Wednesday, 12 February - I’m lost without you

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 12 February. In your Squiz Today…

• Israel has issued a new hostage deadline

• Sam Kerr’s been found not guilty

• And mapping an Aussie success story…📍

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Prince Harry after Team Australia member Belinda Culley yelled to get his attention during Day 3 of the Invictus Games in Canada. Culley had good intentions though, she was simply trying to gift the Prince a personalised jar of Vegemite - which he gratefully received.

A new deadline looms

The Squiz

US President Donald Trump has weighed into the ceasefire stalemate in Gaza, saying he’ll “let all hell break out” if Hamas doesn’t release all the remaining hostages by midday Saturday. He made that comment after Hamas accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire agreement, saying it would hold off on releasing the remaining hostages "until further notice". Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz called that "a complete violation" of the truce and has put the military on standby to take retaliatory action if needed.

So nobody’s happy…

Nope - and it’s been that way since the first phase of the 3-part ceasefire began last month. Since then, Hamas has released 21 hostages - with another group due to be released on Saturday. In return, Israel has released more than 730 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and has begun to withdraw troops from parts of the Gaza Strip. But this week, Hamas accused Israel of several things: delaying Palestinians from returning to their homes in Gaza’s north, opening fire on people, and not letting in the agreed amounts of humanitarian aid. In return, Israel has condemned Hamas for parading the hostages around in Gaza before their release, and protesters have gathered in Israel to demand the hostages be freed.

Does Trump hold sway?

Yep. Now that President Joe Biden - who led talks for the original ceasefire deal - is gone, Trump has a lot of influence over negotiations for phase 2, due to begin on 1 March. He says it’s up to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, but he thinks all the hostages should be returned at once - or the ceasefire should be called off. Hamas then said the “door remains open” to the planned hostage exchange going ahead on Saturday if Israel “commits to and compensates for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively”. But for Israel’s part, Netanyahu has doubled down on Trump’s calls - he says if the hostages aren’t returned by midday Saturday, the military will restart “intensive fighting” in Gaza.

Squiz the Rest

Steeling ourselves for a decision

And while we're talking Trump, the President says he will give "great consideration" to an exemption for Australia after announcing a global 25% tariff (aka taxes) on steel and aluminium imports. That came after a phone call with PM Anthony Albanese, who he called “a very fine man” - Albanese said they had a “constructive and warm” conversation. Trump mentioned the fact the US has a trade surplus with Australia as the reason we might get special treatment, but also said in his tariff announcement that Australia had failed to keep its promise to “voluntarily restrain its aluminium exports to a reasonable level” during the last exemptions. So watch this space…

* Want to know more about tariffs and how they work? We've got a handy Shortcut for you…

Sam Kerr is in the clear

…she’s been found not guilty of racially harassing a British police officer following an argument with a London cabbie. A jury delivered the verdict in just under 4 hours after the week-long trial, in which the Matildas captain admitted calling the officer “stupid” and “white” but denied she meant to harass him. Reports say Kerr showed no emotion as the verdict was read out, but her fiancée Kristie Mewis was in tears. Kerr was charged over the January 2023 incident early last year - you can read more about it here… In a written statement issued this morning, she said she can finally put “this challenging period” behind her, and that she’s “fully focused on getting back on to the pitch.”

Trouble in paradise

A diplomatic incident is brewing in the Pacific after the Solomon Islands refused to let a Samoan beauty pageant judge leave the country over vote-rigging allegations. The organisers of the Miss Pacific Islands pageant are investigating Jerry Brunt after online pageant fans accused him of favouring eventual winner Miss Samoa due to their shared nationality. Brunt says he's done nothing wrong, and the Samoan government is now involved, issuing the Solomon Islands with a please explain. It's the second beauty pageant controversy in the area in recent months, with Miss Universe Fiji also creating global headlines last year over corruption allegations. These beauty pageants can get pretty ugly…

Working out the core

We're learning a lot more about what lies beneath us as scientists continue to make discoveries about the shape and rotation of Earth's core. If school science feels like a long time ago, our planet's insides are made up of 5 layers, with the crust on the outside and the inner core at the centre. That part's a very hot ball of metal, and researchers have found that it’s started rotating in a different direction to the rest of the Earth. They’ve used earthquake data to work out that, like someone who’s been hitting the gym, it might also be changing shape. They’re not sure exactly how, but say it’s nothing to worry about in the short term. OK, we’ll try not to think about it too much…

Mapping out an Aussie success story

The best friend of confused tourists everywhere, Google Maps, is celebrating 20 years of helping people get around this week. The app was an Aussie innovation, the brainchild of a company called Where2 Technologies - it was acquired by Google in 2005, and the rest is history… To mark the occasion, Google has put out a list of some of our most-reviewed locations. Darling Harbour in Sydney topped the list of tourist attractions (4.64 stars), while our most reviewed park is King’s Park in Perth (4.79 stars). And while we’re talking Google Maps, they’ve officially renamed the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America for US users as per President Trump’s request. And we had to check - 4.5 stars…

Apropos of Nothing

A dam in the north of California used its release system for the first time since 2019 in a display that looks a bit like a giant version of what happens when you take the plug out of a full sink of dishes, but more spectacular - here’s the video…

You might have heard the term K-Pop before - the K stands for Korea, and groups like BTS have fans all around the world. But it’s always referred to South Korean bands - until now, with 1verse becoming the first ever K-pop band to feature defectors from North Korea.

If you’ve ever wondered how polar bears managed to hang around so much ice without it sticking to their fur, well - science has an answer. Norwegian scientists reckon their fur is so oily, it repels the ice - which might be useful to help humans with de-icing planes or roads. That’s cool…

Squiz the Day

7.30am (AEDT) - Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss will give the keynote speech at the launch of the 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index which ranks 180 countries - Canberra

9.00am (AEDT) - The Australia Institute’s Climate Integrity Summit is being held - Canberra

11.30am (AEDT) - Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic will speak at the National Press Club on Australia's world-leading science - Canberra

3.00pm (AEDT) - Men's Cricket: First ODI, Australia v Sri Lanka - Colombo, and broadcast on 7Plus

Company half-year results will be out for AGL, Commonwealth Bank, Computershare, NBN and Suncorp

ABS Data Release - Lending Indicators, December quarter

National Apprenticeship Week (on until February 16 )

Lantern Festival (Yuanxiao Festival)

Darwin Day

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin (1809)

• US President Bill Clinton’s acquittal by the Senate in his impeachment trial (1999)

• the start of the trial of former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milošević at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. He died before its conclusion (2002)