Tuesday, 27 October - Now you're lost, lost in the heat of it all

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 27 October. In your Squiz Today…

• Israel gets ready to vote in its election

• AI company Anthropic announces plans to list on the US stock market

• And walk, don’t run - we have a new Oz world record holder… 🚶🏼‍♀️

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams, Anna Pykett, Larissa Huntington, and Sophie Felice

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said one confused holidaymaker on the first international flight to land at the new Western Sydney airport yesterday. Didn’t miss by much - just 3,240km and another 5 hours in the air to go…

Israel votes

The Squiz

We’re well and truly in election season, and today it’s Israelis who are heading to the polls to elect a new Knesset - the country’s national parliament. It’s being described as one of the most consequential votes in the country’s history, because it’s the first since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, and long-serving leader Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing tight competition from the former head of the Israel Defence Forces, Gadi Eisenkot.

Why is it so close?

PM Netanyahu has always pitched himself as ‘Mr Security’ - and security is one of the key issues for voters this year. He argues he’s the best person to keep Israel safe, but he’s also facing questions over how the terrorist group Hamas was able to breach Israel’s borders. Netanyahu has refused to accept responsibility for the security failure and rejected calls from his political rivals, including Eisenkot, for an independent inquiry into what happened. Eisenkot leads the Yashar party (which means ‘straight’ or ‘honest’) and he’s built his campaign around that call for an inquiry, partly because his son was killed fighting in the ensuing war in Gaza. Analysts reckon that because he’s a relative political newcomer, he’s appealing to voters who want to see an alternative to Netanyahu.

When will we get results?

It could take a while. We should get exit polls around 7am AEDT tomorrow, but official results aren’t likely until 4 November. Once they come through, President Isaac Herzog will ask the leader of the party he believes has the best chance of forming a government to do so - but because of all the wheeling and dealing that comes with sorting out an Israeli coalition government, this could take up to 6 weeks. Polls say Yashar has a narrow lead, but it’s very close - and plenty of Israeli expats and dual citizens living in Oz are flying back to have their say. Whichever way it goes, it’ll be closely watched by the Albanese Government, which has had a difficult relationship with Israel recently - and a change of government might cool things down a bit.

Squiz the Rest

Parliament pauses for Helen Haines

Federal MPs were united in paying tribute to their colleague yesterday - the first sitting day since the independent member for Indi was severely injured in an alleged car attack on 19 October. In her seat was an orange cockatoo - her campaign symbol. Haines was the first of our federal MPs to sign what’s called a ‘civility pledge’ - a promise to act with “honesty, respect and compassion” in politics. Yesterday, several of her Canberra colleagues followed suit, but both PM Anthony Albanese and Coalition leader Angus Taylor warned against taking things too far. The PM said “we must not conflate the robustness of Australian democracy with this rising tide of rage” and Taylor said there is no “causal connection between robust parliamentary debate and political violence”.

Drawing the line

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has refused to take down violent cartoons from the party’s YouTube and social media accounts. One posted in 2023 shows Senator Lidia Thorpe being run over by a bus, and another posted in 2024 depicts former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews being rammed by a car, followed by Robert Irwin and Bluey. In the wake of the alleged car attack on Helen Haines, Hanson has copped a heap of criticism over the videos - particularly after AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett linked heated political language with a rise in threats against politicians. But Hanson says the cartoons “have nothing to do with” what happened to Haines and that "free speech, satire, criticism and debate are essential to our democracy” and must be protected.

Anthropic files to list on the US stock market

The artificial intelligence company behind the Claude chatbot is preparing to become the first of the big US AI labs to go public, in what investors reckon could be one of the largest stock market debuts in history. It could be valued at up to $2.8 trillion, which would make it one of the largest public companies in the world, and this is being seen as a benchmark for how Wall Street values leading AI companies, including rival OpenAI. But there’s still a fair bit we don’t know - Anthropic hasn’t said how many shares are going to be released or how much they’re going to cost. Reports say it could be ready to start trading on the Nasdaq on 16 November in the US, so that’ll be 17 November for us here in Oz.

Walking the walk

We have a new world record holder - Rebecca Henderson has blitzed the global mark for the race walk marathon. This particular event is the newest addition to the race walking calendar (aka the sport where competitors must keep one foot on the ground at all times - the same one that gave us Jane Saville’s devastating DQ from the Sydney 2000 Olympics). Henderson had no such trouble - the 25yo took 19 seconds off the existing record at the All Japan Race Walking meet on Sunday. In doing so, she’s the first Aussie non-disabled track and field athlete to set an official world record in a championship event in 20 years. And if you’ve ever tried running a marathon, you might want to look away before we tell you her time - 3 hours, 15 minutes.

And squawking the squawk

Last week, 40 kids from the far south coast of NSW and Snowy Mountains gathered in Merimbula to compete in the 2026 Bournda Bird Olympics. The competition has students recreate the calls of native Australian birds like kookaburras, Australian ravens and yellow-tailed black cockatoos, and this year’s winners were the students from Tathra Public School. Judges had a tough job - they assessed the calls on not only accuracy and technique, but also the creativity and courage of the participants. One judge said picking a winner was the hardest part of the day and that it was really all about seeing the kids engage with nature. Cacaw cacaw (that’s our entry BTW…).

Apropos of Nothing

The former Prime Minister of New Zealand, Dame Jacinda Ardern, is joining Sydney University after moving to Oz earlier this year. She’ll be hosting guest lectures and says her work will focus on empathetic leadership, social cohesion and civic trust. Kia ora, class…

An amateur prospector has found a 1.2kg gold nugget near the NSW town of Tibooburra. The nugget could fetch up to $200,000, and the anonymous prospector has called it the ‘Tibooburra spud’ (and it really does look like a spud). 

And Australia’s rep at the Barista World Championships, Gabrel Tan, finished up in 4th place yesterday. First place went to Pan Wei from China, who created a signature drink with a coffee cherry honey infusion. Might be a tricky one to recreate on the Breville…

Squiz the Day

7.30am (AEDT) - The CEDA AI Leadership Summit begins (until 28 October) - Sydney 

9.00am (AEST) - The Forklift Operator of the Year competition. 10 finalists are competing for a share of the $5000 prize on a specially designed course - Brisbane

10.00am (AEDT) - CSL AGM - Melbourne 

12.00pm (AEDT) - Victoria Votes: What it means for business forum where Victorian Premier Ben Carroll and Victorian Liberal Party leader Jess Wilson will discuss their priorities, policies and vision for the state - Melbourne 

7.30pm (AEDT) - Cricket: Third Test match Australia v South Africa (until 31 October) - Cape Town, watch on Kayo

Israel Knesset election 

ABS data release: causes of death, 2025 

VCE written exams begin in Victoria for Year 12 

Cricket: round 3 of the Sheffield Shield begins

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 

Birthdays for John Cleese (1939) and David Warner (1986)

Anniversary of:

• China announcing its population had reached 1 billion people (1982)

• the release of the groundbreaking film Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

• the announcement that Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (1978)

• the release of Amy Winehouse's second and final studio album Back to Black (2006)

• the release of Taylor Swift's fifth studio album 1989 (2014)

• the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 people dead (2018)

• the birthdays of James Cook (1728), Theodore Roosevelt (1858), Roy Lichtenstein (1923) and Sylvia Plath (1932)

• the death of Lou Reed (2013)

Housekeeping

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