🗞️ Catfished

Good morning. In case you didn’t see the news on Friday, nearly 60,000 Moroccans surged into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta after viral Instagram posts falsely promised immediate jobs, money, and seamless entry into Europe.

Instead of the promised opportunities, migrants were greeted by deadly waters, military blockades and politicians looking to boost engagement.

As of today, 90% of those who crossed have already been returned to Morocco, leaving dozens dead and the Spanish military holding a heavily fortified border.

All the headlines and more below...

ANYTIME FITNESS INVESTIGATES FORGED SIGNATURES ON GYM CONTRACTS CUSTOMERS NEVER SIGNED

Anytime Fitness is investigating complaints after customers were signed up to memberships with forged signatures on contracts they never saw, while others were made to sign blank agreements before terms were added. The franchise operates more than 600 locations across Australia with 780,000 members.

Michael Fraser contacted a new Anytime Fitness opening in Biggera Waters, Queensland, in mid-June and was offered a discounted founding member rate over the phone. He agreed to the terms and left his payment details to reserve the spot but never signed anything. When he later requested a copy of his contract, his signature had been added to a document he'd never seen. Other customers in NSW and Queensland lodged separate complaints this week - some were handed blank contracts to sign before membership terms were filled in afterward.

Anytime Fitness has apologised. The company has not disclosed how many branches are involved or whether the practices were isolated to individual franchisees.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• Microsoft has blamed institutional inertia for Australia’s poor AI adoption as only 8% of firms have restructured work around tools like Copilot compared with a 22% global average. LINK

• Petrol prices in Australian capital cities are set to exceed $2 a litre while diesel could surpass $2.40 as the government’s 16c fuel excise discount ends on Sunday. LINK

• Macquarie Bank has cut its lowest variable home loan rate for new customers by 0.05 percentage points to 6.04% as mortgage competition intensifies and RBA surcharge reforms threaten US$660M in annual bank revenue. LINK

• Australians have bought electric and hybrid vehicles at nearly the same rate as petrol cars, as Australian Automobile Association data shows EV sales doubled after the fuel price spike. LINK

• The government has revised the News Bargaining Incentive so that a 2.5% levy on Meta and Google applies only to Australian digital advertising revenue, not total gross revenue. LINK

• Authorities in SA have reported a suspected first Australian mass mortality event from H5N1 bird flu after helicopter surveillance found 49 dead and 35 sick greater crested terns near Robe. LINK

MACCA'S LAUNCHES RED BULL DRINKS AS UK MOVES TO BAN ENERGY DRINKS FOR UNDER-16S

McDonald's has rolled out two Red Bull-branded drinks across Australia - the Dragonberry Energiser and Peach Boost Energiser, both containing 80mg of caffeine. The drinks follow a trial in Queensland and Victoria and are marketed as the "perfect pick-me-up", but critics say the branding is designed to appeal directly to children.

Paediatric nutritionist Mandy Sacher said the drinks use bright colours, fruit flavours and names like Dragonberry that sound "like something you see on Fortnite." QUT marketing professor Gary Mortimer said the sweet, fruity flavour profiles and novelty branding align with youth-oriented marketing, likely targeting younger customers already consuming energy drinks.

Children and young adults aged 13-24 have the highest prevalence of energy drink consumption, with almost one-third of adolescents aged 12-17 consuming them regularly. Beyond caffeine, the drinks contain high levels of sugar and stimulants like taurine, which have been linked to anxiety, suicidal ideation and poor academic performance.

The UK will ban energy drink sales to under-16s from 2027. Norway has already banned sales to the same age group, and the Czech Republic has proposed a ban for under-15s. McDonald's says the drinks are not recommended for children, aren't sold as part of Happy Meals, and comply with Australian food standards including advisory statements at all points of sale.

COMPANY NEWS

• HSBC sold its US$36B Australian home and personal loan portfolio to Blackstone with Pepper Money as servicer, and has decided to exit Australian retail banking over 18 months. LINK

• The Victorian Supreme Court has begun three unprecedented judge-only class action trials against Sportsbet, KPMG, Macquarie Capital and others involving about 1 million claimants over up to 8 weeks. LINK

• UNSW officially opened its first overseas campus in Bengaluru through a joint venture with Emeritus, as Australian universities move into India after regulatory changes. LINK

• Google has paused an AI image-generation feature in Google Earth a day after launch as user-shared images appeared to violate its policies and raised misinformation concerns. LINK

• KPMG has prepared a high-stakes pitch for an $18M-a-year Telstra audit as internal messages revealed plans to use an Optus audit plan as a secret weapon. LINK

• Slater and Gordon has filed a shareholder class action against Web Travel Group alleging misleading FY25 earnings. LINK

• Domain has launched Matterport-powered 3D property tours to offer an immersive, always-open virtual open home experience as consumers demand more engaging ways to inspect properties. LINK

• Atlassian has appealed a US ruling that concluded that the company unlawfully fired an engineer after critical Slack messages. LINK

• PEXA is set to cut its service prices by 20% and halve profits, wiping US$400M from its market value after a ruling from the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal. LINK

• Congo Brands Australia, which distributed the viral Prime energy drink and other influencer-led brands, has collapsed owing more than $8M, terminated all staff and reported FY24 sales of $14.5M. LINK

• Singapore Airlines reported a US$84M quarterly net loss despite record US$6.3B revenue as an 80% jump in jet fuel prices and Air India losses hit earnings. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

Meta’s capex surges in pursuit of AI superintelligence

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Global warming has accelerated sharply since around 2015, as PIK researchers find adjusted global temperatures now rising about 0.35°C per decade versus just under 0.2°C from 1970 to 2015.

Draft Pick: Australia’s netballers have been left in tears after playing their last game on the final day of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Doctor’s Pick: The impact of blood type on fertility.

BRAINTEASER

What connects the 4 clues above?

Clue: The first word in each clue begins with an ‘S’.

Answer below

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ANSWER

You can remove the leading ‘S’ from the first word in each clue and the definition remains the same.

Swell (well): excellent, to rise

Squash (quash): to forcefully suppress

Select (elect): to choose

Slightly (lightly): to a small degree

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