Squiz Today – Tuesday, 12 March

SQUIZ SAYINGS

“Nothing can actually prepare you for the event when you end up inside the whale and then its pure instinct.”

We’ll have to take South African diver Rainer Schimpf’s word for it...

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IT’S THE BREXIT COUNTDOWN

THE SQUIZ
Forget Europe’s anthem, maybe UK PM Theresa May would be better off with a Whitesnake classic... Theme song aside, it's all come down to this - the opportunity for British MPs to lock in behind the deal May was able to do with the European Union for the UK to Brexit… or not. MPs will vote on the final Brexit deal on Tuesday night (their time).

ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT THIS?
Well, it didn't just magically fix itself and we all missed it… The struggle to work out a Brexit deal that's agreeable to the UK Parliament is most definitely still a thing:

• Spoiler alert: May’s hurtling towards another bruising loss. That’s because talks between the UK and EU are said to be deadlocked and there hasn’t been much change to the previously rejected agreement.

• The sticking point remains the Irish backstop (hint: not a softball position). Depending on who you talk to, it’s either a ‘safety net’ designed to maintain an open border for Ireland, or it’s a device that could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely.

• With the UK scheduled to leave at 11pm UK time on Friday, 29 March, this is the week that May’s dream run (ahem) could come to an end.

SO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN THIS WEEK?
• It seems unlikely May will get the deal up in parliament that would ensure an orderly Brexit under the agreed terms on 29 March. So get in the bin, option 1.

• If MP’s don’t support the deal put to them overnight, there will be a vote on Wednesday on whether the UK should leave without a deal.

• And if the parliament rejects a no-deal Brexit, it’s likely they will get a vote on Thursday to delay the start of Brexit on 29 March so a deal can be renegotiated (again) and put back to MPs to vote on.

Add to that questions about May’s leadership, and the possibilities of a new Brexit referendum, and election, or MPs taking control of the Brexit process, and who knows where things might land this week.

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SQUIZ THE REST

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QUESTIONS RAISED OVER PLANE’S SAFETY

Despite there being no early indication of what caused the tragedy, the Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed 157 people on Sunday has spooked the industry.

• Aviation regulators in China and Indonesia have suspended flights using the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft.

• Ethiopian Airlines and Cayman Airways also took their 737 Max 8s out of service yesterday. The two airlines that currently fly the jet in Australia - Silk Air and Fiji Airways - say they have faith in its airworthiness. A full list of airlines that operate the aircraft is here.

• The 737 Max 8 has been the fastest-selling aircraft in Boeing’s history - more than 4,500 ordered by 100 different operators globally, including Virgin Australia which has 30 on order. The company's share price fell 9% in Monday's trading.

The plane's black box recorders have been found, and the United Nations yesterday confirmed 19 of the victims were on its staff.

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THE NATIONALS’ MARITAL WOES…

Arguing in favour of taxpayer-funded support for a coal-fired power station in Queensland, former Nats leader Barnaby Joyce yesterday said it was ok for his party to have a difference of opinion with their Liberal Coalition partner because; "We are not married to the Liberal Party and we are a party.” Joyce’s replacement Michael McCormack might as well have said ‘game on, mole’. “I understand what it takes to have a successful marriage,” he retorted, in what many said was a devastating reference to Joyce’s personal “failings”. Some speculated it was so sharp McCormack couldn’t have meant it... Note: despite the hype, Joyce ruled out challenging McCormack for his old job. And PM Scott Morrison ruled out funding a power station in Queensland. So it was a good day's work all around.

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KIM JONG NAM ACCUSED FREE

Remember the pair of young women who used a deadly nerve agent to kill Kim Jong Nam (half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un) at Kuala Lumpur airport in 2017? They’ve been on trial and yesterday one of the women, Indonesian Siti Aisyah, was released without charge. That’s tough for her co-accused Doan Thi Huong of Vietnam, with prosecutors not asking the judge to drop charges against her - a decision her lawyer criticised as "unfair." To recap, the women say they were tricked into thinking they were taking part in a reality TV show by North Korean agents when one of the women approached Kim and rubbed something into his face before running away. He died within minutes.

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SHOES OF PREY A GONER

Shoes of Prey, the Aussie startup that sought to capitalise on the trend of customisation, has gone into liquidation. The business was ‘paused’ in August last year after it ran out of money. The business had success at a smaller scale but found it too hard to go big, so they've gone home. Co-founder Jodie Fox said; "We learnt the hard way that mass market customers don't want to create, they want to be inspired and shown what to wear."

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CAPTAIN MARVEL A MARVEL

The Marvel/Disney superhero flick has been a smash at the box office for its first weekend. It's scored the sixth-best worldwide start of all time taking a whopping US$455 million. Looking at it another way, Captain Marvelrecorded the biggest global launch of all time for a female-led movie. The action pic starring Brie Larson builds on the success of Wonder Womanwhich ended up taking more than US$820 million. Set in the 90s, as Richie Benaud would say, it sounds ‘marvellous’...

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THE EARS HAVE IT…

Dylan the Papillion with his fancy butterfly ears has won the UK’s prestigious Crufts dog show. We’d like to think it’s a tribute to Luke Perry, but the judge said Dylan was an excellent specimen with a wonderful personality. Which still makes us feel it's a tribute to Perry… Dylan did well to get past 27,000 entrants to win best in show. Need some pictures to procrastinate over? Oh, ok. And again…

SQUIZ THE DAY

ABS Data Releases - Building Approvals, January; Lending to households and businesses, January

National Australia Bank Business Confidence Survey

Mauritius National Day

Liza Minnelli's birthday (1946)

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