Greetings, team.

1. Pubs and restaurants in NSW will be allowed one person per two square metres, and 30 people will be able to visit a home from December 1. From December 14, employees will be encouraged to return to the office, vacating the public health order encouraging people to work from home “where it is reasonably practicable to do so”.

2. The Queensland border will open to travellers from all of New South Wales from December 1. It will also open to Victorians, as long as the state does not record any additional cases of COVID-19 today. “I think it’s great news in the lead-up to Christmas, but once again, that timely reminder for everybody: we need to make sure that we continue to keep up our social distancing,” said Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

3. The Transport Workers Union is urging the federal government to investigate the food delivery industry after the fifth death of a rider on the roads in two months. Food delivery platforms categorise their workers as independent contractors rather than employees. This distinction means those riders don’t have entitlements like minimum wage, sick leave and access to worker safety compensation schemes. A NSW government report found that a lack of support and advice for workers from the food delivery platforms was contributing to a dangerous working environment for riders.

4. Google’s chief internet evangelist Vint Cerf penned a blog post slamming Australia’s proposed media bargaining code as against the principles of a free and open internet. He writes that the ACCC’s understanding of how Google displays content is “not how search engines work, or should work, nor how people use them.” Cerf is best known as a “father of the internet”, due to his co-development of the vital TCP/IP protocol suite in the 1970s.

5. Amazon Pharmacy launched in the US this month, allowing customers to buy prescription medicines online though Amazon and have them delivered. While the service is only available in the US so far, Business Insider Australia spoke to a few experts about whether it would work here. The Pharmaceutical Guild of Australia said the country’s market for prescription medications is “highly regulated”, which would be a significant barrier for Amazon.

6. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is warning people to keep their eye out for scams when online shopping this Christmas season. Nearly $7 million has been lost to scams so far this year. As major shopping events including Black Friday and Cyber Monday edge closer, the ACCC warned shoppers to watch out for fake ads and websites.

7. The presidential transition in the United States has begun. Trump tweeted he approved the General Services Administration to “do what needs to be done”, but did not actually concede in any real sense. The New York Times reported he only proceeded when he was told he wouldn’t have to concede.

8. The Dow closed above 30,000 for the first time ever on the news of the Biden transition. It marks a rapid comeback after the index sank as low as 18,213 in March. Bitcoin also surged above $US19,000 for the first time since 2017 and closed in on its all-time high of roughly $US19,700. All of this is happening despite the US being decimated by COVID-19, by the way.

9. Elon Musk has overtaken Bill Gates as the world’s second-richest person. His net worth is now $US128 billion. Musk’s wealth has been on a steady climb this month: Tesla’s market cap soared as high as $US498 billion Monday as it is set to join the S&P 500 in December. The jump in Musk’s net worth places him second to Jeff Bezos, whose net worth stands at $US182 billion.

10. Tesla is developing a battery with 950 kilometres of range, Musk said Tuesday. The CEO also hinted that Tesla may develop a smaller, compact car for European markets. “I was driving around Berlin and in quite a bit of trouble finding a parking space where we could fit,” he said.

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Not sure about the content of this article from NSW Treasurer Dom Perrottet, but I like it as a general format for opinion columns. “Stuff I would destroy.” (The Cahill Expressway can absolutely go, though.)

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