Wednesday, 22 October - Crocodile rocking is something shocking

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 22 October. In your Squiz Today…

• Digging into the Oz-US minerals deal

• Japan gets its first female PM

• And an Aussie NBA star’s massive payday… 🏀

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Said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince about the mega-outage caused by his competitor Amazon Web Services on Monday night, which left millions of people without banking, shopping, and gaming platforms for hours. The company says it’s all fixed - digital detox over…

Digging into a minerals deal

The Squiz

As the dust settles on yesterday morning’s meeting between PM Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump, we’re learning more about that headline critical minerals/rare earths deal. It involves the 2 countries contributing a billion dollars each into projects - both in Australia and the US - within the next 6 months. A fact sheet released yesterday broke down some of the potential investments - they include projects run by Arafura Rare Earths and Northern Minerals in Western Oz, and the development of an Alcoa gallium refinery (a key ingredient in computer chips). And as several analysts have pointed out, it’s more broadly about challenging China’s dominance over the sector… 

And what’s the reaction been?

China has reacted calmly so far - but Trump still has a summit planned with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month, so we’ll see if Oz gets a mention there… But investors in rare earths mines in Australia - a sector that’s been on a tear in recent months - were initially pretty excited… Alcoa’s share price has gone up 7.5%, and both Arafura and Northern Minerals saw their share prices jump out of the blocks before dropping steadily throughout the day to end up around their starting points. As for AUKUS, the defence pact between Oz, the UK and the US - it’s still being reviewed by the Pentagon, but Trump seemed confident it was going ahead. Part of the deal is to build submarines in South Oz, so it was music to the ears of Premier Peter Malinauskas - he said they were “the words we have been looking for”. 

Any more on that Rudd moment?

ICYMI, when asked about Rudd’s previous comments about him, Trump told the Oz Ambassador to the US “I don’t like you” - but reports say after the meeting, Rudd apologised and Trump told him “all was forgiven”. The former PM has at least a year left to run in his post, but the Coalition wants him gone now - leader Sussan Ley said he was the “punchline of the joke” and that his position was untenable. The Coalition also criticised the Albanese Government for not coming away with a better deal on tariffs - we’ve still got the general 10% tax on exports and 50% on steel and aluminium products. But Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Oz is still getting a great deal on trade compared to the rest of the world - she said it was “a good meeting for the country” - and the government is backing Rudd to stay where he is. 

Bulk gift cards without the admin headache

If wrangling gift cards for team birthdays or customer thank-yous falls to you, GroupTogether just launched bulk eGift cards. Upload a spreadsheet with the names and amounts, and send up to 1,000 digital gift cards in one go. Recipients get an AnyCard with access to 100+ big-name retailers. Check out GroupTogether's bulk eGift cards solution because, let’s be honest, it’s probably easier than your current process...

Squiz the Rest

Japan has its first female PM

Sanae Takaichi has been confirmed as the country’s new leader after a historic vote yesterday. You can read about Japan’s self-proclaimed ‘Iron Lady’ here, but 64yo Takaichi has a varied background: heavy metal drummer, television host and former government minister. Described by many as “staunchly conservative”, she became leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) earlier this month. During her campaign, she made appeals to mothers a focus - promising tax-deductible babysitting fees and tax breaks for companies that provide childcare support. That’s likely because she faces a couple of big challenges: a struggling economy and declining birth rates. Her election comes days before President Trump visits Asia, so meeting him will be at the top of her agenda…

Failings found in deadly funicular crash

More than a month after the 140yo Glória funicular railway car crashed in Lisbon, killing 16 people and injuring 20, investigators have released a preliminary report into what went wrong. Portugal’s Air and Rail Accident Investigations Bureau says a defective underground cable caused the derailment that sent the car into a building on 3 September. But that’s not all… It found that Carris, the company running the city’s public transport, didn’t test the cable before its installation. It’s since fired its head of maintenance for funiculars and trams, but said it was too early to tell if “non-conformities in the use of the cable are relevant to the accident”. Investigators agree, saying the information is “incomplete”, and testing will continue. The final report is due in 11 months, so it’ll be a while before they know more.

