Friday, 4 October - Give it away now

October 04, 2024

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

  • It’s time for Daylight Saving, the NRL Grand Final, and a long weekend for many…

  • Pro-Palestinian protests allowed to go ahead in Sydney

  • And some chicken and rice that smells pretty nice 🍗

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"A player and person of great humility, Clare is the epitome of a quiet achiever.”

Said Football Australia chief executive James Johnson of the Matildas' most capped player Clare Polkinghorne who has announced her retirement. The veteran defender’s international career will wrap in December and we don’t know how they’ll goal on without her…

Let’s get to the weekend…

The Squiz

A big slice of the country is getting set to move to daylight saving on Sunday (aka losing an hour’s sleep) - which also coincides with a 3-day weekend in many states and territories. At 2am on Sunday in NSW, ACT, Victoria, Tassie and South Oz, clocks will go forward an hour - while Western Oz, the Northern Territory and Queensland stay put. That means we become a country of 5 time zones until April next year… Send your thoughts/prayers to the residents of border towns like the Tweed/Gold Coast who have to bring their A-game to make it anywhere on time, along with anyone trying to manage the 3-hour gap between east and west…

So what else is happening?

Well, NRL fans are in for a ripper Grand Final as the Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm face off on Sunday night. Penrith is aiming for a record-busting 4th title in a row, but they’ll want star halfback Nathan Cleary (aka Mary Fowler’s boyfriend) to have overcome his niggling shoulder injury. He’s facing off against Jahrome Hughes, who just won the Dally M as the league’s best and fairest for the year – footy heads reckon that’s going to be an epic match-up to watch. The NRL Women’s GF is now also played on the same day – that’s the Sydney Roosters (featuring Dally M winner Olivia Kernick) v the Cronulla Sharks, with the Sharkies surprising everyone by making it in their second year in the comp. Pre-match entertainment? The Kid LAROI is the headline act…

And the weather?

It’s going to be an absolute cracker for the 80,000 fans heading to Sydney Olympic Park for those games on Sunday with dry/sunny conditions and temps in the high 20Cs. It’s looking pretty good for Queensland too… People in Brissy getting Monday off will be basking in 30C+, about 10C warmer than the ACT/South Oz which also get the public holiday. For those set for a 2-day weekend, it’s also going to be pretty nice in Western Oz but a bit cool/showery in Tassie and Victoria. As for the Top End, it’ll be time to break out the air-con with 35C expected in Darwin… May it be a good one wherever you are.

Speaking of the public holiday, we’re having Monday off - see you on Tuesday.

Your fresh market update…

At the Squiz, we’re all about giving you the useful stuff. So, we’ve teamed up with Woolies to share their top weekly fruit and veg picks. Here’s what to grab this week:

🌱 Herbs - Whether you pronounce them with an 'haitch' or as 'erbs', basil and coriander are so great right now.

🫐 Blueberries - Crisp skins with big juicy insides, these are versatile and cost of livs friendly.

🥔 Red potatoes - Elevate your average spud dishes with these rosy-skinned beauties that are perfect for roasting.

💚 Asparagus - These springtime faves work well in soups, salads, or on the side of your favourite protein.

Squiz the Rest

Courting a change of course

Pro-Palestinian protest marches in Melbourne and Sydney will go ahead on Sunday, and a candlelight vigil for Gaza will be held in Sydney on Monday - the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attacks on Israel. NSW Police dropped a court bid to block the protests after reaching a last-minute agreement with organisers to change the route of the Sydney march, which will now avoid The Great Synagogue. Reports say organisers have agreed not to march on Monday. Commemoration events remembering Israeli victims of the terror attacks will take place in major cities, including a formal ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Canberra. As Israel continues to strike targets in Beirut and southern Lebanon, our government is urging people to leave the region while they can. Reports say RAAF planes are on stand-by in Cyprus to evacuate Aussies who have put their hand up for help getting out. 

Mind your own IMF-ing business… 

That’s what the Albanese Government might have been thinking as the row over our inflation fight went global, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) calling the Reserve Bank Board’s decision not to cut interest rates “appropriate”. The United Nations’ top financial authority didn’t end there - it says any further cost-of-living relief should be targeted to ensure it doesn’t add to inflation or raising interest rates again could be necessary. “Should disinflation stall, there may need to be further tightening”, Australia’s top IMF official Lamin Leigh says. And some more free advice for Treasurer Jim Chalmers: overhaul our tax system to reduce our reliance on personal income/corporate tax and dial down concessions for property investors - like negative gearing. Chalmers put a positive spin on this, noting the IMF has endorsed Labor’s “responsible economic management”.

Starmer pulls a Swiftie

The UK’s newish PM Sir Keir Starmer has been pressured into paying back more than $10,000 worth of freebies - including 6 Taylor Swift tickets - that he accepted in the top job… Starmer’s been copping flak for weeks after it emerged he’d accepted free clothes for his wife, a high-end rental property and a corporate box at the races. He’s now working on a new code of ethics to bind all pollies, saying they shouldn’t be making “individual judgements on a case-by-case basis”. Pundits say the saga has derailed Labour’s transition to power, consuming time and headlines when they should be kick-starting their agenda for government…. And while we’re in the UK, Princess Kate has been photographed back at work for the first time since she finished chemo. Kate was snapped hugging 16yo cancer sufferer Liz Hatton at Windsor Castle - the get-together was on the girls’ bucket list …

Farewelling a TV favourite

Fiona MacDonald - the bubbly TV personality best known as the co-host of kids' TV show Wombat (alongside Agro) and game show It’s a Knockout - has died at 67yo, 3 years after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). She and her sister Jacki were huge on the telly in the 80s in a way that’s hard to make a current comparison… Fiona announced her own death on Instagram, writing "my sister Kylie is posting this because I have left the building". MND is an absolute shocker of a disease, and her physical decline led her to decide to cease all medical support "after much soul searching". An episode of ABC TV’s Australian Story featuring her drive around Australia with Kylie raising money and awareness is well worth a look... Former Wombat co-host Jenny Woodward is among those paying tribute saying "She was great fun to work with, and a wonderful storyteller on camera and in real life."

