Wednesday, 8 January - At the copa, Copacabana

Good morning, it’s Wednesday, 8 January. In your Squiz Today…

• European leaders aren’t happy with the world’s richest man

• Rescuers are searching for survivors of a deadly quake in Tibet

• And the beach cabana wars kick off again…

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Squiz the Weather

Squiz Sayings

Pleaded one customer of America’s Chick-fil-A after they changed the waffle fry recipe to include pea starch, infuriating fans of the delicious/previously crunchy discs. One rule in life is to never upset those of us with a penchant for potatoes - we’ve got a real chip on our shoulders…

Musk wades into European politics

The Squiz

UK PM Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have joined other leaders in Europe to push back against billionaire Elon Musk over his escalating attempts to intervene in their domestic politics. Yesterday, Starmer accused the world’s richest man of “spreading lies and misinformation” on his social media platform X. That was followed by Macron, who suggested Musk was “supporting a new international reactionary movement and intervening directly in elections”.

What’s going on?

We’ll start with the Musk/Starmer row… This week, Musk - a major backer of US President-elect Donald Trump and ally of far-right leaders across Europe - has reignited political debate in the UK over an historic sexual abuse scandal. You can read about it here, but it boils down to claims police aren’t investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by Asian gangs because of racism fears. Musk accused Starmer, who previously ran the Crown Prosecution Service, of being “complicit” in the case and said he should go to prison. Starmer rejects that, and there have been calls for him to sue for defamation. In Macron’s case, he’s taken issue with Musk’s endorsement of a far-right German political party ahead of the country’s February election.

So what does it mean?

Well, it looks like Musk - who's already a significant presence in US politics - wants to grow his influence over other democratic nations. The concern is that as he's targeting leaders across Europe, he's also boosting the profiles of far-right parties. Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck says Musk is making a play to weaken Europe to prevent regulations against social media/tech companies - aka Musk’s bread and butter. Whether or not he’s successful is another thing, but in the meantime, European Commission leaders are looking into legal ramifications for his interference. And with Musk ‘heading up’ a new department and tapped to be an advisor to the President-elect when he returns to the White House - giving him newfound power in the US - others say don’t underestimate Trump’s right-hand man…

Rom-com road trippin’

You don’t need us to tell you - summer is the perfect time for love, and The Road Trip is one to tickle your fancy… Based on best-selling author Beth O’Leary’s novel The Road Trip, we join exes Addie and Dylan, who are forced to hit the road together to get to a friend’s wedding in Spain. Cue awkward hilarity… Come for the stunning Spanish scenery, and stay for the romantic zing - you can check out the trailer here. All episodes are now streaming only on Paramount+.

Squiz the Rest

A deadly earthquake hits Tibet

Rescue crews are working in freezing temperatures to search for survivors of a massive earthquake in Tibet, near Everest. Although they’re relatively common in the region, authorities say it’s one of the deadliest in years… The death toll is at more than 120 people, and at least 188 have been injured - but those numbers could rise. There are differing reports, but most say it was around a 6.8-7.1 magnitude quake, and left significant damage. It struck just after 9am on Tuesday, with its epicentre in the remote Tingri county region in the foothills of the Himalayas. At least 3,600 homes and other buildings were damaged, with Bishal Nath Upreti from the neighbouring Nepal Centre for Disaster Management saying “people came running out of their houses. You could see the wires from poles shaken loose”.

A losing bid

US President-elect Donald Trump’s attempt to delay sentencing over his hush money felony conviction has been denied by a New York judge - meaning it will go ahead this Friday, 10 days before his inauguration. He’s had several legal dramas of late, but this one is linked to his cover-up of hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Last May, he was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records - potentially carrying a jail term. Judge Juan Merchan has already said Trump’s unlikely to be jailed, but that hasn’t stopped his lawyers from arguing the conviction should be overturned based on presidential immunity claims… In court filings, they called it a “politically motivated prosecution” - but Judge Merchan said “repetition of the arguments” Trump’s team have raised before wouldn’t cut it.

