Squiz Today / 11 October 2018

Squiz Today – Thursday, 11 October

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“Her radiant rolls were deemed by the voting public to be this year’s most fabulous flab."

Beadnose is the winner of Alaska’s Fat Bear Week. Up against (our favourite) 747 in the final, the mama bear had it in salmon-flavoured spades. Use the before/after slider to check out how much chunk these brown bears put on as they prep for winter – like us during party season…

FAMILY SURVIVES VIOLENT KIDNAPPING AND ARSON

THE SQUIZ
The details of a violent attack on a woman, her two sons and her parents have come to light with the ordeal ending in charges against three men, including setting fire to a dwelling with intent to murder and kidnapping. It is another staggering case of family violence in the last few months.

WHAT HAPPENED?
• A 41yo woman and her sons aged 14 and 13yo fled to the home of her parents in Ootha, near Condoblin in NSW, late last week when her relationship with her partner deteriorated.

• The woman’s 44yo former partner, his son and another man arrived at the home at 5.30am on Tuesday morning and forced their way in. Her father was assaulted, tied up and taken to a back room. The woman’s former partner then kidnapped her, her mother and sons and started driving east.

• The two men poured 20lt of accelerant through the house and set it on fire with the woman’s father inside. He was able to escape and walk 1km to a neighbour’s place to raise the alarm.

• A police search commenced. The car carrying the family stopped 400km down the road on Sydney’s outskirts letting the older woman and her grandsons out at 7.30pm. Separately, the men who set the house on fire were arrested nearby.

• After a police pursuit, the woman and her former partner were found in bushland at 11.30pm. He was arrested and taken to hospital. She was reunited with her family.

THERE HAVE BEEN SOME HORRIBLE CASES RECENTLY…
There sure have. And those cases – like those in WA and in Sydney – received a lot of coverage. And then there are those that don’t. One report says of the 62 women and 18 children who have met violent deaths this year, 70% were due to family violence. The federal government released a new $30 million ad campaign last week focusing on the message ‘Stop it at the Start’. With Aussie police dealing with thousands of domestic violence cases each week, there’s a way to go.

SQUIZ THE REST

THE OL’ POLICY SWITCHEROO
LOOK OVER HERE – The Morrison Government is set to bring forward almost $30 billion in corporate tax cuts for small businesses. Detail will be released today, but reports say the tax cut from 30% to 25% would kick in from July 2020, not July 2026 as originally planned.

AND NOT HERE - Remember way back in the days before marriage equality became law (ie not even a year ago…), the Turnbull Government commissioned a review of religious freedoms in our country? Of course you do. The resulting report has been taking up space on the desk(s) of the Prime Minister(s) since May - and it's inconvenient because it opens a can on stuff like religious schools being able to reject gay students (even though school administrators say it rarely happens, and the report’s author says there's no proposal to change that). With the by-election in Turnbull’s old seat of Wentworth (home of the largest gay population in Australia) in just 10 days, the whole thing has been labelled a headache of the Coalition’s own making.

DREAMWORLD INQUEST OFFERS LITTLE COMFORT TO VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
The resumed inquest into four deaths at Dreamworld on the Gold Coast in 2016 has heard:

• That the Thunder River Rapids ride passed a mechanical and structural safety test just eight days before the tragedy.

• A paramedic who was at the scene said nothing could have been done to save the lives of those involved.

• And a union rep was concerned that staff were unable to leave the rides, even for toilet breaks.

Hearings continue into next week.

KHASHOGGI PLOT LIKE A MOVIE
Turkish media is running security footage and other images of 15 Saudi men entering and leaving Turkey on the day writer Jamal Khashoggi went into the Saudi consulate and disappeared. The men are allegedly Saudi intelligence agents – including a forensic expert - and it’s evidence, Turkey says, of a plot to disappear Khashoggi. “It is like Pulp Fiction,” said one official to the New York Times.

HURRICANE MICHAEL HITS FLORIDA
And it’s thought to be the strongest storm the Florida Panhandle has seen since records were kept with winds of 240km/hour. The Category 4 hurricane is expected to wreak havoc with high winds, heavy rain and flooding across Florida, Georgia and Alabama. The emergency warning covers 21 million people and more than a million are already without electricity.

SELLING THE DAIRY
Japanese brewer Kirin is selling the Aussie dairy and drinks business it acquired when it bought Lion, imaginatively named Lion Dairy & Drinks. Its brands include King Island cheese, Farmers Union yoghurt, Big M and Vitasoy. Reports say Kirin has spent $2 billion on the business over the last decade plus and has it on the market for $1.8 billion. By our maths, that's a loss.

CLEVER LITTLE FELLA
“Gecko butt-dials ‘bazillion’ times from Hawaii seal hospital” = contender for headline of the year.