Swimming banned at Maroubra and Coogee while council prioritises ‘culturally respectful’ approach to remains

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A whale carcass has forced the closure of two busy swimming and surfing spots after washing up between Coogee and Maroubra beaches in Sydney – but there are no plans to remove it.

The whale’s heavily decomposed body was found on Thursday morning at Lurline Bay, a rocky cove surrounded by cliffs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Northern Territory government announced sweeping reforms of child protection sector in May, just days after the Warlpiri girl was found dead

• Warning: This article contains images of and references to Indigenous Australians who have died

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

A report on the Northern Territory’s child protection sector has detailed “confronting” and “heartbreaking” failures in the lead-up to the alleged murder of Warlpiri girl Kumanjayi Little Baby.

The five-year-old was found dead in April, five days after she was allegedly abducted from a town camp in Alice Springs.

Singer ‘mortified’ about wearing diamonds from Argyle mine at centre of environmental concerns about Indigenous land

The singer Ellie Goulding has admitted her error at having promoted diamonds at the centre of environmental concerns about Indigenous land in Australia, despite having spent years campaigning on environmental issues – including the effects of mining on ancestral lands.

She appeared at a event in London earlier this month for the jewellery brand Boodles, modelling some of its newly acquired pink diamonds, some of which came from a controversial mine in Western Australia.

Birth happens days before Labor and Coalition block bill to ban ‘barbaric practice’ of shackling incarcerated women during childbirth

• Get our new political email, free app or daily news podcast

An incarcerated Indigenous woman was shackled to a hospital bed in Queensland while she was in labour last weekend, an advocacy group has said.

The birth happened just days before Labor and the Coalition blocked a bill to ban the “barbaric practice” of shackling incarcerated women during childbirth.