Wednesday, 23 April - Loose lips might sink ships

April 23, 2025

Exploring the childcare crisis with The Parenthood

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 23 April. In your Squiz Today…

  • Preparations begin for Pope Francis’s funeral

  • A deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir

  • And the Academy puts some rules in place for Oscar voters…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"Was it? Did I just beat my record? Did I actually?”

Said Aussie paralympic swimming champ Alexa Leary who broke her S9 100m freestyle world record yesterday at the Australian Open Championships in Brisbane. Leary set the record she broke at the Paris Paralympics last year, winning everyone’s heart at the same time.

Planning a Pope’s farewell

The Squiz

As mourners around the world pay their respects to the late Pope Francis, cardinals have gathered at the Vatican to plan his funeral service. They’re being led by Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who’s stepped into the “Camerlengo” role of temporarily running the Vatican after the 88yo pontiff’s death on Monday. His body has been placed on display inside the chapel of the Vatican’s Santa Marta residence, where he lived during his 12-year papacy, and will be moved to St Peter’s Basilica this evening for the faithful to pay their last respects before his funeral.

What do we know about that?

The funeral will take place on Saturday at 10am local time (6pm AEST). There’s a lot of pomp and ceremony involved (which you can get up to speed on here…) with Catholic patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests from around the world participating. But in line with his progressive papacy, Pope Francis did make some requests to buck tradition… There will be no private viewing for cardinals, and his coffin - a simple, single wooden casket - won’t be raised on a pedestal. After the funeral, he’ll be buried at St Mary Major rather than St Peter's Basilica - making him the first Pope not to be buried there in more than a century. Experts say he wanted to “send a signal not of riches, not of wealth, but of simplicity”.

Anything else?

Yep - you can expect to see some big names flying into Rome in the coming days ahead of the funeral. Prince William will attend in place of his father King Charles, US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron are a few - and for us, PM Anthony Albanese, who’s busy on the campaign trail, will likely send our Governor-General Sam Mostyn. As for the Conclave gathering to vote on a new pontiff, that process will start within 15-20 days of the late Pope’s burial, so we’ll be hearing more about it. In the meantime, we are getting an idea of the frontrunners - and plenty of analysis about whether the 135 cardinals eligible for voting (80% of whom were elevated by Pope Francis…) will look to elect another progressive to follow in his footsteps. Only time will tell…

Exploring the costs of childcare

The cost of childcare is sky-high for most parents and carers who use it. It’s an issue that The Parenthood - an advocacy organisation working to make Australia the best place in the world to be a parent - is pushing to improve… To that end, The Parenthood has partnered with Future Women on a new podcast series called At What Cost? Episode one gets into the cost of childcare and how it impacts mothers, in particular. You can find out more and listen to that episode here.

Squiz the Rest

A deadly attack in Kashmir

More than 20 people have been killed by gunmen who attacked a popular tourist spot in the Himalayas, with many more suffering injuries. Reports say domestic tourists were visiting the Baisaran meadow, known as the "Switzerland of India", when the attack happened. A militant group called the Kashmir Resistance has claimed responsibility, saying they were protesting over 85,000 “outsiders” being settled in the region. Kashmir is a disputed territory between India and Pakistan - both countries claim it as their own, but it's partly ruled by both. The area has seen violence in the past, but Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said this attack “was much larger than anything we’ve seen directed at civilians in recent years”. Indian PM Narendra Modi said “our resolve to fight terrorism is unshakeable and it will get even stronger”.

More group chat drama

US President Donald Trump has backed Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth after his text message habits dropped back into the spotlight… You might remember last month, it was revealed that Hegseth shared details of US airstrikes in a group chat on the messaging app Signal which accidentally included a journalist. He was already in hot water over that, and this week, news broke that Hegseth also shared similar details on the air strikes in another group chat involving his wife, brother and personal lawyers. Hegseth said the accusations were “grievances of disgruntled former employees” but Democrats are calling on Trump to fire him for putting military operations at risk. That doesn’t look likely… Trump says “Pete’s doing a great job”.

