10 things you need to know this morning in Australia

Good morning and good luck.

1. After a disastrous -- and now infamous -- interview with the BBC in which he tried to explain away his friendship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew has resigned from his public royal duties . It makes him one of the most high-profile casualties of the ever-unfolding saga.

2. Tech companies like Facebook and Twitter could be sued for what their users post in Australia, after Attorney-General Christian Porter flagged sweeping reforms to our defamation laws. This comes after the NSW Federal Court ruled media companies were legally responsible for their social media pages. In Porter's words: “My own view is that online platforms, so far as reasonably possible, should be held to essentially the same standards as other publishers."

3. In what could be the biggest court case in banking history, Westpac allegedly violated anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws an astounding 23 million times. The regulator says the big bank "didn't know and [still] doesn't know" where billions of dollars it processed between 2013 and 2018 originated, with fears some of it was tied to child exploitation. There's no sweeping this one under the rug.

https://twitter.com/sdanck/status/1196919834052681728

4. Signed up for Disney's new streaming service, Disney Plus? You might want to change your password again. Australian users have been warned that a security flaw could expose their account, after thousands of accounts were hacked and sold online in the US. Turns out "[yourname]123" isn't fooling anyone.

5. An Australian and an American teacher have been released by the Taliban after spending three years in captivity. American Kevin King, 63, and Australian Timothy Weeks, 50, were “successfully recovered” after they were swapped for senior Al Qaida-linked members. Both men had been teaching at the University of Afghanistan in 2016 when they were kidnapped at gunpoint.

6. Amazon Australia, just a few years into its launch, is finally upping the ante. On Wednesday, it rolled out "Amazon Hub", its locker delivery system to select locations around New South Wales and Victoria, as well as expanding its parcel pickup points at participating businesses. Here's how it works.

7. Finally something truly viral to emerge from the Trump impeachment hearings. A photo of Trump holding what appears to be his prepared talking points have emerged and they're, well, pretty simple. "I want nothing, I want no quid pro quo" written in giant sharpie letters, has already inspired a host of memes. If Trump does end up testifying himself, as Democrats want, it'll be quite the spectacle.

8. Softbank, the Japanese company that pumped money into the WeWork trainwreck, has some other interesting ideas you might like to hear too. It has created its own robot vacuum called Whiz that uses self-driving car technology and costs $US500 a month. Admittedly, not its worst venture.

9. Life on....Jupiter? NASA has just found water vapour for the first time on one of Jupiter's moons, Europa, suggesting it could be home to a hidden ocean with twice as much water as Earth. It now makes the moon our best hope of finding alien life.

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1196488493154947072

10. Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly created a major divide in his company, after lambasting China. His sharp tongue is apparently not going down well with many of the social media giant's employees, many of whom are from the mainland. While some see it as a way of trying to win favour with US lawmakers, it could be time to dial it back or risk some awkward office elevator moments.

Bonus item

Video has emerged of an Australian woman saving a badly wounded, crying koala from a bushfire. “I knew if we didn’t get him down from the tree then he would have been up there amongst the flames,” she said. Bravo.

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