Squiz Today / 27 June 2018

Squiz Today – Wednesday, 27 June

THREE MINUTE SQUIZ

"He had no money, no connections, and his village didn’t even have a school - and yet he went on to live such a big life…”

The Barefoot Surgeon, a biography by Ali Gripper of the Fred Hollows-trained Nepalese ophthalmologist Dr Sanduk Ruit, is out today. If you want to feel inspired, this is the book for you. Please welcome Gripper, who is also a Squiz subscriber, to this week’s .


WORLD CUP UPDATE

THE SQUIZ
If you’re trying to do a Prince William and watch the game on delay without knowing the result, flick past this quickly. The vague headline was for you.

If you’re good to go… The Socceroos are out of the Soccer World Cup after losing to Peru 2-0. All the technicalities of qualifying (if France beat Denmark and the wind was blowing from the east…) didn’t matter in the end with our team unable to get on the scoreboard.

WHAT HAPPENED?
Peru was 1-0 up at halftime after scoring a goal that coach Bert van Marwijk claimed was scored from offside. And they scored their second goal just minutes into the second half. Veteran Tim Cahill and youngster Daniel Arzani both got a run but were unable to turn the Socceroos’ fortunes around. Van Marwijk said; "We had so many chances, but we have a problem at this level to score a goal.” That indeed is a problem…

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We’ll leave you with this from captain Mike Jedinak. "Disappointing is the word. Empty is another word. Yeah. There is not a lot to say."


SQUIZ THE REST

HADDAD’S EX WANTED FOR MURDER
The Daily Telegraph this morning reports NSW Police have obtained a warrant for the arrest of Mario Santoro, the former boyfriend of murdered Brazilian woman Cecilia Haddad. Haddad was found dead in Sydney’s Lane Cove River at the end of April at about the same time as Santoro flew out of the city for his home country. Complex extradition proceedings are now underway.

FORMER NT POLICE BOSS JAILED
Former Northern Territory Police Commissioner John McRoberts has been sentenced to three years jail but will serve just one year for attempting to pervert the course of justice. While in the top job, he was found to have frustrated a fraud investigation into a local travel agent, with whom he just happened to be having an affair. “This is a huge fall from grace,” acting Justice Dean Mildren said in the Territory’s understatement of the month.

KATTER PULLS FOCUS TO FARMERS
Pressure had been building on Banking Royal Commissioner Kenneth Hayne to give the plight of farmers more attention. This week’s hearings in Brissie were to whip through the tricky subject of farm financing as well as tackle natural disaster insurance and how our financial institutions’ deal with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. But reading the writing on the wall and after interruptions from maverick MP Bob Katter, Hayne said he would devote the whole week to farmers. Hayne also chastised ANZ’s representative for squibbing answers about its conduct following the takeover of rural financer Landmark Financial Services. The ANZ exec was; “trying to have the penny and the bun,” Hayne said. Which is our new favourite saying.

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE ‘BERRA?
That’s the real question on your mind, isn’t it… Three things to note:

• Labor leader Bill Shorten’s colleagues were left dangling like this kid in Taiwan yesterday when he announced he would repeal corporate tax cuts already granted to businesses with revenue between $10 million and $50 million. Businesses with revenue of up to $2 million are fine, Shorten said, leaving unclear what would happen to businesses earning between $2 million and $10 million. Reports say he’s now offside with his senior colleagues who were not aware a decision had been made.

• Former PM Tony Abbott was feeling all kinds of NEG yesterday… He’s threatened to cross the floor and vote against his team’s energy policy because he doesn’t believe there’s enough support for coal-fired energy production. It’s kinda like Buzz Aldrin suing his family...

• Chinese telco Huawei was revealed as a leading sponsor of pollies’ travel and accommodation by funding 12 trips to China over the last eight years. Fortescue Metals and the governments of Hong Kong and China also financed trips. If declared, there is nothing preventing politicians from taking these trips. And journos do it too…

BEN SIMMONS WALKS THE TALK
All year he has talked a big game but now Aussie NBA star Ben Simmons has the silverware to back it up. He was yesterday named Rookie of the Year for the world’s premier basketball competition. Hailing from Melbourne, Simmons is not the first with Aussie heritage to win the gong -  Australian-born Kyrie Irving won it in 2012. Seems he’s destined to do more than just keep up with the Kardashians

COCKIE PICS SHOCK HISTORIANS
Oi! Keep your minds out of the gutter. We’re talking about revelations that historians have found references to European illustrations of an Australasian cockatoo in a 13th-century manuscript that is now in the Vatican Library. It predates other pictures by 250 years showing “that merchants plying their trade to the north of Australia were part of a flourishing network that reached west to the Middle East and beyond," according to Heather Dalton from the Uni of Melbourne.

And speaking of ye olde surprises, this is a cockatoo-grade cracker.

SQUIZ THE DAY

12.30pm - John Lord, Chairman of Huawei Australia, to address the National Press Club on 'Is Australia ready for the smart China reality?' - Canberra

ABS Data Releases - Preschool Education, 2016; Engineering Construction Activity, March

Anniversary of Helen Keller's birthday (1880)

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