Wednesday, 2 April - Rock on gold dust woman

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 2 April. In your Squiz Today…

• Aussie leaders are holding firm against the threat of more US tariffs

• Myanmar’s military is blocking the distribution of aid to some quake victims

• And some very rich choccy…🍫

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Squiz the Weather

A suggestion on International Fact-Checking Day…

We reckon today is the perfect time to get behind our Newshounds petition (and for us to thank you if you already have…). We’ve been trying to get our federal pollies to support Newhounds, and we're just shy of our 10,000 signature goal.

In case you haven’t clocked it, Newshounds is our free classroom resource teaching primary school kids how to spot mis and disinformation when they come across it online. By signing it, you’ll be helping us to send a message that teaching kids to think critically about the flood of online information they’re exposed to is a vital 21st-century life skill.

Just click here to sign online - and please DO NOT DONATE. Donations made do not come our way.

Squiz Sayings

Said former PM Malcolm Turnbull in his National Press Club address yesterday, who was asked to draw on his personal experience of handling the American President. Speaking of hectic, there was their 2017 call that started with small talk about Greg Norman and ended with Trump abruptly hanging up… 

Much ado about tariffs

The Squiz

American trade officials have called out Australia’s pharmaceutical sector, biosecurity and media laws as US President Donald Trump’s latest wave of tariffs is set to be unleashed. The annual US Foreign Trade Barriers report, which was handed down yesterday by the US Trade Representative’s office, lists the things that it believes are negatively affecting America’s economy. Regardless of whether Trump takes further action (aka orders more tariffs…), both PM Anthony Albanese and Coalition leader Peter Dutton say they won’t negotiate on Australian programs or laws.

What are the issues?

Australia has strict biosecurity rules extending to uncooked beef, pork, poultry, apples and pears that are imported. The goal is to protect our native wildlife from foreign diseases and pests - but the US wants the rules relaxed so their exporters can have “full market access”. Our pharmaceutical sector has been in the crosshairs for a while, with US pharmaceutical industry lobbyists saying our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme undercuts their profits. And when it comes to getting the big tech companies - like Meta and Google - to pay for Australian news content hosted on their platforms, their US-based owners aren’t fans. But our political leaders are on a unity ticket, saying ‘hands off’… 

So things haven’t settled down on that front? 

Nope. In fact, new tariffs are set to be imposed today on what Trump’s calling ‘Liberation Day’. It’s not known what it entails exactly, but all nations that export to the US, including Australia, are in the firing line. That hasn’t gone down well with global markets - investors are allergic to uncertainty - and economists say that tariffs, which result in consumers paying more for goods and services, put a cloud over the US economy. That might explain why the S&P Index, which tracks 500 of the biggest listed companies in America, is off to its worst start to a year since we were in the thick of the pandemic. To be continued…

Squiz the Rest

Aid blocked after Myanmar was rocked

Myanmar’s military government has declared a week of mourning after the whopping 7.7 magnitude earthquake rocked the centre of the country on Friday, leaving over 2,000 people dead and the country's infrastructure in tatters. The military, who've been running the show since a coup in 2021, are copping flak for their handling of the crisis. Critics say they're playing favourites with aid distribution and blocking help to opposition strongholds. To make matters worse, internet blackouts are hampering rescue efforts and calls for aid. As the death toll rises, international aid agencies are calling on the military to lift restrictions and let them get on with the job. 

You can get a sense of the scale of this disaster from this graphic from the New York Times - it’s a big one. And our Squiz Shortcut on the civil war in Myanmar released yesterday will add another layer to your understanding of this crisis.

Virginia Giuffre’s bad run 

She’s the woman who accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her on 3 occasions in 2001. Now living in Perth, Giuffre posted on Instagram that she has 4 days to live after being in a crash with a bus. The 41yo said she has “gone into kidney renal failure” and is being transferred to a specialist hospital, but local police say they don’t have any record of the incident... Reports note that she recently split from her husband, and her father told media in the UK’s Telegraph that "She's depressed because she misses her kids.” Giuffre initially launched a lawsuit against Prince Andrew in 2021, claiming she was trafficked to him by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, before settling the case out-of-court in 2022. 

