Tuesday, 13 May - Hello from the other side

May 13, 2025

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 13 May. In your Squiz Today…

  • The PM’s new-look cabinet is set to be sworn in

  • The US and China hit pause on tariffs

  • And making music from the great beyond…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“You could feel Carla in the room … She will always be with us.”

Said Alexander Schuman, son of the late fashion designer Carla Zampatti and now CEO of her iconic label, which opened the new-look Australian Fashion Week last night in Sydney. He’s hoping to attract the attention of international buyers so the brand can strut its stuff overseas as well as locally. Here’s a peek at what was on the catwalk…

Teamwork makes the dream work

The Squiz

Like any proud furnituremaker, the PM Anthony Albanese revealed his new cabinet and other frontbench assignments to the world yesterday ahead of their swearing in at Government House today. And like all good reshuffles, it’s taken a bit from column A (portfolio restructuring) and a bit from column B (settling factional scores)... 

Give me the highlights… 

Intelligence agency ASIO and the Federal Police will be brought back under the Home Affairs portfolio. Labor dismantled that arrangement, and insiders say it led to issues like the PM being left out of the loop on the so-called caravan terror plot last year. Tony Burke continues as the minister there. And the NDIS has been brought under Health Minister Mark Butler’s department - it was looking for a new home after Bill Shorten left politics last year. As for managing personnel issues, Mark Dreyfus and Ed Husic were dropped, with Michelle Rowland becoming Attorney-General and Senator Tim Ayres appointed Industry Minister. And Albanese’s awkward hugger-in-chief/rival Tanya Plibersek has been demoted from Environment to Social Services. He says she’s “very positive” about the move… 

And how’s the Coalition faring? 

It’s nice of you to ask. Current Nationals leader David Littleproud beat Queensland Senator Matt Canavan in their partyroom vote yesterday. Note: the Nats spill the leadership after every election, but there was a fair bit on the line after Canavan suggested last week that the Nationals should split with the Liberals. Kevin Hogan will be his deputy after the previous number 2 Perin Davey lost her Senate seat in last weekend’s election. And it’s all on for the Liberals today - deputy leader Sussan Ley and Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor have announced their candidacy, while re-elected Goldstein MP Tim Wilson has pulled out of the race.

Blindingly easy home improvement

Weekends are prime time for tackling home improvement projects, and changing your blinds might be a good place to start. Not only can they make your place more energy efficient, they can make it look a million bucks (or maybe $5 million if you're in a property hotspot...). For an easy home upgrade, get a consultation and quote now with DIYBlinds - they're also offering a 15% discount and a 30-day price lock in, so get on it.

Squiz the Rest

An Australian killed in Ukraine

Former soldier Nick Parsons was volunteering with a humanitarian agency clearing landmines when he died last Tuesday in an incident near Izyum, which is in the east of Ukraine. We don’t know details about what happened yet, but yesterday officials said that Parsons was working with the charity Prevail Together and that their chairman Chris Garrett died as well. Ukrainian ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said Parsons “was on a very important mission, a demining mission” and that Ukraine was “thankful to him and for his courageous work”. There are now millions of mines in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of 2022 - the United Nations says it’s now the most “contaminated” country in the world. 

The US has hit the pause button…

…on its tariff tit-for-tat with China, which has seen the taxes on imports between the 2 countries rise as high as 147%. After a chat on the weekend in Geneva, they’ve agreed to bring those rates down significantly, meaning that companies in the 2 countries won’t need to pay more than twice as much for the goods that they import from each other. US tariffs on Chinese imports will drop from 145% to 30%, while Chinese tariffs on some US imports will fall from 125% to 10%. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the 2 major global economies would pause any more tariff action for 90 days, giving them time to negotiate on a longer-term trade deal. Bessent was pretty happy about that, but not as happy as investors were - US markets - and the US dollar shot up overnight on the back of the pause. 

