☕️ Backpacker's journey lost in WA

You’ve likely heard the story of Carolina Wilga, the 26-year-old German backpacker who was found last Friday after spending 11 nights lost in Western Australia’s unforgiving outback.

Yesterday, Wilga shared her first public statement via WA Police, offering some insight into her journey: “Some people might wonder why I even left my car, even though I had water, food, and clothing there. The answer is: I lost control of the car and rolled down a slope. In the crash, I hit my head significantly. As a result of the accident, I left my car in a state of confusion and got lost.”

She ended her message with: “Thank you Australia – you are amazing.”

“My office has now viewed all available footage of the incident giving rise to the moments leading to the injury to Ms Thomas’ eye on the 27th of June, and I am satisfied that Ms Thomas was punched in the face by a male police officer, causing extensive and serious injury to her eye."
Peter O’Brien, a lawyer for former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas, in a statement announcing she will sue the state of NSW after she was arrested at a protest in Sydney. After the arrest, NSW assistant police commissioner Brett McFadden told ABC Radio there had been no "misconduct on behalf of [his] officers”.

$US122,571.19 ($AU186,797)
The highest price of Bitcoin on record, reached on Monday afternoon AEST.

Alfred Hitchcock is credited with making people pay attention to movie screening times. He insisted that no one be allowed in after the start of his 1960 film Psycho, to prevent spoiling its plot. Before 1960, many movie theatres were constantly looping. Patrons would walk into the theatre in the middle of a film, watch to the end, and wait for the movie to begin again to see what they missed.

The United Nation’s HIV/AIDS agency, UNAIDS, has warned U.S. funding cuts could cause millions of preventable infections and deaths.

The U.S. was one of the world’s biggest financial contributors to HIV/AIDS funding until President Donald Trump took office again earlier this year.

Trump paused almost all foreign aid payments in January.

In a new report, UNAIDS has suggested the funding cuts are “jeopardising decades of hard-won progress against the AIDS pandemic”.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an incurable disease that attacks the immune system, transmitted through bodily fluids.

Left untreated, the immune system deteriorates, which can lead to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

People with HIV can take medication to reduce the disease’s presence in their body, to the point that it can’t be passed on.

People without HIV can take a medication called PrEP to reduce their risk of contracting the disease.

UNAIDS’ latest report said that as of last year, nearly 41 million people were living with HIV. It said this was the highest number ever recorded, due to the prevalence of “lifesaving” treatments.

In 2024, 1.3 million people acquired HIV, the lowest annual number since the 1980s. Half of all new infections were in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Australia, the prevalence of HIV has been decreasing consistently in recent years. Fewer than 31,000 Australians are estimated to be living with HIV.

The U.S. has historically been a major financial contributor to research and treatment for HIV/AIDS, both domestically and internationally.

The U.S. Government had committed $US4.3 billion ($AU6.5 billion) to support the global response to AIDS in 2025, but this was affected by Trump’s pause on foreign aid in January.

The report suggests that if funding is permanently reduced, there could be an additional six million HIV infections and four million AIDS-related deaths by 2030.

UNAIDS said the funding cuts are already disrupting the supply of medicines, closing health clinics, and interrupting testing.

It described U.S. funding to less wealthy countries with high rates of HIV as “a lifeline” which has now been “severely cut back”.

In 2015, UN members set global targets to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. The report said if the U.S. does not restore funding, it is likely the 2030 target will not be reached.

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

Rock art estimated to be more than 50,000 years old in Western Australia will receive World Heritage listing, after a United Nations committee approved its nomination.

Uncertainty about the listing was raised after the Federal Government conditionally approved the extension of a nearby gas project until 2070.

The Ngarda-Ngarli Traditional Owners have celebrated the listing as an “emotional and proud moment”.

Murujuga is a cluster of rocks on the Burrup Peninsula in north-west WA.

The rocks feature more than one million ancient engravings called “petroglyphs”. Some of these are estimated to be around than 50,000 years old.

Ngarda-Ngarli Traditional Owners have preserved the rock art for tens of thousands of years, making Murujuga one of the “largest and most diverse collections of rock art in the world.”

Australia first initiated the process to get Murujuga listed as a World Heritage site in 2020, adding it to the ranks of 20 other listed sites across the country.

Murujuga’s World Heritage status was threatened by the extension of the nearby North West Shelf gas project, led by energy giant Woodside.

Earlier this year, the Federal Government provided conditional approval for the gas site to remain open until 2070. In his decision, Environment Minister Murray Watt noted the Murujuga rock art required protection.

ICOMOS raised concerns about this development, which came the same week as the UN told Australia to “prevent any further industrial development” near the rock art.

At a meeting in Paris, the World Heritage Committee agreed to add Murujuga to the list.

The Government will provide the site with stronger protections and will hand down an update on its conservation in 2027.

Deputy chair of the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, Ngarluma woman Belinda Churnside, told the committee: “This has been a long-awaited journey and a fight for our elders… We are thankful to receive this recognition from a global scale”.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

Heading to work right now? Your commute just got a plot twist.

Introducing Mastercard Transit Tales - a new way to turn public transport time into story time.

It’s an AI-powered storytelling feature that reimagines classic tales to match your trip. You can choose your genre and story, and the app does the rest, automatically adjusting the story length based on where you tap on and off. 

Want Alice in Wonderland as a 26-minute mystery thriller? Or The Wizard of Oz reimagined as a six-minute superhero saga? You’ve got it.

Tap on with your Mastercard using Express Transit Mode - no tickets, no top-ups and no unlocking your phone! Just tap and go, and let the story travel with you.

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🗞️ Also in the Sport Newsletter: cricket, netball, and more…

The 24-year-old defeated Thailand’s world number two Jeeno Thitikul in a two-hole playoff after scores were tied at the end of the final round. Kim is the fifth Australian woman ever to win a golf major. It’s her second win ever, with the first being in 2023. Speaking to media after her win, she called it a “huge achievement,” which came after she had been “losing motivation”. The Evian Championship is the fourth women’s golf major of the year, with the fifth and final, the Women’s Open, beginning on 31 July.

Want more good news? Sign up to our weekly Good Newsletter here - we promise it’ll make your week better!

Reporting by George Finlayson.

Two black holes have collided into one mega black hole 225 times the mass of the Sun.

Black holes are formed upon the death of a star, which collapses upon itself.

Researchers found these black holes were spinning at almost the highest speed physicists believe to be physically possible.

To bend your mind even further, scientists say they were able to measure these properties of the black holes through gravity ripples in space.

It was previously thought that such big black holes did not exist, challenging the very foundation of current astrophysical understanding.

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

Gold is one of the world’s oldest investments. In 2025, it came into the spotlight as a haven for investors concerned about the volatility of our economic markets.

About two months ago, it reached its highest price ever - around $3,800 an ounce. That's a pretty big deal when you consider that just five years ago, an ounce of gold was worth about half that amount. When gold prices soar like this, it can impact everything from the jewellery you might buy to the broader Australian economy.

On today’s podcast, we’re going to look at what has driven the spike in the price of gold, and the mechanics of actually buying the shiny stuff.