FLY, FLY AGAIN

According to The Australian ($), the Victorian government is preparing to submit plans to national cabinet on February 5 to boost its number of overseas arrivals and create a separate entry quota for international students.

With Australia recording zero new locally-acquired cases yesterday, Dan Andrews announced that masks will no longer be compulsory in offices and more workers can return from next Monday. As The Age notes, Andrews also reiterated that Brisbane and Sydney remain “red zones”, even as the state prepares for the arrival of 1200 Australian Open tennis players and their entourages.

Additionally, the Defence Department reportedly told the Victorian government at the beginning of the pandemic that military bases would not be suitable for quarantine sites.

Other Australian COVID-19 news today includes:

• An Adelaide couple returning from Cairns and attempting to avoid the NSW hard border spent two days in the outback with no food or water after their car got bogged in sand (The Guardian)
• A key scientist behind the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Andrew Pollard has warned that pausing the planned rollout in Australia over herd immunity concerns could cost lives if we are hit by another wave of infections (The Sydney Morning Herald)
• Annastacia Palaszczuk announced she would bring a proposal to use mining camps for quarantine sites to national cabinet on January 22 (ABC).

PS: In Australian Open news, ABC reports Andy Murray is in doubt after testing positive to COVID-19, women’s world number 16 Madison Keys has pulled out after also testing positive, and Tennys Sandgren has boarded a flight to Melbourne despite a having a second positive test for COVID-19 on Monday. COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria released a statement after he was cleared for travel to Australia saying the evidence in Sandgren’s case “suggested he had recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection and is still shedding viral particles”.

HEDGING THEIR THREATS

Following Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment yesterday, CNN reports that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made clear a trial won’t start until Joe Biden is sworn in and that, while he is still undecided in his vote, a rushed event would not be fair.

The news comes as Democrats call on Trump to de-escalate the threat of terorrism by admitting Biden won the election, and after an organiser of the instigating “Stop the Steal” rally, Ali Alexander, named Republicans Andy Biggs, Mo Brooks, and Paul Gosar as helping him plan it.

As agencies prepare for more riots over the weekend, The Intercept reports that while the Pentagon has attempted to claim it was not privy to intelligence on violent protests, leaked US military intelligence suggested back on December 21 that conflict could emerge from the election conspiracy theories. The document, which came at least a few weeks before people straight up wrote about storming the Capitol on Trump forums, also designates QAnon a terrorist group.

PS: In analysis that should surprise roughly no one, data from non-profit database the US Crisis Monitor finds US police are three times more likely to use force against left-wing protesters than their right-wing equivalents.

PPS: And in a more lighthearted update, Trump was so upset over being impeached again he reportedly told staff not to pay Rudy Giuliani.