Wednesday, 26 February - Every move you make

February 26, 2025

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 26 February. In your Squiz Today…

  • The rift between Europe and the US widens

  • Questions over Chinese warships in Aussie waters

  • And the case of the golden loo-t…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

"We're not seizing the bird."

Said Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell, delivering the news that Molly the Magpie can stay with her bestie Peggy the Staffordshire terrier indefinitely. Molly has been classed as a wild bird, and not only is the case closed, the government is reviewing its laws…

Longtime allies at odds

The Squiz

US President Donald Trump’s backing of Russia and President Vladimir Putin is deepening - with the US voting against a United Nations resolution calling on Russian troops to pull out of Ukraine. The motion was ultimately adopted, with 93 member nations (including Oz…) voting in its favour, but a bit has been made of the fact that the US voted in line with 17 other countries/allies of Russia - including North Korea and Belarus. Later, the 15-member UN Security Council went on to vote in a US-drafted resolution, taking a neutral position and calling for an end to the 3-year war.

What does it mean?

Richard Gowan, the director of the UN International Crisis Group (which keeps tabs on armed conflicts around the world), says it's a sign of a growing rift between Europe and the US, with the Trump administration backflipping on its long-held foreign policy. Gowan says the concern is it could affect the ongoing security of Europe and that "European diplomats are livid with how the US has maneuvered against them". It adds to a tense dynamic - particularly after Trump's comments on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week… But America's acting UN envoy, Dorothy Camille Shea, says previous General Assembly votes - that's the one where they sided with Russia - "have failed to stop the war" and that the Security Council resolution - aka the one they drafted - “puts us on the path to peace”.

What does it mean for the war?

TBC… General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, and it’s not clear yet what effect the Security Council resolution - which is legally binding - will have. Regardless, French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated his and his fellow European leaders’ positions during his meeting with Trump. He said any peace deal "must not be a surrender of Ukraine" and should include security guarantees. He also said he understands Trump's calls for Europe to "more fairly share the security burden" of securing peace - including with European peacekeeping forces on the ground in Ukraine. This is something UK PM Keir Starmer says he'll reiterate when he visits the White House tomorrow.

Turning water into shine

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Squiz the Rest

Closely watching our visitors

Australia is monitoring 3 Chinese warships that have entered our waters near Tasmania. We’ve been watching them since last week as they made their way south through international waters, but they’ve now entered our Exclusive Economic Zone east of Hobart. On Friday, drills carried out by the ships at short notice resulted in nearly 50 flights being diverted - and that was only after a Virgin Airlines pilot raised the alarm. Questions are now being asked about why an alert didn't come from the government sooner, given PM Anthony Albanese said the Chinese told us what they were planning. He says they were acting within international law, but Shadow Minister for Defence Andrew Hastie says they're using "gunboat diplomacy", and the PM's silence would be interpreted as "weak". With senate estimates for defence up today, officials could be in line for more questions…

A citizenship conundrum

Also under scrutiny is Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who’s facing questions over accusations he’s turned citizenship ceremonies into Labor campaign events. The Coalition says Burke has misused the citizenship ceremonies in key western Sydney electorates - home to large migrant populations. The claim is that he's been scheduling the ceremonies around his availability so he can attend and gain favour with new citizens ahead of the federal election. At the same time, a couple of western Sydney mayors have accused Burke of rushing through extra ceremonies - to grant about 12,000 people citizenship in recent weeks. But he's pushed back, saying the extra ceremonies were to clear “a backlog” and that it would be "outrageous" to hold off on them.

Bird flu finds a fourth farm

Authorities in Victoria say they’ve found the disease on another poultry farm in the Euroa area. But Agriculture Victoria says it’s “not unexpected” because the farm is very close to the other 3 affected farms, and they’re working to contain things. This is the H7N8 strain of bird flu, which was first detected in the area on 8 February, and is different to the H5N1 strain that is currently causing havoc in the US, with tens of millions of bird deaths, soaring egg prices and one human casualty. That strain isn't in Australia yet, but virus experts say it might only be a matter of time, and the government is prepping for it. And in case you're wondering, eggs and poultry products are still fine to eat in Australia. 

