🌞 Baby rhino, Bridgerton and upcycled furniture

Happy Sunday!

We’re now a month into the Good Newsletter and I for one am thoroughly enjoying filling my week with some light.

There’s just one thing though - I’d love to get to know you all a little bit better! Hit reply to this email and tell me what brightened your week.

🦏 Rhino brings joy

A few weeks ago, we brought you the news that a Southern White Rhino had been born at Werribee Open Range Zoo. Southern White Rhinos are classified as ‘Near Threatened’ and it’s estimated as few as 10,080 Southern White Rhinos remain in the wild, so the birth of a new rhino was cause for celebration.

To mark the occasion, thousands of Zoos Victoria members were asked to cast their vote in an online naming competition for the newborn.

This week, Werribee Zoo announced the rhino’s name: Jabulani.

Jabulani is a Zulu word that means ‘bringing joy’ and ‘rejoicing’.

According to the zoo, “It’s meaningful because it reflects the immense amount of joy he has brought to his mother, zoo staff, and everyone around the country who has followed the wonderful news of his birth.”

As to the wellbeing of little Jabulani, the zoo confirmed the little guy is “going from strength to strength – he’s an absolute character that loves to do rhino ‘zoomies’ and show his keepers who is boss”.

📺 Aussie actress to play leading role

This week, Netflix confirmed that the next star of Bridgerton, the record-breaking regency-era TV show, will be a Korean-Australian actress.

Yerin Ha was born in Australia to Korean parents and graduated from Sydney's National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). She’s previously starred in productions by the Sydney Theatre Company and in various TV shows.

But now, Ha is taking to the world stage and taking on the lead role of Sophie Baek in Bridgerton’s fourth season. According to Netflix, the surname of the character has been changed to a Korean name “out of respect for Ha’s culture”.

She said: “It’s a really nice way for me to feel like the role is fit for me, rather than me having to fit a certain mould”.

To give you a sense of what a monumental achievement this role is for an Aussie actress… the first season of Bridgerton was watched by an astonishing 82 million households worldwide in just its first month. All three seasons of the show are now on Netflix’s most popular shows list, accumulating 313,000,000 views across the seasons.

We love watching an Aussie actress fly!

🎵 Feel good song of the week

70-year-old medical student

If you’re a student who feels like your degree is taking up precious years of your life, this story’s for you.

A 70-year-old Malaysian man has become one of the world’s oldest students to graduate from medical school. Toh Hong Keng, who is a retired tech sales executive with a number of other degrees, decided five years ago that he wanted to undertake a medical degree.

In an interview with CNN, Toh said he found it difficult to find a program without age limits, as most had a cut-off of 35-40. However, he was able to find a medical program in the Philippines and later relocated there to undertake the course.

It wasn’t an easy ride for the 70-year-old, who said at many times throughout the process, he was tempted to drop out. He failed a pediatrics exam that meant he was held back a year, but Toh said his classmates, all many years his junior, encouraged him to keep going.

In the end, Toh finished the course (legend). At this stage, he’s not sure if he’ll practice as a doctor, but he’s got some advice for anyone beginning that journey. “If you have a dream to be a medical doctor, you can still do it at any age,” he said.

🧳 Message from Intrepid Travel.

Did you know 71% of Australians are concerned about overtourism?

Here are a few of our top picks:

Disko Island, Greenland: Known for its dramatic landscapes and Inuit heritage, Disko Island offers a chance to experience Arctic life in remote, quiet communities.

Sainshand, Mongolia: Journey along the Trans-Mongolian Railway through the Gobi Desert, and immerse yourself in Mongolia's rich traditions and natural beauty.

These are just a few of the unique destinations on this year's Not Hot List. If you're interested in spreading the positive impacts of tourism more evenly with your next travel destination, check out the full list here.

⭐️Why does TDA do good news?

"If it bleeds, it leads" - That's what generations of newsmakers have always been told and known to be true. Well, we here at The Daily Aus don't accept that. We want to do news differently.

This newsletter is a new addition to TDA’s content offering, and we need your help getting the word out there.

If you want your friends to get their good news from us, send them this:

📸 Photo of the week

The cast of Swan Lake recreate moments from the dance production in costume on the lake in St James' Park, Central London. Swan Lake is returning for a 30th-anniversary tour, beginning in November.

🎾 Upcycled furniture

I’m going to start this story with some stats. 330 million tennis balls are made every year. Roughly 100,000 tennis balls are used in Grand Slams every year. Almost all of them are sent to landfill. Tennis balls take nearly 400 years to break down.

It’s against that backdrop that I would like to introduce you to the work of Mathilde Wittock. Wittock, a Belgian eco-designer, repurposes used tennis balls to create innovative and functional furniture.

Speaking to CNN, Wittock said: “It takes around 24 different manufacturing steps to (make) a tennis ball, which is around five days. Then it has such a short lifespan.”

Unsatisfied with the environmental impacts of that lifespan, Wittock has found a way to avoid some of this wastage and create upcycled furniture.

Her chairs and lounges contain no padding except for the padding of the used tennis balls, and Wittock specifically doesn’t glue together the tennis balls so that at the end of the furniture’s own lifecycle, the balls can be recycled again!

The added bonus? The furniture is CHIC!

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