Childrens Say is all about. They also surveyed Aussie kids to find out more. Almost a third said the biggest issue to them is climate change while more than one quarter said they wanted to fix war and terrorism.

Already this year we've seen massive movements by kids tackling climate change and now more than ever, kids are talking about the issues that affect them. So... I guess you're never too young to change the world.

PEOPLE IN GLASS HOUSES
Forget bricks and wood, how about a house made of old bottles? This DIY home in Brazil is becoming quite an attraction! The owner built the house by collecting more than 6 thousand discarded bottles from the streets and binding them together with cement! She's thinking of trying bottle furniture next comfy.

GOING QUACKERS!
This paddling of ducks have been accused of invisible littering, noise pollution! Their owner's neighbour in this small French town took the complaint all the way to court! But the court ruled the quacks were within acceptable noise limits, much to the relief of their owner who finds their chattering quite pleasant.

MASCARA FOR HEDGEHOGS
These are old mascara brushes to humans but to hedgehogs they're the perfect sized hair brushes! Baby hedgehogs, or hoglets, at this Scottish rescue centre are getting the full salon treatment using the donated brushes. They help to remove any nasties like nits and fly eggs and replace the grooming that's usually done by hedgehog parents.

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