Andy, you're a star

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 21 July. In your Squiz Today…

• UK PM Andy Burnham gets the keys to Downing Street

• Ukraine and Russia exchange strikes

• And the arrival of Brissy quadruplets… 👶🏼

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams, Anna Pykett, Larissa Huntington and Sophie Felice

Before we get into it, we have a favour to ask…

We’re on a mission to get to 3000 survey responses by the end of this week… Thanks so much to everyone who’s done it already, and if you can help us reach our targets we’d be absolutely stoked… Head to this link to have a go, and thanks for being the best audience an ambitious independent media company could ask for.

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said one person on Insta after a boatie and his mate strapped a dunny and a BBQ onto a dinghy, and set sail across shark-infested waters for Kangaroo Island. A sizzle with a view…

Burnham Man

The Squiz

Andy Burnham - the seventh UK Prime Minister in a decade to bag the keys to Downing Street - has begun his new gig, replacing Sir Keir Starmer after a whirlwind month. A month ago, Burnham wasn’t even an MP - acting as the Mayor of Greater Manchester - but won a byelection to come back into national politics and take on the gig. He’s  promised his leadership would be more stable after the revolving door of PMs before him, but with a cost of living crisis, a struggling economy and a tense relationship with US President Donald Trump, he has a big in-tray to tackle…

Why the change?

Despite winning the 2024 election in a landslide, Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity and polling numbers dropped so much that he decided he couldn’t continue as leader. To try and keep governing, the Labour party (which is pretty similar to our Labor party - just, you know, with a u) needed a circuit-breaker and a new face. Enter Burnham, who analysts say will bring a different style and different priorities to the top job. He’s pitched himself as a more optimistic, down-to-earth leader who wants to move power away from the capital of London and give communities more say in how they govern themselves. What the world will be watching now is if he can turn that revolving door of Prime Ministers into just a regular old door…

So how’s he going to do that?

In his speech overnight, he put cozzie livs front and centre, saying he will announce new policies - and how he would pay for them - to address the problem in the coming day. In terms of the UK’s relationship with Australia, he said the UK would stick with its “commitments on defence to our international partners” - so that’s being read as no change to AUKUS, the $368 billion security deal we have with the US and UK. That was some of the substance… In terms of style, he didn’t use a lectern for his speech, which is a change from tradition, but he did do the customary ‘kissing hands’ ceremony with King Charles upon being appointed PM. (No smooching anymore - it’s just a chat now). He’s also invited Trump to visit Manchester - we’ll see if the President takes him up on that…

Squiz the Rest

Putin on the charm

Ten people have been killed after a Russian strike on a cargo ship that was off the coast of the Ukrainian port city of Odesa in the country’s south. Ukrainian officials say the vessel was a Guinea-Bissau ship headed for the African country, and was carrying ⁠corn. Analysts say attacks in the Black Sea have increased recently, because Russia is trying to disrupt the last maritime export corridor outside of Ukraine to deter foreign companies from buying Ukrainian products. Kyiv has retaliated by launching hundreds of drones at Moscow, with Russian officials saying 10 people have been wounded in strikes overnight. These attacks follow Russian President Vladimir Putin meeting the North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui at the Kremlin and thanking her for her country’s help in Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Investigating a tragedy

An interim report into the case of Kumanjayi Little Baby, the 5yo Warlpiri girl who was abducted and killed in April this year, is due to be released in the Northern Territory parliament today. Reports (paywall) say it will allege that child protection department workers knew of her living circumstances leading up to her death and didn’t do enough to help her. It makes 7 recommendations, and the full review will be released next month. It’s landing as the NT government is in the midst of a debate over proposed child protection reforms - and just over a week before Kumanjayi Little Baby’s accused killer, Jefferson Lewis, is next scheduled to appear in court.
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The first time ever I saw your face

Police in West Oz have started using live facial recognition technology at locations in and around Perth. How it works is a camera scans passersby’s faces and then cross-references the images in real time against a list of people with outstanding arrest warrants, registered child sexual abuse offenders and those reported missing. If it identifies a match, nearby officers get pinged, and reports say the trial’s first week generated 33 alerts that led to 18 arrests. The live element of this process is an Australian law enforcement first - and while West Oz Police Commissioner Col Blanch says it’s not about mass surveillance, but community protection, it’s ruffled some feathers. Some legal experts say the system is “ill-prepared” to deal with the consequences of using this tech.

Viva España

And just like that, Spain won the World Cup, following in the footsteps of its women’s team, which did the same thing back in 2023. The game went to extra time, with Ferran Torres breaking Argentine hearts by scoring in the 106th minute, before a bit of a kerfuffle after the match. If your socials are anything like ours, your feed’s been swamped with content from the half-time show - which saw Madonna, Justin Bieber, Shakira and a heap of other big names perform - but not everyone was a fan, including Liam Gallagher and the former England captain Wayne Rooney, who just called it “crap”. And for those who couldn’t get enough this time round - fear not… We’re a year away from the next women’s world cup, and FIFA says the 2030 men’s tournament will be even bigger…

My mummy says I’m a miracle

A 34yo Brisbane mother has given birth to quadruplet baby girls - that’s 4 - in a pregnancy doctors have described as one in 15 million. The babies were delivered via caesarean at 28 weeks and 4 days at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on 14 July. Birthing 4 babies at once is rare, but the unique thing about this pregnancy is that they shared one placenta and split from a single fertilised egg - which the hospital says it’s never seen before. Despite being premature, reports say the bubs are doing well. And if that wasn’t enough to keep their hands full, parents Jenitar Sau Na’amoana and Jortham already have 4 children between one and 10yo, and weren’t planning on having more. Not surprisingly, they’re in the market for a new van…

Apropos of Nothing - Other World Cups edition

If you’re suffering from World Cup withdrawal, we’ve got some (slightly lower-profile) options for you… Firstly, the Water Polo World Cup kicks off in Sydney tomorrow, with our Oz men’s team (the Sharks) and women’s (the Stingers) both considered contenders. 

For something on dry land, the Emeralds, Australia’s women's national baseball team, is headed to the Baseball World Cup in Illinois on Thursday. Pitcher Jess Johnson is making her debut at 37yo - proving you’re never too old to step up to the plate…

And finally, the Esports World Cup is taking place in Paris. If you’re not familiar, it’s a global gaming competition that spans different genres and game types. But it’s not playing around when it comes to prize money - there’s $75 million up for grabs…

Squiz the Day

8.30am (AEST) - The Australian Conservation Foundation's challenge to Woodside’s North West Shelf extension begins in the Federal Court  - Melbourne

6.00pm (AEST) - Editor-in-Chief of Reuters Alessandra Galloni will deliver the 2026 Andrew Olle Media Lecture - Sydney 

ABS to release the 2026 Census dictionary 

🇧🇪 Belgium's National Day

National Lamington Day

The new season of Kitchen Cabinet begins on ABC

A birthday for soccer great Brandi Chastain (1968)

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of Ernest Hemingway (1899) and Robin Williams (1951)

• the creation of Central Park in New York (1853)

• Sirimavo Bandaranaike becoming the world’s first non-hereditary female head of government in modern history as PM of Ceylon aka Sri Lanka (1960)

• the release of Guns N’ Roses’ debut album Appetite for Destruction. It became the bestselling debut album of all time (1987)