Squiz Today – Wednesday, 16 August

THE SQUIZ
A group of 4 Aussies on a 30th birthday surfing trip to Indonesia have an epic story to tell when they return home… Birthday boy Elliot Foote, his partner Steph Weisse and their mates Jordan Short and Will Teagle were travelling with 3 Indonesian crew members on a wooden speedboat towards the Banyak Islands off the coast of Aceh when they hit rough weather and were uncontactable on Sunday night. And after more than 36 hours missing at sea, they were found “bobbing around on their surfboards“. Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency also confirmed 2 crew members were found safe, and the search is continuing for the remaining missing man.

WHAT HAPPENED?
There have been patchy comms with rescue teams and the group due to reception issues, but Elliot’s dad Peter Foote kept reporters updated yesterday. There’s a map here so you can follow along… The group initially left Nias island (about 150km from Sumatra) on Sunday night before bad weather hit, and as the boat sank, they grabbed what they could help them survive in the water. Yesterday morning, Weisse, Short and Teagle were found together, and Foote was found some hours later 20 nautical miles away near Palambak Island – he’d paddled off to get help. A lovely video of Peter’s reaction as he heard that his son was alive is so great… He says the group were “probably thinner and waterlogged”, but they’re doing well.

ANY WORD FROM THE GROUP?
They were stoked to be found… Late yesterday a video of Elliot looking relaxed and recounting the moment he was reunited with his friends again did the rounds. “‘Oh, there’s my mates – there’s Steph, Jordie and Will’. And I’m like, ‘oh sick’. And they’re like, ‘hey man’.” Peter also spoke about receiving a text message directly from his son just before 1pm yesterday… “It says ‘Hey Dad, Elliot here. I’m alive. Safe now. Love you. Chat later’. He’s probably going out for a surf this afternoon, you know.” For the Aussies, all’s well that ends well…

World Cup semis magic

If you missed last night’s Women’s World Cup semi-final between Spain and Sweden, you only need to watch from about the 80-minute mark to get on top of it… That’s when Spain scored to break the nil-all deadlock. Eight minutes later, Sweden scored. And then 90 seconds later, Spain scored again to take the game 2-1. So they’re through to the World Cup final on Sunday… As for tonight’s game between the Matildas and England, striker Sam Kerr is tipped to start on the bench tonight, but she looked spritely at training yesterday. Note: Kerr was crucial in our 2-0 win against the #4 ranked Lionesses in April… And it may be a school night, but a seat at the local pub will be harder to come by than a piece of Matildas merch – soccer training and movie screenings have also been postponed. As Shania Twain famously said, let’s go girls…

Get your Matildas talking points straight with our new Squiz Shortcut on the team’s origin story and their 2023 World Cup campaign.

Georgia on Trump’s mind

Former US President Donald Trump is facing criminal indictment #4 – this time, Georgia is coming after him over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. And it’s not just Trump facing charges – he and 18 allies, including his White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani, are facing 41 criminal charges of racketeering (aka participating in organised crime). They are accused of operating a fraudulent scheme for an advantage (which carries a prison term of up to 20 years), and the 19 have until next Friday to voluntarily surrender when they will be able to negotiate bond and the terms of release with the District Attorney’s office ahead of a court date being set. The trigger for the case: a taped phone call where Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes to erase his election loss. Trump took to his Truth Social platform to condemn the latest “rigged” charges.

Need a refresher on Trump’s other criminal charges? We have Squiz Shortcuts on his first, second, and third indictments. And breathe…

Typhoon Lan hits Japan

That’s led authorities to order 240,000 residents to evacuate their homes as Typhoon Lan made landfall in the country’s west yesterday morning. After hitting the Wakayama prefecture 400km southwest of Tokyo, the typhoon moved northwest across Japan’s main island of Honshu. More than 800 flights have been grounded/cancelled, and power has been cut off to 90,000 homes as the nation is lashed by heavy rain and winds of up to 150km/hour and flood/landslide warnings are issued. It’s the second typhoon to hit Japan in a week, and its complicated travel plans as the country wraps up the annual holiday festival of Obon. Lan is forecast to reach the Sea of Japan early this morning before heading north. As for where things are up to following the wildfires in Maui – the death toll has increased to 99 people, and about 1,300 people are unaccounted for. Authorities say search teams have combed through about 25% of the devastated resort town of Lahaina.

Time to glug glug…

But in a responsible way, of course… That’s because it’s tough times for Aussie winegrowers with regional lender Rabobank reporting that the industry is facing a glut of about 2.8 billion bottles thanks to China’s trade ban. That’s a lot of vino… China was a massive market for Aussie wine, but revenge tariffs implemented by China in 2020 saw the value of Aussie wine exports drop by 33%. Add in falling demand from other key markets and an excellent growing season, and warehouses are storing the equivalent of 860 Olympic swimming pools of wine… Winemakers are hopeful the tariff will be lifted after China scrapped its Aussie barley ban earlier this month, but the report says it could take years for the industry to recover.

When to say ‘I love you’

Uttering those 3 words is considered a significant milestone in a romantic relationship, and a new study has shed new light on when it’s most likely to happen. Researchers from Abertay University in Scotland asked 3,109 participants from Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, France, Poland and the UK to discuss their love lives. They found that in 6 of the 7 countries, men were more likely to confess their love first. And while the average man thought about saying the L word to their significant other 69 days into a relationship, women took a bit longer to get there at 77 days. When laying their cards on the table, men actually said ‘I love you’ an average of 107 days in – 15 days before the average woman. That’s a long time to leave the poor bloke hanging…

It’s not just Taylor Swift who’s in mega demand… Kylie Minogue’s Vegas residency has sold out and crashed the website – the cabaret club-style venue holds an audience of just 1,000, so tickets for her 20 shows have been hard to get.

The dance anthem Cotton Eye Joe was annoying in 1994. And it was almost tournament derailing for women’s tennis world #3 Jessica Pegula after it blasted over the speakers of the final of the Montreal Open at a critical moment. Yesterday she said she was “ just glad that I overcame it”.

And introducing you to the new superband – the Bublé Fighters… Its genesis has quite a backstory, but its impact is real. As Chief Fooey Dave Grohl said yesterday, “there’s no such thing as taking a joke too far”…

12.30pm (AEST) – Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe addresses the National Press Club – Canberra

2.00pm (AEST) – National Cabinet meeting – Brisbane

5.30pm (AEST) – Men’s Basketball – FIBA World Cup Warm Up – Australia v Brazil – Melbourne

8.00pm (AEST) – Women’s Football – World Cup Semi Final – Australia v England – Sydney

Ecca public holiday in Brissie

Company Results – Endeavour; Mirvac; Transurban

Birthdays for James Cameron (1954), Madonna (1958), Steve Carell (1962), and Taika Waititi (1975)

Anniversary of:
• the marriage of Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi (2008)
• Wikileaks founder Julian Assange being granted political asylum by Ecuador (2012)
• the deaths of Elvis (1977) and Aretha Franklin (2018)