Friday, 4 July 2025 - In the best-selling show

Good morning, it’s Friday, 4 July. In your Squiz Today…

• Making changes to our childcare system

• US President Donald Trump passes his big, beautiful bill

• And an eggplant dish perfect for winter nights indoors…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan, who has been holidaying here for the last few weeks, with a bit of help from Tourism Australia. No word if she saw some of our other fine attractions, like Perth’s Bell Tower, Ripley’s Believe it or Not in Surfers Paradise or Tassie’s Big Spud… 

The childcare industry’s in the spotlight

The Squiz

The Victorian government has asked former South Oz Premier Jay Weatherill and public servant Pamela White to lead a review into the state’s childcare system, following Tuesday's news that childcare worker Joshua Brown is facing 70 charges on sexual and other offences against 8 alleged victims. That review is due on 15 August, and there are plenty of ideas on what needs to change, right across the country… Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said yesterday that he'll introduce legislation when Parliament returns later this month to withdraw funding from any centre that fails to meet safety standards.

So what else is being done about it?

One of the big topics for debate has been on how Working With Children Checks (WWCCs) are issued and updated in Oz - that’s currently different depending on which state or territory you’re in. Back in 2015, the Royal Commission into Institutionalised Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended that the federal government establish a central database for WWCCs within 12 months, which still hasn't happened. One of the Commissioners at the time, Robert Fitzgerald, says the delay is "shameful", and Clare says a meeting of state and federal Attorneys-General next month will have it high on its agenda. It has been reported that at the time of his arrest, Brown had a valid Working With Children Check, which has since been cancelled.

What other ideas are out there?

There’s a debate going on about whether men should be involved in childcare at all. Louise Edmonds, the founder of the Independent Collective of Survivors, said that to better protect children, "men have no place in daycare centres". But Sam Page, the chief executive of Early Childhood Australia, said male role models were important to have, and the system should be preventing all kinds of abuse. As for Brown, the published dates that he was working at certain centres around Victoria may be updated after a range of reports from parents in the state identifying other times they'd seen him at work that weren’t on the list. He’ll face court on September 15, along with a second alleged offender, Michael Wilson, whose charges don't concern any childcare centres.

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This one’s worth taking a long lunch

NAIDOC Week starts on Sunday to honour and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. And on Tuesday, Future Women is hosting lunch in Melbourne featuring a lineup of inspiring First Nations women to reflect on this year’s theme: The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. Tickets to this event are going fast - secure your place here with a 20% discount using the code THESQUIZ at checkout.

Squiz the Rest

The death toll in Gaza is continuing to rise…

…with a cardiologist and director of one of its hospitals is among the latest civilian victims. The Hamas-run health ministry says Dr Marwan Sultan was killed when an Israeli strike hit his home in Gaza City, calling it a “heinous crime against our medical cadres”. In response, the Israeli military (the IDF) said it had targeted a “key terrorist” from Hamas and is reviewing claims that civilians were also struck. It’s also reviewing one of its strikes that killed dozens of Palestinians at a seafront cafe in Gaza earlier in the week… Reports say the IDF dropped a 230kg bomb on the cafe, where unprotected civilians were gathered - something international law experts reckon constitutes a war crime. In the meantime, Hamas is still reviewing a proposed ceasefire deal - so stay tuned…

The Big Beautiful Bill goes through

This is that major bit of legislation for US President Donald Trump - about 900 pages long at last count - that has caused a fair bit of friction with his former political pal, the world's richest person, Elon Musk. Musk was so angry with the fact this bill raised the national deficit that he has threatened to start a new political party and challenge those in Congress who supported it. But despite that - and a long speech by Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries to try and delay it - the trillion-dollar bill was passed by Congress this morning and is on its way to Trump's desk to be signed off, just in time for his self-imposed deadline of the 4th of July - Independence Day in the US. Now that it's set to become law, here’s everything that’s in it, and it’s a lot…

Shaking hands on an Olympic plan

After months of negotiations, the Queensland Government and the Albanese Government have finalised a deal to go 50:50 on funding minor venues builds/upgrades for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The agreement has secured $3.4 billion of federal support, with $1.2 billion of that going towards building the controversial 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park, north of Brisbane. All up, the venues will cost a pretty penny - the 2 governments have earmarked $7.1 billion between them. And with time a-tickin' on the 2032 deadline, they're "not mucking around", Queensland Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie says… The exact stadium location in Victoria Park hasn't been decided on yet, but borehole drilling/soil sampling began as the ink dried on the deal yesterday. It's all happening…

*If you need a refresh on how we got here and the controversy surrounding the Victoria Park plan, this Shortcut has you covered.

