Friday, 7 February - I wear my sunglasses at night

Good morning, it’s Friday, 7 February. In your Squiz Today…

• The Coalition wants answers from the PM over an alleged caravan terror plot

• Israel backs Trump’s plans for Gaza

• And the results are in - Putricia’s pong is dead awful…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Is how Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour has described her always-present sunglasses. But in honour of meeting with King Charles this week, she (temporarily) changed things up - going sans sunnies as she received a Companion of Honour. Très chic, either way…

Pushing for answers

The Squiz

Coalition leader Peter Dutton is leading the calls for an inquiry into when PM Anthony Albanese was briefed about a caravan containing explosives (which was later linked to a potential antisemitic attack…) being found in rural NSW. News of the caravan incident was leaked to the media last week, about 10 days after the explosives were discovered. Since then, the Coalition’s been asking questions about who was kept in the loop and who wasn’t - particularly given the crackdown on antisemitism around the country…

Remind me what happened…

You can check out the timeline of events, but the caravan was found in Dural, about 30km northwest of Sydney, by a local resident who was worried it had been dumped in a dangerous spot on the side of the road. He took it home, and, failing to find its owner, broke inside on 19 January - finding the explosives and calling police. Officers then found maps pointing to Jewish locations around Sydney, leading them to believe it was going to be used in a “mass casualty” antisemitic attack. Dutton has since claimed Albanese wasn’t briefed for 10 days, saying it’s “inconceivable” that the PM wasn’t told about “what was believed to be the biggest planned terrorist attack in our country’s history”.

What does Albanese say?

He’s repeatedly refused to confirm or deny when he was told about the discovery, saying he won’t share details about police “operational matters”. He doubled down on that yesterday, saying he doesn’t believe there’s any need for an inquiry because it would divert police resources from investigating the incident in question. But he's not the only one in the hot seat… Australian Federal Police boss Reece Kershaw was grilled during a parliamentary inquiry yesterday about exactly when Albanese was told about the caravan - but said a public hearing "is not an appropriate forum" to share information about an ongoing investigation.

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:

🍎 Plums - Let’s just say these are a plum treat for the lunchbox…

🍇 Black seedless grapes - Sweet and juicy and in season now...

🍄‍ Mushrooms - Store ‘em in a paper bag in the fridge to keep them at their best…

Squiz the Rest

Israel backs up Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed US President Donald Trump’s proposal for Palestinians living in Gaza to be moved to live in other countries while the US “took ownership” of the region. Netanyahu called it “a remarkable idea”, while his Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered the military to draft a plan for the “voluntary departure” of residents from Gaza. Trump’s team yesterday answered some of the many questions raised after Wednesday’s announcement, saying the relocation and the US ownership of Gaza were supposed to be short-term rather than permanent arrangements. But as well as copping backlash from international leaders, the plan has distressed many Palestinians who’ve only recently returned home after the ceasefire.

A long wait

Almost 3 months since Melbourne teens Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles died from suspected methanol poisoning in Laos, their families are still looking for answers… Yesterday, Deputy PM Richard Marles said an offer by the Australian Federal Police to help with the investigation hasn’t been taken up by local authorities. To remind you, Holly and Bianca - best mates holidaying in Laos - became sick after drinking what’s believed to have been contaminated alcohol in the tourist town of Vang Vieng. They and 4 others died. And despite the Laos government promising to “bring the perpetrators to justice”, their families say they’ve had no updates. Marles says the government is continuing to push for action.

Opening up an AI lawsuit

A bunch of Indian news publications have filed to join a lawsuit against OpenAI, the US company that makes chatbot Chat-GPT, for using their content without permission to train its chatbots. The lawsuit was originally launched in November by news agency Asian News International, and now some of India’s oldest media outlets, like The Indian Express, are getting involved. For its part, OpenAI says it only used publicly available info - the company’s CEO Sam Altman is in India at the moment to discuss AI investment, so that’s a touch awks. And one more thing… Next week, Indian PM Narendra Modi is set to visit US President Trump, who recently announced a big infrastructure project with, you guessed it, OpenAI. 

