Australia has become the first western country to ban secure encryption, allowing the government to demand encrypted data from companies without judicial review.

Products from Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft must now include systematic weaknesses, which will allow the Government to intercept data.

The bill has only passed Australia’s lower chamber, while the upper chamber has indicated it will pass the legislation provided there are later votes on unspecific parts of the bill.

Los Angeles teachers are on strike for the first time in 30 years, leaving over 600,000 students in limbo.

32,000 Los Angeles educators walked off the job Monday in the country’s second-biggest school district. Los Angeles Unified School District has hired about 400 substitute teachers and reassigned more than 2,000 administrators in response.

Antarctica is losing ice six times faster today, than in the 1980s.

Scientists used aerial photographs, satellite measurements and computer models to track how fast the continent has been melting since 1979 and have found ice loss to be accelerating dramatically.

Since 2009, Antartica has lost almost 278 billion tons of ice per year. This contrasts from the 1980s where it was only losing 44 billion tons a year. The recent melting rate is 15% higher than what a study found last year.

More than 13 million animals were used for scientific purposes last year, marking a 194 percent increase since 2017.

Over 50 percent of projects were attributed to environmental studies, a quarter was for the ‘maintenance and and improvement of animals or human welfare’, and the remainder provided information for education, biology and improving animal management.

Humane Research Australian Chief Helen Marston wants animal testing phased out, as she considered the testing animals have undergone to be ‘truly horrendous’.

Home-schooling in Queensland has nearly tripled over the last five years. Gympie, Toowoomba and Caboolture were the top areas for home-schooling in the state last year.

QUT Lecturer Rebecca English has cited “accidental home educators” as cause for the increase, saying, “Usually it comes down to some kind of diagnosis, the kids might be ADHD, ASD, ODD or the child might have been bullied.”

There were over 3,000 students registered for home education in 2018, an increase of 192% from five years ago.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has refused to reverse the decision to deport a family of asylum seekers, despite a last-ditch bid to block their deportation by residents of Biloela, Central Queensland.

Peter Dutton told SBS news the family has gone through multiple court processes and at every single turn they’ve been found not to be refugees. From the 1st of February, the family can be deported back to Sri Lanka at any time.

Australians will remain hot and bothered for this week as heatwave conditions push temperatures into the mid- 40s in some regions around the country.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast daytime temperatures of up to 12C above average and 10C higher than usual at night from Monday to Friday.

An extreme heatwave is expected to sizzle across most of eastern NSW this week while the rest of the state will experience severe conditions.

The U.S. government shutdown has entered it’s 24th day, officially making it the longest shutdown in U.S. history.

Beginning December 22nd, about one-quarter of federal government operations have been shut down by a lack of funding after President Trump demanded $5.7 billion from congress to build a wall on the Southwest U.S. Border.

The U.S. economy will have lost $3.6 billion by Friday, meaning that another two weeks will cost $6 billion, exceeding the cost of the proposed budget for the wall.

The Mayor of the Polish port city of Gdansk has died on Monday, following the stabbing attack that occurred on Sunday during a charity event.

The 53-year-old had been in a critical condition with a serious heart wound and cuts to his diaphragm and abdominal muscles.

Major of London, Sadiq Khan, has offered his condolences via twitter, stating it was a ‘devastating loss’ for those who ‘value public service, progressive policy and open accessibility to all democracy’.