Monday, 20 July - Sail away, sail away, sail away

Good morning, it’s Monday, 20 July. In your Squiz Today…

• Military exercises and spy base protests in the Northern Territory

• The Tate brothers have been arrested in the US

• And The Odyssey racks up an epic box office total…

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written Alice Dempster, Andrew Williams and Sophie Felice

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Seattle resident Kiana Hall, when she spotted this unusually round raccoon roaming the local area - and dubbed him Jimothy. His unusual shape is likely due to a condition called Short Spine Syndrome, but he seems to be healthy, active, and he’s going viral…

A defence focus in the NT

The Squiz

We’re heading north today, as there’s a bit of a defence/military theme happening in the Territory this week… First off, a series of war games called Exercise Pitch Black that takes place on Oz soil every 2 years is starting today. It’s the biggest air combat activity our Royal Australian Air Force puts on, and 20 countries and more than 2,500 military personnel will be taking part. If you’re in Darwin at the moment, be wary - with some fighter jets taking off on a regular basis - it could get loud…

Why’s it called Exercise Pitch Black?

Sadly, it’s not named after this pretty well-regarded Vin Diesel movie from 2000… It’s called Exercise Pitch Black because - you guessed it - a lot of the military scenarios they’ll be training for take place at night. Air Commodore Matthew McCormack said the war games aren’t for any specific thing - he compared it to a World Cup team preparing for any given scenario ahead of playing a game, and said the key part was making sure pilots from different countries could work together. But defence experts say there’s a secondary goal - notifying/warning China about the participating countries’ military capabilities, which is timely after China’s recent ballistic missile test in the Pacific. It’s not all secret defence business, though - there’s also going to be an airshow on Thursday, and an RAAF open day on 1 August.

And if we head south to Alice Springs…

Pine Gap, a nearby spy base that was first established 60 years ago in an agreement between Oz and the US, might attract a few headlines this week. It’s considered an important part of the US-Oz security alliance - but traditional owners in the region say they want it shut down. The Arrernte Apmereke-artweye people say they were never consulted on the base’s construction, and that it sits on sacred land. They’ve criticised the base for its role in overseas conflicts - like the war in Gaza - and are running a 3-day protest to get it shut down. Defence experts have also noted its original key benefit - its remote location - has also diminished in an age of satellite tech, but it still holds large value to the US, for now at least…

Understanding the signs

Research shows 1 in 4 Australians experience financial abuse at some point in their lives, but it often goes unnoticed because it can happen subtly and gradually. It’s not always just about money, either - it can look like controlling access to accounts, limiting someone’s independence, or making them feel trapped financially. Understanding the signs is often the first step, and CommBank’s Next Chapter program can help with free and confidential support even if you don’t bank with them.

Squiz the Rest

Fuel’s gold

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - who was also in the Territory yesterday for the Tiwi Cultural Festival - gave a fuel update over the weekend, saying our reserves are now at a higher level than the beginning of the war in Iran. At last count, 55 ships with 3.2 billion litres of fuel are on their way over the coming month, and we’re still at Level 2 on the government’s National Fuel Security Plan. We have 46 days of petrol, 39 days of diesel and 34 days of jet fuel - but with the conflict ramping up in recent weeks, the PM says we’re still far from out of the woods. On Saturday, an Iranian attack on a base in Jordan killed 2 US soldiers, and Iran and the US have now been exchanging strikes for 8 consecutive days.

Andrew and Tristan Tate have been arrested…

…again, this time by US Marshals in Miami. If you haven’t heard of them before, they’re 2 British-American influencers who built an audience making ‘manosphere’ content online, where they share misogynistic and anti-feminist views. In 2024, British authorities charged the pair with 21 offences, including rape and sex trafficking, and were trying to have them extradited from Romania, where they’re based. But recently, they’ve been in the US - and were arrested ahead of a bare-knuckle boxing event Andrew Tate was set to co-host. British prosecutors have now charged them with a further 38 counts and are looking to have them extradited from the US. The brothers have denied all charges - and their lawyer says the US “does not do Britain’s political dirty work” by sending them back. 

