Squiz Today / 05 April 2019
Squiz Today – Friday, 5 April
SQUIZ SAYINGS
“These creature comforts can be worn and cherished by all.”
Says Vogue about the latest hot thing - wearing eye-wateringly expensive fluffy designer slippers outside. If that statement extends to our (non-brand name) uggs, sign us up…
POOR DIET A BIGGER KILLER THAN SMOKING
THE SQUIZ
How’s your week been? Good. So now’s probably a good time to tell you there’s a chance your diet could be sending you to an early grave... A new study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and published yesterday in The Lancet found our daily diet is a bigger killer than smoking and is a factor in one in five deaths around the world.
THAT’S CHEERY…
Particularly if you think you’re in good nick weight-wise. The study wasn’t about obesity - it was about ‘poor quality’ diets and how they can cause cancer and damage our hearts. In order of death-inducing problems:
• Too much salt is a biggie.
• Next is the low consumption of wholegrains.
• And the world isn’t eating enough fruit.
The other watchouts: the low intake of nuts, seeds, vegetables, omega-3 from seafood and fibre.
HOW DID AUSTRALIA GO?
Better than Uzbekistan which has the highest diet-related deaths at 892 per 100,000 people a year. However, we’re not as good as Israel which has the lowest rate of 89 deaths per 100,000 people a year. We landed in the 105-142 deaths per 100,000 people a year. That’s because we’re pretty good when it comes to eating enough fruit, fish and wholegrains. But we're the world champions at eating too much red meat. Plus we're over-indexed on processed meat, milk and nuts/seeds. Now that we've brought you down, here’s some inspiration from some international hotspots of good health. You’re welcome.
SQUIZ THE REST
SHORTEN SETS OUT LABOR’S ALTERNATIVE BUDGET
Battlelines = drawn. Labor leader Bill Shorten last night delivered what ABC TV 7.30’s Laura Tingle described as an “old school, Whitlam-esque” pitch to voters - ie higher taxes for more services. By raising taxes for the big end of town if elected, Labor would improve access to cancer treatment, increase resources to the National Disability Insurance Scheme, deliver more funding for TAFE and fast-track big infrastructure projects, amongst other things. Shorten's focus was on a broad ‘fairness' equation when it comes to managing the country's finances, whereas the Coalition has been narrowly focused on the benefit of tax cuts in this Budget. They are significantly different approaches that voters have to choose from. Game on…
SOCIAL MEDIA VIOLENT CONTENT LAWS RUSHED THROUGH
Social media executives could be thrown in jail and their companies fined 10% of their turnover after Parliament yesterday passed legislation to prevent a repeat of the live-streaming of the Christchurch terror attack. Labor and the Coalition joined in agreeing on the bill which was introduced just this week. A whole bunch of legal, media and tech types say the proposal wasn't adequately examined before becoming law and will lead to unintended consequences. And if our pollies were suffering a bit of bill-passage-whiplash, it’s nothing compared to the grumblings of discontent from such local tech luminaries as Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, who criticised the new laws for being ill-conceived.
CHRISTCHURCH TERRORIST CHARGED
Brenton Tarrant, the 28yo Australian arrested for last month’s massacre, has been charged with 50 counts of murder and 39 counts of attempted murder. There are also other charges police are considering. His case will be heard in the Christchurch High Court tomorrow, and he will appear via video link from the maximum security prison in Auckland where he is in custody.
BREXIT UPDATE
Status report:… you know the rest. So. Where things are up to is the House of Lords is debating a bill that would force UK PM Theresa May to go back to the European Union to request a delay to next Friday’s Brexit start date (12 April). In the meantime, May and Labour are discussing a compromise to get the deal into a form that would be agreeable to the majority of MPs. For their part, EU leaders have put aside next Wednesday to hear any UK request for a further time extension. Until next week...
A TRIO OF DISAPPOINTMENTS
A ‘PHYSICAL BEHAVIOUR’ ADJUSTMENT - That’s what former US President Obama’s veep Joe Biden has committed to after seven women came forward this week to outline uncomfortable encounters with the 2020 presidential maybe-candidate. In a video posted to Twitter, Biden didn’t apologise, but did promise to be “more mindful” before embarking on future unsolicited shoulder-grabbing/hair-sniffing/forehead-to-forehead conversations.
NO HUGGIES FOR WORKERS - Personal goods manufacturer Kimberly-Clark wasn’t keen to give the soon-to-be redundant workers of its Ingleburn (Sydney) factory answers on why it will shut down in July. The multinational company says its Global Restructuring Program (their caps…) will see the plant’s nappy production move to Asia. Workers are confused given the production line had a $28-million overhaul in 2013. Kimberly-Clark’s paper goods plant in South Australia remains open.
“DEAD CORALS DON’T MAKE BABIES” - Said Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University yesterday delivering a landmark report on the devastating effects of bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017 and rising sea temperatures. The number of new corals popping up has plunged by 89% resulting in an existential threat to the natural wonder.
FRIDAY LITES - THREE THINGS WE LIKED THIS WEEK
Not lite by any stretch, but we’ve saved the three-part New York Times series about the Murdoch family for the weekend. And then we’ll look into the reaction to it. Because it’s good to be informed…
As a consequence of watching this fab lip-sync effort, we’ve had Bruno Mars stuck in our heads. Don’t believe us just watch…
We have the best friends. Not only did a good mate help us get across the Budget in a jiffy on Tuesday night, but he also cooked us this fish curry to accompany Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's speech. It's a good one with the weather cooling off a bit (except for you, Adelaide...).
SQUIZ THE DAY
Friday
ABS Data Release - Livestock and Meat, February; Discover Your Commonwealth Electoral Division, 2019 (oh go on then...)
Anniversary of the birthday of Bette Davis (1908)
Saturday
From 12.10pm (AEDT) - Horse Racing - Day one of The Championships - Royal Randwick, Sydney
Anniversary of ABBA winning the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo, launching their international career (1974)
Sunday
3.00am - Daylight saving ends in Victoria, NSW, ACT, South Australia and Tasmania residents - clocks go back to 2am
Start of the Australian Swimming Championships (on until 12 April) - Adelaide
25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda
National Beer Day (USA)
Russell Crowe's birthday (1964)
And make sure you've read the email from every day this week to be in the draw for a great pack of books from Allen and Unwin. Be in it to win it.
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