Already and this is this is the Daily This is the Daily OS. Oh, now it makes sense.
Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Friday, the nineteenth of April.
I'm Zara, I'm Sam.
It's better say that it has been an extremely heavy week of news, so for today's Friday episode, we thought that we would bring you around up of some of the more uplifting stories from the week, from the arts to sport and scientific innovation. We've got to wrap in today's Dick Dive to take you into the weekend feeling just that bit lighter about the state of the world. Before we get there, Sam, what's making headlines.
The unemployment rate rose slightly to three point eight percent in March. That's up from three point seven percent the month before. The figure refers to the percentage of people who were looking for work last month but couldn't find a job. Despite the higher percentage of people out of work, the Australian Bureau of Statistics says the labor market remains tight, meaning there are businesses struggling to fill job vacancies.
The bishop who was stabbed at an Assyrian church on Monday night in Sydney's southwest has said he forgives his alleged attacker, a sixteen year old boy. Mar Marie Emmanuel, made his first announcement since he was attacked, saying he was recovering very quickly after undergoing surgery. In his audio message, the bishop also urged calm in the community.
Almost one billion people in India will head to the polls from today as Prime Minister Nearendra Mody seeks a return to power for a third time. More than five hundred and forty MPs will be elected, and Mody is set to face a fierce challenge from opposition parties hoping to oust him from another five year term. The election will take about six weeks to help ensure millions of voters can access a polling booth, meaning the results aren't expected to be known until early June.
And Today's good News to give us a bit of a teaser before we dive into today's good News wrap of the week, the world's oldest wombat is about to turn thirty five. Wayne the wombat, nicknamed Mister Wine, was born in Tasmania in nineteen eighty nine and was less than a year old when he was sent to a Japanese zoo where he's lived ever since. The average lifespan of a wombat out in nature is about fifteen years,
which mister Wine has managed to more than double. Guinness World Records has certified him as the oldest living wombat.
Hey, I'm Nish and I'm the lead developer at the Dally Odds. I'm responsible for developing all the tech that we use, from the website to the newsletter in just two seconds. You can help the Daly Ods grow just by clicking follow on Apple or Spotify, and if you want to leave us a review that also helps a lot too. Thank you, and now back to the DA done so.
The news cycle has felt especially dark and especially heavy this week. I think it's a very strange sensation to feel like your attention is being dragged from one bad news story to another. It's like we couldn't even dwell in the sorrow or the tragedy that unfolded in one part of Sydney because you then had to focus on another part of Sydney.
Which almost invented a third story of the two of those together exactly.
And I think, as we've spoken about it length on the podcast this week, that does a lot for your mental health when you're watching it unfold. And so today we wanted to try to end the week by focusing on something a little different. Starting a news outlet, you hear all of the reasons why people don't want to engage with the news, sam like for the last six years, we've heard every reason under the sun, but the one that comes back time and time again is the news
is too dark. I don't want to listen to it. I don't want to read it. It's too dark.
It puts me in a bad mood, puts me in a bad headspace. And it's fair enough.
I was going to say, especially this week, that's in hirely fair enough. If people have had to turn down their news consumption, that would be entirely fair. But when we started TDA, we acknowledged this fact. And that's why every single day on the podcast and every single day in our newsletter, we've been bringing you a good news story since the beginning of tda's existence.
So that means you and I have done one good news story a weekday for just over seven years.
It's a terrifyingly long time. And you know what, we wanted to just bring that all together today. We wanted to speak about only the good news so that you can hopefully go into the weekend feeling as uplifted as possible, of course, given the circumstances, and find that space to look at the brightness among the darkness.
Okay, I'm keen to get into this because I want to feel uplifted myself. Fair, what can we start with?
So I wanted to start with a homegrown good news story which is about everyone's favorite, well my favorite at least, succession star Sarah Snook. So this week Snook won Best Actress at the Olivier Awards, and that is for her role in the Picture of Dorian Gray that's currently showing on London's West End.
If only I could remain always young and the picture could grow, Oh yes that I would give everything. I would give my soul for that.
Have you heard anything about this play.
It's a single woman play, right it is.
I mean it literally is a single woman play. But Sarah Snook plays twenty six characters. Wow, in this show. It goes for over two hours. It's meant to be absolutely incredible. It was showing in Sydney and then Snook has been performing it in London. The play was developed and originally performed at the Sydney Theater Company a couple of years ago, and now, as I said, it's in London. Snook was incredibly modest in accepting her honor. She said that while it's built as a one woman show, it's not.
It's the crew who are on stage with me all the time every night, and they are vital and constant support and they are inspirational. So thank you to the crew for being there in this show with me.
Are the Olivier Awards, like the Oscars.
Highly highly prestigious, the top on and you can win if you're an actor on the London stage. Not bad for someone that has absolutely killed it across the awards season. And I just, I don't know, I feel really proud. She's Australian and she's just clearly such a versatile actor. And I am dying to go see this play in London that closes a week before I get to London.
It's incredible to see Ozzie's killed it overseas in entertainment. We love our global superstars and I think we can add Sarasnook to the list. What else have you got?
