Scientists stalking a small marsupial through a remote Australian rainforest say they may have found a clue to the mystery of why its bigger kangaroo cousins hop instead of walk. Kangaroos and closely related wallabies are the only large animals to hop upright on two legs, researchers from Australia’s Flinders University said Thursday, but why…

A Florida man who killed an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother on a night in which he drank heavily and used drugs was executed on Thursday. Edward James, 63, was pronounced dead at 8.15pm after receiving a three-drug injection at Florida state prison outside Starke under a death warrant signed in February by Governor Ron…

An array of high-profile celebrities including Sir Stephen Fry, Brian Cox and Stanley Tucci have criticised the government’s £5bn cuts to disability benefits, calling the plans “shameful” and “a stain on this country”. They joined the UK’s biggest food bank network, Trussell, in urging ministers to rethink the planned changes, warning they risked pushing even…

A new Western Forest is to be created across a swathe of the west of England from the Cotswolds to the Mendips, the government has said. The project, one of the government’s promised national forests, will create 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) of woodland by 2030 across five priority areas in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Bristol,…

One of Stephen Lawrence’s killers may now accept he was involved in assaulting the teenager, according to a report by the Parole Board. Lawrence, 18, was murdered by a gang of racists in south-east London in 1993, but only two of his killers have faced justice. Gary Dobson and David Norris were jailed for life…

As Hawaii’s most active volcano shot out fountains of lava on Thursday, some of them reaching as high as 700ft, scientists from the US Geological Survey have been posting regular updates on the scale and pace of the eruptions. But those same scientists, along with their volcano-monitoring equipment, may soon be evicted from their office…

The Victorian government’s controversial bail laws have passed parliament after a marathon debate, sparking criticism from legal and human rights groups who warn it will lead to the increased criminalisation of Aboriginal and other marginalised communities. The premier, Jacinta Allan, announced the changes to the Bail Act last week, before they were fast-tracked through parliament,…

Two men have been found guilty of plotting to assassinate the Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by the Iranian government. The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured…