Friday, 25 September - You know you like it like this

September 25, 2026

Good morning, it’s Friday, 25 September. In your Squiz Today…

  • OpenAI hacks into a Medicare website

  • Kylie’s preparing to perform at the AFL Grand Final

  • And some yummy fish tacos… 🌮

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"I just live one day at a time, and anything I feel like doing, I do it”.

Said Betty Gregory, a Gold Coast great-great-grandma who celebrated her recent 95th birthday by skydiving (what else?). And that’s not all - the daredevil says she’s planning to jump out of a plane again for her 96th. We want to be Betty when we grow up…

OpenAI hacks Medicare

The Squiz

PM Anthony Albanese has revealed that an OpenAI agent hacked into a Medicare website in June, which he’s called “unacceptable”. The PM said it doesn’t look like anyone’s personal information was stolen, but he’s told the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, he’s disappointed it took the tech company until 10 September - almost 3 months - to tell the Federal Government what had happened. Now, a taskforce has been set up to investigate and to find out if the law’s been broken.

Ok - what do we know?

PM Albanese has been in New York, and early yesterday he told reporters there that on 18 June an OpenAI bot was researching Oz medical spending, but it hit a speed bump when trying to access “public and non-public files” in a Medicare data portal. It then took it upon itself to access these files, unauthorised. The ChatGPT creator said it only became aware of the incident in August, but Albanese said he’s not just frustrated at how long it took OpenAI to fess up, but also how the Federal Government found out. That’s because the tech firm sent an email to the Services Australia public inbox, which Acting PM Richard Marles said was “not good enough”, given how serious this is. A multi-agency taskforce is now figuring out exactly what happened, and Marles says OpenAI is cooperating, while doing its own review.

How’s it gone down?

This breach has made headlines around the world because it’s one of the first times we’ve learned of an AI-led hack of a government website, and although Team Albanese has tried to reassure Aussies that no sensitive data was accessed, Coalition leader Angus Taylor isn’t happy. He’s accused the PM of "failing to pre-empt" the incident, while the Greens say this should be a signal the Federal Government needs to slow down on encouraging tech companies to build their data centres here. This follows a week where AI has dominated discussion at the UN. OpenAI’s boss Sam Altman actually gave a speech calling for “speedy incident reporting” when things go wrong (a bit awks?), and a few days ago, Albanese called for better guardrails to make sure humans stay in control of the tech - but US President Donald Trump slapped it down, favouring a full steam ahead approach.

Down to the wire

Copper is having a moment right now. Electric cars, solar panels, data centres, the power grid - none of it happens without copper, and as the world electrifies, it's going to need a lot more of it. Demand is tipped to go from about 34 million tonnes a year now to around 50 million by 2050. BHP is the world's biggest copper producer, and it's working on how to help meet the expected growth in demand. Discover how it's happening now at BHP.

Squiz the Rest

And while we’re on the topic of Trump…

He’s hosting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House for a state visit, and the 2 leaders have been holding talks on artificial intelligence (or “super intelligence” as Trump calls it) amongst a heap of other things. It’s Xi’s first trip to Washington in over a decade, and earlier he said both the US and China have a responsibility to develop AI for good, and ensure it remains under human control. Before Xi arrived at the White House, President Trump said again that he didn’t want more AI regulation; he’s made it clear he wants to ‘win the race’ when it comes to the tech. Later this morning, Trump is putting on a fancy state dinner for Xi and a load of AI bosses, so expect to see more on this throughout the day. And BTW, CNN, MS Now and Politico have been allowed back into the White House after the President banned them almost a week ago, citing national security concerns - but a judge rejected that, and said their access should be restored.

Some grim updates

At the start of the week, we told you about a string of violent incidents that took place in NSW over the weekend. Yesterday police said that a second child, aged 1yo, has died after an alleged stabbing in the Blue Mountains on Sunday. Three siblings were found with stab wounds in a car with their mother - a 5yo was declared dead at the scene. The 3yo is continuing to fight for life in hospital, and police say the woman will face an additional count of murder. She’s already been charged with one count of murder and 2 counts of grievous bodily harm with intent to murder. Overnight, NSW Police also confirmed that an 11yo boy who was allegedly shot in the face and neck in Sydney’s north-west on Monday has died - they say investigations are continuing.
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Unemployment is back up to COVID-era levels

The Bureau of Stats has released its latest data on the number of Aussies looking for work, and the rate has risen slightly to 4.6% - even though 39,000 people found jobs in August. Wait, more jobs and higher unemployment? Yep… an even bigger crowd (about 68,000) piled into the labour force looking for work, and that's what nudged the rate up to the highest we’ve seen since November 2021, when several states were coming out of lockdowns. So what’s next? Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock keeps saying inflation's still too high - she wants it sitting between 2% and 3% (FYI, it's currently 3.5%) so the RBA doesn't have to hike interest rates again to cool things down. But most economists reckon another hike is where we're headed when the RBA meets next week - we'll find out its call on Tuesday arvo.