So we're going to move over to Nigeria next, where the world's first vaccine against meningitis will be rolled out. This is a really significant story because Nigeria is a hot spot for the deadly disease in Africa, with one hundred and fifty three deaths recorded over the past six months. Now the vaccine is reported to protect against the five
major strains that are prevalent in the country. And we heard a bit from the World Health Organization's Director General who said, and I quote, meningitis is an old and deadly foe, but this new vaccine holds the potential to change the trajectory of the disease, preventing future outbreaks and saving many lives.
It always strikes me when we report on medical innovation that we kind of throw it in as a good news story or we talk about it quickly. Can you imagine the years of research and work that has gone into creating a little vial of a solution that can literally save people's lives.
It's incredible, and I think it's really important to give the space to these innovations that are, as you said, saving lives and changing the face of disease all across the world. It's absolutely amazing.
We're going to definitely keep an eye on that story because it's clearly one that still has a bit to run. Now, I want to talk about women's sport because we've talked about women's sport in this podcast a lot over the last twelve months, especially with the World Cup last year. We're steaming towards the Olympics, where a lot of the finest female athletes in the world are going to be on display. But locally, we've had a victory in women's sport this week.
Right we have. So last weekend the A League Women made history, setting a new Australian record for the most attended season of women's sport ever. In the semi final between the Newcastle Jets and the Central Coast Mariners, the number of spectators reached nearly three hundred thousand people. Wow, that's surpassing the previous record held by the twenty twenty three AFL women's regular season.
It is just such a victory.
It is I think that I just go back to all the naysayers during the Women's World Cup who said this is a moment in time, it will never convert meaningfully, And to see a domestic game getting those sorts of numbers months and months and months after the World's Cup. I think it just shows that support for women's sport isn't going anywhere, that sponsorship deals and funding for these games are going to have to reflect the spectator numbers
that are flowing through. And I just think, you know, it proves everyone who said that wrong and shows that support for women's sport is a fixture in this country.
And we get to see them in sildas back in action in Paris in ninety eight days.
But who's counting, sad me.
Okay, we've got time for one more good news story. What can you take us out with?
So this one is about a European Union announcement of a three point five billion euro investment in ocean protection and sustainability. Now that's around five point eight billion Australian dollars. The EU REPS said that the billions would be split
across investments in pollution management, biodiversity and sustainable fishing. And I think this is a really good news story to end on because I feel like we obviously talk about the effects of climate change on this podcast really often, and just this week, scientists declared the fourth ever global
coral bleaching event is underway. So I think that when we're talking about stories like that, when we are highlighting the very severe and very significant effects of climate change, I do think that we need to bring some hope, and we do also need to highlight the work that's being done to try combat the effects of climate change. And so in this case, a fairly substantial financial commitment by the European Union there hopefully to better protect oceans.
I think, you know, try to balance the bad with the good and think this is a really meaningful contribution and hopefully we'll go a long way in protecting our oceans.
It's a lot of money, so that's pretty impressive to see such a major financial commitment.
It is now, Sam, before we jump off and head into the weekend, I wanted to ask if you have a recommendation to give our listeners to help them feel a little bit lighter over the coming days.
Can you go first so that I can go last, because I have a surprise.
Okay, I will go first. I have had a few restless nights this week where I haven't been able to sleep, and I find myself scrolling TikTok.
Because that's really going to help you, not sleeping.
I'd like to not hear from anyone about my sleep hygiene. However, what I have really enjoyed this week in my scrolling abyss is watching videos of people completing the Boston Marathon.
Wow.
So firstly, watching anyone finish a marathon is an amazing, amazing thing to witness, like the pure strength and mental determination it takes. I'd know, jeez, I did a half half marathons, we're asking. I have not run once since then, and that was nearly two years ago. But watching people finish that is one thing. Watching people finish the Boston
Marathon is another. We know obviously that there was a terrorist attack that took place a number of years ago in Boston at that finish line, and so I just think it shows the circle of life. It shows that, you know, strength, brightness, happiness ultimately wins and to watch, you know, I watched a seventy six year old run across the finish line and hug his wife and it was just so beautiful and it makes me really happy.
So I would recommend watching those videos if you need a bit of a pick me out.
The big tag line after the Boston bombings was Boston Strong.
I was in Boston.
Wow, and this idea of like a city coming together and keeping strong. And when I was watching some of the clips of this year's end, you can see Boston strong signs still everywhere. It's now part of the city's identity.
Yeah, okay, Sam, that's yours.
Okay. So I've been I think I missed a chapter and I don't of life of a good solid entertainment education. I don't know why I've missed this important chapter, but I feel like I've missed out on romantic comedies, and.
So I've been an important genre.
So important. There's so many references I now know that people are throwing out there that come from funny movies. So this week we're knocking some off to try and get some lightness back. Bridesmaids movie, had never seen that before. To watch that? And then have you heard of a movie called Honey? I have heard a movie because oh my god, that makes you feel so good.
And there's twenty years too late.
And there's a bit of as going to work.
For a podcast.
This is a bit of a this soundtrack.
Yep.
If I could set one song as an alarm, it'd be this. And I think this is a nice way to get everyrun, get every one out of the podcasts and into their weekend.
All right, Well, on that note, have a great weekend. We'll be back again on Monday.
I see. My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda Bungelung Calcoton woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island and nations.
We pay our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both past and present.