The gloves are off…

After suspending campaign activities earlier in the day to mourn the Pope's death, the 2 major party leaders picked things up again for a 'Great' Debate on Channel 9 last night. The others were just OK, we suppose… This one largely trod the same ground as the previous 2 in terms of policy, but the 2 leaders did get a bit more testy with each other - Dutton continually criticised the PM for lying, and the PM said his opponent was resorting to personal abuse. For those who just can't get enough, there's a final debate this Sunday night on Channel 7. As for what's next, pre-poll voting is now underway - and Dutton is set to announce a $21 billion boost for defence spending in Western Australia later today. Not long to go now…  

The Academy is cracking down

Bad luck for any Oscar voters who were hoping to get away with doing the bare minimum… they’ll now have to watch every movie before they get to vote on the winners. In the past, those who voted in the awards would only be “encouraged” to watch every film before they did - which means if they wanted to skip all 215 minutes of 2024’s The Brutalist, they could. But no more - the Academy has changed the rules and says it will monitor legit viewings via their own streaming app, or written declarations that voters watched the film elsewhere. It’s part of a range of changes, including new rules around how voters judge how AI is used in filmmaking and new categories for casting and stunts. 

*If you’re interested in learning more about how Oscar campaigns work, check out our Shortcut to the process - it’s a whole thing… 

Chimp, chimp, cheers

We know that humans like getting together for dinner and drinks, but it turns out chimpanzees might enjoy that too. Scientists have spotted some wild chimps in West Africa getting together to enjoy a bit of a snack and a tipple - specifically, a fermented African breadfruit that would have had just enough alcohol to give them a pleasant buzz. Researcher Kimberley Hockings from the University of Exeter said that chimps don't usually meet up to share a meal, so the fact that this particular snack gets them a bit tipsy - about what a human might get from a light beer - might have encouraged them to dine in numbers. You can see the chimps in action here - it looks like a pretty good dinner party… 

Apropos of Nothing

It’s a bird, it’s a plane… Nope, it’s a meteor. At least that’s what experts have called the giant green fireball that tore through the skies from Queensland to NSW last night. Travelling up to 60km a second, you’d be forgiven if you missed it, but fear not as the Lyrids meteor shower is sure to put on a dazzling display this week too. 

In a world first, Beijing has hosted a half-marathon where regular flesh-and-blood humans have competed against humanoid robots. The robotic winner was the Sky Project Ultra, aka Tien Kung Ultra, took the crown in 2 hours, 40 minutes and 42 seconds. Run, run, robot…  

And scientists from the European Space Agency are on a mission to grow food - think potatoes, chicken, even steak - in space. Working to cut the grocery bills of astronauts on the International Space Station, researchers are getting creative with their test tubes and chemicals, and we’ve got to say the dumplings look pretty tasty… 

Squiz the Day

10.00am (AEST) - Swimming: Australian Open Championships (until 24 April) - Brisbane, and watch on 9Now

12.30pm (AEST) - Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler will debate his shadow counterpart Senator Anne Ruston on election issues at the National Press Club - Canberra 

1.00pm (AEST) - Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor will go head-to-head in “The Business Debate - a plan for Australia’s Economic Future” hosted by the Business Council of Australia and Council of Small Business Organisations Australia - Melbourne 

3.45pm (AEST) - Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment Dr Andrew Leigh and Senator Dean Smith will lead the Charities and Not-For-Profit Pre-election Forum at the National Press Club - Canberra

St George’s Day - England

Crack open a cold one for German Beer Day 🍻 prost!

Birthdays for comedian John Oliver (1977), model Gigi Hadid (1995), actor Dev Patel (1990), and Prince Louis of Cambridge (2019)

Anniversary of:

  • the first video being uploaded to YouTube (2005)

  • the crowning of Queen Anne at Westminster Abbey (1702)

  • the deaths of Shakespeare (1616), William Wordsworth (1850) and Boris Yeltsin (2007)

  • the world's first malaria vaccine being piloted in Malawi by the WHO (2019)