Australia will be back in action with the bat to build on an already big lead over England on day four of the second Test in Adelaide.

Wave to your mum when you see the Google car driving by.

The hard truth of the Ashes so far is how far much of England’s meticulous planning has fallen short of Australia’s realities.

While measures of mobility nose-dived through the pandemic, the nation’s roads became less safe. Motoring and medical groups want the road toll addressed.

As a human being, I was alarmed by much of what I was witnessing. As a journalist, I was electrified.

Amid the distractions of the pandemic and measures to contain it, the 2021-22 Ashes are hard to take as seriously as usual.

If Josh Frydenberg can get us back to the lowest unemployment since the 1970s, he’ll be up there with Paul Keating as one of our greatest treasurers.

Travis Head and Marcus Harris started the series with question marks over their places in the Australia XI. One man is now ensconced in Australia’s middle order but the other’s place in the team hangs by a thread heading to the Boxing Day Test.

Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says the state’s high vaccination rate may mean only hospitalisations will need to be reported from the new year.

Sunday’s 3-0 win shoots Sydney FC to equal-top of the A-League Women’s ladder - and the two perennial powers seem to be the clear title contenders once again on the early evidence thus far.

Should Smith have made England follow on? History, Steve Waugh and Botham say yes. Headingley 1981, Kolkata 2001, Ponting and Gillespie say no.

One person has died and two others have been critically injured after a a “microburst” , a severe storm downdraft often with winds strong winds.

Community groups and others will spend hours and hours working on a grant application, often at night after the kids are fed and in bed. To learn you’ve missed out due to political interference is gut-wrenching.

The nursing union has called for people to be patient with testing staff and accept that wait times will be longer with demand expected to increase in the lead up to Christmas.

The sport, in which people compete with brooms between their legs like the witches and wizards from JK Rowling’s books, says it is a leader in gender equality and inclusivity.

There’s a new choir for those who would prefer singing Metallica songs to All Things Bright and Beautiful.

Former Socceroo Dean Heffernan and A-League champion Patrick Zwaanswijk have taken aim at their former employers after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to the Central Coast Mariners continued Western Sydney’s miserable run.

Regional health services will offer boosters to Melburnians on holiday and ramp up testing as they brace for the arrival of Omicron.

Trainer Cody Morgan is seeking a strong start - and finish - to Monday’s race meeting at Tamworth.

All you need to know to back a winner.

At 7.30am last Monday, I woke up to a text message alerting me I had tested positive to COVID-19.

Rupert Murdoch’s US news channel has taken its concerns about an ABC program to the media watchdog after the national broadcaster dismissed its complaint.

Temperatures in Sydney hit tops of 35.8 degrees on Sunday, with hot and humid conditions expected to continue into the night.

Greatly increased transmission rates and uncertainty about the new variant means that for the next few weeks we must rethink our opening-up plans.

Dave Rennie and Rugby Australia are wrestling with what to do with Test eligibility rules at a time of unprecedented globalisation in the sport. 

Most cardiac arrests happen in the home. Would you know what to do? How tricky is CPR to learn and what’s it like to have to use it?

Wesfarmers has taken its campaign to win a takeover battle with Woolworths for the Priceline chain directly to pharmacists.

A new rooftop bar at the State Library of NSW will open a part of the library - and its views of Sydney harbour to the east over Fort Denison - only seen before by employees and those in the know.

The Nobel peace prize-winning former East Timor prime minister and president is weighing up a return to the political stage.

For Tiger Woods the PNC Championship was more about family and fun than the start of a comeback following a car accident earlier this year.

Processing times for some visa applications have blown out by months as the Department of Home Affairs is flooded with people wanting to visit family in Australia.

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Still exhilarated by the most incendiary finale in Formula One history, Christian Horner has little time for the idea that Lewis Hamilton was denied an eighth world title by some act of grand larceny.

Giant hail, flooding, monster waves and tornadoes in 2021- by Herald photographer Nick Moir

And what’s the best piece of advice the independent MP has ever received? Sit up straight and don’t take any tommyrot.

Police confirmed another child had died of his injuries at Royal Hobart Hospital on Sunday.

By all rights it should be impossible for Hiatus Kaiyote to translate the structured chaos of their recorded work to a live show. But they don’t miss a beat.

Australian NBA rookie Josh Giddey fell two points short of a league record, while Kyrie Irving’s return to the Brooklyn Nets is starting with a trip to the NBA’s health and safety protocols.

CHO John Gerrard says Omicron is now the dominant strain in Queensland, adding: “This is happening very rapidly, even more rapidly than we thought.”

A second member of the media pack has tested positive to COVID-19, creating complications for the coverage of the series.

The federal government’s RISE program marks a radical change in Australian arts policy.

The Premier continues to resist calls to reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing indoors as the state’s COVID-19 daily numbers skyrocket, with a total of 14,050 cases of COVID-19 now active.

Melbourne’s “latte lines” have been mapped showing suburban access to jobs, education and services differing by a factor of 10 in some places.

I’m going to let you in on a secret: I finished year 12 fifteen years ago, and my score was nowhere near what I needed it to be.

With travel barriers down, Hobart’s eccentric Mona is welcoming interstate visitors with a ‘re-hang’ of old favourites and some new discoveries.

Police have recovered a body believed to be that of a 19-year-old swimmer who went missing off Lennox Head in northern NSW on Friday. 

AJ Coutts was a 15-year-old ward of the state when he was placed in state care at the notorious Warminda Hostel in East Victoria Park in 1978. The hostel was described as a ‘place of horrors’.

In the only Premier League game to go ahead on Saturday due to a huge rise in COVID-19 cases among players, Arsenal blew beleaguered Leeds away.

The ruling for the prosecution came in a rare weekend hearing convened to discuss the judge’s instructions to the jurors on Monday.

Police have retrieved the bodies of four people – including two children – after the aircraft reportedly suffered engine failure just after take-off on Sunday morning.