Thursday, 26 March - You're my best friend

March 26, 2026

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 26 March. In your Squiz Today…

  • The US and Iran exchange plans to end the war in the Middle East

  • Cyclone Narelle has reformed and is heading down the coast of Western Oz

  • And our bond with dogs dates back a really, really long way…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"It was brutal. I was sacked straight after the game.”

Said Aussie football coach Ange Postecoglou yesterday about being fired from Premier League club Nottingham Forest just 39 days into the job. It was his second sacking in 5 months, but he hasn’t lost his passion and still wants to coach. You’ll get ‘em next time, mate…

An exchange of plans

The Squiz

Peace talks to end the war in the Middle East have stepped up a notch, with the US putting forward a 15-point ceasefire plan to Iran’s leaders. Sources quoted by the New York Times (paywall) say it was delivered by intermediaries from Pakistan and proposes a one-month halt to the fighting in exchange for a list of terms Iran must comply with. Iranian state media says it has rejected the plan - one of their military spokesmen, Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfaghari, mocked the offer in a video aired on Iranian TV, saying: “Someone like us will never come to terms with someone like you. Not now, not ever”.

What’s in the deal?

Among the reported 15 points: reopening the Strait of Hormuz, dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, and handing over their store of enriched uranium to the world’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Past attempts by the US to get Iran to abandon its nuclear program - which the regime says is peaceful - have failed. But with pressure on the global oil supply chain building, experts say the US is looking for “an off-ramp” for the war - Iran has reportedly responded with a 5-point plan of its own. Here at home, PM Anthony Albanese has called another meeting of national cabinet for Monday to discuss potential fuel saving measures as oil continues to drive up prices - yesterday Australia Post almost tripled its fuel surcharge, and Jetstar announced it was cutting back on flights. 

We’re cutting back in other ways too…

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has announced that Iranians holding visitor visas will be banned from entering Australia for 6 months, with the exception of those already on their way, or any spouses/dependent children of Oz citizens. The move comes after new laws were passed in parliament earlier this month blocking temporary visa holders from certain countries. Burke says the government is watching global developments and will adjust the clamp down as needed. But it’s drawn some criticism - Iranian Women’s Association spokesperson Nos Hosseini said “given the circumstances, it should really be a time of compassion”. And the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre’s Jana Favero added that it’s a time when people need safety, but the government was “slamming the door closed”.

A fix for an overstuffed suitcase

If you’re anything like us, packing for the holidays means a bulging suitcase... To help with that, Brisbane brand Simplify Living has created vacuum travel bags that compress with a small handheld pump - squeeze the air out and watch your stack halve in size. Genius... Find out more here.

Squiz the Rest

A third arrest in the Chris Baghsarian case

NSW detectives investigating the alleged murder and kidnapping of the Sydney grandfather arrested a 23yo man at his Seven Hills home in Sydney’s northwest yesterday morning, before charging him with murder, kidnapping and other offences. Detective Acting Superintendent Andrew Marks claims the man is a “major player” in organising the abduction (which was a case of mistaken identity), recruiting people to help, and organising the disposal of the victim’s body. NSW police say they’ve been helped out by CCTV footage released last week, and Marks reckons there could be as many as 9 people involved, adding: “We will continue the investigation to identify those that were involved, no matter what part they played.” 

Cyclone Narelle has reformed

The system isn’t done yet - it’s developed again into a category 3 storm in the Indian Ocean and it’s barrelling along parallel to the Pilbara Coast of Western Oz. That’s a huge mining area, and with winds of up to 140km/hr and huge swells forecast, Pilbara Ports has cleared most of its berths in the region, causing delays to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo. The BOM says that by tonight, Narelle could reach category 4 or 5 strength - and if it crosses the state’s western tip, it’ll be the first cyclone in more than 20 years to make 3 separate landfalls across 2 states and a territory. Over the weekend, it’s tipped to turn south, and while its path isn’t clear from there, residents as far down as Perth will be keeping an eye on it. Here’s a live tracker to see where it’s at…