Caught in a bad romance

The era of dating apps may be over, if the boss of Bumble is to be believed… Whitney Wolfe Herd, who founded Bumble in 2014, has criticised staff in the company’s London office for “freaking out” after being told 160 of their roles would be cut (paywall). That’s on top of another 80 roles being made redundant across its global workforce - 30% in total. Wolfe Herd reportedly told an all-staff call this week that she’s worried the company might collapse by next year if they don’t make changes ASAP. They’re not the only dating app struggling to turn a profit - Match, the owner of Tinder, Hinge and others, also cut 13% of its workforce last month. As for why, research has pointed to singles ditching the apps in favour of going old school. Cue the speed dating comeback…

Mars attracts… lots of cash

To the tune of $6 million, if the auction house Sotheby's is to be believed. It's putting a meteorite from Mars up for bid later this month, and they’re not expecting this celestial chunk to go for chump change. For a quick trip back to science class, a meteorite is basically whatever doesn’t burn up when a meteor or comet enters Earth’s atmosphere. This one has the catchy name of NWA 16788, it was discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2023 and it’s not a god-awful small affair - it’s the biggest piece of Mars that’s ever been found on Earth. If you happen to be in the market for a very, very expensive conversation piece, here’s the website - that’s one pricey paperweight…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

After the trailer for the movie adaptation came out this week, we were reminded of the ripping read that is Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. Like his previous book The Martian, it’s a science-y space adventure, but it goes to some unexpected places…

We caught the new Brad Pitt movie F1 over the weekend, and while it’s not going to break any records for originality, it’s a solid sports movie elevated by an excellent performance from Kerry Condon as technical director Kate McKenna. She’s fab… 

And one to win over the eggplant haters out there - this Banjaan borani (which is an Afghan braised eggplant dish) served with garlicky yoghurt is from the owners of Parwana, an award-winning restaurant in Adelaide. It’s top-notch for a weekend spent staying warm on the couch.

Squiz the Day

Friday
AIHW will release a report on Australia's Disability Strategy Outcomes Framework 

2.30pm (AEST) - Cricket: Australia A v Sri Lanka - First Men's One Day Match

Alice Springs Show Day - NT

ABS data release: Monthly household spending indicator, May 2025

Independence Day - US

Rapper Post Malone’s birthday (1995)

Anniversary of:

• Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) creating the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland for Alice Liddell on a family boat trip in Oxford (1862)

• the launch of hotmail.com, the first free web-based email service (1996)

• North Korea testing their first successful intercontinental ballistic missile (2017)

• the deaths of Thomas Jefferson (1826), Marie Curie (1934) and Barry White (2003)

• wedding anniversaries for Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne (1982), David and Victoria Beckham (1999) and Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis (2015)

Saturday
9.45am (AEST) - The Young Archie winners will be announced - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - Jundah Camel Race, opening the Outback Camel Trail (until 26 July) - Jundah, Queensland

10.00am (AEST) - Collectfest, Australia's first collectables festival - Melbourne (until 6 July)

4.30pm (AEST) - Commbank Matildas play Panama at Hands on Oval in Bunbury, WA - watch on Paramount+

5.00pm (AEST) - Cycling: Tour de France begins, with cyclists departing in Lille, France (until 27 July) - watch on SBS On Demand

China to announce its final decision on EU brandy imports

National Indigenous Art Fair - The Rocks, Sydney (until 6 July)

Ashura, an important date in the Islamic calendar (until 6 July)

👙 National Bikini Day

Independence Day in Venezuela and Algeria

Anniversary of:

• the launch of famous luncheon meat Spam (1937)

• the launch of the modern bikini (1946)

• the premiere of Seinfield (originally titled The Seinfeld Chronicles) (1989)

• the founding of Amazon by Jeff Bezos (1994)

• the WHO announcing the containment of SARS after affecting 26 countries and resulting in 774 deaths (2003)

• the release of Somebody That I Used to Know by Gotye featuring Kimbra (2011)

• the release of an FBI report stating Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" handling classified emails, but doesn't recommend prosecution (2016)

Sunday
The Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th Birthday, with plans to reveal his successor 

1.30pm (AEST) - Rugby: The Wallabies will play Fiji in a test match - Newcastle, watch on Stan Sport

9.00pm (AEST) - The 17th annual BRICS Summit will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil welcoming 5 new member countries (until 7 July) 

12.00am (AEST) - F1: The British Grand Prix race in Silverstone, UK,the home of the racing competition - watch on Kayo

NAIDOC Week begins (until 13 July)

International Day of Cooperatives

💋International Kissing Day 

Birthdays for former US President George W Bush (1946), actors Sylvester Stallone (1946), and Geoffrey Rush (1951) and rapper 50 Cent (1975) 

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of Frida Kahlo (1907), Nancy Reagan (1921), and Hilary Mantel (1952) 

• the release of Forrest Gump (1994) and Pokémon Go (2016)