It would be easy enough to get home quickly if we had money to burnFollow our Covid live blog for the latest updatesRestrictions: NSW; Vic; Qld; SA; WA and NT; border restrictionsHotspots: NSW map; Vic list; Qld; WAVaccine rollout tracker; get our free news app; get our morning email briefing“But aren’t you a citizen?”That’s the first thing most Italians ask when I tell them I can’t make...

Researchers say cases linked to products claiming to promote muscle growth or weight loss are rising and more rigorous oversight is neededThe number of patients being admitted to hospital with severe liver injuries caused by herbal and dietary supplements claiming to promote muscle growth or weight loss is increasing, with some people harmed so severely they required a liver transplant.A study led...

Hunt begins near Oslo for fragments after sightings of large space rock hurtling across night skyAn “unusually large meteor” briefly lit up southern Norway on Sunday, creating a spectacular sound and light display as it rumbled across the sky, and a part of it may have hit Earth, possibly not far from the capital, Oslo, experts said.Reports of sightings started arriving at around 1am, and the...

An 'unusually large' meteor briefly lit up southern Norway on Sunday, as it sped at up to 20km per second across the morning sky. Reports of sightings started at around 1am, with sightings of the phenomenon recorded as far north as Trondheim. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage. Continue...

Champion of autistic people who explored the attention that they devote to a leading interestDinah Murray, who has died aged 75 of pancreatic cancer, was a key figure in autism studies, and an indefatigable advocate for autistic people for three decades. Her acute insight lay in the importance of attention and interests to an understanding of the condition.On the autistic spectrum herself and...

Insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years – and the consequences may soon be catastrophic. Biologist Dave Goulson reveals the vital services they performI have been fascinated by insects all my life. One of my earliest memories is of finding, at the age of five or six, some stripy yellow-and-black caterpillars feeding on weeds in the school playground. I put them in my empty lunchbox,...

‘Disastrous’ energy policies of China, Russia, Brazil and Australia could stoke 5C rise in temperatures if adopted by the rest of the worldA key group of leading G20 nations is committed to climate targets that would lead to disastrous global warming, scientists have warned. They say China, Russia, Brazil and Australia all have energy policies associated with 5C rises in atmospheric...

The new space race between the world’s richest men proves one thing to the rest of us – the sooner they leave this planet the betterThe time has come to abolish billionaires. I mean, it’s been coming for a while, but now the alarm is ringing.It started ringing when it first became clear that the existence of billionaires revealed a huge failure in our economic system. When it first became...

People with invisible disabilities have long asked for flexible options such as working from home. Then came the pandemicI struggle with a mild form of face blindness, or prosopagnosia. The condition, usually associated with autism, makes it difficult to remember people’s faces. This means that, in high-stress situations, I am often unable to match someone’s face to their name or even remember...