Wednesday, 3 September - Good Golly Miss Molly

September 03, 2025

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 3 September. In your Squiz Today…

  • Charges have been laid against neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell as the government holds firm on immigration

  • US Vogue appoints a replacement for iconic editor-in-chief Anna Wintour

  • And film festival crowds get clap-happy… 👏

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

“The best surfer in the world.”

Is how the World Surf League described 22yo Aussie surfing champ Molly “Pickles” Picklum who came from behind to win the World Surf League Finals in Fiji yesterday, riding a wave straight into the history books…

Immigration holds steady

The Squiz

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has poured cold water on any questions over the Albanese Government changing our immigration levels, saying the number of permanent visas offered to migrants this financial year will stay at 185,000 - the same as last year. He says that number has been set after consultation with the states and territories, which “recommended maintaining the size and composition of the program, with a focus on skilled migration”. It comes after thousands of people - including some neo-Nazis - turned out at anti-immigration rallies across our capital cities over the weekend, protesting what they called “record high” immigration levels…

What do the numbers say?

Experts reckon claims that migration is at record levels aren’t correct, and there’s confusion about the various numbers we have access to. The Immigration Department’s former deputy secretary, Abul Rizvi, says one to note is our net overseas migration (or NOM, which tracks the net gain or loss of population through international migration to/from Oz). The Albanese Government says NOM in the 12 months to December 2024 was 341,000 people - down 37% from its peak of 538,000 in the 2022-2023 year. Rizvi says that peak came when the former Morrison Government “stomped on the immigration accelerator” post-pandemic, to make up for the drop when our borders were closed. He says “net migration is definitely falling, not rising” since then, but not as fast as our Treasury Department has forecasted.

And what about the weekend protests?

There’s still plenty of fallout… You might recall Thomas Sewell, a neo-Nazi leader, addressed the anti-immigration rally in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday. Since then, he was one of a group of men to violently storm Melbourne’s Indigenous protest site Camp Sovereignty. He’s been charged overnight in relation to alleged assaults during that attack and he’ll face court today. That arrest was just a few hours after he also gatecrashed a press conference by Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan yesterday morning - something PM Anthony Albanese described as “horrific”. The PM also said he was “shocked” to see so many people in Nazi uniforms at the weekend protests, and has urged fellow politicians to call out any racist behaviour they see going forward.

Wrapped in comfort from day one

Love To Dream’s newborn swaddle collection has become a go-to for parents wanting safer, better sleep for their babies. Now, it’s got the tick of approval from The Royal Hospital for Women Foundation, which supports 20,000 women and babies across NSW. If you’re expecting - or know someone who is - it's a good one. Explore the collection here.

Squiz the Rest

The Israeli military mobilises

Israel has begun calling up the first of a planned 60,000 reservists as it continued the early stages of its offensive into Gaza City yesterday. It’s part of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to take over all of the strip, one that families of the hostages still held by Hamas are concerned will put them in more danger. This comes shortly after an international group of academics and experts on genocide said this week that Israel is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Gaza - the International Association of Genocide Scholars said Israel’s actions met “the legal definition of genocide” under the United Nations Convention. But Israel rejects the claim - it says it’s acting in self-defence against Hamas, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the finding an “embarrassment” based on “Hamas’ campaign of lies”. 

An outbreak of anger in Indonesia

At least 20 people are missing and 8 are dead as widespread protests continue to rage through our neighbour to the north. This started when the Indonesian government said it would be raising what’s called an ‘allowance’ for Indonesian MPs to $9,000 a month - more than 30 times the national income. The decision didn’t play well during an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and the protests became more widespread after a rideshare driver was run over and killed by a police vehicle in Jakarta. That prompted Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to cancel a trip to Beijing so he could deal with the protests - he’s also promised to revoke some of the perks that started it in the first place. If you’ve got a trip north planned, the advice for any Aussies heading to the country is to “exercise a high degree of caution”. 

