Tuesday, 23 September - Take me to the river

September 23, 2025

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 23 September. In your Squiz Today…

  • The fallout from Optus’s deadly network outage continues

  • NATO sends a stern warning to Russia after more drone incursions

  • And the Brownlow medal winner is…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“Involved sequentially.”

Is how marine biologist Dr Hugo Lassauce described 3 leopard sharks caught on camera for the first time ever having a… menage a trois, we’ll call it. It’s significant because it’ll help scientists better understand reproductive behaviour in the endangered sharks. Just doing their bit for the species…

An Optus storm is brewing

The Squiz

Optus is in the firing line after its deadly triple-0 outage last week, with PM Anthony Albanese calling the company’s behaviour “completely unacceptable”. He was asked yesterday about the outage - which has been linked to at least 3 people’s deaths - and what penalties the company might face. He said the first step is a “thorough investigation” - which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has begun - and also reckons he won’t be surprised if the company’s Chief Executive, Stephen Rue, resigns… That hasn’t happened yet, but Rue has apologised. Communications Minister Anika Wells says there are “no excuses” for what happened, though, and she’s warned there will be consequences.

Remind me what happened…

Optus was carrying out a routine upgrade to its network on Thursday when a technical failure struck… Regular calls were still connecting, but triple-0 calls - which operate separately to calls on the normal network - were blocked. The outage lasted for about 13 hours, and around 600 emergency calls, from people in Western Oz, South Oz, the Northern Territory and NSW, weren’t able to get through in that time. We also learned over the weekend that customers notified Optus call centre staff about the outage, but the complaints weren’t escalated. And we’ve begun hearing from some of the victims… A former triple-0 operator, Kirsty McPherson, couldn’t get through on her mobile when her mum became pinned under her mobility scooter. She eventually used her work landline, but says her family has lost faith in Optus and is changing providers.

They’re probably not alone…

Far from it. One of the most vocal critics has been South Oz Premier Peter Malinauskas, who slammed Optus’s delayed response to the outage - which, for the record, was its second in 2 years. Malinauskas said he’s “not witnessed such incompetence from an Australian corporation” before, in respect to its communications. He’s referring there to Optus holding a press conference on Friday to discuss the outage before fully explaining to authorities what was going on. And ACMA’s Chair Nerida O’Loughlin had a similar complaint - she said the agency wasn’t told about the outage until after it was fixed, which isn’t the typical process. As part of the investigation, she said ACMA will “look at just what information [telcos] need to provide to all of us when they can get it to us... It was just too late”.

Wrapped in comfort from day one

Love To Dream’s newborn swaddle collection has become a go-to for parents wanting safer, better sleep for their babies. Now, it’s got the tick of approval from The Royal Hospital for Women Foundation, which supports 20,000 women and babies across NSW. If you’re expecting - or know someone who is - it's a good one. Explore the collection here.

Squiz the Rest

Sounding the alarm over Russia

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies have sent a stern warning to Russia to stay out of its airspace at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council overnight. It follows recent incursions by 3 Russian military jets into Estonian airspace last Friday. You might remember Poland raising the issue recently after drones from Russia/Belarusian territory ended up in their airspace during an attack on Ukraine, and then last week Romania accused Moscow of a similar incursion. NATO allies like the UK, Germany, and Italy have since sent jets to patrol Eastern Europe. Overnight, British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper accused Russia of risking direct armed confrontation with NATO, calling its actions "reckless". That was backed up by the US, with President Donald Trump saying America would join allies to defend NATO territory. Russia's Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmytry Polyanskiy denied the incursions, saying “we won’t be partaking in this theatre of the absurd”. 

A hard pill to swallow

Speaking of Trump, reports say he’s about to drop a health bombshell that will suggest there's a link between taking painkillers containing paracetamol during pregnancy and autism. The controversial findings are said to be in Health Secretary RFK Jr's 'Make America Healthy Again' report, and specifically name Tylenol - a widely used pain relief drug in the US - along with low levels of the vitamin folate as potential links to autism. To explain, autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person’s brain develops and functions. Trump’s not downplaying it, saying: “I think we found an answer to autism”. He’s also expected to speak about a possible treatment... But medical experts aren’t convinced - many have panned the report, saying studies have proven that the pain medicine is safe to use in pregnancy. Our Federal Health Minister Mark Butler says he’s looking closely at the reports out of the US, and if you're a pregnant woman with concerns, you should talk to a medical professional.

