1. Telstra shareholders and dividend-chasers should be happy to hear that the company’s chairman, John Mullen, has virtually promised to maintain the dividend at 16 cents a share. This helped its share price rise 4% to $2.89 and implies that the board will have to change the payout formula to keep its promise or do a lot better than expected with revenue and profit. And that could happen if Apple’s new iPhone 12, which will be pro-5G is a big success. Clearly, Telstra is a huge seller of iPhones and this could be a good news story for a telco that really needs a leg or two up.

2. Being well-known and having hired help is one of the greatest threats to being a celebrity, as Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, has found out. That said, it’s good to have friends in high places when you’re trumped by an unreliable author.

CNBC says “the Justice Department on Tuesday sued the author of a book about the first lady, claiming that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff broke a non-disclosure agreement that barred her from revealing confidential information obtained during her work for the president’s wife.”

A Washington D.C. court has heard Mrs Trump’s lawyers ask a judge to order Winston Wolkoff to surrender any profits from her book, Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady to a government trust.

There’s nothing more scary than a hustler with a book deal!

3. Apple's has announced that its new iPhones will be 5G capable of connecting to the fast new wireless networks being upgraded worldwide. There are four new iPhones: 

• 1. iPhone 12, the successor to the top-selling iPhone 11 launched last year. 
• 2. iPhone 12 mini – same features as iPhone 12 but claims to be “the smallest, thinnest, and lightest 5G smartphone in the world”.
• 3. iPhone 12 Pro – starting price is $999, with the additional features of Apple's latest camera technology that delivers better night performance. 
• 4. iPhone 12 Pro Max - the most expensive of the four at $1,099 with the same features as the iPhone 12 Pro and a display of 6.7 inches.

4. The Australian’s Adam Creighton runs a story today posing the question: are we overdoing our virus-protection protocols? “High profile stockbroker Angus Aitken has suggested people are ‘completely over lockdowns, work from home, border closures and everything else’ in a strongly-worded email highly critical of ongoing coronavirus restrictions,” Adam writes. “As pressure mounts on Victoria to ease restrictions ahead of achieving its target of fewer than five new coronavirus cases a day on average over 14 days, Mr Aitken, partner at Aitken Murray Capital Partners, said it is ‘hard to believe in a city of five million people we are worried about 10 to 15 cases of this thing’.” What do you think? (And yes, if you’re wondering, Angus is Charlie Aitken’s brother)

5. The US share market dipped on Tuesday, which saw the Dow Jones fall 157.71 points or 0.55% to 28,679.81, the S&P 500 drop 22.29 points or 0.63% to 3,511.93 and the Nasdaq dip 12.36 points or 0.10% to 11,863.90.