Friday, 24 July - Look at the beautiful colours

July 24, 2026

Good morning, it’s Friday, 24 July. In your Squiz Today…

  • Labor hashes out the big issues at its national conference

  • Origin Energy confirms a cyber breach of customers’ data

  • And a young Aussie’s hit bird song… 🦜

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

Before we get into it, we have a favour to ask…

We’ve been asking you to tell us a bit more about how we’re doing here at Squiz HQ - what you want more of, or less of, and how we can keep showing up for you. You might already know the drill, but if you haven’t had the chance to fill our audience survey (we get it), it'll take 10 minutes of your time, and as a bonus you could win a little something… Head to this link to have a go. We’ve heard that taking a survey goes really well with your morning coffee…

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“One thing worth knowing is that a ‘Glasgow kiss’ isn’t quite as friendly as it sounds - it’s local slang for a headbutt.”

Said Glaswegian tour bus driver Graeme Stockton, explaining some local etiquette that might come in handy for Aussies at the Commonwealth Games over the next 11 days. As we hit publish, the Opening Ceremony is on - and the King and Queen have arrived in Dr Who’s TARDIS…

Party in the SA

The Squiz

The Australian Labor Party is holding its National Conference in Adelaide at the moment, and it has a fair bit to talk about… The conference takes place every 3 years, and it’s where the party gets together to hash out its policies and platform for the years to come. But with a series of challenges on its hands, including cost-of-living, overseas wars, artificial intelligence and the rise of One Nation, it might not be an entirely smooth ride - much like this escalator that randomly stopped moving on PM Anthony Albanese while he was there… 

What's on the agenda?

The PM opened things up with an announcement - the government is setting up a new Fair Work Court. It would deal with employment issues like underpayments, taking those cases off the hands of the federal courts. It’ll essentially replace the Industrial Relations Court, which the Howard government ditched in 1997. But Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume said a new court would just make things more complicated - and it was our workplace laws that needed to be fixed, not the courts. Today, the issue of gambling advertising is expected to be a hot one - the government recently announced new legislation, but as we mentioned in our Shortcut last week, it’s coming in for plenty of criticism that it doesn’t go far enough. Today, Labor members may argue exactly that.

Any controversies?

Not really, but tomorrow, the issue of Gaza is on the agenda. Even that might not be as heated a debate as it could have been, after the 2 main Labor factions (left and right) hashed out a draft policy in advance. That trend towards avoiding public disagreement is leading some critics - including Labor MP Ed Husic - to say this conference is more about a demonstration of party unity than a proper debate, which could hurt Labor in the long run. But that’s not to say the conference hasn’t been without incident - as it kicked off yesterday, Chinese diplomats chose to leave because a Taiwanese official was allowed to attend. It’s another in a series of diplomatic issues between China and Oz in recent weeks - and speaking of which…

Squiz the Rest

Sending a neighbourly message

In a speech to mark 80 years of diplomatic ties with the Philippines yesterday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia won’t be bullied by China’s “provocative actions”. She made the address on the sidelines of the 59th ASEAN conference for foreign ministers in Manila and said, as middle powers “together we must build the region we want - not just accept the region that others might want for themselves”. It comes nearly 3 weeks after China carried out a test of a nuclear-capable missile in the South Pacific, which Wong said was “provocative and destabilising”. To that end, she said Oz would “continue to invest in stability” providing $160 million over 10 years “to expand maritime cooperation with our Southeast Asian partners, including the Philippines”.

Origin Energy has confirmed a mass data breach

After revealing on Wednesday that it was investigating a possible cyber hack, Origin Energy has now confirmed some customers have had their details “compromised”, including partial numbers of bank accounts and the last 4 digits of credit cards. A hacker who claims to have accessed the data of 2 million customers sent a sample of 50 to The Australian newspaper with their names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, phone numbers and billing details. Origin is one of Australia’s largest retailers of electricity and gas, with around 4.7 million customers. Yesterday, its CEO Frank Calabria apologised and said the company is contacting affected customers while also working with police and cyber security specialists to secure its systems against further possible breaches.   

Once more unto the breach, dear friends… 

Tech company OpenAI has admitted that during testing, one of its advanced AI models acted without human direction and escaped from its secure environment, found the internet and hacked into another company called Hugging Face. OpenAI says it was testing its new GPT-5.6 Sol model, as well as an experimental one instructed to take advantage of cyber weak spots. The company says the breach was “unprecedented” and it’s reinforcing its safeguards - but the hack’s got experts worried… US director of Control AI Connor Leahy says we’re getting closer to creating “super intelligence” much, much smarter than humans, and “we have no idea how to control such systems”. 