Meta get a lawyer

The owner of Instagram and Facebook has been ordered to pay over $500 million by a US court for misleading consumers. A New Mexico jury found Meta had claimed its platforms were safe despite being warned by experts that they weren’t - and that included enabling child exploitation. Meta says it will appeal the verdict, but New Mexico’s Attorney-General Raúl Torrez said the company had “put profits over kids’ safety.” It’s far from the only lawsuit the company’s facing - there’s another jury trial happening in Los Angeles, where Meta (along with Google) has been accused of knowingly making their platforms addictive. The jury is in its ninth day of deliberations in that trial, so that’s something to watch in the coming days…

Covering off some cricket news

We’ll start with the grand final of our men’s domestic cricket league today, with Victoria and South Oz facing off in the Sheffield Shield decider in Melbourne. Victoria will go in as favourites - they couldn’t even find room in their team for season MVP runner-up Mitch Perry. That’s a strong side… The 5-day game begins at 10:30am AEDT. Over in the women’s game, the Aussies completed a clean-sweep of 3 T20 matches against the West Indies this week, continuing their excellent form... And we also found out the fixtures for the upcoming summer of cricket in Oz - we say summer, but the season will actually begin in August and finish in March. Which is great for cricket tragics, and maybe just tragic for the non-fans…

Friends furever

It turns out the bond between humans and dogs has been a thing for quite a while now - more than 15,000 years, to be exact. A study in the journal Nature assessed ancient specimens found in Türkiye, Serbia and the UK and found evidence of dogs living alongside ancient hunter-gatherers, with signs that they were buried alongside them and fed by them. Before now, domesticated dogs (as opposed to wild wolves) were thought to have existed around 11,000 years ago, but these findings push the special relationship back even further than that - and before humans had domesticated any other plant or animal. Researchers reckon they would have looked like small wolves - in the words of study author Dr Lachie Scarsbrook: “We don’t expect them to look like a chihuahua.” There’s a mental image…

Apropos of Nothing

The first peek at the new HBO Harry Potter series is here. It’s a shot of the new Harry, Dominic McLaughlin, broom in hand, dressed for Quidditch - but it needs a good Revelio charm, because we can’t see his face…

Conservationists are celebrating the birth of a second set of twin gorillas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the past 2 months. Twins place a bit more of a burden on gorilla mums, so park rangers are keeping an eye on the rare pair… 

And a new Guinness World Record was set for the longest Philadelphia cheesesteak on Monday at none other than Philadelphia airport. The sambos were handed out to travellers and staff who’ve been working without pay during the shutdown - surely that’d beef up morale…

Squiz the Day

10.00am (AEDT) - Sentence judgment for a Qantas employee who was charged with bringing 4.1L of a date-rape drug into Australia, Downing Centre District Court - Sydney 

10.30am (AEDT) - Cricket: Sheffield Shield final Victoria v South Australia (until 30 March),  CitiPower Centre - Melbourne, watch on Kayo

11:45am (AEDT) - The Victoria Racing Club will unveil a statue of jockey Michelle Payne at Flemington Racecourse - Melbourne

12.30pm (AEDT) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius to address the National Press Club on ‘Germany and Australia: Partners in an Era of Strategic Competition’ - Canberra 

A pre-trial hearing in the case of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores - New York 

The OECD to publish its latest Interim Economic Outlook

ABS data release: Australian National Accounts: finance and wealth, December 2025; labour force, February 2026

KMD brands (owner of Kathmandu and Ripcurl) release first half results for the 2026 financial year

The FabAlice Festival begins in Alice Springs

Independence Day in Bangladesh

Birthdays for US politician Nancy Pelosi (1940), singer Diana Ross (1944), and actor Keira Knightley (1985)

Anniversary of:

  • the deaths of composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1827) and poet Walt Whitman (1892)

  • the Schengen Agreement - which phased out internal border checks for many European countries - going into effect (1995)

  • filmmaker James Cameron becoming the first person to visit Challenger Deep, the deepest point on Earth, in more than 50 years (2012)