- Pick & Scroll News by The Aussie Corporate
- Posts
- 🗞️ Breaking point
🗞️ Breaking point
Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France yesterday following a protest high-school students started three weeks ago over missing teachers and classrooms with leaking ceilings. It has since spread to parents, universities and unions, disrupting almost a quarter of the country's high schools.
Pick & Scroll News
October 07, 2026
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here
Good morning. Hundreds of thousands of people marched across France yesterday following a protest high-school students started three weeks ago over missing teachers and classrooms with leaking ceilings. It has since spread to parents, universities and unions, disrupting almost a quarter of the country's high schools.
The clashes have left 715 police officers and more than 200 students injured, including a 15-year-old who lost a hand when a police grenade exploded, and over 6,000 people have been arrested.
It's all landing on a government trying to cut €54 billion from next year's budget, with France now paying more to borrow than Italy or Greece and a presidential election due in April.
All the headlines and more below...
COUNTERFEIT CASH DETECTIONS HIT 20 PER MILLION NOTES, HIGHEST SINCE 2018
Australian authorities caught 40,613 fake banknotes in the 12 months to 31 March 2026, a 277% jump from December 2024 when detected fakes hit a low of 5.3 per million. 95% of the counterfeits were $50 and $100 notes.
The Australian Border Force said in August it had seen a substantial increase in counterfeit currency worth millions arriving via air cargo and international mail since early 2025, and warned of a concerning improvement in the quality of counterfeit notes. Police across Australia have charged people in recent months for using fake $50 notes at shops, hotels and service stations in Mount Gambier and Roma.
Counterfeit notes have no legal value, which means anyone who accepts one and realises too late wears the loss. The Reserve Bank's recommended checks are to feel it, hold it to the light and tilt it. Newer notes show a bird's wings that lift and change colour, a number that reverses and colour that rolls across a patch; the older 1990s polymer notes show a star and coat of arms through the window. If a note feels wrong, the Reserve Bank advises bagging it, noting how you got it and handing it to police.
AUSTRALIAN NEWS
Australian consumer confidence dropped 4.7% to 80.4 in October and fell to 67.2 after the latest RBA rate rise, reaching late-1990s lows. LINK
Victoria, Queensland and several other state revenue offices confirmed they will keep accepting credit cards for taxes without surcharges as the ATO prepares to ban card payments. LINK
ABC News found that Adelaide Metro fares are among the nation’s most expensive, with short train journeys under 10km costing more than in Sydney. LINK
1 IN 6 CAFES RAISED PRICES AFTER CARD SURCHARGE BAN TOOK EFFECT
An automated survey of 1,500 cafes found 262 lifted the price of a small flat white between the final week of September and 1 October, when the Reserve Bank's card surcharge ban took effect. The average increase was 49 cents. Cafe owners told the tracker they typically absorb rising costs for a period before raising menu prices, usually by 50 cents at a time. Milk, coffee beans, wages and rent all contributed, but the loss of the surcharge was the tipping point for many.
2 QR code ordering platforms, me&u and Bopple, replaced card surcharges with platform fees in the past week. At me&u, a $26 order that previously incurred a 1.5% surcharge of 39 cents now attracts a 60-cent platform fee; at Bopple the same order incurs a 58-cent fee, calculated as 2% of the total.
The ACCC said the surcharge changes do not prohibit businesses from charging genuine fees for services such as using an ordering or booking platform, but that a fee described as something else may still be a card surcharge depending on the circumstances. REA Group introduced a 1.8% supplier trade fee for American Express payments, which it said is designed for business-to-business payments and is not a surcharge.
COMPANY NEWS
Country Road Group will cut nearly 100 of 283 concessions from David Jones to prioritise its own network, as both retailers restructure amid weak spending and mounting losses. AFR
Paramount completed its US$110B takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating media giant Skydance spanning major film studios, streaming services, cable networks and global news brands. LINK
Asos warned that hackers may have accessed customers’ basic personal details via unauthorised notifications sent through third-party platforms as it investigates the incident with cybersecurity advisers and authorities.
Australian Privacy Commissioner launched a formal investigation into Chinese firm Shenzhen Qingcheng over insecure smart glasses sold via Kmart, Big W Marketplace and Amazon after ABC exposed serious data-security flaws. LINK
AustralianSuper plans to more than double its roughly $2B private equity allocation to India, Japan and South Korea over the next 5 years as Asian markets mature. LINK
OpenAI and Anthropic told an Australian parliamentary inquiry they would support mandatory AI data breach disclosure laws as officials and content creators pressed for stronger AI regulation and copyright protections. LINK
Find what the client said, weeks later
Ask Wispr Flow Notetaker one question across every meeting you've had and get an answer with citations back to the call. Pricing, deadlines, who owns what. Free to try on Windows and Mac.
ONE MORE SCROLL
Odd Pick: A 65-year-old British farmer, Ian Paton, broke his third world record by winning a giant pumpkin competition with a pumpkin weighing nearly 1.3 tonnes after months of intensive care.
Draft Pick: Novak Djokovic was handed the China Open trophy after Alex de Minaur retired injured in the final on Tuesday.
Doctor’s Pick: Hidden habits that make your social anxiety worse - and how to break them.
BRAINTEASER
Can you solve this rebus puzzle?
Answer below
OUR SOCIALS
 |