Tuesday, 28 April - King of the road

April 28, 2026

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 28 April. In your Squiz Today…

  • A man has been charged with attempting to assassinate US President Donald Trump on Sunday morning

  • Today marks 30 years since the Port Arthur Massacre

  • And an incredible record is broken at the London Marathon - twice…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“I selected red and black because that’s the colours of the car that set the world record.”

Said Oz billionaire and Sydney Roosters chairman Nick Politis, who has just bought the fastest car in the world - the YangWang U9 Xtreme, which hits speeds of nearly 500km/h. The only issue: it’s left-hand drive only, so it can’t be driven on our roads yet. But at least it looks fast…

An assassination attempt in Washington

The Squiz

Unless you completely switched off over the weekend, you’ll have likely seen that there was another attempt on US President Donald Trump’s life on Sunday morning, at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner media event. This morning, 31yo Cole Tomas Allen appeared in a federal court in Washington and was charged with the attempted assassination of the President - he didn’t enter a plea and prosecutors haven’t alleged a specific motive yet. His case is set to appear in court again on Thursday night.

Catch me up - what happened?

At 8.34pm on Saturday evening US time, a man barreled through a Secret Service checkpoint outside the ballroom as security personnel drew their weapons. Shots were fired - you can see First Lady Melania Trump react with shock here - and Trump’s personal security quickly surrounded him. The suspect was stopped and arrested before he could make it to the ballroom - here’s a good map of where - and while one officer was shot in his bullet-resistant vest, he’s expected to make a full recovery. And given the White House Correspondents Dinner is a media event - there were also hundreds of journalists on the scene to report on a news story they were unexpectedly close to…

What do we know about the suspect?

Reports say he was a part-time teacher and computer science graduate from California, who had written a 1,000-word manifesto where he referred to himself as “Friendly Federal Assassin” and aired a series of grievances with White House policies. While the document Allen allegedly wrote doesn’t mention Trump by name, it does list other administration officials - although he said he would spare FBI director Kash Patel - as targets. With the shooter getting so close to a major government/media event, it’s raising concerns about the vetting and security - Patel says with plans still in place to re-do the event in the next month, security will be different next time around…

Time to sit back and relax…

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Squiz the Rest

Iran offers a new deal

The country wants the US to end its military operation in return for Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz and deferring talks over its nuclear program to a later date. Peace talks have been in a bit of a holding pattern over the weekend, with a planned meeting in Pakistan cancelled -  but the Trump administration is expected to meet later today to discuss next steps. With the Strait of Hormuz still effectively closed, the global fuel supply situation is still tough going - the latest update is that Oz has 44 days of petrol, 33 days of diesel and 30 days of jet fuel. Foreign Minister Penny Wong is in Japan, China and South Korea this week for meetings on trade, where fuel security will be a hot topic - and Coalition leader Angus Taylor is set to unveil a plan to double our minimum fuel supply reserves today.  

30 years since Port Arthur

Today marks 3 decades since the deadliest mass shooting in modern Australian history, when Martin Bryant killed 35 people and injured 23 more. We’ll have a Shortcut exploring the day in more detail this afternoon, but it’ll be a time of reflection - with a small ceremony in Port Arthur marking those who were lost, and some of the incident’s first responders meeting in their largest ever gathering since the shooting took place. Walter Mikac - who lost his wife Nanette and daughters Alannah and Madeline that day - said “if you could possibly imagine your worst nightmare, that was it.” He set up the Alannah & Madeline Foundation to prevent violence towards children - you can pay your own tribute to those affected by the tragedy at the foundation’s website.

Mr. Mountbatten-Windsor goes to Washington

Despite the security issues in the US, King Charles is going ahead with a pretty high-stakes visit this week. Since the beginning of the war in Iran, UK PM Keir Starmer has refused to get his country involved with the US and Israel’s military efforts in Iran - leading to a stack of criticism from Trump. Despite that, Trump has still been talking up the King - so some UK officials are hoping that this visit will smooth things over between the 2 allies. But others in the UK are upset that Charles is going at all - Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey called Trump “a dangerous and corrupt gangster” and said it was too big a risk for King Charles to stand beside him. The 4-day trip begins today, with Charles set to address the US Congress tomorrow. Lots of eyes on this one…

A record-breaking London Marathon

Kenyan runner Sabastian Sawe registered a mind-boggling achievement over the weekend, running the 42.195km race in under 2 hours. With his time of 1:59:30, he became the only man ever to break that mark, but not for long - Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha became the second only 11 seconds later. But it’s Sawe’s run that has the world talking - with experts going back to Roger Bannister’s sub-4-minute mile in 1954 to find an athletics achievement as momentous as this. And Ethiopian Tigst Assefa blitzed her own world record, running 2:15:41 to win the women’s event for a second straight year. Also running in the race - Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, who crossed the line to - what else - Defying Gravity. We hope she’s happy now… 

The King of pop… corn

Despite some middling-to-poor reviews, a new movie about the life of Michael Jackson is tearing it up with audiences - setting a record for the biggest opening weekend for any biopic, ever. Michael - which stars Jackson’s nephew Jaafar in the lead - only really covers his life up until the late 1980s, and doesn’t touch on the various allegations that have been made against him since. While it’s been criticised for that in some quarters, it hasn’t mattered at all to audiences - it made $303 million worldwide in a single weekend (overtaking previous biopic record-holder Oppenheimer). The film promises a sequel - and with these kinds of numbers, it’ll get one… 

Apropos of Nothing

Not to be outdone by Artemis II, the Curiosity Rover has identified 7 organic molecules on Mars for the first time - the same ones that formed the building blocks for life on Earth. It means that at some point, Mars was habitable - and not just by Matt Damon… 

A Darwin women’s cricket comp is testing a new AI-based ball-tracking tech that - if it takes off - could change the way the sport is umpired. It’s the first ever trial of its kind in Australia - but even it probably can’t clearly explain the rules to a newbie…  

Mystery anthology show The White Lotus is currently filming its fourth season, but it’s made a big change - Helena Bonham Carter is no longer part of the cast. It’s not clear why that is - perhaps the prospect of all those tough weeks spent on the French Riviera…

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEST) - AFR Work Force Summit, speakers include Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood and Jobs and Skills Australia commissioner Barney Glove - Sydney 

12.30pm (AEST) - Coalition defence spokesperson James Paterson to address the National Press Club 

1.00pm (AEST) - Commemorative event marking the 30th anniversary of the Port Arthur shooting - Port Arthur, the event will be broadcast by the ABC

2.00pm (AEST) - Sentence hearing for Christain Charity executive and erotic fiction author Lauren Mastrosa charged with child abuse material offences, Blacktown Local Court - Sydney 

A major court battle involving world’s richest man Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and major tech company Microsoft will begin with jury selection today

30 years since the Port Arthur Massacre (1996)

ABS data release: Australian agriculture: livestock, 2024-2025 financial year; Deaths due to acute respiratory infections, March 2026

A premiere event for The Devil Wears Prada 2 in Sydney, with Oz star Patrick Brammall set to attend

Birthdays for Jimmy Barnes (1956), Penelope Cruz (1974), and Jessica Alba (1981)

Anniversary of:

  • the mutiny on HMS Bounty against William Bligh (1789)

  • 100 years the birth of author Harper Lee (1926)

  • the death of Benito Mussolini (1945)