The price of caffeine is getting obscene

Concern over coffee costs is gathering steam… Aussie cafes say beans are getting more expensive, and we can expect to be paying higher prices this year - one expert even suggested that it could be $10-12 for a cup by the end of 2025. Take Arabica, the world's most popular coffee bean... It hit its highest price in 50 years in December last year (about $12 a kilo) - we can thank lousy weather in Brazil and Vietnam for that. And while beans only make up about 10% of the cost of your morning brew, inflation is pushing everything else involved up, too, like wages, milk - even the cups. (Side note: new inflation data is out tomorrow…). But some cafe owners are pushing back on the idea of double-figure lattes - saying they’d rather shut down the cafe than charge that much.

Kyrgios makes a curious return

Australia’s Davis Cup captain, Lleyton Hewitt, has picked Nick Kyrgios in our team to play Sweden on 31 January, which is a bit of a turn-up as Kyrgios hasn’t played the tournament since 2019, saying he felt unsupported in Australia. He’s making a comeback from a couple of injury-hit years but is never far from controversy - most recently for a couple of jabs at the son of the man who picked him in the team. Lleyton’s son Cruz - who didn’t make it through his qualifier for the Australian Open tournament yesterday - posted a photo with current World #1 Jannik Sinner on Instagram, leading Kyrgios - who has issues with Sinner over the Italian’s positive test for a banned substance - to leave a bunch of critical comments on the post. He later said he was just joking around, and it seems there are no hard feelings…

Not coping with the cabana

The beachgoers amongst us are dealing with a growing summer grievance - not flies, UV rays or eye-watering parking fees, but the humble cabana. The affordable mini-tents - CoolCabana is a popular one - are causing passionate social media debates. Their critics say they ruin the view and are being used to reserve the good sand space. One of those critics is PM Anthony Albanese, who weighed in yesterday to say the beach was "for everyone" and that staking out your coastal territory with a cabana was "not on". But if you ask the Cancer Council of Australia, they're all for it - saying anything to reduce Australia's rates of skin cancer, one of the highest in the world, is welcome. A blacklisting has happened before - Myrtle Beach in the US did it a decade ago - so we’ll see if any Aussie beaches can ban a cabana…

Apropos of Nothing - Techie edition

Artificial intelligence (AI) will be the hot topic at the annual CES show in Vegas - 100,000 people will descend on Sin City this year to check out AI fridges, rolling AI robots that follow you around, and no shortage of other weird and wacky gadgets…

The AI revolution didn't work out so well for US man Mark Johns, who tried to catch a driverless car to the airport in Arizona - only for the vehicle to drive aimlessly around a car park. Ironically, Johns is a professional AI consultant - but he couldn’t consult his way out of that…

And if you like tech and ancient Scottish sports, Tiger Woods' new team-based indoor golf league starts tomorrow. Tomorrow’s Golf League (the TGL) - will see the world’s best golfers smashing balls into a simulator in a huge arena. It’s a hole new thing…

Squiz the Day

9.00am (AEDT) - The Parkes Elvis Festival begins (on until 12 Jan) - Parkes, NSW 

12.30pm (AWST) - AusCycling Road National Championships begin (on until 12 Jan) - Perth

5.00pm (AEDT) - Australian Open: The Rising Stars match 1 - Qinwen Zheng v Elina Svitolina - Melbourne, broadcast live on AO TV

7.00pm (AEDT) - Australian Open: The Rising Stars match 2 - Carlos Alcaraz v Alex de Minaur - Melbourne, broadcast live on AO TV

ABS Data Release - Monthly Consumer Price Index, November

Earth's Rotation Day

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's birthday (1983)

Anniversary of: 

• Tonya Harding winning gold at the US Figure Skating Championships, which was later stripped from her after revelations of her involvement in the attack of rival Nancy Kerrigan (1994)

• the birthdays of Elvis Presley (1935), Stephen Hawking (1942), David Bowie (1947)

Thursday

2.30am (AEDT) - Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations will be announced - broadcast live on Netflix’s YouTube channel 

4.00am (AEDT) - 2025 Oscars Nominations voting begins