Monday, 1 December - Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yours

Good morning, it’s Monday, 1 December. In your Squiz Today…

• Tensions ramp up between the US and Venezuela, with the US poised for land strikes

• Massive floods cause devastation in Southeast Asia

• And the PM ties the knot… 🤵👰‍♀️

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said F1 driver Oscar Piastri after finishing second behind Dutchman Max Verstappen at the Qatar Grand Prix this morning. The Aussie is now third in the Drivers’ Championship rankings, and it all comes down to the last race in Abu Dhabi next weekend. What a finish…

The US prepares to strike

The Squiz

The airspace above and around Venezuela has been closed after US President Donald Trump confirmed his troops are getting ready to launch land attacks on the South American country “very soon”. In a Truth Social post yesterday, he said/shouted “to all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY”. The conflict between the US and Venezuela has been brewing for months, but reports say Trump’s escalation took US officials by surprise. 

Back it up a bit… 

Fair enough. Trump’s accused the illegitimate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro/his government of being linked to the drug smuggling trade - something Maduro denies. The US has launched more than a dozen strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September, accusing them of smuggling drugs and killing more than 80 people, mostly Venezuelans. It’s also deployed about 12,000 troops and US Navy warships - including the world’s largest aircraft carrier - to the region. Maduro believes Trump is trying to overthrow him - a suspicion others also hold - and over the weekend, his government condemned Trump’s land attack comments as a “colonialist threat”. But Maduro’s taking it seriously, ordering his military and civilians to prepare for war.

I thought Trump was a ‘man of peace’? 

That’s certainly how his supporters describe him after leading efforts for a ceasefire in Gaza, so analysts are watching to see if he pulls the US into a new conflict with Venezuela… We also talked a bit last week about Trump being at the forefront of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine… On that, US officials will visit the Kremlin later this week (date TBC…), and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has sent a delegation to Florida for further talks (despite a corruption scandal within his leadership team prompting some changes to the attendee list…). Zelensky reckons a peace deal will be “hammered out” imminently, so add that to your news watch list this week…

A fix for an overstuffed suitcase

If you’re anything like us, packing for the holidays means a bulging suitcase... Brisbane brand Simplify Living has created vacuum travel bags that compress without any equipment - just roll the air out and watch your stack halve in size, meaning you can travel without the bulk. Once you see how much space you save, it changes how you think about packing... Find out more here.

Squiz the Rest

Massive floods have caused devastation across Southeast Asia

The death toll in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Sri Lanka has passed 600 people following the region’s worst floods in a decade. Heavy monsoonal rain has swept through the 4 countries since last Wednesday, causing flash flooding and landslides, and leaving thousands of people without food or power. Reports say rescuers are still struggling to reach survivors in some of the hardest hit areas, including on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where more than 400 people have died, and 270 more are missing. Indonesia’s weather agency says the extreme conditions stem from Tropical Cyclone Senyar in the Malacca Strait, which is a “rare” event but “not unprecedented”. It says shifting climate patterns mean governments in the region should prepare for more disasters. 

Grounded by a glitch 

Soz if you were one of the thousands of Aussies stuck in airport queues over the weekend, thanks to a software issue on Airbus A320 jets that grounded hundreds of flights worldwide. The problem was a dodgy upgrade to 6,000 aircraft that needed to be physically reversed by engineers. It took up to 3 hours per plane, and it meant flights across Asia, Europe and the US were cancelled on a hectic weekend for air travel. And while Airbus says those returning from Thanksgiving celebrations in the US were mostly spared from delays, locals here in Oz booked on Jetstar flights - aka lots of schoolies - weren’t so lucky. The airline cancelled 90 flights on Saturday, saying "safety is our number one priority", and passengers were told to expect “flow-on delays” as the network recovered. 

