Thursday, 1 October - Baby got back

October 01, 2026

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 1 October. In your Squiz Today…

  • An alleged plane hijacking is averted

  • Goodbye to surcharges on card payments

  • And the Fat Bear Week winner is… 🐻

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“Darling, I know it's Fashion Week, but don't you think you're taking this a bit too far?”

Said Sir David Beckham, who recorded his wife, designer Victoria, preparing for Paris Fashion Week by working out in 4-inch heels. Her latest collection will be unveiled in the French capital on Friday, and from what we can see, she’s really stepping things up…

An alleged hijacking is averted

The Squiz

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu says his country suspects a co-pilot of a commercial flight headed for Tel Aviv tried to hijack the plane before being subdued by passengers. The flight was diverted to Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu says the situation is under control, but Israel is tightening security on flights heading in and out of the country. And the incident comes just days before Israel marks 3 years since the 7 October terror attack by Hamas. 

What do we know so far?

The flight was operated by flydubai (an airline based in the United Arab Emirates) and was heading from Dubai to Tel Aviv reportedly carrying 174 passengers, most of them Israeli citizens. Reports say that during the flight, the co-pilot allegedly stabbed the pilot and attempted to take control of the plane, which suddenly lost altitude. Flydubai has confirmed that there was an altercation between the pilots, and Saudi airport authorities said both have been taken to hospital. One passenger, Yaniv, told Netanyahu that the stabbed pilot managed to open the door of the cockpit, so he and some of his fellow passengers were able to enter and subdue the co-pilot. Once they did, 2 pilots who were in the back of the plane were reportedly able to take over and divert the flight to Saudi Arabia. From there, the Israeli passengers caught a rescue flight back to Israel.

What happens now?

Israeli officials say that they’re treating the incident as a terror event and suspect the co-pilot was trying to take control of the plane so he could crash it. But they say his motives are still unclear and don’t know whether he had a particular target in mind - flydubai says it’s conducting a full investigation into what happened. This will only heighten the tension in Israel as it heads into a significant month in its history. Beyond the 3-year anniversary of the 7 October terror attacks, the country is involved in several regional conflicts - and is also less than 4 weeks away from national elections, where opinion polls are projecting a tight contest. Analysts say this alleged hijacking is likely to be a major feature of that campaign in the weeks to come.

Do you have a minute to talk property?

Whether you bought your first home years ago or you or your kids are currently looking to take their next steps, we’re keen to get a handle on what you think the market looks like right now. We’re partnering with Stockland, one of Australia’s largest residential developers and We'd love it if you could answer 3 quick questions for us here. Thanks legends…

Squiz the Rest

In good fAIth

US President Donald Trump and the bosses of the largest artificial intelligence companies in the world have signed a “morally binding” agreement to put guardrails on the tech. It comes after several incidents with AI agents going rogue and calls from the industry saying it’s becoming increasingly harder for humans to keep up and stay in control of its development. The agreement sets up safety standards for testing new models, including independent audits and reviews - but it involves self-policing and carries no legal obligations. It was announced after a summit hosted by Trump for tech bosses, including SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg who said it was “a historic conversation”.

A sticky inflation situation

Like chewy under our sneakers, the inflation that the Reserve Bank has been trying to bring down just won’t budge. Yesterday’s figures from the Bureau of Stats show headline inflation is now at 4% (up from 3.5% last month), while underlying inflation (which takes out big price spikes) stayed at 3.6%. Housing was the biggest contributor, followed by transport costs due to fuel prices jumping nearly 15% (a double whammy of higher global oil prices and the fuel excise relief ending). If you’ve been following along, you’ll know that the RBA raised interest rates on Tuesday to try to bring inflation down. Governor Michele Bullock said she hopes 4 rate rises this year will be enough to move the dial, but she’s prepared to raise them again if it doesn’t.

Shoebridge over troubled Waters

The Greens yesterday announced NSW Senator David Shoebridge as the party’s new federal leader, following a party-room vote to replace Larissa Waters, who resigned the leadership on Monday due to illness. Shoebridge becomes the sixth leader of the party, which holds the balance of power for passing legislation through the Senate. Alongside his new deputy, Steph Hodgins-May, Shoebridge said the Greens were “here to beat down One Nation” and to “replace Labor and return hope and faith to politics”. Mehreen Faruqi, another candidate for the leadership, was disappointed, calling for the party to adopt a membership vote for the leadership.

