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Australians get a harsh shock when they open their retirement statements. For most, it was a rare year of loss. Only three funds ended up black. Callum Foote and Michael West investigate super returns and the best performing fund of all, Hostplus. It’s an obvious thing, but it’s still of no value. When interest rates rise, the stock market tends to fall. And that’s exactly what happened to the savings of millions of Australians for the year to June. Opening our pension fund letter, we found that our scores were lower than the previous year. The stock market decline has been compounded by an unusual phenomenon; bonds also fell. Bonds are an important part of a “balanced” super portfolio, and when bond yields (interest rates on debt) rise, bond prices fall. The good news is the market has bounced since then, so the positive returns over the past seven weeks should send most of us back into the dark. Tracing the league tables, historic trends prevail, even in this turbulent year

Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, Meta, has posted its first-ever revenue decline, dragged down by a drop in ad spending as the economy falters, and increased competition from rival TikTok. Key points: Global instability, slowdown in the ad market, and competition from TikTok contributed to the losses Meta has drawn high profile criticism over platforms like Instagram as users turn to video Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, driver of Meta’s advertising business, is leaving the company Meta shares fell just slightly after the results, indicating Wall Street was mostly expecting a weak earnings report. The company’s total revenue, which consists almost entirely of advertising sales, fell 1 percent to $US28.82 billion ($41.1 billion) in the June quarter, nearly half a billion from a year ago. The results follow broader declines in rival digital advertising markets such as Snap and Alphabet, Google’s parent company, which reported their slowest quarterly growth in two years.

In the winter my father died of cancer, focusing on work became very difficult. In the normal world of work, people are given mourning leave: a sign of two days to grieve and attend funerals. I need more than this to reflect and reassemble myself. I took a few weeks to slow down, think, and follow the urge to get back to basics. I spring clean my house, go for bush walks, do my own health check, and take over the dining table with a thousand-piece puzzle. After school hours, I read stories with my kids — huddle together and immerse myself in a fantasy world full of magic and solvable problems — and take them out for chai lattés. (Kids of today.) That time made me reflect a lot on my purpose, and how to spend the next part of my time on earth. The ABC Everyday perspective is all about giving you the opportunity to share what you’re going through. It is likely that others have faced the same ups and downs and life experiences. In a short paragraph, send us your offer via email: dai

Triptans, a class of commonly prescribed migraine medications, may also be useful in treating obesity, according to a new study by scientists at UT Southwestern. In a study in obese mice, a daily dose of a triptan caused the animals to eat less and lose weight for a month, the team reported in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. “We have shown that there is real potential for reusing these drugs, which are already known to be safe, for appetite suppression and weight loss,” said study leader Chen Liu, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Neuroscience and an investigator at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute. Obesity affects more than 41% of all adults in the US and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Most treatments for obesity focus on eating habits and physical activity. Scientists have long known that serotonin, a chemical messenger found throughout the brain and body, plays a key role in appetite. However, the

“Quite disappointing that after almost 2 hours of playing in my quarter-finals that’s the first question journalists choose to ask me, and never ask anything related to the game,” he wrote on Twitter. “It’s good to see headlines about it now. Do better.” Tomljanovic will be looking to translate successive Wimbledon quarter-final successes into deeper runs in the majors, adopting a half-cup view. It was a likely case as Tomljanovic had the upper hand against Rybakina before the Kazakh found his groove at a critical point 2-2 in the second set. From there, Russian-born Rybakina won seven games in a row as Tomljanovic, suddenly trailing behind, had to settle for only winning individual points. Load As Rybakina gained grip on the match and marched on to victory, Croatia-born Tomljanovic put up a late fightback, gallantly breaking her opponent 5-1 down, but the damage was done. “That’s gone too far. I mean, that 3-5 game [when Rybakina was serving for the match]once again, he served reall