Squiz Today / 10 May 2019

Squiz Today – Friday, 10 May

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“You can print something a woman said 46 million times and it still takes seven months before anyone reads it.”

Said one Twitter wag about the typo on our new $50 note. For a mob that had problems spelling the word ‘responsibility’, the Reserve Bank owned up to the error and vowed to fix it ASAP.


US-CHINA TRADE TALKS IN TATTERS

THE SQUIZ

If we had a dollar for every time we had an email asking for an update on the important trade talks between America and China, we’d have... $0. But wait no more, the day is here, and the news ain’t great.

GET ON WITH IT…

Ok, ok. US President Donald Trump blew the established trade regime sky high last year when he launched a trade war against China in the hope of forcing better access to its expanding population, to stop the forced sharing of intellectual property with China, and to rewrite trade deals Trump said have unfairly benefited Beijing. And his weapon of choice was increased tariffs - hundreds of billions of dollars worth of ‘em. China hit back, but they also agreed to talk. And the reports said the talks were going super dooper, until this week when it all fell apart. Why? Pundits say the problem is “both sides appeared to think they had the other over a barrel”. Which sounds uncomfortable. Fresh talks are set to resume today. Remember: this trade war is bad for Australia (say it with us...) because we count China as our biggest trade partner and America as our most important strategic ally.

ANYTHING ELSE?

President Trump has had a busy few days. He took his presidential superpowers out for a first-time spin asserting executive privilege over special counsel Mueller’s complete and unredacted report. On top of that a Congressional Committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt for ignoring a congressional subpoena to answer questions about his handling of the report. Oh, and North Korea fired off a couple of missiles yesterday, and the US has seized one of its cargo ships for violating sanctions. So, just a few small things…


SQUIZ THE REST


TEACHER’S PET “BIAS”: COURT TOLD

And so it begins. The murder trial of former teacher Chris Dawson kicked off in Sydney yesterday with Dawson’s lawyer alleging material vital to the vindication of his client had been destroyed by Hedley Thomas - The Australian journalist who triggered the trial with his podcast, The Teacher’s Pet. Dawson is in court over the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Lynette. His lawyer Greg Walsh told the court that he had a transcript of a public event in Brisbane in which Thomas spoke of shredding material gathered for the podcast. Rubbish, said The Australian last night. Walsh said the defence would subpoena all unedited interviews conducted by Thomas in his investigation. The trial returns to court on 20 June.


UK POWERS UP

“I am proud that Britain has gone a record week without using coal to generate power,” tweeted UK PM Theresa May from her official account yesterday. It’s the longest streak the country has managed without burning coal since the Industrial Revolution. And the plan is to quit burning coal altogether by 2025. Enter former PM Malcolm Turnbull who added that the UK’s bipartisan political support for the goal was important, which was taken as a backhander at the polarised nature of Australia’s debate on managing climate change and energy policy. Others pointed out that the UK relied heavily on nuclear and gas generated electricity, as well as power sourced from renewable sources.


BETWEEN A DRINKING HOLE AND A SUPERMARKET…

No this isn’t a modern interpretation of being stuck between a rock and a hard place… Council workers digging a road between a pub and an Aldi in Southend have stumbled upon a burial site believed to be that of a sixth century Anglo-Saxon prince. It’s been labelled the UK’s equivalent of Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt. Archeologists in Britain are cock-a-hoop at the discovery, made back in 2003 but only made public yesterday, which includes a fully intact underground burial chamber containing an ancient harp, gold coins and some sort of fancy box. Local wags have dubbed the grave’s mystery occupant the King of Bling. See, you can find practically everything in Aldi.


LET THE WATER RUN

Rains that devastated farms in north-western Queensland earlier this year have given rise to a once-in-a-generation natural spectacle as Lake Eyre has slowly started to fill and has begun to teem with life. Tourist operators are struggling to keep up with demand as visitors eager to see the lake in flood flock to the northern quarter of South Australia. And experts are predicting a ‘nesting event’. No, not a cozy weekend when you feel the urge to clean and organise your home… Native birds are expected to gravitate to Lake Eyre, drawn by the sudden explosion in marine life. The ABC was yesterday reporting the Queensland floods had been so heavy that the inundation of the lake which traditionally took up to ten months to occur had happened this year in only two. Check out some speccy photos here.


THE COMEBACK KIDS - PART 2

Soccer fans have had an embarrassment of riches this week… Yesterday we told you of the incredible victory of Liverpool over Barcelona to make the final of the Champions League. Well, yesterday the final match to decide who would go through to play them was another doozy. This time it was the Tottenham Hotspurs who pulled off the impossible after starting the game 3-0 behind only to score the winning goal in the dying seconds of injury time to beat Ajax (from Amsterdam). “Football can be very beautiful and it can be very cruel,” Ajax boss Erik Ten Hag. That means the Hotspurs will play Liverpool for one of the most prestigious football titles in the world. Weirdly though, the two British clubs will play in Madrid on 1 June.


FRIDAY LITES - THREE THINGS WE LIKED THIS WEEK

We’ve mentioned Billie Eilish before. A few weeks ago she became the first first musical artist born in the 2000s to have an album debut at #1 in the Billboard charts. This video from Vanity Fair is the same interview a year apart and superbly tracks her meteoric success over the last 12 months. It’s good for anyone wanting to know more about the incredible 16yo or what the cool kids are talking about these days…

The American edition of InStyle do an epic best beauty buys list each year as judged by their editors. The latest list is out.

And if you’re stuck for some change of season meal ideas, Good Food have put together an epic “Wonderfully Warming and Nourishing” recipe gallery. On this list is Neil Perry’s Beef bourguignon, which we’ve made before. And we’re going to make it again this weekend because we’re that darn fancy.

SQUIZ THE DAY

Friday

11.30am (AEST) - Release of the Reserve Bank’s statement on this week’s interest rate decision

ABS Data Release - Building Approvals, March

Anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and the appointment of Winston Churchill as UK’s PM after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain (1940)

Leigh Sales’ birthday (1973)

Saturday

World Migratory Bird Day

Anniversary of the 1996 Mount Everest disaster when eight climbers were caught in a blizzard and died

Anniversary of William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth embarking on their expedition westward of Sydney (1813)

Sunday

International Nurses Day

Anniversary of the premiere of Andrew Loyd Webber’s Cats (1980)

Birthdays for Rami Malek (1981), Labor leader Bill Shorten’s birthday (1967), and Homer Simpson (1956)

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