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A new $35 million Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence will be based at The University of Newcastle and will develop new efficiencies to the mining industry.

A large aquifer in Victoria's Latrobe Valley could support whole industries and recreational facilities.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

At 16, MiMi Aung travelled alone to the US for an education. Now she's a project lead on Nasa's Mars mission.

What's the best way to travel tens of kilometres over uneven terrain in hot sun and stuffy humidity, where brown snakes and water buffalo roam the roads?

The UK will update its Paris Agreement pledge early next year and is seeking the EU to follow in step or slightly later in encouraging other nations to act, UK climate minister Ian Duncan said Friday.

A UK-assembled European spacecraft aims to take the closest ever pictures and movies of the Sun.

This week we take a look at drought across the Nullarbor. Western Australian communities and farmers are also struggling with dry conditions, but some are reluctant to speak about it because of the dire situation in the east. And we take a look at the battle for water underneath our feet.

Front-year EU carbon futures are likely to expire near €25 or €30 in mid-December, based on signals from the EUA options market, according to a veteran trader.

Leila Jeffreys’ ethereal images required 300 budgies, 20kg of birdseed and painting the birds’ toenails

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Growing up in India to an Indian mother and Anglo-Australian father, the artist Leila Jeffreys found herself drawn to the myriad rainbow-coloured birds.

“I was a real dreamer,” she recalls over tea in Sydney, where she lives with her husband, son and dog, Ronnie Barker. “We travelled a lot and I never really knew the names of the places we went to. But if there was an animal or a bird I just zoned in. I imagined their stories and their lives. I always saw them and I saw their characters.”

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It startled the cows, intrigued the locals and excited scientists around the world. Fifty years on, the Murchison meteorite still defines a town and yields new discoveries every year.

Competitors' bankruptcy proposal for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) would funnel nearly $29 billion through two stock offerings to help cover the embattled California utility’s wildfire liabilities, according to a filing by bondholders and fire victims on Thursday.

Campaigners and MPs condemn the ban of Extinction Rebellion across London, while Keith Flett writes that historically protest has always included disruptive elements. Plus letters from Marilyn Mason, Richard Terry, Declan O’Neill, Jackie Ambrose and Peter B Baker

Thursday was not an easy day to be a member of Extinction Rebellion (Movement split over tactics as travellers turn on activist who disrupted rail travel, 18 October). As families involved in the movement, we feel that now is not the time to condone or condemn, but to recognise and reflect on the very human desperation that has driven thousands of citizens to commit acts of nonviolent civil disobedience.

Despite more than 1,600 arrests over the last two weeks, the government is yet to respond with a clear plan of action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency. While we sound the alarm louder and louder, the government remains silent.

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A climate change activist dressed as Boris Johnson has scaled the scaffolding surrounding London's Big Ben. The man was filmed standing on netting which was hung off the clock tower's frame on Friday afternoon. As he balanced on the edge of the landmark, he revealed two banners which read 'No pride on a dead planet' and 'Citizens Assembly'. According to Extinction Rebellion's Facebook page, the protester is 43-year-old tree surgeon Ben Atkinson.

• Extinction Rebellion activist climbs Big Ben in climate protest
  
• Brexit: Labour to back rebel Tory bid to force Johnson to demand extension – live news
  

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Discovery of whale’s body near Gravesend follows death of young humpback this month

A second whale has been found dead in the Thames less than two weeks after a humpback nicknamed Hessy died near the same stretch of water.

The Port of London Authority confirmed the suspected fin whale was discovered in the river at Denton, near Gravesend, on Friday morning.

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A plucky otter, a mysterious blob and a Florida panther on the prowl

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Analysts expect EU carbon prices to climb sharply over the next few years but to then fall back as demand from industrial emitters eases as factories invest in cleaner production methods, a conference heard on Thursday.

The Wong family of Peru amassed a fortune building up a chain of supermarkets, but much of their wealth today is in real estate – including the 220,000-hectare (543,400-acre) Madeacre forestry concession that family’s late patriarch, Erasmo Wong, cobbled together in the province of Tahuamanu.

Two female astronauts are making history with the first ever all-women spacewalk.

European carbon prices fell back on Friday on a weak auction result and amid pessimism that the Brexit deal agreed this week between Britain and the EU would pass UK parliament, with bearish implications for EUAs in most outcomes.