Daily Telegraph News & Politics

The northern beaches is split into separate high and low-risk zones until Boxing Day in response to the Avalon COVID cluster. Anti-vax chef Pete Evans has had his Facebook page permanently deleted for posting claims about COVID-19 vaccines. Holiday-makers banned from Queensland are piling onto the receding beaches of Byron Bay. NSW has launched an audacious 11th hour bid to claim not one but two India-Australia Tests for Sydney this summer. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

31 year old Blake Davis acquitted of murder but convicted of manslaughter for striking aspiring rapper Jett McKee in the head with a samurai sword. Labor leader Anthony Alb­anese’s declared Australia needs more COVID-19 vaccine doses more quickly. Dossiers claim a Bondi nanny allegedly helped kidnap Chileans as part of the secret police for Augusto Pinochet’s regime. Cricket Australia’s poised to make its call on the fate of Sydney’s SCG test match as early as today. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.au  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Queensland introduces a hard border with NSW amid the coronavirus outbreak on Sydney’s northern beaches. Strengthened quarantine rules for flight crew will come into effect today. Former Red Wiggle Murray Cook has undergone heart surgery to replace a faulty aortic valve. The Boxing Day Test has been officially saved but the prospects of Sydney hosting a Test match remain in grave doubt. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THOUSANDS of international flight crew and hundreds of foreign diplomats were given a free pass to avoid mandatory hotel quarantine as airlines are accused of holding NSW lives and livelihoods to “ransom" The closure of NSW’s Liddell coal-fired power station will add nearly $100 a year to average bills from 2022, new modelling by the Australian Energy Market Commission reveals. CORONAVIRUS may have changed the world of Australians in 2020 but not the crime world with the AFP Eastern Command alone seizing a record 22.4 tonnes of drugs. Cricket is bracing itself for the distinct possibility that the Sydney Test could be moved, but administrators are refusing to give up on the SCG’s New Year’s showpiece. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world-famous Sydney to Hobart yacht race is off, dead in the water after the Tasmanian government announced travellers from Greater Sydney would need to quarantine for two weeks on arrival in the wake of the growing Covid-19 cluster on the northern beaches. SYDNEY is facing a return to life under restrictions as residents in the northern beaches were placed in  an emergency four-day lockdown to contain the rapidly ballooning COVID-19 outbreak. SHE’S the mystery woman who ­financial adviser Melissa Caddick could not fool. ACTOR Hugh Sheridan has opened up about the anxiety attack that derailed his life and saw him hospitalised. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ALL Sydney residents have been urged to don a mask to help save Christmas as a mandatory local lockdown appears imminent on the northern beaches to halt a rapidly ballooning coronavirus cluster. TECH billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes still remembers the day he was cut from the high school basketball team — ending his dream of playing professionally. IT WAS the extravagant $6.5m renovation plan that was too much for even well-heeled Mosman. ALMOST a decade on from his doomed comeback, Ian Thorpe has finally revealed what everyone in Australian sport already suspected — he quit swimming way too young because he never got the proper help he needed to cope with the enormous pressure he was under. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THE northern beaches is  ­effectively under lockdown and NSW is facing potential border restrictions  after  Avalon’s COVID cluster exploded to 17 cases last night. THE HSC coronavirus class of 2020 has triumphed over adversity and performed just as well as their peers the year before, NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has revealed. A GLAMOROUS former St George Bank employee used her staff access to create an ­online banking account for an elderly person without their knowledge and drain almost $350,000 of their life savings, a court has heard. NSW coach Brad Fittler has flagged an overhaul of the Blues’ selection policy following their disastrous performance in this year’s State of Origin series. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

THREE new cases of coronavirus just over  a week  before Christmas have  anxious health experts sweating on fears  of a fresh   outbreak in Sydney. STATE Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall has been forced to repay almost $1500 to the taxpayer after claiming a charter flight to his grandfather’s 80th birthday party on parliamentary expenses. A MEDITATION guru to the stars who was staying with  former Women’s Weekly editor Deborah Hutton after a marriage breakdown  is accused of a violent attack on two people with one allegedly placed in a chokehold. EVEN with a  mass COVID-19 vaccine roll out in Australia next year, top medical experts say we will still need to continue with social distancing, extensive testing and contact tracing to keep safe. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

ONE of the biggest financial catastrophes in Australian local government history is set to cost 300 people their jobs and force up residents’ rates by as much as 15 per cent a year. TAFE and school students will be targeted in a new state government campaign to get young people to take up a “gap year” in regional NSW in a bid to fill critical labour shortages. CONCERNS over a deal for China to build a new $200 million fishing complex just 200km from the Australian mainland need to be “taken very seriously” a Federal MP has warned. THE victim of paedophile pastor Frank Houston has urged police to complete their investigation into his son, Hillsong founder Brian Houston, who is  accused of covering up his ­father’s crimes. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

HOMEOWNERS in Western Sydney’s ‘sinking suburb’ will be offered hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for their faulty houses by one of the country’s biggest development companies. A  BID to legalise euthanasia — set to be introduced by independent MP Alex Greenwich next year — is unlikely to be considered by the government until it comes to parliament, THE state’s north is bracing for yet another day of wild weather with dangerous surf, heavy rains and flash flooding set to continue into today. MUSIC star and former Hillsong devotee Selena Gomez has quit the megachurch amid the scandal surrounding cheating celebrity pastor Carl Lentz. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.au  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Construction union officials are “living in La La Land” over plans for workers to get a three-day weekend every fortnight, Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has said. Aussie dog owners will spend more on their canine companion over its lifetime than what you would pay for an entry level BMW, with pet owners expected to splash up to $65,000 on their furry friends. Actors Daniel Macpherson and Zoe Ventoura have separated after five years of marriage Ash Barty has finished a disrupted 2020 as Australia’s leading prizemoney earner for the third season in succession despite not playing a competitive point since February. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

