The NSW Premier says case numbers in her state are ‘disturbingly high’, experts have backed Victoria’s new COVID-19 restrictions and residents of Greater Darwin are waking up to the first full day of a snap lockdown.

Police have called for park lights to be switched off and basketball hoops to be taken from public courts in areas of south-west and western Sydney.

Hotspot postcode have had some of the largest increases in vaccination uptake in the past month, but the number of residents fully inoculated in wealthier parts of the north shore, inner west and eastern suburbs is still up to three times higher.

It was a tough decision to send an individual past the vetting process and into this dangerous world to gather evidence in the form of secretly recorded video and audio. We took our time, and we carefully considered legal and ethical advice.

While there were “issues with sick leave” on the night Wallaby legend Toutai Kefu and family were allegedly stabbed, police chief says the Coorparoo district was far from unmanned.

Although there are not yet any cases in Brewarrina, more than 760 kilometres from Sydney in north-western NSW, people have tested positive in the neighbouring towns of Walgett and Bourke.

Western Australia’s predicted biggest-ever grain harvest is just weeks away, but farmers still don’t know whether they will have the manpower to get it done.

Some health experts have backed the tough restrictions, while others are more sceptical about the impact of a curfew in stopping spread of the virus.

Health authorities are concerned about new, unlinked cases emerging in the suburbs surrounding Caulfield North, where a prohibited engagement party was held last week.

Vaccine rollout to Aboriginal people lags mainstream Australia despite priority status, amid call for Indigenous sport stars to front education campaign.

Kerry Cotterill, who received an infringement notice during a lockdown protest last year, argued the Andrews government’s stay-at-home laws limit political speech.

A young man who stole a baseball cap from a seriously injured man and his dying brother will be released from custody, despite a judge’s concern over his lack of remorse.

COVID-19 vaccines cause our immune system to produce a surge of new antibodies. Over time, those levels drop, and we become vulnerable to reinfection. But the World Health Organisation has called for a moratorium on boosters.

A senior government minister is among politicians and health professionals urging the state government to reverse a decision to suspend breast screening services in NSW.

The Coorparoo community has rallied behind the family of rugby union great Toutai Kefu, and are furious that crime is rising in the area.

With the pandemic still very much here, and many of us spending more time at home than usual, we thought this the perfect time to pull together, for your reading pleasure, some of our most popular Good Weekend stories for the year to date.

Homicide Squad Commander Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty said investigators were determined to find answers for Adnan Salameh’s grieving family.

Thanks to airline pilots made redundant because of COVID-19 now volunteering for the child air taxi charity Little Wings, Victoria can get treatment for severe burns in Sydney.

Right-wing extremism has been growing in Australia for years. There are steps the federal government can and should take now to keep Australians safe.

Taxi driver Naji Fakhreddine is accused of murdering German national Bernd Lehmann in 2008 after the pair engaged in oral sex.

Today on Please Explain, senior economics writer Jessica Irvine joins Nathanael Cooper to discuss the paradox of choice.

The Andrews government is considering more mental health support for students and staggering the return of students as it extends school shutdowns until early September.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned 75 per cent of the infections were aged under 40 and said there would be a “vaccination blitz”.

The Premier would not confirm on Tuesday whether lockdowns would be phased out once 80 per cent of the population was vaccinated.

After the Ekka was cancelled for a second year in a row, the associated public holiday has been rescheduled to create a long weekend in October.

We can try a curfew for two weeks, with a good chance of getting out of lockdown, or stay in lockdown until November.

Victoria’s Ombudsman has launched an investigation into the Environment Protection Authority’s decisions to approve sites to receive contaminated rock and soil dug up on the $6.7 billion West Gate Tunnel Project.

The latest grain predictions estimate more than 20 million tonnes could be harvested but more crops means more problems for an industry struggling with the nation’s skills shortage.

Continually chest-beating over zero-COVID targets does nothing to inspire hope that one day people will be able to visit family members or businesses can stay open as cases are reported.

A Queensland hotel owner who was found dead at his business on Monday had “significant injuries”.

More than 100,000 aged care workers across Australia remain unvaccinated despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison announcing in June immunisation was mandatory.

There are seven conclusions we can draw from the disastrous, costly and misguided allied occupation of Afghanistan. All of them point to significant security and geopolitical problems ahead as the emboldened Taliban regain control.

A group of health professionals has warned women face a higher risk of more serious breast cancer and death because of delays in breast screening during the pandemic.

The fallout of the investigation into Australia’s National Socialist Network has been swift, with talk of banning the group and some members under investigation by their employers.

Every Australian should be appalled at the events unfurling in Afghanistan.

A messy internal spat at the Liberal-aligned Blueprint Institute has spilled onto social media.

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

A baby girl was saved from a compactor truck yesterday morning when a garbage collector heard her crying.

Thirty years ago, a taxi driver went on a shooting rampage in Strathfield, killing seven and wounding many others.

NSW’s ‘Operation Stay at Home’ has come into effect, Melbourne’s inner south-eastern suburbs are on high alert and the first of 1 million extra Pfizer jabs have landed in Australia from Poland.

Do we have to spell it out for you?

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced strict new border measures but refuses to say whether the state will open up more if vaccine targets are met.

The seminal murder trial of Northern Territory police officer Zachary Rolfe has been delayed until next week.

Queensland’s Local Government Minister has brushed off concerns about the agency’s actions, which forced a rural newspaper to fight handing over journalists’ notes and recordings.

A night curfew, taped-off playgrounds and worker permits will return to Melbourne as Victoria seeks to avoid NSW’s plight of hundreds of new cases a day.

The aim of right-wing extremism in Australia is to erode faith and trust in our democracy, so we need to stop and reflect on what we want our liberal society to look like.

The federal government is facing pleas to protect Afghan nationals in Australia on temporary visas by extending their visas indefinitely and to implement an emergency humanitarian intake plan.

The NSW government’s new priority vaccine program for school staff and childcare workers follows weeks of pressure that has mounted as young people, including children and teenagers, make up the bulk of new infections.

The race is on to replace outgoing federal Speaker Tony Smith as the Liberal candidate for the seat of Casey, which the Coalition faces a fight to retain.

Sydney’s hospitals continue to be plagued by COVID-19 exposures as the nurses’ union warns the city’s west faces a “staffing crisis”.