Good morning, folks.

1. A coronavirus cluster linked with the Holiday Inn hotel at Melbourne Airport grew to eight on Wednesday. South Australia closed the border to residents of Greater Melbourne at midnight. The Holiday Inn was evacuated and closed for cleaning on Wednesday.

2. Australia is planning to push back on Britain’s effort to encourage climate tariffs at the G7. According to the SMH, Australia plans to argue the sanctions would be a new form of “protectionism” designed to shield local industries from free trade. British PM Boris Johnson believes carbon border levies could essentially function as a global emissions trading scheme.

3. The European Commission says it will not block the first wave of coronavirus vaccine shipments to Australia, meaning we’re safe from vaccine war for now. Last month, the EU said it would have final say on whether vaccines manufactured on the continent by Pfizer and AstraZeneca can leave the territory, due to concerns over European supply.

4. Guy Jalland and Michale Johnson yesterday became the first Crown directors to step down following an explosive report into allegations of money laundering, while John Poynton will end his “consultancy” work with James Packer’s private company Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH). The three James Packer representatives on the board had posed “potentially complex matters” for Crown and the gambling authority to resolve, a CPH spokesperson said.

5. The Commonwealth Bank posted a $4.87 billion first-half profit on the back of “a marked turnaround in economic condition”, CEO Matt Comyn announced yesterday. One of its biggest areas of growth was trading platform CommSec, which welcomed 230,000 new users in the last six months on the back of a trading boom. Meanwhile, new home lending jumped by a third, as loan deferrals continue to fall.

6. Salesforce has boldly claimed ‘the 9-to-5 workday is dead’ and will provide three new ways for employees to work — including the possibility of working from home forever. The “flex” option will allow employees to come into the office up to three days per week. Other employees will work remotely full time, while a small subset will come in every day. Oh the times they are a-changin’. For those at Salesforce at least.

7. Facebook is working on a competitor to the buzzy social app Clubhouse, the New York Times reports. The project reportedly intends to replicate the core function of Clubhouse: audio-based chatrooms. Notably, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared on Clubhouse this past week.

8. Experts from the WHO and China conducted a month-long investigation into the coronavirus’ origins. They concluded that the novel virus almost certainly did not leak from a Chinese lab, which has been one of the more hotly-debated theories since the beginning of the pandemic. The virus most likely jumped from bats to an intermediary animal host and then to humans, according to the report.

9. Oral arguments kicked off Wednesday in Trump’s impeachment trial over the Capitol riot. House impeachment managers went first, and each side will get 16 hours to make its case. You can follow Insider’s live coverage here, if it interests you.

10. Twitter is facing a political disaster in India, where it’s taking heat from both the government and protesters over the suspension of accounts. The company suspended 500 accounts in India and said the Indian government issued takedown requests. The social media site temporarily complied but has since restored some of the accounts. This is happening as Narendra Modi’s government cracks down on farmer protests.

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