Monday, 3 November - You gotta roll with it

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

• The Nationals walk away from net zero

• A terrifying mass stabbing attack on a train in England

• And Oasis roasts the Aussie accent…

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 5 minutes to read

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said rugby league star Cameron Munster after realising his Kangaroos’ ‘teammate’ singing the national anthem beside him ahead of Saturday’s match against England was a serial pitch invader. He might have been “stitched up massively” ahead of the game, but Munster’s man of the match performance was far from embarrassing…

The Nats nix net zero

The Squiz

After months of debate, the Nationals have unanimously voted to ditch the party’s support for Australia to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Their federal pollies met and agreed on it yesterday, with leader David Littleproud saying “there are alternative ways to do our bit in a fair and equitable way in terms of global emissions”. The Nats say their key worries are the potential economic and social impacts on regional and rural communities, particularly in the ag, mining, and manufacturing industries, as emissions are driven down to meet the target. And with federal parliament resuming today, get ready for some awkward scenes… 

How so?

Well, the Liberals are currently reviewing their policy position, but if they stick with the net zero policy as the Nationals scrap it, it represents a policy split in the Coalition. It’s been a pressure point for leader Sussan Ley, who tasked Dan Tehan with leading the review, but yesterday the Liberals’ Environment spokesperson Angie Bell says they likely will keep it. As things stand, most Liberals are thought to be in favour of the target that was made Australia’s formal position in 2021 by Scott Morrison when he was PM. But there are several conservatives who are less keen, and those positions were made clear at a meeting of Libs in Canberra on Friday. For now, there’s no deadline set for the Libs to make their position clear, although Ley says it’s “high on our priority list”.

But I bet their opponents will have a field day…

Umm yep… Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says the Nationals are “stoking climate wars”, and Environment Minister Murray Watt says it’s a case of the tail wagging the Coalition dog. “We got the National Party, which didn’t even rate 4% of the vote in the last federal election, dictating terms to the Liberal Party,” he said on ABC TV’s Insiders yesterday. “I mean, the idea that you would hand over climate and energy policy to the likes of Matthew Canavan and the ghost of Barnaby Joyce is like handing Dracula the keys to the blood bank”. Meanwhile, Watt has a different fight on his hands - he’s trying to get the Greens on side with his environment laws overhaul by the end of the year. With 2 sitting weeks left for 2025, time’s a tickin’...

Sweet dreams are made of this

Sleep is the best, right? If you’re tossing and turning over picking a new mattress, Sleep Republic is a top choice for comfort and support. Recommended by CHOICE and backed by the Australian Spinal Research Foundation, their award-winning 'mattress-in-a-box' is all about comfort. Experience the Sleep Republic difference with a 100-night trial, and get ready to dream.

Squiz the Rest

A mass stabbing attack on a London-bound train

Ten people were hospitalised - 2 with life-threatening injuries - and police have arrested a man over the attack, which happened on the service from Doncaster to Kings Cross on Saturday night local time. The express train was stopped by quick-thinking rail staff at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire (about 120km north of London) so that victims could get help. Two men were initially taken into custody but police have let one go. Witnesses on board described the scene as “horrific” and “pure panic“ as people tried to escape. UK PM Keir Starmer said the incident was “appalling” and “deeply concerning”. And while counterterrorism officers were initially involved in the investigation, Defence Minister John Healey says early indications show that it was an “isolated incident”.

Xi takes the lead at APEC

With US President Donald Trump leaving South Korea on Friday ahead of the leaders' summit over the weekend, it put the spotlight squarely on Chinese President Xi Jinping… Fresh off his talks with Trump about de-escalating the US-China trade war, Xi led several high-profile meetings and took the chance to advocate for more free trade - something that’s taken a hit with Trump’s trade tariffs in his second term. Which might be why Canadian PM Mark Carney - a former central banker - had a blunt message: “​​the old world of steady expansion of rules-based liberalised trade and investment … is gone”. And just on Oz-China relations, Premier Li Qiang, China’s 2IC, has locked in another visit down under next year - although a date hasn’t been confirmed just yet…  

The Andrew formerly known as…

After King Charles took away his brother Andrew’s remaining titles and ordered him to move out of Royal Lodge last Friday, the British press had about a million questions... Topping the list is whether the former prince is likely to face criminal charges over allegations that he sexually assaulted the late Virginia Giuffre when she was a teenage employee of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Reports say British Police are conducting inquiries into whether he tried to “dig up dirt” on Giuffre, and some MPs are calling for an investigation to be opened into the claims in her recently published memoir. And in the US, Democrats are also calling for him to testify to a Congressional committee looking into the Epstein case, with Congressman Suhas Subramanyam saying: "If he wants to clear his name, if he wants to do right by the victims, he will come forward". 
*Need help?

