Friday, 10 July - Every now and then I fall apart

Good morning, it’s Friday, 10 July. In your Squiz Today…

• Calls for answers after Telstra’s mass outage on Wednesday

• Vale 80s icon Bonnie Tyler

• And a wildcard’s through to the men’s semi-finals at Wimbledon… 🎾

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Kiwi great-grandfather Bryan Murray, who’s been named the world's oldest water skier just weeks away from turning 95yo. Murray says he has no intention of slowing down and plans to make even more of a splash by extending his record in summer.

Calling for telco changes

The Squiz

More than 600 welfare checks have been carried out by Telstra after the network’s mass outage on Wednesday, its Chief Financial Officer/acting boss Michael Ackland says. The nationwide outage affected millions of customers, leaving many unable to make phone calls or access the internet - with some services still down yesterday. Ackland said a separate software defect affecting Triple Zero calls was also identified, and they were working to fully restore all services. At least 639 people whose emergency calls were disrupted have been contacted by Telstra, with at least 170 of them referred to police for further checks - and police in South Oz are investigating whether an elderly woman’s death is linked to the outage…

Do we know what caused it?

Ackland says a “time synchronisation issue” in some of Telstra’s data centres was caused by malfunctioning “nodes”. Confused? Us too… In short, those nodes are part of Telstra’s central infrastructure and are responsible for timekeeping across the network. Nothing’s been confirmed, but reports say a faulty software update might have caused parts of Telstra’s network to think it was November 2006 - an issue that, as we saw, has big consequences… Services from Uber and taxis to public trains were down, as were many eftpos machines. It even prevented some EV drivers from charging their cars… For Ackland’s part, he called it a “complex” issue that they’re still investigating - including the issue with emergency calls - and apologised again.

But it’s all working now?

As of this morning, Telstra says customers can contact Triple Zero, and most other services are back online, including public transport. But the fallout’s far from over… Advocates want changes to telco regulations to hold them more accountable. And we say “telcos” because Telstra’s outage followed 2 major Optus failures (one of which turned deadly…) in recent years… Meanwhile, Coalition leader Angus Taylor has defended Senator Sarah Henderson after she “tested” Triple Zero by calling it during the outage, and she’s denied breaking the law. And a heads up: we’re likely to hear from Telstra chief Vicki Brady today - she’s returning from leave overseas to deal with the fallout. 

Worksite safety, redefined by Claude

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Squiz the Rest

Another night of conflict in the Middle East

US and Iranian forces have traded strikes for the second night in a row, putting the 3-week-old ceasefire at further risk. The US says it hit 90 targets along Iran’s coast, while Iran launched attacks on US military bases in Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. US President Donald Trump said the ceasefire was “over” yesterday, which leaves the Strait of Hormuz up in the air again, but Iran says the shipping channel would remain under its management and “will be reopened only under Iranian arrangements, not through US threats”. While all of that was happening, huge crowds gathered for the burial of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his hometown in North East Iran - but there’s still been no sign of his son and successor Mojtaba... 

ABC and SBS have their turn at the Royal Commission

The Aussie public broadcasters appeared at the inquiry into antisemitism yesterday to answer questions about their coverage of conflicts in the Middle East. This is the third block of public hearings, which is focused on the media and social media’s role in spreading hate speech. Both broadcasters said their reporting has been balanced, and disagreed with criticism by Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Jillian Segal who argued their standards aren’t high enough when it comes to antisemitism. The networks have internal Ombudsmen to oversee content, but Segal has called for an independent committee to be set up, saying they effectively get to “mark their own homework”. But ABC editorial director Gavin Fang says its Ombudsman “is functioning effectively”.  

Vale Bonnie Tyler

The Welsh singer with the gravelly voice best known for 80s bangers Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding out for a Hero has died aged 75yo. If you don’t recognise them from retro sessions, you might know them from their club versions… The singer’s official website broke the news with a message saying she’d died in hospital in Portugal on Wednesday from an illness she was being treated for. She first became known in the late 70s for It’s a Heartache, but her biggest hits came in the 80s. She received 3 Grammy noms in her career, and was awarded an MBE for her services to music in 2023. In a fact that might shock some fans, she says she earned “almost nothing” from Total Eclipse of the Heart because she didn’t write it, but was “really happy” when it passed a billion streams this year on Spotify. And fair warning, it’ll probably be in your head all day…

Serving up some weekend action

We’re at the pointy end of Wimbledon and there are some big-name semi-finals to keep us up late tonight - the headliner being a clash between tennis titans Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner. Djokovic is 39yo and ranked #8 but he beat Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime in a 5-hour, 5-setter to make the semis. World #1 Sinner ousted him last year - so get the popcorn ready… Also through is UK wildcard player/crowd favourite Arthur Fery. He was ranked #114 coming in so he’s already one of the tournament’s success stories even before he meets Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the other semi. That’s up first on 9Now from 10.30pm. In the women’s draw, it’s an all-Czech final between Linda Nosková and Karolína Muchová tomorrow night… And across the pond, the quarterfinals of the men’s World Cup are starting with France v Morocco - catch it on SBS from 6am (AEST)...

