Tuesday, 11 November - Wouldn't survive the Governor General in '75

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 11 November. In your Squiz Today…

• Trump takes on the BBC

• It’s been 50 years since the dismissal of the Whitlam Government

• And Splitz Enz are going on tour…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said 15yo Pedro Elias Garzon Delvaux, who went viral online as ‘Fedora Man’ after he was snapped in a photo of the Louvre heist investigation looking incredibly dapper. Delvaux is not a detective, but he’s a big Sherlock Holmes fan, so maybe he can help track down the missing jewels…

Trump takes aim at the BBC

The Squiz

The US President is threatening to sue the British national broadcaster for $1.5 billion after 2 of its top execs resigned over a misleading edit in a documentary. In 2024, the BBC’s documentary series Panorama edited together 2 parts of a Trump speech during the 6 January riots at the Capitol that happened almost an hour apart. A leaked internal memo to the BBC board said that edit "materially misled viewers" and gave them the impression that Trump had incited the violence at the Capitol. In a letter to the BBC, Trump says he wants a full and fair retraction, or he's taking them to court… 

Tell me more…

The editing of the speech wasn’t the only issue raised about the documentary - it also showed the far-right Proud Boys group marching to the Capitol after it showed the clips of Trump speaking, but the march happened beforehand. The leaked memo - which came from an independent advisor to the BBC’s board - also made other wide-ranging criticisms of the broadcaster’s news coverage. Both BBC Director General Tim Davie and its CEO of News Deborah Turness resigned yesterday, and BBC News has apologised over the editing of the documentary - it said that the editing was intended to condense the speech and the events of the day, rather than mislead viewers. The Chair of the BBC, Samir Shah, says the organisation is currently deciding how it’s going to respond to the President’s letter.

Much else happening in the US?

Plenty… The longest federal government shutdown in the country’s history is one step closer to being done after Democrats and Republicans in the Senate reached a deal yesterday - though that still needs to be signed off by the House. And Trump has also pardoned his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani and dozens of others over their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden - though none of them have been charged with any federal crimes. And as we hit publish this morning, the first-ever official visit by a Syrian leader to the White House is set to happen, with President Ahmed al-Sharaa - who once had a $10 million bounty on his head in the US - meeting with Trump. So yep, plenty happening…

Winning the great kitchen bench battle

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Squiz the Rest

A peace deal’s looking shaky

The Thai military says it’s hitting pause on a peace agreement with Cambodia after a landmine explosion injured some of its soldiers on the Cambodian border. There’s more than a century of history behind the sporadic fighting between the 2 countries that’s been going on this year, but it briefly ended in October when they signed an agreement with US President Trump to end the conflict. The next step in that agreement was the release of 18 Cambodian soldiers being held in Thailand, but that looks shaky after Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul said that he agreed with his defence chiefs that the “security threat… has not actually decreased”. Cambodia is yet to respond, so it’s something to keep an eye on… 

A fresh trial has begun…

…over the murder of Toyah Cordingley, the 24yo who was found dead on Wangetti Beach in Far North Queensland in 2018. The man accused of her murder, Rajwinder Singh, is a former nurse who faced trial earlier this year, but it ended in a hung jury. Addressing a new jury in Cairns’ Supreme Court yesterday, Crown Prosecutor Nathan Crane said that Cordingley had been walking her dog when she was attacked. He alleged that the “blonde and attractive” young woman had a “confrontation” with Singh, and her body was found later “peppered” with stab wounds and her throat had been cut. The court heard that there was DNA evidence linking Singh to the crime, and that he left the country in the days after the murder. He has pleaded not guilty. Opening addresses will continue in the trial today…   

Fifty years on…

In a speech marking today's anniversary of the 1975 dismissal of PM Gough Whitlam by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, PM Anthony Albanese hasn’t held back - he called it a “calculated plot” to remove a democratically elected government. It’s considered the most dramatic constitutional crisis in our political history, so it’s worth a refresher… Malcolm Fraser, then-leader of the Liberal-Country Party Coalition, had been blocking the Whitlam Labor Government’s budget in the Senate, preventing them getting much done. Whitlam planned to call an election that day, but Kerr moved first - he’d already decided to dismiss Whitlam and had Fraser, our next PM, ready to go. Here’s more about the fallout - and check out how the Museum of Australian Democracy is marking the anniversary here. 

