Here’s what you need to know today

• A tough 12 months for Australian airlines continues. Qantas’ scandals eventually led CEO Alan Joyce to resign, Virgin delayed its IPO, Bonza Airlines collapsed, and now Australia’s third-largest airline, Rex, appears to be struggling. The company is in a trading halt awaiting a statement to the market, after The Australian reported that the company has called in a turnaround team from Deloitte. Before the trading halt, Rex’s share price was down 50% in the past 12 months.
  
  

• While we wait for Rex to update the market, fears of its collapse were put to rest. Federal Transport Minister, Catherine King, has said the government would step in to rescue Rex if required, pointing to the airlines’ importance to regional aviation.
  
  

• Australian design platform Canva has entered the AI arms race after acquiring Leonardo.Ai. Canva already offers AI tools to users through its ‘Magic Studio’ but these tools are powered by third-party AI models from the likes of OpenAI and Google. Leonardo.Ai is an AI image generation platform but importantly, trains its own AI models. 
  
  

• The US, UK, France and Germany have all called on their citizens to leave Lebanon, as fears of a war between Israel and Hezbollah increase. Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has vowed a “severe” response after a rocket killed 12 people in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights over the weekend.
  
  

• The new British government have their work cut out for them. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said she will plug a £22bn “black hole” by cutting infrastructure spending and by means testing a winter fuel subsidy.
  
  

• McDonald’s reported their quarterly results and the share price jumped 4%. That was despite reporting a 1% decline in same-store sales and profit down 12%. Here’s bad news for lovers of Maccas: the price of a Big Mac is up 21% since 2019.
  
  

• Paris spent $1.5 billion USD cleaning the Seine with plans to host some Olympic events in the iconic river. That plan has now been shelved as the water quality isn’t up to scratch after recent rain.
  
  

• Elon Musk broke his own platform’s policy after sharing an AI-altered video of Kamala Harris on Twitter (X). We wonder if his moderation team will take action?

What the…?

In what may go down as the least surprising survey result in some time, CNN has found that the majority of American renters would like to own a home. 

86% of US renters surveyed said they the would like to own a home. Sadly, 54% think it’s unlikely they’ll ever be able to afford to. In the same survey, just 32% of current homeowners thought they could afford to buy a similar house in their neighbourhood today.

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Ethiopians are struggling to keep up with the new “EV or nothing” policy

In February this year, Ethiopia became the first country to ban the import of petrol and diesel cars. The move was intended to boost sales of electric vehicles and reduce Ethiopia’s reliance on imported fuel, which cost the country $7.6 billion USD in 2023.

Six months on, things aren’t going well. Firstly, the move was made too early, before Ethiopia could build adequate public charging infrastructure. By one estimate, there are only 50 public charging stations in the country with a population of more than 120 million. Separately, the cables required to charge EVs at home have been hard to come by. Add to that, reports that mechanics are untrained in how to repair EVs and spare parts are hard to come by.

In 2022, the Ethiopian government set a goal to have 150,000 EVs on the road by 2030. According to the Minister of Transport and Logistics, the country already has over 100,000. Unfortunately, many of them won’t get much use unless the investment in charging infrastructure comes with it. An important reminder for governments around the world as they set their lofty EV targets. And a warning for investors to take rosy projections from the EV industry with a note of caution, many of them will be reliant on third-parties to invest in key infrastructure, which might make this transition slower than some hope.

This email is thanks to Australian Property Scout

Join Sammy Gordon, Equity Mates’ regular property expert, as he is joined in the studio by investor Leon, who built a $1m+ net wealth position through property in sub 4 years starting with 1 x $60k deposit.

Leon’s candid explanation of how he built his property portfolio. What went through his mind as he built the portfolio out, combined with the realisation of his $1m+ net equity position on air makes for an entertaining listen.

The duo discuss what prompted Leon to get into the property game, his preference of crypto vs property, and his plans for the future and continuing to build wealth. 

Tune in to this very engaging episode on the Scouting Australia Podcast on all your favourite listening platforms.