ABC Listen. Hello there, my name's Jack, and you're listening to News Time.
Hi, Jack. Hello, Jack.
I'm filling in for Ruby this week, and I've brought along some awesome stories.
We'll travel deep into the ocean to swim with whales.
Then head up, up and beyond our atmosphere to hear the latest from some astronauts stuck in space.
What do you say? I can't wait.
Story number five. When you hear whales singing, do you ever wonder what they're singing about?
Maybe they're singing, hey, hey, other whales come here, there might be more yummy food around here.
You might be onto something there.
Scientists were studying baleen whales, including humpback whales, blue whales and fin whales, and they found they tend to have a big sing after a big meal.
they can sound a bit like this.
I like it because it's funny.
Scientists wanted to know whether whale songs changed based on the conditions of the places they visit, so they set up sound recorders called hydrophones in the ocean and recorded as much whale song as they could.
Because whale songs are so loud, you can study them from very far away.
Some of the recordings were from thousands of kilometres away from the hydrophones.
They studied the whales over years and years and found that when there was lots of food in the environment and the whales had a good meal, they sang more.
Maybe they were singing, Mmm, delicious.
He might be like, Oh, no, no more precious yummy food.
Give me more food now!
Balin whales migrate across the oceans to breed and have babies.
Before they migrate, they need to eat as much as they can to store up energy for the long journey.
Tracking how much they sing gives scientists a good idea of whether the whales are getting enough to eat.
Scientists know which species can handle changes in their environment and which species get a bit more stressed out when there's not as much food.
So, they could learn more about undersea creatures.
And beautiful singers.
Story number four. Top tennis talent Ash Barty and Yvonne Gulogonkoli have had their success celebrated in a surprising way.
I think I have heard of Ash Barty.
Did they win the World Championship?
Yeah, sort of. In tennis, the top tournaments are called Grand Slam events.
There are four Grand Slams around the world every year, and we have one of them in Australia, called the Australian Open.
Wiradjuri Woman Ivon won the Australian Open four times.
She also won the French Open and Wimbledon in England.
Narago Woman Ash Bati won the Australian Open too, about 50 years after her hero Ivon did.
She also won the French Open and Wimbledon.
Both Ash and Ivon are retired now, Even though they played tennis at different times, they're often celebrated together as two of the greatest Aussie tennis players of all time.
Wow! Ash and Yvonne are both amazing players, but they're amazing friends too.
They say they had a special connection from the moment they met.
As a celebration of their success, special Barbie dolls have been made that look just like Ash and Yvonne.
The dolls celebrate the beautiful friendship between the two players and how Yvonne and Ash support and celebrate each other.
To remember them, because they were so famous, I think they feel a little bit special.
Yvonne says she's happy to be a role model.
She says it's important for young people, especially young indigenous girls, to hear stories of how their role models chased and achieved their goals.
Ash says the dolls help young indigenous women and girls to see what's possible and to dream big.
Starry number three.
You might remember the story of Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams, two NASA astronauts currently onboard the International Space Station.
It's a place where astronauts live to study space and it orbits the Earth.
Yeah, the International Space Station is always orbiting Earth.
If you look in the night sky at the right time, you might be lucky enough to see it drifting past.
Butch and Sunny were only supposed to be at the International Space Station for eight days, but their trip got extended.
The spacecraft they were supposed to use to come home wasn't safe to travel in, so they were stuck up there.
You can only imagine how they must be feeling.
Scared and worried?
Wait, did they...did they get back?
Well, after nine months stuck floating with friends at the International Space Station, Butch and Sunny are finally coming home.
Two more NASA astronauts blast off to replace Butch and Sunny.
This means Butch and Sunny will finally be able to head back to Earth.
For nine months. When I was just meant to be eight days.
Sunny said the hardest part of her time up in space was thinking about her family and missing her Labrador dogs.
Sunny and Butch have been comfy at the space station.
they had food and water, friends to keep them company and cool experiments to keep them busy.
But they're both very excited to soon be back on Earth.
Hug your kids. Have a celebration.
Dots of grass. When the replacement crew fly up to the International Space Station, Sunny and Butch won't come straight back down.
They'll spend a week together living on the ISS, sharing stories and the same space...
in space. I'm sure the teams will have a lot to talk about.
Story number two...
Some lucky learners have finally met their school friends in real life.
Thousands of Aussie kids put on their uniform each morning to make their way to school, but not all kids live close enough to a school to go there every day.
How long it normally takes me to get to school?
Around five minutes, maybe around 10.
I can ride my bike to school.
It takes around 15 minutes for me to just walk to school.
Kids who live hundreds or even thousands of kilometres from the nearest school on farms or properties might attend something called School of the Air.
That's where kids are taught online.
They log onto computers each day to chat to their teachers, learn lessons, and speak to their friends.
I think my brother had it when it was COVID.
Yeah, it's similar to the sort of online learning that kids in cities were doing when there were lockdowns around the country.
Learning online means kids miss out on some of the things you get from going to a school in real life.
Thankfully, a couple of times a year, kids from the Alice Springs School of the Year get together in real life for a week of learning and play.
This week might be the first time they meet their school friends in real life after chatting with them online.
Amazing! Mmm... .. 'cause they finally get to meet other people.
It will be pretty cool ,...
.. 'cause you can play by your own roles.
Very cool. The trip is a big deal.
Families travel for hours to get to Alice Springs for the meet -up.
It's pretty expensive, but the kids love the opportunity.
Jack and Ollie are two friends who both go to the Alice Springs School of the Air.
Ollie says he loved playing with his friends at their meet -up, But the extra learning with teachers was good, too.
And now it's time for...
Wow, the week! This story made me go wild because I think he's about to make a house out of a wards.
..Amand Mondo -du -Plantus is the best pole vaulter in the world.
You know the high -jump poles?
They use that for much bigger, which is sticking to the ground and push down and jump, so you can go fling over it.
Every time you do jump over it, it gets higher and higher.
Swedish -American pole -voter Mondo won the gold medal at the Olympics in Paris last year.
After he won the gold, he decided to do one extra jump.
He held a long pole above his shoulders and ran towards the launching spot, then whoosh!
Mondo was up in the air and over the bar in no time.
he had just beaten the world record by one centimetre.
The thing is, the record that Mondo beat was his own record.
He was already the world record holder.
Fast forward to this year, Mondo was in another pole vault competition.
After beating all the other competitors without too much stress, Mondo decided to try to beat his own record again.
And he did it. Mondo got over the bar one centimetre higher than his own old world record.
I mean like, how did he beat it by such a tiny amount?
Well, Mondo is beating the record by a tiny amount on purpose.
Before he does each jump, he decides how high he wants the bar to be, and he only ever wants to beat his record by one centimetre.
He could possibly jump much higher, but he's not interested in beating the record by a lot all at once.
In fact, he's beaten his own record by 1cm ten times.
So then he could keep on breaking the world record over and over again, so then he would have so many awards on his walls.
And maybe get 20 ,000 awards instead of one tiny award.
Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Mondo gets a bonus award every time he sets a world record.
So it seems like he wants to get that bonus as many times as he can.
I wonder how high he can go.
And that's it. We've faltered over our last story for the episode.
Thanks, Jack. Thank you.
Thank you. You're very welcome, and it's been awesome hanging out with you all.
Bye. Bye, Jack. Goodbye, or, as they say in Japanese, sayonara.
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