Monday, 3 August - All I do is win, win, win

Good morning, it’s Monday, 3 August. In your Squiz Today…

• An end to Oz fuel discount measures

• “Limited’ progress on the social media ban

• And a stunning end to the Commonwealth Games… 🥇

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Sophie Sadlowski, the owner of Rusty the Miniature Pinscher, who exercised his love of surfing by competing in the World Dog Surfing Championships in California over the weekend. Now in its tenth year, it’s a competition where Gromits get to be grommets…

Fighting and fuel

The Squiz

This morning, you might be waking up to a higher price at the petrol station, as the government cut to fuel excise expired at midnight. By way of reminder, the cut was brought in as short-term relief for Oz motorists after the war in Iran kicked off, the Strait of Hormuz closed, and fuel became harder to get. It cost the government nearly $3 billion, and was intended as a short-term thing - but the war and closure of the Strait have proven longer-term issues. That means that we’re back to where we started - petrol prices heading up over 2 bucks a litre and the US and Iran trading fire…

Any news on that front?

Some - the war’s been going for 5 months now, and yesterday US President Donald Trump said he’d hit pause on striking Iran because some of the US allies in the region had reached a framework for a deal. Of course, we’ve been here before - Iran says it has no plans to reopen the Strait, and the news of the framework coming just a day after Trump said he’d hit Iran with heavy strikes. But one of the key players in this latest development is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Though it joined with the US in striking Iran-backed militias in Iraq last week, its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly given Trump a buzz to try and tamp down the tension. That seems to have had an effect, for the moment… 

Let’s say there’s a deal…

…it wouldn’t help fuel prices that much in the short term. Most experts agree that it would take months for them to return to pre-war levels, which means another cost-of-living headache for Aussies - and the governments hoping to hold on to their votes. But in the midst of all this turmoil over oil, many Aussies are changing tack - and adopting electric vehicles, or EVs. According to the Australian Automobile Association, almost half of the cars sold between April and June this year were either EVs or hybrids. That’s a record on all fronts, and the AAA says it’s the largest ever jump in the amount of people pulling a Bob Dylan and going electric. Any charging port in a storm… 

Squiz the Rest

And speaking of precarious peace plans…

…last Friday, Trump also announced that the terrorist group Hamas had agreed to disarm (aka give up its weapons) as part of a stalled ceasefire process in Gaza. The disarmament of Hamas has been a key sticking point in ending the group’s conflict with Israel, but the promise has come with conditions, including that Israeli troops must leave the Gaza Strip. While the White House trumpeted the deal as a big step, the Israeli government hasn’t been so keen. Overnight, it said it has “serious security concerns” that Hamas’s promise is not legit and as a result, the Israeli military would not withdraw from Gaza anytime soon. It says it’s continued to strike Hamas targets in recent days, with local hospitals reporting that at least 17 people were killed in the strikes.

Spain’s Ceuta migrant crisis

While part of Europe deals with devastating fires, another is dealing with a crisis over immigration. This centres around the tiny Spanish territory of Ceuta (pronounced see-YOO-tuh), which sits on Morocco’s northern coast. It’s an important bit of geography because it’s a rare border where people from Africa can cross into the European Union. On Thursday local time, border controls at the territory broke down, leading 60,000 people to rush into Ceuta - a crush that has left at least 67 people dead, with some people also drowning. Many migrants have now been returned to Morocco - but the immigration breakdown has led Italy to suspend the Schengen Agreement, which allows various European countries to let travellers cross international borders without passport checks. The European Union is holding emergency talks on this on Tuesday…

So-so results for the social media ban

It’s just under 8 months since our social media ban for under-16yos came into effect, and we’re starting to get some official reports on how it’s going. The latest research from our eSafety Commissioner, which looked at the experiences of 803 kids, found that 81.5% of them were still using at least one platform that should have been off-limits (aka TikTok or Instagram), as opposed to 85.9% when it was legal. The report says any change has been “limited in scale” - but put the hammer on the platforms themselves as not doing enough. This has been a key tension point in the ban: the government wants the platforms to act or they’ll get fined, but no fines have been handed out yet… And as other countries ready their own bans, they’re all closely watching how it goes here...

