Wednesday, 16 September - Black holes and revelations

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 16 September. In your Squiz Today…

• Calls for Oz to develop its own sovereign AI

• The US says it’s deployed weapons in space

• And Widow’s Bay wins big at the Emmys…🏆

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

Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said singer P!nk about award-winning US fashion designer and stylist Bob Mackie, who has died at 87yo. Over 6 decades, he dressed the likes of Cher, Sir Elton John, Taylor Swift and Liza Minnelli, who said heaven just got one hell of a costume department…

A push for Aussie AI

The Squiz

With the heads of the world’s leading artificial intelligence companies calling for a slowdown on the tech’s development in the face of a potential threat to humanity (no biggie…), Aussie tech and security leaders have responded with a renewed push to establish our own sovereign AI. They say now’s the time for us to seize the day (and the investment dollars) to become an AI power ourselves, or we risk being vulnerable to decisions made by foreign tech companies and superpowers like China and the US.

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Sovereign AI doesn’t have to mean developing it from scratch - that’d be expensive. The thinking is to get US companies building and training their AI models here, under our rules. It’s a pitch from both sides of politics - Coalition Industry spokesman Andrew Hastie told an Australian Strategic Policy Institute event on Monday that Oz risks becoming a “supplicant state” dependent on foreign powers. He argued we should use our AUKUS defence ties to fast-track the development of American AI on Aussie soil as a trusted ally. And former PM Kevin Rudd (now head of the Asia Society) also weighed in yesterday (paywall), telling the Fin Review’s Asia Summit “we have no alternative except to become an AI power in our own right, or else we become a price-taker from others forever”.

So where are we at?

You’ll remember back in July, PM Anthony Albanese announced a new Office of AI to set national standards for the tech, including around where and how big data centres could be built, on job security and also to protect the work of Aussie creatives. That last term means big tech companies can’t use Oz copyrighted works to train their models without permission, but it’s caused a major snag - and yesterday, reports said OpenAI (the maker of ChatGPT) wouldn’t build in Oz if our copyright laws weren’t loosened (paywall). It’s something Team Albanese is grappling with - and leaked documents show it’s trying to come up with a workaround, which could see protections for artists watered down. Watch this space…

The AI debate hits Sydney

As AI changes the way we think and work, Australia has a question to answer: how do we use AI for growth without eroding our social fabric? That’s where expert opinion is required, and CEDA and NAIC's AI Leadership Summit is built around exactly that. It's happening in Sydney this October to help answer the big questions shaping Australia’s AI future.

Squiz the Rest

The US has a space weapon

For the first time, the Trump administration has confirmed publicly that it’s deployed weapons into Earth’s orbit. This came from US Air Force Secretary Troy Meink yesterday, who said that the country has “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action”. This is significant because it confirms decades of suspicion that this is something the US was up to, and also because it might prompt Russia and China to accelerate their own military operations in space. On that, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has told the US to “stop preparing for war” in orbit. What we don’t know is what kind of weapon it is, and how these arms might be regulated - something experts say will be discussed at the upcoming UN disarmament meeting in November.

A Snowtown serial killer is set to be released

The youngest of 4 men jailed over the South Oz murders, James Vlassakis, will be set free after 27 years. To remind you, the ‘bodies in barrels’ murders were committed between 1992 and 1999 and have become so synonymous with Snowtown that residents floated a name change. Vlassakis pleaded guilty to 4 of the 11 murders before becoming the Crown witness against John Bunting (his stepfather) and Robert Wagner, who are serving life without parole. He was approved for parole last year, but the South Oz Government stepped in to block it - and yesterday, the original decision was upheld on review. Parole Board chair Frances Nelson KC said the board wouldn’t have recommended his release if he posed any risk to the community.

