Good morning, team.

1. The day is here. Melbourne’s lockdown has begun to unwind, with restaurants, cafes, pubs and retail set to reopen from midnight tonight. Further announcements are expected today on how home visits will work, with Premier Daniel Andrews saying “the most dangerous environment for the spread of this virus is in your home.” It’s another zero case day today, too.

2. Despite a maelstrom of criticism throughout Victoria’s lockdown from some quarters, support for the Andrews government remains pretty solid. Just over half of Victorians back his handling of the pandemic, according to a new poll. Only 15% approved of Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien’s performance.

3. The NSW-Victoria border closure will be reviewed, a NSW government spokesperson told the AFR this morning. “The NSW government thanks the community for its patience during what has been an extremely difficult time. Restrictions continue to be reviewed on a regular basis and the border will not be closed for a day longer than it needs to be.”

4. ASIC deputy chair Daniel Crennan announced his resignation from the corporate regulator yesterday. It comes after an audit discovered Crennan had charged $70,000 for housing when relocating from Melbourne to Sydney. While no wrongdoing has been established and an investigation is ongoing, Crennan said he had “decided that it is in the best interests of ASIC for me to resign now”.

5. Oh, and there’s water on the moon. In a new study, a space plane detected the signal for H2O on the moon’s surface. Other new research found small, permanent shadows where water ice could survive on the lunar surface. NASA’s next moon rover is designed to investigate water-rich regions of the moon.

6. The new U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities ranking listed the top institutions in Australia, with the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney and University of Queensland taking the top three spots. Curtin University made a major leap in its ranking from last year, jumping 16 spots to become equal 174th in the world.

7. Westpac has revealed its earnings will take a $1.22 billion hit as it prepares its full-year results. Nearly half of that was attributed to a write-down in its insurance and auto financing businesses, while more than $400 million will be paid as part of its AUSTRAC fine. Easing the pain was the sale of Westpac’s 10% stake in Zip, which netted the bank $300 million.

8. Former Facebook content moderator Viana Ferguson said during a panel hosted by the non-profit The Real Facebook Oversight Board that users have become more vocal about the “violence they are willing to execute” towards people. Ferguson said there will “definitely” be calls for violence after the U.S. election, regardless of the winner. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will appear before Congress on Wednesday to address a law that shields social media companies from being held liable for the content of users’ post.

9. The number of new daily cases of coronavirus will “easily hit six-figure numbers” in the U.S. soon, a public health expert told CNN. The US recorded the highest number of new daily cases or coronavirus yesterday with an additional 83,757 cases in a single day, according to Johns Hopkins University. Experts predict that a third wave of coronavirus infections in the U.S. this fall and winter could be the deadliest.

10. The European Union’s drug regulator would approve a COVID-19 vaccine even if it worked in less than half of people, the Wall Street Journal reported. In comparison, the U.S.’s drug regulator, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), expects a vaccine efficacy rate of at least 50%. The news suggests that the European Medicine Agency and the FDA could disagree on which vaccines to approve.

BONUS ITEM

This is a lot to take in.

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