Wednesday, 6 August - I've got hungry eyes

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 6 August. In your Squiz Today…

• The US is at odds with Brazil over an old ally

• The report into the Titan submersible disaster is out

• And a zoo’s unusual request…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Said Oregon agriculture official Paul Wolf (no, really…) about his new technique for warding wolves away from the local livestock - playing clips from the 2019 divorce drama Marriage Story very, very loudly. Couples arguing loudly in public - that’ll scare anything off… 

The US has ill will towards Brazil

The Squiz

The US State Department criticised a Brazilian court yesterday after former President Jair Bolsonaro was put under house arrest. The right-wing leader and ally of US President Donald Trump has been charged by federal prosecutors with allegedly planning a 2023 coup against the current left-wing government, led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (known as Lula). But the US wants the charges dropped, calling it a “witch hunt”, and after Bolsonaro was arrested for breaching social media restrictions, the situation has gone up a notch…

Remind me who Bolsonaro is… 

He’s been called the ‘Trump of the Tropics’, because the 2 leaders have a lot in common. Bolsonaro was a populist, conservative leader who swept to victory in 2018 before being voted out 4 years later, and like Trump, he questioned the legitimacy of his election loss. The reason he’s facing trial is because federal police are alleging that he helped plan a full military coup to overturn the result and return to the presidency. The prosecution alleges part of that plot was to kill President Lula and put himself back in as President. The trial is a huge story in Brazil - one of the world's biggest democracies. And while it's running, Bolsonaro isn't allowed to post on social media - the Supreme Court says he was using his sons' accounts to bypass that rule - and that led to the house arrest.

And why is the US not happy? 

Because Trump and Bolsonaro are friendly - Bolsonaro has visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort - and Trump has repeatedly criticised his prosecution. But the US and Brazil are also long-term allies, and it’s been making things tense between the 2 countries. About a week ago, the US slapped Brazil with a 50% tariff on its imports - in part because of the Bolsonaro trial - and also took action against the Supreme Court judge overseeing it, Alexandre de Moraes. He’s been banned from travelling to the US and his assets in US banks have been frozen. President Lula isn’t happy with that - he says the US government was trying to interfere in the Brazilian justice system, so it’s a situation to watch. As for a verdict on Bolsonaro, it’s expected to be reached later this year - the charges carry a maximum sentence of over 40 years in prison.

The Big Threat - The Enemy Within

In this week’s episode of The Big Threat - a new podcast series examining the global information wars - Bryce Corbett travels to Washington and New York on the eve of a Presidential inauguration. He sits down with the FT’s US correspondent and meets media literacy advocates watching on nervously as a freshly emboldened Trump administration asserts itself.

Squiz the Rest

A new military move

PM Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be weighing up the expansion of Israel’s military operation in Gaza as ceasefire talks with Hamas hit a dead end. To remind you - the latest negotiations came to a stop when the US and Israel accused Hamas of showing “a lack of desire” to reach a deal. Among its demands, Israel wants to see the return of the remaining hostages and for Hamas to disarm… Hamas, on the other hand, says it won’t disarm until Israel withdraws from Gaza and Palestinian statehood is recognised. But global pressure’s been building on Israel to stop its military action in the Palestinian territory as the humanitarian crisis ramps up - so accelerating it goes against that. Reports say the Israeli government will make a final call on Thursday.

A "preventable tragedy"

… is how a report into the Titan submersible disaster described the implosion which killed all 5 people aboard during a descent to the Titanic wreck in June 2023. It was huge news at the time, and now the US Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) has released the results of its investigation, which found that OceanGate, the company that operated the sub, had "critically flawed" safety practices that led to the disaster. They include failing to properly maintain and inspect it, and a "toxic workplace culture". MBI Chair Jason Neubauer said the investigation had “identified multiple contributing factors that led to this tragedy, providing valuable lessons learned to prevent a future occurrence”. OceanGate isn’t operating anymore, but a spokesperson sent condolences to the families of the victims.

