Western Australia's hard border with Victoria will come down as of next week.

Effective 12.01am on Monday, Victoria will be re-categorised as a "low risk" state, after a nine-day streak of zero coronavirus cases.

This will mean Victorians will no longer require an exemption to enter the state but will still be required to self-quarantine for 14 days.

The announcement comes following WA Premier Mark McGowan's emergency cabinet meeting to review border restrictions with eastern states.

Queensland and NSW remains "medium risk" states, which means they will need to record 28 days of no community transmission before WA will consider easing border restrictions.

A BP service station in Napier has been badly damaged by fire.Emergency services responded to the blaze at the Main North Rd service station in Bay View about 9.30pm on Friday. DO YOU KNOW MORE? EMAIL US Witnesses who posted…

Protesters have caused traffic chaos in Brisbane's south this afternoon with a mass demonstration on refugee rights hitting the streets just as thousands of sports fans were exiting the Gabba.

More than 100 people, chanting and armed with placards – started out at Kangaroo Point and made their way onto Main Street, blocking road lanes and seemingly trying to make their way onto the busy motorway during peak hour.

Police rushed to the scene and had to create roadblocks with their cars and physically prevent protesters from running into the path of oncoming motorway traffic.

https://twitter.com/SophieUpcroft/status/1349993497554636800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

To make matters worse, the height of the chaos came as thousands were exiting the Gabba at the end of the Test match decider between India and Australia.

Police are continuing to monitor the situation and traffic in the area is still heavy as a result.

A teenage girl has died after being pulled unconscious from a local pool.

The 13-year-old was pulled from the water at Maitland Aquatic Centre just after 3.30pm.

Lifeguards performed CPR beside the pool until paramedics arrived and took over.

The girl was rushed to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition but could not be revived.

The whole incident unfolded in front of a large group of relatives and one woman collapsed from shock.

"It's just a very sad situation for all the people in the pool and particularly the family," Chief Inspector Tony Townsend said.

Officers attached to Port Stephen-Hunter Police District attended and have commenced inquiries. A report will be provided for the coroner.

A terminally ill mother in Queensland has been denied the right to see her youngest son, as he begins his first night in a two-week coronavirus quarantine.

Anneli Marttila, 78, has been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer and given a week to live.

But her youngest son Marko is being denied a final reunion.

READ MORE: South Australia ends quarantine for Brisbane travellers

After a six-month battle to get to Brisbane from the US, Marko arrived on a Qantas flight from Los Angeles this morning.

"This was like a mercy mission," he told 9News.

Despite a letter from a doctor detailing Anneli's declining condition, Marko said Queensland Health had rejected two exemptions that would have allowed him to see his dying mother.

"They just said, as per the guideline this is how they do it, and they didn't really want to budge," Marko said.

READ MORE: 'No risk' after father, daughter, leave Brisbane quarantine

Anneli's sister Auli is doing her best to reunite the pair, but hope is slowly fading.

"All you have to do is look at my sister's face, and know that she is going to pass soon, and it would mean the world to her," she said.

Marko's brother Seppo said he couldn't understand the government's decision.

"You have other people like politicians, millionaires and actors … it's alright for them to go home and quarantine in their place, why can't my younger brother? He has limited time," he said.

A body has been found in a Central Otago swimming spot where a man went missing tonight.The body was recovered from Pinders Pond, near Roxburgh, police said.”Emergency services were notified of a person missing in the water about…

Donald Trump's former secretary of state Rex Tillerson has lamented his former boss's intellectual shortcomings in a tell-all interview.

Mr Tillerson told Foreign Policy Mr Trump had a "really limited" understanding of global and US history.

"It's really hard to have a conversation with someone who doesn't even understand the concept for why we're talking about this," he said.

"I used to go into meetings with a list of four to five things I needed to talk to him about, and I quickly learned that if I got to three, it was a home run, and I realised getting two that were meaningful was probably the best objective."

He spoke about using visual aids as a way of getting the president to pay attention.

"I started taking charts and pictures with me because I found that those seemed to hold his attention better," Mr Tillerson said.

"If I could put a photo or a picture in front of him or a map or a piece of paper that had two big bullet points on it, he would focus on that, and I could build on that."

Mr Tillerson expressed his frustration that Mr Trump was being misinformed by others outside of the White House.

"I think the other challenge that I came to realise early on is there were so many people who had access to his ear who were telling him things, most of which were untrue, and then he began to listen to those voices and form a view that had no basis in fact," he said.

"There were other people giving him information that was not accurate, every day, usually before I got to see him."

Mr Tillerson lamented failures in making progress in many important fields of foreign policy.

"We squandered the best opportunity we had on North Korea. It was just blown up when he took the meeting with Kim, and that was one of the last straws between him and I," he said.

"With Putin, we didn't get anything done. We're nowhere with China on national security.

"We're in a worse place today than we were before he came in, and I didn't think that was possible."

Mr Tillerson served as secretary of state from the start of the Trump Administration until March 2018.

Their relationship deteriorated in mid-2017, with widespread reports Mr Tillerson had described the president as a "f—— moron".

Mr Tillerson found out he had been fired by Mr Trump via a tweet sent by the president.

Later that year Mr Trump referred to Mr Tillerson as "dumb as a rock" and "lazy as hell".

Mr Tillerson was replaced by Mike Pompeo, who stayed in the position for the remainder of Mr Trump's tenure.

Mr Trump will leave office next Wednesday.

Mr Tillerson previously served as the CEO of oil giant ExxonMobil.

Joe Biden's nominee for secretary of state is Tony Blinken, who is considered the president-elect's closest foreign policy advisor.