Rex’s future no longer up in the air

Turns out we’re not going to own our own airline after all… US company Air T has stepped up to buy the regional airline which has been operating under voluntary administration for more than a year. Rex (proper name: Regional Express) owed around $500 million to 4800 creditors when administrators took over in July last year - but they say “no return to shareholders” is expected from the deal. A major one of those is the Oz Government, which has put in $160 million to prop it up. Transport Minister Catherine King - who hadn’t ruled out nationalising the carrier - welcomed the sale, saying it “will allow Rex to keep flying and maintain critical aviation links for regional communities”. The proposal will be put to creditors in the next few weeks. And you might hear more about Rex today: ASIC’s case against the former directors for governance failures is in court. 

Move aside, Melbourne…

… Adelaide’s risen up the real estate ranks to become Oz’s second least affordable city behind Sydney. We learned the City of Churches claimed that dubious honour in the annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Report published yesterday. As it says on the box, it compares housing costs and local incomes in cities around the world to decide on its rankings. Sydney housing costs 13.8 times the median household income, followed by Adelaide (10.9 times) and Melbourne (9.7 times). It’s a big turnaround for what was once Oz’s most affordable capital city - but years of surging property prices have sent the median Adelaide house price to $855,000. It’s not just pricey by local standards - although Sydney is the second least affordable in the world, behind Hong Kong, Adelaide is now sixth globally. Ouch…

A steal at any price

Now’s a good time to get across the name Dyson Daniels, if you’re not already… The 22yo NBA star, originally from Bendigo, has just signed a 4-year contract extension with the Atlanta Hawks worth $154 million - $38 million per season. That makes him one of Australia’s highest-paid athletes, just behind F1 driver Oscar Piastri and on par with Josh Giddey’s new Chicago Bulls deal. It comes after a standout first season at the Hawks, where Daniels, an elite defender, was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player. He has the stats to back that up… He racked up 443 deflections - the most ever recorded in an NBA season - and had an NBA-leading average of more than 3 steals a game. His defensive skills have also earned him a longer-than-typical nickname - ‘the Great Barrier Thief’...

Snapropos of Nothing

Police in the UK county of Derbyshire launched an appeal to figure out how a crocodile ended up dumped in a local canal - only to figure out that the whole story was a crock - it was a stuffed piece of taxidermy, not a living reptile. Not known for crocs, Derbyshire…

Crocs are a bit more common in Port Douglas, but they’re not what you want to come across in the pool of a luxury resort - that’s what happened to 2 tourists at the local Sheraton before the young crocodile was relocated by wildlife rangers. 

And despite its croc-heavy reputation, the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton has passed initial testing as a suitable venue to host rowing at the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. There had been concerns about the river's flow, but all's OK so far - more tests to go, though…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEDT) - Foreign Minister Penny Wong and EU Ambassador to Australia His Excellency Gabriele Visentin will be among the speakers at a conference to commemorate 80 years of the United Nations - Sydney

9.15am (AEDT) - Directions as ASIC sues Regional Express Airlines and directors in the NSW Supreme Court over allegedly misleading statements made through ASX announcements about profit - Sydney

11.00am (AEDT) - Magellan Financial Group will hold its Annual General Meeting at the Fullerton Hotel - Sydney

11.30am (AEDT) - Biomedical engineer and inventor of the artificial heart, Dr Daniel Timms, will address the National Press Club of Australia - Canberra 

12.00pm (AWST) - The 2025 Rural Medicine Australia conference begins and runs until Saturday - Perth

7.30pm (AEDT) - Netball: The second Test between Australia’s Diamonds and NZ’s Silver Ferns in the Constellation Cup is on at Qudos Bank Arena - Sydney, watch free on Kayo

8.30pm (AEDT) - Cricket: Australia v England in the ICC ODI Women's Cricket World Cup - Indore, India, watch free on Prime Video 

PM Anthony Albanese is scheduled to attend a lunch for the 140th anniversary of BHP at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC

Cotality will release its latest Million Dollar Markets report which identifies suburbs in Australia where the median house price has cracked $1 million over the past year

Wombat Day 

International Stuttering Awareness Day 

CAPS LOCK DAY 

Birthdays for actor Jeff Goldblum (1952) and filmmaker Spike Jonze (1969)

Anniversary of:

• Thomas Edison perfecting the carbonised cotton filament light bulb (1879) 💡

• US President John F Kennedy imposing a naval blockade on Cuba, beginning the Cuban missile crisis (1962)

• PM Scott Morrison making a public apology to victims of child sexual abuse in institutions (2018)