Tuesday, 25 November - You can get it if you really want

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 25 November. In your Squiz Today…

• Tech giants have begun prepping teens for the social media ban

• There are signs of progress in peace talks over Ukraine

• And vale to an Aussie culinary treasure… 

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Latifa Chambers, announcing the death of her husband, Jamaican reggae legend Jimmy Cliff at 81yo. The musician (best known for You Can Get It If You Really Want, Many Rivers to Cross, and his 90s cover of I Can See Clearly Now) is credited with bringing the “happy rhythm” of reggae to the world. Vale…

Teens given the ol’ heave ho

The Squiz

Hundreds of thousands of Aussie teens will begin receiving memos from social media giant Snapchat this week to warn them of the Albanese Government’s upcoming social media ban for under 16yos. It doesn’t kick in until 10 December, but the US-based company is following in the footsteps of Meta - Facebook and Instagram’s owner - by getting in early. In a statement, Snapchat (a popular messaging app with about 440,000 Australian users aged 13-15yo…) said yesterday that it will start reaching out to those affected and telling them how to download their data before their accounts are deactivated. 

I need a refresher…

This is a good place to start. To summarise: the world-first ban, expected to impact about 1.5 million accounts across 10 platforms, came about when the government passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 12 months ago. But despite having bipartisan support, it’s been controversial… Those in its favour - like eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant - say it will keep our under-16s safe from misogynistic, violent and dangerous content online. The main criticism, though, is that teens might be able to work around the age verification tech that many companies are rolling out… For popular platforms like YouTube, they can just use it without having an account - which the company itself says removes “parental controls and safety filters built to protect them”.

But it’s still happening…

Yep. The companies impacted aren’t happy, but the federal government isn’t budging - the legislation says it’s up to them to work through any issues, and that they must “prevent harm from occurring in the first place”. Those not taking steps to do that will face fines of up to $50 million. And speaking of money… Content creators say the ban could lead to a drop in advertisers and revenue, threatening Australia’s $9 billion social media industry. Melbourne YouTuber Jordan Barclay - who produces gaming content for 23 million followers - says he’s one of several planning a move overseas, despite many other countries watching how the Australian ban plays out, and considering their own…

It’s electrifying…

Switching to electric - whether it’s upgrading your home appliances or driving an EV - needs way more copper than you might realise. A typical electric vehicle uses 3 times more copper than a petrol car - now multiply that by thousands of Australians making the switch. BHP is using AI to find new copper deposits more efficiently, to help meet the surge in demand. From suburban renos to apartment blocks going green, we're looking at a massive increase in copper needs. Head here to discover what's driving the copper surge.

Squiz the Rest

Small steps toward peace 

There has been some progress made in talks between the US, Europe and Ukraine to bring the Russia-Ukraine war to an end, and some of the key players are sounding a bit happier… After Ukraine and its European allies criticised the initial US plan for overly favouring Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said yesterday that negotiators in Geneva have made a “tremendous amount of progress”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed, saying “important steps” had been made - although the ceding of land remains a sticking point. The 2 countries say they now have an “updated framework” that will “fully uphold” the sovereignty of Ukraine, but details beyond that are scarce, and Rubio says there’s still a fair few kinks to be ironed out… 

Tropical Cyclone Fina moves west

The storm moved across the northernmost part of Western Oz overnight, and although the Bureau of Meteorology (the BOM) said it was weakening, it still brought with it damaging winds and heavy rain… Todd Pender, Acting Kimberley Superintendent for the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, said “fortunately”, the warning zone region isn’t hugely populated - with his crews keeping in touch with the 4 residents in the area. It’s a different story in the Top End, where residents have begun to clean up after Fina tore through Darwin and the Tiwi Islands over the weekend, leaving plenty of damage and thousands of residents without power (paywall). The NT’s Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said assessments were being done and she’d have a clearer idea of the damage bill in the coming days.

On the home stretch…

Federal parliament's last sitting week kicked off yesterday, before our pollies head off to whatever their version of Schoolies/Leavers is. Key topics yesterday included the Coalition criticising Chris Bowen’s upcoming role as President of the United Nations climate summit COP31, more back-and-forth over the government’s planned changes to our environmental protection laws, and questions over whether it would back down on a proposed ban on online gambling ads. Late in the day, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson repeated a stunt from 2017 by wearing a burka in the Senate chamber as part of her campaign to ban the garment in Australia. The stunt copped flak from both sides of politics - from Nationals Senator Matt Canavan to Foreign Minister Penny Wong - and the Senate was suspended as a result. 

