News

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

Outside of Victoria the number of hours worked has almost returned to where it was – nowhere near where it would have been, but almost where it was.

Two days before Christmas last year, a fire reached our heritage-protected bush property in the Adelaide Hills, and destroyed our neighbour’s house. For the next two weeks we were on constant alert to keep the fire in check.

The real estate sector has unexpectedly thrived during the pandemic. In the last few months, property prices have broken one record after another, climbing to unprecedented heights.

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

Shades of Dr Dolittle? Or have they been at the Christmas wine? Researchers say kangaroos really can 'talk' to us.

Winter frost fairs were common on the frozen River Thames between the 17th and 19th centuries, but they’ve become unimaginable in our lifetime. Over decades and centuries, natural variability in the climate has plunged the UK into sub-zero temperatures from time to time. But global warming is tipping the odds...

Coronavirus vaccines are being administered. Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was the first to finish the final stage of testing – known as phase 3 – and the full results have been published. Having assessed the data, countries are beginning to authorise this vaccine for public use and roll it out.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

Last year, the UK government announced a consultation around whether flexible work should not just be available, but become employees’ default option in its annual Queen’s Speech. But 2020 rapidly became a hugely different year in Westminster and flexible working rights seemingly ground to a halt at the political level.

The case against Facebook bears similarities to U.S. v. Microsoft, the landmark 2001 case that found the software company liable for monopolization. Here, the FTC will have to prove that Facebook, like Microsoft, acquired its market power in the social media market by excluding rivals, not merely by making a...

Prime Minister says 15-million vaccine courses have now been pre-ordered by the Kiwi government. Initial roll-out in Q2 of 2021.

Cash is changing hands less frequently than ever before. In the US, it accounted for 30% of retail purchases in 2020, down from 40% in 2009. In the UK, the change has been even more rapid: only 23% of payments are made in cash, down from 60% in 2009.

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

Negotiations now underway for quarantine-free travel with island of Niue. Similar plan with Cook Islands was also announced recently.

With key domestic borders opening up, airlines are increasing capacity to meet pent-up travel demand, a new report says.

Since 2000, Brazil has doubled its total area of soy plantation to 36 million hectares and become the world’s largest producer. This expansion has erased vast swathes of forest and other habitats in some of the country’s most biodiverse regions.

The WTO is the only global organisation that deals with trade rules between nations, covering things like tariffs and product safety testing and certification procedures.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

One of the most striking things about the COVID-19 pandemic is just how dramatically different the responses have been from country to country. In early 2020, when little was known about the virus, this difference was unsurprising. Today, with tens of thousands of research articles and cases of best practice...

Genomic testing shows the strain from the northern beaches cluster to be an international variant of the virus, one currenty circulating in the United States. But what we don’t yet know is exactly how and when this international strain entered the country and how it spread to the community.

Government has asked World Trade Organization to intervene over ‘unfair’ duties imposed on Australian barley products.

Imagining future cities has long been a favourite activity for architects, artists and designers. Technology is often central in these schemes – it appears as a dynamic and seemingly unstoppable force, providing a neat solution to society’s problems.

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

Space dust from the Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe landed in South Australia on 6 December and is now back in Japan for analysis.

China has been the only country to land on the Moon for over 40 years – since the Soviet Luna programme. Its recent Chang’e missions (1-4) demonstrated that China could not only orbit and land on the Moon, but also successfully operate a rover.

Governments shouldn’t be worried that raising taxes on the rich will harm their economies when deciding on how to pay for COVID-19.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

Assassin’s Creed plays fast and loose with history, simultaneously putting huge amounts of effort into the reproduction of historical architecture and styles while also staging an endless war between the Assassins, who fight for the freedom of all humanity, and the Templars, who believe peace can only be achieved when...

Investors with millions of dollars to lend went to the Australian treasury and said not only we won’t charge you interest, but furthermore we will pay you 0.01% to make sure that you take it.

Key employer body fears that cutting Southeast Asian language tuition at universities will harm efforts to develop alternative markets to China.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison is also likely to elevate the troubled policy area to cabinet, in his imminent ministerial reshuffle.

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

Global study finds Australians have adopted digital banking and payment methods ‘faster than ever imagined’ during 2020.

As England emerged from its second national lockdown in early December, Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, faced an onslaught of questions from MPs on both sides of the House of Commons. Each demanded clarity on what the arrangements would be for their particular constituency under the multi-layered tiers that...

The lockdowns and restrictions introduced to control the spread of COVID-19 have resulted in huge changes to urban life. Previously bustling city centres remain empty, shunned in favour of suburban or rural areas where social distancing is easier and connections to the outdoors are abundant.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

Le Carré’s novels dramatically changed the way the British public, fed on a diet of James Bond and Len Deighton, perceived the world of intelligence. They also provided welcome fodder for newspapers. A story about former MI6 chief John Scarlett’s post-intelligence career published in the i paper in November 2015...

The initial rollout of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has begun, and vaccines are shipping across the U.S. Demand for COVID-19 vaccines will outpace supply for the foreseeable future. Yet experts have warned that a substantial proportion of these highly perishable vaccines could go to waste if they are not being used...

Canada follows Australia in announcing the planting of billions of new trees by 2030. These will help to meet climate-change and other targets.

This month, Google forced out a prominent AI ethics researcher after she voiced frustration with the company for making her withdraw a research paper. The paper pointed out the risks of language-processing artificial intelligence, the type used in Google Search and other text analysis products.

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

As the summer bushfire season looms, Tasmania has more than doubled its fleet of pre-positioned firefighting aircraft.

Australians became more satisfied with federal public services, and more trusting of them, during the first months of COVID-19, according to survey results released by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Emerging evidence suggests the first-generation vaccines currently in clinical trials have a good chance of preventing SARS-CoV-2 related illness, but they are less likely to prevent infection with the virus altogether. This means it is unlikely current vaccines will adequately suppress viral transmission.

Be prepared for any weather with our daily forecast for Australia.

Rural communities, in particular, will be hit hard. The closure of local hubs such as pubs and community centres in rural and remote areas has been a trend in recent years. The pandemic is likely to exacerbate this. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 is crucial when considering the long-term future...

Last week, Australia took an important step towards addressing the ongoing effects of the 2018 waste crisis. The federal parliament passed legislation banning the export of unprocessed waste overseas via the Recycling and Waste Reduction Act 2020.

Alaskan Airlines Boeing 737 was about to take off from Las Vegas when passengers and crew noticed a man climbing onto the jet’s wing.

Over 700 marine species, including half of the world’s cetaceans (such as whales and dolphins), all of its sea turtles and a third of its seabirds, are known to ingest plastic.