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Spying on bees reveals pesticides impair social behavior

A new study that allowed humans to spy on bumblebees inside their nests showed that pesticides can impair social behavior, making it hard for bees to eat and rear their young, researchers said Thursday.Previous research has shown that the common class of pesticides known as neonicotinoids can harm bees’ ability to forage outside the nest.The…

Petrol at new decade highs

Petrol: new decade highs, but light in the tunnelPetrol prices; New home salesUnleaded petrol price: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum the national average price of unleaded petrol rose in the past week by 1.2 cents to 160.5 cents a litre – the highest level for over a decade (highest prices since the week…

CommSec Daily Report Monday

Latest NewsInvestor nerves are still rattled after the worst weekly loss on the Australian sharemarket since January 2016 last week with the ASX 200 stumbling again on Monday. The index is down another 88 points or 1.5% to 5807 and accelerating towards lunch despite a strong rally for Wall Street on Friday where the Dow rebounded…

Lockheed Martin unveils its lunar lander concept vehicle

US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, responding to NASA’s plans to renew the exploration of the moon and Mars in the next decade, unveiled Wednesday a concept spacecraft able to land on the lunar surface.The US space agency said it plans to send astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 as the initial…

Shorten skeptical of Adani mine project

Bill Shorten has distanced himself from Labor’s climate change spokesman’s comments about Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine. Mark Butler made his thoughts clears about what should happen to the Galilee Basin in Queensland in a video posted to social media on Friday. ‘I do not support opening new mines in the Galilee Basin, whether it’s…

Rights groups urge Google not to bend to China censors

Human rights groups and other advocacy organizations Tuesday urged Google to abandon any plans to craft a censored version of its search engine that could pass muster with regulators in China.A reported Dragonfly project, which Google has not publicly confirmed, ‘would represent an alarming capitulation by Google on human rights,’ argued a letter signed by…

ASX lifts FY profit on higher trading

Markets operator ASX Limited has posted a 2.5 per cent lift in full-year net profit to $445.1 million with a strong contribution from its listings service, capital raisings and futures trading. The statutory profit result was weighed down by a $20.2 million impairment charge on ASX’s investment in electronic interest rate market operator business Yieldbroker….

Copper hits 2-week low over trade tensions

Copper has hit a two-week low as a flare-up in trade tensions between the United States and top metals consumer China boosted the US dollar and overshadowed news of a strike at BHP’s Escondida mine in Chile. The US administration raised pressure on China for trade concessions on Wednesday by proposing a 25 per cent…

European stock markets steady at open

Europe’s main stock markets steadied at the start of trading on Thursday, with London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index down 0.2 percent at 7,665.14 points.In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index was flat at 12,740.68 points and the Paris CAC 40 slipped 0.2 percent to 5,437.71 compared with Wednesday’s closing levels.

Trump tweet ineffective in cutting oil prices

Oil prices have clawed their way back up after falling during Thursday’s trading session in Asia following an overnight tweet from US President Donald Trump. He demanded that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), an international oil cartel, cut its prices for crude oil. There were some early losses during the day after…