Here’s what you need to know today

• The Australian government has handed down their aviation white paper, that is intended to govern the sector until 2050. Highlights include a passenger’s charter of rights and an aviation ombudsman that will be able to take complaints about delays and cancellations.
  
  

• Mixed results from the companies that reported their results yesterday. Endeavour, owner of Dan Murphy’s, reported a soft start to the new financial year and shares fell 6%. Aussie Broadband reported profit was up 21% and announced its first dividend. Meanwhile, Bendigo & Adelaide Bank unveiled their digital platform that can approve a mortgage in 6 minutes.
  
  

• Over in the US, the focus this week is on Nvidia’s earnings coming out 28 August. With analysts expecting another “drop the mic performance” expectations are sky high and we could see Nvidia report a great set of numbers but still see the share price fall.
   
  

• The CEO of encrypted messaging app Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested in Paris over the weekend accused of failing to take action against the criminal behaviour of users on the app. What responsibility Durov had to police how Telegram’s 950 million monthly users used the platform will be the central question before the French courts.
  
  

• The Pacific Islands Forum kicked off in Tonga. For the majority of the 18 Pacific states, top of the agenda is climate change as these low-lying island nations feel the worst of extreme weather. For Australia, it is to counter China’s ‘chequebook diplomacy’ in the region.
  
  

• Australia’s Federal Opposition are going hard at the big box retailers. First, it was the National Party pushing to expand the scope of a recent inquiry into retail giants, particularly Bunnings. Then Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused big-box retailers of price gouging, although he is yet to produce specific evidence.

What the…?

Boeing. Once again it is in the headlines for the wrong reasons. Astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore were meant to stay on the International Space Station for 8 days. Their stay is now approaching 3 months because of troubles with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

NASA is now bringing the Starliner back to earth for further tests and have asked SpaceX to help bring the astronauts back by February 2025.

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Why do Australians live so long?

Sometimes you just have to be a little parochial. And when The Economist published this article explaining why Australians live longer than our American and British peers, we wanted to share it.

The data is pretty clear - the average Australian will live two years longer than the average Briton and four years longer than the average American. Add in Canada, Ireland, even New Zealand and the story is similar - the average Australian outlives them all.

So the question is: why? What is it that Australia does differently?

And the answer is: a little of everything. On average, younger Australians suffer fewer complications from pregnancies and births. Older Australians are less likely to die from chronic diseases. And Australians are less likely to die from drug overdoses and driving accidents. And we do it all while spending less as a percentage of GDP on healthcare than Britain, America or Canada.

Now, it’s not all good news. When you factor in non-English speaking countries like Japan, Switzerland and Spain, our results fall back into the pack. But still, Australia is doing plenty right. That is worth celebrating and doubling-down on.

Today’s sponsor is iShares by BlackRock

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