Good morning and TGIF to you all.

1. Kevin Mayer has resigned as chief executive of TikTok just months after joining the company. Mayer announced his departure in a letter to employees at TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. “In recent weeks, as the political environment has sharply changed, I have done significant reflection on what the corporate structural changes will require, and what it means for the global role I signed up for,” Mayer wrote in the letter.

2. Stepping in to fill the void for now is Australian Vanessa Pappas, current general manager of TikTok. The Daily Telegraph framed this as Pappas taking the “top job” – but yes, it’s an interim role for now. We’ll take our patriotic glory where we can find it, I guess. Not an enviable job, given everything going on.

3. There were 113 new cases of COVID-19 detected in Victoria in the past 24 hours, and a further 12 deaths. These numbers just landed this morning as I type this. Both numbers are showing a downward trend, as in the previous few days.

4. NSW recorded nine new COVID-19 cases on Thursday. Health alerts have also been issued for two more Sydney gyms and three restaurants.

5. Some hope for Australians stranded overseas thanks to the pandemic. The Nine papers report the Morrison government is drawing up plans to rescue stranded Australians and place them into quarantine in facilities in remote areas of the country. According to the report, the rescue plan is not imminent, “but it is being worked on to respond to a range of scenarios — including if a country started deporting Australians because they had cancelled their visas and wouldn’t renew them.”

6. Accent Group, the owner of brands including Hype DC and Platypus, has revealed plans to open between 30 and 40 new stores. These new stores will be across brands including Skechers, Platypus, Hype DC, Dr Martens and Vans. The company also attributed its positive sales results for the 2020 financial year to its online offering.

7. Woolworths released its results for the 2020 financial year. It reported a 21.1% fall in profit after tax across its continuing operations. Though panic buying and lockdown buoyed sales in its grocery stores, it took a sledgehammer to its hotels business.

8. A new report from RMIT and the United Nations Association of Australia found that while Australia’s top 150 listed companies have mentioned sustainability goals, it was difficult to measure their progress. It found a rise in the number of companies prioritising sustainability goals, up from 25% in 2018 to 45% in 2019. However, Australian companies are more reticent to report on how these goals are actually being achieved compared to their counterparts in Europe.

9. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is now worth more than $US200 billion, according to Forbes and Bloomberg. That makes him worth almost $US90 billion more than the second-richest person in the world: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who has a fortune of about $US116 billion, according to Bloomberg. Call me crazy, but I dunno if he needs that much. Demonstrators set up a guillotine outside Jeff Bezos’ house to protest Amazon workers’ wages on Thursday.

10. The S&P 500 extended record highs on Thursday after US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell spoke at this year’s virtual Jackson Hole symposium. Powell outlined the central bank’s overhauled strategy for controlling inflation and avoiding future crises. He also signalled that the Fed’s monetary policy will remain accommodative as it seeks to stimulate the US economy. Line go up, money printer goes brrrrr, etc etc.

BONUS ITEM

I wouldn’t ride it, personally.

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