Switching classrooms (again)

It hasn’t been the smoothest start to the school year for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2 children. Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet have been pulled out just days after they started, because of security issues around the drop-off and pick-up. Apparently, the Sussexes’ private security team went for a stickybeak over the recent UK summer holidays, but couldn’t suss out the school run until term started, when they learned heavy traffic made getting from A to B too hard for their car’s convoy. So now the young royals have started at a different school - with reports saying Haz and Megs have entered a new set of parents’ WhatsApp chats… While we’re talking security, it’s been a talking point since the family said they were moving back to the UK - and it’s now set to be reviewed.

The Karl and Keshnee Show

There’s a legal battle going on between podcast host Karl Stefanovic and the joint owner of his podcast company, Keshnee Kemp (also Ibrahim). This headed to court yesterday after Stefanovic organised a board meeting for this Friday to remove Kemp as a director of 123 Podcast. Along with her 45% stake in the company, Kemp was a producer of The Karl Stefanovic Show (which hasn’t published an episode since August), but the relationship between the 2 broke down after Stefanovic’s interview with far-right figure Tommy Robinson cost him his job as host of Today on Channel 9. Reports say Stefanovic blamed Kemp for that, which started the rift - and she wants to have her share of the company bought out at market price. The Friday board meeting has been postponed, and the case will be back in court on 13 October. It all might make a good podcast series…

Emmy are you okay

Apple TV series Widow’s Bay was the big winner at yesterday’s Emmy Awards, collecting 6 awards including Best Comedy Series and Best Actor for star Matthew Rhys. If you’re unfamiliar, the show is a blend of horror and comedy that’s been described as Twin Peaks meets Parks & Recreation. HBO Max had a good night, too - it picked up the Drama Series award for The Pitt and Limited Series for DTF St Louis, and no, we can’t explain what that acronym means in this newsletter… Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay hosted (the first woman to do so in 15 years) and brought in some extra star power: Taylor Swift popped in for a pre-taped cameo. Speaking of star power, check out the red carpet pics - including Hacks star Megan Stalter dressed up as an actual Emmy.
*And if you’re wondering how the Emmys became such a big deal, we’ve covered that in our Squiz Shortcut

Apropos of Nothing

A pack of 3 African wild dogs (who are all brothers) have travelled a record-breaking 4,000km across Zambia in search of mates. With only 6,000 members of the species still in the wild, it’s quite the mission. Take notes, men on Hinge… 

Singapore has launched a 5-year campaign to entice its population into books rather than screens - it’s giving small payments to people who log their reading minutes on a government website. A novel plan to be sure…

And thousands of turtles have made a journey to La Escobilla beach in Oaxaca, Mexico, to lay their eggs over a short 2-day window. The phenomenon is known as ‘la arribada’, which translates to ‘the arrival’. We’d like to arrive at a beach covered in turtles…

Squiz the Day

12.30pm (AEST) - Geopolitical strategist Sami Omari will address the National Press Club on 'Five Years of Silence: The Taliban Win Nobody Talks About' - Canberra, watch on ABC iView 

5.00pm (AEST) - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will deliver her State of the EU speech, where she's expected to preview the EU Kids Act - draft plans that would stop under-15s opening social media accounts without a parent's OK. The full proposal lands on Thursday - Strasbourg, available to livestream here 

ABS data release: corrective services, June quarter 2026

🇲🇽 Independence Day for Mexico 

International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer 

National Guacamole Day

Birthdays for comedian Amy Poehler (1971) and singer and one-third of the Jonas Brothers, Nick Jonas (1992)

Anniversary of: 

• the Mayflower departing Plymouth, England, with 102 Pilgrims and about 30 crew for the New World (1620)

• the birthdays of Lauren Bacall (1924) and BB King (1925)

• filming beginning for Monty Python’s Life of Brian in Tunisia (1978)

• the premiere of the courtroom reality show Judge Judy in the US (1996)

• the sparking of widespread protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini (2022)

Thursday

4.00am (AEST) - The next US Federal Reserve interest rate decision is scheduled - it’s expected it’ll hike interest rates for the first time since 2023

Housekeeping

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