(Describer) In computer animation, clips of teens reporting the news orbit the planet Earth. Title: Teen Kids News. Created by Albert T. Primo. In a tv studio, a girl in a sport coat with long, dark hair sits at a news desk. Lylah.

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Hi, and welcome to "Teen Kids News." I'm Lylah. We've got a lot to cover in this week's show. So let's get started. Here's our top story.

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(Describer) A rotating graphic reads 'Teen Kids News: Top Story.'

For years now, bees have been disappearing from their hives. Just why, we're not exactly sure. But what we do know is that it can become a serious problem. Benjamin tells us more.

(Describer) Numerous bees crawl on a piece of wood.

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(speaker) People when they think about bees in general, they think insect, or it's a bug that stings me. So why do I care if it goes instinct?

(Benjamin) But as Zeke Freeman explains, we need to care. Zeke knows a lot about bees. His company Bee Raw Honey works with beekeepers all across the country. But you know, the reality is that bees pollinate over a hundred different fruits and vegetables. We're talking about strawberries, broccoli, apples, melons, pumpkins, I mean, really basic fruits and vegetables that we eat every day.

(Benjamin) That's why what's happening in the bee world is causing concern in the human world. Bees have been disappearing and dying, leaving hives empty. It's called colony collapse disorder, or CCD. No one knows why this is happening. There are many theories. It could be a virus or tiny insects called mites that attack the bees, or the problem may be man made. We have pesticides that are put on everything, from fruits and vegetables, beans, corn, soy, and bees fly around and they collect pollen and nectar from these plants. And those pesticides either kill them or significantly lower the immune system of the bees so they get sick easier.

(Benjamin) While research continues, people are working to protect bees.

(Describer) Liane Newton.

(speaker) Our goals are to raise awareness about bees, educate and make it possible for many people to get involved in this activity, which has so many interesting aspects to it.

(Benjamin) Beekeeping isn't limited to farms in rural areas. Many cities like Manhattan are home to thriving hives. And teens like Jaxon help tend them. Of course, it takes a whole lot of protective gear.

(Describer) Jaxon puts on a jumpsuit with mesh around their heads. A bald man in glasses puts on a similar jumpsuit. The two of them tuck their pants into their socks and put on thick gloves before heading toward a hive.

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When he was younger, Jaxon was terrified of bees. Perhaps that's why his dad suggested they give beekeeping a try.

(Jaxon) I thought he was insane because it would've freaked me out, but it started to fascinate me. And once I knew that, you're completely protected. It's amazing to be around that many bees. And I'm even flying around your head and know that you're protected. It's a really cool experience and it's just, it's fascinating.

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(Benjamin) Jaxon visits the hives on a regular basis, making sure the bees have the water they need. Before opening the hive, he prepares a smoke pot.

(Jaxon) It doesn't harm the bees, but they don't like it. So they will disperse if they're in a large clump, which makes it much easier to deal with.

(Benjamin) Jaxon carefully takes out the frames. He checks each one to make sure everything's okay. If there's a healthy queen and the bees are keeping busy, there's plenty of evidence.

[bees buzzing]

(Jaxon) This the orangy maple looking blobs in the honeycomb, that's pollen that they have brought into the hive and the almost watercolor substance around these bees here is honey that hasn't been cabbed yet, which they're still working on. And this is all capped honey, which they finished working on and that's just storage for them. When "Teen Kids News" continues, we'll tell you how you can help befriend the bees. We'll be right back.

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(Describer) A spinning title appears: Teen Kids News. Benjamin.

As we've reported, when it comes to pollinating fruits and vegetables, bees are the A team. Without them, we'd have a lot fewer foods to eat. Bees also give us honey, which many say can be a healthier alternative to process sugar. We have to remember that it's still a sugar, so we don't want to go crazy with it.

(Benjamin) Since honey is sweeter than sugar, you can use less of it.

(Describer) A bee perches on a flower.

So what can we do to help save the bees? There are numerous things that consumers and you and me can do about it. One is buy organic produce, because the more organic produce that is produced, the less fungicides and the less pesticides are out there to harm our bees.

(Benjamin) Another idea is to plant a bee friendly garden.

(Zeke) Something that has a lot of flowers that bloom from spring until fall. Obviously, don't use pesticides in your own garden or fungicides. You can also, you know, buy local honey. Buying local honey helps your local beekeepers.

