Good morning, and TGIF.

1. Victoria recorded 113 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, edging back into three digit territory. Today’s numbers are back down to 81 – but with 59 deaths recorded, some of which were from previous days and are only now being tallied.

2. Today’s national cabinet meeting could be a fairly significant one. Morrison will push state and territory leaders to lift border restrictions, as well as a nationally agreed upon understanding of what constitutes a ‘hotspot’ – given everyone seems to have developed their own, wildly different interpretations.

3. Australia’s population will grow by just 0.6% this year, a level not seen since 1917. With the number of migrants entering the country expected to fall by 200,000 over the next 12 months, demand for property is expected to fall. As a result, CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless expects inner city rents and property prices to fall in Sydney and Melbourne, while more demand makes its way to regional centres.

4. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021 list has been released, with 12 Australian universities among the top 200. At the top of the Aussie list is the University of Melbourne, followed by the University of Sydney. The top ranking university overall was The University of Oxford in the UK.

5. The AFR reports that buy now pay later company Zip has engaged Bondi Partners, the new Washington DC consulting firm of former treasurer and ambassador Joe Hockey. Zip’s head of corporate affairs Matthew Abbott was Hockey’s press secretary.

6. Myer has teamed up with Amazon to launch a network of Amazon Hub parcel delivery services at 21 of its stores. These will be available at Myer stores across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. Amazon Hub first launched in Australia in 2019.

7. A survey of more than 3,000 Australians found that nearly two-thirds of small and medium businesses who use influencer marketing are satisfied with the results. But about the same amount of Australians said that seeing a branded post from an influencer would make them less likely to buy a product. This suggests that influencers are having an impact, but people aren’t aware of it — with only a quarter of Australians saying they notice sponsored posts.

8. The heat is continuing to rise over the UK’s decision to appoint Tony Abbott as a post-Brexit trade advisor. Cabinet ministers have been forced to defend the government over allegations Abbott is a “homophobe and misogynist”. In my opinion, while one could make a compelling argument that Tony is both of those things, they are mere descriptors which do not capture the boundless strangeness of the man.

9. US equities tanked the most since June on Thursday as investors dumped highly valued tech stocks. Every one of the S&P 500’s 11 sectors plunged throughout the day. Energy stocks suffered the least damage with a roughly 1% drop, while the information technology sector plummeted about 6%. A lower than expected weekly jobless claims reading wasn’t enough to lift stocks. New claims totalled 881,000 in the week that ended Saturday, beating the economist estimate of 950,000.

10. The US Department of Justice is planning to file antitrust charges against Google as soon as this month, The New York Times reported Thursday. Attorney General William Barr set a deadline for DOJ lawyers to file the charges by the end of September, despite the lawyers’ requests for more time, according to the report. Google is already facing a joint antitrust investigation from a coalition of 50 states and territories.

BONUS ITEM

On Tony Abbott’s appointment, this is funny.

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