☕️ The Netflix show made free across the UK

Here’s today’s riddle: A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?

Answer is in the tidbit!

“I have not felt under particular political pressure at all to do anything. We are focused on the job.”
Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock responding to a question asking if Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers put pressure on the RBA to keep the interest rate stable.

100,000
The number of livestock that are estimated to be missing or dead in the rural Queensland floods, according to early data confirmed by the Queensland Department of Primary Industries to TDA.

Feculence [fek-you-lence]
Definition: foul or filthy matter, containing faeces.
Used in a sentence: As ‘Severance’ character Seth Milchick would say: “Devour feculence. It means eat sh*t.”

The hit Netflix series ‘Adolescence’ will be made free to watch in UK high schools to help students understand misogyny, online radicalisation, and healthy relationships.

The series has sparked global discussion about the impact of harmful and violent online content on young people.

On Monday (local time), UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with the show’s creators, young people, gender-based violence charities, and education bodies “to tackle the issues this groundbreaking show raises.”

Adolescence centres on a 13-year-old boy in northern England who is accused of the murder of a female classmate.

The show explores themes of gender-based violence and the impacts of harmful online material on young people.

Co-creator Jack Thorne said the show was intended to “provoke a conversation” and pose questions about how to “stop [the] growing crisis” of incel culture and toxic masculinity.

On Monday, Netflix announced it had licensed ‘Adolescence’ to a non-profit streaming service available in UK schools, Into Film +. The show will be accompanied by a guide for teachers to help students’ understanding.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Starmer emphasised the importance of encouraging “as many pupils as possible” to engage with the show’s themes.

He said tackling these issues requires a whole-of-society approach, as “this isn’t a challenge politicians can simply legislate for.”

Reporting by Achol Arok.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been blocked from running for President in 2027, after she was found guilty of embezzlement.

On Monday (local time), the Paris Criminal Court found Le Pen and 20 others guilty of embezzling money from the European Union (EU).

The scam involved illegally funnelling money meant to be used for EU parliamentary staff to pay officials in Le Pen’s party, National Rally.

Le Pen has denied the charges and will appeal.

Marine Le Pen is a member of the French Parliament, where she leads far-right political party Rassemblement National (National Rally).

The nationalist, anti-EU party was founded by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Marine Le Pen was elected as a French member of the continental European Parliament in 2004, where she served for 13 years.

She ran unsuccessfully against Emmanuel Macron at France’s last two presidential elections.

Last year, Le Pen and 24 others faced trial on charges of misusing EU funds for party purposes.

Prosecutors accused National Rally politicians and aides of deliberately sending money to party officials in France between 2004 and 2016, covering most of Le Pen’s time in the European Parliament.

Under the scheme, the party lied about using the money to pay EU parliamentary staff, instead funding its political organisation.

Judge Bénédicte de Perthuis found Le Pen guilty of overseeing the scheme, worth up to €7 million ($AU12 million).

Le Pen was blocked from running for President for at least five years, barring her from the next presidential election, due in 2027. Macron is also unable to run in this election because of France’s two-term limit on the presidency.

Le Pen was also fined €100,000 ($AU173,000) and sentenced to four years in prison. Two years of the sentence are suspended, and two are to be served under house arrest with an electronic monitor.

Following the ruling, Le Pen told French media the conviction was a “political decision” to prevent her from running for President.

As part of the ruling, Judge de Perthuis said: “Let’s be clear: no one is on trial for doing politics.”

Le Pen has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying: “I’m not going to let myself be eliminated like this”.

National Rally called the ruling a “democratic scandal”.

In a post online, the party said: “The dictatorship of judges has executed democracy in France!”

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said threats have since been made against judges in the Paris Judicial Court.

“The threats... are unacceptable in a democracy,” Darmanin said.

Reporting by Harry Sekulich.

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🗞️ Also in today’s Sport Newsletter: rugby, a random fact, and more…

The parkland spans around 607 hectares in an area west of Chicago. A U.S. Government treaty signed in 1829 promised the land would be given back to its traditional owners, the Prairie Land Potawatomi Nation. However, the deal was never honoured. This week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a law transferring the Shabbona Lake State Recreation Area to the Potawatomi. The group said the decision “reflects the power of collaboration… demonstrating that healing and reconciliation are possible.”

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

Reporting by Emma Gillespie.

Riddle answer: The river is frozen.

Now, onto today’s tidbit: The four-part Beatles biopic is really happening.

In 2028, four individual films, each directed by Sam Mendes (‘Skyfall’, ‘American Beauty’) will take viewers through each Beatles member’s journey from Liverpool to the world stage.

Paul Mescal (‘Normal People’) is playing Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn (‘Stranger Things’) is George Harrison, Barry Keoghan (‘Saltburn’) is taking on Ringo Starr and Harris Dickinson (‘Babygirl’) will play John Lennon.

The films are also the first to be given rights to some of the group’s most notable songs. The TDA office is excitedly preparing with a chorus of “we all live in a yellow submarine…”

Reporting by Rosa Bowden.

This week, Australia became the second country in the world to mandate health warnings on individual cigarettes. The changes are part of several new tobacco control measures aimed at improving public health outcomes and reducing smoking rates. The reforms also include new health promotion inserts in cigarette packs, and a phased ban on menthol cigarettes. In today's deep dive, we’ll take you through what's changed and why.