☕️ Elon Musk to leave White House

Honestly, the best I’ve got today is TGIF.

It’s been a long week (we launched a finance newsletter! We hosted an event! The news did its thing!), but thanks for being here for the ride.

“I won’t sugar-coat it: it’s rough. But I’m hopeful. I’m being lovingly cared for by friends and family, my medical team is brilliant, and I’ve never felt more held by the people around me.”
Australian actor and comedian Magda Szubanski in a post to Instagram, revealing she has been diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer.

$US1 billion ($AU1.5 billion)
The amount U.S. company e.l.f. beauty will pay to acquire Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand Rhode. Bieber co-founded the company in 2022 after noticing a “gap in the industry” for “a simplified product lineup that wasn’t based on trends, overly expensive ingredients, or a 15-minute routine”.

Two Brazilian nuns have gone viral for beatboxing and dancing on a Catholic television show. The video has given everyone in the office a good giggle, and even had George, our sport journalist, saying: “I want to learn those moves.” Watch them here.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has confirmed his “scheduled time” as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has “come to an end.”

Due to his role as a ‘special government employee’, Musk could only work 130 days a year for the federal government. In April, he claimed reports he was leaving DOGE were “fake news.”

Musk said he “thank[s] President [Donald Trump] for the opportunity to reduce wasteful spending.”

DOGE will continue to operate despite Musk’s departure.

DOGE was announced by U.S. President Donald Trump shortly after his election. The department is designed to “slash excess regulations... and restructure Federal Agencies”.

Until now, it has been led by Musk.

As of its latest update, DOGE claims it has saved the government $US175 billion ($AU270 billion).

These savings have come from cutting funding for federal departments, including the U.S. Agency for International Development. Approximately 15 of its 10,000 employees will keep their jobs.

In January, Musk claimed DOGE had also “saved taxpayers over $1 billion in crazy [diversity, equity and inclusion] contracts.”

While Musk has played a prominent role in the current Trump administration, in an interview with CBS on Wednesday, he said he was “disappointed” with Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’.

The Act aims to extend tax cuts and increase the total amount of debt the government can have. “I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful..but I don't know if it can be both,” Musk said.

He said the “massive spending” in the bill “undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing.”

Despite Musk’s departure, DOGE is intended to operate until 4 July 2026.

On Thursday Musk said: “The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government.”

The White House has not announced who will succeed Musk.

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

One of Australia’s largest fossil fuel projects is set to be extended beyond its current 2030 expiry date by 40 years.

The Government has approved Australian oil and gas company Woodside Energy’s plan to keep drilling in the North West Shelf on the Burrup Peninsula in north-west WA, under “strict conditions”.

Environmental groups have accused the Government of detonating a “climate bomb”.

It comes amid questions about Australia’s bid to get nearby Indigenous rock art World Heritage listed.

The North West Shelf has been a site of gas drilling and production since 1984.

The gas it produces is then processed at a plant in nearby Karratha.

The plant produces two main types of gas for energy usage:

1. Pipeline gas is funnelled to the rest of Western Australia.

2. Liquified natural gas (LNG), cooled natural gas in liquid form, is exported elsewhere, including Japan.

The North West Shelf has become Australia’s largest oil and gas project, led by Woodside — a company valued at $47 billion.

Six years ago, Woodside applied for an extension of gas drilling and production from 2030 to 2070.

Extensions require state and federal environmental approvals.

The state government handed down its approval in December, specifying there would need to be regular air quality monitoring and consultation with Traditional Owners.

Earlier this week, the federal government greenlit extending the project to 2070.

Newly-appointed Environment Minister Murray Watt said there are “strict conditions” attached to the extension. Woodside needs to respond within 10 days.

In a statement, he said the “impact of air emissions on the Murujuga rock art,” a cluster of engravings in the Burrup Peninsula, was part of his decision.

“I have ensured that adequate protection for the rock art is central,” Watt said.

Murujuga is in the same area as the North West Shelf and is home to some of the oldest rock art on Earth, dating back 50,000 years.

In a separate announcement this week, the United Nations body tasked with listing World Heritage sites released a draft decision on the feasibility of adding the Murujuga Cultural Landscape to its list.

The committee said Australia needs to “prevent any further industrial development” in the area to achieve heritage listing.

The Government’s conditional extension of the North West Shelf project has drawn criticism from environmental groups, while the company at the centre welcomed the decision.

Woodside Executive Vice President Liz Westcott said the extension approval supports “thousands of direct and indirect jobs”.

Shadow Environment Minister Angie Bell told the ABC the Coalition supported the government’s move, saying project approvals need to “balance between the environmental sustainability and the economy and jobs.”

The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the Woodside extension would set off a “climate bomb”.

It would become the largest fossil fuel project in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the ACF, and rank within the top 10 most polluting global projects.

Greens leader Larissa Waters called the decision “an epic climate fail”.

She criticised the government for pushing out the decision until after the federal election on 3 May.

“Locking in fossil fuels out to 2070 is not what their voters expected.”

The ACF’s First Nations lead Josie Alec told reporters on Thursday: “The Australian Government’s laws are not strong enough... for the environment.”

“There’s always hope, we have to believe that someone, somewhere is going to stop the idiocy of [destroying] country.“

Alec indicated there could be a legal challenge to the proposed extension.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

Let’s talk about sex (and all the stuff we should’ve learned in school)

Ever feel like you skipped the class on how to actually do dating, relationships, and consent? Yep, same. That’s why the team at Teach Us Consent made a podcast that finally has the convos we all needed earlier.

It covers everything from how to flirt without the ick, to dealing with mixed signals, handling rejection, and navigating the messy stuff like porn, power and party culture - all in a way that’s honest, respectful, and actually helpful.

No shame. No judgement. Just real chats with athletes, comedians, creators and more about what it means to lead with empathy, confidence and care - in bed, on dates, and everywhere else.

🍊 The OKC Thunder are in the NBA Finals. Read more here.
🍊 Women’s AFL players are protesting this weekend. Here’s why.
🍊 Chelsea won the Conference League. What is that?
🗞️ Also in today’s Sport Newsletter: a random fact, rugby league, and more…

Researchers at Tokyo University of Agriculture observed how cats responded to tubes containing unfamiliar human scents, their owner’s scent, and empty control tubes. Cats spent more time sniffing the unfamiliar and empty tubes. Researchers believe this is because cats quickly recognised their owner’s scent and focused on gathering information about unknown smells. Cats already use scent to communicate with each other, but discovery gives us more insight into how they respond to human odours.

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

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

The U.S’ largest spelling bee is celebrating its 100th anniversary. A-N-N-I-V-E-R-S-A-R-Y.

The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition begins with 243 kids under the age of 15. The tests range from written spelling and vocabulary tests, to spelling words on stage to a crowd.

Nine contestants have made the finals this year. The last two spellers will face off in what they call a ‘spell-off’ to find out the winner, who will receive $US52,500 ($AU80,000).

Maybe TDA needs to pay closer attention to the spelling bees after our ‘tidbit’ spelling scandal…

Reporting by Annabel Whitehouse.

A legal challenge to block a Sydney private boys school from going co-ed failed in a NSW court this week. Newington College’s plan to open enrolments to girls first made headlines over a year ago, when a group of parents, Old Boys and students gathered outside the school in protest of the announcement.

Today, we’ll bring you up to speed on this high-profile case, including a breakdown of what this week’s Supreme Court decision means.