*If you’ve got more questions about bird flu, what it is and what’s being done about it, we’ve got you covered - there’s a Shortcut for that…

Network Ten coughs up the cash

The media company has been ordered to fork out more than a million bucks to journalist/presenter Lisa Wilkinson to take care of her court costs in the Bruce Lehrmann defamation case. Both the TV network and Wilkinson were defending the case, which was eventually dismissed, but the disagreement between the 2 came about because Wilkinson hired her own separate legal counsel to represent her. While Ten has already paid some of Wilkinson’s costs, the Federal Court has told them to cough up the rest. That defamation case, by the way, is not done and dusted - Lehrmann has appealed the decision, and that’s expected to get underway later this year.

The trial of the lavatory

If you’ve ever wondered how long it would take to steal a solid gold toilet from a British castle, we have an answer… 5 minutes. That’s how long it took the men who are currently on trial in a British court to allegedly thieve the throne - which is both an artwork called America and a fully functioning flusher - in 2019. But it wasn't a rush job - the prosecution told the court that the gang of loo-ters executed a carefully planned raid on the toilet in Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of former PM Winston Churchill. After being flushed out, the defendants pleaded not guilty - and in case you were wondering, the toilet has never been recovered and may have been broken down into smaller bits of gold and sold. What a waste…

Apropos of Nothing

Some famous British faces strolled the catwalk for the Burberry show to close London Fashion Week, including acting legend Richard E. Grant, famous for playing one of the most shabbily dressed movie characters of all time in Withnail & I. How things have changed… 

Not content with the first version being so disastrous that it spawned 2 competing documentaries, the Fyre Festival - the music event that led to creator Billy McFarland pleading guilty to fraud - is on its way back. McFarland has announced Fyre Festival 2 is a thing, so we can only hope for another viral sandwich… 

A group of American and Chinese scientists claim they have discovered an ancient beach on Mars, adding to the theory that oceans might have been a thing on the red planet. They reckon the beach would be about 3 billion years old - no word if someone still managed to whack a cabana on it…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEDT) - Australian Retailers Association Leaders Forum, with retail business leaders going from a stack of top brands (until 27 February) - Sydney

10.00am (AEST) - The Crown will continue opening remarks in the trial of Rajwinder Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Toyah Cordingley on a beach near Cairns in 2018 (the trial is expected to last for 4 weeks) - Cairns

10.00am (AEDT) - A directions hearing is scheduled in the case of Patrick Orren Stephenson, charged with murdering Ballarat woman Samantha Murphy. He’s to appear via video link - Melbourne

11.30am (AEDT) - Universities Australia CEO Luke Sheehy will address the National Press Club on the role of Australia’s universities in driving national priorities - Canberra, and watch on ABC24

Treasurer Jim Chalmers is set to address the inaugural Australian Super Summit at the Australian Embassy in the US along with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ambassador Kevin Rudd (until 27 February) - Washington DC and New York

Company half-year results for WiseTech Global, Domino's, Flight Centre, and Woolworths

G20 Finance and Central Bank Ministerial Meeting - South Africa 

ABS Data Release - Monthly Consumer Price Index, January

Teal Ribbon Day for Ovarian Cancer 

Birthdays for former Kiwi PM Helen Clark (1950) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (1954)

Anniversary of:

  • the birthdays of Victor Hugo (1802), Levi Strauss (1829), John Harvey Kellogg (1852), Fats Domino (1928) and Johnny Cash (1932)

  • the first known European landing in Australia by Dutch navigator Willem Jansz at Cape York (1606)

  • the infamous Oscars mixup with La La Land mistakenly awarded Best Film instead of Moonlight (2017)

  • Cardinal George Pell’s conviction of child sexual abuse charges - later overturned on appeal (2019)