Good morning, it’s Tuesday, 10 November. In your Squiz Today…

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

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Said someone on social media after Singapore Airlines announced its business class suites were getting a glow-up. The grey and yellow look will debut on its long-haul Airbus A350s next year, but many online think it’s more plane ugly…

The US tech company Nvidia has launched an investigation into its CEO Jensen Huang over an affair with a woman who US intelligence suspects of giving information to the Chinese Government. Huang admitted to the affair in a company memo yesterday, and Nvidia’s board says it has “no reason to believe that either national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised”, but the inquiry will “examine all available information”.

Because Nvidia is the second-most valuable company in the world, and it makes powerful semiconductor chips needed to run AI. That makes it especially important to the US, which restricted sales of Nvidia’s top-tier chips to China for national security reasons. That’s where Alice Huang (no relation), the woman at the centre of all this, comes in. She’s a former senior executive at Megaspeed, a Singaporean company being looked into by the US over claims that it helped Chinese companies get their hands on those restricted chips. So her relationship with Nvidia’s CEO - also a close advisor to US President Donald Trump on AI - is raising questions about what info she may have gathered… She’s been under surveillance for some time - and reports say Trump was told about the relationship around a year ago, but chose not to act.

For now, Huang is staying put as CEO - Nvidia says he’ll continue to lead the company “without interruption”. He’s been at the helm for 33 years, but analysts say his job could be on the line depending on what the investigation turns up - and there’s no set timeline for it at this stage. For its part, China denies it was spying on Nvidia, calling the claims “unsubstantiated”. All of this is making investors a bit jittery as well - Nvidia’s share price dropped about 4% overnight, and next week will be a big one for the company. It has its quarterly results announcement on 18 November, and then the day after, Huang has been asked to appear before Congress to answer questions about the relationship. He has until Thursday to respond to that request…

Between end-of-year admin and a packed social calendar, there’s enough to do before a summer getaway without playing suitcase Tetris. Simplify Living can take some of the stress out of packing, with Compression Packing Cubes and anti-theft bags. Its early Black Friday sale is on now, and here’s what’s on offer.

…to 10 years and 6 months in prison, after being convicted of rape and sexual assault last week. The comedian and actor rose to fame in the mid-2000s, first on the British TV and comedy circuit before breaking into Hollywood with movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. While handing down the sentence this morning, judge Joel Bennathan said that it was during this time that Brand had shown a “casual and arrogant disregard” for consent. Some of the allegations against Brand were first aired in a British Channel 4 documentary back in 2023, which led to more women coming forward to police - Channel 4 news director Louisa Compton said that “above all else, we commend their bravery.” UK police say their investigation into Brand isn’t over - and it’s looking into allegations from 2 more women.
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The 31yo former police officer entered the witness box for the third day at his murder trial in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday. He’s pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting former TV presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies in Sydney’s Paddington in February 2024. In front of the 15-member jury, Lamarre-Condon acted out how he shot Baird with his police gun in what he claims was self-defence, but denied executing him. He said he struggled with Davies over the gun, but his finger wasn’t on the trigger when it went off. Asked why he appeared “relaxed” in CCTV footage in the days after the alleged murders, he said he was “panicking” and “not having a good ol’ time” but “you just can’t see it because I detach”. He’s expected to continue giving evidence today.
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The first 2-week block of public hearings into alleged “corruption, criminal conduct, or serious misconduct” on major rail and road projects began yesterday. Getting to this point was a whole thing - Victorian Premier Ben Carroll called the inquiry in his first act as Premier, after his predecessor Jacinta Allan refused to, despite a report claiming criminal activity in the CFMEU union cost Victorian taxpayers $15 billion. Yesterday, the commission heard a major contractor believed the union had “unprecedented access” to ministers under former Premier Daniel Andrews, and that it allegedly threatened some subcontractors with violence. Both Allan and Andrews could be called to give evidence, which could put more pressure on Labor, which is trailing the Coalition in the polls ahead of the 28 November election…
Want the background to Victoria’s Royal Commission? We’ve got a Squiz Shortcut for you.

One of literature’s most prestigious prizes will be handed out in London this morning. The Booker Prize, which is for English-language novels published in the last year, awards $95,000 to the winner - but winning can be a lot more profitable than that. Even if a book is shortlisted, authors can see a major sales increase - sales for last year’s winner Flesh by David Szalay quadrupled in the UK after it was announced on the shortlist. This year’s favourite to win is The Disappearers by Marlon James, which is about a homophobic attack in Jamaica and its aftermath. The winner will be announced from 8.45am AEDT, and you can read more about the shortlist here.

In the stuff of nightmares for anyone who’s ever set foot on a boat, a pianist is recovering in hospital after falling off a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and treading water for 9 hours off the Californian coast… (We’re tired just writing that sentence.) Lifeguards think he went overboard in the early hours of Friday morning local time, before a fishing boat spotted him 32km from the shore in the Pacific Ocean. One of the fishermen, Sean Norton, said “the only thing he said to me was, ‘Thank you. I thought I was gonna die.’” Norton also reckons the unusually warm water temperature helped the man to survive so long. The US Coast Guard, which is investigating what happened, hasn’t named the man but says he’s in a stable condition.

A desert in Chile has been covered in a vibrant sea of wildflowers after heavy rainfall in July and August. This year’s El Niño meant the rain went deeper into the soil, reaching dormant seeds of over 200 species of flowers. We bet it looks even better IRL…

A few talented Aussie photographers are publishing a book that captures the tiny world of the Australian fairywren species of birds. The small birds eat insects and seeds, and this gallery of pics has us wanting to keep one in our pocket…

And Taylor Swift and once-bestie Karlie Kloss attended an NFL Chiefs game together yesterday, ending years of a rumoured feud. The 2 fell out in 2019, we still don’t really know why, although you can bet the Internet has plenty of theories…

8.45am (AEDT) - Booker Prize winner announced. The winner will pocket $95,000 - London

9.00am (ACDT) - Federal parliament to hold an inquiry hearing on social housing - Adelaide 

9.45am (AEDT) - Richard Fontaine, CEO of the Center for a New American Security, and Dr Michael Fullilove, the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute, analyse the US midterm election results - Sydney 

9.00am (AEST) - The Public Health Association of Australia to host the inaugural AI and Public Health Conference (until 11 November) - Brisbane

12.30pm (AEDT) - Michael Crosby, Administrator of the CFMEU's Construction and General Division, will address the National Press Club on 'Fix the whole industry, or fix none of it' - Canberra, watch on ABC iview

12.45pm (AEDT) - Minister for Social Services Tanya Plibersek to receive the inaugural State of the Nation report on disability employment by Disability Employment Investments at a launch event - Sydney 

National Survivors’ Day

Usman Khawaja’s autobiography, Sabr: Finding My Way in Cricket and Life, is released 

ABS data release: perinatal deaths, 2025

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