Tuesday, 6 August - Like wow, wipe-out

🙋🏻‍♀️ Scroll on for The Paris Sprint, our short ‘n sweet Olympics update…

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 6 August. In your Squiz Today…

• Australia’s terror threat rises

• The ASX takes a battering

• And a golden trifecta for the Fox family…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Is a hot question on the streets of Paris as collectors from all over the world are in a frenzied search for unique commemorative Olympic pins to add to their collections. Apparently it’s pindomonium...

Alert but not alarmed

The Squiz

Australia’s national terror threat level has been lifted from ‘possible’ to ‘probable’. That means our top spy agency ASIO believes there’s a greater than 50% chance of an attack on Australian soil - or an attack being planned - in the next 12 months. Our terrorism threat is set at one of 5 levels, with 'possible' the second-lowest rating and 'probable' being in the middle of the list. Above it, the most serious levels are 'expected' and then 'certain', but we're not there yet... The level had been at 'possible' since 2022 - the last time it was raised to 'probable' was in 2014 after the rise of Islamic State.

What’s that about?

PM Anthony Albanese says the troubles in the Middle East have"significantly" changed the terrorism game here, but he noted there’s no intelligence suggesting an attack is imminent. ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess says more Aussies are becoming ”radicalised” across “all ideological spectrums” due to declining social cohesion and reduced trust in governments and democratic processes. That's been fuelled by online conspiracy theories, which have seen 8 attacks/disrupted terror plots since April. Coalition leader Peter Dutton says we need to be alert for terror threats because we "live in a precarious time". Albanese has put some responsibility onto our pollies, calling on them to watch their language and engage in “respectful” public debate. He said “when the temperature of the security environment is rising, we must lower the temperature of debate." 

So it’s true that words matter? 

They sure do. Speaking of, Israel has accused Foreign Minister Penny Wong of “misrepresenting” the findings of a report released on Friday into Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom’s death in Gaza. The food delivery vehicle she and her colleagues were in was hit by an Israeli airstrike in April. Our government had former Australian Defence Force chief Mark Binskin investigate, and his findings concurred with Israel’s position that it was a "grave mistake" that "should not have occurred". Despite the findings, Wong said on Friday it had been an "intentional strike" and that Israel should apologise to Frankcom’s family. She added that Australia would continue to press for criminal charges if appropriate. Testing times ahead… 

Squiz the Rest

Smashing our sharemarket

The Australian Stock Exchange doesn’t like Mondays… More than $100 billion was wiped from the value of our top 200 listed companies yesterday in the worst day of trading since the start of the pandemic, and it follows pretty ordinary results on Friday. The reason? Investors are worried the US is headed for a recession - a concern that’s been bubbling along for months and supercharged by the release of July’s US employment data which jumped to a 3-year high of 4.3% - a figure that took economists by surprise and indicates the labour market is weaker than they thought. Overnight the Nasdaq also took a tumble following falls in Asia and Europe. Here at home, economists say the fears about America's economy could help influence the Reserve Bank to hold our interest rate steady at 4.35%. We’ll know more when the board’s decision is announced this afternoon…

Bangladeshi PM resigns after violent protests

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stepped down after weeks of violent anti-government protests, ending more than 2 decades in power. Reports say Hasina has left the country and landed overnight in India. In celebration of the 76yo’s resignation, crowds ignored a national curfew to take to the streets and reports say vandals and looters invaded the Prime Ministerial palace in Dhaka. The protests began on 1 July as a student movement against civil service job quotas, and they turned deadly when 6 students were killed in clashes with police. Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman said the military would speak with Bangladeshi President Mohammed Shahabuddin about putting in place an interim government, and he's called for calm. "The country has suffered a lot, the economy has been hit, many people have been killed. It is time to stop the violence", he said.

