OPINION: Two big things happened over the weekend. The Crusaders qualified for the Super Rugby Pacific Final and the National Party finally announced a policy.But what a hamfisted policy it is, and just goes to show that Christopher…

Life Church has fessed up to being behind the large and mysterious fireworks display that boomed across central Auckland last night.”Yes, this weekend LIFE celebrated our church’s 30th birthday and also honoured our founding pastors…

The end of the financial year is a little over a fortnight away, prompting millions of Australians to begin getting their finances in order for the start of tax season.

This year's returns face the added complexity of many workers returning to the office on a limited basis, meaning many will have to calculate their work-from-home expenses on a day-by-day basis.

There's also the confusing issue of workplace expenses, especially if you had to purchase something that would allow you to work safely amid the presence of COVID-19.

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This year the Australian Tax Office (ATO) advises that from July 1, 2021 taxpayers who paid for a COVID-19 test for work-related purposes can now claim them as a deduction.

As always, taxpayers will need to prove that they purchased the tests themselves and they must not have been reimbursed by their employer.

Of course you can only claim a deduction for the tests you used to prove you were COVID-19 negative to attend work – not necessarily every test you've ever taken.

"If you purchased a COVID-19 test for a trip with your mates, you can't claim a deduction" said ATO Assistant Commissioner Tim Loh.

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As Loh explains, some occupations may have also had other pandemic-related expenses that weren't covered by their employer.

"If you're spending your working day in close proximity to customers and at risk of contracting COVID-19, you may be able to claim a deduction for protective items such as gloves, face masks, or sanitiser," he explains. 

"This will be most common in industries such as retail, cleaning and hospitality."

Critically, Loh said it was important for Aussies to realise which government payments are counted as taxable income.

JobSeeker payments are counted as taxable income and will be automatically pre-filled in recipients tax returns once it's ready.

Conversely, the Australian Government's COVID-19 disaster payment (delivered through Services Australia) is not taxable and does not need to  be included in tax returns.

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However the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment is taxable.

As Loh explains, this payment needs to be included in tax returns for the income year the amounts were received. Services Australia provided recipients with a letter each time they received a payment.

Those who received the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment will need to manually add up all the amounts received and include the total amount received in their tax return. This payment won't be prefilled into the return.

"While the information isn't prefilled for you, not adding Pandemic Leave Disaster Payments to your tax return will delay the processing of your return and your potential refund," Loh said.

Taxpayers who chose to use a registered tax agent should remember to let their registered tax agent know they received the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment.

The information provided on this website is general in nature only and does not constitute personal financial advice. The information has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Before acting on any information on this website you should consider the appropriateness of the information having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.

At first glance, it looks like another of those viral photos that we can barely watch anymore.

It shows a white state trooper and a black man during a traffic stop on a bright, sunny day. The trooper is leaning his thick arms through the open passenger window to clutch the black man's right hand.

The man's back is pinned against the passenger seat, and his eyes are squeezed shut. He appears to be wincing in pain.

But, this photo is being widely shared for another reason. The trooper is reaching into the car to help, not to harm. And the encounter has been described by those who witnessed it not as tragic, but inspired.

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"It was a really beautiful moment for me to see this take place between my dad and the officer," said Ashlye V Wilkerson, the 39-year-old driver of the car who surreptitiously took the photo.

The state trooper still has trouble digesting what happened that afternoon.

"It's just one of those things I can't explain," said Trooper Jaret Doty of the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

Doty thought he was stopping a stranger that day. It turned out he had travelled down the same road as the man whose hand he held.

A "Daddy's girl," caring for her ailing father

Their serendipitous meeting took place March 28, a Monday afternoon. Wilkerson was driving her 2016 silver Volvo south on Interstate 85 in Rowan County, North Carolina. She had picked up her father, Anthony "Tony" Geddis, who had just completed a round of chemotherapy treatments at Duke University Medical Center, and was driving him back to his home in Columbia, South Carolina.

"My father was my favourite person in the world," she said. "Even in adulthood I would call my father to be my plus-one ticket."

At 2.15 p.m. that afternoon, Wilkerson heard a siren and saw flashing blue lights in her rear-view mirror.

"Oh God, I'm speeding, Dad," she said

"OK. OK," he said, trying to calm his daughter.

In Wilkerson's back seat were her daughters, Alana, 8, Ariah, 5, and her mother, the Reverend Fannie M Geddis. She pulled over on the right shoulder of the highway and waited.

The family had well-documented reasons to be anxious. To many Black motorists, there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop. Wilkerson had seen numerous videos of unarmed Black drivers killed by quick-triggered law enforcement officers.

