Friday, 17 October - The bird is the word

October 17, 2025

Good morning, it’s Friday, 17 October. In your Squiz Today…

  • The US-China trade beef continues as the PM’s Trump meeting gets closer

  • Champion Oz swimmer Ariarne Titmus calls time on her career

  • and an Asian Glazed Salmon that’s as quick as it is delish…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"By the time I got to Dubbo, I was moving pretty slowly.”

Said Mitch McKenny, who ran to Newcastle from Broken Hill last month - partly with a fractured hip - to raise money for the rare genetic disorder Angelman Syndrome. McKenny has just had hip surgery and will spend 6 weeks recovering - what a trooper…

A high-stakes meeting approaches

The Squiz

PM Anthony Albanese will head to the US for a chat with President Donald Trump early next week, and he’s landing in the middle of a trade standoff with one of our other major trading partners, China. After trade tensions between the 2 countries got spicy last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent yesterday said America’s allies - mentioning Oz by name, as well as Canada, India and others - might have to economically ‘decouple’ from China. Bessent said the US and its allies “are not going to let a group of bureaucrats in Beijing try to manage the global supply chain”.

What’s the beef between the US and China?

There’s a wagyu-grade history to all this - you might remember that the 2 countries were whacking higher and higher tariffs (or taxes) on each other’s exports earlier this year - but this particular scuffle involves China’s decision last week to expand its restrictions on exports of rare earth minerals - as a reminder, rare earths are a group of 17 minerals including holmium, erbium and praseodymium. Those controls mean any (non-Chinese) company that wants to export products containing rare earths out of China has to get approval from its government. Trump's not happy with that, as rare earths are important to many US business interests - he's threatening higher tariffs again and said he might abandon an upcoming meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, though Bessent says that meeting is still likely to go ahead.

Does this all work in our favour?

That was the original thinking among many analysts and investors because Australia could sweeten its relationship with the US by giving it access to our own supply of rare earth minerals (though given recent polling, Aussies might not be so keen on that idea). The trouble is that while the US is an important security and economic partner for Australia, China is our biggest trading partner. Cosying up too closely to the US at the time it's locked in this awkward dance with China could annoy the latter - and that could come at a cost. Acting PM Richard Marles played down the idea of 'decoupling' yesterday - while he didn't want to pre-empt the PM’s White House chat, he stressed that China is still a crucial part of the global economy. So it'll be tricky for the PM to find a happy medium when he meets with Trump - if he manages that, it’ll be well done…

For more on rare earths and critical minerals, check out Squiz Shortcuts for the backstory to the big news stories…

Making your wardrobe clear-outs count

Here's a stat for you: Australians have $25 billion worth of unworn clothes sitting in wardrobes - that's 231 million items - and this Saturday, 18 October, Uber and Australian Red Cross are making it ridiculously easy to do something about it... If you're in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, or Sydney, you can book free courier pickups on the Uber or Uber Eats app to get your quality pre-loved clothes to Red Cross drop off locations. These donations support vital Red Cross programs across Australia, so to find out more, head to uber.com/redcross.

Squiz the Rest

And speaking of upcoming Trump meetings…

…both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin have catch-ups on the cards. Zelensky is set to meet with Trump at the White House tomorrow, where reports say he may ask the US to supply long-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine to support its efforts in the war with Russia. Trump said earlier this week he’s considering it, and things have warmed up considerably between those 2 men since their tetchy tête-à-tête back in February. As for Putin, Trump spoke with the Russian leader by phone this morning (for the first time since the Alaska meeting in August) and says he'll head to Hungary in the coming weeks to meet him face-to-face. He says those talks will be to "see if we can bring this inglorious war between Russia and Ukraine to an end".

Prince Andrew allegations have resurfaced…

…in Virginia Giuffre's upcoming posthumous memoir, Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice. You may remember Giuffre was a prominent accuser of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, alleging she was trafficked for sex with the Duke of York as a teenager. Prince Andrew always denied the accusations and settled with Giuffre in a civil case in 2022. She died by suicide at her farm in Western Oz in April, at the age of 41yo. But in extracts of the memoir, she again details 3 occasions where she says Andrew had sex with her and accuses him of being “entitled - as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright”. She also calls Epstein a “master manipulator”. Nobody’s Girl is out next week, so expect more headlines then…
*If this raises concerns for you, help is available through the services listed here.

