While the National Cabinet has shown considerable unity throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the one point of tension has been schools and whether they should be open for face-to-face lessons.

The Auckland-based club arrived in Tamworth in the New England region of NSW yesterday for a 14-day period of training and quarantine.

Over the next couple of days we'll pass through the densest part of the long trail of ancient dust left by Halley's comet.

It's the holy month of Ramadan, which usually means Muslims don't eat or drink during the day and gather at night at food markets and mosques to break the fast.

The national cabinet is looking at a range of strategies to get us out of lockdown, ahead of a crunch meeting tomorrow.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert, who continues to be held in an Iranian prison throughout this pandemic, despite more than 85,000 prisoners being temporarily released in Iran.

Not every state and territory has put into law the code of conduct, which aims to provide rental waivers and deferrals for commercial tenants.

National Cabinet has already set a two-month timetable for the return to the workplace of the estimated one million Australians currently working from home.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants "to get Australia back to work", and says he's now focused on flattening the unemployment curve and creating a "COVID-safe economy".

The Couch Choir is a digital initiative that's grown out of the Brisbane-based Pub Choir, which has cancelled all it's events because of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The small rural community of Torrita fights to keep safe speed limits through their town, and to acknowledge their existence.

An 85-year-old woman in rural Victoria campaigns for a bus stop outside her retirement village.

Citrus growers on the lower Darling River stare down an unprecedented disaster, with some being forced to abandon their crops as they wait for the Federal Government to agree to a water buyback.

As heated debate about water policy continues, native fish are continuing to die in the lower Darling River in shrinking residual pools.

An effigy of Federal Water Minister David Littleproud, dumped into the Murray River at a protest over the Murray-Darling Basin Plan is continuing to float towards South Australia.

A council in far west New South Wales has started trucking water to the remote Darling River town of Pooncarie, which is expected to run out of raw water within days.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's final report into the wine grape sector makes 10 recommendations to improve the efficiency and fairness of Australia's wine grape markets.

A 21-year-old who intentionally drove through a mob of emus at 80 kph, has had his prison sentence cut in half but told to volunteer with an animal charity.

In his first two international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond explored what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now in the third book in his trilogy, he reveals how successful nations recover from crisis.

Are dogs and cats conscious? In his book The Feeling of Life Itself – Why Consciousness is Widespread But Can’t be Computed Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted - the feeling of being alive!

One of Australia's most remote communities incorporates renewable energy and cutting-edge technology as a way of reducing reliance on diesel generators to produce electricity.

Alison Whitehead ran up and down a local hill until she reached the equivalent elevation of Mount Everest's peak

Mary Kathleen's shuttered uranium mine is bright blue, incredibly Instagram-worthy, radioactive and Queensland's latest hotspot.

Bull riders will still tell you the Mount Isa Rodeo isn't a social event they go to win. But as conditions in country Australia worsen, they're not the only ones hanging on.

One high-tech regional library hosts a "zoom room" for video conferencing, an interactive jumping floor for kids, eBooks and eAudiobooks and yes, plenty of good, old-fashioned printed books.

Single Wire Earth Return (SWER) lines provide power to rural stations

Solar panels on a shed as part of a power pod at Glenagra Station

A self-generating power pod trial on a cattle property in north-west Queensland aims to provide rural properties with a more reliable, cheaper, and renewable power source.

The Catholic Cardinal is using three reasons to appeal against his conviction for sexually abusing two choirboys when he was archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s. We explain what they are, and what the court will have to consider.

Two homicides in two months last year rocked Maryborough in regional Victoria, a town whose residents already felt they'd become too accustomed to putting themselves down over the years.

A teenager molested by Christian Brother John Laidlaw in the 1980s tells a Melbourne court he thought he was being "punished by God" when he was sexually assaulted at his family home, as the former teacher pleads guilty to abusing six boys over two decades.

A 21-year-old is flown to hospital after an axe hit his helmet while he was taking part in a mock medieval battle at Hawkesbury Showground in New South Wales.

A cold snap has washed across Victoria, plunging temperatures below zero in many places and drenching others in rain.

In August 1978, someone entered Ballarat's art gallery, grabbed a 92-year-old painting off the wall, and walked out the front door. Now, the once cash-strapped gallery hosts international artists.

Around one person dies on Victoria's rail lines every week, with most long-term train drivers experiencing at least one fatality in their career.

The Lions miss out on the AFL minor premiership to the Cats following their loss to the third-placed Tigers, the Bulldogs earn a return to finals action, while the Power defeat the Dockers to end their season on a winning note.

Australian wind and solar farms are putting downward pressure on energy prices, and there are hundreds of new renewable facilities set to come online. But that green energy is stretching the country's outdated network of transmission lines.

As urban sprawl puts pressure on the food bowl on Melbourne's fringes, and as water becomes increasingly scarce, one council has a bold idea that might just catch on.

Working 7 days a week, juggling multiple gigs, all for $28,000 a year this is the life of an Australian artist in 2019.

Twelve years ago Paul Preusker was disqualified for possessing an electronic jigger. Now he's back, training the Melbourne Cup favourite and insisting he's a changed man.

'You don't have to be a scientist to work on them': Vintage tractors, some more than 80-years-old go under the hammer, attracting buyers from around Australia.

Translated by Yoko Ishiguro

Rob Minshull produces Weekends with Warren and is an avid reader.