Monday, 27 July - Ring the alarm

Good morning, it’s Monday, 27 July. In your Squiz Today…

• PM Anthony Albanese to challenge President Trump’s latest tariffs

• Leadership rumblings in Victoria

• And celebs flock to Comic-Con… 🤓

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

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Says the message that will (probably) flash up on your phone at 2pm AEST today, along with a 10-second siren noise. It’s a test for our new emergency alert system, so consider this another reminder so you don’t get the shock of your life this afternoon…

Tackling Trump’s tariffs

The Squiz

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says Australia will challenge the Trump administration’s new 12.5% tariff (tax) on US imports from Australia, which it announced late last week. That’s higher than the previous 10% rate, and in an interview yesterday, the PM said the tariffs were “unjustified” and that the issue would be - and has been - raised at every level of the Australia-US relationship. It wasn’t just us, though - on Friday morning, the Trump administration enforced new tariffs on 60 countries around the world, including Oz - citing a lack of action on modern slavery as the reason why… 

What’s modern slavery got to do with it?

The Trump team has always been keen on bringing in import taxes to address what it says is an unfair trade deal that hurts the US. After one set of tariffs hit its time limit and the other was struck down by the US Supreme Court, it’s found another avenue. It’s using a section of a US law that gives the President power to enforce the taxes if other countries are engaging in “unfair trade practices”. In this case, that’s modern slavery, or specifically forced labour - which is where one person forces another to work for the former’s economic gain. The reason Australia has received this higher 12.5% rate (whereas other countries like Canada are still at 10%) is because we don’t have a law that specifically bans forced labour imports - just one that asks big companies to report it.

So wait - are we really falling behind?

Depends who you ask - according to the PM, Australia’s laws are “world-leading” when it comes to modern slavery and forced labour. In late 2024, we appointed Chris Evans as our inaugural Anti-Slavery Commissioner. While he says we are not doing enough to combat those issues in Australia, he also said back in June that the Trump administration was using forced labour as a “show trial” and it was forming a distraction from an important human rights issue. That’s in line with other critics, who say that this is just the White House’s latest attempt to bring tariffs to the table. Some legal challenges from US businesses are underway, but for now - the new 12.5% rate is here to stay, and it’ll present a fun new challenge for Greg Moriarty, our new Ambassador to the US… 

Squiz the Rest

A manhunt ends in Germany

Police have shot and killed a suspect after what they described as an “Islamist terror attack” at a Pride event in Berlin on Saturday night. The Christopher Street Day parade is an annual celebration that takes place near the Brandenburg Gate - but it was abandoned after a white vehicle was driven into the crowd and several people were stabbed. One person is dead and at least 29 are injured, and German police identified a suspect as Abdul Ballout, a 21yo German citizen who had attempted to join the terror group Islamic State. Police say he was shot after he “rushed towards our emergency forces with a stabbing weapon”. Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt says the country has raised its threat level - and it “cannot rule out the possibility of copycat attacks.”

Leadership rumblings in Victoria

There are question marks over Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s job this morning, after months of speculation. Victorian Labor hasn’t been doing well in the polls, and reports say that influential politicians met last night, and agreed she isn’t the right person to lead the party to the upcoming state election. It’s been a bumpy few weeks for Allan - she’s been facing corruption allegations over taxpayer-funded construction projects, continued cost of living pressures and last week’s teachers’ strikes. Reports suggest she will be offered the chance to resign today - or face a leadership challenge at some point this week, with her deputy Ben Carroll touted as likely to replace her (despite saying he didn’t want the job back in June…). The state election is on November 28.

A disagreement over dying

The Australian Labor Party conference finished up over the weekend, and it ended up being a pretty debate-free affair. That led to some criticism of an overly stage-managed event, but it wasn’t entirely comrades and catchups… PM Albanese has taken issue with a new Labor policy that supports voluntary assisted dying (VAD) by telehealth. He says while he supports voluntary euthanasia, allowing that decision to be made after a phone or video chat is a step too far at this point. But advocates for the decision say it would mean Aussies living in remote/regional areas would be able to make the decision without being subjected to travel or extra expense.

Tadej says ta-da

Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar has become the fifth man to win the Tour de France 5 times, after completing the final stage overnight. It was a dominant performance from the 27yo, who has been the outright favourite to win the world’s most famous cycling race ever since his Danish rival, Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the race during the 15th stage last week. That moment was particularly controversial as it followed Vingegaard being woken up at 2am by doping officials - but Pogačar persevered. It was a shorter Tour than usual towards the end, due to the recent wildfires in France and Spain. From an Oz perspective, West Aussie Jai Hindley took the honours - finishing 15th overall. There’s a couple more races to go now before the final one of the season - the Vuelta a España in late August.

The geeks shall inherit the Earth

It was a great weekend for all things geeky in the Californian city of San Diego this weekend, as the city hosted its annual Comic-Con event. Originally a conference for - you guessed it - comic book creators and fans, it’s since become a major pop cultural date on the calendar. This year featured Marvel announcing that Ryan Gosling will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe (as Ghost Rider, a motorcycle stuntman with a fiery skull for a head), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids star Rick Moranis coming out of retirement to promote the upcoming Spaceballs 2, and Johnny Depp dressing up as Ebenezer Scrooge. That last one was to promote his upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol, called just Ebenezer - but it wouldn’t be a Johnny Depp film if he wasn’t in some out-there getup…

Apropos of Nothing

If you thought the whole Raygun imbroglio was behind us, think again - Netflix has announced an hour-long episode of its Untold series that will explore her Paris Olympics appearance and the controversy that followed. Get ready to kangaroo hop all over again… 

One of the greatest basketballers of all time has a new team - 41yo LeBron James will finish his career out with the Philadelphia 76ers after leaving the Los Angeles Lakers. He says it’s his last chance at a championship ring… 

And happy first birthday to Punch, the orphaned monkey at a zoo in Japan that went viral for his relationship with a stuffed orangutan toy. He’s left the toy behind and now has some monkey friends to hang out with… We smell a plot for Toy Story 6…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEST) - Appeal hearings begin in the Federal Court to overturn the decision that the Commonwealth does not owe a duty of care to Torres Strait Islander people to protect them from the impacts of climate change. The appeal was launched in November 2025 by Torres Strait Islander uncles Paul Kabai and Pabai Pabai - Melbourne

9.00am (AEST) - Block 5 of hearings in the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - Australian Women in Agriculture conference (until 29 July) - Orange 

10.00am (AEST) - The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) will hold a public inquiry into allegations around the NSW division of the Liberal Party - you can read more about that here - Sydney

10.30am (AEST) - The Boao Forum for Asia - which is similar to the Davos Forum - will be held in Perth, with mining billionaire Andrew Forrest set to open the event

2.00pm (AEST) - 🚨A Critical AusAlert test will be sent to every mobile device in the country. The alert will make devices vibrate and play a siren-like warning sound for about 10 seconds and a message about the test will appear on screens. For more information go to ausalert.gov.au 

2.05pm (AEST) - A judgement is expected in One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s appeal against a finding that she racially discriminated against deputy Greens leader Mehreen Faruqi - Sydney

Sky News becomes News24 

School goes back for Term 3 in Tasmania

Season 3 of Colin from Accounts drops on Binge 

Victory Day in North Korea, marking the end of the Korean War (1953)

Anniversary of :

• the first tobacco was brought to England from Virginia (1586)

• Frederick Banting and Charles Best isolating insulin at the University of Toronto (1921)

• Bugs Bunny’s cartoon debut in A Wild Hare (1940)

• the Korean War armistice (1953)Housekeeping

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