Thursday, 9 January - There's no 'appier bloke

Good morning, it’s Thursday, 9 January. In your Squiz Today…

• A happy end to a long search in Kosciuszko

• Los Angeles is in a state of emergency as wildfires burn

• And the Cockney dialect is spreading in Australia…

🎧 Listen to the podcast

🤓 This email will take you 7 minutes to read

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said the mayor of a small Italian village about his ban on residents getting seriously ill. Mayor Antonio Torchia said it’s an attempt to draw attention to the lack of healthcare in Belcastro - and with requests for media interviews rolling in, it seems to have worked...

As happy as Hadi

The Squiz

Hadi Nazari - the 23yo hiker who went missing in the Kosciuszko National Park on Boxing Day - was found alive and well yesterday afternoon. Nazari flagged down some fellow hikers near Blue Lake - they alerted authorities, and he was winched to the command post, where paramedics checked him over before he was sent to hospital for a full checkover. NSW Police Inspector Josh Broadfoot said Nazari was in great shape after spending almost 2 weeks in some of the country’s toughest terrain. “We never gave up hope of finding him, and we are elated we can return him safely to his family,” he said. 

So he’s ok?

Seems so… Nazari is an experienced bushwalker and had a tent, sleeping bag and a small bottle of water when he went missing after separating from his 2 bushwalking buddies. But there were serious concerns for his safety given the dense alpine vegetation and steep conditions - and since 26 December, there have been temperatures as high as 36C during the day and as low as 7C overnight. For food, police say he’d “found a hut … and there were 2 muesli bars up there that he's eaten. And that's pretty much all he's had to consume over the last 2 weeks”. Yesterday, Nazari was found about 12km from where he was due to meet his mates. More than 300 people involved in the search didn't find him in the previous 13 days, but where he was found showed he'd traversed some bloody tricky country.

What’s next?

Well, his family and mates are cock-a-hoop, so you’d have to think some time with them is on the cards... Yesterday, police said they don’t expect him to be in hospital for long because the initial checks at the command post gave him the all clear, apart from a bit of dehydration and a few scratches. After that, there are some details to be gathered “about where he's been and how he looked after himself … just debrief on his experience out there in the bush, and actually what's happened," said Superintendent Andrew Spliet. He also took the opportunity to urge anyone setting out on a bushwalk to take a personal locator beacon with them. Seems sensible…

Squiz the Rest

Tragedy at Rottnest Island

The pilot of a light plane that crashed off the coast of Western Australia’s Rottnest Island on Tuesday has been named as 34yo James Wong. His employer, Swan River Seaplanes, says he was “a talented and dedicated pilot” and they’re “heartbroken by the tragic loss”. Premier Roger Cook yesterday confirmed Wong and 2 European tourists had died and said investigators don’t yet know what caused the plane to go down. Reports say it struggled to take off before nosediving into the ocean about 600m off Rotto with 7 people onboard. Given the time of year, many people were visiting the popular holiday destination and saw the crash happen. Some rushed to help, which the Premier said saved several lives. Most of the plane is still underwater, but pieces have been recovered as investigations continue.

Wildfires tear through LA

Los Angeles is in a state of emergency, with 4 out-of-control wildfires killing 2 people and destroying more than 1,000 homes and businesses in some of the city’s most expensive areas - Pacific Palisades, Pasadena and the San Fernando Valley. More than 30,000 people were evacuated after the first blaze broke out Tuesday morning local time, fanned by “life-threatening” winds. There’s been plenty of footage posted online… Videos show a bulldozer pushing through cars abandoned by owners on the road, people evacuating with horses as embers fly by, and aged care home residents being pushed along the street in wheelchairs and beds as they escape the path of the fire. With authorities warning the worst is to come, LA Councilwoman Traci Park says “this is going to be ... a devastating loss for all of Los Angeles”.

Make America bigger again

US President-elect Donald Trump has been talking up plans to buy Greenland and take control of the Panama Canal - and yesterday, he refused to rule out the use of military or economic coercion to get his way. Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory situated between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans - Trump says it’s crucial to America’s security. And the Panama Canal is a critical shipping route. Trump says controlling both is “an absolute necessity”, and the US “might have to do something”. Panama isn’t interested in a deal, and neither is Greenland (which has long debated independence from Denmark…)... The New York Times says an American leader hasn’t “so blatantly threatened the use of force to expand the country’s territorial boundaries” since William McKinley in the 1890s.

A mixed bag of inflation data

While the headline number ticked up a bit from 2.1 to 2.3%, the underlying rate fell from 3.5 to 3.2%. The underlying rate, or the trimmed mean, cuts out temporary and volatile outliers from the data. That's why the Reserve Bank watches it closely - to ensure the numbers are tracking toward the right range for an interest rate cut (they've said that's between 2-3%.) Something else to clock: this batch of numbers is the monthly edition, and the Reserve Bank says it pays more attention to the quarterly edition - that's due on 29 January, ahead of the 17-18 February board meeting. As for the chances of a cut at that meeting, most big banks still think it will be in May, and stock market investors reckon there’s a 73% chance it will happen in February.

It’s fair dinkum Cockney, innit

A British linguistics professor says the influence of the classic Cockney dialect is disappearing in London - but growing in Australia. Over time, the London accent has developed into a dialect called ‘multicultural London English, and British expert Dr Amanda Cole says the Cockney dropped away because it was considered a ‘working class’ accent in London, which diminished its use. But those who emigrated to Oz had no such concerns, so the Cockney is still strong with us. And it’s reaching other new places too if you can Adam and Eve it - through the media. The British TV soap Eastenders is so popular in the Scottish city of Glasgow that the Cockney accent is also filtering into their speech. Luckily, Dick Van Dyke’s attempt at the accent in Mary Poppins has not had the same global effect…

Apropos of Nothing

The Australian Reptile Park is the proud owner of the biggest recorded male funnel web spider (9.2cm), which will be milked for anti-venom to treat spider bites. The previous specimens were called Colossus and Hercules, so they’ve named it after the only thing bigger - a Hemsworth…

An American Jeopardy! contestant had a moment of redemption after explaining he’d copped plenty of heat from his Swiftie brother for missing a Taylor question in his first go at the show. Almost immediately after saying that, she came up again - this time, he knew the answer all too well…

If you’re of a certain vintage, this will make you feel old - a list of movies turning 25yo. Looking for Alibrandi, Gladiator, and The Dish are just some of the films that came out in 2000 - somehow, John Travolta’s Battlefield Earth is snubbed again…

Squiz the Day

2.30pm (AEDT) - The official draw for the 2025 Australian Open will take place - Melbourne, and live on AO TV

5.00pm (AEDT) - Australian Open: A Night With Novak starts - Melbourne, and live on AO TV

ABS Data Release - Retail Trade, November; International Trade in Goods, November 

A birthday for Catherine, Princess of Wales (1982)

Anniversary of:

• Steve Jobs introducing iTunes (2001) and the first iPhone (2007)

• the Sussexes making a shock announcement that they would “step back" as ‘senior’ members of the royal family (2020)