Simon Cowell , the celebrity, ditched his mobile phone ten months ago. He has declared that he is now feeling happier since then, even though it was strange at first. The X Factor judge has said that he is very annoyed about adults being on their phones all the time.  "It has been so good for my mental health," he said. "It's a very strange experience but it really is good for you and it has absolutely made me happier. The thing I get irritated with is when you have a meeting - everyone's on their phone - and I was probably in that place. You just can't concentrate." Children and  teenagers are often accused of being on their phones too much. In America, there are health clinics for young people who are addicted to their phones. Also, in the UK there is an app that rewards you for being away from your phone. Could you do that? Who knows? However, it's not just kids. It's also adults. A 2017 survey told us that just over half of adults check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. Now other celebrities are dumping their phones. The question is, could you do that?

The magic of Harry Potter is being depicted in a new set of stamps to celebrate the popular films. The 15 stamps feature characters including Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley and Neville Longbottom. Modes of transport from the films such as Hogwarts Express, Hadgrid's enchanted motorbike, the flying Ford Anglia and the Knight Bus are also included. The stamps include hidden details that are only visible under ultraviolet light. The style of the “1” depicting the value on each of the stamps will mirror the font used for the films. Philip Parker, of Royal Mail, said: “The Harry Potter movies continue to thrill and delight audiences of all ages. The goal with our stamps is to capture the excitement of the wizarding world and the heroism of the students of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.” Letters are delivered by owls in the films, but the new stamps are available in post offices from October. If you're a fan of a good old themed stamp collection then the Royal Mail website is the place to be. There’s a whole bunch of other stamp options on the Royal Mail website, ranging from professors (including Snape!) to individual characters and even envelopes and postcards. Take a look at some of the options.  The new set of Potter stamps will be released by Britain’s Royal Mail on October 16. These are no ordinary stamps – they have secret details that require the touch of a wizard to uncover. Each stamp will include hidden details that will only be revealed when it is placed under ultraviolet light.

This year it was the largest ever CircusWorks children's festival. There were six days of circus performances, workshops and masterclasses. There were 15 circus's attending for six days of non-stop circus. It took place in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the birthplace of Philip Ashley, inventor of circus in Britain.  There were three big tops in 'the circus village', and four shows took place including: The youth show, The gala performance, Lexicon and the fire show. There were children from eight to 18 all learning and performing in the same tents. Also, the circus olympics took place in the circus village with many very silly, random and skillful games.  There was: Hula hoop gladiators, diablo throwing, sock, shirt and five pence juggling.  On the final day there was a parade through the town on stilts and using handheld equipment.

"We have officially been Banksyed." These words spilled out of the dumbstruck auctioneer at Sotheby's. Moments after the hammer banged, the iconic Banksy 'Girl with a heart balloon' self shredded. To the horror of the highest bidder, the one million pound painting was fitted with a self-destruct mechanism meaning the work of art tore itself to ribbons as soon as it was sold. This is the best example to date of the artist's extreme views on why true art doesn't just belong to wealthy families.

It was the one and only Michael Rosen. It was standing room only in the big tent for this event and from the moment people started filing in and Michael started directing the flow of traffic he was just as warm, funny, brilliant and clever as usual. Barnes Literature Festival also hosted a Harry Potter show which was a great success. Sadly, J K Rowling herself was too busy to come. The great ideas they come up with at the festival are always amazing. This year stand up comedian Harry Hill came to talk about his children's book and I got the epic honour of introducing him. People from all over the world came to see him. A few hours later, the famous Dallas Campbell, who writes about space, gave a talk. Sadly he was late. Judith Kerr was also at the event, but she did not really come far because she lives in Barnes. What are they going to do next year I wonder? 

Banning and partial banning of fast food advertising has been a cause for debate globally over the last few years. The call to ban has been in large part due to the influence these businesses have on childhood obesity rates. Another factor driving the debate is health issues in the general population from the consumption of fast foods. Diabetes, intestinal problems, and poor dental health are all contributed to by processed foods and high sugar content drinks that are the mainstay of fast food restaurants. We are now so overweight that we’ve forgotten what normal looks like, a bad situation to be in. So bad it’s understandable that people are looking for a scapegoat, which I think fast food has become. In their rush to judgement, I think people are overlooking real solutions to our problem such as exercise.

Do you love sweets? Do you find normal museums boring? If you answered yes to the above, then the Sweet Art Museum in Portugal is the place for you. Whether you want to dive into a pool of fluffy marshmallows, scrub away your troubles in the Candy Wash Room, in some places, giant scented lollipops will rotate until you go insanely happy, or you want to hang out at  Ice Cram Land, where frozen delights come to life, this place is heaven for everyone, especially kids! The tickets are €20 each, and €1 of that is given to the charity Land of Dreams. This is a perfect place for Instagram moments. The museum is open every day except Tuesday and more outlets are planned in Madrid and London.

Google has promised not to let its artificial intelligence be used in weapons or for anything that might weaken human rights, in the strongest stance yet taken by a big technology company to limit the potential harm from the powerful new science. It is a wonderful thing to have robots in our world, but what if they were used for bad instead of good? What if they were used for wrong instead of  instead of right? That would be terrible as they can act to do wrong. So google has promised to not let AI travel from the lab until it is ready. The commitment follows a storm of protest inside the company over the US military’s use of its vision recognition systems to guide drones even though the act will keep us safe. Robots like androids cost over £700,000.

Did you know that there are more people speaking English in China (as their second language) than there are in the USA (where English is their first language) ? The Cambridge University Press just published a study that revealed that up to 350 million people in China have at least some knowledge of English - and at least another 100 million in India. That makes China the country in which English is spoken the most. In fact, according to the latest estimates of the World Economic Forum, around 1.5 billion people — or 20% of the global population — speak some English. And it is used widely as the only language for scientific and technological research.  Is is truly the world's "favourite language". But could this all change? According to a recent BBC report, advances in computer translation and voice-recognition technology are so great that people might soon be able to just speak their own language, and hear anyone answering back in their own language, machine-translated in real time. So English's days as the world's top global language may be numbered.  As  Robin Lustig, The Future of English, BBC World Service presenter puts it :"To put it at its most dramatic: the computers are coming, and they are winning". But David Crystal, author of English as a Global Language, thinks English will continue to dominate and not disappear in favour of Mandarin (the language spoken in China), for example.  “This is the first time we actually have a language spoken genuinely globally by every country in the world,” he said. But he does acknowledge that you cannot know exactly what the future holds for our language:  “There are no precedents to help us see what will happen.” Scientists believe that one language dies out roughly every 14 days. But English has so many speakers that it will probably continue to be the dominant language in the world for the rest of all our lives. But it might change, mixed with many other local words, and be a very different version of the English it is today. By : Hannah  

People often head to church to get blessed, but the practice has now spread to their pets. In Spain, pets were taken to churches to be blessed in a special ceremony. Cats and dogs were among the animals dressed in brightly coloured clothes and hats! The priest blessed them by putting holy water on their heads. The pets went into churches and sat through the whole ceremony with their owners as a priest  blessed them and  talked about the special day.            St Antonys day, when the ceremonies were held, is not all about the pets. It is a very important day for the people too.