Thursday 5 November - I’m blue da-ba-dee da-ba-di

Good morning, it’s Thursday 5 November. In your Squiz Today…

• Democrats win a landslide victory in the US midterms

• David Jones is facing financial collapse

• And we have a new National Songbook… 🎶

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

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan about Callum Turner, who is the frontrunner for the famous role after Daniel Craig left the gig in 2021. Turner and his wife, popstar Dua Lipa, even appeared in a social media post last weekend sipping martinis - shaken, we assume…

A blue wave hits Washington

The Squiz

The Democrats have won control of both houses of Congress in the US midterm elections, taking back the House of Representatives and the Senate from the Republicans. It means US President Donald Trump will need Democratic support to do things like pass laws and budgets in the final 2 years of his administration - making it tough for him to get his way. 

Break it down for me…

Going in, Republicans held a thin majority - but not anymore. As we press go on the newsletter, the Dems have won at least 54 seats in the Senate and more than 230 in the House - a comfortable majority in both. While most pollsters expected the Democrats to do well, it was where they did well that came as a bit of a surprise. Democratic candidates won in states that usually lean heavily Republican - like Kansas, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, and Texas, where James Talarico became the state’s first elected Democratic Senator since 1988. And considering the scale of their loss, Republicans are now trying to figure out what went wrong. Trump says it’s not his fault - despite telling voters during the campaign to “pretend I’m on the ballot”, he posted yesterday that if he had been on the ballot, “we would have won in a landslide”.

What does it all mean?

Trump will now have to negotiate with his political opponents to get his agenda passed. Analysts say the result is a reprimand from voters over the cost of living prompted by high fuel and energy costs due to the Iran war, along with tariffs on imports and hardline immigration policies. We’ve been grappling with economic flow-on effects from the war here in Oz too, but the new-look Congress may not immediately spell an end to it. The lower house can vote to stop funding it, launch investigations and even impeach Trump for a third time, but the new Congress won’t be sworn in until 3 January and in the meantime Trump can veto any bills to end the conflict. On that front, reports say he has no immediate plans to resume strikes against Iran, but all eyes are on his next move…

Squiz the Rest

Tightening the purse strings

With interest rates going north this week for the fifth time this year due to stubborn inflation, pressure is building on the federal government to hit the brakes on public spending. Cue PM Anthony Albanese yesterday flagging that cuts could be coming next month in the mid-year budget update. We don't know exactly what's on the table yet, but the PM pointed to private health insurance rebate cuts, saying they'd been blocked by the Coalition, along with the free trade deal with the European Union, which he said would bring down prices on imported goods. But Coalition Treasury spokesman Tim Wilson said they'd taken a bipartisan approach to finding savings, and the government was “addicted to spending”.

Australians identified in the Spanish train disaster 

We’re talking about the high-speed crash that killed 69 people and injured nearly 200 last Wednesday - we’ve now learned that 2 Australians are among the 15 foreign victims. The collision between 2 trains happened in the province of Toledo in the centre of the country and was said to have been caused by human error after a failure with the signalling system. We don't know much about the Australians, just that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade are assisting their families. It's the second high-speed rail disaster in Spain this year, and the country's Transport Minister Oscar Puente has resigned over it, saying: “A transport minister in a country like Spain cannot continue in office with two accidents of this severity in less than a year”. 

David Jones is hanging by a thread

We mentioned last week that the 188yo retailer was in financial hot water - now reports say it could enter voluntary administration as early as today after negotiations with landlords broke down. DJs has 38 stores across Oz and NZ, but it’s reportedly been late paying suppliers since early this year, prompting some brands to pull stock. If it goes ahead, stores could keep trading while administrators decide whether to restructure, sell or wind it up - and shoppers are being encouraged to spend their gift cards now. And it’s not the only big Aussie company making headlines… Canva CEO Melanie Perkins told staff yesterday that 1,271 jobs would be cut or relocated - 22% of its workforce. It's the 13yo tech company's first major layoffs, with growth slowing for the first time in a decade amid AI competition and costs.

Wegovy makes waves

A daily tablet version of Wegovy, a GLP-1 weight loss drug, has been approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, making it the first oral GLP-1 approved specifically for weight loss in Oz. Wegovy, like Ozempic, is an appetite suppressant peptide. Aussies will need a doctor’s prescription to get the drug, and it’s been approved for people with obesity and for heart health. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (aka PBS) subsidy is currently only available for people who need GLP-1s to manage type 2 diabetes, so weight loss patients will be paying the full price. The company behind the drug Novo Nordisk says it should be on Aussie shelves before the end of the year. 

It’s a song of the heart

Yesterday, the Australasian Performing Right Association and National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) announced the first 10 songs to take their place in our National Songbook - a celebration of culturally significant Aussie music. And the first set is an eclectic mix - ranging from Waltzing Matilda by “Banjo” Paterson and Christina Macpherson (which was first recorded in 1927) to 2007’s My People by The Presets. There are protest songs, like Yothu Yindi’s Treaty, and even classical works, like Peter Sculthorpe’s Earth Cry. NFSA chief curator Meagan Loader says the Songbook is designed to preserve “unofficial national anthems”, and more songs will be added each year - so if you reckon Guy Sebastian’s Angels Brought Me Here was robbed, there’s still time… 

Apropos of Nothing

In one of the biggest backhanded compliments we’ve heard this year, Kiwi photographer Brendan Larsen spent almost 2 days working on an image of the night sky that was so pretty, he’s been accused of using AI. Talk about a stellar effort…

Will and Grace actress Debra Messing has gone viral after posting a map of this week’s floods in Melbourne, Florida, to her Insta stories with the caption “Pray for #Australia…” Thanks for the thought, Deb - wrong hemisphere, right vibes… 

At 82yo, music icon Diana Ross has announced she’s playing a one-off show in Sydney’s Centennial Park on 5 March next year. General tickets go on sale 11 November. She’s not been in Oz for 2 decades, so she might be feeling upside down when she gets here…

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEDT) - NAB full-year financial results released 

10.00am (AEDT) - Breville AGM 

10.00am (AEDT) - Whitehaven Coal AGM - Sydney 

12.30pm (AEST) - Federal Sports Minister Anika Wells will address the Queensland Media Club about how the federal government is supporting Australian athletes ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games - Brisbane 

5.00pm (AEDT) - The final New Zealand election debate TVNZ’s Q+A People’s Debate in the lead-up to the 7 November election 

5.30pm (AEDT) - Reserve Bank of Australia Deputy Governor Andrew Hauser will deliver the Sir Leslie Melville lecture at the Australian National University - Canberra 

Recipients of the 2027 Australian of the Year Awards for South Australia will be announced - Adelaide 

ABS data release: public sector employment and earnings, 2025-2026 financial year; international trade in goods

International Volunteer Managers Day

Guy Fawkes Day - marking the anniversary of the Catholic conspirator being discovered  for attempting to blow up King James I and the British Parliament (1605)

👩‍🦰 🧑‍🦰 National Love Your Red Hair Day

Birthdays for singer Art Garfunkel of Simon and Garfunkel (1941), media personality and mom-ager Kris Jenner (1955), singer Bryan Adams (1959), actor Tilda Swinton (1960) and singer and one third of the Jonas Brothers Kevin Jonas (1987)

Anniversary of:

• the launch of the Monopoly board game by the Parker Brothers (1935)

• Franklin D Roosevelt being re-elected President of the United States for an unprecedented third term (1940), and the election of Richard Nixon (1968)

• the release of the Paradise Papers (2017)

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