"We were very mindful of how things can play out," she said.

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At the same time, Wilkerson says she did not want to prejudge. She tried to keep an open mind as the trooper approached the passenger side of her car.

"I don't think it's fair to characterise everyone based on someone's actions," she said.

A tense wait during a traffic stop

Her father, Geddis, had already rolled the window down by the time the trooper reached the car.

Doty, a compact man with a buzz cut, introduced himself. He has been a state trooper for 17 years. He decided as a teenager to become a trooper after losing a childhood friend to a drunk driver.

"Ma'am, do you know what speed you were doing?" he said after introducing himself. "I'm going to need your license and registration."

Wilkerson apologised and reached for her glove compartment. Geddis was so weakened by the chemotherapy treatments that he could barely speak above a whisper. But he roused himself to defend his daughter.

"This is my baby girl," he told Doty. "She's driving me home from a chemo treatment at the cancer centre at Duke."

Doty said nothing and nodded. He took Wilkerson's information and returned to his car.

Wilkerson and her family waited. And waited.

"Gosh, what's taking him such a long time?" Wilkerson said to her father. "I wonder what's going on."

But Doty, 45, wasn't just reviewing Wilkerson's information; he was reviewing his own life.

He told CNN how he had become adept at reading people's body language when approaching stopped cars. He immediately noticed that Wilkerson's father was slouched in the seat, weakened from pain.

Doty is the father of a 12-year-old girl, Avery. She also is a cheerleader, like Wilkerson once was. Doty and his wife, Abby, have taken her to numerous cheerleader competitions. They dote on Abby and her 15-year-old brother, Cooper, taking them to Walt Disney World in Florida at least seven times.

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"I could tell she was a daddy's girl," Doty said of Wilkerson. "I would do the same for my daughter."

A state trooper makes an unusual decision

But Doty also sensed he shared another connection with Geddis. He noticed Geddis had a pouch attached to his pelvis area. Doty had once been diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and had to undergo surgery to remove portions of his colon. He, too, had to wear a pouch attached to his stomach for treatment.

The disease went into remission but returned "with a vengeance," weakening his body so much that he didn't have strength to leave the house.

"I felt like I was dying," he said.

Doty says doctors told him he likely would have gotten colon cancer if his illness had gone untreated. While recovering from surgery in the hospital, Doty made a vow. He thought of all the people who had prayed for him and counselled him.

"I said that if I could touch one person, or help somebody get through their illness, I would do it."

Doty thought of that vow as he sat in his patrol car, wondering what to do next. He knew he wasn't going to give Wilkerson a speeding ticket. But was there something else he could do?

Doty closed his ticket book and opened his car door. He walked back over to Wilkerson's car and turned to Geddis.

"Sir, do you mind if I ask what kind of cancer you have?"

"No, I don't mind. I have colon cancer."

Doty took a deep breath and looked at Geddis.

"Can I pray for you?" Doty said.

"Of course," Geddis said.

Geddis raised his right hand and grasped Doty's. Both men bowed their heads.

"Father in Heaven …" Doty began.

Wilkerson was so touched by what she was seeing that she took out her smartphone and quietly snapped a picture.

After Doty finished praying, he pressed something in Geddis' hand.

Doty straightened up from the car window and bid farewell to Wilkerson and her father. Instead of giving Wilkerson a speeding ticket, he let her go with a warning.

"Y'all drive safely," he said.

Wilkerson started the car and resumed driving, trying to digest the encounter. Her dad hadn't even told many of his closest friends he had cancer because he didn't want them to worry. Her father didn't speak as they drove away, but she could tell he was touched by Doty's gesture when she snuck a peek at him.

His eyes had welled up with tears.

Two months later, it was Wilkerson's time for tears. Her father died on May 22, after the colon cancer had spread. He was 61.

A man has been pistol-whipped and knocked unconscious during a home invasion in Sydney's west.

The brutal attack was inadvertently watched by hundreds of people, as the victim was taking part in a live-streamed TikTok at the time of the incident.

His games on the social media platform were interrupted by a knock at the door.

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Two masked men burst into the Villawood granny flat about 11.30pm, armed with a pistol and looking for cash.

"Where's the safe?" they can be heard demanding.

Victim Wally Assaad was knocked unconscious and his partner, Daniella, 37, was screaming for help.

"I'll take your life right now. I'm not scared to. Please, where's the money, please," one of the men can be heard saying.

The live-stream captured the duo carrying a pile of clothes from the house, before jumping into two getaway cars on Koonona Avenue.

