Squiz Today – Monday, 10 July

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“He’s my son, I love him, but I’m ashamed at how he’s approaching his business - it’s not good what he’s doing.”

Like any parent whose child says they’re “bored”, John Tomic isn’t that pleased about son Bernard’s 'tude after losing in the first round of Wimbledon last week. But Bernard’s on a roll; “End of the day, don’t like me or whatever. Just go back dreaming about your dream car or house while I go buy them.” #superbrat

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AUF WIEDERSEHEN TO A DIFFICULT G20

THE SQUIZ
They came, they met, they got the photo. So what went down at the G20 Leaders Summit in Germany over the weekend? Three quick points:

1. The US remains unapologetically out of the tent on climate change, much to the frustration of other nations;

2. There was a commitment to keep markets open for trade although US President Donald Trump won concessions on “legitimate trade defence instruments” which is just fancy talk for protecting local industries in the era of ‘America First’; and

3. No one much likes North Korea's recent actions (which is a bit like hating cancer – no one supports it), but they were unable to come to a unanimous position about how to deal with the rogue nation. 

HOW DID THE TRUMP/PUTIN MEETING GO?
It went on and on and on – in fact, Melania Trump was sent in to try and break it up. The main point of interest – did Russia meddle in the US presidential campaign last year? Accounts of what was said and agreed aren’t consistent. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he thought Trump agreed with his explanation that they weren’t involved, but Trump left it to his spokespeople to deny there was any agreement. And Trump has tweeted overnight that he wants to move on and work constructively by setting up a cyber security unit with Russia (“Good grief…” said Republicans, Democrats and intelligence experts in response). 

IT’S MONDAY – LIGHTEN IT UP A LITTLE…
Fair enough. The Turnbulls looked after taxpayers’ dollars by bumming lifts left, right and centre. They rode with the Trumps in ‘The Beast’ while in Hamburg and got on French President Emmanuel Macron’s private plane from Hamburg to Paris (where PM Malcolm Turnbull opened the submarine project office before moving on to the UK). How’s that for high-level hitchhiking? And check out Macron’s hustle to get a better position in the official picture – he’s a goer! We feel for the host German Chancellor Angela Merkel – it’s nice having visitors but it’s even better when they leave…

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SQUIZ THE REST

MOSUL RECAPTURED FROM ISLAMIC STATE
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has claimed a victory against Islamic State after retaking the city from the terror group. IS took control of Mosul in June 2014, killing thousands and displacing 900,000 more. It’s taken Iraqi forces (backed by Coalition air support, including from Australia) nine months of sustained effort to get IS out of Iraq’s second largest city. Mosul was IS’s last major stronghold in Iraq and was symbolically important to them – it’s where they announced themselves on the world stage. But IS aren’t completely defeated yet – there’s more territory in Iraq and Syria occupied by the terrorists. 

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE DEBATE KICKS ON
WA Liberal Senator Dean Smith put his hand up yesterday to say he is working on a private members’ bill (legislation put up outside of the government’s official list, any member of parliament can do it) to put to the parliament as early as August that would legalise same-sex marriage. Smith supports a conscience vote (ie MPs vote according to their personal view) to resolve the issue instead of a plebiscite (requiring us to vote). Smith is gay, but he’s not the usual suspect/troublemaker in this debate. In fact, he’s a conservative who didn’t support same-sex marriage until recently. Without getting technical/boring, some Lib/Nats would need to vote with Labor in the House of Representatives for it to have a chance – no small thing. 

And while we have you, Newspoll this morning is unchanged on the two-party preferred result – the Coalition remains behind Labor 47:53. Labor leader Bill Shorten took some points from Malcolm Turnbull in the preferred PM stakes, but Turnbull still leads 41:33. 

BIG BATTERY ON ORDER FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Tesla founder Elon Musk has injected a bit of Silicon Valley glamour into South Australia’s energy woes by making good on his offer earlier this year to build a yuuuge battery to store wind-powered energy to feed into their power supply. And as a bonus he’s promised to build it in 100 days or it will be free. Musk tweeted “This will be the highest power battery system in the world by a factor of 3. Australia rocks!!” Renewable energy sceptics remain, well, sceptical but SA Premier Jay Wetherill said the project was world leading and potentially transformative.

AMBER HARRISON WALKS FROM SEVEN SETTLEMENT
A shorter history of this: CEO (Seven’s Tim Worner) has relationship with co-worker (executive assistant Amber Harrison), it ends, woman pursued for credit card irregularities, woman leaves job, settlement made, settlement breached = court case. Anyway, after a long and winding road and many lawyers, Harrison was on the brink of apologising to four women she claimed also had affairs with Worner (which has been firmly denied), taking $50,000 from Seven and having the matter finalised today. So it was a shock that she threw it all up in the air on Friday, sacked her lawyers and said “enough!” This exposes her to paying Seven’s legal costs, and they will probably reveal their next steps in court today. #whatamess

AUSSIE OUT OF TOUR DE FRANCE
One of the race favourites and Australia’s best hope in the Tour de France Richie Porte crashed out of the race last night. It was a heavy fall – he was coming downhill at +70km/hr when he slipped on rocks on the side of the road, hit the bitumen and slid into a rock wall bringing down another rider in the process. He was carted off to hospital in a neck brace and while details of his injuries haven’t been confirmed it was reported he is ok. Brit Chris Froome continues to lead the overall race. Monday is a rest day.

WE’RE TOASTED
So it’s come to this. When you’re retelling the story to younger generations in the years to come you can say the advent of toast cafes was the moment things got really silly. Canberra is getting one, and we’re horrified to say that Melbourne already has one. Come on people, is it really that hard to make a good piece of toast at home? Mind you, cafe owner Brittany Lindores makes an excellent point when she asks; “Who doesn't love carbs?" Here’s hoping ordering toast doesn’t become as ridiculous as a coffee – “I’ll have a gluten-free sourdough lightly toasted with a double shot of vegemite no butter.” Hang on, when we put it like that maybe we’re already there??

SQUIZ THE DAY

ABS Data Release - Building Approvals, May

National Diabetes Week

77th anniversary of WWII's Battle of Britain

Silence Day - it's for followers of Meher Baba but could be good to enforce if you've had a rowdy weekend