The tourist hotspot of Thailand will halve mandatory quarantine to seven days for vaccinated visitors and scrap it altogether in some places, as part of a "living with COVID" strategy.

Stuff and Bloomberg report the nation will remove any isolation period for travellers in 10 provinces including capital Bangkok in November, to help revive the economy, which usually welcomes 40m visitors a year generating $82b.

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However a curfew will remain in place from 10pm to 4am.

The country will reopen theatres, sports venues and salons next month.

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The nation is vaccinating as many as one million people a day, Stuff reports.

It has delayed the reopening of tourism several times.

The latest decisions by the virus panel, chaired by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha, are part of its "living with COVID" strategy to restart the economy, while aiming to keep infections low.

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Australia's ambitious scientific mission to retrieve an Antarctic ice core dating back more than a million years is a step closer, with the unveiling of a new 400-kilogram drill capable of pulling samples from almost three-kilometres under the ice cap.

The drill, which can operate at temperatures 55 degrees below zero, will be used to retrieve the world's oldest continuous ice core, in what is viewed by the Federal Government as an important climate science project.

One million years ago the rhythm of ice ages changed dramatically and the million-year ice core program is about finding out why.

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The ice cores which the drill hopes to recover contain tiny bubbles of air from around a million years ago, which will give Australian scientists a snapshot of the atmosphere from that period of time.

The 10-metre-long stainless-steel drill head was designed and built by Australian Antarctic Division engineers in Tasmania over the last two years.

Engineers prepared massive blocks of ice over two months, adding small amounts of water every day to make the half tonne necessary to replicate the icy Antarctic conditions required to properly test the drill for the first time outside the workshop today.

Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley said the unveiling of the drill today was a "huge milestone".

"Australia's role in global climate research is incredibly significant and this project is at the absolute cutting edge," Ms Ley said.

"We hope this information will help us understand more about climate changes of the past and long-term climate impacts."

To deliver the world's oldest ice core, teams will traverse 1300 kilometres of the Antarctic to the site at 'Little Dome C' and then drill for several summer seasons through 2800 metres of ice in some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth.

"This is a modern-day Antarctic adventure," Ms Ley said.

Lines of cars have formed at some British petrol stations for a fourth day, as the government mulls sending in the army to help ease supply disruption triggered by a shortage of truck drivers.

As the British Medical Association called for emergency workers to be given priority for fuel supplies, Petrol Retailers Association chairman Brian Madderson said training had been taking place "in the background" for military personnel to drive tankers.

The government on Monday said it had "no plans at the moment" to deploy troops, but was making preparations just in case.

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The Petrol Retailers Association, which represents almost 5500 independent outlets, said Sunday that about two-thirds of its members were reporting they had run out of fuel, as the driver shortage set off a round of petrol panic-buying.

The government insisted the UK had "ample fuel stocks," and blamed the problems on consumer behaviour.

"The only reason we don't have petrol on the forecourts is that people are buying petrol they don't need," said Environment Secretary George Eustice.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of council at the British Medical Association, said health care workers and other essential services staff should be "given priority access to fuel so they can continue their crucial work and guarantee care to patients."

Roland McKibbin, a self-employed electrician in London, said he had had to cancel jobs because he couldn't get petrol.

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"I rely on fuel to travel to jobs, no fuel means I can't drive, which means I can't get to jobs with my tools," he said.

"So, basically, the panic-buying idiots have lost me income, and directly taken food off the table for my wife and five-year-old son, because I can't wire people's houses from home, unfortunately."

The haulage industry says the UK is short as many as 100,000 truckers, due to a perfect storm of factors including the coronavirus pandemic, an ageing workforce and an exodus of foreign workers following Britain's departure from the European Union last year.

Post-Brexit immigration rules mean EU citizens can no longer live and work visa-free in Britain, as they could when the UK was a member of the bloc.

Several countries, including the United States and Germany, also are experiencing a shortage of truck drivers. But the problem has been especially visible in Britain, where it has contributed to empty supermarket shelves and shuttered petrol pumps.

In an effort to ease the petrol crunch, the government said it was temporarily suspending competition laws so fuel firms could share information and target areas where supply was running low.

It is also bringing in military driving examiners to help clear a backlog of new truckers awaiting tests, though Mr Eustice said "we've no plans at the moment to bring in the army to actually do the driving."

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"But we always have a civil contingencies section within the army on standby," he added.

And, after weeks of mounting pressure over shortages, the UK's Conservative government announced on Saturday that it would issue thousands of emergency visas to foreign truck drivers to help prevent a Christmas without turkey or toys for many British families.

The government said it would issue 5000 three-month visas for truck drivers starting in October, and another 5500 for poultry workers.

But that falls far short of the number needed. Ruby McGregor-Smith, president of the Confederation of British Industry, said the announcement was "the equivalent of throwing a thimble of water on a bonfire".

Representatives of European truckers were skeptical that many would want to come to the UK for such a short time. The visas are due to expire on December 24.

Edwin Atema from the Dutch FNV union, which represents drivers across the Europe, said the visa plan was "a dead end".

"I think the EU workers we speak to will not go to the UK for a short-term visa to help UK out of the (mess) they created themselves," he told the BBC.

