Tuesday, 18 November - Dust yourself off and try again

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 18 November. In your Squiz Today…

• Recalls have been issued for children’s play sand found to contain traces of asbestos

• Bangladesh’s former PM has been sentenced to death

• And a Nestflix update…

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Squiz Sayings

Said champion snowboarder Torah Bright, one of 7 new inductees to the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. The Olympic gold medallist said self-belief is a muscle that needs training, and "no dream is too big". As they say on the slopes, fresh tracks await...

Sand tub trouble

The Squiz

Specialist asbestos contractors have been at work in schools and early learning centres across the country after recalls were issued for a number of children’s play sand products due to contamination concerns. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has recalled 2 brands of sand sold at more than 80 retailers, including Officeworks, Target and Kmart, from 2020 to 2025. Dozens of schools in Canberra and one in Brisbane were closed on Friday to allow cleaning crews in, and more than 70 schools were still impacted in the ACT, Northern Territory and South Oz as the week got underway… 

What do we know about it?

First things first - 2 types of asbestos were detected during lab tests of the coloured play sand: tremolite and chrysotile. Both of them fall under our national ban on asbestos, which has been in place since 2003. But the products were manufactured in China, and it’s not yet clear how they became contaminated… Experts say the most dangerous type of asbestos, crocidolite, hasn’t been found, and the risk is low. SA Health’s Dr Chris Lease says “the asbestos that’s present in the product itself is non-respirable, so it can’t be taken up into the lungs”. Still, if you have the products at home, the recommendation is to glove/mask up, double wrap the sand/packaging and search for your closest asbestos disposal site.

It’s not just Oz…

Nope. Across the ditch, Kiwi authorities were quick to take action after our contamination announcements, recalling similar sand products nationwide. Reports say more than 240 education facilities had asked for advice by Sunday, and dozens of schools were closed yesterday… Some schools told parents they could be closed for up to 3 days "out of an abundance of caution" as testing and cleaning are carried out. Here at home, different states/territories are taking different approaches… About 25 schools in the ACT and at least 9 in Tasmania are closed today while testing/cleaning is underway in affected classrooms across NSW, Queensland, Victoria, the Northern Territory, South Oz and Western Oz.

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Squiz the Rest

Bangladesh’s former leader Sheikh Hasina has been sentenced to death…

…over her hardline crackdown against student protests in July last year that came to be known as the Gen Z Revolution. The former PM has been in exile in India since she was removed from power, so she was sentenced in absentia for crimes against humanity. This relates to her ordering Bangladesh's military to use lethal force to stop the protests in the capital Dhaka and other cities, in which around 1,400 people died. Reports say the uprising was in response to years of economic inequality and corruption under Hasina's rule, and it was called the Gen Z Revolution because university students used social media to organise protests. Bangladesh's interim government said it was a "profound" and "historic" day. Responding to the sentence, Hasina said the trial was "biased and politically motivated". 

Trump changes his tune on the Epstein files

US President Donald Trump is now backing the proposed release of documents regarding the convicted sex offender and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. This is about a bill the US House of Representatives will vote on this week, which would force the release of all files and communications regarding Epstein, as well as the investigation into his 2019 death in federal prison. Trump has previously said the focus on the Epstein files is a hoax and called Republicans who wanted to release them ‘weak’, but he now supports their release and says “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on”. The vote is likely to happen around Wednesday morning our time, and it’s tipped to pass - though it will then go to the Senate, where its future isn’t quite so certain. But expect to hear a lot more about it this week… 

Ley’s role is in a poll hole

The Coalition might have resolved its net zero differences on Sunday, but its polling is still a big problem… The latest numbers from both The Australian and the Financial Review have the Coalition’s primary vote at a new record low of 24%, with most of that being picked up by Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, which hit a record high of 18% in one of those polls. Hanson says that’s due to her stance on immigration, while Coalition leader Sussan Ley says she’s ignoring the polls and sticking to her guns on net zero/power prices. She’s not the only leader under pressure - Victorian Liberal leader Brad Battin is set to face a leadership spill today after less than a year in the job, and there are also questions about NSW Liberal leader Mark Speakman’s position as well. ‘Tis the season?

