In the fourth part of our series exploring the science behind sci-fi, we look at wormholes, warp drives and “spooky action at a distance”.

Mildura’s first case in 15 months, following those in Barwon Heads and Phillip Island, has prompted the state government to cast doubt on an early end to the lockdown for regional Victoria. 

Negotiations broke down last week and the council’s leaders have referred the industrial dispute to the Fair Work Commission, underscoring the souring relationship between staff and leadership.

NSW has tightened pandemic restrictions in Sydney’s south-west region, as Victoria’s lockdown threatens to extend beyond five days. Follow the developments here.

Last month the Hubble Space Telescope, capable of capturing images from billions of light years away, suddenly went dark. Now a NASA team, working 550km below on Earth, has fixed it.

We have a natural experiment happening before our eyes. Victoria going hard and early, NSW part way through slow and steady.

Frank Walsh became the pride and joy of his mother when, unable to spud farm, he graduated law.

The test result came as the track and field staff member joined the squad’s pre-Games training camp in Cairns.

Police Minister David Elliott said a “small, noisy minority” were still flouting laws as three removalists who fled Sydney with COVID-19 face prison sentences.

Far-right commentator Katie Hopkins has been dumped from Channel 7’s Big Brother VIP a day after boasting about flouting infection controls while in hotel quarantine in Sydney.

Confusion over who is and who is not allowed to leave Fairfield has wreaked havoc on small businesses across Sydney.

Britain is opening up on Monday even as COVID numbers rise. Boris Johnson’s government appears to have chosen the path of recklessness.

WA Premier Mark McGowan told media on Sunday the BBC California off the WA coast has 14 crew members, with seven showing cold-like symptoms.

As a high school student, the inability of our national leaders to give us something more than vague political showmanship when we ask about plans for the future is particularly disorientating.

COVID-19 infections in the nation have dropped to about 40,000 a day from more than 400,000 at their peak in May.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the current COVID-19 has taken a personal toll, but her government is determined to “crush this thing”.

The toddler suffered burns to her face, head and chest in the blaze, which saw two adults and six other children rushed to hospital on Saturday night.

The case was discovered in hotel quarantine, as Queensland closes its border to Victoria.

Victoria has recorded 16 new local cases after a number of Melbourne CBD bars and Bacchus Marsh school bus lines were declared exposure sites late last night.

WA schools need to spend as much time on mindfulness and meditation as they do on academic success to build resilient students.

The week in photos from our award winning staff photographers and regular contributing photographers at The Age.

Good politicians instinctively understand the performative aspect of their work. Politics is showbiz. So how well have they been performing?

This lockdown doesn’t feel quite as desperate as the last but that doesn’t mean stuff-ups will be forgotten.

At last the World Health Organisation realises playing nice with China won’t work.

The biggest new graveyard in Melbourne for 100 years will make a bid to attract the living.

For better or worse, we shouldn’t underestimate the pandemic’s impact on young people. It could influence them for years to come.

Thomas More is often upheld as an example of moral courage, but the freedom of conscience he so valued for himself he was unwilling to extend to others.

Our political leaders are fond of saying that they rely on the ‘health advice’. But as the Delta lockdown bites, health experts are under intense scrutiny over their every directive.

School closures harm children, who have done more than their share to protect the rest of the community. We need to return the favour.

Arm yourself. With what? The armoury is empty.

A blockage in a very long and very old private sewerage line that runs under 27 Randwick properties is causing putrid sewage to bubble up 270 metres downstream.

Health authorities have failed to counter vaccine hesitancy and refusal in Mullumbimby, a town in northern NSW known as Australia’s anti-vaxxer capital.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with today's interactive superquiz and target.

The shutdown of construction in Greater Sydney to contain the spreading coronavirus outbreak will affect more than a quarter of a million workers.

New parents are struggling to find support in the lockdown and experts are warning cases of perinatal depression will spike.

A year after the first round of remote learning, parents are frustrated that each school is having to reinvent the remote learning wheel, a second time.

Planning Minister Rob Stokes said the site nestled between a freeway and a metro station was the right place for high density.

Some of the flyers have also been distributed in Sydney inside Aldi catalogues without the supermarket’s knowledge.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service has already vaccinated 5,000 remote Australians against COVID-19, around half of whom are Indigenous people.

Attached to the front and rear of Daniel Paproth’s 1985 Honda City are a set of maroon number plates entitling him to cheap rego.

Victoria has tripled its ICU and critical care capacity, putting on an additional 1600 beds.

Victoria’s Delta outbreak is being fuelled by unvaccinated younger people who are infecting others before contact tracers reach them.

A national TV advertising campaign is calling on the federal government to stop age discrimination against people with a disability over the age of 65 who are not eligible for the NDIS.

Marcus Willson, playing the bagpipes on high, has provided something of a soundtrack to the city’s lockdowns.

Sydney’s lockdown set to drag on, while Victoria goes hard to stamp out cases that have crossed the border. Follow all the developments as they happen.

Teachers in locked-down south-western Sydney will not be able to attend work in person outside the red zone under the harsher lockdown restrictions announced on Saturday.

A little compassion goes a long way, and the lesson is clear for all: the time for politicking and petty point-scoring is over.

The NSW government has been accused of turning south-west Sydney into a “giant quarantine camp” after tightening pandemic restrictions.

Testing queues and exercise, Sydney in lockdown.

Conservative English personality Katie Hopkins has admitted she has been deliberately trying to flout infection control in hotel quarantine in Sydney.