Friday, 23 October - You used to call me on my cell phone

Good morning, it’s Friday, 23 October. In your Squiz Today…

• Parts of QLD get months’ worth of rain in a few hours

• The projected cost of Snowy Hydro 2.0 blows out again

• And Apple releases the new iPhone Duo in Oz… 📱

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said actor Heather Morris about her Glee character on Insta after it was announced that the musical dramedy is getting a reboot. It ran for 6 seasons between 2009 and 2015, so get your jazz hands ready, it’s set to air on Disney+, but we don’t know when yet…

Not so sunshine state

The Squiz

If you’re reading this from the east coast, keep your brolly handy this weekend, because Queensland is being pummelled by a slow-moving weather system, and while storms aren’t unusual at this time of year, it’s been making news because of how much rain has fallen. Some areas had 2 months' worth in just a few hours, and several people have had to be rescued after getting caught up in floodwater, including one man who was pulled out of his ute by an ABC reporter in Brissy’s north. And there’s more wet stuff to come.

Tell me more…

This all started as a low-pressure system over central and outback Queensland, which, BTW, had been experiencing drought. Over the last few days, it’s spread across the south of the state and down across the border into northern New South Wales. More than a dozen schools are shut today, and several roads have been closed because of flash flooding. Thousands of people have lost power, and the SES has been called out hundreds of times. Several members of the public also jumped in to help. One driver in Morayfield, which had got 170mm of rain, hit floodwater at speed, causing his car to stall and then start sinking. Two men, including journalist Will Murray, swam out to help pull him out of the 4WD just in the nick of time before it went underwater - all 3 are safe.

But aren’t El Niños meant to be dry?

You’re right, these patterns usually lead to drier weather in the spring, but this year’s El Niño is set to be the wettest on record - and it’s not the only thing that impacts our weather. This rain is partly being caused by a large blob of warm water in the central Indian Ocean, which means there’s extra moisture in the air causing this rain. The Bureau of Meteorology says there's more to come over the next few days in Brisbane, but also further up the coast towards the Wide Bay-Burnett, and inland to the Darling Downs.  Another system sweeping up from the south is set to butt heads with it on Sunday, meaning a soggy weekend from North Queensland right down to Tassie, and there could be more rain to come, with experts saying November is also likely to be pretty wet.

Squiz the Rest

Snowballing costs

A review of the Federal Government’s biggest renewable energy project, Snowy Hydro 2.0, has found it could cost 12 times more than the original price, blowing out to up to $25 billion. It was supposed to come online in 2021, but that got delayed, and it’s now expected to be delivered late in 2029. It’s basically a giant battery in the NSW Snowy Mountains. It links 2 dams with about 27km of tunnels, pumping water uphill when power is cheap, and letting it rush back down through an underground power station the size of the Sydney Opera House when demand spikes, as Oz moves away from fossil fuels. Snowy Hydro CEO Dennis Barnes says he’s “incredibly disappointed” and he couldn’t rule out further cost blowouts. The timing is a bit awks because Team Albanese has been under pressure from the Coalition and One Nation over the cost of its renewable energy rollout plans.

Computer(s) say no

Thousands of websites around the world have been temporarily taken offline - including Oz government ones, after a major flaw was found by AI. It’s a bit technical, but what we know is that 2 serious weak spots were discovered in the PHP program that runs a huge chunk of the internet - think of it as the engine under the bonnet. These vulnerabilities mean that attackers could take control of a website’s servers without logging in, and Cloud services firm Cloudflare says millions of hacking attempts have been made. PHP’s developers released urgent fixes (aka “patches”) and asked users to update their systems. No major breaches have been reported in Oz at this stage, and most sites are back up and running, but experts have told Aussies to stay extra vigilant while the gremlins are being ironed out, and to brace for more data breaches.

Ben Roberts-Smith speaks up

The Victoria Cross recipient gave lengthy interviews to radio station 2GB and News Corp, which aired yesterday morning in what was being called a public relations blitz to clear his name after he was charged with war crimes in April. He’s accused of being involved in the deaths of 5 unarmed Afghan citizens during his time as an SAS soldier in Afghanistan. In the interviews, he said he does not regret “a single thing” about his time in the military, and he disputed that he was ever involved in the murder of civilians, saying they were “members of the Taliban”. He also spoke about being arrested in front of his children, the 9 nights he spent in Silverwater jail, and how he regrets staying silent throughout the defamation case he brought against the Nine media (who were quick to fact-check his claims…). You can watch for yourself here…

Airbnb does some housekeeping

The holiday rental platform is bringing in new rules that mean hosts are no longer allowed to ask guests to do “time-consuming or arduous” chores before they check out. That includes stripping beds, taking garbage offsite or putting away washed dishes - but before you plan a rager, you’ll still have to leave things reasonably clean and tidy. Airbnb says the new House Rules - which come in on 20 November - are in response to guests complaining they’re being asked to do “onerous” chores while also paying a cleaning fee. But hundreds of hosts have criticised the move, saying if extra cleaning is required, it’ll force up fees or result in them moving to competitors like Stayz. Airbnb says hosts can still set their own rules, provided they’re clear to guests when they book.