The Devils weren’t in the details

We mentioned on Monday that the new Tasmanian AFL team was set to announce their coach in former Port Adelaide boss Ken Hinkley. After Hinkley was confirmed, the club released a brand new swathe of merch featuring the phrase ‘Ken Oath’ - a play on his first name and a phrase we’d better not put in the newsletter. Unfortunately, somebody forgot to check if the name was taken - turns out that ‘Ken Oath’ is trademarked to a surfwear brand in Queensland. So about 24 hours after launch, the Tassie Devils had to pause their big merch launch - and will have to go back to the drawing board. Someone do a copyright check on Ken Hell, or Ken You Dig It, or Ken We Have Our Money Back… 

The early bird gets the earworm

Remember the name Miles Phillips - he’s the 7yo singer/songwriter behind Eastern Rosellas, an Aussie song that’s taken off online this week, and if viral numbers are anything to go by, he’s on track to be a star. Since his dad Joel posted the earworm on Instagram last week, it’s had over 1.5 million views and been covered by artists including Ben Lee and Meg Washington. It’s also been played on radio, shown on TV here and in the UK, and played to schoolkids in the Netherlands. Miles, who’s from Sydney, says he came up with the lyrics while feeding birds at his grandparents’ place and then workshopped it with his dad. And he might be still in primary school, but he’s got plans for the future - like forming a band with his friends called The Spikeheads. Can’t wait for their first track... 

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

For a bit of decompression time, we’ve been playing the video game classic Stardew Valley, where you play as someone who inherits a farm in a small town and decides to make a go of the quiet life. It’s available on pretty much any device, including your phone… 

Experts reckon it’s been a warm winter but our tootsies haven’t been feeling it. To keep them warm and snuggly we’ve found a great Aussie sock brand called Bed and Butter. They come in a range of colours and look equally great with boots, sneakers or PJs.

And while we’re in comfort mode, we made this Beef Stroganoff and Gnocchi Bake for friends recently. If you have an aversion to Strog from childhood, note, it’s nothing like those chewy strips. This is a one-pan hearty dinner that will have everyone asking for seconds…

Squiz the Day

Friday
9.00am (AEST) - Final day of hearing block 5 in the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion - Melbourne 

6.30pm (AEST) - Water Polo: World Cup women's semi-final Australia v US - Sydney, watch on Kayo 

6.30pm (AEST) - Independent and Peaceful Australia (IPAN) National Conference, US journalist Abby Martin will give a keynote address (until 26 July) - Adelaide 

7.30pm (AEST) - Commonwealth Games swimming events begin - Glasgow, watch on 7Plus

ABS data release: completed cohort fertility rates, 2024

Darwin Show Day public holiday in the Northern Territory

National Pyjama Day to raise awareness and funds for kids in the foster system 

🧖 International Self-Care Day

Charli XCX's Music, Fashion, Film album released 

Birthdays for singer and actor Jennifer Lopez (1969), Aussie actor Rose Byrne (1979), actor Elisabeth Moss (1982), and conservationist Bindi Irwin (1998)

Anniversary of:

  • American explorer Hiram Bingham 'discovering' Machu Picchu (1911)

  • Survivor's Eye Of The Tiger starting its 6-week run at No. 1 on US charts (1982) 

  • Aussie cyclist Cadel Evans winning the 98th Tour de France (2011)

Saturday
9.15am (AEST) - Reopening of the Brett Whiteley Studio, which has been reinstated with the artworks, objects and ephemera as the artist left them -Sydney 

11.05am (AEST) - Rugby: Super Rugby Women grand final between Fijian Drua and NSW Waratahs - Fiji, watch on Stan 

6.30pm (AEST) - Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final - Sydney 

Rescheduled White House Correspondents' Dinner 

In the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, fans of Kate Bush recreate her music video in a flash mob - Sydney 

🤠 National Day of the Cowboy - US

Merry Christmas in July

Puerto Rico Constitution Day

Republic Day in Tunisia

World Drowning Prevention Day

A birthday for Friends actor Matt LeBlanc (1967)

Anniversary of:

  • Lance Armstrong winning the first of 7 consecutive Tour de France titles (but is later disqualified for drug cheating) (1999)

  • WikiLeaks publishing classified documents about the war in Afghanistan, one of the largest leaks in US military history (2010)

Sunday
9.30am (AEST) - Boxing: middleweight fight Tim Tszyu v Errol Spence - Sydney, watch on Kayo 

11.00pm (AEST) - Motorsport: Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix -  Mogyoród, watch on Kayo 

Final day of the Tour de France, watch on SBS 

Start of Donate Life Week (until 2 August)

Independence Day in Liberia

Birthdays for former PM John Howard (1939), Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger (1943), actor Helen Mirren (1945), actor Sandra Bullock (1964), former PM of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern (1980), and rapper Stormzy (1993) 

Anniversary of:

  • the birthdays of Carl Jung (1875), Aldous Huxley (1894) and Stanley Kubrick (1928)

  • the capital of New Zealand moving from Auckland to Wellington (1865)

  • the formation of the US Office of the Chief Examiner (later renamed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation) (1908)

  • US President Harry S Truman signing the National Security Act, which established the Central Intelligence Agency (1947)