Shaking on a new defence deal

Japanese shipbuilder Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has been chosen to build our new fleet of warships - beating out a German company for the $10 billion contract. It’ll see 11 Mogami frigates built to replace our ageing Anzac-class ships, with the first 3 made in Japan by 2034 (the first is due by 2030…) and the remainder built in Western Oz. And while we’re talking deals, US tech/e-commerce giant Amazon has just inked a new one with our National Broadband Network (aka the NBN) to get high-speed broadband to more than 300,000 regional and rural Aussies. To do that, Amazon’s Low Earth Orbit satellite (which flies about 600 kilometres above Earth, delivering broadband to customers worldwide) will be called in. The service will be available from mid-next year.

Hiroshima marks 80 years…

We’re talking, of course, about the anniversary of the US atomic bomb attack on the Japanese city on 6 August 1945, followed by the atomic bombing of Nagasaki 3 days later. The bombings were credited with effectively bringing an end to WWII, but as we know, they were also catastrophic - killing more than 200,000 people that year and leaving tens of thousands of others to live with radiation illness. And now, 80 years on, reports say the number of survivors - known as hibakusha - has fallen below 100,000. With the group ageing, many who kept silent over the years out of trauma and fear of facing discrimination are starting to tell their stories - hoping to encourage others to push for the end of nuclear warfare. You can read some of them here.

Waste not, want not…

A Danish zoo has caused a bit of a stir by calling for locals to donate their (living) pets - but as food for some of its predators. The Aalborg Zoo’s social media post (which is here on the offchance you read Danish) asked for donations of small, healthy animals that “need to leave your home” - we’re talking guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens - which it would “gently euthanase” and then feed to its population of big cats, for example. The zoo said that the practice is common in Denmark, and an attempt to mimic how the natural food chain works (“that way nothing goes to waste…”), but it didn’t stop angry comments from flooding the post. Yesterday, a manager at the zoo clarified that it was looking for “small livestock”, like a chicken that can’t lay eggs anymore, rather than household pets. So perhaps Danish guinea pigs can sleep a little easier…

Apropos of Nothing

A British hiker who ignored warning signs and ventured off the trail in the Italian Dolomites had to be airlifted to safety last week by 2 choppers and dozens of rescue staff - and if that doesn’t make him think twice about crossing barriers next time, the nearly $30,000 bill might…

The most successful season of television in the history of Netflix - by some margin - is Season One of Wednesday, where Jenna Ortega plays the Addams Family daughter. Season 2 is out today, so we'll see if lightning strikes twice… 

Speaking of good follow-ups, Raygun's moves took the world by storm/surprise last year at the Paris Olympics, and now the musical inspired by her story is doing the same at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (paywall). Breaking: The Musical, is a fictional story about a dancer named Spraygun who becomes a breakout star… Spoiler alert, it’s a hit.

Squiz the Day

8.00am (AEST) - Up to 48,000 Queensland teachers are expected to go on strike over pay and conditions - Brisbane

9.00am (AEST) - The FutureAG Expo gets underway (until 8 August) - Melbourne

10.00am (ACST) - Evonne Goolagong Cawley will open the National Indigenous Tennis Carnival - Darwin

11.30am (AEST) - Giridharan Sivaraman, Race Discrimination Commissioner, will Address the National Press Club of Australia on “Getting serious about racial equality in Australia” - Canberra

1.00pm (AEST) - The AI Unbound x TED conference will feature Siri co-creator Tom Gruber and others as they explore how AI is reshaping the world - Sydney 

6.00pm (AEST) - The National Indigenous Fashion Awards are on - Darwin

ABS data release - Selected Living Cost Indexes, Australia, June 2025

News Corp, QBE and REAGroup will deliver their 2025FY results 

Hiroshima Day, commemorates those who lost their lives in the bombing of Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945

Jamaica and Bolivia's National Day

Wednesday season 2 is out on Netflix

Anniversary of:

• the HMS Roebuck, captained by William Dampier, lands at Shark Bay, WA, on the first British scientific expedition to Australia (1699)

• the World Wide Web becoming publicly available (1991)

• the birthdays of poet Alfred Tennyson (1809), Edith Roosevelt (1861), sitcom star Lucille Ball (1911) and artist Andy Warhol (1928)