Friday, 20 February - Millions of peaches

February 20, 2026

Good morning, it’s Friday, 20 February. In your Squiz Today…

  • Tensions are on a knife edge between the US and Iran

  • Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested

  • And a peachy cake… 🍑

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“I totally misjudged the situation, I shouldn’t have had a drink.”

Said Channel 9 reporter Danika Mason yesterday, after a slightly messy Winter Olympics cross for the Today show went viral online this week. But there were no hard feelings from her hosts - Karl Stefanovic said he didn’t “even know what you’re talking about”. Good save, Karl…

A tense time in the Middle East

The Squiz

After little progress was made during peace talks between the US and Iran this week, reports say US President Donald Trump is weighing up whether he will launch military action - potentially as soon as this weekend… He was briefed by his advisers on Wednesday (local time) after the nuclear talks in Geneva, and although White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt later said “Iran would be wise to make a deal”, she also said “there are many arguments one can make in favour of a strike against Iran”.

I thought they were working it out…

You’re not alone… The Geneva talks were about negotiating a deal to avoid a war over Iran’s nuclear program - the one that the US already targeted with airstrikes last year, after conflict broke out between Israel and Iran. The sites bombed suffered significant damage, but it wasn’t clear how much of Iran’s broader nuclear program was still operational - and Trump has since demanded a deal to rein in what’s left of it or face “far worse” strikes. Some US officials say progress was made during the marathon talks in Geneva (although they gave their Iranian counterparts a 2-week deadline to come back to them with details about how they’d address the US concerns…), but later, another official said those talks were “a nothing-burger”.

So what now?

White House insiders reckon Trump hasn’t made up his mind yet and is “spending a lot of time thinking” about it, but the US military is on standby to strike this weekend if he chooses that path… Given the huge US military build-up he’s ordered in the region, analysts say it’ll be hard for him to back down without allowing Iran major concessions on its nuclear program, with one saying “the Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realise”. And in the meantime, Trump led the first Board of Peace meeting yesterday to discuss funding for Gaza’s rebuild, with the President announcing the Board’s member nations have pledged $5 billion between them. Critics, though, say “pledges are one thing, delivering is another”.

Add this to the summer checklist

Sunscreen and hats are sorted, but kids' sunnies often fall off the radar. Experts reckon up to 80% of lifetime UV eye damage happens before 18yo, and you can't see or feel those UV rays doing their damage - including on cloudy days. Babiators have 100% UV protection and polarised lenses, plus frames that survive real life - being sat on, dropped, twisted, you name it. Worth a look if you're checking off the summer prep list...

Squiz the Rest

UK police move on a former prince

In pretty spectacular scenes in the UK overnight, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested at the royal family’s Sandringham Estate. Police say a man in his 60s was arrested on Thursday morning (local time) on suspicion of misconduct in public office. This is related to the latest release of documents linked to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which included claims Andrew shared confidential reports with Epstein while he was a UK trade envoy in 2010 - prompting a police probe. Since his arrest (on his 66th birthday), officers have been searching his Sandringham home and his previous home, Royal Lodge. His brother, King Charles, has given a statement - he says police “have our full and wholehearted support” and that “the law must take its course”. No charges have been laid yet, but it’s a rolling situation - and police say they’ll give updates soon…

Yoon is sentenced to life in jail

We’re talking about South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk Yeol, who’s been found guilty of leading an insurrection, among other charges… He declared martial law in December 2024 during a surprise late-night TV address, but after pushback from the country’s lawmakers, called it off 6 hours later. Still, it caused political chaos... Yoon was impeached and became the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested while in office. He argued that the martial law attempt was a gesture to draw attention to the opposition party’s wrongdoings, but the judge took a different view… Although the 65yo was spared the death penalty, the judge said he’d damaged South Korea’s democracy and needed a harsh punishment, giving him life in prison. Reports say Yoon is likely to appeal.

Social media’s back in the spotlight

Here in Oz, the effect of social media on kids has been a huge talking point - leading to our world-first move to ban it for children under 16yo… And yesterday it was Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s turn to consider those questions while giving evidence in a landmark case in LA. Meta (the company behind Instagram and Facebook) and Alphabet (YouTube/Google’s owner) are being sued by a 20yo woman who claims they deliberately designed addictive features to hook her as a child, leading to mental health issues. The case stands to influence hundreds of others, meaning the tech giants could be up for billions of dollars in damages - and be forced to better verify users’ ages. Zuckerberg said Meta had improved its processes to identify kids under 13yo but said “I always wish that we could have gotten there sooner.” 
*Catch up on how our social media ban for under-16yos went down in our 3-part Squiz Shortcut series here…

