Australia's attempts to appeal to reason and have a truly non-partisan coronavirus inquiry appear to have sparked a nationalistic debate between the United States and China, writes Philip Williams.

A lucrative but illegal trade in alcohol known as sly-grogging has developed in remote towns and there are allegations it is being facilitated by rogue taxi drivers.

When Lou Myers brings out the lead and harness, Kartika the Bengal cat knows fun times are ahead.

Will you light up the sky with a 10/10 score? Pop on your personal protective equipment (or not) and take a tour of the news this week.

COVID-19 has resulted in widespread job losses — so what happens next for those who lost their jobs? ACOSS CEO Cassandra Goldie says if you're out of employment for more than 12 months, your chances of ever working again fall by 40 per cent. Is she correct?

SA Police officer Joanne Shanahan, who was killed in an horrific road crash last month, has been farewelled by friends, family and colleagues at an emotional funeral service in Adelaide.

The mother of a young boy who was killed when a truck driver with sleep apnoea crashed into their car says she won't get to hear "Happy Mother's Day" from her son on Sunday or ever again.

Tasmanian students can return to classrooms by the end of May under the Premier's plan to roll back coronavirus restrictions. Rules around national parks, funerals and aged care visits will ease from Monday, with two consecutive days without new cases.

The NSW Police watchdog finds the strip searches of four teenagers at two separate music festivals were unlawful, but stops short of findings of misconduct against the officers involved.

A defamation lawsuit launched by one of Australia's most decorated soldiers could be delayed until next year because of coronavirus and a decision by the Attorney-General to invoke special secrecy laws to protect sensitive military information.

You can visit mum for Mother's Day and fire up the barbecue for a few mates, but you still can't eat at restaurants and it will be some time yet before you can have a beer at the pub.

From balcony book clubs to re-reading, we asked professional readers how and what they're reading through the lockdown.

Chris Buckley spent 76 days in Wuhan during the coronavirus crisis reporting for the New York Times. He now joins an increasingly large group of foreign journalists asked to leave the country he's spent years covering.

Some aged care homes will allow staggered visits over the Mother's Day weekend to abide by social distancing requirements.

The Australian economy may be tanking due to the coronavirus pandemic, but for businesses promoting self-sufficiency, the sun is still shining.

Tasmania's spaghetti soup of road shoulders, painted green lanes, shared-use paths and recreational tracks frustrates cyclists on a daily basis, but with usage on the rise advocates are hoping change is on the way.

A 92-year-old resident of Newmarch House aged care home in western Sydney dies after contracting coronavirus, as NSW reaches a record high in testing rates.

South Australia's Mayura Station spends $92,000 securing elite Wagyu genetics for breeding stock.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian will announce the plan to start relaxing lock down restrictions from Friday, but local and regional travel is not yet back on the menu.

A decision more than two decades ago to stop births at the hospital on Christmas Island has had significant financial and social effects on locals in the years since.

A WA community is up in arms after a decision shut down a retirement village. The building has been deemed unsafe, but locals say their rights are being trampled on in favour of mining companies.

Kimberly De Pledge is found guilty of dangerous driving after his loaded cattle truck slammed into a caravan, killing two people on a remote WA highway.

A cattle station in outback Western Australia proves popular with stargazers and now hopes to become internationally recognised for its starry nights.

A well-known WA pastoralist is jailed for almost four years for causing a crash on a remote Pilbara highway that claimed the lives of a couple and left their two children orphaned.

After more than four decades of dominance, free-market capitalism is facing a challenge. Its rival, the rather blandly named Modern Monetary Theory, promises to return economic planning to a less ideological footing. It’s also keen to strike a blow against the “surplus fetish” that many economists now blame for declining public services and growing inequality.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO, has seen better days. Historian and military analyst, Andrew Bacevich, once described it as an organisation that privileges “nostalgia over self-awareness”. But most critics, Bacevich included, want NATO refocused and retooled. So what needs to change in order to restore the alliance as an effective military force? What role should the United States play in such a reshaping? And how can NATO be strengthened without increasing tensions with Russia?

UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has issued a dire warning about the state of international cooperation. The long-standing international order, he says, is dividing and that threatens future global stability. So, are his concerns valid? How is the international order likely to change over coming decades? And what practical steps can be taken to reinforce the global rule of law?

The United Nations Secretariat is now one-year into a significant reform program aimed at making the organisation fit for purpose in the 21st Century. It’s being driven by Secretary General Antonio Guterres. In this program we look at what that package entails and what it might achieve. And we also examine the powerful role of the UN Security Council. Many believe it no longer reflects the realities of world power. So, can it be reformed?

It’s a scarce resource and likely to get even more so. But is it causing an increase in political friction? The answer is yes… and no.

Many Australians are dissatisfied with the narrow economic focus of politics, research by the University of Melbourne’s ANDI Project confirms. They want the progress of their society to be measured by a much broader range of factors, like health, environmental standards and youth wellbeing. They’re not alone. Across the globe there’s a growing movement to move “beyond GDP”, to start planning for the future based on wider models of societal progress.

Fifteen-year-old Connor Meldrum, who was badly injured in a cliff accident, will undergo surgery to have fitted to his skull a custom-printed polyethylene material that mimics the properties of living bone.

The Roosters entrench themselves in the top four with a win over the Bulldogs at the SCG after Manly defeats the Dragons at Brookvale.

The Giants move up to second, denying the Kangaroos a third-straight win under caretaker coach Rhyce Shaw with a victory in Hobart.

Property experts call on the NSW Government to do more to ensure residents of strata apartments are better protected if their buildings are affected by major structural damage, with owners of the Mascot Towers likely to foot the bill for costly repairs.

When the ACT Government decided to rename William Slim Drive following allegations the former British military commander and 13th governor-general of Australia abused children, it pulled a trigger that could see history books rewritten.

There are billions of dollars in election promises to be delivered, while the State Government takes a hit in stamp duty but Gladys Berejiklian is in prime position to deliver.

Elite women's tennis will return to WA at least one more time after Perth was chosen to host the final of the Fed Cup competition in November, beating bids from Melbourne and Brisbane.

This kangaroo species normally lives high in the treetops but is now being found in odd places, unable to see and confused, and one ecologist is trying to find out the cause.

The family of a Gold Coast man who died after being hit by a car on Sunday night say they're "absolutely devastated" that a fight between two friends led to him losing his life.

The Northern Territory Chief Minister says plans for a water theme park in Darwin are not dead in the water yet, despite his Government formally rejecting all expressions of interest in the project submitted so far.

Sex workers say they are being harassed and intimidated by South Australian police, as figures show charges for sex-work offences have spiked in the past two years.

A Perth woman sustains burns to 30 per cent of her body and is taken to hospital in a critical condition after a man allegedly set her alight and then threw a firebomb into a house in Perth's east overnight.

WA's Chamber of Commerce and Industry releases a damning assessment of newly-elected Opposition Leader Liza Harvey's economic policies, saying they put the state's budget repair at risk.

A self-described online news service operator who admitted to duping a woman out of $5,000 in Tasmania is wanted on similar allegations in South Australia, a court hears.

The AFL's supporter crackdown is being felt by those in the stands, but without confirmation one way or another from the AFL, the supporters are filling the void with questions of their own.