Police progress in Paris

French police are making headway in their investigation of the Louvre heist, charging another 2 people on Saturday. That brings the number of suspects charged over last month’s brazen robbery to 4… But there’s still no word on the whereabouts of the 8 items from the French Crown Jewels that were stolen. The 2 latest suspects are a 37yo man and a 38yo woman, who French media say was in tears when she faced court on Saturday. Both have been detained in custody, along with 2 other men charged last week. Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau says the men were traced through DNA at the scene and both of them “have partially admitted their involvement to investigators”. As for the missing jewels, she says: “I want to remain hopeful that they will be found and returned”. 

Don’t look back in anga… 

…is what Oasis founder Noel Gallagher heard Melbourne audiences say, making fun of the Aussie accent when the crowd sang along to the 1996 hit Don’t Look Back in Anger. Gallagher asked “Anga? Anga? What the f***ing hell is ‘anga’...?” Which some fans thought was a bit rich, coming from someone with a less than perfect Queen’s English/Mancunian accent… Noel and his brother/bandmate Liam are in Oz for their World Reunion Tour after a 16-year hiatus, and so far, so good… Not even a flare launched mid-Champagne Supernova stirred up much in-person anga (it seems they prefer to keep their bollockings to social media these days)… The band’s got one more show in Melbourne tomorrow night, but don’t cry your heart out, Sydney - they’re coming to you on Friday and Saturday.

Apropos of Nothing

At 14yo, young gun Willa Pearson became the youngest-ever player in A-League history to take the field when she played for Sydney FC against Melbourne City on Saturday. Her first task? Marking Matilda’s star Holly McNamara - no biggie… 

A fully functioning gold toilet is going up for auction in New York, with starting bids of around $10 million. The sculpture, titled America, is by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan - and with gold in hot demand, let’s hope Sotheby’s security is tighter than that of the Loo-vre…

As far as Halloween pranks go, a package full of body parts ranks highly on the scream scale - especially when it’s not actually a prank. That’s what a Kentucky woman found when she opened a box of medical equipment on Thursday and found human arms and fingers instead. Cue a hasty 911 call…

Squiz the Day

Both the Senate and House of Reps sitting until 6 November

7.30am (AEDT) - The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy board meeting begins (until Tuesday) - Sydney

7.30am (AEDT) - Senator Tim Ayres is set to open the National Innovation Policy Forum at the National Press Club - Canberra 

8.00am (AEDT) - An inquiry into the Optus triple-0 outage is due to begin in Parliament House - Canberra

8.30am (AEDT) - Westpac will release full year results

9.30am (AEDT) - A committal hearing for a man accused of the domestic violence murder of Molly Ticehurst is due to begin - Forbes

6.00pm (AEDT) - Paul Keating will join journalist and author Troy Bramston in conversation for the release of the definitive biography, Gough Whitlam: The Vista of the New at the State Library of NSW - Sydney 

6.00pm (ACST) - 2026 Australian of the Year Awards for the Northern Territory 

6.00pm (AEDT) - 'Struggle, Reform, Boom and Bust', an economic history of PNG written by experts from the ANU and University of PNG, will be launched at the ANU - Canberra

7.00pm (AEDT) - The PM's Prizes for Science will be announced - Canberra

ABS data releases: Building Approvals, Australia, September 2025; Monthly Household Spending Indicator, September 2025

National Days for Dominica, Micronesia and Panama

🥪 National Sandwich Day - US

Birthdays for Anna Wintour (1949), Ellyse Perry (1990), and Kendall Jenner (1995)

Anniversary of:

• the English parliament passing the Act of Supremacy, which saw Henry VIII and subsequent monarchs become Head of the Church of England (1534)

• the patenting of the first modern elastic bra by New York socialite Mary Phelps Jacob (1913) 

• Clarence Birdseye selling the first frozen peas (1952)

• the Soviet Union launching Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard, the first animal in space (1957)

• Michelle Payne becoming the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup (2015)