Good morning, folks.

1. The AFR reports Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will today deliver a speech kickstarting a push to reopen the economy. “We must get people back into jobs and back into work,” Mr Frydenberg will tell the National Press Club, noting the economy is taking a $4 billion weekly hit due to the coronavirus. However, it’s scant on detail, other than a general call for Australians to get back to work. There were reports yesterday that Scott Morrison is pressuring premiers to get people back into offices:

2. Give it to me straight, doc: when will we be able to fly overseas again? According to a survey of Australian economists conducted by Finder, probably no time soon. A vast majority of those surveyed didn’t expect we’d back in the skies over the big blue until 2021 at the very earliest, with a couple of pessimists even suggesting it might not be until 2022. One big exception is the possibility we might hash out a special ‘travel bubble’ deal with New Zealand, which is currently being discussed.

3. The Aussie job market is, unsurprisingly, looking pretty sore. The number of advertised jobs halved in April, according to the latest ANZ figures. The 53.1% drop was almost five times bigger than the previous record, set at the height of the GFC. Have a look at this chart:

4. The ACTU and the biggest union representing fast food workers have agreed to a deal to waive overtime rates for part-timers, relax roster restrictions, and stop employees from “unreasonably” refusing to take annual leave during the coronavirus pandemic. The Retail and Fast Food Workers Union (RAFFWU), which was formed due to a belief the Shoppies were too aligned with the interests of employers, are not happy about this. “This is about the behemoths worth billions of dollars and it’s entirely flexible on the employers’ end, [but] there’s nothing in it for workers,” RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan told the AFR.

5. Google fired off a blog post addressing ‘misconceptions’ in the current debate about whether it should pay Australian publishers for displaying their content. (I say debate but the government has ordered the ACCC to make it so.) Google says it was participating happily in negotiations for a voluntary code of conduct prior to the government’s order, and also argues if publishers aren’t happy with the Faustian bargain they make with the company, they can simply delist themselves from search.

6. Afterpay’s share price soared almost 24% yesterday after it secured the backing of Chinese giant Tencent. Investors are excited at the prospect Tencent’s support could mean a speedy expansion into the lucrative Chinese market. The company is behind China’s dominant social media platform WeChat, which boasts 1.2 billion users. If Afterpay can tap into that, it would be very lucrative indeed.

7. An Amazon engineer and vice president said he “quit in dismay” over Amazon’s firing of whistleblowers, who raised concerns about warehouse employees frightened of COVID-19. Writing on his personal blog, Tim Bray described the company’s firing of activists as “chickenshit” and described it as “evidence of a vein of toxicity” in the company’s culture. “I choose neither to serve nor drink that poison,” Bray wrote. Many warehouse employees at Amazon and similar companies are organising and making moves due to what they describe as poor conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.

8. Over in the US, Carnival says it will begin cruises again in August after massive coronavirus outbreaks forced it to cease operations. The cruise giant is prioritising ports Miami, Galveston, and Canaveral, where customers can avoid flying to their departure point. August seems like a very ambitious date to relaunch gigantic petri dishes – and you really have to wonder which foreign ports are going to be willing to accept them.

9. The Trump administration is privately predicting the daily coronavirus death toll in the US will almost double over the next month, with new infections increasing from 25,000 per day to 200,000. The administration expects daily deaths to increase to about 3,000 by June 1 from about 1,750 now, according to documents seen by The New York Times.

10. The scientist behind Sweden’s controversial coronavirus plan says he is still not sure whether the country made the right decision by not implementing a lockdown. Sweden has introduced only a handful of rules and has left places like parks and restaurants open, but its death toll is much higher than in neighbouring countries. The state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet he was “not convinced at all” and his team was constantly examining how it was going and what else should be done.

BONUS ITEM

Iconic planes are disappearing from the sky earlier than planned as coronavirus wreaks airline havoc not seen since 9/11. Wave goodbye to some oldies – for example, Virgin Atlantic Airways retired its Airbus A340-600 aircraft ahead of time while KLM Royal Dutch Airlines retired its Boeing 747-400 aircraft for passenger use at the end of March. Also included is Qantas’ fleet of Boeing 747-400s.

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