The World Today has the latest on case numbers and border restrictions amid increasing COVID concerns in New South Wales and Victoria; The voice of cricket, Jim Maxwell on whether the Sydney test match should go ahead; And we take you to the outback where a young bush pilot tells us about plans for New Year's Eve in a tiny town, far away from the fears of the pandemic.

The World Today is a comprehensive current affairs program

A reality check on COVID vaccines as the jab is rolled out overseas; A New Year's Eve deal on Brexit. What will it mean for trade and travel between Britain and the EU; And a wet summer ahead for some parts of Australia. Everything you wanted to know about La Nina, but were too afraid to ask.

The latest on COVID-19 case numbers in New South Wales - how far is the outbreak spreading in the lead up to New Year's Eve in Sydney? And imagine dealing with the arrival of a newborn baby and trying to withdraw from drugs at the same time. The World Today are given special access to a drug treatment centre for women and their infants.

The number of COVID-19 cases linked to the Sydney's northern beaches region has risen to more than one hundred; A new variant of the coronavirus is detected in the UK, which is causing concern and travel chaos; And The World Today returns to the small town of Hugo, Colorado on the frontline of the pandemic in the United States, where the first shipment of vaccines has arrived just in time for Christmas.

Sydney gets a slight reprieve for Christmas, single digit COVID-19 numbers and limited restrictions; COVID-19 makes its way to the world's southern-most continent - what does it mean for Antarctic research?; And find out more about Australia's world leading legislation to crack down on internet trolls.

A record 44,000 COVID-19 tests and eight new cases in Sydney, are we on track to quash Australia's latest flare up of the virus? And what could closures mean for the tourism industry, which had been hoping for a summer recovery?

Sydney's Northern Beaches COVID-19 cluster continues to grow, but authorities still aren't sure how the virus got into the community; the final report into Victoria's disastrous hotel quarantine program handed down; And a new highly infectious strain of COVID-19 on the loose in the UK - what does it mean for global efforts to bring the pandemic under control?

The holiday plans of thousands of Australians in turmoil as a coronavirus cluster grows in Sydney's northern beaches; The World Today will take you through the details of restrictions, state by state; And relief in Nigeria after hundreds of school students kidnapped by Boko Haram Islamic militants are released.

A coronavirus cluster emerges on Sydney's northern beaches forcing aged care homes into lockdown; With unemployment figures out we head to an area hit hard by the economic fallout from the pandemic; And as cases surge across the US, Americans are told to hold their nerve as they wait for the vaccine rollout to reach their communities.