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10 things you need to know this morning in Australia Good morning. Hope you all had good weekends. We're nearly at that end-of-year break, I can smell it.

Struggling renters withdrew their super to keep a roof over their head through the pandemic, a study has found A new study of 15,000 Australian renters has revealed how hard the pandemic hit. The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) found 40% of tenants struggling to pay rent dipped into their superannuation to keep their home.

Fruit pickers are facing 'outrageous' exploitation, according to a new report – and it could be why the government's $6,000 bonus scheme is falling flat The federal government program aimed at attracting Australian workers to pick fruit in regional Australia is floundering, as it is revealed just 148 Australians have signed up in its first month, despite up to $6,000 being up for grabs.

Loans for home construction are booming, thanks in part to the government's HomeBuilder scheme There has been a spike in Australians getting home construction loans this year, boosted by the federal government's HomeBuilder grant. According to Master Builders Australia, the number of loans to owner-occupiers jumped 11.5% in October, beating the record set in September.

Airbnb won't let you book a New Year's Eve stay if you don't have a history of positive reviews Airbnb has introduced a new rule in a bid to crack down on house parties during New Year's Eve. The company will only allow guests with a track record of positive reviews to book one night stays in entire houses on December 31.

Trump announces that Rudy Giuliani has tested positive for COVID-19 President Donald Trump announced Sunday that his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The former mayor of New York City was being treated at Georgetown University Medical Centre, according to The New York Times.

US coronavirus cases jumped by over 10% this past week and over 1 million were added in 5 days The US added over 1 million cases of coronavirus in the first five days of December and recorded a 10% increase in cases over the past week, according to the COVID Tracking project.

The 10 best video games of 2020, according to critics In 2020, with millions of people observing stay-at-home orders amidst an ongoing pandemic, video games were bigger than ever. The year started big in March with the wildly popular "Animal Crossing" game for Nintendo's Switch, and ended equally big with the launch of the next-gen Xbox and PlayStation consoles.

The best memes about the mysterious metal monoliths that are perplexing people around the world On November 18, Utah state officials found the first monolith in the desert in the southeastern part of the state. Since then, similar metallic sculptures have been discovered in Romania, California, Pennsylvania, and the Netherlands.

Keen to run your own small business? These are the Australian industries with the best prospects right now Although more than a third of Australian businesses are expected to struggle in the coming months, there are still industries that are managing to stay afloat or even expand in the wake of COVID-19.

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