Monday, 6 July - And tumbled into the Seine

Good morning, it’s Monday, 6 July. In your Squiz Today…

• A days-long funeral for Iran’s former Supreme Leader has begun in Tehran

• Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married - and Adam Sandler officiated the wedding…

• And the Aussies have won one World Cup and been eliminated from another

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 5 minutes to read

🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams and Sophie Felice

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said 21yo Filipino tennis player Alexandra Eala after defeating defending Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek in the third round of the tournament yesterday morning. She’s a bit of a sensation, so we’ll forgive the fact she beat Aussie Maya Joint before that…

An Ayatollah’s farewell

The Squiz

On Saturday, Iran began a funeral for its former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by a missile strike on the first day of the US and Israel’s joint war on Iran in late February. That was roughly 4 months ago now, but the ensuing war postponed the original plans to hold the funeral in early March. Now it’s begun, it’s expected to last days - with millions of Iranians arriving in Tehran to pay their respects…

What will the funeral involve?

It’ll mainly take place at an outdoor stage at the Grand Mosalla, the main mosque in Tehran, where the late Ayatollah’s body is lying in state. It’ll be there for 3 days, before it moves outside the capital city to cities like Qom (to Tehran’s south) and to the holy site of Najaf in Iraq, Iran’s neighbour to the west. It’ll then return to the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad on Thursday, where the Ayatollah will be buried. That’ll give an estimated 15-20 million people (out of a population of roughly 93 million) almost a week to pay their respects. If that number does show up, that will make it the largest funeral ever in terms of proportion of a country’s population. But it’s also a tense time, as the heightened emotions within Iran mean any flare-up in the war will likely attract a heightened response…

Why’s that?

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps - the country’s state military/police force - warned that any attack on Iran during this time will be “met with a decisive and more crushing response than ever before.” You might have noticed that the funeral began on the Fourth of July - the same day that the US celebrated 250 years of independence - and that may not be a coincidence. US President Donald Trump says he’ll be giving Iran “a week off” for the funeral, and talks will pick up again after that. And while Iran is seeing off its former leader, it still hasn’t seen his replacement… Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba - the new Supreme Leader - has not appeared in public since he took on the role. Analysts suspect he’s been injured so severely that he’s not in a position to do so yet, even for his father’s funeral, so that’s another element to keep your eye on…

Worksite safety, redefined by Claude

Aussies are transforming safety for mining and construction workers using AI. Presien, a physical AI company built for heavy industry, used Claude to develop an agentic platform that analyses worksites around the clock - surfacing risks before they become issues, cutting critical safety events by over 70% in 3 months. Learn more here.

Squiz the Rest

And speaking of Independence Day…

It was a bumpy approach, but as we previewed on Friday, the US celebrated 250 years of independence over the weekend. The semiquincentennial celebration (it’s fun to write) in Washington was delayed by heavy storms, but President Donald Trump eventually took the stage and gave a political speech talking up his achievements, as well as those of the country as a whole. It’s an unusual step - he’s the only President to give a speech at 4 July events at Washington’s National Mall since 1951 - and his 40-minute address was followed by a fireworks display that went almost as long… Despite the politically charged environment in the US at the moment, there were no reports of violence or security breaches - or alien invasions… 

Fifty years of Deadly…

…is the theme for this year’s edition of NAIDOC Week, an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture in Oz. The theme refers to the fact that NAIDOC (which stands for National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) has been a week-long event since the mid-70s. That means plenty more time for celebration - including this year’s NAIDOC Award nominees) - but the Committee’s co-chair Steven Satour said it’s also a time to reflect that Australia is still failing to meet its Closing the Gap targets. At last count, only 4 of the 19 were on track - and Satour says some new approaches are needed if that’s going to change. But in the meantime, lots of local events are planned - search this database for one near you…

Swift and Kelce get hitched

It’s been everywhere all weekend, so here’s a swift sprint through what went on - the wedding of the epoch was at New York’s Madison Square Garden, and it was officiated by Adam Sandler (and even better, he also reportedly did a quick stint as a Wedding Singer). The couple may have picked Sandler because his film Happy Gilmore inspired Swift’s song Wi$h Li$t, which is all about the life she wanted to build with Kelce. And look, we know you want to see the dress - we all want to see the dress - but pics are nonexistent so far, and all we know is that it was designed by Dior. Swift didn’t have a maid of honour - she had a man of honour in her brother Austin, while Travis’s brother Jason acted as his best man. And the celebs in attendance are far too many to list - so here’s a handy roundup.

