The aces of info | Ukrainian children, the monarchy and cats

Every Sunday, The Press broadcasts the content of Les As de l’info, a new youth digital platform entirely devoted to daily news.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has managed to take control of several Ukrainian cities. And in each conquered city, the Russians capture the orphan children to send them to Russia. Fortunately, courageous Ukrainian citizens are trying to stop this disaster. We tell you what’s going on.

But why children?

Children represent the future of a country: its identity, its language, its culture. Now, you see, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, started this war, among other things, because he wants to destroy the identity of Ukraine to replace it with that of Russia. By kidnapping Ukrainian children and taking them to Russia, Putin therefore hopes that they will forget their origins and become Russian citizens. It’s really terrible, but it’s the reality.

The President of Russia, however, has another explanation. According to him, these kidnappings are rather “evacuations” to protect children and take them away from the battlefields. Remember, however, that it was Russia that attacked Ukraine first.

It is estimated that around 13,000 children have been transferred to Russia since the start of the war. They can then be adopted by Russian couples.

True heroes!

Volodymyr Sahaidak is a man who lives in Kherson, a city that was under Russian occupation for some time but has since been liberated. He is the director of a youth center where about 50 children were accommodated.

At first, Mr. Sahaidak believed that the Ukrainian government would take care of the safe evacuation of the children. But seeing that it wouldn’t happen, he decided that the risk had become too great for them and that something had to be done.

Together with other employees of the center, he hatched a secret plan to hide them. They put them up in their house, and made up a story in case they got caught. For example, another employee, Halyna Kulakovska, became an “aunt” to three children. That was it, or these kids were sent far, far away from home to be turned into little Russians.

enormous courage

You had to be very brave to do such a thing. If Volodymyr and Halyna had been exposed by the Russians, they would probably have ended up in prison. In addition, Halyna said that her apartment was very close to a police station, and that Russians even lived in the neighboring building! Danger was everywhere and she could have been caught at any time.

But, as Volodymyr says: “They are our children. What the Russians are doing is a crime. There is no worse crime than stealing from children. According to him, the danger was not important: it was simply necessary to act.

It is therefore really thanks to them that dozens of Ukrainian children have been able to continue to live in their country. True heroes!

It’s a very sad situation and it’s normal if you feel helpless while reading this news. Don’t hesitate to tell your loved ones how you feel and remember that people are working very hard to help those in need.

Based on a text by Isabelle Hachey, The Press

Monarchy, what is it?

You have been told a lot about the British monarchy lately: death of Queen Elizabeth II, her son Charles III who succeeded her, the deputies of the Parti Québécois who refuse to take the oath in the Blue Room, the recent book by Prince Harry… It made us want to explain the basics to you. Do you know what a monarchy is? Mélanie explains it all to you in this video!

Cats to help us walk? !

Do you have a cat at home? If so, you may be aware that they have the ability to land on their four legs almost every time! This agility could help humans walk better! But how is it possible?

At the University of Sherbrooke, a professor discovered that this great asset could one day help humans walk better after a spinal injury. It could also be useful for seniors who have a less good sense of balance.

To do this, the researchers inspected the feedback of the signals that our body sends to our brain. A bit like when you use a remote control to turn on the TV, it sends a signal and the TV obeys!

What about cats in all this?

The professor who conducted the research, Alain Frigon, wanted to understand the signals that the cat’s body sends to its brain. He wanted to know how these signals allow him to coordinate the movement of his four legs. So how does he almost always fall back upright! We can say that he was looking for the secret code of the brain of cats!

Sports cats that help science!

Did you know that there are cats that are trained to walk at the same speed as a human on a treadmill? Well, they were useful for the professor’s research!

The researchers stimulated a nerve in one of their legs to make a fake trip. Their goal was to have the same effect as if a human tripped over a small rock with the end of his shoe. This experiment examined how the cat recovered.

They discovered that when the cat realizes that it is tripping, super reflexes are activated and its three other paws stay in contact with the ground. This prevents the cat from falling while its fourth paw flies over the obstacle.

Why do all this?

For humans, the reflex that keeps us from falling when we stumble happens very quickly. But when you get older, the signals sent by the muscles to the brain are slower. Older people are therefore more likely to fall.

It’s a bit the same thing for injured people, for whom the signals are no longer given in the same way.

The good news is that this research could one day lead to the invention of electrical stimulation to help signals. These stimulations would serve to imitate the functioning of the reflexes of cats, and therefore help to walk better!

These stimuli could make the injured and the elderly able to avoid loss of balance and obstacles. You could go hiking with your grandparents without fear, and maybe even play hopscotch!