Squiz Today / 24 March 2022

Squiz Today – Thursday, 24 March

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Squiz Today Podcast

Made to fit into your morning routine. 

Today’s listen time: 9 minutes

SYD
19 / 22
MEL
12 / 20
BNE
21 / 29
ADL
13 / 23
PER
15 / 32
HBA
10 / 20
DRW
24 / 33
CBR
13 / 22

Squiz Sayings

“I loathe that song a lot of the time.”

Said Toni Watson, the singer/songwriter known as Tones and I, of the smash hit Dance Monkey. If the earworm tune has irritated you, imagine what it’s been like for her…

Ash Barty bows out

THE SQUIZ

Oh, Ash… The top tennis player/top sheila floored fans by announcing her retirement from the sport yesterday. “I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top level anymore,” she said. Many were shocked given she’s 25yo and at the top of her game – and there will be many questions when she fronts up for a press conference today. And look, she’s done this before and come back – so, you know, let’s see if it sticks. 

THAT WAS AN ‘INDEFINITE BREAK’. SHE’S REALLY RETIRING… 

Right. Which is probably why you can hear the emotion in her voice in the video she made with her mate/former doubles partner Casey Dellacqua to break the news. It’s well worth a look or a read. “I’ve given absolutely everything I can to this beautiful sport of tennis and I’m really happy with that,” she said. She also talked about last year’s Wimbledon win and how it started to change things for her because it “was the one true dream that I wanted in tennis”. But Barty said she “wasn’t quite fulfilled” until winning the Aussie Open in January. And with that under her belt, she says she’s done. “Success for me is knowing I’ve given absolutely everything I can. I know how much work it takes to bring the best out of yourself. I’ve said it to my team multiple times, I just don’t have that in me anymore.” So what’s next? “I get to enjoy the next phase of my life as Ash Barty the person, not Ash Barty the athlete.” And what did the Women’s Tennis Association say? “We will miss her.” 

GIVE ME THE HIGHLIGHT REEL…

We’ll call out 3. 

  • First, she’s talked a lot about her family being the most important thing in her life. She grew up in Ispwich, Queensland and lives near there now with her partner Garry Kissick and their beloved dogs – and her parents and sisters are there too. The professional circuit was a hard slog for Barty because of the time away from them – it’s something she’s talked about as an issue for her. 
  • Her career was a cracker. Barty won the French Open (2019), Wimbledon (2021) and the Aussie Open (2022). She’s been the world #1 singles player since June 2019. She is also a doubles champion, having won the 2018 US Open with CoCo Vandeweghe. In total, Barty won 15 singles titles and 12 doubles titles on the WTA Tour netting US$23,829,071 in prizemoney. 

And she’s just so darn cool… Her determination that her success (or otherwise…) on the court not defining who she sounds easy, but would have been incredibly difficult to live by in her line of work. As Dylan Alcott tweeted yesterday: “Amazing tennis player but even better person. A champion in every sense of the word.”

Sport

Squiz the Rest

Hillsong founder resigns under a dark cloud

Brian Houston has permanently stepped down from the helm of the global megachurch after an internal investigation found he behaved inappropriately towards 2 women. That included sending “inappropriate” text messages sent to a staff member in 2013. And there was an incident at a big Hillsong conference in 2019 when Houston couldn’t get into his hotel room and spent 40 minutes in the room of a woman he’d met that day. Houston had become disorientated after mixing anti-anxiety medication with alcohol, the investigation found, and while “no sexual activity was reported”, the woman had made a complaint. It’s been a big year for Houston, who stepped aside as a director in January to defend a criminal charge that he concealed his father’s abuse of children. The church has apologised to the women who made the complaints.

Australian News

Study finds sexual harassment rife on campus

One in 6 Aussie uni students say they have been sexually harassed according to a major national study of nearly 44,000 students across 39 universities. Out of those who had been sexually assaulted, 2 in 3 knew the perpetrator, one in 20 made a complaint, and a quarter sought support. Students most likely to be assaulted were young women who are living on campus, have a disability or were LGBT-identifing, while more than 85% of perpetrators were male. And a quarter of the incidents happened at uni-related events, and another quarter occured at student accommodation, the study found. It follows a 2016 survey commissioned by the Australian Human Rights Commission that revealed a high rate of harassment on campus – and critics now say the university administrators have failed to act. Head of Universities Australia John Dewar apologised to students and committed to doing more to bring change.