Cups and downs

Our Aussie cricketers have won their seventh Women’s T20 World Cup, beating hosts England at Lord’s by 7 wickets this morning. The Aussies were unbeaten heading into the final and didn’t break a sweat chasing down England’s score of 150 - with Beth Mooney and Phoebe Litchfield setting up the win. To give you an idea of how good the Aussies are, that’s 7 wins from only 10 tournaments. They’re elite… On the flipside, as you may have heard from a bleary-eyed, grumpy friend or relative in the early hours of Saturday morning, the Socceroos' run at the football World Cup came to an end with a penalty shootout loss to Egypt. We’re still chasing that elusive knockout-stage victory at a men’s tournament - there’s always 2030…

You ain’t Seine nothing yet

For the second year in a row, the famous French river has opened up to swimmers - which is handy as Paris is currently going through a heatwave. Back in the day, the Seine was more toxic than a doomed relationship thanks to decades of pollution, but France embarked on a huge cleanup in preparation for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Since then, it’s become a big tourist attraction - with people coming from as far as Oz for un dip. As Aussie tourist Stewart Talbot put it, “It’s amazing to be swimming in the Seine while looking at the Eiffel Tower.” Though he did point out it still wasn’t a patch on an Aussie beach…

Apropos of Nothing

Taylor didn’t have the spotlight all to herself this week - her fellow music superstar Beyoncé has released a new song. Morning Dew (Donk) is the first track she’s released since 2024, and we’re detecting a euphemism or 2 in the lyrics… 

The Australian Space Agency is trying to figure out the origin of some mysterious space balls that have washed up on Queensland beaches over the last few days. The metal spheres are suspected to be some sort of space debris - at least it’s not another fatberg situation… 

And feast your eyes on the spectacle of elite Formula 1 drivers getting their Lego cars stuck during a promo lap of the Silverstone circuit ahead of the British Grand Prix this morning. We’ve played games of Mario Kart that look a lot like that…

Squiz the Day

6.00am (AEST) - Football: Men’s FIFA World Cup Round of 16 - Brazil v Norway, MetLife Stadium, New Jersey - watch on SBS On Demand

9.00am (AEST) - The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues hearings in Sydney, with a focus on social media

10.00am (AEST) - Football: Men’s FIFA World Cup Round of 16 - Mexico v England, Azteca, Mexico City - watch on SBS On Demand

8.00pm (AEST) - ABC’s Australian Story looks back on 60 years of Play School, watch on ABC or iView

6.30pm (AWST) - Basketball: World Cup qualifier Australia v Philippines - Perth, watch on Kayo

10.00pm (AEST) - Tennis: Aussie Alex De Minaur will play his fourth-round match at Wimbledon against Italian Flavio Cobolli - watch on Channel 9 or Stan

PM Anthony Albanese is in Fiji today, where he’s expected to sign a new security agreement called the Vuvale Union before heading to the Solomon Islands as part of a 3-day trip 

Term 2 Winter holidays begin in NSW, South Australia, and Western Australia 

International Kissing Day (mwah)

Birthdays for the Dalai Lama (1935), George W Bush (1946), Sylvester Stallone (1946), Geoffrey Rush (1951) and 50 Cent (1975) 

Anniversary of:

• Sir Thomas More being executed in England for treason (1535)

• the birthdays of Frida Kahlo (1907), Nancy Reagan (1921), and Hilary Mantel (1952) 

• the first Major League Baseball All-Star game played in Chicago's Comiskey Park (1933) 

• the release of Forrest Gump (1994) and Pokémon Go (2016)