🗞️ Skin cancer

Good morning. An experimental melanoma treatment built from a patient's own tumour has stopped the cancer returning in a large trial, the first time an mRNA cancer therapy has delivered positive Phase 3 results.

It works by reading the unique mutations in your specific tumour and building a tailored treatment from that fingerprint, and the trial ran across 1,137 patients following surgery.

The result sent Moderna’s share up more than 170%.

All the headlines and more below...

AUTHORITIES UNCOVER HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS IN SUSPECTED MORTGAGE FRAUD ACROSS 10 MAJOR BANKS

AUSTRAC's Fintel Alliance found thousands of suspected fraudulent applications involving inflated incomes, misrepresented employment and fabricated business activity, with most of the activity concentrated in Sydney.

In some cases offshore or third-party funds were used to complete property settlements and make ongoing mortgage payments. Bank insiders believe the scale potentially reaches $4B across a handful of the country's biggest lenders.

Details of individuals involved have been referred to policing authorities and charges are expected. New anti-money-laundering laws came into effect last month requiring real estate, legal and financial professionals to verify client identity, assess the source of funds used to buy property and flag suspicious activity.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• The Australian Parliament has passed legislation for a permanent $20,000 instant asset write-off, allowing eligible small businesses with turnover under $10M to immediately deduct qualifying capital purchases. LINK

• The Australian housing market has shifted from a lending boom to a sharp drop in new mortgage applications, as experts warn a 30% fall may only unwind recent years’ supercharged credit growth. LINK

• The AFL Players Association has revealed that over 500 players now lack concussion insurance cover under their superannuation plan after Zurich declared head trauma injuries uninsurable. AUS

• Airservices has used a fatigue-ranking system to fill Sydney air traffic control absences as some controllers reached 80 hours in 10 days and faced under 8 hours between shifts. AUS

AUSTRALIA'S FOUR BIGGEST STATES FACE AN $8.1B ANNUAL INTEREST SURGE AS $226B IN COVID DEBT REFINANCES

NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia collectively borrowed $226.5B during the pandemic at rates below 3% when the RBA cash rate sat at a record low 0.1%. Those bonds now cost taxpayers just over $4B a year in interest. The four states' combined interest bill will climb from $33.5B in 2030 to $41.6B by the mid-2030s - a jump of $8.1B a year.

NSW and Victoria each hold about $77B in pandemic-era debt, Queensland borrowed $54B and South Australia another $18B. The Parliamentary Budget Office projects total state and territory debt will hit $771B by decade's end, part of a combined federal and state debt load expected to pass $2T by 2029-30.

The RBA flagged in an internal note released under FOI that ballooning state debts could constrain governments' ability to respond to future shocks and leave super funds and banks exposed to a sudden sell-off in state bonds.

COMPANY NEWS

• KPMG has begun talks with 50 partners about exits and is preparing to cut about 450 client-facing staff as it reviews costs amid a whistleblower-driven governance scandal. LINK

• The Fair Work Commission has ordered a sacked Aldi store assistant to pay $1,230 in legal costs after his AI-generated unfair dismissal claim was ruled “just plain wrong”. LINK

• The Australian discretionary retail sector is in a clear slump as cost-of-living pressures curb consumer spending, with Breville the only major listed retailer avoiding a profit warning. LINK

• Roblox has signed a court-enforceable undertaking with Australia’s eSafety commissioner to overhaul privacy settings after tests found adults could contact children under 16 without parental consent. LINK

• ACCC has executed a search warrant on WiseTech Global as it investigates alleged anticompetitive conduct in global logistics software, prompting the company to pledge full cooperation. LINK

• Alphabet raised a record $5.5B in its first Australian Kangaroo bond to help fund AI expansion as investor orders hit $18B, tripling the deal’s target size. LINK

• CoStar has ordered about 825 of its 1,200 Australian staff to work in the office 5 days a week from 21 September as it prioritises in-person collaboration and learning. LINK

• Former Meta engineering director has testified that Mark Zuckerberg promoted growth and engagement over child safety as 33 US states sue Meta over allegedly harmful platforms and data practices. LINK

• Mirvac reported a $677M statutory net profit after tax for the year ended 30 June, up 896% year-on-year, while issuing a tempered housing-market outlook. LINK

• Stockland reported a 20.2% rise in full-year profit as stronger than feared residential sales and other business segments cushioned volume declines and rent reversion headwinds. LINK

• Stripe has launched its Treasury banking-as-a-service product in Sydney to let customers manage cross-currency payments and conversions. CB

• Stripe has agreed to buy AI marketplace OpenRouter to help businesses route and optimise token usage as it deepens a year-long push into AI amid soaring compute bills. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

The social media generation gap

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Astronomers have discovered star S301 orbiting Sagittarius A* at up to 25,000 km/s and just 1.7B km away, offering a new way to directly measure the black hole’s spin.

Draft Pick: Nick Kyrgios has been provisionally suspended from tennis after testing positive for cocaine.

Doctor’s Pick: ‘Wired to tired’: New hack allegedly promises restful sleep.

BRAINTEASER

Can you guess the next number in the sequence?

Answer below

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ANSWER

1113213211

Each term in the sequence can be ‘read off’ the previous one. In other words:
- 1 read aloud is 1 iteration of the number 1; hence, 11.
- 11 read aloud is “two ones”; hence, 21.
- 21 read aloud is “one two and one one”; hence, 1211.
- 1211 read aloud is “one one, one two, and two ones”; hence, 111221.

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