Battle over a diva beaver

If you’re not already familiar with Nibi the beaver, get ready for some cute with a side of legal drama as a battle over whether she should be released into the wild erupts in Massachusetts, where she’s spent the last 2 years living at Newhouse Wildlife Rescue. Founder Jane Newhouse found Nibi on a road as a baby and says attempts to reintegrate her with other beavers didn’t work. But local authority MassWildlife has demanded her release, which saw 25,000 people sign a petition over concerns Nibi won’t make it in the wild. A court hearing later today will determine her fate… And speaking of animals to fall in love with, a camera installed inside a hollow tree in the Tallaganda forest (between Canberra and the South Coast) has captured some “ridiculously cute” greater gliders. Conservationists hope it’ll highlight the fluffy marsupials’ plight…

While we’re talking about wildlife cams helping with animal conservation, check out this week’s Shortcut on Fat Bear Week…

Wanna be in the Saturday Squiz?

This weekend, more than half of Australia will switch to daylight saving time. So we want to know, are you for or against it?

Click to cast your vote and tell us why. We'll share 3 responses in Saturday's newsletter.

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Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

There seems to be a dearth of good rom-coms but the new Netflix series Nobody Wants This is a refreshing change. We’re totally buying into the romance between Kristin Bell’s agnostic podcaster and Adam Brody’s rabbi who fall in love - much to everyone else’s annoyance… It’s funny, charming and the eps come in under 30 minutes. 

A lot of us parents will be familiar with Tim Minchin’s viral commencement speeches, and whether you have kids or not, they just contain some great advice. Now they've been collated into a book = a gift idea for any young people in your life. 

Ellie in our office had a great-smelling lunch the other day, and she kindly shared the recipe for this Greek chicken and lemon rice. Better yet, she gave us her pro tip: adding a dab of Dijon mustard. The nose knows… 

Squiz the Day

Friday
9.00am (AEST) - The Annual ‘Deni’ Ute Muster kicks off (until  5 October) - Deniliquin, NSW

ABS data release - Monthly Household Spending Indicator, August; Lending Indicators, August

Start of World Space Week (until 10 Oct) 

Cinnamon Roll Day (they’ll put a smile on your dial)

Birthdays for actors Susan Sarandon (1946), Alicia Silverstone (1976), and Dakota Johnson (1989)

Anniversary of:

  • the deaths of Dutch painter Rembrandt (1669) and musician Janis Joplin (1970)

  • the Soviet Union launching Sputnik I, the first artificial Earth satellite (1957)

  • the launch of WikiLeaks by Julian Assange (2006)

Saturday 
10.30am (ACST) - The Italian Navy’s Amerigo Vespucci - aka ‘the world’s most beautiful ship’ docks in Darwin (until 7 October)

8.00pm (AEST) - Cricket: Women’s T20 World Cup: Australia v Sri Lanka - UAE, and watch on Prime Video 

Conservatives will gather at CPAC 2024 (on until 6 October) - Brisbane 

Birthdays for former Pakistani PM Imran Khan (1952), astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958), Guy Pearce (1967) and Kate Winslet (1975)

Anniversary of:

  • the release of the film Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), the first James Bond film Dr No (1962), The Beatles' first record, Love Me Do (1962), Elton John's album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (1973), and Stephenie Meyer's novel Twilight (2005)

  • the New York Times publishing investigations into sexual harassment behaviour by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein (2017)

  • the death of Steve Jobs (2011)

Sunday
2.00am (AEST) - Daylight Saving Time starts, except in Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia

4.00pm (AEDT) - NRLW Grand Final: Sydney Roosters v Cronulla Sharks - Sydney, and watch on 9Now 

7.30pm (AEDT) - NRL Grand Final: Melbourne Storm v Penrith Panthers - as above…

ASEAN Summit begins in Laos (on until 11 October) 

Anniversary of:

  • the opening of the Moulin Rouge in Paris (1889)

  • the High Court of Australia sitting for the first time (1903)

  • the launch of Instagram (2010)

Monday
Labor Day public holiday in the ACT, NSW and South Australia and the King's Birthday public holiday in Queensland. That means no Squiz Today - we’ll be back with you tomorrow…

6.00pm (AEDT) - A candlelight vigil for Gaza will go ahead at Sydney’s Town Hall

6.30pm (AEDT) - A commemoration ceremony will be held at the Israeli Embassy to mark the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attacks on Israel on 7 October - Canberra

8.30pm (AEDT) - The 2024 Physiology or Medicine Nobel Prize to be announced - Solna, Sweden

Schools in the Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia return for the last term of 2024

The 2024 Cobber Challenge: Masters Edition begins (over a 2-week period working dogs are tracked by GPS collars to measure the distance, duration and speed they clock)

AFL Trade Period begins

World Architecture Day

Birthdays for Thomas Keneally (1935), Vladimir Putin (1952), Yo-Yo Ma (1955), Thom Yorke (1968), and Tim Minchin (1975)

Anniversary of:

  • the establishment of KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), the world's oldest airline (1919)

  • News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and executive Roger Ailes launching Fox News (1996)

  • the beginning of the US invasion of Afghanistan (2001)

  • the launch of Spotify (2008)