Unemployment’s on the rise

That’s according to the latest batch of data from the Bureau of Stats, which says the unemployment rate in September was 4.5% - up from 4.3% the month before. To put that in people terms, there were 34,000 more unemployed Aussies in September, and 15,000 more employed. That 4.5% figure is seasonally adjusted, which means seasonal patterns have been removed from the data to reveal underlying trends. The reason it’s notable is that it’s the highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in 4 years… Economists say the data could prompt the Reserve Bank to cut rates at its next meeting on Melbourne Cup Day. David Bassanese from BetaShares says “what’s becoming evident is that the labour market is no longer proving able to find jobs for all that want them”.

Arriverderci Arnie

Champion Aussie swimmer Ariarne Titmus has called time on her outstanding career at the age of 25. The Tasmanian leaves the sport as a 4-time Olympic gold medallist, the world record holder for the 200-metre freestyle, and an enduring rival of US star Katie Ledecky. Her last major event was the Paris Olympics, where she won 2 of her gold medals (and beat Ledecky in the 400m) and she says after taking a break following the Games, she originally intended to come back, but the time away (and some health challenges) showed her she was more interested in pursuing other things in life outside of swimming. You can see her full announcement on Instagram here (with a letter to her 7yo self) - and if you'd like to reminisce about some of her greatest achievements, why not watch the end of her Race of the Century in Paris again…

A wide-eyed winner

Give it up for the tawny frogmouth, which yesterday claimed the Australian Bird of the Year crown. The poll is run by The Guardian and BirdLife Australia to raise awareness of - you guessed it - our birds, but also the environmental threats they’re facing. This year, the tawny frogmouth (found throughout Oz, if you can spot them…) pulled 11,851 votes in the final voting round. In second place was the Baudin’s black cockatoo, and third, the gang gang cockatoo. A couple of fun facts… Tawny frogmouths get their name from their wide, flat, frog-like bills, and they’re used to being winners - a German study once named them the world’s most Instagrammable bird. BirdLife Australia’s Sean Dooley said this year’s poll - which pulled in more than 310,000 total votes - has been “really joyful”, and he’s hoping it’ll prompt people to get involved with next week’s Aussie Bird Count. Brush off the binoculars…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

One thing we’ve had on repeat this week is this barnstorming performance from British singer RAYE of her new song Where Is My Husband! on The Graham Norton Show. According to a commenter who was in the studio audience, it only took one take to record - impressive…

As you'll see below, there's a stack of sport on this weekend - the WNBL, the Aussie MotoGP, the Coolangatta Gold - but with the men's A-League kicking off again tonight, it's a good time to revisit this countdown of some of the comp’s best-ever grand final moments…

We love something you can whip up quickly at the Squiz (it's kinda our whole vibe…), and so this Asian Glazed Salmon from RecipeTinEats fits the bill perfectly. With a 5-ingredient marinade and a nice piece of salmon, it will be a winner with whoever you share it with…

Squiz the Day

Friday
8.00am (AEDT) - Sydney’s Sculptures by the Sea exhibition opens and will be on display along the Bondi to Tamarama cliff walk until 3 November - Sydney

9.00am (AEDT) - One of the 2 men jailed after bringing a gun into the MCG during an AFL match in April is appealing his 21-month sentence at the Victorian County Court - Melbourne 

10.00am (AEDT) - Sentencing for James Cunneen, who was found guilty of having helped Sayle Newson cover up the 2014 murder of Carly McBride - Sydney

10.00am (AEDT) - A team of Aussie researchers who discovered that breastfeeding can reduce a woman’s long-term risk of developing breast cancer will host an online panel to discuss their findings - register to join here

9.30am (AEST) - Swimming: Australian Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus will speak about her recent announcement to retire from swimming at a press conference - Brisbane

11.00am (AEDT) - Authors Michelle de Kretser and Fiona Wright will speak at the Stella Day Out one-day literary festival - Byron Bay 

