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On March 11 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 public health emergency had become a pandemic: 114 countries were affected, there were 121,500 confirmed cases and more than 4,000 people had succumbed to the virus.

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The vast arsenal of fiscal, monetary and legal measures used by Australian governments to offset the COVID-induced economic crisis have worked well. They did not prevent a recession (popularly defined as two quarters of negative GDP growth) but things could have been much worse.

Nearly 800,000 half-price air tickets for travel to and from holiday areas will be provided under a $1.2 billion program to support aviation and tourism, to be announced by the Morrison government on Thursday.

Brimbank, which has seven of Victoria’s top 20 gambling venues, says pokey losses have surged at a time when community is hard-hit by job cuts.

The business conditions unit said it could run a survey of 1,200 businesses, but that it would cost money — $20,000. Gruen told them to spend it. The survey began on March 16, ran for three days and was published on March 26, a record-quick ten days after the first...

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While the country’s elimination strategy has been successful, it was much more difficult and expensive to deliver than it needed to be.

Chronic pain affects about 3.4 million Australians. Internationally, almost one-third of people with chronic non-cancer pain take opioids to manage their condition.

Scientists have long known that certain ingredients are needed to support life, especially water and key organic chemicals like carbon. In recent years, both ingredients have been found on giant asteroids and other celestial bodies.

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This pollen exposure isn’t just a problem for people with hay fever. It’s a reaction to pollen in general. Even types of pollen that typically don’t cause allergic reactions were correlated with an increase in COVID-19 infections.

This is more than enough coronavirus vaccines for the entire population — and then some. But with vaccine hesitancy on the rise in Australia, questions remain over what methods the government will use to persuade enough people to get the jab.

Unilever also says it plans to stop using the word ‘normal’ to describe products as it seeks a ‘more inclusive definition of beauty’.

Charter flights being used to deport foreigners convicted of criminal acts in Australia. Thirty-one deportations occurred in February.

Pope Francis’s historic trip to Iraq, including visits to the war-torn north, has been deeply significant. It is one that needs to be seen in the context of peace rather than politics.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast in the UK.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast in the UK.

Rather than tracking and targeting you on an individual basis, Google’s alternative groups you instead into a crowd of people with similar generalised interests. Google argues this grants users more privacy. This sits oddly with the reassurance to advertisers that the new technique is at least 95% as effective as...

The 2011 disaster delivered a devastating one-two punch to the Fukushima plant. First, the magnitude 9.0 earthquake knocked out off-site electric power. Next, the tsunami breached the plant’s protective sea wall and swamped portions of the site.

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The US$1,400 direct checks to people are the most expensive and perhaps most popular part of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package racing its way through Congress right now.

Brisbane is in pole position to win the rights to stage the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2032, after being named as the preferred candidate city last month. The excitement is building, but the hard economic realities of staging a mega-event can’t be ignored.

UK residents still can’t leave their island to go on holiday. But tourism-dependent countries are lining up to tell them they’ll be welcome.

As Aotearoa New Zealand begins the third week of COVID-19 vaccinations, the focus turns from the 12,000-strong border workforce to their families and household contacts.

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After years of court battles, High Court says park owners must pay for selling ‘permanent’ homes that did not have council consent.

Despite living in dynamic environments and facing an uncertain future due to climate change, New Zealanders generally expect their land and property rights will endure indefinitely.

The governors of Texas and Mississippi announced that they were rescinding their statewide mask mandates and allowing restaurants and other businesses to return to 100% capacity in early March. The moves come while new infection numbers in the U.S. are still higher than they were in September and just ahead...

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In recent Australian electoral history, Labor was crushed at the March 2011 NSW election, and at the March 2012 Queensland election. In NSW 2011, the Coalition under Barry O'Farrell won the two party vote by 64.2-35.8, and Labor won just 20 of the 93 lower house seats.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will miss a week of the Senate and a week of Senate estimates, after getting a medical certificate to extend her leave until April 2.

No one is better placed in the community to help administer vaccines to elderly and high-risk groups than local GPs, says Government.

Taskforce disrupts illicit tobacco-growing and destroys crops with a potential excise value of more than $84-million.

The wealthiest 1% controlled 39% of all wealth in 2016, up from less than 30% in 1989. At the same time, the bottom 90% held less than a quarter of America’s wealth, compared with more than a third in 1989.

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Weather patterns across the U.S. have felt like a roller coaster ride for the past several months. December and January were significantly warmer than average in many locations, followed by February’s intense cold wave and a dramatic warmup.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been hailed as a game changer. It requires only a single dose rather than two doses spaced weeks apart, and it does not need freezer storage, making it a natural fit for hard-to-reach rural areas and underserved communities with limited access to health care...

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The oil industry’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, suggested in a new draft statement that it might support Congress putting a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change, even though oil and gas are major sources of those greenhouse gas emissions.

The federal government routinely spends amounts in the millions, billions and, more recently, trillions, yet these numbers are far beyond what individuals encounter on a daily basis, making it hard for most people – and probably lawmakers – to wrap their heads around them.

The most important feature of blockchain for art is that blockchains are impossible to change. An artist can provide a proof authenticating an artwork which can never be altered. This proof can then be sold at auction passing it from artist to collector, making blockchain art highly liquid.

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The humble Aussie bee is far more likely to get you admitted to hospital than a venomous snake or spider, study finds.

Regulations brought in following the UK’s departure from the EU have delayed the export of live shellfish to Europe, causing entire lorry loads of lobsters and langoustines to expire in Scotland’s ports.

Financial institution Westpac says seller confidence is rebounding as home-buyer demand continues to surge among Australians.

Human civilisation is on a collision course with the laws of ecology. Experts have long warned of zoonotic diseases jumping the species barrier as a result of growing human encroachment on nature.

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The idea of relocating Whitehall departments to the regions has a long but rather mundane history in the UK. Already, more than 80% of civil servants are based outside London – probably higher than most of us assume, given Britain’s highly centralised political system.

There’s a global shortage in semiconductors, and it’s becoming increasingly serious. The US is currently reviewing of its supply of the technology, following a landmark executive order from President Joe Biden.