The federal environment department says the proposal to ditch the need for the recovery plans from the 185 at risk species and ecological communities is just the first tranche with more to follow.

The proposed changes are drawing criticism with University of Queensland’s Professor of Conservation Science James Watson saying the plans are a quote “quick fix”. 

Female municipal employees in Kabul are told to stay home unless their jobs cannot be filled by a man.

The new Taliban mayor of Afghanistan, Hamdullah Nomany, says the Taliban “found it necessary to stop women from working for a while”.

In the latest round of restrictions placed on women, the group has shut down the women’s affair ministry and replaced it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice”.

There are questions arising over whether Queensland should enforce heavier restrictions on essential workers entering the state to prevent COVID-19 cases.

Since August 24 there have been 11 cases where essential workers, particularly truck drivers, have entered QLD when infectious.

Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young says the federal government is considering mandating vaccines for freight drivers, even though compliance level is quite high anyway.

New research hub led by University of Queensland researchers has received $2.5 million to investigate better ways to help people suffering with drug and alcohol addiction.

The funding, provided by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), will be used to turn the existing partnership between UQ researchers and addiction support provider Lives Lived Well into a national Centre of Research Excellence (CRE).

Fifteen men have been arrested following a brawl in Runcorn.

Acting Superintendent Simon Tayler says it would be alleged that the motive for the fight, involving more than 50 people, was a power struggle between two groups of people involved in the Brisbane Sikh Temple in Eight Mile Plains. 

Sergeant Wade Domagala described the incident as a “frenzied attack” and told the court there were allegations of previous threats being made to gain control of the Sikh temple’s committee.

Forensic crime scene technology is being used to trawl streams in eastern Australia in a bid to find more of the elusive platypus.

The species, which is endangered, were pushed further towards extinction by the devastating 2019/20 bushfires that scorched their habitat and pushed ash into streams.

Scientists are desperate to find more platypuses in the wild in hopes to boost populations.

Using cutting edge DNA technology to identify microscopic traces of the animals, scientists are hoping to track platypus populations and restore their habitat.

A new “Insect Investigators” program led by the South Australian museum is now calling for 50 schools across Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia to join an official program to help scientists find and catalogue insects.

University of the Sunshine Coast ecologist Andy Howe says, “There are an estimated 200,000 insect species with 62,000 identified and described”.

With the program running for four weeks in February next year, more than 50 schools will be participating.

Thousands of Haitian migrants are camping in the remote Texas city of Del Rio.

The US government has plans to swiftly send them back.

According to an official, three flights have already left San Antonio for Port-au-Prince.

The US has also blocked the border at Del Rio.

The Haitian prime minister, Ariel Henry, wrote on Twitter that he was concerned about conditions at the border camp and that the migrants would be welcomed back.