Marrickville Library is among five finalists announced for the International Public Library of the Year Award 2021, with the winner to be announced in August.

Regina Arthurell was “hounded out” of her western Sydney accommodation and dropped by her GP after her violent past was revealed.

Brisbane Magistrate Paul Byrne dismissed the application on Monday after reviewing the evidence provided.

The Prime Minister’s plan sets out an aspiration for exit that is appropriately cautious, staged and – crucially – based on epidemiological milestones, not dates.

The more contagious COVID-19 variants have shown that children can catch and transmit the virus. Experts need to weigh up the community benefits and safety of their vaccination.

A man has been charged over a non-fatal Chapel Street shooting that left a teenager in hospital last year.

Emergency services are treating a man attacked by a shark at Crescent Head, north of Port Macquarie.

NSW Health lists new exposure sites for Sydney, Brisbane residents are waking up to their first weekday out of lockdown and a group of NRL players have been handed fines for breaching COVID-19 restrictions.

New sites listed on Monday now include the popular Indooroopilly and Garden City shopping centres, along with stores in Forest Lake, New Farm, Kangaroo Point, Woolloongabba and South Brisbane.

Jakob Opacic, 28, died in a motorbike crash on Friday. His brother is Parramatta Eels’ centre and ex-Brisbane Bronco Tom Opacic.

Today on Please Explain, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright joins Tory Maguire to discuss how a decrease in smokers is leaving a big hole in the federal budget.

Employees may have well-founded fears of being fired, having their wages cut or even being harassed by employers if they dare to question their conditions.

Premier Mark McGowan said the man became very unwell on Sunday and could not be evacuated to a Perth hospital by air due to the rough weather conditions.

Sydneysiders are comfort-eating cakes and pastries and bringing some much needed economic relief to bakers as they enter a second week of lockdown.

Jesse Leigh Green is charged with the 2018 murder of 22-year-old mother Teah Luckwell, who was found in a pool of blood near the front door of her Tamworth home.  

Neighbours heard raised voices shortly before the man, 37, was shot in the leg on Sunday night and taken to hospital for emergency surgery. 

As NAIDOC Week nears its 50th birthday, it is surely time to recognise a more positive national day to celebrate and honour our First Peoples, for all Australians.

The manager of a north-west Sydney aged care facility says she urged staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19 but unvaccinated staff are still working.

The Queensland government remains reluctant to scrap plans for a regional quarantine hub, as it revealed the Commonwealth’s preferred site could host up to 1450 people.

Victorian health authorities have no immediate plans to relax the state’s border restrictions or downgrade current COVID-19 red zones, and are advising stranded travellers who need to get home to start making arrangements.

Jakob Opacic, 28, died in a motorbike crash on Friday. His brother is Parramatta Eels’ centre and ex-Brisbane Bronco Tom Opacic.

Tommy Balla will be assessed to spend two years’ imprisonment in home detention after he hit and killed Constable Aaron Vidal in Rouse Hill.

Queenslanders are being warned they face a wait of months for a dose of the Pfizer vaccine, with people needed a second dose prioritised over those seeking their first dose.

Queensland recorded seven new cases of coronavirus on Monday, four of which were locally transmitted, but contact tracers have already linked all to existing clusters.

The next couple of days will be “absolutely critical” in determining whether lockdown is extended, the Premier says.

After years of reading laws mentioning only “he” or “him”, law student Bonnie Logan is fighting for all legislation to be overhauled to make language gender-inclusive.

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

As we hit mid-year, COVID-19 has stayed a constant topic in the Herald’s NSW state bureau but there has also been no shortage of other big news.

A new generation of social media influencers have risen from cyberspace obscurity to find stardom – and more than a bit of moolah – on the video-sharing app TikTok.

They’re among the country’s smallest and most mysterious creatures, but they can cause big changes in the size and shape of our most enormous mining projects.

A cancer patient with a blocked bowel had to wait more than three hours to be taken to hospital while a heavily pregnant woman almost gave birth in a stretcher.

Detectives have released CCTV footage of several vehicles of interest as their investigations continue into the killing of Sydney underworld figure Mejid Hamzy.

One friend cited going out for a custard cronut as going out for an “essential item”.

Liquidators investigating the collapse of a property empire run by a man who has been compared to Christopher Skase have identified questionable transfers of money to Crown.

I’d like to see these billionaires use their brilliant minds to help save the Earth, rather than flee it.

The risk profile of vaccinated people is different and governments should be taking that into account.

Our Westminster parliamentary democracy dictates that Minister Hunt should be held accountable.

School closures should be the last line in the COVID-defence strategy, but teachers need protection.

Six thousand Australians return home every week, but the total number of Australians waiting to return barely shifts. Why?

Security guards and even police may be engaged to control environmental “extremists” at information sessions planned for the raising of the Warragamba Dam wall.

Data scouts on the sidelines provide breathless commentary on every play as suburban soccer in Australia hits the big league in international betting markets.

So, after 18 months, we finally have a plan to have a four stage plan. Though not with any targets or times, which are key elements of any plan.

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

Sixty-five years ago, fourteen Sydney children were injected with Jonas Salk’s anti-polio vaccine.

Bondi Hipster Christiaan Van Vuuren is about to give us a “wake-up call” about the “frightening extent” to which “money has infiltrated politics”.

The manner of the Premier’s return rekindled concerns which point to wider challenges for the government.

Since 2004, when the LNP began it’s 17-year control of Australia’s largest council budget, average annual rates and water costs have grown by 26 per cent.

The number of COVID-19 exposure sites in Sydney surpassed 300, as supermarkets, cafes, and train routes were added to NSW Health’s venue list.

While local members get a dose of reality.

The rich touchstones of our history aid later generations in understanding why laws and policies evolved as they did, helping us make sense of our diverse nation and our ever-evolving culture.