Thursday, 20 August - Floating in a most peculiar way

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 20 August. In your Squiz Today…

• The Sydney Swans have suspended 5 players for breaching the club’s standards

• The army joins the search for a missing 18yo in the NSW Southern Highlands

• And a Space X rocket becomes the “talk of the town” on Christmas Island…🚀

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

Squiz Sayings

Said someone on Instagram after King Charles almost got his fingers nibbled by a cheeky Shetland pony whilst visiting Balmoral Castle in Scotland for his Summer holibobs. HRH yanked his hand away but wasn’t too sore about it - he still gave the pony a rub on the nose.

The Swans take action

The Squiz

After days of mounting pressure, the Sydney AFL club has suspended 5 players for the rest of the 2026 season for breaching its standards. They’re Isaac Heeney, Nick Blakey, Chad Warner, Riley Bice and James Jordon. It comes as Victoria Police are investigating a report of an alleged sexual assault at a hotel in East Melbourne early on Monday morning. The club stressed that the action taken is separate to the police investigation - while police have spoken to several players, none have been formally interviewed and no charges have been laid. The players say they accept the club’s sanction and are “deeply sorry to everyone involved”.  

Take it back a step…

The story was broken on Monday by the Herald Sun newspaper, which reported that after the Swans’ victory over Essendon at the MCG on Sunday evening, some players went out for dinner and drinks in Melbourne. The paper reported that at around 7am on Monday morning, 2 women appeared to be extremely upset in the lobby of the hotel where the team was staying, and one of them told staff she’d been “inappropriately touched” inside a player’s room. In more details about the night, reports say the players hired exotic dancers (paywall) to perform lap dances. Police have taken statements from 3 women, and spoken with several players. There’s no suggestion that any of the players are accused of sexual assault.

Where are things up to?

Swans officials say the 5 players breached club rules and they’re “deeply embarrassed and ashamed” of the players’ “poor choices”. CEO Matthew Pavlich put it in these terms: “It was staying out late, it was drinking, it was continuing their night, it was bringing women back to the hotel, it was a long way short of what we expect from our players”. But he stressed that the police investigation had to run its course and that the club’s actions were “totally independent” from that. When asked about the women affected, Pavlich said “we’re deeply concerned” about their welfare and wellbeing, and “offer as much support as we can”. He said the Swans AFLW team is also “disappointed” in the players. On Sunday, the men's and women's teams will play in a historic double header which the bosses acknowledged would be “difficult” but hoped fans would still show up and support the teams.

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Squiz the Rest

The Israeli military clears its troops

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says its personnel will not face any criminal charges over the death of Zomi Frankcom, an Australian who was one of 7 aid workers killed by a strike in April 2024. In the months following the strike, the IDF admitted that the strike was a mistake - but overnight, it released a statement saying that “the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct.” World Central Kitchen - the aid organisation that Frankcom was working for in Gaza - says “the decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive.” As part of the same statement, the IDF says it has begun a criminal investigation into the killing of 5yo Hind Rajab and her family in January 2024, and 15 paramedics in March 2025. 

The search for a missing NSW woman continues 

Lily Hooper hasn’t been seen for over a week since she left her home in Sydney’s south-west to go hiking in the Nattai National Park in the Southern Highlands on 12 August. The 18yo was reported missing by her family when she didn’t return home, and her car was found by a walking trail that night. Since then, a huge search operation has been underway involving the army, specialist police crews, more than 200 SES personnel and rescue helicopters working around the clock. Lily’s father, Jim Hooper, joined the crews earlier this week - he’s described her as a tough and experienced bushwalker and asked for “privacy and understanding” as the family navigates this “unimaginable situation”. So far, authorities say no trace of Lily or her belongings have been found.

Legal action kicks off against Meta 

A group of 29 US states is suing Mark Zuckerberg’s tech company for designing its Facebook and Instagram apps to be addictive to kids, which they say end up causing them harm. The case is being heard in a Californian court, and it’s been described as the biggest legal action Meta has ever faced. The social media platform’s lawyers argue it’s made a big effort to keep children safe online and claim research shows there’s no clear link between adolescent social media use and poor mental health. If Meta is found liable, the judge could order changes to the platforms and impose civil penalties  - the states are seeking about $282 billion. The case is expected to run for the next 6 weeks. 

Nick gets nicked

Aussie tennis player Nick Kyrgios has been suspended from tennis after testing positive for cocaine. The 31yo released the news via an Instagram post last night, where he said he had "made a huge mistake and I take full responsibility for it." Shortly after he posted that, the International Tennis Integrity Agency confirmed it, revealing that he'd been provisionally suspended since 4 August after testing positive for cocaine during a tournament in Spain back in June. The length of his suspension is TBD - it depends on whether he took the substance in competition or not - but Kyrgios says he'll be avoiding social media/public appearances for the next 28 days. 

Christmas Island has a new attraction

It’s a large Starship model rocket named Ship 40 belonging to Elon Musk’s company SpaceX - and at 52m-long, it’s hard to miss… It blasted off from Texas on 24 July and splashed down around an hour later in the Indian Ocean near the remote Western Oz island. If that sounds like a short mission, it was meant to be - it was a test flight to launch a satellite and try out its heat shields. But after surviving re-entry to the atmosphere, rough seas have been hampering recovery efforts - until this week when it was towed closer (it took 2 ships for the job…). Locals reckon it's "the talk of the town" - but it won't be around for long. SpaceX engineers have inspected it and it'll soon be on a ship back to the US where it'll be studied and recycled.

Apropos of Nothing

Speaking of SpaceX, new images of the top half of the company’s Falcon9 rocket crashing into the moon have been released by NASA. They reveal an 18m-wide new crater formed by the collision. We’ve said it before, that’s one small dent for man…

The Camel Cup kicked off in White Cliffs over the weekend. It’s an annual race where many of the jockeys are locals with no camel-racing (or riding) experience. Apparently the advice is to “hold on for dear life”. And the next tip: “Stay on”... 

And if you’re in Sydney this weekend, we've got 18 free tickets to give away to the Festival of Dangerous Ideas. The tickets are to hear Nobel laureate Maria Ressa in conversation on Sunday - drop us an email by 6pm AEST today and 2 of them are yours. First in, best dressed...

Squiz the Day

7.00pm (AEST) - Hockey: Men's FIH World Cup Australia v South Africa - Belgium, watch on 7Plus 

7.30pm (AEST) - The final home-and-away round of the AFL men's season begins, with St Kilda v Gold Coast at Marvel Stadium - Melbourne, watch on 7Plus

Sometime this morning, our national debt is set to tick over $1 trillion for the first time (paywall) - before dropping back below the mark on Friday

Australia’s biggest outback music festival, the Mundi Mundi Bash begins (until 22 August) - Broken Hill

Medibank, Super Retail Group, Zip and Northern Star full-year financial results released 

ABS data release: Labour force, July 2026

Outer Banks season 5 drops on Netflix

🦟 World Mosquito Day 

Birthdays for Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant (1948), actor David Walliams (1971), actor Amy Adams (1974), actor Andrew Garfield (1983) and singer Demi Lovato (1992)

Anniversary of:

• US President Andrew Johnson formally declaring the end of the US Civil War (1866)

• Operation Danube, or the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union, Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary in response to the Prague Spring (1968)

Housekeeping

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