A reno blowout…

Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock was at Parliament House yesterday, and amongst the usual inflation talk was an unusual topic - office renos. The RBA has been doing up its headquarters in Martin Place in Sydney - that was originally supposed to cost $260 million, but after huge amounts of asbestos were discovered, it was revealed last month that the cost has blown out to an eye-watering $1.2 billion (of taxpayers’ money). And Bullock said yesterday she had “low confidence” it won’t end up costing even more than that. While the RBA sorts that out, expect to see more of it in the news next week - the board’s next monetary policy meeting (in a hopefully asbestos-free environment) begins next Monday, with a decision on interest rates due Tuesday. 

A controversial night at the Brownlow… 

…with Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell blowing away the competition to win with 39 votes. Brownlow medal votes are decided by the umpires after each game, and Rowell got off to a flyer with the maximum 3 votes in his first 4 games and said he was “pretty speechless” to win. The scale of his surprise victory has raised questions over whether the umpires should still be responsible for voting, given he scored 3 votes in a handful of games where he wasn’t considered by experts to be in the best group of players on the ground. But that wasn’t even the biggest controversy - this moment, where Saints star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera didn’t win 3 votes for what was lauded as the best individual performance in any game this season, shocked the room (and the Internet). There was nothing nearly as controversial on the red carpet - here’s a gallery of some of the night’s best looks… 

It’s not easy being clean

The US city of Chicago has seen locals take the plunge in its river for the first time in almost a century, in a remarkable turnaround for a body of water that was previously best described as a bit yucky. You might know the Chicago River as the one the city turns green every St Patrick's Day, but it's been in a real state for decades - local river advocates say it was basically used as an extension of the city's sewer system. But after years and years of work cleaning it up, it slowly returned to being more of a, well, river - with fish, beavers and even this snapping turtle known as Chonkosaurus making their way back to the waterway. And now humans have returned as well, with even Olympic gold medallist Olivia Smoliga among those to brave the (heavily-tested) waters.

Apropos of Nothing - Speed demon edition

This year’s Berlin Marathon had a surprise famous face in the crowd - British pop singer Harry Styles. Styles used a pseudonym to compete but managed to finish the race in under 3 hours, which marathon runners say is not bad going at all… 

Also setting a brisk pace were Aussie brothers Jett and Hunter Lawrence, who took out the top 2 spots at the SuperMotocross World Champs this weekend - winning millions in prizemoney in the process. The family that races together, wins together… 

And going even faster than that was Chinese EV company BYD, whose Yangwang U9 supercar has broken the world land speed record by a car that can be driven on public roads. At a pacy 496.22 km/h, it’s an electric vehicle that’s lightning-fast…

Squiz the Day

🐻 9.00am (AEST) - This year’s contenders and the bracket for 2025’s Fat Bear Week will be revealed - Alaska

9.00am (AEST) - Whip out to Winton, the 2025 Outback Festival opens (until 27 September) - Winton, Queensland

9.00am (AEST) - Myer will release its 2025 financial year results

9.00am (ACST) - AIMEX, the Asia Pacific's Mining Exhibition begins (until 25 September) - Adelaide

10.45am (AEST) - The winner of the 2025 Brownlow Medal, Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell, will be speaking at a press conference - Melbourne

12.00pm (AEST) - Queensland Premier David Crisafulli will deliver his first State of the State address at an event hosted by CEDA - Brisbane

1.00pm (AEST) - The Australian Energy Market Operator will release its annual results for 2025

7.00pm (AEST) - Milan Fashion Week opens (until 29 September) - Milan, Italy

11.00pm (AEST) - The General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly begins with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's opening address (until 27 September) - New York, US

ABS data release: Labour Force Status of Families, June 2025

Kamala Harris's memoir of her 2024 election campaign, 107 Days, will be released

Saudi Arabia's National Day

Birthdays for musician Bruce Springsteen - aka The Boss - (1949) and Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander (1959)

Anniversary of:

  • The founding of Nintendo Koppai (later Nintendo Company) by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and market the Japanese card game Hanafuda (1889)

  • The birth of Ray Charles (1930) and the death of Sigmund Freud (1939)

  • The premiere of the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and the sitcom Modern Family (2009)