Fab Friday News
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
Wrapping up the week with an upbeat collection of good news nuggets.
Coming Up For Air
Drone captures Greenland ice tearing open to reveal colossal animal beneath. The gigantic bowhead whale can be seen breaking through the ice to take several breaths of air before returning to the deep. "This behaviour happens frequently during the colder winter and spring months in Disko Bay, when few open water patches exist in the ice,” said marine biologist Fredrik Christiansen from Aarhus University in Denmark, who shared the footage on Instagram. As these large mammals - which can grow to 20 metres - swim in Arctic seas, they can come across a problem: ice. When they need to breathe, bowhead whales come to the surface and "can break through ice as thick as 60cm,” he added.
End of Propaganda
Hungary's main public TV channel has halted news broadcasts in a bid to make its media "independent and trustworthy". The country's former prime minister, the despotic Viktor Orbán (a friend of Putin), who was ousted in April after 16 years in power, had tightly controlled state media. Reforms to media were a key campaign promise of Hungary's new Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who described the announcement as "the end of propaganda broadcasts". Both TV channel M1 and Kossuth radio station temporarily halted transmission, with the former displaying a message that read: "Public media should not lie. We are sorry for doing it for so long". The message, which was shown in white writing on a black screen, continued: "Public media now will be reformed so it will be independent and trustworthy. Our news programme is currently suspended. Stay tuned!"
Best Jokes About Putin: Stories abound of Ukrainians keeping their spirits up by discussing Putin's facial surgery and telling jokes about him. Here are some dark jokes about the ghastly Vladimir Putin.
Free Travel
Residents of Portugal’s second-largest city can now travel free of charge across the Porto metropolitan public transport network, under a municipal programme expected to cost up to €25 million a year. Porto has introduced free public transport for its 264,000 residents, allowing eligible passengers to use metro, bus, suburban rail, tram and river services across the wider metropolitan area without paying fares. The policy is intended to encourage more people to leave their cars at home and use public transport for journeys within Porto and the surrounding urban region.
Different Kind of Hero
Some heroes don't wear scrubs or carry stethoscopes. Twice a week, 73-year-old Dave Whitlow walks into the neonatal intensive care unit at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU with one goal: to comfort some of the hospital's most fragile patients, one cuddle at a time. For the past eight years, Whitlow has served as a volunteer cuddler, spending his Tuesdays and Thursdays holding premature and critically ill babies while they fight for their lives. "It's the best gig I've ever had. It just feels right," Whitlow said.
Toyota's 'Sense of Crisis'
The world’s best-selling car of all time is going electric. Toyota’s next-generation Corolla EV will debut on a new platform as “a considerable sense of crisis” is forcing the company to reinvent itself. With 12 model changes and over 57 million units sold since its launch 60 years ago, the Toyota Corolla has surpassed the Volkswagen Beetle to become the world’s best-selling vehicle. While Toyota remained the world’s largest automaker in 2025, the Japanese car giant is feeling the pressure as Tesla and Chinese automakers are forcing the industry to adapt or get left behind. Toyota has long defended the internal combustion engine, but is now “in the midst of unprecedented transformation.”
UK Renewables Record
New data showed that renewables generated a record 53.1 percent of electricity in the UK in the first quarter of 2026, up 7.4 percent from the same time period last year. The increase was driven primarily by wind generation, which alone made up more than 29 percent of total electricity generated, 30 percent more than the same time period last year and the result of more capacity and higher wind speeds.
Solar Surge
Africa is smashing all the solar records. The continent installed more grid-connected solar in the first half of 2026 than in all of 2025, and with projects under construction the year could finish at triple the previous record. That’s just official figures too - they don’t account for all the panels going up on roofs, mines and farms.
“I believe that it is a mandatory Law of the Universe that on Fridays, you have to do something a little fun.” Hanna Rhoades
On This Day
24 July 1911: American explorer Hiram Bingham III rediscovered Machu Picchu, guided by local farmers while searching for the last refuge of the Inca empire. It brought the site to worldwide attention and international fame with backing from Yale University and the National Geographic Society. He documented his journey in the bestselling book, Lost City of the Incas.
Today's Articles
Who Knew? The greatest land restoration project of all time - that you have probably never heard of.
Beach Body Ready: A seagull based at a tourist hotspot pledges to cut back on snacks to be in good shape by August.
Mood Boosting Video
An Oxford-centric view of the history of libraries.