Monday, 14 July - You're one in a million

July 14, 2025

Good morning, it’s Monday, 14 July. In your Squiz Today…

  • The US puts defence front and centre on the PM’s China trip

  • A warning for travellers after Carolina Wilga’s “miracle” survival

  • And Sinner wins Wimbledon…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“Bridget McKenzie scares the hell out of me. She is one formidable woman.”

Said the Victorian Senator’s boss, Nationals leader David Littleproud. He wasn’t talking about her manner in the partyroom - he was asked yesterday about why he doesn’t participate in Parliament House’s netball games. Like any team player, he knows when to pass…

Caught in a Vegemite sandwich

The Squiz

PM Anthony Albanese has landed in China for a 6-day visit - his longest to any single country since being elected. He’s there to promote trade for Aussie businesses, and he’s set to meet with President Xi Jinping to discuss that, along with tourism and some trickier security issues… It was the latter that hogged the spotlight yesterday, with Albanese facing some tough questions in the face of US pressure over our defence spending and what role we’d play if the US and China went to war over Taiwan. To that, the PM said “we have a clear position and we have been consistent about that … We don't want any change in the status quo”.

Where did that come from?

America has been calling for us to ramp up our defence spending to 3.5% of our Gross Domestic Product, but Treasurer Jim Chalmers has said we’ll be keeping it to 2.3%. Yesterday, the US upped the pressure by insisting that we give them assurances of our support when it comes to any Chinese invasion of Taiwan. The push came from American senior defence official Elbridge Colby (he’s leading the review into the AUKUS security pact…), who reiterated US President Donald Trump’s line that America’s allies needed to “step up” defence spending… You can bet it wasn’t the conversation Albanese wanted to have on day one of his China tour, where he’s travelling with 14 CEOs of Aussie companies across a range of industries, including bigwigs in mining, finance and agriculture. 

So it’s going a bit off-course…

And making things extra tricky, Talisman Sabre military exercises, run by the Australian Defence Force and the US military, are underway back in Oz. They’re basically a series of war games aimed at preparing us for real-life battle. We’re expecting Chinese spy ships to closely monitor the exercises, as they have in the past, so the timing makes us a bit like the Vegemite in a China-US sandwich… But, shoring up trade relationships and bolstering our economy is the name of Albanese’s game, so experts reckon he has “a very perilous path” to navigate, and how he handles it this week remains to be seen…

Smiling wide

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Squiz the Rest

The countdown is on…

Speaking of the US, 1 August is when the bulk of President Donald Trump’s Liberation Day tariffs come into effect - including his freshly-updated tariffs on all products entering the US from Mexico and the European Union, 2 of its big trading partners. And Oz hasn’t escaped scot-free… Along with a 10% “baseline” tariff, we’re facing tariffs on our beef, aluminium and copper exports to the US, and there’s still a big question mark over the 200% tariffs on pharmaceuticals Trump floated last week… Given the potential hit to our economy, there’s pressure on the Albanese Government to cut a deal with the Trump administration - and with both houses of parliament returning next week, this is far from the last we’ve heard of it…

Raising more questions

Just after we last spoke on Friday, an initial report into the Air India crash that left 260 people dead in the city of Ahmedabad last month was released - and a lot’s been said about it over the weekend. The main focus is on the pilots’ audio recorded in the plane’s cockpit, which shows that 3 seconds after takeoff, the plane’s fuel control switches were turned off. Experts reckon it’s unlikely it was an accident, with one saying “it would be almost impossible to pull both switches” with one hand. Others say it might have been an electronic problem… As for the victims’ families, many are unsatisfied with the lack of answers. Under international rules, investigators had 30 days to prepare the initial report, so families are pushing for more details in the final report - which could take months.

A fresh warning to backpackers…

…venturing into the outback has been issued by WA Premier Roger Cook after lost German backpacker Carolina Wilga was found by "sheer luck" on Friday afternoon… The 26yo is recovering in hospital after her ordeal - and over the weekend we've learned more about how she survived… Wilga ran into problems when her van became bogged more than 300km northeast of Perth. She was carrying some supplies for going bush - but Cook says travellers should always take a satellite phone or an EPIRB (emergency position-indicating radio beacon) if they're going alone. Wilga says she panicked and left to see if she could get help - after that, she used the sun's position to walk west, drinking from puddles and sheltering in a cave. On a remote stretch of road, she flagged down local farmer Tania Henley, who said it’s a “miracle” she survived the freezing cold nights.

Our new UNESCO World Heritage site…

That’d be the Murujuga Cultural Landscape, featuring more than a million pieces of ancient Indigenous rock art (some dating back 50,000 years…) in Western Oz’s Pilbara region. The decision was made at a meeting of the UN’s World Heritage Committee in Paris on Friday, after decades of campaigning by Traditional Owners. The committee had been hesitant because of studies showing pollution from the nearby North West Shelf’s Karratha Gas Plant is damaging the art - concerns that still remain. But Environment Minister Murray Watt (who just approved an extension of the project in May…) made a successful last-minute bid for the site’s inclusion, and reports say Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation (MAC) representatives were in tears as the decision was made. Peter Hicks, MAC’s chair, says the group is elated.

Jannik Sinner becomes a Wimbledon winner…

The World #1 has beaten Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz to claim his first Wimbledon singles title… The final was the second big clash between the 2 in just over a month after the #2-ranked Alcaraz upset his Italian rival in an epic French Open 5-setter. This time Sinner clapped back to win in 4 sets, which he said was tough-going after his Paris loss, but “I just kept working … Having this trophy with me means a lot”. In the women’s singles, Poland’s Iga Świątek demolished American Amanda Anisimova in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 - what they call a double bagel - to win her first Wimbledon crown on Saturday night. Świątek adds it to her 4 French Open and one US Open victories, but 23yo Anisimova won the speeches with a heartfelt address to her mum. And off the court, it was Princess Kate who stole the show…

Apropos of Nothing

Speaking of the Royals, King Charles’s and Prince Harry’s aides have met in secret to resolve their family feud. The informal talks, held at the Royal Over-Seas League private club, were said to open an initial “channel of communication”. There’s a bridge-building joke in there…

A savvy real estate investor is making the most of his latest purchase - NBA star Michael Jordan’s former Illinois estate. For just $184,000, you can now rent the 7-bedroom, 17.5 bathroom (yes, you read that right…) mansion for a minimum 7-night stay. Bargain…

The Billboard End of Year Singles Chart has some surprises - including a 10yo sleeper hit with more downloads than any Beyonce or Taylor Swift song. US band Lord Huron’s 2015 track The Night We Met has snowballed in recent years to more than 3 billion Spotify plays. It’s the best track we’ve never heard of…

Squiz the Day

School goes back for Term 3 in QLD and the NT

9.00am (AEST) - The International Mathematical Olympiad for high school students begins - Sunshine Coast, Queensland

10.00am (ACST) - Cricket: Australia A v Sri Lanka A in the first men’s 4 day match - Darwin

Start of National Diabetes Week (until 19 July) 

Bastille Day - France, marking the anniversary of the beginning of the French Revolution with the fall of the Bastille Prison (1789)

Birthdays for Anna Bligh (1960), Jane Lynch (1960), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (1985), and Conor McGregor (1988)

Anniversary of 

  • New Zealand holding its first general election (1853)