Alex McKinnon While profits continue to soar for Commonwealth Bank, a laundering scandal makes the case for a banking royal commission grow stronger.

Karen Middleton The methodology being used to test the public mood on same-sex marriage is dividing both the Liberal Party and constitutional experts – and further diminishing the prime minister’s standing among his own.

Mike Seccombe After leaving her post as president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs is as forthright as ever in describing the country’s slide backwards in its social policies and treatment of the vulnerable.

Donna Walker-Mitchell Long before Australian actors were celebrated in the US, Anthony LaPaglia was forging a solid career in theatre and movies. But, he says, his rise to stardom could not have been more unexpected.

Annie Smithers Blood orange season encourages me to make a fool. Fools are synonymous with the English summer, but the lush creamy texture has a comfort factor that is right at home in any season. Here, I have paired it with a Madeira cake, another plain English classic.

Clover Moore Earlier this year, the city’s biannual street count identified 433 people sleeping rough in the City of Sydney and 489 people in crisis or temporary accommodation centres that are operating at 91 per cent capacity.

Paul Bongiorno The Abbott grab bag of alt-right grievances amply demonstrates his crusade against same-sex marriage is merely a proxy against the sort of modernity he identifies with Malcolm Turnbull and contemporary Australia.

Richard Ackland In the latest instalment of his blog, Freedom Boy Wilson, MP, has posted an article called “My Bookshelf”. It turns out not to be a paean to his philosopher-mentor Bookshelves Brandis, but an encounter with the books that have put his thoughts “onto clear tracks”.

The very last picture to be taken of Hamed Shamshiripour is too distressing to publish. It looks like the scene of a lynching. In many respects, it is. Hamed’s face is held in great anguish. Blackness fills the sockets of his eyes. His shoulders hang as if responding to a question for which there is no answer. In death there is the silence that follows great trauma. This last image, this tableau of jungle and resignation, is frozen in violent stillness.

Catherine Bouris With young jobseekers being encouraged to sign up to the PaTH internship program, companies are benefiting from free labour and a government subsidy. The question is, what are the interns gaining?

Hamish McDonald US cautious on Marawi action; Sara Netanyahu facing indictment for misusing funds.

Helen Razer Jane Campion’s latest foray into television, while featuring admirable performances, sees the writer–director stray too far from what she does best.

Kate Holden Daycare operator Eliza and her life committed to children.

Alyx Gorman With a focus on sustainable materials, Kit Willow Podgornik’s label, Kitx, is producing flowing garments so popular they push their handmade manufacturing to the limit.

Michele Tydd Studies into the serious effects of noise on health are now being applied to aviation safety, with concerning results.

Richard Cooke Australian Diamonds and NSW Swifts centre courter Paige Hadley on the roller-coaster ride of injuries and World Cup wins.

Cindy MacDonald Test your general knowledge with our weekly quiz.