IT was the police WhatsApp group that has led to a misconduct inquiry, two officers sacked, a man “loaded up” and wrongly charged — and the messaging app banned across the entire police force. CHARITIES whose members trespass or engage in illegal blockades will be stripped of their registration as the federal government steps up its war against “anarchists”. Five minutes into Stellar’s chat with Ricky Ponting and his wife Rianna, there’s a knock at the door and in bursts their six-year-old son, Fletcher. He has something exciting to show his dad, and it simply can’t wait until the interview is over. Poetically, it’s a cricket ball. The late and great celebrity agent John Fordham did most of his business deals over a long lunch. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The far north coast of NSW has taken first place for the most shark-attack prone beaches in recent years. Five ex-Prime Ministers will roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 vaccine shot, to promote consumer confidence in the safety of the drug. Seven months after a mega boring machine punched through the second tunnel for the future Sydney Metro, crews have finally completed the sealing of the corridors to make way for the next phase of the project. And in sport - the return of two-point field goals, a reduction in scrums and a crackdown on 10m offside play are among a raft of rule changes to be introduced for the NRL next year. For updates and breaking news throughout the day, take out a subscription atdailytelegraph.com.au  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A NEW six star Sydney hotel and a $1 billion investment in our city’s future will now go ahead,  with the release of the final plans for the Pyrmont project today. AFTER a year of being locked down, hordes of Aussie holiday-makers are frantically snapping up getaway hot spots en masse while accommodation operators try to make up for lost time and pandemic-hit profits with massively inflated prices. INNOCENT until proven guilty must be “respected” in the Afghan war crimes process Prime Minister Scott Morrison has warned, insisting his government will uphold the “important” legal principle. CELEBRITY chef Jason Roberts is grateful he lost only a few thousand dollars after claiming to have fallen victim to an entertainment industry fraudster dubbed the Hollywood Con Queen. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.au  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds has added fuel to the fire in the wake of the Afghan war crimes report, describing the alleged actions of Australian special forces soldiers as ‘cold-blooded murder’. Figures show nearly $1 billion worth of JobKeeper payments have been blocked, or taken back by the tax office. Another NRL star has been caught up in a porn scandal. A sex tape involving Penrith Panthers player Kurt Capewell that was reportedly filmed seven years ago, has gone viral in recent days. And a new study has found cheap, convenient packaged foods that are promoted as healthy, are actually making people sick and overweight. For updates and breaking news throughout the day, take out a subscription atdailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

iI’s up to everyday Aussie revellers to get behind our wine sector with thousands of local producers’ livelihoods on the line thanks to a “bullying” Beijing’s trade brinkmanship after what has already been a horror period for the beleaguered industry. AN eight metre tall chrome statue of the bus bought by legendary Parramatta Eels coach Jack Gibson for his premiership winning first grade team in 1981 will be stood on its nose in the new Parramatta Square precinct. LAWYERS, court officers and corporate high rollers are among 137 people charged in a huge pre-Christmas crackdown on “dial a dealer” drug suppliers on Sydney streets. AUSTRALIA’S Test preparations have been rocked by another disturbing concussion to promising batsmen Will Pucovski just eight days out from the opener’s likely Test debut. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SPECIAL forces soldiers say the federal government’s ­enlistment of the Queen to allow them to be stripped of their medals shows the government was planning their punishment long before the Afghan war crimes report was released. SCHOOL principals across the state have blasted pushy “Karen”-style parents demanding to select their child’s favourite teacher next year. IT’S hardly been a vintage year for the wine industry, but as it comes to a close there is good news and bad news for Aussie drinkers. CANBERRA Raiders coach Ricky Stuart is rallying behind embattled hooker Tom Starling after he was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer,See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police allege Tom Starling grabbed at an officer’s pistol before they punched him when he tried to intervene in a Central Coast brawl. Casual workers will be allowed to request a move to either a permanent part-time or full-time position in a new infustrial relations proposal. A capsule full of space rocks has fallen to the South Australian Outback after a journey of more than 5 billion kilometres. Several Indigenous rugby league heroes have denounced the Wallabies’ decision to sing the Australian national anthem in both English and the Eora language. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jack de Belin's  cancer scare has emerged after the jury in his sexual assault trial were unable to reach a verdict last week. Sniffer dogs capable of picking up signs of COVID-19 could be stationed at airports next year. The Sunday Telegraph has exclusive access to results of a police strategy against warring families in Sydney's southwestern suburbs. Penrith officials are refusing to directly answer one of the paper’s top questions about the Brent Naden cocaine scandal. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A decorated Afghanistan veteran thinks senior ADF leadership who trained Special Forces soldiers encouraged the attitudes of its top operators. There are calls for local councils to cut ties with Chinese sister cities. The consumer watchdog has found loyal bank customers are being dudded on home loan rates. Josh Addo-Carr has a lucrative offer from Canterbury on the table. For updates and breaking news throughout the day take out a subscription at dailytelegraph.com.auSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.