📈 Oil jumps as US & Iran exchange strikes | Telstra suffers nationwide outage

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The Big Picture

• Oil jumps as US and Iran exchange fresh strikes. Brent crude surged 6% to above US$76 a barrel, its highest level in two weeks, after the US launched what it claimed to be "powerful strikes against Iran." The strikes came in response to alleged Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, reigniting tensions between the two countries. (BBC)
  
  

• Trump doubles down on Greenland bid at NATO summit. Donald Trump has renewed his push to take control of Greenland and threatened to withdraw all American armed forces from Europe. Arriving at the NATO summit in Ankara, Trump also suggested his commitment to European defence had been weakened by the continent's political decisions on immigration and energy. (The Guardian)
  
  

• Queensland's land tax revenue set to nearly double to $4.8 billion by 2030. The state government is on track to collect $2.7 billion in land tax this financial year, with revenue forecast to climb nearly 80% to $4.8 billion by 2029-30 due to rising land value. Land tax is projected to make up around 10.7% of Queensland's total state taxation this financial year. (ABC)
  
  

• RBA warns higher unemployment may be needed to tame inflation. Chief economist form the RBA Sarah Hunter has warned Australia may need a period of higher unemployment to bring inflation expectations back down. Hunter said a failure to anchor expectations could require a painful correction. and that unemployment falling to 3.5% contributed to the sharp increase in inflation. (AFR)
  
  

• Australian maratime union demands 28-hour week in exchange for automation deal. The Maritime Union of Australia wants a 28-hour week with no loss of pay before it will allow crane operator DP World to introduce automated cranes and driverless transport. Crane drivers currently earn base salaries of $175,000 for a 32 to 35-hour week. (AFR)

Companies in the news

• Telstra suffers nationwide outage impacting millions. Telstra says services have been mostly restored after an outage left millions of Australians unable to make calls or access the internet. The outage was caused by malfunctioning ‘nodes’ managing time synchronisation within network data centres'. Telstra shares fell almost 3% at the close yesterday. (ABC)
  
  

• BHP faces strike action at Australia’s biggest iron ore port. Between 150-200 of BHP workers are set to walk off the job at Port Hedland next week in what would be the Western Australian mining industry's most significant industrial action in 25 years. The strike threatens $120m a day in revenue for BHP, after pay and conditions talks between the mining giant and unions broke down. (ABC)
  
  

• Australia's first electric trucks to hit the roads. The government has committed $70m to support Volvo Australia's electric truck manufacturing in Brisbane. The investment will provide discounted finance for trucking businesses to switch from diesel to electric, with more than 1,000 jobs expected to be supported as demand grows. (PM of Australia Office)
  
  

• Meta is using your Instagram photos to train AI… unless you opt out.
  The social media giant has launched its new Muse Image AI model with Instagram integration, automatically opting public accounts into having their photos used for AI-generated images. Anyone can tag a public profile in a prompt and generate an image using that person's likeness, with users required to actively opt out to block their content from being used. (Wired)
  
  

• Netflix, Disney and YouTube eye World Cup broadcast rights. Some of the world’s biggest streaming giants are all reportedly lining up to challenge Fox for US broadcast rights to the 2030 and 2034 World Cups. Media executives have forecast the rights to be worth between US$1.5 billion and US$2 billion per tournament. (CNBC)

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Colombian beer brand slashes jersey prices with genius logo trick

The prices of football jerseys have continued to skyrocket in recent years, with a Colombian jersey for the 2026 FIFA World Cup costing US$150, equivalent to around 25% of the average monthly base salary. But Aguila, the official beer sponsor of Colombia's national team, and advertising agency DAVID came up with a genius solution.

The campaign, called "Resize the Price", is simple: fans can bring the price of a jersey down to as little as US$20 by increasing the size of the Aguila logo on the shirt. The bigger the logo, the cheaper the jersey. The campaign was a resounding success, with 96% positive sentiment and 93% of purchases opting for the biggest logo at the lowest price. It also won a Gold Lion at the 2026 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. (Ogilvy)

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Same Investment. $75k More Wealth. But Is Super Always the Right Move?

Jess sat down with Julie Bullen, Financial Adviser from Fox & Hare on a recent episode of Get Started Investing to see whether she should be investing her surplus cash outside of her superannuation or inside it. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

Investing $500 a month from age 32 to 60 at a 7% return gives you $346,000 in your personal name. Put that same $500 into super and you end up with $420,000. That is $75,000 more purely from the lower 15% tax rate inside super. And that gap widens further with every pay rise as your personal marginal rate climbs while super stays fixed.

But the tax advantage comes with a catch. That money is locked away until preservation age, currently 60. If you are planning to retire early, buy a home, take time off work, or simply want the flexibility to access your money, that matters a lot.

Julie's outlines that super and personal investing are not competing goals, they are two investments working toward the same outcome. If you want to retire at 55, you only need enough outside super to cover that five year gap. Everything else can sit in the more tax efficient environment and keep compounding.

The question then remains how of a price can you place on the flexibility of your money, and whether the cost of that flexibility is worth $75,000.

• A century ago, Australians were lucky to make it past 50. Today we're living to 84, and the race to push that even further is creating one of the biggest investment opportunities of our lifetime. In our next instalment of ‘The Decade Ahead’ on Equity Mates Investing we’re unpacking Biotech and Longevity (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

• & on Get Started Investing Jess chats with Bree, a 29 year old nurse and content creator who started investing 4 years ago after clearing $25,000 of credit card debit. Bree is now teaching her 100,000 instagram followers how to save money, spend intentionally and live a life that feels rich beyond consumption. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)