Australian News Crime

NATO to bolster troops in eastern Europe

The western military alliance is doubling the volume of troops on its eastern front in response to Russia’s relentless attack on Ukraine. The secretary-general of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, says 4 new battlegroups will be deployed to Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania – a big long-term increase in NATO’s presence in the region. It comes as US President Joe Biden gets set to meet his European counterparts in Brussels today, with reports saying that leaders will unveil a package of new measures to punish Russia, including a new round of sanctions on Russian oligarchs, and steps to limit the uptake of Russian oil and gas. On Friday, Biden will travel to Poland and meet President Andrzej Duda to discuss the response to the humanitarian crisis stemming from the war, with the country already welcoming one million refugees over the border. Poland had proposed creating a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, but overnight Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, bristled against this in a televised speech, saying Moscow has the “spirit and will to defend Russian culture in Ukraine.”

World News

Amanda Bynes does a Britney

We’re guessing you’ve heard about pop icon Britney Spears’ fight to end a conservatorship arrangement that controlled her life and finances for 13 years. But another 2000s teen star who got caught up in the same system is actor Amanda Bynes. After making a name for herself on TV and in films like What a Girl Wants and Hairspray, Bynes took a break from acting in 2010 as she struggled with highly-publicised mental health, drug abuse and legal problems. Those issues saw a judge grant Bynes’ parents a temporary conservatorship in 2013, and it was extended several times over the past 9 years. But after the now-35yo filed a petition last month, a judge terminated the conservatorship yesterday, saying it “is no longer needed”. Bynes, who says she’s turned her life around, said she is pursuing a fashion career, and is contemplating a return to acting. “I will continue to prioritise my wellbeing in this next chapter,” she said in a statement

Entertainment

Vale Max Walsh

Legendary Aussie journalist Max Walsh died yesterday at 84yo. In recent years, he suffered from dementia. Walsh exerted enormous influence over both newspaper and television journalism, and he was influential in the world of politics, famously saying “[former PM Paul] Keating said I taught him economics. What I taught him is how important economics are.” In the 60s and 70s, Walsh was the chief political correspondent and then editor of The Financial Review before turning to Channel Nine in the 80s. Later, he had stints at the ABC where he co-presented the ‘The Carleton-Walsh Report’ with the late Richard Carleton. In the 90s, Walsh worked as a reporter and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald before running The Bulletin magazine under media mogul Kerry Packer. Walsh was a mentor to dozens of younger journalists, including former ABC host Maxine McKew who said he was driven by a sense of feminism. “He’d say ‘women work harder, they’re just hungrier’” McKew said.

Australian News

Apropos of Nothing

If you’ve watched Netflix’s Inventing Anna, you’d know that scammer Anna Delvey/Sorokin sought to make a name for herself in New York’s art scene. Now, as she awaits deportation to Germany, she’s getting her own solo art show. Her sketches created in a detention centre are expected to fetch up to US$10,000 each. 

Spanish researchers have uncovered the unwritten rules for creating an authentic paella from cooks in Valencia, where the dish hails from. The only meat that should be used in the national dish are chicken and rabbit. Note: no seafood. Boo…  

Another day, another fashion trend we won’t be getting on board with. The latest look that’s dividing the internet is called ‘bum cleavage’. Aren’t you lucky you have us to get to the bottom of things?

Quirky News

Squiz the Day

8.10pm (AEDT) – Soccer World Cup Qualifier – Australia v Japan – Sydney

AIHW Release – Epilepsy in Australia

World Tuberculosis Day

International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims

Birthdays for fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger (1951), actor Jim Parsons (1973), footballer and sports commentator Darren Lockyer (1977) and actress Jessica Chastain (1977)

Anniversary of:
• Elvis Presley joining the army (1958)
• the death of former Governor-General Sir John Kerr (1991)
• Federal Parliament overturning the world’s first euthanasia law that was passed in the Northern Territory (1997)
• the Aussie cricket ball-tampering scandal in Cape Town (2018)
• the ‘March for Our Lives’ rallies held in Washington DC and around the world to protest gun violence (2018)

Squiz the Day

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