(Benjamin) Or maybe you might want to try your hand at becoming a beekeeper.

(Liane) It's a great hobby. You will be the coolest person on your block. And you'll be helping to save the honeybees and you'll be learning something that will enrich your life forever. The message is pretty clear. If we don't keep a watchful eye on our bees, we could eventually be in big trouble. I'm Benjamin for "Teen Kids News." We've gotta take a short break and then we'll be back with more "Teen Kids News." As we continue our series on the gems of Germany. Ava goes gothic.

(Describer) Photographs show a towering, gothic church, a cake decorated with strawberries, and a castle surrounded by mist. Title: Gems of Germany. Ava.

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To be clear, I'm not talking about goth, but gothic as in gothic architecture. And one of the best examples can be found in the German city called Cologne. Keeping watch on the Rhine. One of Europe's most important rivers are the twin spires of the Cathedral of St. Peter. Soaring 515 feet into the sky, the Cologne Cathedral is one of the tallest churches in the world. It's also Germany's most popular landmark. More than 20,000 visitors a day come to the cathedral.

(Describer) Young people dance in front of the cathedral.

While a popular place to meet up with friends, most come to sight-see... to light a candle... or just to sit in quiet meditation.

(Describer) People sit in the church's wooden pews. Tall, stone columns reach up to the cathedral's curved, vaulted ceiling. Light pours in through stained glass windows.

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It started being built in the Middle Ages, during the height of the gothic style period. Gothic style is defined by a number of elements. Elaborate decoration, called tracery. Arches that come to a point. A ceiling covered with rib vaults, flying buttresses. These are exterior supports that hold the walls in place, plus lots of stained glass.

(Describer) Colorful stained glass windows depict scenes of Jesus from the bible and a soldier standing before a king.

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The cathedral was built to house this golden chest, actually to house what's inside this chest. Sacred relics believed to be the remains of the three wise men who brought gifts to the Christ child started in 1248. The cathedral took more than 600 years to complete. Work was often stopped. For centuries, the building stood only partially completed. On top of the unfinished south tower, you can see a huge crane used to lift construction materials, including the huge bells in the spires. This 24-ton monster is called Sankt Petersglocke. "Glocke" is German for bell and "Sankt" is saint. And I'm sure you already guessed that Peter is Peter. Put it together and you get Sankt Petersglocke. Saint Peter's bell, the biggest free swinging bell in the world. To give you an idea of how big it is, standing next to the bell is a full grown man. Unlike the other bells in the towers, the Sankt Petersglocke. It's only rung on holidays and special occasions. One of those special occasions was on March 3rd, 2022. All across Europe, cathedral bells rang out.

[bell ringing]

(Describer) Title: Church Bells for Ukraine.

In a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine. To mourn those killed during Russia's invasion and pray for peace.

(Describer) Artwork depicts planes dropping bombs around the cathedral.

During a much earlier war. World War II, Cologne was heavily bombed by the allies. If you look carefully at this photo, you can see the city was pulverized into piles of rubble. Miraculously, just about the only building left standing was St. Peter's Cathedral. After the fighting finally ended, the city of Cologne and its cathedral were rebuilt. Today the cathedral is facing another battle with air pollution. It's creating acid rain that's eating away at the church's sandstone walls, turning them black. Work is underway to replace the weakened stones. It's a race against time, to prevent a very modern problem, from permanently damaging a very historic and sacred landmark. For "Teen Kids News," I'm Ava.

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Most of us dream of the day that we'll get our driver's license. When that day comes or if you're already driving, the National Road Safety Foundation wants you to keep this message in mind. Listen to this crazy dream I had last night about cannabis. There was this haunted house and three really scary monsters.

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(Describer) Teens dressed as a werewolf, a devil, and a skeleton.

They enter the house, it's very eerie inside.

(Describer) Red lights glow in the house, which is covered in white sheets and cobwebs.

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Suddenly a cheerleader jumps out. Did you know that smoking weed and slow would driver's reactions?

[all screaming]

(narrator) That totally scared the monsters, but they kept going.

(Describer) Title: Cannabis impairs a driver's ability to make decisions.

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(Monsters) Oh, no.

(narrator) But what really frightened them was this. Almost half of teams that use cannabis today drive after using.

