10 things you need to know this morning in Australia

Good morning.

1. Three Australians are feared dead in the devastating volcanic eruption in New Zealand. The volcano, known as Whakaari or White Island, erupted yesterday afternoon, sending a vast plume of smoke and ash into the sky. There were around 100 people on the island at the time, with five confirmed to have died and many more injured.

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2. A thick smoke haze has returned to Sydney and surrounds this morning, with 'hazardous' air quality warnings issued already for areas in the city's north-west and south-west. It's set to be a hot one, too, and the combination of high temperatures and poor air quality is described as "a recipe for severe illness" by NSW Health. More than 80 fires are burning across the state this morning, of which 35 are yet to be contained.

https://twitter.com/CosmicRami/status/1204123341080027136

3. The Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, released a report purportedly debunking Trump's claims that top brass in the FBI harboured a bias against the president. In fact, it contains messages between FBI agents celebrating Trump's 2016 election victory.

4. If you're trying to get your head around the Grill'd scandal as exposed by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, but want the facts fast: here you are. In short, the burger company is accused of mistreating its franchisees, foisting staff onto traineeships to pay them less, and maintaining lax food safety standards. Oh, and forging signatures on a liquor licence.

5. It's that most wonderful time of year: when you start thinking about how you can best utilise Australia's minefield of public holidays to squeeze the most holiday time out of the next 365 days. 2020 is ripe for the harvest, and the folks at Contiki have provided a very helpful calendar to help you out. See below.

Image: Contiki

6. Boris Johnson has been filmed snatching a reporters phone when he tried to show him a photo of a 4-year-old boy forced to lie on a hospital floor. Recent statistics have indicated that the UK’s National Health Service is currently struggling to cope with demand. The optics aren't great, to put it lightly.

https://twitter.com/joepike/status/1204018593656180736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1204018593656180736&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.com%2Fboris-johnson-grabs-reporters-phone-photo-of-sick-boy-2019-12

7. The world has a new youngest prime minister. Sanna Marin, 34, was selected by Finland’s Social Democratic party on Sunday to take over as the country’s leader after former Prime Minister Antti Rinne resigned last week. The Social Democrats are the largest party in the country’s governing coalition. Yes, there have been Jacinda Ardern comparisons, as you might expect.

8. Boeing is promising "three key fixes" to the system blamed for the fatal crashes of its 737 Max jet, according to a leaked presentation. In short, it will rely on readings from two sensors instead of just one, it will allow for pilots to override the system, and it will not automatically reactivate after being overridden. Boeing also told stakeholders that it had flown 1,850 hours with the software updates and spent more than 100,000 hours engineering and test-developing them.

9. Jeff Bezos says employee activists are wrong and Silicon Valley companies should feel totally fine doing business with the military. He threw his support behind the US Department of Defence, saying firms had a responsibility to collaborate with the military or else “this country is in trouble.” “It’s the senior leadership’s role to say to people: ‘Look, I understand these are emotional issues, that’s OK and we don’t have to agree on everything, but this is how we’re going to do it. We are going to support the Department of Defence.’ This country is important,” he said. It's highly doubtful employees are going to take that advice.

10. The US government is now formally investigating whether Google violated labour laws by firing four employees over Thanksgiving. The four former employees filed a complaint with the NLRB claiming that Google fired them for attempting to unionise. The company says they were actually fired for leaking confidential information. It's part of growing unrest within the company between employees and management as unionisation efforts intensify.

BONUS ITEM
Kind of takes away some of the magic, doesn't it?

https://twitter.com/techinsider/status/1204103919426629632