Thursday, 24 April - Fightin' fire with fire

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 24 April. In your Squiz Today…

• Trump says he’s ready to roll back tariffs on Chinese imports

• Voters cast record numbers of early ballots

• And it’s time to whip up a batch of Mrs K’s Anzac bickies…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Taronga Zoo’s senior elephant keeper Johny Wade who’s getting ready to farewell Tang Mo and Pak Boon from their harbourside Sydney location to a quieter life on the plains of South Australia's Monarto Safari Park. Wade and his fellow keepers have been caring for the pair since 2006, so it's a heavy load to say goodbye…

Tamping down the tariffs

The Squiz

US President Donald Trump has hinted that the tariff-for-tat battle between the US and China might be about to calm down. Over the past few weeks, the major economic powers have gone back and forth taxing each other’s imports at higher and higher rates, skyrocketing to numbers like 145% in the case of Chinese exports to the US. But the giant game of economic chicken may soon end, with Trump saying yesterday that the tariffs would drop “substantially” in a pending deal with China, and that he isn’t going to “play hardball” in getting that deal done. 

Why the change of heart?

We don’t know exactly, but US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday that the trade war between the 2 countries was “unsustainable”. While Trump says a deal is coming, he and Chinese President Xi Jinping haven’t spoken directly and no official negotiations are underway yet, so there’s still that hurdle to clear - but the news was welcomed by the US stock market. That’s timely, given the International Monetary Fund’s latest report says the tariffs are projected to slow economic growth across the world - Oz included. One sector that’s been majorly impacted is fast fashion, with Chinese online retailers Shein and Temu flagging that prices for US customers will be going up from tomorrow.

So it’s hitting the hip pocket…

Yep - despite ongoing criticism over the impact online retailers like Shein have on the environment and local businesses, they’re only getting more popular. In Australia, Shein has just cracked $1 billion in annual sales for the first time, and it’s now one of the biggest retailers in the country. It’s also booming in the US, and now millions of customers will be paying more for its products as a result of the tariff showdown. To get around the tariffs, some Chinese factories have been selling to consumers directly - social media has been flooded with factory owners flogging everything from furniture to luxury bags for super-cheap prices. So if you’re in the mood for a bargain, it might not be all bad…

Showering you with tips…

Over 10 episodes, the third season of Origin Energy's podcast So Watt? brings on a range of experts to share tricks to improve your home’s energy efficiency and save money on your power bills. The fourth episode is out now, and it’s all about your bathroom… Something you’ll learn is that there are actually water and energy-efficient shower heads out there on the market that won’t slow your water pressure down to a trickle. Just what we like to hear… You can find out more about that here, or listen to the episode in your favourite podcast player now.

Squiz the Rest

No polling procrastination here

With just over a week left until polling day, a record number of Aussies have already had their say. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says 542,141 votes were cast on the first day of early voting - a 72% increase from the 2022 federal election. Although it reckons that’s a good thing overall, the AEC is asking people to be patient if they arrive at a voting centre and have to wait in line. More broadly, political experts say the early turnout means our leaders must ensure their campaign messaging is on track so they can capture as many of those initial votes as possible. That's been an issue for the Coalition in this campaign, with an early policy backtrack over public servants WFH - and now another over a tax break on EVs, which leader Peter Dutton said he’d keep but now says he’ll scrap.

*Got a niggling election-related question? Email it through to [email protected] - we’re answering a few each week in our election Shortcut series. Here’s Claire tackling preferential voting and campaign costs in last week’s ep…

A notable Anzac Day

Crowds will be getting up bright and early for Anzac Day dawn services tomorrow morning, and this year’s an important one - marking 110 years since the Gallipoli campaign. It’s a day of remembrance for all Aussie and New Zealand servicemen and women who have lost their lives in conflict, held on 25 April to mark the 8,700 Australian soldiers who were killed after landing on the Turkish peninsula that day in 1915. There are services taking place across the country - you can read up on what’s happening in your capital city here. And FYI, if you can’t get to an event in person, the ABC will be broadcasting the commemorations. Lest we forget…

Vale Keith Stackpole

The Aussie Test cricket opener, coach and commentator died at 84yo on Tuesday. If you’re unfamiliar with Stackpole, he’s a bit of a forerunner to our current cricketing great Steve Smith in that he was originally picked as a leg-spinner who could bat a bit - and then it turned out he could bat a lot. He played 43 Tests for Australia, scoring 7 centuries along the way, and was named one of the “Cricketers of the Year” by the publication Wisden in 1973. His former captain Ian Chappell said he also made an excellent deputy - “if something needed to be done, Stacky was there to do it.” And if you didn’t see him play, you might have heard his voice - after retiring, he became a successful commentator on both radio and TV. 