Reynolds shares her side

Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has started giving evidence in her defamation trial against her former staffer, Brittany Higgins and Higgins' husband David Sharaz. Yesterday, Reynolds told the Western Australian Supreme Court that her mental and physical health “has not been great” since Higgins went public in 2021 with her rape allegation against Bruce Lehrmann. Higgins’ lawyers also gave their opening submissions and accused Reynolds’ legal team of “trivialising” Higgins’ trauma over the alleged rape during their opening statement on Friday. To remind you - this lawsuit has to do with social media posts by Higgins and Sharaz in 2022 and 2023 which were critical of Reynolds’ handling of the alleged sexual assault. Reynolds claims they damaged her reputation, but Higgins’ lawyer Rachael Young said that was a “bold allegation”. Today is day 3 of the 5-week trial, so buckle in…

A new pop music guard

‘Brat summer’ might be something you’ve heard about in recent weeks, and heads up - streaming data shows the Gen Z music/pop culture moment (which is also influencing politics) is on the rise… British singer/songwriter Charli XCX (who spearheaded “brat summer” with her latest album release) and American singer Billie Eilish have broken a global Spotify record. The streamer’s biggest female remix debut for Guess drew more than 6.8 million streams over the weekend, beating Taylor Swift and Ice Spice’s remix record with Swift’s song, Karma. Charli XCX and Eilish aren’t the only ones celebrating… Reports say they’re part of a “new guard” of pop singers making the most of “new metrics of success” - creating music that goes viral with their huge fanbases online. Cue a lot of TikTok dances…

Apropos of nothing

The Garma Festival has wrapped up in the Northern Territory’s remote northeast Arnhem Land for another year, and has been in the news for political reasons. But it is a major cultural festival, and these striking photographs from the event will linger longer.

Chicken lovers in Iowa’s capital Des Moines have paraded their poultry around City Hall to protest against new laws restricting hens and roosters in the city. They’re resisting the new pecking order… 

Spain has a thing for unconventional cultural restorations (who could forget 2012’s ‘monkey christ’?). Now, a church in the north-eastern city of Soria is the latest to be botched with a pink makeover that includes some very scary cherubs. Time for the artists to repent…

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🏊🏼‍♀️ The Paris Sprint

Each day of the Paris Olympics we’ll bring you 3 of the top stories from the action overnight and 3 events to put on your radar for the coming day. 

The Fox sisters are officially the best paddlers in the biz after Noemie Fox won gold in the women’s kayak cross overnight, joining her big sister Jess as an Olympic champion and collecting our 13th gold medal. Jess immediately jumped into the water to celebrate with her little sis - who said she took inspiration from BMX champion Saya Sakakibara. "I thought of Saya...who was always on the far extreme (starting position)...and I was like, 'okay, I'm going to do like her’”, she said.

US gymnast Simone Biles has finished her Paris campaign with a silver medal in the women’s floor finals, dancing to Taylor Swift’s Ready for It. The medal adds to her golden haul for vault, artistic individual and artistic team events. Earlier in the night she missed out on a podium finish in the balance beam final after a rare slip. 

And after a great run to the quarterfinals, the dream of Paris gold is over for the Hockeyroos who were knocked out of the competition by China 3-2 last night. The Aussie Sharks - aka our men’s water polo team - also had an unexpected loss to Japan but they finished high enough in their pool to go through to the quarterfinals. 

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEST) - 2024 Australian Cotton Conference - Brisbane

9.30am (AEST) - First case management hearing in the Fair Work Commission’s Federal Court application to appoint an independent administrator to the CFMEU in the wake of allegations of corruption and misconduct - online

12.00pm (AEST) CEDA Queensland state of the state address

2.30pm (AEST) - The RBA will provide the latest interest rate decision

ABS Data Release - Building Approvals, June

Jamaica and Bolivia's National Day

Hiroshima Day, commemorates those who lost their lives in the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945

Anniversary of:

• the HMS Roebuck, captained by William Dampier, lands at Shark Bay, WA, on the first British scientific expedition to Australia (1699)

• the US dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan (1945)

• the World Wide Web becoming publicly available (1991)

• the birthdays of Alfred Tennyson (1809), Edith Roosevelt (1861), Lucille Ball (1911) and Andy Warhol (1928)