Good morning, and TGIF.

1. Australia yesterday suspended its extradition agreement with Hong Kong over China’s new national security law. Scott Morrison also announced temporary visas for Hong Kongers would be extended for five years, with a possible path to permanent residency. Morrison suggested that Hong Kong businesses consider relocating to Australia. The travel advice for Hong Kong has also been updated, reading, “You may be at increased risk of detention on vaguely defined national security grounds.”

2. China, as one might expect, isn’t pleased with any of this. A statement from the Chinese embassy in Australia said Morrison’s remarks were “groundless” and a “gross interference in China’s internal affairs”. The embassy also said the new laws will “ensure social order”, “improve [the] business environment” and contribute to Hong Kong’s long-term prosperity.

3. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has warned it will be several weeks before it is clear whether the state has seen a COVID-19 resurgence despite closing the border with Victoria. “I want to stress that what’s occurred in Victoria is a wake-up call for all of us about how contagious the virus is, how it doesn’t take very long for things to escalate quickly and how it doesn’t take very long for that rate of community transmission to increase,” she said. “All of us have to be on high alert.”

4. One of the nine Melbourne public housing towers will remain in strict quarantine due to a high level of coronavirus infections. The other eight will proceed to the stage three restrictions which apply to the rest of the city. Those in the locked-down tower are still under police-enforced lockdown, meaning they cannot leave for any reason.

5. As we’ve reported in the past, there are a number of Australians who have tried to use their early super withdrawals to get onto the property ladder. We’ve spoken to a few such people in an effort to understand their thinking. One was very candid: “Who gives a shit what Aussies do with their super money?”

6. Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans refused to apologise for a safety breach where passengers on a Melbourne-to-Sydney flight disembarked without screening for COVID-19 symptoms. He denied it was a stuff-up on the level of the Ruby Princess. “It’s a completely different set of circumstances,” Mr Evans said at a press conference in Sydney. “Passengers here were screened, and I think it is important to understand what the screening process is – it is a temperature check, it’s a health questionnaire and it’s an identity check.”

7. The latest data from Domain shows apartment rents dropped 3.2% over the June quarter, their largest fall in 15 years. Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart led the plunge, as shut borders hurt their tourism and international student markets and increased the number of long-term rentals. House tenants in Melbourne and Hobart also saw substantial falls alongside those in Canberra, Brisbane, and Perth.

8. Premier Investments, the parent company of retailers including Peter Alexander and Just Jeans, is closing its Melbourne metro stores. The company says the closures will be “for the foreseeable future”, amid the city’s second lockdown. Premier’s closures will affect 36 shopping centres.

9. Sweden’s unusual coronavirus strategy has not resulted in significant economic gains, data indicates, and has instead left the country with a far deadlier outbreak than its Nordic neighbours. Sweden has never issued a formal lockdown and has instead encouraged its citizens to stay home when they’re sick and maintain social distancing when in public. But Sweden’s coronavirus mortality rate is among the highest in the world, and, according to Reuters, Sweden’s central bank this month forecast that the country’s economy would shrink by 4.5% this year.

10. Elon Musk has predicted Tesla will complete the ‘basic functionality’ needed for fully autonomous driving this year. “I remain confident that we will have the basic functionality for level five autonomy complete this year,” Musk said in an a recorded address to a conference in China. But autonomous driving predictions are a dime a dozen. In 2016, Musk said a Tesla would soon drive itself across the US, which still hasn’t happened.

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