Good morning, folks.

1. Victoria recorded 11 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. There’s discussion in the media about a possible snap lockdown, with Monash University Associate Professor James Trauer saying a snap lockdown “seems likely” on Sunrise this morning. The state’s COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said health authorities will “throw the book” at the three Sydney removalists who breached their permit conditions and spread the Delta strain in Melbourne.

2. But maybe not. The numbers were just announced this morning – but all of them we already knew about from announcements yesterday. There are a total of 26 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria.

3. Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown has been extended for at least another two weeks. The lockdown is now officially set to end on July 30, but it is quite possible it will be extended further. The state recorded 97 local cases of COVID-19 yesterday.

4. Industry groups in NSW have welcomed the new emergency funding for businesses and workers impacted by the Greater Sydney coronavirus lockdown. Grants, cash flow support, elevated emergency payments, and industry-specific financial infusions were announced on Tuesday, delighting the business sector. But unions and social services advocates are more circumspect, raising questions about why it took so long for the support to be announced in the first place.

5. Toll is staring down the threat of an enormous strike, as negotiations break down between management and truck drivers. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) claims almost 7,000 workers could be swept up in industrial action, as the logistics company tries to change the existing workplace agreement. TWU national secretary Michael Kaine alleges the changes would slash pay and conditions for new and existing workers, as the company pushes to outsource jobs. Toll denies many of the claims.

6. Aldi will spend more than $1 billion over the next five years to overhaul its Australian operations. The supermarket chain will open new small-format layouts called ‘Corner Stores’ and roll out its first self-checkouts as part of a modernisation effort. It will halve the number of distribution centres with larger high-tech versions, using robots to replace workers. It insists it will try to reallocate workers rather than offer redundancies.

7. Australia’s telecommunications watchdog has issued a new list of industry guidelines, designed to protect vulnerable customers when seeking new phone and internet plans. The guidelines come after an audit of nine Australian telcos, which raised “serious doubts” that staff training is up-to-date across the industry. “A generic approach seeking to ensure equivalent service to all consumers fails to grasp the specific needs of vulnerable consumers,” the audit found.

8. Peloton launched in Australia yesterday, with its bike range now available for sale online. The luxury exercise brand has amassed 5.4 million dedicated users globally across the US, Canada, the UK and Germany, with a view to adding plenty of Australians to the Peloton community. Our reporter gave it a spin – saying that while the cult-like high tech branding was a little much to swallow, it did get him moving.

9. Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be investing more than $1 billion through 2022 in an effort to pay creators for the content they post on both Facebook and Instagram. It’s clearly an effort to capture some of the energy in the so-called ‘creator economy’, which has been increasingly siphoned off to independent platforms and other titans like TikTok.

10. TikTok has now been downloaded three billion times around the globe. Facebook and its WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger are the only other non-game apps to hit that mark. TikTok reaching that milestone proves Facebook isn’t the only app people don’t want to live without.

BONUS ITEM

New from us: Some customers say that Australian beauty companies still don’t offer samples and product ranges that cater to the diversity of Aussie consumers. Beauty influencers, activists and consumers say high-end companies stock makeup for a wide range of skin tones but more affordable retailers like Coles and Woolworths don’t.

“Accessibility is so inconsistent … It’s not really equal access because not everyone can afford the high-end stores,” beauty influencer and writer Ruchi Page told Business Insider Australia.

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