Morning, team. TGIF.

1. Employers will gain easier access to JobKeeper from the end of September, as part of a move to fight the economic damage wrought by the Victorian outbreak and lockdown. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg will reverse the tougher eligibility rules he basically just announced, which will add another $15 billion to the cost of the scheme. Employers will only have to show a fall in turnover in the quarter to the end of September, compared to the same period last year.

2. Victoria recorded 471 new cases yesterday, and eight additional deaths. NSW recorded 12 new cases, though there is some concern over one positive case who visited a number of bars and restaurants.

3. Australian unemployment will hit 11% by Christmas, according to the latest Treasury estimates. Including those on zero hours and those who have dropped out of the workforce entirely, it would place the effective unemployment rate above 13%. The revision comes as Victoria extends and toughens its lockdown measures, which is estimated to cost up to $12 billion alone.

4. Daniel Andrews revealed a series of lockdown concessions for business following a revolt from CEOs. Included in these concessions are “greater flexibility for building and construction work, allowing metal workers and concessions for flower growers, poultry farmers, seafood and small abattoirs, as well as car parks for essential workers.”

5. Yesterday, as documented in this very newsletter, The Australian published alleged Victorian pandemic modelling which suggested new COVID-19 cases would be in the thousands for a protracted period next week. The state’s deputy chief health officer, Prof Allen Cheng, said at yesterday’s presser that he’d never seen that modelling, and had no idea where it came from. Now The Guardian reports that it may have come not from the Victorian government… but some random guy on Twitter. What?

6. Virgin Australia CEO Paul Scurrah says state and territory border closures are unsustainable. “What me and most business leaders want to see is how we deal with it when there’s no vaccine, how we deal with hotspots and outbreaks,” he said. “I don’t know how much longer we can sustain border closures; we have to get this under control.”

7. Australia’s top politicians have seen a ‘coronavirus bump’ on Facebook, growing their collective following by more than a million since February. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has seen the biggest total growth in likes, whereas Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein’s Facebook has increased the most proportionately. It comes as more Australians get their COVID-19 news straight from politicians’ social channels.

8. Uber on Thursday reported a wider loss in the second quarter than Wall Street expected. The company’s main rides business was hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, as is to be expected. To help make up the difference, it leaned on food delivery – which for the first time generated more revenue than its ride-hailing business. Shares fell as much as 5% in after-hours trading shortly after Uber released its earnings report.

9. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth just passed the $US100 billion mark. Zuckerberg, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates are now the only three people in the world to be worth at least $US100 billion, per Bloomberg. The executive’s ballooned fortune comes as Facebook unveils its Instagram Reels, a TikTok-like feature in the app, and as Facebook has experienced a booming stock price during the pandemic.

10. The US is set to suffer the world’s biggest jump in economic misery this year as inflation slows and unemployment spikes. The country dropped to rank 25 from rank 50 in Bloomberg’s Misery Index, which measures 60 different economies around the world. Thailand, Singapore, and Japan ranked as the year’s least miserable economies, while Venezuela, Argentina, and South Africa ranked the lowest on the list and showed the most misery.

BONUS ITEM

Something else to worry about, apparently.

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