All pros at the Comm Games

As we hit publish today, the curtain is falling on this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow - and it’s been an extraordinary success for Australia. Cyclist Georgia Baker (who picked up 4 medals including 2 golds, if you don’t mind) will be our flagbearer at the closing ceremony of a Games where we finished with 70 gold, 45 silver and 56 bronze - miles ahead of any other country. We did miss out on one expected gold, though: our netballers won bronze after a surprising (and thrilling) loss to Jamaica in the semi-finals. As for what’s next, Glasgow will be handing off hosting duties to Ahmedabad in India for 2030 - marking 100 years since the Games were first held in Hamilton, Canada in 1930. Maybe 76yo Louise Hoskins, who became our oldest ever Comm Games gold medallist yesterday, can go around again…  You can watch the Closing Ceremony feat. Delta Goodrem on 7+

Swinging into a big pile of money

If you went to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the weekend, you were very far from alone... The sequel, which is the fourth film to star real-life married couple Tom Holland and Zendaya as Spidey and MJ respectively, has made a genuinely staggering start at the box office. It’ll still be a day until we get the Oz figures, but in the US it broke the record for the biggest opening day of all time, and is in the frame to become one of the highest-grossing movies ever by the time it’s done. It’s part of a big turnaround for cinemas this year - after concerns that moviegoing would be supplanted by streaming/the Internet, 2026 looks on track to be one of the biggest box office years since the COVID-19 pandemic - largely driven by Gen Zs heading to the theatres in their droves…

Apropos of Nothing

If you need a hand getting ready for the week ahead, we’ve got you sorted with these winners from the International Pet Photography Awards - think furry, feathery and fabulous friends strutting their stuff for the camera… you’re welcome…

It was a busy weekend for 82yo Bob Montgomery and his 18yo grandson, who finished a mammoth bike ride from Western Oz’s Broome to Bowral in NSW (that’s 5,300km), raising $80,000 for Motor Neurone Disease. Good on you lads…

And we somewhat hesitate to bring you news that scientists have discovered a new aquatic species called the demon cavefish. It has the distinction of likely being one of the rarest species of fish in the world, and also quite likely to haunt our nightmares…

Squiz the Day

6.00am (AEST) Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony - Glasgow

8.30am (AEST) - The National Basketball League will be making a “major announcement” - Canberra

9.30am (AEST) - Former radio host Alan Jones goes on trial today; he’s facing charges related to a series of alleged sexual touching incidents against nearly a dozen men between 2001 and 2019, which he denies - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - Coronial inquest resumes into St Basil's aged care deaths during COVID. The inquest was paused for several years to allow for separate WorkSafe legal proceedings - Melbourne  

10.30am (AEST) - Preliminary argument for Patrick Orren Stephenson, charged with the murder of Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy - Melbourne 

10.30am (AEST) - Trial due to start in class action against Sportsbet, over gamblers who lost money betting on sporting contests after they had started - Melbourne 

Picnic Day public holiday in the Northern Territory

Landcare Week begins (until 9 August)

Start of Dental Health Week (until 9 August) 

Independence Day in Niger

Watermelon Day

Birthdays for Martin Sheen (1940), Martha Stewart (1941), Tom Brady (1977), and Sonny Bill Williams (1985) 

Anniversary of:

• Christopher Columbus sets sail on his first transatlantic voyage from Spain (1492);

• Former US Vice President Aaron Burr goes on trial for treason (1807);

• American sprinter Jesse Owens famously winning gold in the 100m (10.3 seconds) in front of Adolf Hitler at the Berlin Olympics (1936)

• The NBA was formed as a merger of two leagues (1949)

• the US Senate ratifying the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union (1972)

• Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn dies (2008)

• two mass shootings occurring in 24 hours in the US. A terrorist killed 22 at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, and a gunman killed 9 at a bar in Dayton, Ohio (2019)

Housekeeping

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