🌞 Book crawl around your city

As the country commemorated ANZAC Day yesterday, one person was preparing to play the Last Post for the 92nd time. According to the ABC, 100-year-old Alan Streader has been playing the bugle on ANZAC Day in a regional Victorian town since he was eight years old.

It’s fairly simple for Streader, who said: "I just play anywhere it's needed at all. They just yell out, and I go."

This month, Finland opened its longest and tallest car-free bridge. The Kruunuvuorensilta is strictly for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport.

The bridge connects two islands in the capital city, Helsinki. Plans are in place for a light rail line extending across the bridge and into central Helsinki. The 1.1 kilometre bridge doesn’t permit any cars, and halves the distance commuters need to travel between the two areas (11 kilometres to 5.5 kilometres). 

Euronews reports more than 50,000 people visited the bridge on the opening weekend. 

A new museum has opened in East London with two free permanent galleries. It’s an extension of the existing Victoria and Albert Museum. 

The free galleries, called “Why We Make,” exhibit over 500 objects across art, fashion, architecture and more. Visitors can explore diverse creative pieces, from a dress worn by Beyoncé to a 16th-century self-portrait. 

The new museum will also debut objects, including design work, photographs, and sculptural ceramics. The first temporary exhibition will be about Black British Music, exploring its impact from 1900 to today. 

Granborghini is the combination we never knew we needed: grandmas and Lamborghini cars.

The account gives senior citizens an exhilarating experience in high-speed cars. The messaging behind Granborghini is simple: prevent loneliness and focus on mental health.

Project founder Mark Cody told the BBC he set up the initiative after his grandma died by suicide because of loneliness and isolation. 

He said: “My promise to her was always to take her out in a Lamborghini and the opportunity never came, so I thought I’d love to… stop someone being in the situation that my nan was in.” 

Cody said people volunteered their time and sports cars, with one McLaren owner Robin Gibbons, telling the BBC: “You buy these cars to make people smile and that’s the value for me.” 

These joyrides are a joy to watch. 

Students of Shyam Singh Smarak Kanya Inter College celebrate with joy after their final results were declared in Noida, India. (Photo by Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)

Australia’s first solar panel recycling hub opened this week at the University of New South Wales. The initiative aims to manage solar panels at the end of their use because they contain valuable materials like glass and silver, diverting them from landfill and towards reuse and recycling.

UNSW Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Bronwyn Fox said the Federal Government-funded hub “brings together world-leading Australian engineers, scientists, police makers and industry [transforming] end-of-life solar panels… and strengthening Australia’s clean energy leadership.” 

Disney will debut three animated songs in American Sign Language: Encanto’s ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno,’ Frozen 2’s ‘The Next Right Thing’ and Moana 2’s ‘Beyond.’

Disney animator/director Hyrum Osmond led a team of more than 20 animators on the project, for which, in most cases, “we created entirely new animation.” His team also collaborated with Los Angeles’ Deaf West Theatre to create new versions of the songs.

Osmond, whose dad is Deaf, said sign language is “one of the most beautiful ways of communication on Earth. If there was ever a medium to showcase sign language, it was animation. Growing up, I never learned sign language, and that barrier prevented me from really connecting with my dad. This reimagining… allows us to connect in a special way with our audiences in the Deaf community.”

The songs will be debuting on Tuesday on Disney+. 

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This section of the good newsletter is brought to you by TDA’s resident Italian and proud vegetarian, Elliot Lawry.

“Growing up, whenever it would rain, my Nonno would say: “Ho la sensazione di sentire le piante crescere” (I feel like I can hear the plants growing). And as it turns out, the plants could hear too! A new study published in Scientific Reports found that rice seeds exposed to the sound of falling raindrops sprouted up to 40% faster than seeds kept in silence. 

It’s the first direct evidence that plant seeds can sense natural sound. When a raindrop hits the surface of a puddle or soil, it creates vibrations powerful enough to jostle tiny structures inside the seed, which act as a signal to start growing. Researchers think the same thing is likely happening in many other plant species too. 

Nonno Franco wasn’t a scientist, but his instincts were bang on.”

Brazil has opened its first rehabilitation centre for an endangered monkey species found only in the country’s east. 

The sole wild population of golden-headed lion tamarins is located in the southern part of the eastern Brazilian state of Bahia. 

Expansion, road strikes, dog attacks, and electrical lines have threatened the species. Until now, there hasn’t been a centre to help injured monkeys reintegrate into the wild. The centre will receive injured and displaced monkeys, care for them, and hopefully relocate them away from urban areas. 

A first-of-its-kind gene therapy has restored a six-year-old girl’s sight.Saffie Sandord has been diagnosed with Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA,) a rare condition that can lead to blindness. 

Her mother Lisa said that before treatment, Saffie’s “condition was really life-limiting,” with her blindness making many daily activities difficult. 

In 2025, Saffie underwent a gene therapy called Luxturna for both her eyes in 2025, where a healthy copy of the illness-causing gene is injected into the eye. 

Lisa says the treatment has been “life-changing,” adding that “it’s like someone waved a magic wand and restored her sight in the dark. We’ve been able to take her trick or treating, and out to restaurants in the evening – something that was impossible before… we know [her sight] might not last forever, but we feel fortunate every day that she has been given this chance.” 

One of my favourite feelings is when things I love combine. It could be a TikTok of Succession to an Olivia Dean song, or in this case, exploring a city via bookshops.

The Global Book Crawl sends bookworms on a bookshop hunt across their city. They need to visit certain shops to get their passport stamped – visit a certain number, depending on the city, and you get a free audiobook. Compete as a family, and you get a free Andy Griffiths book. You can see if the Global Book Crawl is in your area here.

While it is the last day of the hunt, the day is still young. Carpe Diem!