Thursday, 20 February - I don't care, I love it

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

• Foreign assassination plots against Aussies have been derailed

• A war of words has broken out over Ukraine

• And KFC flies the coop to Texas…🍗 

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said singer Billie Eilish during the first show of her Hit Me Hard and Soft Australian tour in Brisbane. She told the crowd that Oz felt “like home”, which is handy as she’ll be here for a few weeks, heading to Sydney before ending the party for real in Melbourne on 8 March.

The threat of retaliation

The Squiz

Several assassination plots against Australians have been derailed over the past 12 months, according to the Director-General of our top spy agency. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (aka ASIO) boss Mike Burgess last night shared the annual threat assessment, saying one of the biggest security issues in 2024 was the threat posed by “hostile nation states” going after their Australian critics overseas and on home soil. He didn’t name names, but said at least 3 countries had planned to “physically harm people” living here - including one plot “to silence an Australia-based human rights activist” before ASIO’s intervention.

How were they busted?

Burgess didn’t get into the details, but said it involved cooperation with international partners - and that they’d found it was “part of a broader effort … to eliminate critics of the foreign government around the world - activists, journalists, ordinary citizens”. But assassination plots weren’t the only threat he touched on… There’s an ongoing risk of foreign interference in Oz, with Burgess saying authorities are on high alert for defence personnel tied to the AUKUS security deal being targeted by spies. He said, in one case, gifts from “international counterparts” were found to contain surveillance devices. 

Anything else?

Yep. The other one to know about is the effect the Middle East conflict is having here, and particularly how it's linked to a rise in “communal violence” - also known as activities aimed at inciting violence between different groups. Burgess says the war in Gaza has led to the “normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour” across the country, and that it could mean more antisemitic acts against Jewish Australians. You can read up on more of his address here, but all up, Burgess says we’re facing “multifaceted, merging, intersecting, concurrent and cascading threats” over the next 5 years. As for what our political leaders think, we’re waiting for their responses - keep your eyes peeled today…

A Diamond's gotta shine...

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Squiz the Rest

Words fired over Ukraine

Relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have fallen to a new low, with the pair having a few choice words to say to each other via reporters and social media overnight. Zelensky, who said he was “surprised” to be excluded from the first peace talks between the US and Russia, accused Trump of living in a Russian “disinformation space”. He made the comment after Trump said he was responsible for starting the war because he didn’t make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to prevent it. Trump then fired back, calling Zelensky “a dictator” who’s done “a terrible job”. It comes as US envoy to Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg is due to arrive in Kyiv to discuss the war. Awks…

A shaky steel situation

One of the country’s largest steel manufacturing plants has been forced into administration by the South Oz government after racking up millions of dollars of debt. The Whyalla Steelworks is owned by a parent company - British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance. He bought the steelworks in 2017 - when it was last in administration - but despite producing 75% of Aussie structural steel, it’s been a challenge to return to profitability. Gupta says he’s lost more than $1.3 billion on the plant, while GFG owes tens of millions of dollars to the state government and millions to creditors. And yesterday, Premier Peter Malinauskas said no more… He’ll announce a “comprehensive” industry support package in Whyalla today. 

A marine crisis in Tassie

Rescue workers couldn’t save 157 false killer whales that were found stranded on a beach yesterday near Arthur River in the state’s north-west. They’re now working to euthanise the survivors after vets and marine biologists tried to get them back into the water, but weather conditions made things tough - even the whales that were refloated ended up stranding themselves again. In case you’re wondering, a false killer whale is called that because its skull looks like a killer whale/orca, but it behaves much more like a dolphin - and in fact, both creatures are members of the dolphin family. Though mass strandings like this happen relatively often in Tassie, this is the first one for false killer whales in 50 years. 

International cricket is back in Pakistan

The hosts couldn’t kick off the 8-team Champions Trophy tournament with a win, going down to New Zealand in the opener. It’s been a long time since Pakistan has hosted a tournament this size because of security concerns, especially after a 2009 terrorist attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team. So this is an important event for the passionate cricketing country, but although organisers have promised “presidential-level” security this time around to keep teams safe, India still isn’t coming - it will play all its games in Dubai instead, including the final if it qualifies. The Aussies are there, though - we’ll play our first game against England in Lahore on Saturday. So we’ll see if we can continue our winning ways…

Did someone say TFC?

Fast food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) is losing the K bit, moving its head office from its home state of Kentucky in the US and heading over to Texas. The company has been based in the state since it was founded in 1930 by a man sporting one of the world's most famous goatees, Colonel Harland Sanders. But staying in Kentucky wasn't on parent company Yum Brands' bucket list - it says it will be more efficient in Texas. Locals and officials in Kentucky feel like this is a finger-lickin’ bad thing - Governor Andy Beshear says he believes the Colonel himself would be disappointed in the decision. He’s asked the top brass to reconsider - so things might get spicy…

Apropos of Nothing

Commentator Bruce McAvaney will be back doing what he does best in 2025 - he’s returning to Channel 7 to host Sunday night AFL games. Macca retired after the 2020 season, but a cameo appearance during last year’s finals convinced him to come back full-time. That’s special news…

Here’s a couple of unusual names to see in the same news story… A painting by the street artist Banksy - owned by Mark Hoppus from the band Blink-182 - is going up for auction. Crude Oil (Vettriano) is expected to fetch around $10 million - you could buy all the small things with that…

And Connecticut police have rescued a baby seal from wandering - or flopping, maybe - around the streets of New Haven. The seal was underweight when they found him, but he’s now receiving plenty of tasty fish from the local aquarium before being released back into the wild.

Squiz the Day

12.00pm (AEDT) - The ACCC will deliver its Annual Enforcement and Compliance Policy Update - Sydney 

G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (until 21 February) - South Africa

Women's Soccer: the Shebelieves Cup kicks off (until 27 February) - matches to be held in Houston, Glendale, and San Diego in the US 

Company half-year results for Brambles, Fortescue, Rio Tinto, Tabcorp, Telstra and Wesfarmers

ABS Data Release - Labour Force, January

Instagram’s Worst Con-Artist, a 2-part documentary about wellness scammer Belle Gibson, is dropping on Netflix

The Melbourne Art Fair begins - (on until 23 February)

World Day of Social Justice 

🐾 National Love Your Pet Day

Birthdays for Cindy Crawford (1966) and Rihanna (1988)

Anniversary of:

• British naval officer John Moresby discovering the site of what would become Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea and claiming it for Great Britain (1873)

• Kurt Cobain's birthday (1967)

• the Southern Hemisphere's most powerful storm on record (296km/hr) Cyclone Winston hitting Fiji (2016)

• Venezuela becoming the first country to launch a virtual currency, the petro, to counteract their financial crisis (2018)