Friday, 20 June 2025 - This girl is on fire

June 20, 2025

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

  • The US has a 2-week think about launching strikes on Iran

  • Australia’s population has passed 27 million

  • And we can’t go past a loaded sweet spud 🤤

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 5 minutes to read

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"I see that your fans are really loving you, so we want to make sure that we put you everywhere in the world so that everybody knows about you."

Said Hollywood star/All Women’s Sports Network entrepreneur Whoopi Goldberg of plans to beam our Super Netball comp to the world. In a significant sister act, she’s there if they need…

Watching for the next move…

The Squiz

US President Donald Trump will make a decision on getting directly involved in the Israel-Iran conflict in the next couple of weeks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this morning. The timeframe has been set around the "substantial chance of negotiations" with Iran "in the near future”, she says. The other development overnight is that the President has denied a report in the Wall Street Journal yesterday saying he has approved US plans to attack Iran - the publication has “no idea”, Trump posted to Truth Social.

What’s that about? 

The report made waves yesterday, saying Trump had given initial approval for a “bunker buster” bomb to be used on Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility, which is deep under the Iranian mountains southwest of Tehran. Israel doesn’t have the bunker-buster bombs or aircraft needed to destroy it, but the US has both. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei isn’t happy about that idea - he said “Americans should know that any US military intervention will undoubtedly be accompanied by irreparable damage”. Closer to home, cracks have formed between high-profile Republicans over the prospect… Conservative media personality Tucker Carlson is one who has openly criticised the idea of US involvement in the conflict. He’s not alone - polling shows about 53% of those who voted for Trump last year don’t want to see it.

What about any Aussies over there?

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says almost 3,000 Australians have registered for help to evacuate Israel and Iran. A small group left Israel at a border crossing on Wednesday, but Foreign Minister Penny Wong says missile strikes continue to make evacuations from both countries “very, very difficult”. Melbourne lawyer Leon Zwier is one Aussie who’s stuck in Israel after flying in for a conference before the conflict broke out last week. He says he’s able to get out and about in Jerusalem during the day, but that “everyone’s wary” of Iranian missiles striking at night. As for what’s next, the UK, French and German foreign ministers are due to meet their Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in Switzerland today.

Feeding a great community partnership

What began with Ronni Kahn's "rogue food deliveries" has evolved into a nationwide movement, with Woolworths providing 70% of OzHarvest's rescued food. Their 10-year collaboration has created a powerful local impact model with food that would have gone to waste directly feeding people in that community. Woolworths' partnership with OzHarvest is the subject of a new podcast episode - you can listen to From Grassroots here.

Squiz the Rest

The Air India survivor speaks

Vishwash Ramesh was the only person to survive last Thursday’s plane crash, which killed at least 270 people - and he says he’s battling survivor’s guilt. Vishwash’s brother Ajay was on the same flight, and he said that while he tried to book their seats together, Ajay ended up on the other side of the plane. He told The Sun “I lost my brother in front of my eyes. So now I am constantly thinking - why can’t I save my brother?” Investigators are still working through what led to the crash and while there are no answers yet, investigators are focusing on the wreckage and the black box recorder to figure it out. Overnight, Air India said one of the engines was new, while the other was not due for servicing until December. 

Ch-ch-ch-changes at ANZ

The big bank’s chief of retail Maile Carnegie is stepping out after nearly 10 years with ANZ, and the hunt is on for a successor. Carnegie was one of the contenders for the bank’s top job after Shayne Elliott announced he was done, but Portuguese-born Nuno Matos got the nod ahead of her. If you haven’t heard of Carnegie herself, you may have heard of a major project she was involved in - ANZ Plus, the bank’s digital platform - which has been more difficult to roll out than a Mercedes on Rome’s Spanish Steps… Matos has flagged it as something to tackle ASAP, as well as getting customers from Suncorp - which ANZ acquired last year - onto their systems. Suncorp boss Bruce Rush will stand in for Carnegie until ANZ finds a permanent replacement. 

Our unis get some disappointing marks

An annual ranking of the world’s best universities had a 2025 update yesterday, and the list was not ideal reading for Oz’s higher education sector... We only jagged the last 2 spots in the top 20 courtesy of the University of Melbourne and the University of NSW. But that’s where the good news stopped - 70% of our universities lost ground in the rankings, marking the third biggest percentage drop in the world. As for why Aussie unis are in Struggletown, the debate over caps on international students and underfunding are 2 issues being talked about. And if you’re wondering who topped the list, that’d be the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which does so almost every year. 

Talkin’ bout our population

It’s been a political hot potato of recent times, and yesterday the Bureau of Stats released new data on the state of play of how many people are living in Oz. There were 27,400,013 people here as of the end of 2024 - that’s an extra 445,000 people for the year and a growth rate of 1.7%. Note: that rate is about what it was for the decade leading up to the pandemic in 2020... Looking at the individual states, it was slow going for Tassie, which gained 1,600 people. On the flipside, it’s boomtime over in Western Oz, which cracked 3 million people for the first time. As for states in population decline, more people moved away from NSW in 2024 than anywhere else - 28,118 New South Welshpeople moved away to other places. Experts reckon a lot of that’s down to the state’s high cost of housing. 