11.30am (AEST) - Future Brisbane 2025, presented by The Courier-Mail, will feature Premier David Crisafulli, Gout Gout and Lachie Kennedy, focusing on how the city can best benefit from the Olympic Games - Brisbane 

5.30pm (AEDT) - The Melbourne International Jazz Festival begins for 2 weeks of groovy tunes - Melbourne

6.00pm (AEDT) - Rugby union: The John Eales Medal will be presented to the best men’s player in Australian rugby union over the past year - Sydney

7.00pm (ACDT) - Football: The Men's A-League competition begins with Adelaide United v Sydney FC at Coopers Stadium - Adelaide, watch on Paramount+ 

7.30pm (AEDT) - Netball: The Constellation Cup begins with the first Test between Australia’s Diamonds and NZ’s Silver Ferns at John Cain Arena - Melbourne, watch free on Kayo Freebies

A birthday for Indonesian President Probowo Subianto (1951) and rapper Eminem (1972)

Anniversary of:

  • the death of composer Frederic Chopin (1849)

  • the birthdays of playwright Arthur Miller (1915) and actress Rita Hayworth (1918)

  • Mother Teresa being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1979)

  • Queensland Parliament passing the Termination of Pregnancy bill to decriminalise abortion (2018)

Saturday
8.00am (AEDT) - Horse racing: Caulfield Cup Day begins, with the big race at 5.15pm - Melbourne 

9.30am (AEST) - 150 soldiers from the Australian Army's 1st Signal Regiment will march to celebrate the Royal Australian Corps of Signals' 100th anniversary - Brisbane

8.00am (AWST) - Local government elections will take place in these Western Australian councils

11.30am (AEST) - Surf lifesaving: The Coolangatta Gold gets underway, with this year’s event being incorporated into the 2025/26 Iron Series for the first time - Gold Coast

1.00pm (AEDT) - Day one of Radio National’s 2-day Top 100 Books Countdown 

2.00pm (AEDT) - Triathlon: The World Triathlon Championship Finals take place - Wollongong

2.00pm (AEDT) - Basketball: The WNBL season begins with the Southside Melbourne Flyers v UC Capitals at John Cain Arena - Melbourne, watch on Channel 9 

4.15pm (AEDT) - Horse racing: The Everest race - the world’s richest race on turf with a $20 million first prize - is on at Randwick Racecourse - Sydney 

It's the start of Children’s Week (on until 26 October) 

Independence Day in Azerbaijan

World Menopause Day - check out our 3-part Shortcut Series on Menopause and Perimenopause to help cut through the noise on what can be a confusing and at times challenging thing to navigate 

A birthday for actors Zac Efron (1987) and Barry Keoghan (1992), and Democrat mayoral candidate of NYC Zohran Mamdani (1991) 

Anniversary of:

  • Alaska Day, marking the anniversary of the US taking possession of the territory after purchasing it from Russia (1867)

  • the founding of the British Broadcasting Company, later called British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (1922)

  • the premiere of Martin Scorsese’s film Goodfellas (1990)

  • the first all-female spacewalk by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir outside the International Space Station (2019)

Sunday
2.00pm (AEDT) - Motorsport: The Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix race at the Philip Island Grand Prix Circuit - Phillip Island, Victoria, watch free on Network 10 or on Kayo

2.30pm (AEST) - Cricket: Australia’s men’s team will play the first of 3 ODIs against India at Optus Stadium - Perth, watch on Kayo

A birthday for actors John Lithgow (1945) and Rebecca Ferguson (1983), boxer Floyd Mayweather Sr (1952), and filmmaker Jon Favreau (1966)

Anniversary of: 

  • the publication of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre under the pseudonym Currer Bell (1847)

  • the Russian Politburo expelling Leon Trotsky and his followers under the leadership of Joseph Stalin (1926)

  • the release of Cher's song Believe which introduced Auto-Tune to the mainstream (1998)

  • Jacinda Ardern becoming New Zealand's youngest-ever Prime Minister at 37yo when her Labour Party formed a coalition government (2017)

Monday
6.00am (AEDT) - F1: The US Grand Prix race is on at the Circuit of the Americas - Austin, US, watch on Kayo