As the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony approaches, Games organisers are battling to keep the highly virulent Delta variant from running through the athletes’ village.

Victorian authorities are expected to announce today when the state might come out of lockdown, the mother of two Sydney removalists who spread the virus interstate has been found dead and there are three new cases of COVID-19 in South Australia.

Mitchell Moses will miss the next few weeks with a back fracutre he suffered in Origin as Jai Arrow returns for Souths after his Maroons biosecurity breach.

Senior Constable Neil Punchard had his punishment reduced to 140 hours of community service last year.

Three weeks after it outlined its much-publicised road map for living with COVID-19, the city-state is on the defensive again.

The right sneakers can elevate even the most basic of outfits. Here’s how to choose a pair for year-round comfort and style.

WA Premier Mark McGowan says the COVID-19 danger level in Australia is very high but he will not go overboard by banning travel from every state and territory despite the Delta variant spreading through the country.

Women have never competed in canoe C1 at the Olympics, and Jess Fox - already regarded as the greatest paddler of all time - wants to be the first to win gold.

Energy giant Santos has been in talks with ASX-listed rival Oil Search assessing a potential deal to merge into Australia’s biggest oil and gas company.

Venues including a Mooloolaba restaurant, the nearby Sunshine Plaza, a number of buses and trains to Brisbane, the domestic airport and flight VA791 to Cairns are the latest places of concern.

The Swans and Giants have four players each in COVID isolation, but can both ill-afford to lose their stars for another game in the race to the finals.

Australia’s Trade Minister says a US plan to impose a carbon border tax would first require an emissions trading scheme, so is not an issue “for the foreseeable future”.

Plenty of work has gone into getting the early part of Picaro’s races right and trainer Gary Portelli hopes it will bear fruit at Kensington today.

It’s a seven-race card at headquarters for Sydney’s midweek meeting on Wednesday.

Pub veteran Arthur Laundy has snapped up his third pub in as many weeks, saying the industry is robust and will bounce back as soon as patrons are allowed back in.

More than 720 residents in the Dandenongs, which bore the brunt of last month’s storms, are again without power as flurries of snow are forecast for the ranges on Tuesday evening.

The average Australian should be confused about Australia’s policy in calling out countries behind malicious cyber attacks.

A key climate influence for southern and eastern Australia has shifted to favouring wetter than normal conditions, raising the odds of a damp spring, a late start to the fire season and even floods.

Softball might seem like an unpopular choice to open the Games, but the sport’s status in Japan is a far cry from the situation in Australia.

Port Adelaide and Adelaide will fly to Melbourne despite having their initial attempt to flee to Victoria scuppered in a dramatic day of AFL fixture and border-hopping drama.

The NSW state government recommended the far-right media personality and other Big Brother contestants be allowed in on an employer-sponsored visa.

Climate change is increasing the frequency of bleaching events, just as it is making severe bushfires more common, which reduces the vibrant flora and fauna in each of these ecosystems.

Geoffrey Fardell, who was murdered by his cellmate in 2019, was looking forward to being released and had made plans for the future, his mother said.

Victoria’s lockdown has been extended for a further seven days as 13 new cases were recorded, including four revealed on Monday.

Victorian authorities are providing a dog-walking service for the pooches of locked-down apartment residents.

A Brisbane traveller used a bed sheet rope to escape from a fourth storey room he was being kept in for hotel quarantine in Perth after he was told he could not stay in WA.

The Australian Olympic Committee has dumped its medal target for Tokyo but detailed analysis has projected a large gold medal haul in Japan.

My philosophy with regards to my children’s money sense has always aimed to be one where they don’t get what they ask for, as soon as they want it.

In his own words, Seven’s longtime commercial director and top lawyer remembers a man he knew better than almost anyone else.

Bruce Saunders, 54, died in November 2017 after falling into a woodchipper. Three people were charged with murder.

It is unclear why NAB initially agreed to Westpac’s request to freeze the accounts and then changed its mind without telling its rival.

The Australian tech firm will move into a new, sustainable office tower, where each four-storey section is segmented into “habitats”.

The developer of the apartment building on Sydney’s northern beaches has been issued orders to fix serious defects.

The British Prime Minister also joked that the elderly could “get COVID and live longer”, the PM’s former adviser alleged.

Police have arrested a former member of the Defence Force and seized potential bomb precursors during a major operation in Picton, south of Sydney. 

A Queensland woman in her 20s has sparked a new flurry of contact tracing after travelling through the state while infected with what was likely the Delta strain.

The Naked City podcast, with John Silvester, returned this month with season four. Here, “Sly”, a journalist of more than 40 years’ experience, remembers his first days on the job and how the life of a crime reporter has evolved.

Political outsider and teacher Pedro Castillo has been elected President of a nation with the worst per-capita death toll of the pandemic.

If Crown loses its Victoria licence, the hit for James Packer would be enormous. Most of his wealth is tied up in his 37 per cent stake in Crown and his lifestyle is funded from the hundreds of millions of dollars it generates.

Clinton Heylin has produced an authoritative account of Dylan’s first 25 years.

A year-delayed but the Seven Network’s going all out on their Olympics coverage. Here’s what to watch and when.

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

Workers will not make up for the lost wage growth caused by the pandemic, the RBA has warned as the economic fallout from recent lockdowns grows.

Former Seven and Nine boss David John Leckie was one of Australia most feared, admired and beloved television executives.

Survivor moves from the tropics to the outback, but some things haven’t changed - there’s swimming, a villain, a model and motley contestants out of their depth.

Adrian Fini has defended his company against accusations he is trying to take a shortcut to push through a new resort near Yallingup in the South West of WA.

Mounting COVID-19 anxiety compounded by bureaucratic delays and tech malfunctions has turned travel to the Olympics into an endurance event.

A sports marketing company contracted to the NRL is refusing to refund sums of nearly $15,000 paid for private boxes at the third State of Origin match in Newcastle, which was switched to the Gold Coast at the last minute.

Most super funds ended the financial year with bumper returns as the fears over what the pandemic would mean for global economic growth and sharemarkets turned to dust.

The former skipper last summer labelled Alex Carey’s captaincy in an Australia A game an “absolute disgrace”. But on Tuesday Border had changed his tune.