Welcome to our ‘News In Brief’ column in which we digest all the news releases for you in no more than five paragraphs.
Below are snippets of all the media releases we received from Sept 14 till the end of the week.
This article updates throughout the week.
Online Card Spending Tops $500bn
Perth, Sept 14: Mobile wallets have driven Australia’s online and remote card spending past $500 billion for the first time, reaching $500.3 billion in the year to July 2026, according to new research from Temple & Webster using RBA Retail Payments Statistics. Mobile wallets accounted for roughly three-quarters, 75.7%, of that growth.
The $500.3 billion figure now makes up 46.6% of all Australian card spending, in-store and online combined ($1,073.5 billion over the same 12 months), up from 45.5% when the RBA’s first full 12-month reading was taken in September 2025, with online and remote spending closing in on half of everything Australians put on a card.
Credit card users led the shift to mobile wallets online, spending $69.4 billion that way over the past year, well ahead of debit’s $39.1 billion. Debit is closing the gap fast, however, with online debit mobile wallet payments rising 59.4% year-on-year in July, against 30.2% for credit, while typed-in or saved-number card payments stayed close to flat for both.
Mobile is also gaining ground within online spending itself, not just spreading across more of it. Its share of online and remote spending climbed from 17.3% to 21.7% over the past year on the 12-month measure, or from 18.0% to 23.3% comparing July directly with a year earlier, meaning close to a quarter of every dollar Australians spend online now goes through a phone rather than a typed-in card number.
Some categories are further along than others. RBA survey data puts bill payments at 82% online, up from 78% in 2022, the most advanced of any category, while furniture and other household goods sit at just 30% online, up from 26%, still mostly bought in person but moving in the same direction, according to Temple & Webster CFO Cameron Barnsley.
How Ancient Fish Crushed Prey
Perth, Sept 14: Flinders University researchers have discovered that placoderms, the first vertebrates to evolve jaws and teeth more than 400 million years ago, developed two distinct biting strategies to catch prey on an ancient reef that once covered what is now northern Western Australia.
The study, published in Scientific Reports, used finite element analysis and 3D digital bite simulations to reconstruct how eight species fed in oceans 385 million years ago.
“Placoderms experimented with an extraordinary range of jaw shapes and biting parts during the early evolution of vertebrates,” said Dr Alice Clement, ARC Future Fellow at the Flinders Palaeontology Lab, who supervised the study. The smaller species relied on broad, flat crushing plates to pulverise prey whole, while larger species evolved weapon-like teeth to pierce and break apart shelled, armoured prey too large to swallow.
Researchers found that both the smallest and largest placoderms possessed the strongest jaws for hard bites, despite using entirely different tools — a result that surprised the team, according to Dr Rex Mitchell, first author of the study. The largest species featured teeth arranged along a raised bony crest resembling medieval war hammers and poleaxes, suggesting they punctured prey armour before breaking it apart.
The findings, drawn from decades of research at WA’s Gogo Formation, add to a growing understanding of placoderms’ role in vertebrate evolution. “Since 2013, placoderms have been directly linked to our evolution, as the start of the line leading from fishes to humans,” said Flinders Emeritus Professor John Long, a co-author on the study.
Emirates Enters Winter With Momentum
Perth, Sept 14: Emirates has closed the summer season ahead of expectations and enters winter with strong booking momentum across a broadening range of markets, as the airline continues to invest in its fleet, network and products. Between July and August, the airline carried more than 8.6 million passengers, operating at around 93% of its pre-disruption capacity, with more than half a million customers arriving in Dubai on Emirates flights in late August alone, up 7% on the same period last year.
Bookings for the winter season, beginning in late October, are tracking positively, with demand ahead of last year in markets including South Africa, Brazil, India, Portugal, Egypt, Ghana, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, alongside Nepal through Emirates’ partnership with flydubai. Services to and from West Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Africa all recorded seat load factors above 75% over summer, with particularly strong performance on routes to Indonesia, Côte d’Ivoire and the UK, while demand for Premium Economy grew across the network, led by the Americas.
Since January 2026, Emirates has welcomed 18 new aircraft, including 11 A350s and seven Boeing 777 freighters, with six more A350s due before year-end. To date, 104 aircraft have completed the airline’s retrofit programme, bringing the number offering Premium Economy and its latest cabin products to 137, rising to 155 by December. This year also saw the launch of the industry’s first U-dream headrest for Economy and Premium Economy seats with privacy dividers, alongside new-generation Emirates Lounges already open in Munich, Frankfurt and Manchester.
Emirates’ network continues to expand into winter, with Helsinki joining on 1 October via the A350, increasing the aircraft’s destination count from 30 to 36 by year-end. Accra, Tokyo Narita, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi will receive second daily services, one daily Delhi service will be upgraded to an A380, and the A350 will be deployed to Larnaca, Malta, Nairobi, Hamburg and Mauritius over the coming months. Beyond its own network, Emirates’ 168 codeshare, interline and intermodal partnerships provide access to a further 1,750 cities, while its partnership with flydubai has carried more than 28 million passengers since 2017.
Media & PR: editor@dailystraits.com. Copyright 2021–Present DailyStraits.com. All rights reserved.