A fashion vacuum is filled

After moving on as Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour has found her replacement - and it’s the 39yo editor of Vogue.com Chloe Malle that’ll be trying to fill her very fashionable shoes. Malle is no stranger to the limelight - she’s the daughter of Murphy Brown star Candice Bergen and the French director Louis Malle. She’s been at Vogue since 2011, where she started as a social editor before beginning her current role in 2023. And while she’ll have a different title - ‘head of editorial content’ instead of Wintour’s ‘editor-in-chief’ - she takes over at about the same age as Wintour took charge in 1988. As for Wintour, she’ll still be around - she’s Vogue’s global editorial director and the chief content officer for Condé Nast. Those sunglasses ain’t going anywhere yet… 

Vale ‘Aussie Joe’ Bugner

The heavyweight boxer that fought both Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier died in Brisbane yesterday at 75yo. Despite his nickname, Bugner was born in Hungary and made his name in Britain in the 1970s - but he picked up the Aussie moniker after moving Down Under in 1986. Bugner’s biggest claim to fame is to be the only person to fight both Ali and Frazier without being knocked out, losing all 3 of his fights against the greats on points. After moving here, Bugner won the Australian Heavyweight Championship, had a role in the 1994 video game adaptation Street Fighter alongside Kylie Minogue, and even popped up on the UK version of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here. And despite fighting many greats over his career, Bugner was in no doubt who ‘The Greatest’ was - he said Ali’s reactions, speed and timing put him in a class of his own. 

A long pause for applause

If you’re a film festival follower, you’ll know there are some diligent folk out there who keep track of the length of standing ovations at those festivals, and a few films at Venice have been racking up some doozies this year… The Smashing Machine, a serious drama where Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson plays MMA fighter Mark Kerr, received a 15-minute standing ovation yesterday that brought The Rock to tears. Not to be outdone, Amanda Seyfried’s new film The Testament of Ann Lee also got a 15-minute ovation. We’ll see if any movies can beat those numbers - and if you’re wondering what the longest standing ovation ever is, that record is held by 2006 fantasy film Pan’s Labyrinth, which went for a wince-inducing 22 minutes at Cannes. There must have been some sore hands after that one…

Apropos of Nothing

The small Caribbean island of Anguilla has lucked into quite the moneymaker - it owns the domain code .ai, which is selling like hot cakes due to the artificial intelligence boom, and now makes up almost a quarter of the island’s revenue. Cha-ching… 

Darwin's Jennifer Hunt is on a record-setting mission - already the country's youngest female pilot at 15yo, this week she's going to try to become the youngest female to circumnavigate Australia - with her puppy Bella in tow. Hopefully Bella enters the record books too… 

And this week we learnt about the Dutch sport of ‘fierljeppen’, where athletes try to pole vault over canals. Translating to ‘far leaping’, it’s different to pole vault in that you’re trying for distance, not height, and similar in that it must be scary to do for the first time…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEST) - A 40yo woman charged over a car crash in a primary school that killed 11yo Jack Davey in October 2024 is due to be sentenced - Melbourne

10.00am (AEST) - Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell will face court on charges including violent disorder, affray, assault by kicking, and discharging a missile after an attack on an Indigenous camp on Sunday - Melbourne

10.00am (AEST) - The High Court will deliver its judgment on an appeal to return the site of the Paddington Bowling Club to Indigenous ownership - Canberra

10.15am (AEST) - A penalty hearing in the Federal Court is set down for the ABC’s unlawful termination of Antoinette Lattouf - Sydney

11.30am (AEST) - Paul Schroder, Chief Executive of AustralianSuper, will address the National Press Club of Australia - Canberra 

4.00pm (AWST) - Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock will deliver the Shann Memorial Lecture at the University of Western Australia on technology, trust and the future of central banking in Australia - Perth

6.00pm (AEST) - The Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for excellence in science will be announced from Sydney Town Hall in a virtual ceremony - register here to watch

Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean President Kim Jong Un will attend a military parade marking the end of WWII - Beijing

ABS data release - Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product June 2025; Recorded Crime - Victims, 2024

The School Plus Teaching Awards will be announced - Canberra

🇦🇺 Australian National Flag Day, marking the anniversary of the Aussie flag first being flown (1901)

NT Resources Week (until 4 September) - Darwin 

A birthday for actor Charlie Sheen (1960) 

Anniversary of:

  • the British Empire adopting the Gregorian Calendar and jumping 11 days to September 14 (1752)

  • Britain declaring war on Germany after its invasion of Poland (1939)

  • Chris the Sheep breaking the world record for biggest shorn fleece (40kg) near Canberra (2015)