Good morning. If your Wi-Fi drops for five minutes today and you start spiralling, spare a thought for Yorke Peninsula.

In March, a series of blackouts hit the South Australian region hard, leaving thousands in the dark and causing more than $1 million in damages and losses. From spoiled goods to halted operations, the outages didn’t discriminate.

Still, my biggest power outage this week was just forgetting to charge my AirPods.

All the headlines and more below...

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

Colourful price tags at major Australian chemists are 'misleading' shoppers

• Chemist Warehouse, Priceline and Terry White chemists' promotional price tags are confusing shoppers, with 1 in 3 customers finding it difficult to determine if items are actually discounted. LINK

• Australia's unemployment rate remained at 4.1% in April whilst adding 89,000 jobs. LINK

• Superannuation contribution splitting rules allow couples to shift 85% of deductible contributions to optimise retirement savings. LINK

• Angel investors are withdrawing from Australian startups due to Labor's proposed tax on unrealised super fund gains. LINK

• The Australian commercial lending market remains robust as 56% of lenders plan to increase their real estate exposure whilst private capital grows. LINK

• A Canberra pharmacy chain has lost $150,000 annually to shoplifting across 3 stores. LINK

COMPANY NEWS

Perplexity AI partners with PayPal for in-chat purchases

• Perplexity AI has partnered with PayPal to enable in-chat purchases through PayPal or Venmo for 430 million users globally. LINK

• The High Court will examine how Sydney Light Rail construction financially impacted CBD businesses. LINK

• Xero has reported a 30% rise in annual profit to NZ$227.82M whilst achieving 23% revenue growth to NZ$2.1B. LINK

• Amazon has laid off 100 employees from its devices and services unit including Alexa and Kindle teams. LINK

• Apple is testing eye-scrolling technology for its Vision Pro headset ahead of its June developer conference. LINK

• Grok, an AI chatbot created by Elon Musk, has promoted misleading white genocide claims about South Africa through unrelated responses. LINK

• Slater and Gordon's former HR chief has filed a lawsuit claiming the firm ignored warnings about a payroll fraudster before a data breach affected 900 staff. LINK

• Uber has launched 'Dine Out' restaurant deals in Sydney through an OpenTable partnership to increase app engagement. LINK

• IAG has agreed to buy RAC Insurance for $1.35B, with $400M for the insurance business and $950M for a 20-year exclusive distribution agreement. LINK

• Spotless and Ventia are facing allegations from the ACCC of cartel conduct between 2019 and 2022 to fix prices for services across more than 200 Australian Defence Force bases, charges which both companies deny. LINK

• The ACCC has approved Cleanaway's $110M acquisition of Citywide's Melbourne waste unit. LINK

• Telstra is launching satellite-to-mobile messaging powered by Starlink after completing 55,000 trial texts. LINK

• Dick's Sporting Goods is acquiring Foot Locker for US$2.3B at US$24 per share. LINK

• Spotify's Australian digital advertising revenue has increased by 9% to $49.4M in FY24 as it expands its creator base to compete with YouTube. LINK

• NRW Holdings has warned of a $113.3M impairment linked to a SA bill affecting a lease agreement. LINK

• Tencent has reported a 13% revenue increase to ¥180B yuan in Q1, led by gaming and AI-driven advertising growth. LINK

CHART OF THE DAY

Which nations are considering electric vehicles?

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Still ancient footprints rewrite reptile evolution timeline.

Draft Pick: Still got one in the bag? Jason Day’s comeback hopes hang by a thread.

Odd Pick: Police calls for backup over a wrong Burger King order.

TOGETHER WITH

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TRIVIA

On this day in 1986, the Chernobyl fire was first reported under control. Weeks after the explosion, Soviet officials begin to admit the disaster’s extent. We ask all things Chernobyl today. We hope you've watched the Netflix documentary!

1. What country would you find Chernobyl in today?
   

2. What caused the explosion at the Chernobyl power plant?

   a. Earthquake
   b. Reactor design flaw and operator error
   c. Electrical fire
   d. Tsunami
   

3. Approximately how many people were officially evacuated following the disaster?

   a. 16,000
   b. 116,000
   c. 416,000
   d. 1,016,000
   

4. What element was released in large quantities during the explosion?

   a. Uranium-235
   b. Plutonium-239
   c. Iodine-131
   d. Hydrogen

5. Which European country first detected unusually high radiation levels following the explosion?
   a. Germany
   b. Austria
   c. Sweden
   d. France

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1. Ukraine
2. Reactor design flaw and operator error
3. 116,000
4. Iodine-131
5. Sweden

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