Olaf Scholz, leader of Germany's Social Democrats, the party that came first in the country's election on Sunday, also linked Britain's worker shortages to Brexit.

"The free movement of labour is part of the European Union, and we worked very hard to convince the British to not leave the union," he said.

"Now they decided different, and I hope they will manage the problems coming from that."

Nearly all of Australia's capital cities are in for a drenching this week as days of rain and thunderstorms are forecast, with the east and south eastern coast bearing the brunt.

The first major storm of the season is likely and residents in the firing line are being warned to be prepared. They include Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart and Perth.

From tomorrow a series of cold fronts will bring rain, storms and blustery winds to southwestern Australia lasting until at least Friday.

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Miriam Bradley from the Bureau of Meteorology said the storms have the potential to be "severe".

"Over the next few days, developing tonight but then intensifying tomorrow and Thursday, we are going to see pretty significant areas of heavy rainfall and this is going to be even enhanced by thunderstorms," Ms Bradley told Today.

"Areas which are going to be hardest hit – basically anywhere along the great dividing range from South East Queensland all the way through New South Wales, down to north-east Victoria and then about the western slopes of those rains as well.

"Those thunderstorms have the potential to be severe both tomorrow and Thursday."

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Ms Bradley said the storms could "produce damaging wind gusts, heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding or large hail".

"All of those are quite significant risks. The damaging winds can bring down powerlines and trees and cause other damage.

"The heavy rainfall can lead to flash flooding and make hazardous driving conditions and even just conditions for being outdoors.

"It is definitely very important to stay aware of the risks and the forecast for your area."

In the Northern Territory, humid easterly winds will increase the likelihood of showers and thunderstorms over the western Top End later in the week.

Models suggest that Darwin could be in with a chance of picking up some rain late in the week, most likely around Friday or Saturday.

R. Kelly has been found guilty in a sex trafficking trial after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of misconduct with young women and children.

A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering on their second day of deliberations.

The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls — and keep them obedient and quiet — amounted to a criminal enterprise.

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Several accusers testified in lurid detail during the trial, alleging that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.

For years, the public and news media seemed to be more amused than horrified by allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors, starting with Kelly's illegal marriage to the R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15.

Records and concert tickets for the R&B superstar, known for his anthem "I Believe I Can Fly," kept selling.

Other artists continued to record his songs, even after he was arrested in 2002 and accused of making a recording of himself sexually abusing and urinating on a 14-year-old girl.

Widespread public condemnation didn't come until a widely watched docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly" helped make his case a signifier of the #MeToo era, and gave voice to alleged victims who wondered if their stories were previously ignored because they were Black women.

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At the trial, several of Kelly's accusers testified without using their real names to protect their privacy and prevent possible harassment by the singer's fans. Jurors were shown homemade videos of Kelly engaging in sex acts that prosecutors said were not consensual.

Assistant US Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez argued that Kelly was a serial abuser who "maintained control over these victims using every trick in the predator handbook."

The defence labeled the accusers "groupies" and "stalkers."

Defence attorney Deveraux Cannick questioned why the alleged victims stayed in relationships with Kelly if they thought they were being exploited.

"You made a choice," Mr Cannick told one woman who testified, adding, "You participated of your own will."

Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, has been jailed without bail since in 2019. The trial was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and Kelly's last-minute shakeup of his legal team.

When it finally started on August 18, prosecutors painted the 54-year-old singer as a pampered man-child and control freak. His accusers said they were under orders to call him "Daddy," expected to jump and kiss him anytime he walked into a room, and to cheer only for him when he played pickup basketball games in which they said he was a ball hog.

The accusers alleged that they also were ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as "Rob's rules." Some said they believed the videotapes he shot of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.

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Among the other more troubling tableaus: Kelly keeping a gun by his side while he berated one of his accusers as a prelude to forcing her to give him oral sex in a Los Angeles music studio; Kelly giving several alleged victims herpes without disclosing he had an STD; Kelly coercing a teen boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from underneath a boxing ring in his garage; and Kelly shooting a shaming video of one alleged victim showing her smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.

Some of the most harrowing testimony came from a woman who said Kelly took advantage of her in 2003 when she was an unsuspecting radio station intern. She testified he whisked her to his Chicago recording studio, where she was kept locked up and was drugged before he sexually assaulted her while she was passed out.

When she realised she was trapped, "I was scared. I was ashamed. I was embarrassed," she said.

She said one of R. Kelly's employees warned her to keep her mouth shut about what had happened.

Other testimony focused on Kelly's relationship with Aaliyah. One of the final witnesses described seeing him sexually abusing her around 1993, when Aaliyah was only 13 or 14.

Jurors also heard testimony about a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he had impregnated Aaliyah. Witnesses said they were married in matching jogging suits using a license falsely listing her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.

Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number." She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

In at least one instance, Kelly was accused of abusing a victim around the time he was under investigation in a child pornography case in Chicago. He was acquitted at trial in 2008.

For the Brooklyn trial, US District Judge Ann Donnelly barred people not directly involved in the case from the courtroom in what she called a coronavirus precaution. Reporters and other spectators had to watch on a video feed from another room in the same building.

The New York case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota. Trial dates in those cases have yet to be set.