🌞 Aussie MND breakthrough

One day, I’ll stop talking about Bluey and how it’s a show for all ages. One day, I’ll stop finding ways to bring up that I have a Bluey plushie or threw a Bluey watching party in high school (shoutout to Ms. Boden, I appreciate you). 

Today is not that day.

I recently wrote about how the show would be translated into First Nations language Yolŋu Matha. Well, some kids attended a preview screening of the translated episodes, and their reactions are everything.

It really is the show that keeps on giving. 

You’ve probably heard enough about Taylor Swift’s nuptials, but I promise this story isn’t about her wedding.

Swift and new husband Travis Kelce have donated $26 million across more than 20 U.S. organisations, supporting education, food banks and animal welfare charities. 

One of the beneficiaries, Charity Harvest NYC, confirmed that the $US1 million ($AU1.44 million) donation would “provide food for more than 2.4 million New Yorkers in need.”

Another food organisation they donated to was Rhode Island Community Food Bank, who announced they were “THRILLED to learn of this unexpected gift, which comes at a time when the need for food assistance in our state is at an all-time high. Every dollar of this generous donation will be put to work to source food for distribution”. 

Meet Generation Circus: a community circus and charity founded by mother-daughter duo, Emma and Maisy Taylor.

What caught my eye about this circus was its unconventional offering. A class specifically for people over 50. 

The UK-based circus runs free classes for people aged between 50-96, which are suited to all experience and exercise levels. 

They even had an over 50s circus showcase in June, which they described as “a rebellion against ageism.” 

There is something so lovely about people trying something new at any age. 

Participants take part in the Budapest Pride on June 27, 2026 in Budapest, Hungary. (Photo by Janos Kummer/Getty Images)

The Socceroos capped off a fantastic run at the FIFA World Cup yesterday, after an extremely close battle with Egypt.

While the result isn’t what we’ve hoped for, the Socceroos had a historic run. 

In their opener against Türkiye, 20-year-old Nestory Irankunda became the Socceroos’ youngest player to score in the World Cup. Their final group stage match against Paraguay was the highest-rated World Cup match in SBS’ history, with nearly 5 million people (30 of them in TDA HQ) tuning in. The squad was also incredibly diverse, with the 26-man team coming from at least 15 cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with four former refugees. 

During the tournament, the Socceroos brought us representation, hope and community, and that’s something we can never be in shortage of. 

Claude, the AI for scientific discovery

Researchers at Australia's Garvan Institute are partnering with Claude to do what wasn't possible before: analyse genomic data at massive scale to understand how our genes cause rare diseases, and accelerate treatments to cure them. When science and AI come together, the future of human health gets a little brighter.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne have recorded 5,000 Indigenous words from around the country. 

The 50 Words Project aims to record 50 words from individual Indigenous languages. It’s  “intended to be a useful resource for schools and educational organisations to learn 50 words in their local languages, and for the general public to discover the diversity of languages around Australia.” 

The project was launched in 2019, and reached a milestone last month, having preserved audio recordings of 50 different words in 100 different First Nations languages, for a total of 5,000.

The resource has an interactive map, where users can hear languages from across the country. 

Project lead and linguist Professor Rachel Nordlinger said: “This is the first time words from Indigenous languages have been brought together online at this scale, and in a format where people can hear words spoken by members of those language groups”.

Another win for Aussie researchers: University of Queensland (UQ) scientists have made a “breakthrough in [the] search for Motor Neurone Disease (MND) treatment.”

Working with the Indian Institute of Technology, the University of Tokyo, and Sungkyunkwan University, researchers worked out the make-up of a receptor found on many immune cells.

They developed a drug that activates the hard-to-target receptor. The drug provides a way to study the receptor in detail. 

UQ Professor Trent Woodruff said: “With this knowledge, it’s possible we could have anti-inflammatory drug treatment for testing in MND patients within five years, possibly turning the disease into a long-term chronic condition rather than an acute terminal illness.” 

The UQ team is currently working to make better drugs for neurodegenerative diseases that are difficult to treat, including MND and Parkinson’s. 

Fight MND, set up by the late Australian of the Year Neale Daniher, provided funding for the research.

A rare southern right whale mother and baby have been spotted in Botany Bay and off Bondi Beach in Sydney. 

The whales were hunted extensively in the 1800s, and the species has been slow to recover, making sightings of a healthy mum and baby especially exciting for scientists and whale fans. Currently, scientists are monitoring the species as they migrate to the coast to breed and to nurture their newborn calves. 

In Botany Bay, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Gamay Rangers, the local Indigenous ranger group, kept a close eye on the mum and baby, who swam up to their boat.