Australia Post incorrectly charged tariffs on items ordered online being returned to the US

Australia Post incorrectly collected tariffs from customers returning items to the US after retail parcel services to the country resumed last week, the government-owned postal service has admitted.Australia Post said it had identified an error with a third-party provider where “a number of customers” were incorrectly charged a tariff for postal returns of US-manufactured items, which should not be subject to import duties.“The error was quickly fixed, and we are reaching out to impacted customers,” a spokesperson said in a statement. They will receive a refund.Parcel services were halted in August when the US suspended the “de minimis” exemption, which allowed parcels worth less than US$800 to enter the country duty-free

US regional bank stocks fall amid Wall Street concern over credit markets

US regional banking stocks fell sharply on Thursday after two banks disclosed issues with bad and fraudulent loans, amplifying concerns on Wall Street around the state of credit markets.Zions Bancorp announced it had a $50m charge-off over two bad loans from its subsidiary, California Bank & Trust in San Diego. Western Alliance also said it was dealing with a fraudulent borrower.Zions stock was down over 11% by Thursday afternoon, while Western Alliance was down over 10%. Shares of Jefferies Financial Group were down 9% for the day

Dan and Phil’s relationship revelation is a reminder of how toxic fandoms can be | Eilish Gilligan

This week, longtime British YouTubers Dan Howell and Phil Lester uploaded a new video confirming they have been in a secret romantic relationship for the past 16 years.If you weren’t a deeply online child during the 2010s, you probably have no idea who Dan and Phil are, or why this matters. But to those who formed a robust parasocial bond with the duo – who have more than 13 million collective subscribers on YouTube – this was a revelatory moment. It was also a sobering reminder of the emotional damage that toxic fandoms can wreak on their subjects.Over the course of 45 minutes, Howell and Lester, now in their thirties, share the “apocalyptic constant stress of the Dan and Phil dating conspiracy”, where “fans” subjected them to frenzied speculation for 16 years straight

Banks need stricter controls to prevent romance fraud, says City regulator

The City regulator has called on banks and payment firms to bring in stricter controls protecting customers from romance fraud after a study showed a number of missed “red flags” that led to people losing huge sums of money.The review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted one case where someone lost £428,000, another where a customer made 403 payments totalling £72,000 to a fraudster and a case where someone wanted money to transfer cryptocurrency to their “partner” in Iraq.Romance scams, where criminals try to build emotional connections with victims before defrauding them, have been growing in scale and complexity in recent years.Figures from the City of London police put the loss from romance fraud at £106m last year, although the FCA says the real figure is much higher as many people do not report the crime owing to feelings of shame and stigma.The FCA review of six banks and payment firms looked at how they detect and prevent romance fraud and found large disparities in how victims of fraud were treated

Ariarne Titmus retires just as she swam – at the top of the sport and uniquely herself | Kieran Pender

Ariarne Titmus has always done things her own way.So it was when she first blazed to glory in 2019 – a teenager unheralded outside Australia, upstaging American swim queen Katie Ledecky on the world stage. So it was in 2022 when, as reigning world and Olympic champion, Titmus decided to skip the world titles. “I’ll definitely be asleep,” she told me at the time – the championships were held in Budapest, and Titmus remained in Australia, not ever tuning in to the overnight broadcast. And in 2023 when the women’s 400m freestyle turned from “race of the century” to coronation and ultimately procession, as Titmus dominated rivals Ledecky and Canadian prodigy Summer McIntosh at the world titles and again the 2024 Olympics

Oisin Murphy: ‘I found escapism but also an awful lot of trouble in the bottle’

Champion jockey on pursuit of sobriety, his April car crash, a voracious need to win – and the poetry of Sylvia Plath‘I didn’t feel good,” Oisin Murphy says with a grimace as he gestures towards the birthday cards still standing in his house more than a month since he turned 30. Murphy has already spoken for an hour, in raw and moving detail, about the guilt he will feel when he has to walk down a guard of honour to mark his fifth champion jockeys’ title at Ascot on Saturday, his daily struggle with alcoholism, his near catastrophic return to drinking this summer, the dangers of racing and the Sylvia Plath poem he loves most.But the milestone of his 30th birthday troubles him. “It was incredibly significant because I never thought I’d get to 30,” Murphy says, as he uses a smouldering cigarillo to light another in an unbroken chain stretching across this corner of Lambourn.They call it the Valley of the Racehorse and, on a Monday morning, mist hangs over the village – in the same way that Murphy is enveloped in a cloud of smoke