At the time of the robbery, Assaad was streaming a TikTok battle with former Nomads bikie Moudi Tajjour.

It's a platform now being used by underworld figures to make money, donated by viewers.

The 33-year-old victim is known to police.

His account shows him posing with recently shot Comancheros boss Tarek Zahed.

The emergence of these online TikTok battles between underworld figures is a new frontier for police to face.

One of the challenges though is discerning what is real and what is fake.

NSW Police Acting Superintendent Glen Fitzgerald told people not to put information on social media that could make them more of a target.

Temperatures will keep tumbling after an icy start to winter, as dangerous surf batters Australia's east coast.

Jackson Browne from the Bureau of Meteorology said both the south-east and south-west were copping more freezing weather from ongoing polar blasts.

Winds of up to 150km/hr were recorded in the south-east, and gusts of up to 120km/hr in Perth.

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Browne told Today the polar blast was also driving the dangerous surf on the NSW coast.

"We saw surf up to eight to nine metres in Tasmania, and now that's moved towards the NSW coast," he said.

"Fortunately, we will see the cancellation of that hazardous surf, that damaging surf rather, later today."

Browne warned the weather wasn't likely to settle down anytime soon.

"I hate to say it, but we're only 13 days into winter," he said.

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"And, yeah, July, generally is the coldest month of the year. So there's plenty more opportunity for these cold blasts to affect us."

People are being warned to stay out of the water along the New South Wales coast this public holiday, with huge gale force winds and gigantic waves battering the beaches.

Waves crashed high enough to reach a pedestrian walkway and the RSL at Bondi Beach in Sydney overnight.

Bins were washed away and cars drenched, leaving a big clean-up this morning.

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The weather is being caused by a slow-moving low-pressure system forming off New Zealand.

The effects are being felt along the east coast, chiefly focused along NSW.

Hazardous surf warnings are in place stretching right from Byron Bay in the state's north, down to Eden.

Waves of up to five metres high were recorded yesterday, and a rock fisherman had to be rescued when he was swept into the ocean near Batemans Bay.

Nine people have been arrested in China following an assault on four women in the northern city of Tangshan on Friday, local police say.

Graphic security footage showing scenes from the incident was posted on social media on Friday, triggering national outrage and sparking heated discussions online about women's safety and rights in China.

Time-stamped surveillance footage circulating widely online shows a man walking into a barbeque restaurant at around 2:40 am local time on Friday and walking past a woman who is sitting down and eating with her companions.

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The man is seen approaching one of the women and placing his hand on her back, before she grabs him by the wrist and pushes him away.

The woman can be heard questioning him, surveillance footage shows. Following the woman's resistance, the man responds by slapping the woman in the face.

A scuffle between the two begins, surveillance footage shows. The woman tries to get him away by attempting to hit him with a glass bottle.

Surveillance footage shows the woman's friends trying to stop the fight and being beaten by the man as well as a group of other men who rush into the restaurant.

In the footage, several women can be seen being punched, kicked, grabbed and dragged by the hair on the ground.

The graphic video footage showing the women being beaten caused a national outcry over women's safety. After the video went public, Tangshan police published a statement on Friday afternoon saying they had identified the suspects and were searching for them.

In another statement issued on Friday, Tangshan police said two women had been sent to the hospital after being attacked and were in stable condition, while two other women sustained minor injuries.

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On Saturday, local police sent an update saying that they have detained all nine suspects, including seven men and their two female companions. The update said the two female victims who had sustained non-life-threatening injuries were being treated in the hospital and were in stable condition.

The incident was widely discussed on Chinese social media over the weekend and triggered public anger in the country. Some people online are questioning the safety of women in China, while others are discussing systemic violence against women in the country.

Many celebrities have also come out to show support for the victims. Actor Jackie Chan posted on his Weibo account, saying, "I'm so angry and I can't sleep the whole night. What saddens me the most is that only women stepped in to help each other, while the men standing by did nothing."

Provincial authorities ordered the criminal investigation of this case to be moved to Langfang, a separate city in Hebei province, according to a statement by Langfang police late Saturday.

Such a move usually happens when the investigation is sensitive or important, or when the cases involve gang-related crimes and need to avoid local sheltering.

Three months after McDonald's suspended operations in Russia, hundreds of people streamed into its famous former outlet on Moscow's Pushkin Square as the restaurant reopened yesterday under a Russian owner and a new name.

In March, McDonald's halted operations of its company-run restaurants in Russia. Although some run by franchisees stayed open, the action by the multinational fast-food chain was among the most visible responses by foreign companies to Russia sending troops into Ukraine.