On an afternoon like this

Tomorrow, the Fremantle Dockers and the Brisbane Lions will play off in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG. The stakes are high for both teams, but in different ways - for Brisbane, it’s a chance to win its third flag on the trot for the second time this century, and they’ll be doing it with superstar player Lachie Neale, who successfully overturned a one-match ban to play tomorrow. But Fremantle is going for the first premiership in its 32nd season, prompting some long-suffering fans to drive all the way across the Nullarbor and book private flights for the chance to witness glory. It all kicks off at 2.30pm eastern time, and it’ll be preceded by a pre-match concert from Oz music icon Kylie Minogue. PM Anthony Albanese won’t be there, by all reports, and considering his controversial podcast comments about Kylie from a few months back, that’s an awkward moment avoided…

For shuck’s sake

And if AFL isn’t your thing, maybe we can interest you in the World Oyster Shucking Championships in Ireland, where competitors try to shuck oysters as fast as possible. The Aussie representative this year is Zoe Jacobson, and she’s got quite the backstory - she taught herself to shuck when the men in the industry wouldn’t give her any pearls of wisdom. For this weekend’s contest, she’s going to have to upskill, though - she’ll be shucking a foreign oyster she’s never shucked before, and she’s not allowed to use a uniquely Aussie move called the ‘flip’, which turns the oyster over to present it. There’s none of that in the Northern Hemisphere, so Jacobson will have a few hurdles to overcome to win. If she does, though, the world will be her…well, you know…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

The New York Times has done us all a solid by putting together a list of the best telly shows of the 21st century, which it’s been revealing across the week. It’s based on what Hollywood stars (including our own Rose Byrne) and industry experts think, so if you’re at a loss for what to watch this weekend, you can fill your boots.

We enjoyed this piece about 95yo Liz Hicklin, whose first play, Sylvia Plath Stole My Boyfriend, is debuting at the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October. It’s the tale of her real-life romance with poet Ted Hughes. Plath got the man, but Hicklin will always have his nickname for her: Winklepumpkin…

With all the talk about bears scoffing salmon in the office this week, we thought we’d get in on the action. These spicy grilled fish tacos by Marion Grasby make a healthy and delicious dinner - easy enough to whip up midweek and impressive enough to roll out for friends on the weekend. Margaritas optional.

Squiz the Day

Friday
Public holiday in Victoria for the AFL Grand Final 

9.00am (AEST) - The National Portrait Gallery will unveil a portrait of best-selling children's author Andy Griffiths by artist Ronnie van Hout - Canberra

9.30am (AEST) - The Wiggles are performing at Melbourne Park ahead of the AFL Grand Final Parade, which starts at 10.30am going to the MCG - Melbourne

2.00pm (AEST) - Cricket: Men's One Day Cup Victoria v NSW - Melbourne, watch on Kayo

7.50pm (AEST) - NRL: preliminary final, Sydney Roosters v Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium - Brisbane, watch on 9Now or Kayo

8.00pm (AEST) - Football: First of 2 friendly matches between Australia and Brazil - Townsville, watch on 10Play 

Unabomber, the new movie starring Russell Crowe, Jacob Tremblay and Shailene Woodley, premieres on Netflix - you can also check out our Squiz Shortcut if you want a refresher

World Pharmacists Day

Actors Catherine Zeta-Jones (1969) and husband Michael Douglas (1944) share a birthday, as well as Will Smith (1968) and Donald Glover (1983)

Anniversary of:

  • the birth of the remote control after engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo successfully guided a boat (1906)

  • Henry Ford announcing an 8-hour, 5-day work week (1926)

  • the formation of U2 after student Larry Mullen Jr posted an ad at Dublin's Mount Temple Comprehensive School (1976)

  • Cathy Freeman's famous 400m Olympic win at the Sydney Olympics (2000)

Saturday
Australian oyster shucking champion Zoe Jacobson will compete at the Oyster Shucking World Championships in Galway, Ireland

2.30pm (AEST) Aussie Rules: AFL Grand Final at the MCG - Fremantle Dockers (going for their first-ever premiership) v Brisbane Lions (going for their third in a row) - Melbourne, watch on Channel 7

9.00pm (AEST) Formula One: Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Baku, watch on Kayo

World Contraception Day

A birthday for tennis legend Serena Williams (1981)

Anniversary of:

  • Olivia Newton-John's birthday (1948)

  • Operation Jaywick, the action that became the starting point for Australia’s Special Forces (1943)

  • the first publication of comic magazine Tintin (1946)

  • the premiere of TV series Gilligan's Island (1964)

  • the release of The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969)

  • the premiere of TV sitcom The Brady Bunch (1969)

  • Republican Richard Nixon squaring off against Democrat John Kennedy in America’s first televised presidential debate (1960)

  • Saudi Arabia announcing the overturning of its ban on women driving - the last country in the world to do so (2017)  

Sunday
4.00pm (AEST) - NRL: Second preliminary final, Penrith Panthers v Newcastle Knights - Accor Stadium, Sydney, watch on 9Now, Foxtel or Kayo

5.30pm (AWST) - Rugby Union: Wallabies v South Africa - Perth, watch on 9Now or Stan Sport

6.00pm (AEST) - Cricket: Second men's ODI, South Africa v Australia - Johannesburg, SA, watch on Kayo

The International Whaling Commission will hold its Biennial Commission Meeting in Tasmania (running until 2 October) - Hobart

Birthdays for former talkback radio host Ray Hadley (1954), actress Gwyneth Paltrow (1972), and rapper Lil Wayne (1982)

Anniversary of:

  • French scholar Jean-François Champollion announcing he has deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphics using the Rosetta Stone (1822)

  • WC Handy publishing one of the first blues songs, Memphis Blues (1912)

  • the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring about the environmental impacts of pesticide use in the US (1962)

  • George and Amal Clooney’s wedding (2014)