Good morning, it’s Monday, 9 November. In your Squiz Today…

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This newsletter was written by Andrew Williams, Anna Pykett, and Sophie Felice

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Said commentator Steve Bower during an English football match that took place in such thick fog that barely anyone knew what was going on. Notts County ended up defeating Altrincham in a penalty shoot-out - we think…

The UN’s big climate summit begins today in the Turkish city of Antalya, and Oz is set to play a key role in the negotiations. Not as big a role as we first thought, mind you - we were keen to host this summit (which is COP31), but after a couple of years of negotiations with Türkiye, we agreed to let them host it if we could run the negotiations. And that job will fall to Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen, who, as President of Negotiations, has the responsibility of getting nearly 200 countries to agree on something…

It stands for Conference of the Parties, which is essentially a fancy term for a whole bunch of diplomats talking to each other. The word you might hear a lot over the next couple of weeks is electrification - Türkiye wants 35% of the world’s energy to come from electricity by 2035 (with a catchy slogan of ‘35-by-35’). At the moment, it’s about 20% - so that would mean more EVs, more heat pumps - and less petrol and gas. Bowen supports that goal, and says it would make for cheaper bills and more energy security. But he might have some trouble convincing other countries of Oz’s bona fides on this - some climate change advocates have noted that Oz has approved 38 coal, oil and gas projects or expansions since 2022, and have questioned whether we’re practising what we preach.

Possibly not as much talk about reducing fossil fuels as you might think - it doesn’t show up on the official agenda. One of the big debates is over money - not how much the summit is costing (though there’s plenty of that too), but about how much wealthier nations should funnel to developing nations to combat climate change. Another big goal of the Albanese Government is to make climate funding more easily accessible for Pacific countries, given that rising seas represent an existential threat for them - and they produce very few emissions. So we’ll see how successful Bowen and the Oz negotiators are on that front over the next 2 weeks - the summit is due to end on 20 November, though they do traditionally run long…

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A period of mourning is in place in the Polish city of Krakow, after a man allegedly killed at least 9 people and injured at least 15 more on Saturday afternoon, local time. The 25yo Polish national, who authorities described as “ultra-nationalistic”, drove into Krakow’s Main Market Square and started firing randomly into the crowd - he was then shot and arrested, and is in a critical condition in hospital. Six people were killed during the shooting, and another 3 of the suspect’s family members were later found dead at his home in the city of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, which is about 200km away. Polish PM Donald Tusk said that until now, Poland hasn’t “had such drastic cases of terrorism - that’s what we have to call this cruel attack on people’s lives.”

We’ll start in New Zealand, where an election that the polls predicted would be very close ended up being, you guessed it, very close. So close, in fact, that we likely won’t know for weeks whether Christopher Luxon’s centre-right National Party or Chris Hipkins’ centre-left Labour Party will be able to form government. While National and its political allies are narrowly in the lead, there are a bunch of special votes that have to be counted, and they historically skew left. So it’s a waiting game - and speaking of which, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has given opposition centre-right leader Gadi Eisenkot the first go at assembling a governing coalition following Israel’s elections 2 weeks ago. Eisenkot has 28 days to build support, and if he does, he’ll unseat long-term PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

With the White House still taking stock of last week’s midterm election rout for the Republican Party, US President Donald Trump has already started making some changes. On Saturday, he replaced his chief of staff Susie Wiles with her deputy, Stephen Miller. Reports say that Miller has been the key driver behind the Trump admin’s immigration policies, which have been highly controversial - and which exit polls suggest may have been a factor in the Republican Party’s no good, very bad Tuesday. But analysts say Miller’s promotion means Team Trump is doubling down… And that’s not all - Trump is also meeting UFC boss Dana White tomorrow to discuss becoming his new Press Secretary (the person who answers media questions). And yes, you are reading that sentence correctly…

Former Aussie cricketer Usman Khawaja set the cat amongst the pigeons over the weekend by alleging that the entire national men’s cricket team knew about the illegal use of sandpaper during a 2018 Test Match in Cape Town. The 2018 cheating incident, known (regrettably…) as Sandpapergate, led to 3 players - captain Steve Smith, vice-captain David Warner and batter Cam Bancroft - copping suspensions over it. But the rest of the team have always claimed they didn’t know what was going on. In a snippet from his upcoming book, Khawaja said that’s not true - and that it wasn’t the first time the Australian team had used sandpaper in the series. Cricket Australia says it’s sticking by its initial findings - but says it’s open to reviewing any new claims.

For the first time in 2 years, NASA is putting the call out for some new astronauts who might be keen on a spot of lunar base-building. As part of its Artemis program, the space agency needs more astronauts to achieve its goals - it currently only has 32 active. So it’s looking for applications from people with a Master’s degree in STEM and 3 years of related professional experience. (Watching The Martian over and over again probably won’t count). Making your chances even more unlikely is the fact that only US citizens may apply - but you never know… Back in the 1990s, the first Aussie member of NASA’s astronaut corps to go to space, Andy Thomas, had US citizenship, sent in an application, and got the gig. That must have been quite the cover letter…

The National Toy Hall of Fame in the US has revealed its latest inductees: Pokémon Cards, Care Bears, the slide and Bingo. We’re talking about the number game there, not Bluey’s sister - although the way that franchise is going, she’s probably not far away from making it…

The race to be the next James Bond might be a little more open than first thought - despite reports that Callum Turner was a shoo-in for the gig, new reports say Robert Pattinson is a late contender as well. Batman and Bond - you’re getting greedy, Robert… 

And here’s a spring highlight for you - a gallery of NSW’s finest jacarandas having their annual purple patch. Fun fact: the jacaranda is not native to Oz - it comes from Central/South America and is named after an indigenous word meaning “fragrant”. Accurate… 

8.15am (AEDT) - United States Studies Centre Economic Security Forum 2026. Speakers include Secretary to the Australian Treasury Jenny Wilkinson, Assistant Governor (Financial System) of the Reserve Bank, Dr Brad Jones and Ambassador of Japan to Australia HE Kazuhiro Suzuki - Sydney

9.00am (AEDT) - Public hearing into the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill (until 10 November) - Canberra 

9.30am (AEDT) - The Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Sarah Hunter to deliver a speech at the UBS Australasia conference - Sydney

10.00am (AEDT) - First block of public hearings begin in the state Royal Commission into the Integrity of Major Public and Civil Infrastructure Construction Projects in Victoria (until 20 November) - Melbourne 

10.30am (AEDT) - International Rugby League will make an announcement about the next World Cup, which is happening in 2030

11.00am (AEDT) - Critics Choice Documentary Awards - New York 

COP31 begins (until 20 November) - Antalya, Türkiye

British actor and comedian Russell Brand will be sentenced after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault

ANZ Banking Group full financial year results released

National Recycling Week begins for its 30th anniversary 

TCE exams begin for Year 12s in Tasmania 

Cambodia’s Independence Day

World Adoption Day

National Venomous Bites and Stings Day

A birthday for Delta Goodrem (1984)

Anniversary of:

• Napoleon Bonaparte becoming the dictator of France after staging a coup (1799) 

• the opening of checkpoints allowing East Berliners to walk freely into West Berlin (1989)

• the birthday of actress/inventor Hedy Lamarr (1914) 

• the deaths of British PM Neville Chamberlain (1940), French President Charles de Gaulle (1970) and author Stieg Larsson (2004)

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