Squiz Today – Wednesday, 24 November

THE SQUIZ
Put your brolly on standby and have your gumboots at the ready – the Bureau of Meteorology has declared La Niña is here bringing wet and cooler than usual conditions for eastern and northern Australia over summer. Last year saw La Niña deliver 3 catastrophe-level floods making this year’s cycle a double dose – that hasn’t happened since the summers of 2010-11 and 2011-12.

WHO IS THIS LA NIÑA SHEILA WHEN SHE’S AT HOME?
La Niña (aka Little Girl in Spanish) and her brother El Niño (Little Boy) are the climate drivers that make up the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and it has the strongest influence on the annual changes in Australia’s weather. La Niña occurs when there’s cooler than average waters on the Oz-side of the Pacific Ocean. That results in stronger than average trade winds from the equator and more moisture over northern and eastern Australia. El Niño is the reverse = drier and hotter conditions. The ENSO cycle affects most of Oz, barring Western Australia and western South Australia. Those parts have their own thing going on with the Indian Ocean Dipole. Let’s treat ourselves to that another time…

SO CAN I PUT AWAY THE SUNSCREEN?
No. You can never put the sunscreen away, even on overcast days. Sheesh… But if you’re asking how much summer east coasters will get, the official take on that will be issued by the weather nerds at the Bureau tomorrow. What was said yesterday was that this year’s La Niña is not predicted to be as strong as last year’s, so that might be fine depending on where you are. But for areas that have seen a lot of rain in recent times, even a bit more rain could mean severe flooding. That’s playing out this week, with parts of South Australia, NSW, Victoria and Queensland being issued with flood warnings with more rain predicted. La Niña can also bring more cyclones to Northern Oz, so that’s another thing to look out for. If you have any spare cash lying around, it could be time to invest in an ark – and fake tan shares…

Man arrested over missing Victorian campers

The disappearance of campers Carol Clay and Russell Hill has baffled Victoria Police and haunted their families, and yesterday it was confirmed that 55yo Melbourne man Greg Lynn has been arrested. Let’s walk it back… Clay and Hill, both in their 70s, went missing in the Wonnangatta Valley in northeastern Victoria last year. They had travelled from Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs, and Hill did not tell his wife he was going away with Clay. They were last heard from on 20 March 2020, and other campers came across the pair’s burnt-out campsite and vehicle the next day. Police have said it’s their belief that they have been murdered. After making multiple appeals for information, hundreds of people across the state had provided assistance to police. On the man who was arrested by police – not a lot has been disclosed. He is a Jetstar pilot and an “experienced bushman”. No charges have been laid at this stage.

Christmas parade attacker to be charged

Police say Wisconsin man Darrell Brooks is set to be charged with 5 counts of intentional homicide after he drove his car through a Christmas parade in Waukesha on Sunday evening. Four of the 5 people killed were from the Milwaukee Dancing Grannies, a local dance troupe. And 48 others were injured in the attack, including 18 children, 6 of whom are critical. Police Chief Daniel Thompson said the incident was “not a terrorist event”. Brooks was involved in a domestic disturbance earlier in the day and had been charged with several violent crimes dating back to 1999. He was on bail at the time of the tragedy. The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office said it was conducting an internal review into the decision to grant Brooks bail. Charges are expected to be laid when he appears in court later this morning.

Kevin Spacey’s house of cards tumbles

The Hollywood actor was one of the early scalps of the #MeToo movement, which unearths sexual abuse and harassment. In 2017, Kevin Spacey was accused of making a sexual advance on a 14yo actor in 1986. And things went downhill from there when allegations of unwanted touching and crude comments were levelled by crew members on the hit Netflix series. The show’s makers MRC responded by killing off his character, which was tricky because, umm, he was the main character… MRC say they haemorrhaged millions of dollars because the final series was already written and shot when it had to be canned. An arbitrator found that Spacey should pay the company US$31 million for breaching his contract’s demands for professional conduct. Spacey appealed against that finding, but a Californian court has upheld the original decision and made the previously private matter public.

Intercepting an asteroid

That’s what space agency NASA is attempting to do as part of its maiden Double Asteroid Redirection Test (Dart) mission. But don’t worry, it’s not on track to hit Earth… The mission will test technology that could help change the course of asteroids that pose a threat in the future. Asteroids – space rocks that orbit the sun – rarely endanger Earth, but experts say those with a diameter of 300m and larger could cause continent-wide destruction. Those bigger than 1km could have a global impact. So to ensure we don’t go the way of the dinosaurs, NASA will launch a rocket carrying the Dart spacecraft this afternoon. It will then crash into a 163m-wide asteroid called Dimorphos next year to see whether it can throw it off course by a matter of millimetres. No need to cue up the music yet…

12.30pm (AEDT) – President of Chief Executive Women, Sam Mostyn AO, addresses the National Press Club in Canberra

1.30pm (AEDT) – The Committee for Economic Development of Australia hosts an event on COP26 and what’s next for Aussie businesses – livestream available here

5.00pm (AEDT) – OECD Secretary-General and former Finance Minister Mathias Cormann delivers the Owen Harries Lecture on “Levelling the playing field – an agenda for growth, climate and a rules-based international order” – livestream available here

5.20pm (AEDT) – Nasa’s Dart mission launches, which will test anti-asteroid technology – California

7.00pm (AEDT) – AFL Draft Round 1 – Melbourne

7.10pm (AEDT) – WBBL Cricket Elimination Final – Brisbane Heat v Adelaide Strikers – Adelaide Oval, Adelaide

7.30pm (AEDT) – ARIA Awards

ABS Data Release – Energy Account, 2019-20 financial year; Marriages and Divorces, 2020

Company AGM – Ramsay Health Care

AIHW release – Australian Burden of Disease Study: Illness and death in 2018

Unique Talent Day

Birthdays for author and activist Arundhati Roy (1961) and actor Katherine Heigl (1978)

Anniversary of:
• Dutch explorer Abel Tasman ‘discovering’ Van Diemen’s Land (1642)
• the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of evolution by means of natural selection (1859)
• Kevin Rudd and Labor beating John Howard’s Liberal-National Coalition to claim government for the first time in almost 12 years (2007)
• the deaths of Queen’s Freddie Mercury (1991) and Aussie wit Clive James (2019)