I don't like cricket, oh no

July 22, 2026

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 22 July. In your Squiz Today…

  • A tragic child protection review in the NT

  • Another Middle East naval blockade

  • And another day, another blockbuster… 🦸🏼‍♂️

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

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

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“If everyone here gives Toto a little bit of sausage, there’s going to be a problem. So, don’t feed the dog, she’s not starving.”

Said PM Anthony Albanese about his beloved pup, while hosting a heap of celebrities and sports stars for a charity cricket match at Kirribilli House in Sydney. Snacks or not, we hear Toto was star of the show…

Reviewing a tragedy

The Squiz

An interim report into the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby has highlighted serious failures in the Northern Territory child protection department’s handling of her case. The review - led by former NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb and former NT Anti-Corruption Commissioner Greg Shanahan - found issues with how child protective services responded to reports of violence in her family throughout her short life, and that her mother was “effectively” left alone to protect her children while experiencing domestic violence. It’s made 7 interim recommendations, starting with a “comprehensive reset of [the department’s] operating model”.

It was a shocking case…

It made national (and international…) headlines when it happened in April. Kumanjayi Little Baby, a 5yo Warlpiri girl, was allegedly abducted from a town camp at Alice Springs and killed by 47yo Jefferson Lewis, who’s been charged with her murder. Reports later came to light that the little girl’s family had been known to authorities, prompting the NT Government to announce this review into her case… It found “the key issue” was “the timeliness and effectiveness with which risk was identified, assessed and responded to”. Recommendations include boosting the NT’s child protection workforce, better training, and better risk assessments for child protection.

So child protection’s in focus…

For more reasons than one. The NT’s controversial child protection legislation is also being debated in parliament this week, and we say controversial because it’s been copping pretty wide criticism from child and family advocates… They say it would weaken the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle put in place after the Stolen Generations to keep Indigenous children connected to their families. And it’s not just advocates - Federal Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek has been joined by every state and territory’s children’s ministers (except for the NT and Queensland...) in also voicing concern… The NT Child Protection Minister Robyn Cahill acknowledged the criticism, but says there’s one goal - keeping the Territory’s kids safe. The debate over those laws continues.
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Looking a little closer…

Financial abuse can happen to anyone, and the reason it can be difficult to spot is because it doesn’t always look the way we might expect. Things like being monitored when you spend money, needing permission to make purchases, or being excluded from financial decisions entirely… Over time, those behaviours can take away your independence and make it harder for someone to leave a situation safely. Support is available through CommBank’s Next Chapter program even if you don’t bank with CommBank.

Squiz the Rest

Another blockade begins…

This time, it’s the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen that have declared a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia. To explain: the Houthis have blamed Saudi Arabia for an “oppressive siege” on Yemen over the past 12 years, banning ships carrying Saudi exports through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Saudi Arabia says it’s continuing to support Yemen’s internationally recognised government, and will respond “firmly”... The Bab el-Mandeb is a key shipping passage between Yemen, on the Arabian Peninsula, and the Horn of Africa - about 2,000km southwest of the Strait of Hormuz. Experts say it’s already having an impact on oil prices. President Trump says the US would “take care of” the Houthi rebels if the group follows through on its threats to block Saudi ports.

A North West battle

A challenge to the Albanese Government’s decision to grant an extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project - one of the world’s largest - began in the Federal Court in Melbourne yesterday. The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and Friends of Australian Rock Art took legal action after Environment Minister Murray Watt greenlit the extension last year until 2070. The ACF says the plant is a “carbon bomb” that will release around 4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Beside it is the Murujuga Indigenous rock art complex - home to over a million etchings dating back 50,000 years. The case is set down for a week, and a UN special rapporteur is attending as a ‘friend of the court’ arguing Oz has a “duty to prevent significant harm to the environment”.

Anthropic settles US lawsuit

After last week’s AI announcement from PM Anthony Albanese, we’ve been hearing about the ongoing stoush between Aussie creators who want tech companies to pay to use their content to train AI models… It’s a global issue - over in the US, Anthropic has settled a class action with a group of authors to the tune of US$1.5 billion. Reports say it’s the largest ​settlement of a US copyright case, which started because publishers claimed it used their work without permission. A Federal Judge ruled Anthropic made fair use of the authors' work to train its chatbot Claude, but it violated their rights by saving ​more than 7 million ⁠pirated books to a "central library" that would not necessarily be used for AI training. Some publishers opted out, and are pursuing individual lawsuits, which are ongoing…

Getting to the heart of PMOS risk

Aussie women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS) are being encouraged to get early heart health tests after a major study found they face 4 times the risk of developing heart disease. You might know it as polycystic ovary syndrome or PCOS, but it was renamed in May. It’s an incurable hormone condition that affects one in 8 women, and symptoms include irregular periods, weight gain, acne and infertility. A study of 413,000 US women with PMOS found the cardiovascular risks remained even after accounting for things like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. With that in mind, the paper’s authors say their findings “highlight the need … to improve early screening, counselling and long-term surveillance”.

From a new day to a doomsday

Another week, another blockbuster - Spider-Man: Brand New Day is due out next Friday, and to keep us going until then, yesterday we got our first proper look at the next Avengers film, Avengers: Doomsday. The Marvel epic includes franchise favourites Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America (yep, Cap’s back…) and it shines the spotlight on lesser-known characters like Shang-Chi (he of the legendary 10 rings). One big twist: Robert Downey Jr’s back, but not as Iron Man - he’s the film’s antagonist, Doctor Doom. Now, before you tell your mates to assemble, the movie’s not due in theatres until 18 December. It’s the same day as Dune: Part Three, so that weekend’s shaping up to be bigger than Barbenheimer for sci-fi fans…

Apropos of Nothing

The Lumberjack World Championships competition happened in Wisconsin on the weekend, with 3 new world records set in the women’s events. First taking part in 1960 with logrolling, women now compete in more than 20 events. As they say, yo-ho…

The Vulture Interactions photography contest has announced this year’s winners in a campaign to help conservation efforts of these not-so-cute and cuddly creatures. They live on every continent except Australia and Antarctica, and now we have FOMO…

And a genre of ‘fake shopping’ apps that satisfy people’s need for a dopamine hit without the IRL price tag is gaining popularity. But while there’s no actual money involved, experts reckon marketers are still watching people’s choices - even a fake lunch isn’t free… 

Squiz the Day

12.30pm (AEST) -  Former investigator Rohan Pike, Doctor Nick Coatsworth and Federal MP Mary Aldred to address the National Press Club on 'Illicit tobacco - It is costing Australia heaps' - Canberra

3.00pm (AEST) - Water Polo World Cup finals (until 26 July) - Sydney, watch on Kayo

We’re set to get a decision in the defamation case against Aussie/ Hollywood star Rebel Wilson (paywall) in the Federal Court this afternoon - Sydney

🧠 World Brain Day 

Birthdays for actor Willem Dafoe (1955), musician Selena Gomez (1992) and Prince George of Wales (2013)

Anniversary of:

  • the birthday of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta born (1932)

  • famous gangster John Dillinger killed by federal agents (1934)

  • Dick Smith making the first solo helicopter flight around the world (1983)