It’s been an epic journey…

But we’re not far away from the worldwide release of The Odyssey next Thursday, and if the first reviews are anything to go by, it’s going to be a huge success… If you’re not across it, this version is director Christopher Nolan’s 3-hour-long adaptation of the ancient Greek poem written by Homer. It tells the story of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, and his 10-year trip home after the Trojan War. Now, we wouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but critics have called it “a triumph”, “flawless”, and “breathtaking”... Also breathtaking is the cast - Matt Damon stars as the hero and he’s joined by Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Charlize Theron and Tom Holland. This story of how our fave Spidey asked his new wife Zendaya to star as Athena sparked as much joy for us as the pics from the premiere…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

If you watch nothing else this weekend, you’ve got to check out this clip of 15yo Nene Royal on America’s Got Talent - for all our 90s girls who love Zombie, she does us proud and brings the house down. What a rockstar…

We found Kate Langbroek’s interview with Jessica Rowe on No Filter to be a moving listen. It’s on the long side at an hour but it’s personal and raw, and it touched a nerve with us about having the confidence to be ourselves - snorts and all…

Heard of boy kibble? It’s basically a poke bowl with mince and rice that ticks 2 boxes: protein and lean carbs. Enter Marion Grasby, who’s given it a glow up with greens, edamame, egg and chilli oil, and now it ticks another box: mid-week dinner.

Squiz the Day

Friday
6.00am (AEST) - Football: Men's FIFA World Cup quarterfinal France v Morocco - Boston, watch on SBS

10.30am (AEST) - PM Anthony Albanese and PM of India Shri Narendra Modi are scheduled to visit the MCG to meet with leadership of Cricket Australia and the AFL - Melbourne

10.30pm (AEST) - Tennis: Wimbledon semi-finals begin with Novak Djokovic v Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev v UK wildcard Arthur Fery - London, watch on 9Now 

ABS data release: consumption of food groups from the Australian Dietary Guidelines, 2023 

Motorsport: Supercars Townsville 500 (until 12 July)

🎶 The Rolling Stones Foreign Tongues album and The Temper Trap Sungazer album released 

Tennant Creek Show Day - NT

World Capybara Day 

Independence Day in the Bahamas

A birthday for Modern Family star Sofia Vergara (1972) - and thanks to the eagle-eyed Squizers who picked up in yesterday’s newsletter that we’d aged Tom Hanks by a decade. He turned 70 not 80… 

Anniversary of:

• Lady Godiva riding naked on horseback through Coventry to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes. According to the legend, anyway... (1040)

• the beginning of the Battle of Britain during WWII (1940)

• the swearing-in of Boris Yeltsin as the first elected President of the Russian Federation (1991)

• the birthday of Euphoria star Angus Cloud (1998) 

• the release of Coldplay’s debut album Parachutes (2000)

• British tabloid News of the World publishing its last edition after 168 years in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal (2011)

• German automaker Volkswagen ending production of the Beetle, the first model of which had been introduced in 1938 (2019)

Saturday
5.00am (AEST) - Football: Men's FIFA World Cup quarterfinal, Spain v Belgium - Los Angeles, watch on SBS

1.40pm (AEST) - Memorial service for AFL player Nathan Fitzgerald who died of head injuries suffered during an AFL match - Melbourne

5.50pm (AEST) - Rugby: Nations Championship Round 2 Australia v France - Brisbane, watch on 9Now

11.00pm (AEST) - Wimbledon women's singles final - London, watch on 9Now 

Bastille Day French Festival Melbourne (until 12 July)

🍷 Hunter Valley Wine and Beer Festival (until 11 July)

International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica

World Population Day 

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of Charlotte’s Web author EB White (1899), former PM Gough Whitlam (1916) and fashion designer Giorgio Armani (1934)

• the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

• the death of actor Laurence Olivier (1989)

• the escape of Mexican drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán from a maximum-security prison near Mexico City (2015)

Sunday
7.00am (AEST) - Football: Men's FIFA World Cup Quarter-Final Norway v England - Miami, watch on SBS

11.00am (AEST) - Football: Men's FIFA World Cup Quarter-Final Argentina v Switzerland - Kansas City, watch on SBS

11.00am (AEST) - Mixed martial arts: UFC 329 Welterweight fight Conor McGregor v Max Holloway - Las Vegas, watch on Kayo

11.00pm (AEST) - Wimbledon men's singles final - London, watch on 9Now 

Start of National Diabetes Week (until 18 July) 

⏳ International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms

A birthday for women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai (1997)

Anniversary of

• the marriage of King Henry VIII to his 6th and final wife, Catherine Parr (1543)

• the death of US Founding Father Alexander Hamilton (1804)