A group of West Australian farmers is planning a class action in the federal court after their lenders shortened the length of their loans, in some cases, from 25 years to just 12 months.

Coronavirus is changing the way the entire human race lives. Emergency workers are scrambling together contingency plans, fearing hospitals could soon be overwhelmed. Scientists are racing to invent a faster, cheaper Covid-19 test kit available for us all. Restaurants are reinventing themselves as delivery services, artists are turning to live-streaming to make a living. This week, the entire Background Briefing team investigates how each of us are finding new ways to get by.

Two terrifying incidents involving convicted extremists took place in London last year. The first, the London Bridge attack, left two people dead. Nine weeks later, in Streatham, two passersby were stabbed on the street. Both cases occurred after the perpetrators had failed to be rehabilitated in prison. So how effective are the UK's schemes for de-radicalising offenders? The BBC's File on 4 investigates where it is time for a radical overhaul of the way England treats extremists. For copyright reasons there will be no podcast or streaming of this program.

Thousands of fish which became trapped in a NSW pond after flooding in 2016 have been returned to the Macquarie River after a painstaking effort to keep them alive.

A peaceful paradise known for its iconic pine trees and spectacular coastline, Norfolk Island is riddled with political tension and simmering social unrest.

It's hard to imagine a subtropical island struggling with drought, but Norfolk Island has had only 12mm of rain all summer and dams and water tanks are running dry.

Perched 1,600 kilometres east of Brisbane, a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean hosts a landscape resembling a desert scene from the NT.

Walgett residents Roslyn Wallace and Di Denis receive dialysis in the rural town

The drought could have major implications for life-saving medical procedures, such as dialysis with patients needing up to 4,000 litres each week for treatment.

Desalination is not just for coastal cities treating seawater. Drought-hit inland towns could use it where emergency bore water supplies are too salty.

Flamboyant fascinators and fedoras, once destined for fashion's grandest stages, help to overcome isolation and mental health issues in outback Australia.

The Federal Government has handed Norfolk Island a lifeline to save its tourism industry, but locals have railed against their offering saying it could turn tourists away.

Water is fast running out across the Macquarie Valley, with one town preparing for the possibility of closing the hospital

Hugh Bowman is one of the world's best jockeys and now he is set to be immortalised in art, in his home town of Dunedoo, alongside champion mare Winx.

Graham Morrison, 55, is given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence after hitting a family car on the Newell Highway near the end of an 11-hour trip.

The largest local council in New South Wales, whose patch includes the Darling River town that experienced mass fish kills, will spend another four years in administration.

The Yetta Dhinnakkal Centre, meaning "right pathway" in traditional language, was established as Australia's first prison exclusively for young Aboriginal men but next year it will close and locals are warning the impact will be disastrous.

The commission, sitting in Mudgee, hears how home care providers are charging for services that haven't been delivered in rural and remote areas.

Regional airline Rex is threatening to cut services on its Sydney-to-Dubbo and has sent a scathing letter to Dubbo households criticising their local council.

Who are the Christian nationalists? What do they stand for and how influential are they in American politics?

Crosswords are a daily devotion, an obsession even, for millions. But where did the crossword start, and how did it become a staple of any newspaper worth its salt?

Why might the court intervene when a devout Jehovah Witness parent refuses a life-saving blood transfer to their child? What about cultural and traditional beliefs that clash with new ‘norms’ of society? More specific descriptions of what make a family of defines gender for example. Has the law has kept up with the changing society it regulates?

Is modern capitalism, itself, a threat to the survival of capitalism? Or will corporations always find a way to monetise misery? Paul Barclay speaks to Yanis Varoufakis and Antony Loewenstein

Writing about 'place' is more than parachuting into an unfamiliar location, meeting a few people, rehashing well-worn clichés, then flying out again. Three writers discuss the places they written about, and how to capture the essence of people and place.

Courts of law exist for good reason, but the judicial process can also retraumatize, rather than heal, victims and witnesses who are exposed to it. Therapeutic jurisprudence offers a different approach

This year is crunch time for determining whether it is still possible to save our planet. In 2020, all major conventions dealing with climate change and biodiversity will meet and decide on the emission levels ambitions that every nation must adopt. While leaving no doubt about the urgency of action on climate change, conservationist Aila Keta is optimistic. She sees very encouraging new initiatives coming out of the finance and the banking sector.

A victim of a horrific stabbing attack has woken up and remains in intensive care, days after being critically injured during the South Hedland shopping mall rampage in WA's Pilbara.

One of the year's strongest cold fronts is bearing down on Perth and the south-west of the state today, as residents are urged to secure their homes. and prepare for gale-force winds.

Blowflies could hold the key to managing the most damaging pest to Australian agriculture and the country's biodiversity.

WA has now posted six days in a row without a new case of COVID-19 after no new cases were recorded overnight, with 95 per cent of people who contracted the virus in the state now recovered.

Wildlife parks have a long road back to financial buoyancy after coronavirus restrictions stripped them of their sole source of income; visitors, and some operators are dipping into personal savings just to keep their animals fed.

Campers on the north coast of Western Australia have had the "really rare" chance to walk next to a feeding whale shark estimated to be seven to 10 metres long.

Australia's mineral exploration industry has warned up to 600 full-time jobs are at "immediate risk" and potentially thousands more under threat as mining companies respond to the coronavirus outbreak.

A shire in Western Australia's Wheatbelt region is set to inject more than $150,000 into its economy by providing residents with "Narrogin Dollars".

Cameron Bancroft survived a one-year ban for ball tampering, but has since gone from the lofty heights of a Test at Lord's to suburban cricket after being dropped from the WA state team, writes Ben Cameron.

Whether Australia or India wins the final, this T20 World Cup almost promised too much but has delivered even more. If fans #FillTheG on Sunday it will give this tournament the conclusion it deserves, writes Richard Hinds.

From small crowds and no coverage to filling the biggest stadium in Australia — the speed of the change in women's cricket defies belief, writes Geoff Lemon.

Last night's T20 women's cricket match was more than just a game — its impact on gender equality in sport will reverberate for years to come, writes Kate O'Halloran.

It was predictably branded as "politically correct". Yet rather than a legitimate beef with the promotional video, you wonder if the real objection was that it did not fit the needs of those yearning for the past, writes Richard Hinds.

A medieval re-enactment group says a growing number of people are choosing to ditch the chaos of modern life and return to a simpler time.