A change at the top of ANZ 

After nearly 10 years as CEO, Shayne Elliott stepped down on Friday, and new face Nuno Matos is setting up his desk. You'll probably see his name pop up in the news a bit and, as it's one of our biggest/important companies, here's some background… Matos was born in Portugal and spent a lot of time in the Spanish banking industry before working for international bank HSBC. He’s taking over ANZ after a year where it’s got in a bit of strife with the corporate cop ASIC, which is investigating alleged manipulation of the price of government bonds. Matos was straight onto that - his first meeting was with the relevant team and he says he wants ANZ to be the “most trusted and admired bank” in Australia. Someone should tell him about Aussies’ innate fondness for big businesses… 

An injection of hope

We know that injections of weight loss drugs can help with shedding kilos and, through that, help ward off obesity-related diseases. But new research presented at the European Congress on Obesity shows that the anti-inflammatory properties of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could also be helpful in preventing common cancers, including breast and colorectal, as well as cancers that are hard to treat, like pancreatic and ovarian. Cancer expert Professor Mark Lawler said that while broader testing is needed, the early results “could herald a whole new era of preventive cancer medicine”. To further test the theory, a team of UK scientists is planning a large-scale clinical trial involving tens of thousands of patients, which they hope will bring about “an intervention … on a population scale”.

Creating from the great beyond

Here’s some art to wrap your head around… An exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia called Revivification features the brain of a dead composer creating new music in real time. It sounds a bit sci-fi, so here’s how it works… In 2020, American experimental composer Alvin Lucier donated his blood for the project before he died in 2021. Scientists at Harvard took his white blood cells and turned them into stem cells, which were then turned into a structure that’s a bit like a human brain. That brain is stored in a jar within the exhibition, which captures its electrical activity and turns it into sound. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that Lucier is still making music after his death, but we’re onboard. The exhibition is on until 23 August if you want to take a look/listen…

Apropos of Nothing

Speaking of stuff happening in Western Oz, the Tillies are heading over to launch their June/July FIFA Women’s International Window. They’ll first take on Slovenia in 2 matches at HBF Park in Perth, before making their Bunbury debut against Panama in July.  

Over 3,000 puffins have begun their annual journey across the Atlantic to reach the Yorkshire coast in time for the northern summer. The birds mate for life, with returning visitors of the Bempton Cliff Nature Reserve reporting that they see the same pair year after year. Cute… 

It’s Eurovision week, and Estonia’s entry Espresso Macchiato by rapper and singer Tommy Cash has caused outrage over complaints that it mocks Italian stereotypes. Cash has got form - his debut song Untz Untz was a spoof on German techno culture. Don’t expect many votes from the German/Italian judges this year, Estonia… 

Squiz the Day

9.30am (AEST) - Former broadcaster Alan Jones’s case over historical sexual assault allegations is back in court - Sydney

9.30am (AEST) - The cases of former nurses Ahmad Rashad Nadir and Sarah Abu Lebdeh are due back in court. They’re charged with making antisemitic comments on video footage in March - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - The federal Liberal Party will meet to elect its new leader and deputy leader - Canberra 

1.00pm (AEST) - Yoorrook Justice Commission chair Eleanor Bourke will address the Melbourne Press Club ahead of the truth-telling inquiry delivering its final report - Melbourne

3.30pm (AEST) - Labor’s newly appointed cabinet will be sworn in at a ceremony before Governor-General Sam Mostyn - Canberra

US President Donald Trump will kick off a visit to the Middle East in Saudi Arabia - it comes after the last living American hostage in Gaza was released by Hamas, but reports say his trip will be focused on business rather than geopolitics, and it doesn’t include a stop in Israel   

The Menendez brothers are back in court in a bid for shorter sentences - Los Angeles

ABS Data Release - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, March; Building approvals, March

Coeliac Awareness Week begins (on until 20 May) 

Birthdays for musician Stevie Wonder (1950), former PM Scott Morrison (1968), and actors Lena Dunham (1986) and Robert Pattinson (1986)

Anniversary of:

  • Captain Arthur Phillip leaving Portsmouth, England with 11 ships of criminals bound for Botany Bay (1787)

  • the first ever race of the Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship (1950)

  • the death of actor Ruth Cracknell (2002)

Wednesday
3.30am (AEST) - Cannes Film Festival gets underway with the first film screening (until 24 May) - Cannes, France