There are five COVID-19 variants spreading around Australia, in what has been dubbed a "variant soup".
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Australia officially recorded more than 75,500 cases of COVID last week, but experts say the true figure could be up to six times higher - or just less than half a million.
And while only bad little girls and boys would traditionally get coal in their Christmas stockings, the Ukrainian government is begging Australia for it.
Temperatures in Ukraine have already dipped below freezing and electricity is being rationed.
Kyiv's envoy to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, is asking Australia to have coal ships loaded before Christmas to help Ukrainians make it through the winter.
Parts of NSW continue to be ravaged by floods, with some shocking aerial images showing the extent of the damage.
Regions the size of Switzerland have been cut off and isolated by floodwaters.
There is sadly no end in sight, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting the wet weather to continue until February.
In politics, industrial relations reform continues to be front of mind for the Labor government, as it battles against business groups to win the mind, and vote, of ACT independent senator David Pocock.
Australia's national, state and territory chambers of commerce have penned an open letter, pleading with senators to kill the government's proposed workplace relations overhaul.
The letter says proposed multi-employer bargaining changes will "drag [businesses] into a complex system they can't afford".
In the Northern Territory, divers have reached a World War II submarine.
The imperial Japanese navy submarine has been mapped by scientists for the first time.
THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- Business targets senators on Labor IR bill
- Deniliquin floods again, winds batter NSW
- Labor eyes energy price fix by year's end
- Give us coal for Christmas please: Ukraine
- Five new variants in latest COVID-19 wave
- Uni online study shutdown 'discriminatory'
- 'Phenomenal' demand for net-zero tech
- Consumer groups tough on buy now pay later