While the RAT problem could be over for those of Middle Age.

Boosters are rocketing up but the first and second dose rate has levelled off, just as the peak of the most contagious variant of coronavirus envelops the state’s most populous cities.

A Queensland paramedic says 10-hour shifts are blowing out to 14 – with no meal breaks – as health staff struggle to fill the void left by those in quarantine amid a surge in Omicron patients.

Since the massage parlour cluster in mid-January, around 100 local cases have emerged, with sub-clusters and unrelated cases now appearing as well.

Efforts by major political parties to engage with young voters ranges from patronising to plain embarrassing.

Australians are being urged to get a COVID-19 booster shot. But what does the data tell us about the effectiveness of the vaccines on offer and about the ideal interval between doses?

The Aboriginal flag is now in public hands, Australians are being told to avoid Ukraine over fears of a Russian invasion and Labor has pledged $440 million for better ventilation in schools and student mental health.

Since the code brown was announced a week ago, there has been a 23 per cent drop in people turning up at the state’s public hospital emergency departments.

Mark McGowan has failed in his bid to get out of appearing in person at his defamation trial against Clive Palmer in Sydney next month.

Research shows that when the state government opted against imposing a lockdown as infections rose in December and January, Victorians took matters into their own hands.

New research suggests the birds are being exposed to rat poison via accidental or deliberate poisoning of prey species such as possums.

The state said on Tuesday that there would eventually be a “recommendation” for Years 3 and up, but the Institute says it should be “encouraged” now and later mandated.

While well-behaved women seldom make history, there is nothing inherently history-making in being merely ill-behaved.

Epidemiologists have questioned the decision to keep QR codes in places people are unlikely to catch COVID-19, such as supermarkets and large retail stores.

Brittany George, 24, a former athlete with the Olympic Winter Institute of Australia, was last seen in Ascot, in Brisbane’s north on Friday, January 21.

The state government has to find a new Crime and Corruption Commission chairman after Alan MacSporran’s resignation, while also finalising a landmark reform package.

From healing ceremonies to a family-friendly drone show, free public concerts and a 21-gun salute, we detail what’s on this Australia Day.

Townsville’s original field of dreams, which the North Queensland Cowboys called home for their first 24 years, will be demolished to make way for a police precinct.

The circumstances were reminiscent of those on the Rust film set in the US, when actor Alec Baldwin’s prop revolver fired a live round during a rehearsal.

Western Australia’s ongoing hard border has prompted a witness reshuffle, but the former soldier’s defamation trial is set to return to the Federal Court in Sydney next week.

In sentencing the 20-year-old, Magistrate Steven Malley said the phone calls showed the electrical apprentice lacked maturity.

The City of Melbourne and business groups are pushing for workers to return to city offices from next month, although the state government has given no signs of changing its work-from-home recommendation.

Victoria’s lifesavers have treated the same number of people for jellyfish stings in the past five weeks as they did over the entire previous financial year.

Police have charged 40-year-old Prabhal (Raj) Sharma with two counts of murder.

A versatile personality, Dr Erica Jane Sainsbury excelled in multiple fields; cricket, pharmacy, education, church and academic activities.

Gaspard Ulliel, a star of French cinema best known outside his native country for portraying a young Hannibal Lecter and the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, died the day after a skiing accident in France.

Nick Newman was shot dead by police on Australia Day in 2018 after he stabbed a police officer at the Maroubra Junction Hotel.

Today on Please Explain, national science reporter Liam Mannix joins executive editor Tory Maguire to explain what the new phase of the pandemic means, and if there’ll ever be an end to it.

A post-mortem examination has revealed nine-year-old Charlise Mutten was shot dead, as police continue investigations into her alleged murder.

Return to school plans will be announced once Education Minister Grace Grace recovers from COVID-19.

Premier Dominic Perrottet on Tuesday said Mr Pratt had signalled his intention to return to the private sector.

Queensland has recorded a relatively low number of new COVID-19 cases but has seen more deaths on Tuesday as people are urged to get their boosters.

Public transport is empty, businesses are languishing, and events have been cancelled as more COVID patients are ending up in hospitals across the state.

Paramedics were called to the incident just before 6am on Tuesday.

Mejid Hamzy, 44, was gunned down outside his home in Condell Park by two black-clad men about 7.30am on October 19, 2020.

NSW has extended its pandemic restrictions for another month, as high case numbers and COVID-19 hospitalisations continue in the state.

If we change the date prematurely we lose the spur to discuss and debate the meaning of what it is to be Australian. We need to find a way to celebrate our discomfort.

As we approach January 26, a painful day for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, inequality is squarely on my mind.

The Tent Embassy was set up 50 years ago this week in response to a provocative Australia Day speech by the then Prime Minister, and remains just as relevant today.

America and its allies have no appetite for a war with Russia, yet that is also a message to China: that US hegemony is finished.

Under the project, Bicentennial Park will become a green respite for the 80,000 people who by 2023 will live or work there every day.

A longer, flatter peak in Queensland is good news for hospitals but may not be so good for some elective surgery patients.

Tax office figures might provide fodder for Coalition election marketing, but they are useless to any young person trying to buy a house or get job security.

John and Yoko get shorn, girl rescued from lion, gate-crashers run off

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

Copyright for the Aboriginal flag now belongs to the Commonwealth, as custodian for the people of Australia.

‘COVID marshals’ were due to patrol the event, spot-checking people’s vaccination status. But what powers they had if someone refused, or wasn’t vaccinated, was unclear.

Vitamin D supplements do not prolong life expectancy and have no benefit as a general health measure, a major study has found.

In 2020, Detective Inspector Damien Hansen partially suppressed an internal investigation into the infamous firebombing of the Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub in Fortitude Valley almost 50 years ago.

Fortitude Valley’s inexorable reach skyward might be about to get a little greener.