10 things you need to know this morning in Australia

A warm and hearty TGIF to you and yours.

1. The travel ban on Chinese tourists and students travelling to Australia has been extended for another week. That means people looking to travel to Australia are locked out until at least February 29. "The protection and safety of Australians is our highest priority," Scott Morrison said. "[We are also] advised that the number of cases in Australia remains at 15, indicating the government’s precautionary approach to preventing the spread of coronavirus on our shores continue to be successful."

2. However, the AFR is reporting this morning that some students may be allowed in, as the government tries to balance public safety with the protection of the education sector. It's believed a group of students from China will be admitted on a trial basis. One of the prevailing narratives over the past few weeks is just how susceptible the Australian education sector is to these kind of disruptions in the flow of international students.

3. There continues to be fallout in other parts of the Australian economy too, even though the share market is rallying. Qantas Group has announced it is slashing flights to Asia across both Qantas and Jetstar, and Salesforce announced its conference in Sydney would be online-only thanks to the coronavirus.

4. The unemployment rate shot up to 5.3% in January – setting the stage for yet another interest rate cut. In the month of January, part-time workers said goodbye to 32,700 jobs but there were 46,200 more full-time jobs to go around – a net increase of 13,500. This sluggish labour data, with potentially more to come, falls after repeated signals from the Reserve Bank of Australia that it could continue to cut rates from 0.75% in order to keep unemployment in check. We could be riding this wave all the way to the bottom. Not sure that metaphor works, but you get my point.

5. If you want a sense of just how insane the Australian housing boom has been, look no further than these ten suburbs. The best suburbs to invest in over the last five years include Mickleham in Melbourne’s north at the very top, rising nearly 200%. If you bought a place in Mickleham in 2014 for $176,000, you could sell it today for $513,000.

6. A 54-year-old train driver and his 49-year-old co-driver are dead after the NSW XPT travelling between Sydney and Melbourne derailed. The train, which had left Central Station in Sydney at 7.40am, had been due to arrive at Southern Cross Station in Melbourne at 6.30pm. Nine other passengers were taken to hospital.

https://twitter.com/9NewsMelb/status/1230456732205248512

7. David Jones will begin aggressively closing department stores, as its profits halve. The retailer will axe 31,000 square metres of floor space by the middle of 2022 as part of its longer goal to cut its 486,000 square metres of floor space by 20 per cent to 390,000 by 2025. That's a lot of floor space! Though, considering the size of your average DJs, maybe it's just two stores.

8. The latest Democratic primary debate happened in the US, and the biggest story is likely the fact billionaire Michael Bloomberg was absolutely piled on for two hours. Bloomberg, who is essentially buying his way into contention with hundreds of millions of dollars in ad spend, seemed totally unprepared to defend himself from a series of blistering attacks from his fellow candidates, most notably from Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren. Even Trump took a swing afterwards.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1230376522663391232

9. The battle between big tech and false information continues apace, even though it's not clear anyone really knows what they're doing. Twitter is testing a system which would show warnings below tweets from politicians if users have flagged them as misleading. You might automatically see a problem with that kind of system, to which Twitter says users should “contribute in good faith and act like a good neighbour.” Apparently, some kind of points-based system will stop people trolling it. Not convincing.

10. Apple is trying to block the publication of a book by one of its former employees it says contains "business secrets". The book, “App Store Confidential” written by Tom Sadowski, who was a former manager of the App Store, details how an app can become successful in the App Store. It also includes Sadowski’s own experiences at Apple. In a statement sent to BI, Apple said it had terminated Sadowski’s employment.

BONUS ITEM
I mentioned it above, but here's the video of Elizabeth Warren going in on Michael Bloomberg everyone is talking about. Enjoy.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1230353902861766656