☕️ Illicit alcohol products found on Aussie shelves

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The quote: “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself.” Australian singer Kylie Minogue revealing in her new Netflix documentary that she had a second cancer diagnosis in 2021. She is now in remission.

The stat:
226. The number of reported cases of the respiratory infection diphtheria so far this year in Australia, as reported in the national disease database. The majority of cases are in the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and Health Minister Mark Butler told the ABC this week “almost all” patients are First Nations people.

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Toxic vodka containing traces of methanol and plastic has been found at licensed Melbourne bottle shops, with experts warning Australians could be unknowingly buying dangerous illicit alcohol.

A new study by UNSW and Curtin University found some products contained substances linked to blindness, seizures and death.

Here’s what to know.

In Australia, illicit alcohol means products sold by retailers without the required taxes being paid.

These taxes include the alcohol excise, which applies to beer, spirits and other alcoholic drinks, along with customs duty on imported products.

The Australian Taxation Office estimates the Federal Government lost $767 million to the illicit alcohol market in the 2023–24 financial year.

The findings come from a joint study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at UNSW Sydney and the National Drug Research Institute at Curtin University.

Researchers visited four licensed bottle shops in Melbourne and identified what they believed to be illicit vodka products being sold.

Three bottles were submitted for chemical testing and were found to contain harmful substances, including methanol and plastic contaminants.

Researchers said the bottles were among the cheapest vodka products available and featured “poor-quality labelling and packaging”.

The National Drug Research Institute’s Dr Nick Taylor said the products undergo “little to no quality control processes”.

He said the team was concerned the bottles, which had “the outward appearance of a legal product,” were being sold to unsuspecting customers.

Dr Taylor warned the availability of the products also posed a major public health risk.

Reporting by Achol Arok.

🎧 On today’s TDA podcast, Features Editor Emma and Multimedia Journalist Elliot explain why the UK version of Married at First Sight has been pulled from streaming (including here in Australia), after three women on the show alleged sexual assault during filming.

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The South Sydney Rabbitohs have announced forward Jai Arrow is retiring effective immediately, after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).

The 30-year-old confirmed the news at a press conference on Wednesday, with a representative reading a statement for him, saying he had been diagnosed with “a nerve and neurological condition” following medical testing.

Arrow’s statement said his symptoms had “affected different parts of my every day life”.

MND is a progressive neurological condition that damages the nerve cells responsible for controlling muscle movement.

The disease leads to a gradual loss of muscle strength and function.

There is currently no cure.

According to MND Australia, most people diagnosed with the disease live an average of two to three years, however survival time varies.

In a statement released by the club, Arrow said: “What I need right now isn’t sympathy or sadness. What I need is support, understanding, and privacy while my family and I navigate this difficult time.”

Arrow and his partner Berina Colakovic have a one-year-old daughter.

The Queenslander played 178 NRL games between 2016 and 2025, beginning at the Brisbane Broncos before stints at the Gold Coast Titans and joining the Rabbitohs in 2021.

Arrow played in South Sydney’s 2021 Grand Final loss to Penrith. Last year, he won three club awards: best and fairest, club-person of the year, and the award for “contribution to the [Souths] community”.

Arrow also made 12 State of Origin appearances for the Maroons between 2018 and 2023, featuring in three series wins.

He has not played this season due to a shoulder injury.

Arrow joins a number of former players from league, union, and the AFL who have been diagnosed with the disease, such as 2025 Australian of the Year Neale Daniher, who was diagnosed in 2013.

In rugby league, Balmain Tigers player Scott Gale died aged 39 in 2004, years after being diagnosed with MND.

In 2024, an international team of scientists suggested a link between repeated concussions and developing MND, using the results of testing on retired athletes, including former rugby league players.

During the first half of the 2021 Grand Final, Arrow was hit on the head and went off the field, but returned within a few minutes – less time than the NRL requires to carry out a concussion assessment.

At half-time, he was ruled unfit to play.

After the match, coach Wayne Bennett said the league hadn’t “got [concussion protocols] right.” Bennett added that Arrow had been “obviously knocked out,” though “he was still conscious”.

Reporting by George Finlayson and Lucy Tassell.

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Griffith University PhD candidate Stephanie Stack co-led an international study comparing thousands of images of whale tails collected between 1984 and 2025. The team identified two individual whales photographed years apart in both countries. One was spotted off Queensland in 2007 and 2013, before turning up off São Paulo in 2019 – a minimum straight-line ocean distance of about 14,200km. A second whale was photographed off the coast of eastern Brazil in 2003, and then seen 15,000km away off Hervey Bay 22 years later – the longest humpback migration of its kind ever documented. While rare, Stack said these crossings can “help maintain genetic diversity across populations and may even carry new song styles from one region to another.”

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Southampton, an English football team, was one win away from promotion to the Premier League (the top league). But instead, the club has been kicked out of the playoff final for spying.

The club admitted to secretly filming three rival clubs’ training sessions this season, breaching rules introduced after Leeds United were caught in a similar scandal in 2019.

Southampton were one win away from returning to the Premier League, with a Wembley playoff final against Hull City worth an estimated £200 million ($A374 million) in future revenue.

Middlesbrough, who Southampton beat to reach the final, will now take their place.

Reporting by Pavitra Ravi.