Two months later, McDonald's decided to leave Russia altogether and sold its 850 restaurants to Alexander Govor, who held licences for 25 franchises in Siberia.

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Govor is moving fast to reopen the shuttered outlets. It wasn't until a couple of hours before the Pushkin Square restaurant opened that the Russian chain's new name was announced: Vkusno-i Tochka (Tasty-period).

The logo is different, but still evokes the golden arches: a circle and two yellow oblongs – representing a beef patty and french fries – configured into a stylised M.

Fifteen of the former McDonald's were set to reopen in Moscow yesterday. Oleg Paroev, the chain's general director, said he aims to have 200 open by the end of the month.

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As part of the sales deal, whose monetary terms were not announced, the new operation agreed to retain all 62,000 people employed by McDonald's prior to its exit.

The crowd at the Pushkin Square outlet, however sizable and lively, was no match for the turnout for the McDonald's opening in 1990, when people waited in line for hours. At that time, McDonald's had psychological and political resonance beyond hamburgers.

The opening was the first taste most Muscovites had of Western consumerism and service efficiency, as well as a sign the Soviet Union was slowly dropping its guard and allowing foreign culture into the country.

On Sunday, that earlier symbolism echoed through the reopening with a note of nostalgia.

"This is a historic place — the flagship of McDonald's," Govor told reporters.

"I'm sure it will be the flagship for us."

Inside, the restaurant resembled a fraternal twin of its former self. There were touchscreens for placing orders and counter workers wearing familiar polo-shirt uniforms.

"We're sure that our customers won't notice a difference between us," Paroev said. However, he said, the company will seek a new soft drinks supplier as it has limited stocks of Coca-Cola.

Tennis hero Ash Barty, cricket icon Shane Warne and some of the key faces responsible for guiding Australia through the coronavirus pandemic have been recognised in the 2022 Queen's Birthday honours.

Former chief health officer Dr Brendan Murphy is one of nine new companions of the Order of Australia — the highest honour — and NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has been made an officer of the order.

They were among 92 Australians recognised for their efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The prestigious honour recognised Murphy's tireless work in the role, turned suddenly high-profile by the pandemic, as well as services to nephrology, research and innovation, and more.

Chant was recognised for her "distinguished service to the people of New South Wales through public health administration and governance, and to medicine".

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, a prominent infectious diseases expert at the University of NSW, was also appointed as an AO, for "distinguished service to medical research, particularly to epidemiology and infection prevention, to tertiary education, and to health administration."

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Barty, who announced her shock retirement from tennis earlier this year, was made an officer of the order for both her work as an elite player and youth development. 

Warne, whose untimely death rocked the cricket world in March, was posthumously appointed to the order.

The honours listing recognised the leg spin king for his sparkling careers as a player, role model and commentator, as well as his charity and philanthropic efforts.

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Other prominent new officers of the order include former Western Australian premier Carmen Lawrence, Australia's first state leader; and Muriel Picton, a pioneering female cricketer who captained Australia and was heavily involved with the administration of her club and the New South Wales Women's Cricket Association after retirement.

Governor-General David Hurley said those recognised, spanning community service, science and research, industry, sport, the arts and more, represented the very best of Australia.

"Recipients share some common traits – including selflessness, excellence and a commitment to service," he said. 

"They're from different backgrounds, their stories are each unique, and each has served in different ways. 

"This diversity is a strength and each has impacted their community and made it better.

"For that, we thank them and, today, we celebrate them."

In the general division of the order, 45.9 per cent of awards went to women and 43.6 per cent went to community service.

A trip to Jakarta was an important milestone for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese but for someone behind the scenes, it mattered even more.

9News cameraman Ghaith Nadir left Indonesia as a refugee 11 years ago, and this week returned to cover the prime minister's official visit.

The Iraqi-Australian said he had "mixed emotions" about going back to the country where he spent four years as a refugee, waiting for resettlement.

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He went back this time for work, to capture Albanese's visit.

"The thing is when I lived in Indonesia, we didn't know what our future would be like," he said.

"Going back as a cameraman representing the PM of Australia, it was really special to me."

Ghaith fled Iraq with his family when he was 14, after losing friends in a bombing near his school.

In asylum accommodation, the five members of the Nadir family shared two small rooms.

Ghaith and his family finally arrived in Melbourne in 2011.

"All I wanted was a better life, a normal, happy life for me and my family," he said.

And now he's a man who has achieved more than he ever imagined possible.