Winner winner…

If you haven’t heard of the Aussie charcoal chicken chain El Jannah, that could be about to change because its Lebanese take on BBQ chook (with delicious garlic sauce) could soon be going global... From its beginnings as a small shop in western Sydney's Granville 27 years ago, it's grown to more than 50 stores in NSW, Victoria and the ACT. And now, a majority stake in the company has been acquired by US investment firm General Atlantic in a deal said to be worth close to $1 billion. That’s a lot of quarter packs with chips… El Jannah’s CEO Brett Houldin said the deal was “a phenomenal milestone” that would see it expand to 200 stores across Australia. The chain recently crossed Sydney’s  ‘Red Rooster line’ to open in Randwick - but with plans to expand overseas, the move east is just the beginning…

Bouncing into the premiership books

How good is North Melbourne… Their AFLW side capped off their undefeated season by winning the grand final on Saturday. They won their second cup pretty comprehensively, too - beating the Brisbane Lions by 40 points… That’s not to say it was easy - Brisbane started strong, particularly in defence, but coach Craig Starcevich said that once they got part of the game under control, “something else pops up… [North Melbourne’s] got so many strengths”. Eilish Sheerin was a key player, finishing with 28 disposals, 2 goals and a Best on Ground medal… You can replay the game highlights here. Whether or not the pre-game entertainment from Peking Duk was a highlight or not is another thing…

Making a politician an honest man…

The bells were ringing in Canberra for a different reason on Saturday when PM Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon - our first national leader to tie the knot while in office. It was a small-scale affair at the Lodge where the bride wore a gown from local label Romance was Born, and she walked down the aisle to Ben Folds’ The Luckiest while Toto played ringbearer (in her own gown…). Their first dance: Frank Sinatra’s The Way You Look Tonight. The date was kept hush-hush due to security, and Albanese - who paid for the event from his own pocket - said it was “not a political event”. Coalition leader Sussan Ley put politics aside and wished the newlyweds “every happiness”... The happy couple is now on a 5-day honeymoon to an Aussie destination unknown.

Apropos of Nothing

Pope Leo XIV is on an international trip and spent part of his weekend at the Blue Mosque in Istanbul - following in the footsteps of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI before him. He didn’t take part in a prayer, but did remove his shoes as a sign of respect…

If you’ve ever been the victim of a bad passport photo, you might understand the internet’s excitement about “the passport photo lady” in New York City’s Chinatown - described by CNN as “the best photographer we know”. They’re not wrong…

Bánh mì, the delicious Vietnamese roll, has become a lunchtime staple for Aussies - so much so that KFC has debuted its own version: the Zinger bánh mì. Whether or not it’ll hit the spot is another thing - one review called it bánh mì by name but not nature…

Squiz the Day

☀️ It’s the first day of Summer

Cyber Monday sales are on

9.00am (AEDT) - The Australian Skin Cancer Foundation will launch the world’s first mobile 3D skin check clinic on Manly Beach - Sydney

9.00am (AEST) - Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Forum, with representatives from the Pacific, Caribbean and Africa gathering to discuss ways of tackling climate change - Brisbane

9.00am (AEDT) - Budget estimates, supplementary hearings at Parliament House - Canberra

10.00am (ACDT) - Sentencing submissions for MP Fraser Ellis on deception charges for misusing the MP travel scheme - Adelaide

ABS data releases: Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia, September 2025; Business Indicators, Australia, September 2025

Metcash, owner of IGA, Campbells, Foodland and Supa Value supermarkets will share its results for the first half of the year

Gotham Film Awards

World AIDS Day

National Water Safety Day 

Birthdays for director Woody Allen (1935), singer and actor Bette Midler (1945), and actor Zoe Kravitz (1988)

Anniversary of:

• the Ford Motor Company establishing the world's first moving assembly line (1913)

• the invention of modern-day Bingo by American toymaker Edwin S Lowe (1929)

• the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama (1955)

• the signing of the Antarctic Treaty (1959)

• Papua New Guinea gaining self-governance from Australia (1973)

• a 55yo man developing the first traceable symptoms of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China (2019)