Hope Is A Verb - NewsFix - TB Breakthroughs. Toponium. Whale Comeback.

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

This week’s headlines include – Yes, we can end TB; the biggest expansion of education in human history; LGBTQ rights gaining ground; whales staging a dramatic comeback in Antarctic waters; a global energy shift; and the particle discovery that was not thought possible. NewsFix has moved to its own feed! You can check it out here or search 'NewsFix' on your favourite podcast app. Make sure you look out for the new artwork - we've had a pretty big glow-up! If you need a bit more time, don't worry, we’ll keep popping up here for a couple more weeks .This podcast is brought to you by ⁠Fix The News⁠. Hosted by Anthony Badolato, ⁠Hear That!⁠ If you want to get in touch with the team, email [e-mail] 

And here we go. 10, 9, 8, 7, R.S. 25 engines. 8. 4. 3, 2, 1. Booster ignition. And lift off. Welcome back to News Fix, your weekly antidote to Doom scrolling. Brought to you by Fix the News. I'm Anthony Bado Lato.

That was fun. While the world had its eyes on the stratosphere, last week with the launch of Artemis 2, NASA's most daring mission in generations, plenty of good news was unfolding back here on Earth. Before we dive in, a quick heads up, and I know I'm starting to sound like a bit of a broken record here, but if it's new information to you, news fix is moving, so these updates will only be available on this particular feed for a couple more weeks. So I've popped a link to the new feed in the show notes.

Please give it a subscribe. All right, let's get into it. The beginning of the end for one of the world's deadliest diseases. Global education rises as LGBT rights expand. Humpback whales stage a comeback in the southern ocean. Southeast Asia races into a clean energy future. And scientists discover a particle that wasn't supposed to exist. Don't you love it when that happens?

Kicking off with global health. Tuberculosis still kills over a million people annually and it hits hardest in poorer communities. where healthcare access is limited, but this year's World TB Day came with a bold message. Yes, we can end tuberculosis, and it's backed by real progress. While the existing vaccine is protecting infants and young children,

new vaccines are showing promising signs in adolescents and adults in clinical trials. At the same time, simple, portable tests that don't require hospitals and labs are making it faster and easier to diagnose T's. even in remote communities. So ending TB isn't just hopeful thinking anymore. It's a real possibility. All right, let's jump into the classroom for a quick lesson about the news cycle called If it Bleeds, it leads. UNESCO has released its latest global education monitoring report, and most news outlets have focused on one statistic, the 273 million young people currently excluded from education.

Look, there's no question that there's no question that, that some progress has stalled, but when you zoom out, you'll find a very different picture. Since the year 2000, we've actually had the biggest expansion of education in human history. Enrollment has jumped 30%. That's 25 more kids entering school every minute for the last 25 years. Every minute. Entry rates for higher education have more than doubled, and in many countries, the gender gap has almost disappeared.

But the world isn't just getting smarter. It's also becoming fairer. In Thailand, lawmakers are moving closer to legalising same-sex marriage, a first for Southeast Asia. Poland's highest court has ruled that authorities must recognise same-sex marriages that are legally performed in other EU countries. And courts around the world are expanding protections from anti-discrimination laws to legal recognition for same-sex families.

Why don't we travel over to the animal, Kingdom now where Antarctic humpback whales have rebounded to almost pre-whaling levels in the southern ocean. The same waters where more than two million of them were killed last century. Since commercial whaling was banned back in 1986, humpbacks have led the recovery. And while we're on the topic, make sure you check out the video in this week's newsletter. It's the first ever footage recorded of a sperm whale giving birth, and it's magical. From ocean comebacks to an energy shift. Global tensions continue to speed up the clean energy transition, as households from Britain to India turn to electric vehicles, solar and heat pumps,

not just for the climate, but to save money. Governments are moving fast too. In Indonesia, President Prabowo Subianto has ordered a rapid rollout of 100 gigawatts of solar. While in the Philippines, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin has said it's time to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels. It's time for us to think about electrifying everything. And finally, the discovery that wasn't supposed to happen. Scientists at CERN have found evidence of a brand new particle called toponium that's formed when two ultra-unstable particles briefly stick together.

Usually these duos vanish almost instantly, but in some cases they hang on to each other just long enough to be detected. It's a breakthrough that helps explain. how matter itself holds together and a reminder that there's still plenty about the universe we don't understand okay that's it from me please make sure you check out the whale video in this week's newsletter at fix the news.com and subscribe to the new feed i'll see you next week until then please remember it's not all bad