LAST ORDERS: A mega-quick peek back at today’s news from the ASX and elsewhere

Hip Hip, Hooray! It’s the end of the day – a time reserved for celebrations around the nation that include rubbing our weary, screen-tired eyes, shedding our work uniforms and settling onto the couch for a different kind of screen time.

It also involves a fair amount of cursing and rushing around, because someone forgot about soccer practice (again) so I’m in a hurry, so here’s what you missed today.

You’re welcome.

FROM THE HEADLINES

French soccer star Mbappe “snubbed” by English defender.

While the World Cup moment between England and France has been run and done, video of an interaction between French superstar Whatshisname Mbappe and England defender Kyle Walker shows the pre-match snubbing that has the football world all a-tizzy.

That’s Mbappe to Liverpool gone then 😭 pic.twitter.com/wYu7z0svDY

— 𝗚𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗱 🇲🇦 (@TheGerrardWay) December 11, 2022

It’s absolutely outrageous, according to an increasingly large group of people now claiming to know everything about football – which might just prove to be the breaking point for France.

First their defeat at the hands of the English at Agincourt, and now this? It’s hard to see a way forward for France as a nation from here.

Qantas boss explains ludicrous airfares

And finally, Qantas boss Alan Joyce has spoken out about consumer fury over the cost of airline tickets at the moment, blaming all manner of things for why anyone looking to take to the skies at the moment will need a second mortgage to pay for it.

Joyce has blamed rising fuel prices, saying the $5 billion Qantas has had to fork out at the pumps is the largest sum in the company’s history. If only he’d used a credit card tied to the Qantas Frequent Flyer rewards scheme, he’d have amassed enough points to get from his multi-bazillion dollar Sydney home to Bankstown in an Uber.

The Qantas boss also laid the blame on a sharp increase in customers who dared to want to use the company’s services, saying that because supply is outstripping demand, now is the perfect time to really get the old price-gouger dialled up to 11.

That’s just basic economics, really.

LAST ORDERS

A quick look at the ASX goings on that might have escaped your attention today reveals that The GO2 People (ASX:GO2) have needed to walk back part of an announcement it made to the market on 9 December, to provide more detail on a few major projects it is involved in.

It covers two projects for GO2’s Skill Hire subsidiary, which were listed rather enigmatically as simply “a significant national grocery warehouse operation” and “a major arterial road project in the Southwest of WA”.

Obviously, that’s prompted calls from somewhere for more info on precisely what those are, and what they mean for the business – which GO2 has happily provided today.

The first is a tranche of 151 warm bodies for Metcash Trading, which operates wholesale distribution for IGA supermarkets – a juicy contract that looks set to provide GO2 with a revenue run rate of approximately $9 million per annum.

The latter relates to the Bunbury Outer Ring Road, which falls under the purview of the South West Gateway Alliance. Skill Hire has 37 placements on site, with 7 additional placements mobilising to site prior to Christmas.

GO2 says it’s also looking at the probability of that contract needing to be extended past its current deadline of 30 June 2023, because having major road construction run late and over budget is basically one of Australia’s national sports at this point.

Elsewhere in WA news, mining minnow Vertex (ASX:VTX) says that its geologists have had a bit of a look around at its Taylor Rock nickel-gold project alongside Lake Johnston, and found three pegmatite outcrops. Happy days.

“The Pegmatite rocks have been identified based on coarse quartz, feldspars, and Micas,” Vertex says, adding that the pegmatites emanate from nearby fertile granites and are injected into adjacent greenstones.

It’s another stroke of good fortune for Vertex, which has been on a bit of a charge this month, up a shade over 18% – and it lends credence to my increasing belief that if you could get hold of a moderately even-tempered cat and give it a bit of a swing, you’re bound to hit a pegmatite outcrop in WA… as that, too, is fast become one of our fine country’s national sports.

… Finding pegmatites, I mean. Not swinging cats.