Two nuns who worked at a Catholic school in California for several decades embezzled as much as $500,000, and used the funds to pay for gambling trips to Las Vegas.

When confronted, both nuns, now retired, confessed and are cooperating with the investigation, with the money to be repaid and no charges laid.

Neither nun could be reached for comment but the school says both nuns have asked for forgiveness and expressed deep remorse.

David Hanna, former Queensland union boss, has been accused of deliberately disregarding documents to avoid the scrutiny of the Trade Union Royal Commission into alleged corruption.

Hanna asked colleagues to stay back one day after work to help him load seven tonnes of documents that were later tipped in the Ipswich dump, after failing to set alight.

Still unclear what was in the files, the trial continues.

A new report has revealed the Arctic is experiencing a multi-year stretch of unparalleled warmth “that is unlike any period on record”.

The US government study states that human-caused climate change is transforming the Arctic, both physically and biologically, through reduction of sea ice and wildlife populations.

Temperatures in the Arctic are warming at more than twice the global average, with the five years since 2014 being warmer than any other year on record.

Within the past six months, Adani representatives have had forty meetings with the federal government to discuss the Carmichael coal mine project.

Greens Senator Larissa Waters says the number meetings suggest a cosy relationship between the two, further stating the environment department should be a regulator and protector of the planet, rather than facilitating the development of the coal mine.

South Australia is set to become home to Australia’s new space agency with the help of a $41 million investment from the Australian Government.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said South Australia is an ideal home for the new agency and is already a key hub for space and technology industry.

The agency will be based at the former Royal Adelaide Hospital site and will create up to 20 000 jobs by 2030.

NASA’s Voyager 2 has become the second human-made object to enter interstellar space, the government agency announced this week.

Now 11 billion miles from Earth, the probe crossed the outer edge of the heliosphere on November 5, which acts as a transition zone to outer space.

Though NASA’s Voyager 1 managed the same feat in 2012, its instrument to gather plasma data was damaged in the 1980s, while Voyager 2 has been able to communicate data from its journey through the edge of the solar system.

New Zealand has passed legislation allowing for the medicinal use of marijuana, after years of campaigning by the chronically ill, who say the drug is their only form of pain relief.

The laws will allow sick New Zealanders to begin smoking immediately and will pave the way for a potentially game-changing new industry for the country, internationally and nationally.

The measures come ahead of a promised referendum on the recreational use of marijuana in the next two years, as part of a government agreement with the Greens.