1. Federal government to fund $200 million quarantine facility in Victoria

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to commit $200 million to construct a 500-bed quarantine facility in Avalon, Victoria, while the state government will pay for operating costs of the facility. The Australian reported that construction will begin by September and finish in January next year.

2. Wesfarmers CEO warns of impact of continuing lockdown

Rob Scott, the CEO of Wesfarmers, told the AFR that the company is seeing a "significant negative impact on sales" during the lockdown in Melbourne and may have to reassess its forecasts if it continues. "So long as the lockdown remains relatively short it shouldn’t impact our full year earnings outlook. But if they were to be extended for multiple weeks, we’d need to reassess it," Scott said.

3. Joe Biden blocks American investment in more Chinese companies

59 companies with alleged links to China's military have been added to a blacklist that restricts Americans from investing in certain Chinese companies following an executive order signed by US President Joe Biden. The Trump administration originally created the blacklist last November with 48 companies.

4. Elephant herd causes $1.4 million in damage after leaving nature reserve

A herd of 15 elephants have left a 500km trail of destruction in China estimated to be worth 6.8 million yuan ($1.37 million) in 412 separate incidents. The elephants are native to the Yunnan province in the southwest of the country, and usually remain in the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, but the escapees have travelled from farmlands to city streets.

5. Nasdaq falls more than 1%

The Nasdaq dropped by 141.82 points or 1.03% to 13,614.51 on Thursday, while the S&P 500 fell 15.27 points or 0.36% to 3,192.85 and the Dow Jones moved down 23.34 points or 0.07% to 34,577.04. Etsy and Tesla had the biggest falls of the S&P 500 components with declines of more than 5%, while 'meme stock' AMC followed up yesterday's 95% surge with an 18% fall.