Paying your Duos

Apple is releasing its most expensive iPhone of all time in Australia today - the iPhone Duo. It’s a foldable phone, which is nothing new for Samsung or Google, but new territory for the company that released the original iPhone in 2007. And at a minimum of $3,499 for the Duo, (which is about the size of a passport when folded), you’d want to be confident it was good… The reviews have been flooding in over the past 24 hours, with most of them making the same point - it’s a really good device, but maybe not for that price… While some reviewers advised waiting a year for the price to come down, PCMag Australia called it the best foldable you can buy, as long as you have the dosh. Plenty do, though - so be ready to see them lined up around Apple stores this morning…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

From Duo to Dua Lipa… We’re fans of the singer’s book club Service 95, and we enjoyed her interview with Kazuo Ishiguro about his novel Klara and the Sun, which deals with lots of timely themes around AI, loneliness, friendship and hope, and was released in movie form yesterday starring Wednesday’s Jenna Ortega.

We love a good page-turner, and Gelato Messina came up with the goods in this Instagram post about a (quite long) email they got from a lady in Germany wanting to shout her Aussie boyfriend a triple scoop. Staff got invested and… we won’t spoil the ending… 

For a midweek dinner that’s tasty and full of veggies, we can’t go past Lucy Tweed’s Fridge Giver San Choy Bow from her first book Every Night of the Week. Fridge giver because you basically clear out your crisper - anything goes - and to less waste, we say chef’s kiss…

Squiz the Day

Friday
9.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: WBBL season launch - Sydney 

11.00am (AEDT) - Temple & Webster Group AGM - Sydney 

11.30am (AEST) - Premier David Crisafulli and Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner to speak at The Courier-Mail’s Future Brisbane summit - Brisbane

5.45pm (AEDT) - Engadine RSL to mark 25 years since operations in Afghanistan began - Engadine 

The iPhone Duo is set to be released in Oz 

ABS data release: Australian System of National Accounts, 2025-2026 financial year 

Lily Allen's West End Girl Australia tour kicks off in Brisbane 

Sacha Baron Cohen’s mockumentary film Ali G: Who Iz I? releases in Australian cinemas

Mole Day (which is actually about chemistry…)

International Champagne Day 🥂

World Snow Leopard Day

Liberation Day in Libya, marking the anniversary of the end of Muammar Gaddafi's regime (2011)

Birthdays for actors Ryan Reynolds (1976) and Emilia Clarke (1986)

Anniversary of:

• the release of Walt Disney's Dumbo (1941)

• the release of Britney Spears' debut single Baby One More Time (1998)

• Apple unveiling the iPod (2001)

• the release of Adele's single Hello, which would become the first song with more than a million downloads in its first week (2015)

Saturday
9.30am (AEST) - 2026 Brisbane Pride Rally, March and Fair Day - Brisbane 🏳️‍🌈

11.00am (AEDT) - Baseball: Day one of the MLB World Series between the Brewers and Rays - Milwaukee, watch on ESPN on Disney+ 

5.05pm (AWST) - Rugby league: Women's Rugby League World Cup group A, Jillaroos v England - Perth, watch on 7Plus

Jimmy Barnes is set to perform at the MotoGP Grand Prix of Australia - Phillip Island 

Racing: Cox Plate is on at Flemington Racecourse - Melbourne 

Media Literacy Week begins (until 31 October) 

DanceRites 2026 begins (until 25 October) - Sydney 

Independence Day in Zambia

United Nations Day

World Polio Day

World Development Information Day

Birthdays for former PM Malcolm Turnbull (1954) and rapper Drake (1986)

Anniversary of:

• the founding of the world's first soccer club, Sheffield FC (1857)

• the first photograph of Earth from outer space by a camera on board the V-2 No 13 rocket (1946)

• the Bloody Friday worldwide stock market crash, with most indexes dropping 10% in one day (2008)

• the deaths of civil rights activist Rosa Parks (2005), rock n' roll pioneer Fats Domino (2017)

Sunday
11.00am (AEDT) - The first passenger flight to take off from the new Western Sydney Airport Jetstar flight JQ362 departs for the Gold Coast - Sydney 

4.00pm (AEDT) - Netball: Match 3 of the Constellation Cup Australia v New Zealand - Sydney, watch for free on Kayo 

7.05pm (AEST) - Rugby League: Men's Rugby League World Cup Group A, Kangaroos v Fiji - Brisbane, watch on 7Plus

Western Sydney International Airport opens to passengers 🛫

Run-off Brazilian election 

First round of Bulgaria's Presidential election 

Serbian National Assembly election

World Pasta Day 🍝

International Artist Day 

Grandparents Day

Birthdays for writer Anne Tyler (1941), writer Zadie Smith (1975) and singer Katy Perry (1984)

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of Pablo Picasso (1881) and Helen Reddy (1941)

• Vegemite appearing on Aussie supermarket shelves (1923)

• the flight of the first Airbus A380 passenger flight - the world's largest passenger airliner - operating for Singapore Airlines, flying between Singapore and Sydney (2007)

• the release of Taylor Swift's third studio album Speak Now (2010)

• the death of 4 people on a theme park ride at Dreamworld (2016)