Time for some shut-eye…

The old 8-hours-of-sleep-a-night benchmark is a good one for us all, but especially teens and parents of teens… A new study looking into the bedtime habits of more than 3,200 teens aged 13-18yo has found those who go to bed early and sleep for longer achieve better results in things like reading, vocabulary and problem solving. That might not be a surprise, but researchers were shocked at the impact of small differences in sleep… Participants who slept on average for 7 hours and 25 minutes scored highest on cognitive tests - much better than those who slept for an average of 7 hours and 10 minutes a night. To get more shut-eye, the old sleep hygiene rules still apply - exercise regularly and avoid screens at night. Sweet dreams…

Setting streaming on Fyre 

If you thought you’d heard the last of the famously disastrous Fyre music festival, think again. A new music streaming service called Fyre is set to be launched by Shawn Rech, a documentary director who acquired rights to some of the Fyre brand’s intellectual property. He says the service will be all about “putting the power of music discovery back in the hands of the fans”. Billy McFarland, Fyre Festival’s creator, still owns the festival itself, but a proposed second version has been postponed indefinitely after challenges securing a location. This time, guests have been refunded, but after the first festival landed McFarland in jail on charges of wire fraud, it might be best to snuff the Fyre out…

Your fresh market update…

At The Squiz, we’re all about giving you the useful stuff. So, we’ve teamed up with Woolies to share their top weekly fruit and veg picks. Here’s what to grab this week:

🍎 Pink Lady apples - Look for the ones with firm, smooth skin and a bright rosy-pink blush

🥕 Carrots - The weather’s been ideal in growing regions, so it’s a good time to stock up

🥒 Qukes baby cucumbers - Perfect for lunchboxes or a snack on the go…

Long Weekend Lites - 3 things we liked this week

The long-running series Vera is coming to an end in Australia this weekend with a 2-night special on the ABC. The mystery series based on the Ann Cleeves novels stars Brenda Blethyn as the slightly brusque title detective, and the finale was a big deal in the UK. Now Aussie fans get their chance to say goodbye, starting Saturday night at 7:30 AEST… 

On the off chance you’ve got a hankering for old-school mobile games and geography trivia, do we have the game for you… Snake on a Globe , which is not, sadly, a Samuel L Jackson movie, sees your serpent friend travelling around a globe, gobbling up major cities. It’s weird, it’s informative, and it’s quite fun… 

We’ve shared this recipe for Mrs Kimball's Anzac biscuits before, and for good reason… They're super easy to whip up if you're inclined tomorrow morning, and maybe it's the golden syrup talking, but we reckon they're pretty addictive. Now's the time to give them a try…

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Squiz the Day

Thursday 
5.45am (AEST) - RBA Governor Michele Bullock will join a panel at the International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meeting on the response of central banks to ‘tokenisation and the financial system’ - Washington DC

7.00am (AWST) - PM Anthony Albanese will address the Leadership Matters Breakfast where he’ll give details of a $1.2 billion investment in building up a reserve of critical minerals that would be made available to “like minded” nations - Perth

Also on the campaign trail, Coalition leader Peter Dutton will announce a $90 million domestic violence strategy which includes tougher bail laws, criminalising use of mobile phones to harass, and more monitoring of offenders using electronic ankle bracelets

11.30am (AEST) - National Party leader David Littleproud will address the National Press Club - Canberra

12.00pm (AEST) - Labor Senator Katy Gallagher, Independent MP Allegra Spender, and Greens Senator Larissa Waters will debate key issues impacting women, on a webinar hosted by Women’s Agenda 

World Immunisation Week begins (until 30 April)

International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace

Birthdays for singer/actor Barbra Streisand (1942) and tennis legend Ash Barty (1996)

Anniversary of:

• the knighting of Winston Churchill by Queen Elizabeth II (1953)

• the launch of the Hubble space telescope into low Earth orbit (1990) 

• the Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh which killed 1,134 garment workers (2013)

And we’re taking the public holiday - we’ll see you on Monday. So we’d better get you across what’s happening over the long weekend…

Friday 
The Anzac Day Public Holiday marks the landing of our troops in Gallipoli in 1915, with dawn services and other commemorations to be held across the country

10.00am (AEST) - Round 1 of the NFL Draft begins in the US (until 26 April), watch it on Kayo 

3.20pm (AEST) - AFL: The traditional Anzac Day match between Essendon and Collingwood will take place at the MCG in Melbourne, watch on Kayo

6.30pm (AEST) - Anzac Day Gallipoli Dawn Service will begin - Gallipoli, Turkey, and watch on the ABC

Fast fashion retailer Shein will unveil new price adjustments to its clothing items in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese imports

World Malaria Day 

🐧 World Penguin Day 

Birthdays for actor Al Pacino (1940), musician Björn Ulvaeus (1945), and actors Hank Azaria (1964), and Renée Zellweger (1969)

Anniversary of:

• the publication of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719)

• Microsoft becoming the third public company in the US to reach a valuation of $1 trillion, following Apple and Amazon (2019)

Saturday
6.00pm (AEST) - The funeral for Pope Francis will be held in front of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, with the UK’s Prince William, US President Donald Trump, and French President Emmanuel Macron expected to be in attendance. The Vatican’s YouTube channel will live stream the service, with the BBC also providing live coverage

International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day

World Intellectual Property Day

World Veterinary Day

Birthdays for First Lady of the US Melania Trump (1970) and actor Channing Tatum (1980)

Anniversary of:

• the Chernobyl nuclear disaster (1986)

• the wedding of Prince Albert Duke of York (King George VI) and Queen Elizabeth (1923)

Sunday
8.00pm (AEST) - The final leaders’ debate between PM Anthony Albanese and Coalition leader Peter Dutton on Channel 7

5.00pm (AEST) - The London Marathon is on - London

Freedom Day – South Africa

Look up at the Super New Moon 

Birthdays for singer Lizzo (1988) and Aussie tennis villain/hero Nick Kyrgios (1995)

Anniversary of:

• Ludwig van Beethoven composing Für Elise (1810)

• the Australian Labor Party under Prime Minister Chris Watson becoming the first labour movement-aligned government in the world (1904)

• RC Duncan patenting the disposable nappy (1965)

• the Korean summit, which saw North and South officially end the Korean war and agree to rid the peninsula of nuclear weapons (2018)