Tuesday, 3 March - Under the sea

March 03, 2026

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 3 March. In your Squiz Today…

  • The war in the Middle East widens as Trump warns there’s more to come

  • Canada’s PM Mark Carney comes to Australia to strengthen trade ties

  • And the chance to see a rare blood moon…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"This is a trick… it looks like a crocodile but that’s probably a log.”

Said Newcastle Mum Stephanie Kirsop after her son rang her to tell her there was a crocodile in Ironbark Creek - about 2,500km from its natural habitat. It’s been moved to a local reptile park, but no one knows how it got to Newy - maybe it’s just a big Knights fan…

The war in Iran wages on

The Squiz

As the fighting in the Middle East widens following the US and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran, we’re getting an idea of the timeline US President Donald Trump is looking at for this operation. Yesterday he said he “always thought it would be 4 weeks”, but warned that the bombings would escalate in the coming days - he told CNN that “we haven’t even started hitting them hard” and “the big one is coming soon.” Speaking from the White House this morning, the President added that he hasn’t ruled out sending in American ground forces.

What’s the latest on the war?

The Iranian Red Crescent (a humanitarian group) says at least 555 Iranians have been killed - including Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, the wife of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s late Supreme Leader. A fourth US service member was confirmed dead this morning, and 11 people have died in Israel. As the death toll grows, more groups and countries are becoming involved - yesterday, the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah claimed credit for strikes against northern Israel - and the Israeli Defence Forces struck Hezbollah targets across Lebanon in response. The war has also led to the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz - a crucial shipping lane, particularly for oil supplies. That's been a major factor in a global spike in the price of oil - which means higher petrol prices are coming our way. 

And what’s the response here at home?

Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that Australia was not involved in the military operation in any way, and wasn’t told about it in advance. But the government says it “supports the US acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon” - the Coalition is also in favour, but the Greens have called it “abhorrent.” In terms of the community response, many Iranian Australians have celebrated Khamenei’s death, while also hoping that it leads to a change in the regime, not just the leader. They’ve also criticised groups holding memorials for Khamenei in Oz - Nos Hosseini from the Iranian Women's Association says "it's deeply insulting… to see people mourning such a controversial figure".

The Iran news has thrown up a lot of questions - especially for young Aussies - and our friends at Squiz Kids have done up an ‘Iran explainer’ podcast to help answer them. It’s all about giving young listeners the tools, vocabulary and emotional reassurance they need to process complex world events. You can find that here...

Canberra, here they come

Squiz Kids has launched a competition, ‘PM For A Day’, and we’re asking Aussie kids to send in a video explaining the one thing they would do to make Australia a better place. The winning prize is a trip for 2 to Canberra for a private tour of Parliament House, a meeting with the Governor General Sam Mostyn - and maybe even a meeting with the (actual) PM Anthony Albanese himself…

It’s all part of The Squiz’s commitment to digital literacy and civics engagement among the next generation. To find out more about the competition and how to enter, go to Squiz Kids - but hurry, entries close on 13 March.

Squiz the Rest

Travel chaos for Aussies

If you’re one of the 115,000 Australians in the Middle East, you’ll already know that the war in Iran is making travel in and out of the region difficult, with major travel hubs closed… Given that, Foreign Minister Penny Wong says “it’s very difficult” to help Aussies wanting to get out - and those in Israel, Iran, the UAE and Qatar have been told to register their details to streamline evacuations ASAP. Brisbane woman Trina Hockley is one of many stuck in Doha after her flight home was cancelled, and says she could “hear the missiles flying overhead” when the fighting began… Here at home, some flights out of Oz are also being cancelled. And FYI - experts say it could be weeks before flights in/out of the Middle East resume…

O Carney…

That’s a reference to Canadian PM Mark Carney, by the way - he’s in Oz for a 3-day visit, starting today. You might remember his speech at the World Economic Forum in January, when he spoke of a changing world in a not-so-veiled swipe at the unpredictability of Canada’s closest neighbours… With that in mind, he’s been meeting with other world leaders to shore up new trade opportunities - he just visited India and PM Narendra Modi, and next up, he’ll head to Japan to meet with PM Sanae Takaichi. While in Oz, he’ll visit Sydney and Canberra, where he’ll address federal parliament, so we’ll be hearing more from him soon…

