Hello folks and welcome to Friday!

1. Melbourne Airport will accept international flights from April 8, nearly two months after a COVID-19 outbreak linked to a hotel quarantine site led Victoria to bar overseas arrivals. Some 800 passengers will be accepted per week, building up to 1,120 per week as the state assesses the ventilation systems at designated hotel quarantine sites. The announcement comes after independent reviews into Victoria’s hotel quarantine system.

2. Businesses say financial circumstances have improved, with one in five planning to increase staff numbers over the next three months, according to an ABS survey. The results paint an uncertain picture for workers who are set to lose the support of the federal government’s JobKeeper program on March 31. On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy said he anticipated between 100,000 to 150,000 JobKeeper recipients could lose their jobs.

3. More trouble for the federal government, on two fronts. Firstly, Scott Morrison – after dodging appearances on ABC’s “7.30” – got towelled up by Tracy Grimshaw on “A Current Affair” over his handling of sexual assault allegations and the sexist culture in Canberra. He also had to force veteran MP Andrew Laming to issue an apology ahead of a report that he had trolled several women in his electorate on Facebook.

4. TPG Telecom founder David Teoh has resigned after more than 30 years at the company. His resignation comes less than a year after the merger of TPG Corporation and Vodafone Hutchison Australia. “I am proud and humbled to have led the company from its founding, through its exciting growth over the years, and most recently into its merger with Vodafone Hutchison Australia,” Teoh said in a statement.

5. Domain analysed how prices in each of the east coast capital cities fared over the last two years. While exposed to different property cycles, analysts Nicola Powell and Henry Yu found that the most expensive suburbs both fell the hardest during troughs and led the market higher during booms.

6. Australia is 10-12 years behind the rest of the world’s uptake of electric vehicles, according to e-mobility expert Dr Jake Whitehead. And he blames it on government. “If they were serious about climate change, they’d be serious about the uptake of electric vehicles,” he said of the government’s approach. Sales figures in China are expected to reach about 3.7 million in 2021, whereas growth in Australia has been comparatively miniscule.

7. A peek behind the curtain from us yesterday. News and gossip about Australian influencers is meticulously documented by social media users running ‘tea’ accounts. The accounts combine aggregated content from creators with audience submitted content to provide their audience with unfiltered perspectives on the creators they follow. People running tea accounts say their purpose is to encourage serious and critical coverage of the influencer industry that they don’t see in traditional media.

8. Suez Canal update: yep, still blocked. The blockage has pinned in hundreds of other cargo ships in transit. An expert involved in clearing the canal said it could take weeks before the waterway opens again. The blockage will send the price of oil skyrocketing, JPMorgan said in a note published Thursday.

9. Joe Biden on Thursday gave his first solo news conference as president. Yes, that’s quite a long time with no pressers, but not being visible didn’t really harm him during the election, to be fair. He fielded questions on voting rights, foreign policy, immigration, and his plans for 2024.

10. Amazon says its workers don’t pee in bottles, but its drivers and piles of evidence indicate otherwise. Workers are speaking out after the company’s Twitter account denied the widely spread allegation. Amazon is known for imposing strict time constraints on drivers and warehouse workers, which some say can have negative consequences. “There were times when I would personally find a pee bottle in my van,” one former driver said.

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