WA's Health Department has confirmed that elective surgeries at public hospitals in Perth, Bunbury and Geraldton will be postponed for a month to cope with increasing pressure on the system, despite the lack of COVID-19 in the community.

No metropolitan public hospital will take further bookings for multi-day non-urgent category two and three elective surgeries from Wednesday.

Hurricane Ida claims a life and has shut down power across the US states of Louisiana and Mississippi. Many water systems are out and emergency services in New Orleans have not been available.

The death toll is likely to increase, with around 1,600 search and rescue personnel deployed. 

The storm arrived sixteen years to the day Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast back in 2005.

China will ban children from playing video games for more than three hours a week amidst a crackdown on tech giants such as Tencent Holdings and Alibaba Group.

People under the age of eighteen will only be allowed to play games between 8pm and 9pm on Fridays, weekends and public holidays starting this Thursday.

The new rules come in response to concerns over gaming addiction among youths.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed Monday that the Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill will be debated in two weeks time in Queensland Parliament.

MPs from both major parties will have a conscience vote during the debates starting in the third week of September.

Under the proposed laws, Queenslanders with advanced terminal conditions may be able to access assisted dying in the coming year.

The Princess Alexandra Hospital’s Research Foundation is bringing back its ‘We’re all 4 the Heroes PA Giving Day’ - an initiative to raise $500,000. 

The funds will be collected Thursday 2nd of September, will go to staff education, medical research and purchasing state of the art equipment. All donations will be quadrupled on the day. 

Last year, the campaign raised a total of $654,000 funding projects such as kidney disease, genetic testing of melanoma patients and profiling of lung tissues of COVID-19 patients.

Caloundra State High School students have partnered with the Maroochy Regional Bushland Botanic Garden for a technological experience called the Wildflowers in Augmented Reality. 

Caloundra State High teacher Adam Baker, who facilitated the project, said it is a self-guided augmented reality tour where visitors at Maroochy Botanic Garden can learn about the local flowers through 3D modelling software technology. 

A man in his 50s has become the first Indigenous Australian to die of COVID-19 in Dubbo, NSW.

This came after 51 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the western NSW region on Monday, including 31 cases in Dubbo. 

As of Tuesday there were 561 active cases of Covid-19 in the western local health district, 65% of whom were Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

Regional NSW remains in lockdown until at least September 10.

Local media in Kabul have reported that nine civilians were killed in a US airstrike on Sunday.

Six children were among those reportedly killed when US forces destroyed car full of explosives.

US officials were still investigating the reports on Tuesday, but have indicated they thought the civilians were killed by secondary explosions and not the airstrike itself.

Arraignments have begun at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre for an Indonesian and two Malaysian prisoners held without charge for eighteen years in connection with the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings. 

A military commission took place over nearly five-hours on Monday inside the US base in Cuba, where the men face charges including murder, conspiracy and terrorism.

The arraignment comes after the Biden administration made clear its intentions to close the detention centre this year, where nearly 800 detainees have passed through the prison since opening in 2002.