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That dream definitely woke me up to the dangers of driving high. Talk about scary! The NRSF produces lots of terrific safety videos each year. To get more info, like, follow and subscribe to the National Road Safety Foundation. "Teen Kids News" will be right back.

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(Describer) A spinning title appears. Teen Kids News. Lylah.

Ever take a close look at your state flag? You should, because you might be surprised at how much you can learn from it.

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(Describer) State flags appear in rapid succession. Title: Flag Facts. The letters in the word "flag" contain various state flags. The title appears on a white, waving flag.

(reporter) In 1681, the King of England gave land in the New World to an Englishman named William Penn. Since the area was rich in forests, it was named Pennsylvania, which is Latin for Penn's Woods. Pennsylvania is a wonderful agricultural state. Actually 30% of the state is considered agricultural land, and that's represented on the state seal. And the state seal is featured on the flag. There are corn stalks, there are sheaves of wheat, there are plows. And then above all, this is a ship. And that's meant to represent the importance of Philadelphia as a port city.

(reporter) The flag's blue background represents loyalty and justice. It's the same color blue found on the American flag, which originated in Pennsylvania.

(Randy) Well, June 14th is Flag Day in the United States. And that's because in 1777, the Continental Congress met in Philadelphia and that's when they accepted the first ever American flag.

(reporter) The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were also written in Pennsylvania. Despite these contributions to our federal system, Pennsylvanians did not want any government to have unlimited powers over their state. So emblazoned across their state flag for all to see is the motto, "Virtue, liberty, and independence." And here's another influence Pennsylvania had on Colonial America. When William Penn drafted the state's first constitution, he included religious freedom for all. That provision became the model for one of our nation's most precious rights. With Flat Facts, I'm Harry.

(Describer) An email: "Hi, I'm 77 years old and I enjoy watching "Teen Kids News" a lot. It's always interesting and I learn something new every week!" JB. Grass Valley, CA.

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You won't want to miss what's coming up next on "Teen Kids News." Trust me, we'll be right back after this. Nicole is in the kitchen getting some tips from an expert, chef Johnny Prep. She's learning how to make a mean guacamole. So I am particularly excited about this because I love guacamole. So what's first? Well, first we gotta talk about avocados. 'cause basically guacamole is predominantly avocados. So what you want to make sure is you buy as perfectly ripe of an avocado as you can get, or buy them under ripe and let them ripe at your home. Because you know it's not ripe, it's too hard, it doesn't make good guacamole. If it's over ripe, it's brown and yucky looking and it just doesn't make good guacamole. So you really want to kind of feel, so it's just soft. It doesn't want to be real soft, but just soft. It starts to wrinkly and stuff, that's too ripe. If it's too hard, that's under ripe, just a little pinch. These are in pretty nice shape. And then what you gotta do, be careful with your knife. Okay? Okay. But you want to cut it in half. Okay? Remember, you always need your parents' permission before you use a knife. So I like to take my knife and put it between my fingers like this. And then just...

(Nicole) So you don't want your fingers anywhere near it, right?

(Johnny) That's exactly right. And you can actually then rotate it, once you get your cut in, you can just rotate it like that. Okay. So... And it cuts it right around the pit. And then you just twist it and open it up and see how it's nice and green and soft. Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah. Now there's different ways of getting that pit out. A lot of chefs will take a knife, if you're gonna make guacamole. Okay? Where it's gonna end up being smashed up anyway. You can just take it and squeeze it and pop it out. Okay? That's an easy way to do it. Okay? And then you can also just take a spoon and just-- Scoop everything out. Scoop right out like that. Now, if the avocados are a little bit firmer, sometimes if you take them, you just roll them like this before you cut them. It actually makes them nice and soft and mushy too. So I should roll it? Yeah, just roll it gently. That'll see how it softens up.

(Nicole) Oh yeah.