One Nation’s poll slide stops

After a few weeks of drifting support, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party has recovered in this morning’s Newspoll to draw back level with the Albanese Government on primary vote. Both parties are now on 30% - Labor’s lowest primary vote figure since the 2022 election - and the Coalition rose slightly to sit on 19%. Hanson herself has received lots of coverage over the weekend for a trip to a conservative conference in the UK, a podcast with far-right figure Tommy Robinson, and a Channel 7 Spotlight special last night, where she restated her support for a ‘monoculture’ in Australia. She’s facing criticism for her meeting with Robinson, a convicted criminal, and conspiracy views shared by her colleague, Senator Malcolm Roberts, in various podcasts over recent months.

Schmidt happened

The Wallabies (our rugby union men’s team) have played their last game under coach Joe Schmidt, smashing Italy 57-10 in Perth on Saturday night. It’s been a tough stint for Schmidt - despite going out on a high, he finished with a 39% winning record, the third-worst of any coach in the professional era. But analysts have also noted he inherited a team at a very low ebb - and has built it back up to a more competitive standard ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 2027 (happening on Aussie soil). In the lead-up to that, put the name Les Kiss on your list - the former Queensland Reds boss will take over as coach in August and be under a pretty big spotlight. Also, while we’re on all things coaching - ex-Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley is expected to be announced as the new Tassie AFL team’s inaugural leader today…

The Odyssey’s a Homer run

After months of anticipation, the movie epic hit cinemas over the weekend - and it went gangbusters. This is the adaptation of Homer’s poem from Interstellar and The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan, and folks turned out in droves to see it… It’s expected to make $378 million worldwide in its opening weekend, Nolan’s biggest ever. It’s a critical smash too - 95% of critics who have seen it liked it, and 97% of audiences, according to review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Those are some high numbers… All in all, it seems to have lived up to the enormous hype. Here’s a review roundup if you’re still on the fence, and this piece on the film’s central Trojan Horse sequence is worth a read (though it does go through some plot points, so beware of those millennia-old spoilers)…
*If you’d like a primer on what all the fuss is about, check out our Squiz Shortcut from last week…

Apropos of Nothing

As this newsletter goes out, it’s about half-time in the FIFA World Cup Final between Spain and Argentina in New Jersey. Still a draw atm, but whichever team wins will pocket a touch over $70 million - a drop in the ocean given some of those star player salaries… 

And if you missed the third-place playoff between France and England over the weekend, it was an epic goal-fest, with England taking out the win 6-4 and a bronze medal as some sort of consolation for not making this morning’s final… 

And if you’re already feeling nostalgic, maybe have a flick through this list of 16 viral moments from the tournament - although we’re hoping this morning’s half-time show featuring Shakira, Madonna and, um, Kermit the Frog might give us one or 2 more…

Squiz the Day

10.00am (AEST) - Hearing for Nicolaas Bester accused of harassing Grace Tame online - Hobart

10.00am (AEST) - Bail decision for 34yo Rayann El Houli, an 'ISIS bride' who returned to Australia in 2025. She has been charged with terrorism-related offences - Melbourne 

5.00pm (AEST) - Community voting closes for the 2026 NRL Ken Stephen Medal 

Exercise Pitch Black returns, with 100 aircraft and personnel from 20 allied and partner nations flying together in the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest combat-like exercise (until 7 August)

Andy Burnham is set to become PM of the UK

School goes back for Term 3 in NSW, ACT and South Oz

Colombia's Independence Day 

International Chess Day

International Moon Day

Birthdays for conservationist Terri Irwin (1964), actor Sandra Oh (1971), and basketballer Ben Simmons (1996)

Anniversary of:

• the birth of Alexander the Great (356 BCE) and West Side Story actress Natalie Wood (1938)

• the death of radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1937) and martial artist and actor Bruce Lee (1973)

• Adolf Hitler surviving a bomb assassination attempt by army officers (1944)

• Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first men to walk on the moon (1969)

• the CIA releasing documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing it had engaged in mind control experiments (1977)