Oh, baby, baby it’s a wild card

Debate is raging around the AFL after the league officially introduced a wildcard round for its finals series yesterday. Normally, the top 8 sides after the regular season play each other for a shot at the Grand Final, but next year, the teams that finish 9th and 10th will be in the fold as well. The wildcard round is a fixture in US sport, but its introduction into Aussie Rules has been met with a less-than-thrilled response from former players and the fans association, with the main criticism being that it unnecessarily rewards mediocre teams - a team could finish in the bottom half of the 18-team comp, and still win the Grand Final. Plenty are keen on it though - the clubs and the players are all on board - and as this piece points out, it’s also a great way to get the AFL back into the headlines in November… 

Tales to tell back on shore

Fans of Kiwi icons Split Enz will probably know what we’re referring to with that headline… The new wave/pop rock band is making a comeback, headlining Christchurch’s Electric Avenue festival in February before journeying across the Tasman Sea (hopefully not for Six Months In A Leaky Boat…) to tour Oz in May. It’s the first time the band - originally formed in Auckland in 1972 - has reformed in 16 years, so thankfully they didn’t say History Never Repeats on playing live again… Both Tim and Neil Finn will be back on stage playing hits like I See Red and Message To My Girl, alongside fellow members Eddie Rayner, Noel Crombie, Matt Eccles, and James Milne. You can check their tour dates here - tickets go on sale 17 November. We Got You…

Apropos of Nothing

The Coalition may be in all sorts over net zero at the moment - but at least they have a theme song, thanks to this performance of INXS’ Never Tear Us Apart, featuring Nats MP Sam Birrell’s vocals, and Liberal MP Angie Bell’s smooth moves on the sax…

There’s something odd going on at a popular apple orchard/tourism spot in the NSW Blue Mountains - it’s bereft of apples this season, and no one seems to know why. Local experts are on the case, but given it's about the time tourists descend on the area for apple picking, it's a serious worry… 

And a Chinese coffee house has created a stir for borrowing heavily in title and red decor from the nation’s Communist Party. People’s Cafe has apologised and changed its name after the brewhaha…

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEDT) - The 2-day National Multicultural Health and Wellbeing Conference begins at Victoria Pavilion - Melbourne

8.30am (AEDT) - The Museum of Australian Democracy will mark the 50th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor Government by Governor-General John Kerr - Canberra 

9.00am (AEDT) - The Remembrance Day National Ceremony will be held at the Australian War Memorial, with the traditional minute’s silence to be observed at 11am to mark the anniversary of the armistice that ended WWI - Canberra 

9.00am (AEDT) - Coles will hold its Annual General Meeting at Melbourne Park - Melbourne

9.20am (AEDT) - Federal Minister for Industry and Innovation Tim Ayres will address the 2025 Disability Tech Summit at Sydney’s Town Hall - Sydney 

9.30am (AEDT) - Former radio broadcaster Alan Jones returns to court to set a hearing date for his case. He’s facing multiple charges of indecent assault and sexual touching - Sydney

10.00am (AEDT) - Former swimming champ Michael Phelps will speak at the 2-day World Business Forum held at the International Convention and Exhibition Centre - Sydney 

11.30am (AEDT) - Global Spokesperson for UNICEF Australia, James Elder will address the National Press Club on "Children under siege: Bearing witness from the frontlines" - Canberra

1.00pm (AEDT) - The National Superannuation Funds conference begins at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre, running until Thursday - Gold Coast

ABS data releases: Data by region, 2011-2025; Life expectancy, 2022-2025

Iraq will head to the polls for a general election

The Mushroom Tapes, an account of the trial of Erin Patterson written by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein, will be published in Australia 

Singles' Day - a holiday in China that generates around $230 billion in annual sales

A birthday for actors Stanley Tucci (1960), Demi Moore (1962), and Leonardo DiCaprio (1974)

Anniversary of

• the birthday of author Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821)

• Ned Kelly being hanged at Melbourne Gaol (1880)

• the opening of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra (1941)

• the publication of Joseph Heller's novel Catch-22 (1962)