Vale Paige Greco

The cyclist and Paralympic gold medallist died at 28yo due to a “sudden medical episode” at her home in Adelaide on Sunday. Greco won our first gold of the Tokyo Games with a world record Women’s C1-C3 3000m individual pursuit - you can see that race here. Greco was born with cerebral palsy and started her sporting career in athletics before moving to para-cycling in 2017 (and polishing off a sports science degree along the way). Despite an accident in a 2023 race resulting in a bad concussion, she made it back to the track and competed in the Para-cycling Road World Championships in August this year. Her Mum Natalie said “her kindness, her determination and her warmth touched our family every single day”. 

A blue Sky session

The TV network Sky Sports UK has beaten a hasty retreat after launching a new TikTok channel tailored to women that went down like a lead balloon. Halo - which was branded as the ‘lil sis’ of the network, posted sports content with a pink colour scheme, and references matcha and “hot girl walks”. It was an attempt to reach a new audience but it was poorly received, to say the least - commenters called it “patronising and misogynistic” and said “women do not need a dumbed down version of sports”. We would show you some of the posts, but they’re gonski - Sky took the channel down 3 days after launch and apologised, saying “we’ve listened” and “we didn’t get it right”. More matches, less matchas…

Apropos of Nothing

Thousands of viewers riveted by Melbourne’s peregrine falcon chicks on ‘Nestflix’ were rewarded when the 3 stars took their first flight over the city this week. One had a bit of a rough landing, but it shook off the drama like a reality TV pro and relaunched…

The 6-7 phenomenon - a borderline nonsense phrase popular amongst teens and TikTokers - has well and truly infiltrated sports - crowds are now going nuts every time college basketball teams in the US hit the score. It’s now been a thing for well over 6-7 months… 

A former church might seem an unusual place for a library of Internet history, but that’s exactly how one is being used in California - to store and run the Wayback Machine, a copy of webpages that just added its one-trillionth page to the archives…

Squiz the Day

8.30am (AEDT) - Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen, will be joined by his Tuvaluan and Vanuatuan counterparts in a panel on decarbonisation in the Pacific at COP30 - Belem, Brazil

9.00am (AEDT) - The Indigenous Leadership Summit 2025 kicks off for a 4-day event at Sydney Masonic Centre - Sydney

9.15am (AEDT) - The Standing Committee on Economics will conduct its annual review into Australia’s 4 major banks at Parliament House - Canberra

10.00am (AEST) - A public hearing will take place as part of the Queensland Government’s Commission of Inquiry into Child Safety - Brisbane 

10.30am (AEDT) - Lachlan Young is due to be sentenced for the murder of Hannah McGuire in April 2024 - Ballarat, Victoria

10.30am (AWST) - Chief Executive of Financial Advice Association Australia (FAAA), Sarah Abood, will deliver an address at the FAAA Congress - Perth 

11.00am (AEST) - Australian software service company Technology One will release its 2025 Annual Report - Brisbane

11.00am (AWST) - PM Anthony Albanese and his Cabinet will attend a ministry meeting at Bunbury Council Chambers - Bunbury, Western Oz

11.30am (AEDT) - Chief Executive of FutureCoal, Michelle Manook, will address the National Press Club of Australia on ‘Thank You for Not Coaling— when the world insists coal has no future, what would you do?’ - Canberra

1.30pm (AWST) - Northern Star Resources will hold its Annual General Meeting at the QV1 Conference Centre - Perth

4.15pm (AEDT) - The 2026 Australian of the Year Awards for Tasmania will be announced at the Theatre Royal - Hobart 

6.30pm (AEDT) - Trade Minister Don Farrell will deliver the keynote address of the Sydney Institute annual dinner lecture, held at the Fullerton Hotel - Sydney 

10.00pm (AEDT) - Tennis: the Davis Cup Finals begin and continue until Sunday - Bologna, Italy, watch on 9Now

ABS data releases: Patient experiences, 2024-2025; Livestock Products, Australia, September 2025; Perinatal deaths, 2024; Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups, 2025

Birthdays for author Margaret Atwood (1939), TV writer Steven Moffat (1961), actor Owen Wilson (1968), and former Coalition Leader Peter Dutton (1970)

Anniversary of:

• the consecration of St. Peter's Basilica (1626)

• Brooklyn toymaker Morris Michton naming a stuffed bear the ‘teddy bear’ after US President Teddy Roosevelt (1902)

• Mickey Mouse's birthday - on the anniversary of the release of his first appearance in Walt Disney's Steamboat Willie (1928)

• the Jonestown Massacre when cult leader Jim Jones convinced more than 900 people to drink poison (1978)

• the release of One Direction's debut album Up All Night (2011)

• the release of the video game Minecraft (2011)