(Johnny) Softens right up, doesn't it? It's almost like mashing it up for you. All right, so I'm gonna let you go ahead and finish off knocking off those avocados. Okay? And I'm going to talk about how to cut an onion. Because basic guacamole is gonna be just avocado with some lime or lemon juice, some salt, okay? And a little bit of pepper that's it. That's traditionally how it's served. But you also can dress it up and make it more flavorful by adding some tomato, jalapeno and some cilantro. You can also put some finely diced onion in it. And I'm gonna show you a technique for cutting an onion. Now this is a nice refrigerated onion, which is a cool thing. 'cause you know, onions kind of make you cry. Right. I don't like chopping onion because they always make me cry. Everybody says that! If you refrigerate them, it makes them less likely to do that. So now we take the very edge of a knife, and remember how I said we're gonna rotate the onion instead of pushing the knife, we're gonna just pull it in and out. We're gonna cut out that part right there. We're going to leave the root end attached at the back and cut it right in half. Now see that I put the flat side that I cut immediately down because that's the side with the juice that's gonna burn your eyes. Okay. Okay. Now this is already kind of peeled, but it looks like it's got a little bit of a harder surface on it. So I'm gonna take that outer layer off. 'cause sometimes that's not nice. All right. So now I have a half of an onion with the root end back here. And I'm just gonna take my knife and I'll put little slits through it like this, almost to the back, but not cutting all the way through. Okay? Just like that. When I get to the other side, I turn it so I'm not cutting down a round slope into my hand. That would be bad. And I'm gonna do one cut like that across. And then all you have to do turn goes into a perfect dice. Mm. Wow. Just like that. Look how easy that looks. See you're not crying, are you? No, I'm not. There you go. But I'm all the way over here. Alright, so we got our avocados going here once, don't you get one more in there and we'll get, the rest of those made up. I'm working with that. You're great with that. You were meant to work in a kitchen, I could tell that. I'm trying here. You're doing wonderful. There we go. I could see a little dark thing right there. You want to pull it out. Okay. Okay. -Is this also part of-- -That's just a little skin, you can get that right out there. And then you just take a fork and you just mash it. Okay. Now avocados are gonna turn brown on you really quick. They oxidize is the word for it. It's kind of a fancy term. Right? How do you prevent that? Well, you add some acid to it and traditionally in Mexico they take lime juice and they just squeeze limes in it. Some people will tell you if you leave the seed in it, it keeps it from browning, and that does work a little bit. And restaurants will actually use a little bit of sour cream. And the sour cream not only keeps it from turning color, it actually gives it a little lighter, brighter color and it adds a little more flavor to it. So that's kind of a restaurant trick, Huh? Okay. Okay. I'm gonna season this with just a little bit of sea salt. I like sea salt 'cause it's got some minerals in it. It's got a little bit more flavor. We're gonna put just a little bit, we're gonna sprinkle it in there so we don't put too much in. We're gonna add some diced jalapeno for that pepper. So I don't necessarily need to add the fresh ground black pepper. So I'm gonna put that finely diced without the seeds so they're not too hot. I'm gonna put a little bit of cilantro in there. I'm gonna put a little bit of finely diced tomato in there. All right, here's our last little bit of-- The last one, okay. Let me get that off the screen for you. Avocado. All right. Let's mash that up. And there's lost a little bit left, there we go. There we go. Okay. All right. We're gonna put some finely diced onion in here. Okay. So that's how we dress up our avocado. That's how we dress up our guacamole. We gotta put a, kind of put a tuxedo on it. It's just got some fancy guacamole here. It, it's ready for it's black tie event. It is. This is like black tie guacamole here. It makes it a little bit brighter. You'll see it. It adds a little more complexity to it. It's got a nice thickness to it. Oh it does. And you know, avocados are so healthy for you. It's one of the few fruits that actually have a healthy saturated fat in it. You know, you've got your tomatoes in here. I mean, this is a nice and healthy dish. And it's filling.

(Describer) Nicole reaches for a chip.

There you go. Dip some in there and try it. Such thing. Mmh. Looks so good. Nice and fresh with the tomatoes and the cilantro and onions in there can face it all. Kind of rocking it up a little bit. Wow. That's really good. There you go. Thanks, chef Johnny. My pleasure. Guacamole has become very popular in the U.S. In fact, the sale of avocados rockets to 30 million pounds on two days each year-- the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, and Super Bowl Sunday. For "Teen Kids News," I'm Nicole. Well, that wraps up our show for this week, but we'll be back with more "Teen Kids News" next week. See you then.

(Describer) Titles. Producer: Marilou Yacoub. Director/Writer, Alan J. Weiss. Additional credits scroll. Executive producer Alan J. Weiss. Copyright Alan Weiss Productions, Inc, 2024, all rights reserved. Contact: info@teenkidsnews.com. 212-974-0606. Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.

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Accessibility provided by the U.S. Department of Education.