An epic echidna journey

Move aside, marathon swimmers - a juvenile echidna named Eddie has been released back into the wild after being found in rather damp conditions on the Sunshine Coast last month… Rescuers reckon an exhausted Eddie had completed a one-kilometre swim from the northernmost tip of Bribie Island to Golden Beach at Caloundra when they found her on a rock wall. It’s a long way for a tiny mammal, but experts say her beak might have helped her by acting like a snorkel. The more you know… Eddie’s spent several weeks recuperating at the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital, being treated for aspiration pneumonia after inhaling water. Rescuers say she’s now “fit as a fiddle” and has been released back onto Bribie - this time further south, so she can avoid more open water adventures…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

We’re not sure it’s an official genre yet, but ‘person returns to their hometown just as a murder happens and secrets are revealed’ is a tried-and-true formula, and The Survivors on Netflix, which adapts Aussie author Jane Harper’s novel, is a great example… 

If you need a bit of a laugh after a heavy week, we loved this clip from the ABC comedy show Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee, where comedians try - and mostly fail - to spell words on TV. What could go wrong…  

World Potato Day might be over, but no-one ever said anything about their sweeter counterpart… Arguably the superior tuber, these loaded sweet potatoes with beans, cheese, and lots of guac please are on high rotation in our kitchens...

Squiz the Day

Friday
9.15am (AEST) - Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy will attend a meeting about the Closing the Gap Independent Review - Darwin

9.30am (AWST) - WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti will deliver a post-budget address - Perth

9.30am (AEST) - A plea is expected to be entered by Daniel Billingsworth, accused of murdering Molly Ticehurst in Forbes last year, before a committal hearing - Parkes, NSW

9.30am (AEST) - A decision is due for former state Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, charged with giving false evidence to ICAC during an investigation into NSW Premier at the time Gladys Berejkilian, leading to her resignation - Sydney

1.00pm (AEST) - Motorsport: Darwin Triple Crown Supercars Championship begins (until 22 June) - Darwin, watch on Kayo

Good Food & Wine Show 2025 gets underway (until 22 June) - Sydney

Matariki - NZ national holiday, marking the beginning of Māori new year in the lunar calendar

Shorts Day, when Tassie locals don shorts to break the ice around important conversations about mental health - Tasmania

Blue Cornflower Day - a national day to shine a light on the experience of life with MND

Birthdays for musician Lionel Richie (1949) and actor Nicole Kidman (1967)

Anniversary of:

  • Queen Victoria ascending the British throne at 18yo following the death of her uncle King William IV (1837)

  • Samuel Morse patenting his telegraph (1840)

  • the birthday of Brian Wilson (1942)

  • the premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws (1975)

Saturday
Term 2 school holidays start in the NT (until 13 July)

2.30am (AEST) - Athletics: Paris Diamond League Meet - Paris

7.20am (AEST) - Those brave Tasmanians are stripping off again, this time for the Nude Solstice Swim which wraps up the Dark Mofo festival - Hobart

10.00am (AEST) - Yolŋu Power, the art of Yirrkala exhibition opens at the Art Gallery of NSW

9.00pm (AEST) - Surfing: The WSL VIVO Rio Pro gets underway - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (until 29 June) 

11.00pm (AEST) - Hockey: Australia v Germany in the Women’s FIH Pro League - Berlin, Germany, also on 7+ 

It’s Winter Solstice, aka the shortest day of the year in the southern hemisphere

Birthdays for author Ian McEwan (1948), former Indonesian President Joko Widodo (1961), British Prince William (1982), whistleblower Edward Snowden (1983), and singer Lana Del Rey (1985)

Anniversary of:

  • the first Victoria Cross won during the Crimean War (1854)

  • the birthday of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre (1905)

Sunday
12.30am (AEST) - Hockey: Australia v Germany in the Men’s FIH Pro League - Berlin, Germany, watch it on 7+ 

9.00am (AEST) - The World Archeological Congress gets underway at Charles Darwin University with thousands of delegates coming from over 70 countries - Darwin 

7.00pm (AEST) - Hockey: Australia v Germany in the Women’s FIH Pro League - Berlin, Germany, also on 7+ 

10.00pm (AEST) - MotoGP: the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix race begins in Florence, Italy, watch it on Kayo

World Camel Day

Birthdays for actor Meryl Streep (1949), US Senator Elizabeth Warren (1949), singer Cyndi Lauper (1953), and author Dan Brown (1964)

Anniversary of:

  • Galileo Galilei being forced to recant his view that the Earth orbits the Sun by the Pope (1633)

  • Princess Elizabeth meeting her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece (1939)

  • Nazi Germany invading the Soviet Union during WWII (1941)

  • the deaths of actor/singers Judy Garland (1969) and Fred Astaire (1987)