Pushing for a pay rise

In its latest election throw down, the federal government will ask the Fair Work Commission to allow a wage increase for 3 million low-income workers - that includes early childhood staff, retail workers, and cleaners. There’s no dollar figure on the request yet, but Labor is pushing for the raise to be above the inflation rate. It comes as the Reserve Bank yesterday held interest rates steady at 4.1%, despite prices for Aussie homes hitting a new peak. The wages move is a counter to the Coalition’s promise to cut fuel prices in the fight for votes in the outer burbs - but critics say that, coupled with the government's planned tax cuts, it won't help to keep inflation in check. Speaking of which, the next round of inflation data is out just before polling day, which will serve as a guide for the RBA's rates decision in May.

Going back for more

Finding their feet back on Earth, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore - the NASA Astronauts who spent 9 months in space after jetting off on a week-long mission - have made their first public appearance. Expressing gratitude to those involved, Butch refused to diss Boeing’s Starliner capsule that took them into space before leaks ruled out their return. He says the team were “going to make it work”, and he’d be happy to take it for another spin. Still, the future of NASA and the International Space Station is up in the air... The Station is meant to operate until 2030, but Elon Musk (aka Chief Government cost-cutter) and SpaceX have designed the spacecraft that’s set to knock it out of service. Talk about star-spangled banners…

What is this egg, a fabergé? 

We’re no strangers to a bit too much chocolate, but $120 for a 1kg Lindt Easter bunny is a different kind of waaay too much… In your pre-Easter stock up, you might have noticed the prices of your favourite choccies have hopped a bit high, with an extra zero turning a humble egg into an “impressive Easter gift”. It’s mostly because farmers in Brazil and West Africa have been struggling with much drier conditions than their cacao trees can handle, meaning that cocoa supplies are down. Want the full story of the global chocolate crisis? We’ve got you covered in this Shortcut from this time last year. Maybe the ancient Mayans were onto something by their use of chocolate as a currency…

Apropos of Nothing

Indian streaming platform JioHotstar has surpassed 100 million subscribers with industry experts declaring it a significant development in the nation’s digital entertainment sector. Its content drawcard? Cricket… 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris will be filling in time/bolstering her income as a private citizen next month on the Goldie where she will appear at the Australasian Real Estate Conference. There’s gotta be a joke in there about politicians and real estate agents, but that’s not for us to make… 

Speaking of things we won’t impart our take on, there’s a movie about the Beatles being made by acclaimed director Sam Mendes, and yesterday the cast was announced… Paul Mescal will play Paul McCartney, Harris Dickinson will be John Lennon, Joseph Quinn is George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan takes on Ringo Starr. And go…

Squiz the Day

9.30am (AEDT) - The first case management hearing for former Liberal staffer Fiona Brown’s Fair Work case against the Commonwealth Government. She was Brittany Higgins’ chief of staff in the Morrison Government - Sydney

9.30am (AEDT) - The first case management hearing for the Fair Work Ombudsmans’ case against former Victorian secretary of the CFMEU John Setka over allegations he tried to coerce the AFL into dismissing its chief umpire Stephen McBurney - Melbourne

12.30pm (AEDT) - Coalition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor will address the National Press Club for the Post Budget Reply Address - Canberra, and watch on ABC24

Labor will make a submission to the Fair Work Commission to give a pay rise to 3 million award workers including cleaners, retail workers and early childhood educators

ABS Data Release - Personal Fraud in 2023/24; Building Approvals Data, Feb 2025

World Autism Awareness Day kicks off the start of Autism Awareness Month 

International Children's Book Day  

It’s International Fact-Checking Day, and we’ve got you covered

👣 National Walking Day

Anniversary of:

• the birthdays of author Hans Christian Andersen (1805), muso/filmmaker Serge Gainsbourg (1928) and singer Marvin Gaye (1939)

• Fleetwood Mac's album Rumours going to #1 (where it stayed for 31 weeks) (1977)