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The Australian and international news stories you need to know today, Friday August 7.

Hundreds preparing to descend on Melbourne CBD in protest.

Police have vowed to crack down on anti-lockdown protesters planning a Melbourne march in a "blatant breach" of COVID-19 rules.

In a statement on Thursday, Victoria Police said it was aware some people may be planning to protest in Melbourne's CBD on Sunday.

A Facebook event has called on people to march in opposition to the city's six-week shutdown and claimed to be part of a broader movement of planned protests.

Coroner Mary Hassell said, in an inquest verdict overnight, that the 40-year-old took her own life "because of an exacerbation of fluctuating ill-health and distress".

"She knew she would face the media, press, publicity — it would all come down upon her," the coroner said.

Flack's family have accused prosecutors of singling her out because of her celebrity status. 

Cold snap being felt across most of Australia.

Parts of the country experienced their coldest morning in a decade yesterday, with temperatures reaching minus 10C in some areas of NSW and Victoria. 

Adelaide is expected to experience its coldest day since 2005, with a top of just 10C predicted today.

The cold snap is expected to continue over the next few days. A low pressure system is moving from the west bringing with it lots of rain for central, south, west and east Australia.

Severe weather is likely to occur in this weather event, so be sure to keep up to date with the latest warnings in your state or territory. 

Around the world.

- An armed man is holding one hostage at a bank in northern France, with police sources saying the gunman is believed to have Islamist sympathies. 

- New York's attorney-general is seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association over allegations high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for lavish personal trips. 

- Journalist Jonathon Swan says President Donald Trump was "happy" with their viral TV interview. He told Swan after the nearly 40 minute chat; "you’ve got to run it in full. You can’t be editing, you can’t be cutting me off, you’ve got to let the sentences flow." 

With AAP

Feature image:  Getty/Asanka Ratnayake/Instagram @carolineflack.

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Top Comments

I live 2 hours north of Adelaide (Clare) and the maximum temperature here yesterday was 6.8 also the Flinders Ranges has significant snowfalls yesterday. It would be great to see some mention of any news in regional SA here!

fightofyourlife 4 years ago 1 upvotes
He visited *several* pubs over the weekend and went to a football game? Are these people ever at home? It seems a lot of these positive cases go out to socialise during a global pandemic more than I go out under normal circumstances. It's mind-boggling to me. 

The longer we try to pretend everything is normal, the longer it will be until we can actually get some normality back in our lives. We opened up again for the economy, not for our health. Remember that and stay home. 
gu3st 4 years ago 2 upvotes
@fightofyourlife I think that it would be easier as a healthy young guy to not realise that he was infected than you think. Nor were the numbers in NSW terrible yet, but I think we're at a delicately balanced and crucial time and it's true that we should be dialling down the socialising right down before that needs to be mandated. 

I would have had the odd weekend like that back in the day.
random dude 4 years ago 3 upvotes
@fightofyourlife Well, he is in his twenties, I know at that age I was gadding about and could easily add at least 7 more things to that list.

Mind you, this is not a defence for his actions which scored highly on my dumb O - metre
fightofyourlife 4 years ago 1 upvotes
@gu3st Yes, I'm sure he didn't know he was infected. I'm sure most of the people who have been responsible for starting or growing clusters didn't know they were infected. That's the whole problem and exactly why we shouldn't be going out when it's not necessary. 

Without a pandemic, go for your life. Go to six pubs in a single weekend. Go to 20, I don't care. We are in a pandemic though and we should all know enough by now to be much more careful. Including young people.