To surcharges, with love

From today, you’ll no longer pay that little bit extra when you use your debit or credit card at the shops - the RBA has banned surcharges on eftpos, Mastercard and Visa. It made the call back in March, after finding that customers were struggling to avoid surcharges and it was adding to cost-of-living troubles. Many businesses pay fees to have card-paying facilities, and around 16% pass those fees on to customers. The RBA reckons the ban will save us $1.6 billion a year, but experts have warned that rather than absorb the cost themselves, businesses might just lift prices - meaning you might end up paying the surcharge anyway. So keep an eye on the price of your coffee this morning… 

Heavy is the bear that wears the crown

Like really heavy… Bear 89 - better known as Backpack - has won Fat Bear Week, beating 910 Dancing Queen to the title with over 100,000 votes from members of the public. The bears have been feasting on salmon for about 4 months in Alaska’s Katmai National Park ahead of their winter hibernation and the winner was chosen from before and after pics. You can check out Backpack’s transformation here… Fun fact: he got his nickname from climbing on his mum’s back as a cub. He’s about 20yo now, and while adult male bears can be aggressive, he’s known as a chill guy. The organisers said it was his “quiet toughness” that allowed him to claim winner, winner salmon dinner. 
*For more background on this most excellent competition, here’s our Squiz Shortcut one more time. Until next year…

Apropos of Nothing

A new species of penguins has been discovered for the first time in over 100 years on the remote Kerguelen Islands in the Indian Ocean. They look the same as other gentoo penguins but have different genetics. And we have enough love for them all…

Congrats to Penrith Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary and Brisbane Broncos star Tamika Upton, who have won the men’s and women’s Dally M Awards respectively as the best players in the NRL and NRLW. Legends, both…

ABC’s longstanding financial journalist Alan Kohler has announced his retirement after a 31 year long career. He says he plans to launch a podcast with his son Chris, who’s the finance editor of 9News. Maybe they’ll call it “And that’s finance”...

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEST) - HILDA Survey Research Conference, which will showcase research findings on how Australian lives have been changing over the 21st century so far (until 2 October) - Melbourne 

9.30am (AEST) - Cricket: Women's National Cricket League round one NSW v Queensland - Sydney, watch on Kayo 

2.00pm (AEST) - Cricket Women's National Cricket League round one Victoria v South Australia - Melbourne, watch on Kayo 

2.00pm - Public hearings on the Ocean of Peace Alliance and Vuvale Union with Fiji - Canberra

5.00pm (AEST) - The Australian premiere of the latest adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles are slated to walk the red carpet - Sydney

7.00pm (AEST) - That’s the deadline to get your votes in for ABC Radio National’s Top 100 Australian Books of All Time list. The countdown will be on 17-18 October…

Card surcharges end, meaning businesses can no longer add extra fees or percentage add-ons when customers pay by card - the ban covers major payment networks including eftpos, Mastercard, Visa, and American Express 

South Australia's state Royal Commission into AI commences 

The RBA is scheduled to release its semiannual Financial Stability Review 

AGL will hold its AGM

2026 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize - now in its 25th year

Digger and Verity are released in cinemas

ABS data release: job vacancies, August 2026; international trade in goods, August 2026

International Coffee Day ☕

National days for China, Cyprus, Tuvalu, Nigeria and Palau

International Raccoon Appreciation Day 🦝

Birthdays for actor Julie Andrews (1935), former British PM Theresa May (1956), and actor Brie Larson (1989), 

Anniversary of:

  • the first publication of National Geographic magazine (1888) and the Little Golden Books series (1942)

  • Henry Ford introducing the Model T car (1908)

  • Nazi leaders being found guilty of war crimes at the Nuremberg war trials (1946)

  • the beginning of the Watergate criminal trial for 5 of Richard Nixon's advisers and aides (1974) 

  • the start of the Howard Government's gun buyback scheme, following the Port Arthur Massacre (1996)

Housekeeping

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