Vale Skye Gyngell

Put simply, Skye was our favourite Aussie recipe book author with an unexpected backstory. Her father was Bruce Gyngell (aka the first person to appear on Australian television in 1956), and her mother Ann Barr (who died last week…) was a well-known interior designer. Her brother is David Gyngell, the former Nine boss/James Packer sparring partner - but enough about them… A pioneer of the ‘slow food movement’, Skye was an early champion of using local and seasonal ingredients and, with that philosophy, built London’s Petersham Nurseries Cafe into a Michelin star winner. She died at 62yo after being diagnosed with skin cancer last year, and heaps of her contemporaries paid tribute yesterday. Australian chef Kylie Kwong said she was “one of the greatest cooks of all time”. Hear hear… 

Overlooking a key plank

The Formula One team McLaren has apologised to its 2 drivers, Brit Lando Norris and Aussie Oscar Piastri, after a technical snafu led to both being disqualified after Sunday’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Get ready for some technical details… The offending equipment was the plank (aka skid blocks), which sits under the car. If the car drags along the ground during the race (creating an unfair aerodynamic advantage by being low to the ground), the plank can erode - and if the 10mm plank erodes by more than 1mm, that's a DQ. It cost Norris and Piastri points and brought Dutch champ Max Verstappen firmly into the title picture. The next GP is this coming weekend in Qatar, and Piastri is still a chance to take the Drivers Championship - here’s a good explainer on how he could do it.

Apropos of Nothing

A 21yo Ukrainian has become his country’s first-ever winner of the Emperor’s Cup - an elite sumo tournament. Danylo Yavhusishyn left Ukraine during the Russian invasion in 2022 - now known by his sumo ring name Aonishiki, he’s taking the sport by storm… 

A Missouri judge has agreed to step down from his role after he wore an Elvis wig and played Elvis music to try to lighten the mood in court. Matthew Thornhill says he now sees that might have been a bad call - maybe he took the song Jailhouse Rock too seriously… 

And Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of the Year is AI slop, meaning low-quality content spat out by generative AI that's neither helpful nor correct. Honourable mentions went to medical misogyny and attention economy - no time for wading through AI slop in that…

Squiz the Day

There’s a bit happening in the US this morning as we hit publish - here’s a couple of breaking stories we’ll be keeping tabs on today:
 
A federal judge has dismissed criminal cases against former FBI boss James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James

And the Trump Administration has formally listed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as a member of a Foreign Terrorist Organisation, being the Cartel de los Soles. Our latest Squiz Shortcut will get you across the background here…

9.30am (AEDT) - Parties will give oral submissions at the closing of the coronial inquest into the Bondi Junction stabbing attack in April 2024 - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - Star Entertainment Group’s AGM will be held at the Star Gold Coast - Broadbeach, Queensland 

10.00am (AEDT) - Associate Professor Tim Nelson will address the National Electricity Market Review alongside executives from Transgrid, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and Endeavour Energy. Hosted by CEDA - Sydney

10.30am (AEDT) - Ramsay Health Care will hold its AGM at the Shangri-La - Sydney

11.00am (AEDT) - HMAS Arafura, the first of the Royal Australian Navy's new Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessels, will arrive in Tasmania - Hobart

11.00am (AEDT) - Health Minister Mark Butler and Assistant Minister for Mental Health Emma McBride will highlight perinatal mental health challenges at an event at Parliament House - Canberra

6.30pm (AEDT) - The Marie Krogh Young Women in Science Prize will be celebrated at the National Press Club - Canberra

6.30pm (AEDT) - Brett Whiteley's oil painting 'Midday at Wategos Beach’, Byron Bay 1989-1990' will go under the hammer at Smith & Singer’s end-of-year auction - Sydney

ABS data releases: 2026 Census topics and data release plan; Microdata: Longitudinal Labour Force, 1982-2025

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Statehood Day

It's a month until Christmas... 🎄

National Play Day with Dad

Anniversary of:

• the birth of American baseball player Joe DiMaggio (1914)

• the debut of cartoon character Woody Woodpecker in Knock Knock (1940)

• Suriname gaining independence from the Netherlands (1975) 

• the death of Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro (2016)