AI services have been put on notice…

...by the eSafety Commission, which is considering a push for app stores and search engines to block AI tools that don't verify users’ ages. This comes after our world-first ban on social media for kids in December - and now, our online regulator is cracking down on AI companies. They've been given a 9 March deadline to stop under-18s from receiving explicit, violent, self-harm and eating disorder content on tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other chatbots - or face fines of nearly $50 million. As for the push to block non-compliant services, Apple, our top app store operator, said it’ll use “reasonable methods” to stop kids downloading 18+ apps in Oz and other countries following in our footsteps - although it’s yet to say what those methods are... 

Staying pristine in the Sistine

Art restorers at the Vatican are hard at work cleaning a white film of salt that has been building up on The Last Judgement, a famous Michelangelo fresco in the Sistine Chapel. The painting, which was inspired by Dante's The Divine Comedy, has been getting increasingly savoury over the last 3 decades - due to the sweat of tourists passing by to have a gander at it. Cleaning supervisor Fabio Moresi says that “when we sweat, we emit lactic acid…. (which) reacts with the calcium carbonate present on the wall.” So the restorers are using Japanese rice paper dipped in distilled water to carefully remove the film of salt - and those who have seen it up close say the difference is night and day (or, early evening and day, maybe…) 

It’s hard to B-negative about this

Keep your eye on the skies tonight, because it's your last chance in a good long while to see a 'blood moon' - a total lunar eclipse where the moon turns a copper-red colour. It'll be nearly 3 years until we get to see the phenomenon again, but us lucky ducks in Australia and NZ have a chance tonight when the moon descends into Earth's shadow. As a special bonus, ANU astrophysicist Dr Brad Tucker says Jupiter will also be very visible tonight, making “a great pairing”. Like wine and cheese… If you’d like to catch a glimpse of the sanguine stuff, you’ll need to be outdoors - preferably in a dark location outside of the city - between 10.04 and 11.02 AEDT, and then adjust for your local timezone.

Apropos of Nothing

Comedy acting legend Catherine O’Hara is still winning awards, even after her death a month ago - she took out Best Actress at yesterday’s Actor Awards for her work in The Studio. Co-star Seth Rogen said “she showed you can be a genius and be kind”. A lovely tribute… 

Check out the work of ‘turtle panelbeater’ Josh Neille - a sparky by trade - who fixes up the shells of injured turtles in Gippsland and releases them back into the wild. We can’t think of a more noble profession…

And if you’re wondering why your social feeds are suddenly full of mermaids, it could be down to a movement of ‘escapist’ travel hobbies… Some others: romantasy weekends and Bridgerton balls - Instagram boyfriends are really putting in the work…

Squiz the Day

7.00am (AEDT) - Day one of the Australian Financial Review Business Summit (until 4 March). Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock is a keynote speaker - Sydney 

4.00pm (AEDT) - Melbourne Press Club event to discuss the barriers faced by public interest journalism - Melbourne 

Canadian PM Mark Carney arrives in Australia (until 6 March)

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) gender pay gap results for more than 10,500 employers have been released

ABS data release: Mineral and petroleum exploration, December; Government finance statistics, December; Building approvals, January 2026; Balance of payments and international investment position, December 

Life360 full-year financial results released

Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Festival) 

Holi Festival of Colours (until 4 March)

Total Lunar Eclipse 'Blood Moon' - a rare celestial event where the moon will turn reddish for 59 minutes. Check out when you can see it here… 

Birthdays for singer Ronan Keating (1977), actor Jessica Biel (1982) and singer Camila Cabello (1997)

Anniversary of:

  • The UK miners' strike ending (1985)

  • The Star-Spangled Banner becoming America’s national anthem (1931)

  • The city of Palmerston in the Northern Territory being renamed Darwin in honour of Charles Darwin (1911)

  • Japanese forces carrying out air-raids on Broome in WWII, killing at least 70 people (1942)