The NFL is coming down under

The league announced yesterday that the Los Angeles Rams will play an official regular season game - the first ever on Aussie soil - at the MCG in 2026. We don’t know who the other team will be or exactly when it’ll happen, but September (week 1 of the NFL season) has been mooted. We also don’t know how much the Victorian state government stumped up to host the game, but reports say the figure put to NSW was $15 million which they thought was a bit steep... And a reminder that the extravaganza of sport, music and advertising that is the Superbowl is happening Monday, with the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles meeting in a rematch from 2023. And yes, Taylor will be there…

A corpse by any other name…

While Sydney corpse flower Putricia’s time in the spotlight might be over, she’s still making headlines… The pungent plant attracted thousands of fans in person and online as they waited for her to unleash her unique odour on the world, and one Sydney scientist took the opportunity to look into just how corpse-y the corpse flower actually is. PhD candidate Bridget Thurn researches human remains, and she grabbed some samples from Putricia as she bloomed to check for similarities in smell. You can find out all about the sciency stuff here, but the upshot is Putricia's odours do have things in common with human corpses. And as always, we hope you weren't tucking into a snack during this bit…

Friday Lites - 3 things we liked this week

If you’re keen on a mysterious TV thriller to fill that Lost-shaped hole in your heart, Paradise on Disney+ might do the trick. It stars Sterling K. Brown as a Secret Service agent investigating a President’s death, but the first ep has a massive twist, so if you’re interested, get watching or risk getting spoiled…

We enjoy a good nature pic, so we had a grand old time scrolling through the work of the world’s finest photographers considered for the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, particularly the winner of a wild lynx doing a biiiiig stretch…

It’s not technically the season for Anzacs but we’re warming up for April with this Passionfruit pie with Anzac crumb crust by Melbourne baker Natalie Paull. We like her advice to use whipped cream if the idea of using a blowtorch on meringue is a bit much - and to go big or go home on the slices…

Squiz the Day

Friday
8.00am (ACST) - PM Anthony Albanese will announce an $842 million pledge to support Aboriginal people living in remote communities in the Northern Territory - Alice Springs

9.00am (AEDT) - Start of the 2025 Australian Wooden Boat Festival (until 11 February) - Hobart

9.00am (AEDT) - A hearing is set to begin in a case brought by the federal government’s work health and safety body, Comcare, against the Commonwealth and International Health and Medical Services over an Iraqi detainee’s suicide in 2019 - Sydney

6.30pm (AEST) - AACTA Industry Awards Ceremony - Gold Coast, Queensland

NRL Pre-Season Challenge (on until 23 February)

National Multicultural Festival 2025 (on until 9 Feb) - Canberra

Birthdays for singer Garth Brooks (1962), actor Ashton Kutcher (1978)

Anniversary of:

• the colonial Tasmanian Parliament passing the world's first secret ballot (1856)

• New Zealand's worst maritime tragedy - HMS Orpheus sunk off the coast of Auckland killing 189 (1863)

• the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, which killed 173 people (2009)

Saturday
6.35am (AEDT) - Men’s Rugby Union: Pre-season, Queensland Reds v Ulster - Belfast, and watch on Stan Sport

2.00pm (AEDT) - KPMG Australia Sail Grand Prix (on until 9 February) - Sydney

5.30pm (AEDT) - Actors Renee Zellweger and Leo Woodall will walk the red carpet before a screening of their new movie Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy - Hoyts Entertainment Quarter Sydney

The Invictus Games begin - Whistler, Canada

By elections will be held in the state seats of Werribee and Prahran in Victoria

Golden Retriever Day 

😆 Laugh And Get Rich Day

Birthdays for screen composer John Williams (1932) and author John Grisham (1955)

Anniversary of:

• the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1587)

• the birthdays of author Jules Verne (1828), actor James Dean (1931)

Sunday
Ecuador’s General Election

Kosovan Parliamentary Election

Birthdays for author Alice Walker (1944), Derryn Hinch (1944), Mia Farrow (1945), Gina Rinehart (1954), Glenn McGrath (1970), and Tom Hiddleston (1981)

Anniversary of: 

• ✈️ the first flight of a Boeing 727 jet (1963)

• the Beatles performing their first-ever gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club (1961) and their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1964)

• the death of Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II (2002)