🌞 Let's celebrate Aussie success!

Thank you to everyone who sent me their favourite piece of advice last week. It was genuinely lovely to read the advice that guides each of you.

As promised, here were a few of my faves, courtesy of Tommy, Phil and Bridget.
- “There are two times in life, now and too late”
- “You have two ears and one mouth for a very good reason. Learn to listen"
- “If you wouldn’t go to someone for advice, don’t take their criticism either”

Shoutout to Leanne, whose advice was “always stay up to date with the news”. Couldn’t agree more!

For 20 years, the organisation Kids Rights has awarded the International Children’s Peace Prize. This year, it went to 17-year-old Nila Ibrahimi for her work amplifying the voices of Afghan girls.

Ibrahimi fled Afghanistan with her family after the Taliban retook Kabul in August 2021, and now lives in Canada. In 2023, she founded HerStory, an online platform for Afghan women and girls to share their personal stories and experiences.

Since taking power, the Taliban has imposed several restrictions on women, including banning them from high schools, universities, and most forms of employment. This year, they introduced new laws further restricting women’s movements and rights. Women’s faces and bodies now need to be fully covered in public. They are also prohibited from using their voices outside their homes.

Ibrahimi said that by winning the award, “the voices of Afghan women and girls will echo across the world. We must all continue to give them strength and hope in the darkest of times.”

For the first time ever, an Australian national soccer team has won a World Cup. This week, the ParaMatildas won the Cerebral Palsy World Cup and retained their spot at the top of the global rankings.

The ParaMatildas scored a massive six goals to defeat the U.S. 6-2 at the finals. Team captain and goalkeeper Katelyn Smith scored three of Australia’s goals from across the field.

The team secured their spot in the finals with a 10-0 victory over Denmark, and didn’t lose a match through the entire group stage.

CP Football is open to athletes with cerebral palsy or an acquired brain injury. The World Cup for both the men’s and women’s game were both held in Salou, Spain, this month.

And that wasn’t the only good women’s sport news this week. This week it was also announced that next year’s NRLW season has been confirmed to be its biggest ever, with a record 12 teams, an 11 weeks regular season, and a three-week finals series.

For the first time, the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs will field a women’s side, while the NZ Warriors are returning to the competition after years away.

Every club will have at least one night where the women’s and men’s games will be played back-to-back.

The first game of the season will be played during prime time on Thursday 3 July 2025, when a late-season men’s game would usually be broadcast.

Attenzione, pickpocket! Italian authorities have intercepted €8 million ($AU13 million) worth of artefacts that were headed for the black market. Two thieves are alleged to have begun digging up the artefacts near farmland in the region of Umbria.

The artefacts include urns, beauty products, and sarcophagi from the ancient Etruscan society, which pre-dated the Roman Republic.

One of the objects found was a perfume bottle that Reuters reported still smells of its original scent.

Local art police (obsessed with how European having art police is) were tipped off about the thieves when they began posting some of the artefacts they’d found on Facebook, looking for buyers. Now that’s really something, isn’t it!?

Hi there! Zara here with some more good news, courtesy of the Intrepid team.

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to go on Intrepid’s Highlights of Andalucia tour through Spain, and my oh my was it special! It’s one thing to travel overseas and frantically Google everything to try and figure out what’s going on…it’s another to have a local Spaniard guide you through thousands of years of history!

Lots of competing highs of the trip (I detailed one of them in an intro a few weeks ago!) but I think my favourite experience was watching a flamenco show in Seville.

There was a lot to celebrate at this year’s ARIA awards. This year saw a record number of First Nations artists nominated for a top Australian music award. First Nations talent took home trophies in multiple categories, such as Best Country Album, Best Hip Hop/Rap Release, and Best Adult Contemporary Album. The list of First Nations winners included Nooky, Angus Field and Dallas Woods of 3%, Troy Casser-Daley and Emily Wurramara.

Separately, singer Missy Higgins was also inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. According to ARIA, “the quiet determination with which she has always marched to her own beat has seen her cited as a formative influence by two generations of Australian singer songwriters”.

And that was on full display earlier this week, when Higgins was joined on stage for a medley of her songs with other Aussie superstars including Amy Shark, G Flip, Angie McMahon and Gretta Ray. I can’t explain it, but the group’s rendition of ‘Scar’ made me so emotional. I love Aussie music!

You’re looking at one of the competitors in the Kommetjie Festival's Fancy Dress Surf Competition in Cape Town, South Africa. He entered under the name ‘King Neptune’.