The MotoGP races away from Victoria…

…and will arrive across the border in South Oz next year. For almost 30 years, the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix has been held at Philip Island - but it'll do so for the last time this year after negotiations between the Victorian government and the event's organisers fell through. From 2027, racers will be speeding around the old Adelaide Formula One Grand Prix track, making this the first street circuit in MotoGP history. (Maybe it's a very, very delayed revenge from when Melbourne took the F1 from Adelaide in 1996…) Philip Island’s last hurrah will begin on 23 October this year, so if you’ve ever wanted to experience the great race at the iconic location - that’s your last chance… 

Every day I’m cognitive shuffling… 

Being in a line of work with lots of early starts, we know how important it is to get a good night’s sleep. So we welcomed news of the latest viral sleep hack to help people drift off again if they wake up in the middle of the night thinking about bills, work, or that embarrassing thing they said back in high school... It’s called cognitive shuffling, and it’s being spruiked on TikTok by TV doctor Amir Khan (although the idea isn’t anything new). How it works is you choose a word like ‘bed’ and then think of other objects starting with b until you’ve exhausted that letter, then you move onto another one. Dr Khan says it “interrupts your racing mind and scrambles your thoughts, inviting your brain to go into sleep mode”. It doesn’t work for everyone, but at 3am, we’re open to pretty much anything…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

As Derry Girls fans, we knew we’d enjoy the latest offering by Irish screenwriter Lisa McGee, How To Get to Heaven From Belfast. It follows 3 friends who investigate the suspicious death of an old schoolmate - and while the humour’s dark, it’s still a riot. Catch it on Netflix…

We had a hard-relate moment (and lots of lolz) reading this piece in The Guardian by Shannon Wong-Nizic whose attempt at the duck cake from the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book didn’t go as well as she’d planned...

Much easier to master is this simple peach cake from Belinda Jeffrey - you just mix peach slices with sugar, whiz up the rest of the ingredients in a food processor, and bake. Use white or yellow peaches (they’re in season and cheap at the moment) and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum…

Squiz the Day

Friday
6.30am (AEDT) - Rugby League: World Cup Challenge final Brisbane Broncos v Hull Kingston Rovers - United Kingdom, watch on Kayo 

7.40pm (AEDT) - Motorsport: Supercars Championship (Sprint Cup) Sydney 500 race one, Eastern Creek Raceway - Melbourne, watch day one on Kayo tonight or on on 7plus (day 2 and 3 only) 

First day of the Adelaide Fringe (until March 22)

ABS data release: Livestock products, December 

QUBE and Guzman y Gomez's half-year financial results released

QBE to release full-year results

World Day of Social Justice - this year’s theme is “Renewed Commitment to Social Development and Social Justice”

🐾 National Love Your Pet Day

Birthdays for Supermodel Cindy Crawford (1966) and singer Rihanna (1988)

Anniversary of:

  • British naval officer John Moresby discovering the site of what would become Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and claiming it for Great Britain (1873)

  • Kurt Cobain's birthday (1967)

  • the Southern Hemisphere's most powerful storm on record (296km/hour), Cyclone Winston, hitting Fiji (2016)

  • Venezuela becoming the first country to launch a virtual currency, the petro, to counteract their financial crisis (2018)

Saturday
12.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: Men's T20 World Australia v Oman, Pallekele International Cricket Stadium - Sri Lanka, watch on Amazon Prime Video

2.00pm (AEDT) - Mighty Hoopla music festival is on at Bondi Beach, with singer Kesha headlining - Sydney

6.45pm (ACST) - Cricket: Women's T20 Australia v India, Adelaide Oval - Adelaide, watch on 7plus 

Birthdays for director Jordan Peele (1979), actor Elliot Page (1987), actor Sophie Turner (1996)

Anniversaries of:

  • the publication of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' The Communist Manifesto (1848) and the first issue of New Yorker magazine (1925)

  • the assassination of civil rights activist Malcolm X (1965)

  • Richard Nixon becoming the first US President to visit China, normalising relations between the countries in a meeting with Chinese leader Mao Zedong in Beijing (1972)

  • Australia reopening its international borders for fully vaccinated tourists (2022)

Sunday
6.00pm (AEDT) - Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival, is on at Centennial Park - Sydney 

Final Day of the Winter Olympics, Milano-Cortina

Cole Classic Ocean Swim in Manly - the world’s biggest ocean swim was rescheduled following shark attacks in Sydney earlier this year

Day one of the Ocean Sciences Meeting - Glasgow  

World Thinking Day which celebrates the Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Movement speak out on issues that affect young women

🍹International Margarita Day

Birthdays for singer James Blunt (1974) and actor Drew Barrymore (1975)

Anniversary of:

  • the British House of Lords ruling that authors do not have perpetual copyright (1774)

  • Wildlife Warrior Steve Irwin’s birthday (1962)

  • Scottish scientists announcing they have cloned an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly" (1997)

  • the Christchurch earthquake (2011)