As a former deputy secretary of state under Barack Obama, Mr Blinken was considered a safe choice in the senior cabinet role.

He is scheduled to face a confirmation hearing next week.

More tragic news this afternoon about the discovery of four bodies at a home in Tullamarine yesterday.

Following the discovery of a mother and her three children dead in their home, police have interviewed children's father and released him, without charge.

Police now believe the mother may be responsible for all four deaths.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.

Here are the other headlines from the day of news:

Magic mushrooms grow inside man's bloodstream after he injected 'psychedelic' tea

An American man nearly died after psychedelic mushrooms started growing into his veins after he injected them into his body.

The 30-year-old patient survived but suffered liver damage, kidney failure as well as jaundice, diarrhoea, fatigue, nausea and vomiting blood.

It took doctors in a Nebraska hospital a battery of tests to figure out what was wrong with the man because he was too confused to answer questions.

Read the full story

ASX lifts marginally higher, Bitcoin drops

• Aussie stocks have closed higher by the smallest of margins, lifting 0.0015 per cent over the day's trade to 6715.40 points.
• The biggest winner was financial buy-now firm Afterpay, which grew by more than 10 per cent. Afterpay's growth throughout last year has now made it a more valuable company than Telstra in market cap terms.
• The biggest retreat was felt by medical device firm Polynovo, dropping 8.30 per cent and ending a disastrous week of trade.
• The Aussie dollar is currently buying 77 US cents, having dropped ever so slightly from this morning.
• Bitcoin dropped some value from this morning, with one BTC now worth $48,778.

COVID-19 latest

No new coronavirus cases have been reported in Australia outside of hotel quarantine.

Queensland authorities are now hopeful an outbreak of the UK strain has been contained, with no further infections from the Hotel Grand Chancellor.

But a new historic case has been diagnosed in Cairns, solving the mystery of why sewage in the city has been showing a positive result for months.

The big stories in Australia

Police have issued a warning after scammers have tried to take advantage of a car crash that killed two young brothers.

A local country singer told police he used his official Facebook profile to promote a GoFundMe page to support the family of Shane and Sheldon Shorey who were killed in a car crash on January 5.

Read the full story here

The racing pigeon thought to have flown a mega 15,000km from Alabama in the United States to Melbourne may be spared death row after an American official suggested the bird is actually Australian.

A severe weather warning has been issued for south-east Queensland on Saturday.

Large hailstones, wild winds and heavy rain are set to lash the region, which includes Brisbane and the Gold Coast, tomorrow afternoon and evening, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.

What else is happening around the world?

• Bus left dangling on edge of New York overpass
• Tintin comic book breaks auction record
• Joe Biden promises US$1.9 trillion stimulus bill

Today in History

Most-read story of the day

New details emerged today from White House insiders about how the President took the news that he had been impeached for a second time.

In this riveting Associated Press yarn, insiders tell of how Mr Trump could do nothing but watch history unfold on television.

He was finally heard from hours after the vote, in a subdued video that condemned the insurrection at the Capitol and warned his supporters from engaging in any further violence.

It was a message that was largely missing one week earlier, when rioters marching in Mr Trump's name descended on the Capitol to try to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden's victory.

Most talked about social media post

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=165291051662558

Weather

Sport

In the cricket, Marnus Labuschagne reached the fifth ton of his Test career, but fell shortly after.

An undermanned India have struck back after tea, taking two quick wickets and now putting pressure on the middle-order.

And maligned footballer Israel Folau may be making the fifth code-switch of his career, with French rugby union clubs expressing interest in signing the exiled star.

Quiz and crossword

And if you are looking for something to take your mind off the news, see if you can beat the nine.com.au crossword here.

Or try our quizzical, today's is all about brand names after Coon Cheese changed its name to Cheer.

The mandatory 14-day quarantine will be lifted from Sunday, but travellers will still have to get tested for COVID-19 three times following their arrival.

The Porsche driver at the centre of Melbourne's fatal Eastern Freeway tragedy has vowed to fight allegations that he tied a noose around a woman's neck in a terrifying incident at his home. 

Richard Pusey, 42, accepted that he was not in a well state of mind two days after Christmas when he stormed the rooftop of his home in a stand-off with police.

However, he has denied that he threatened to kill a woman at his property.

Police were called to Mr Pusey's converted warehouse on December 27 after neighbours called triple-zero reporting they could hear screaming and the sounds of shattered glass.

The former mortgage broker remained on his roof hurling abuse at officers below for three hours, before being taken to hospital for a mental health assessment. 

Police allege earlier in the night he had falsely imprisoned a woman at the house, assaulted her, tied a noose around her neck and threatened to end her life.

Mr Pusey denied the attack in Melbourne Magistrates' Court today, also claiming the woman involved agreed it never happened.

But the magistrate said there were multiple witnesses who allegedly saw Mr Pusey put a noose around the woman's neck.

He is facing a string of charges, including making threats to kill, false imprisonment, conduct endangering a person, common law assault, contravening a conduct condition of bail, committing an indictable offence while on bail, and using a phone to harass.

The Porsche driver was on bail at the time of the alleged attack, waiting to stand trial for driving, drugs, and public indecency charges relating to the Eastern Freeway crash.

Mr Pusey had been pulled over for allegedly speeding when a truck driver swerved into the emergency lane, killing the four police officers who were talking to Mr Pusey on April 22.

Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King and Constables Glen Humphris and Josh Prestney all died in the incident.

Truck driver Mohinder Singh pleaded guilty to culpable driving earlier this month, admitting he had been on ice binge before he rammed into the officers.