The Murray-Darling Basin Authority has attacked a new project to reduce the size of the Menindee Lake in New South Wales.

The plan involves reducing evaporation in the lakes by shrinking them and letting the lakes run dry more often.

The project has been welcomed by irrigators to save water but is being met with resistance by local communities.

An authority trusted to manage the $266 million of support for the Hazelwood Power Station to transition away from coal-fired power generation is unable to provide information on how much money has been spent.

The Victorian State Government established The Latrobe Valley Authority (LVA) to manage the assistance fund after the Hazelwood power station was shut down last year.

Karen Cain, the spokesperson for LVA says while the entire $266 million had been allocated, it was impossible to say exactly what remained.

Tree clearing in Queensland is estimated to now be fifteen times more destructive to koala populations than urban sprawl.

World Wildlife Fund conservation scientist Martin Taylor found that of the more than 5,000 koala deaths caused by habitat loss from 2012 to 2016, 94% were outside South-East Queensland.

Taylor said the destruction of koala habitat is leading them closer to extinction.

Protesters gathered behind a Sunrise live broadcast of the Commonwealth Games on a Gold Coast beach this morning.

With no sound-proof glass or blinds, the presenters Samantha Armytage and David Koch, were forced to address what was happening behind them while live on air.

Before cutting back to the beachfront for a second time, the protesters shouted, “always was, always will be Aboriginal land”.

A human finger fossil found in the Saudi Arabian desert dates back to almost 90,000 years ago, about 30,000 years earlier than humans were thought to have migrated east of Africa.

Humans were previously thought to have migrated into Eurasia in a large wave around 60,000 years ago, but discoveries like this have changed this view.

Professor Michael Petraglia of the Max Planck Institute says this discovery is a dream come true.

The German airline Lufthansa cancelled 800 flights Tuesday, half of their scheduled flights, as airport workers staged a walkout.

The walkout involved public sector workers at four German airports and did not include Lufthansa’s own employees.

Verdi, a German trade union, said the strikes are to “increase pressure” before the workers head into wage talks with employers.

The Northern Territory is looking into farming and processing of feral donkeys after 50 genuine enquiries from Chinese investors.

Donkey products are in high demand by nations such as China, particularly for the gelatin in their hide, and suppliers are reducing world-wide.

The Northern Territory government says it does not support the live export of donkeys now or in the future as their behaviour is unsuitable for shipping.

Johnson and Johnson, a pharmaceutical giant, is being dragged into a land-mark court action by hundreds of women.

The women are suing them over the impact of Johnson and Johnson’s vaginal mesh, which is used to support organs where muscles have weakened or been injured, commonly used in women recovering from childbirth complications.