A group of teachers and small business owners have been granted an appeal to argue that a state's COVID-19 vaccination mandates were unlawful.

Teachers sacked for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine and small business owners impacted by the mandate have been granted an appeal against the Queensland government.

The Queensland Court of Appeal ruled today in favour of seven teachers and 12 small business owners who wish to fight again that the mandate was unlawful.

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Gold Coast teacher Cherie Jean Ishiyama was sacked from her job in 2022 after refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine, breaching the state's mandate for frontline staff, including educators.

Five other teachers and an early childhood educator also refused to be vaccinated, fearing they would be terminated from their jobs due to the mandate.

Among the 12 hospitality owners, many were unvaccinated and could not enter their businesses and were forced to treat staff and visitors differently based on their vaccination status.

Others were fully vaccinated but had to restrict access to patrons who were unvaccinated, which "significantly" impacted turnover.

The group lodged an application in 2022 against the COVID-19 mandate made by the Queensland government and former chief health officer John Gerrard, claiming it was "unlawful" and detrimental to their human rights.

The mandate, which applied to workers in educational settings, correctional services facilities, police watch houses, youth detention centres, and airports, and required only vaccinated people with proof to enter businesses, was revoked later in 2022.

The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the state government in 2023 to grant summary dismissal because the group was no longer affected by the mandate, given it had been revoked.

The group was also made to pay the state government's costs.

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The teachers and business owners appealed the decision, seeking "declaratory relief" and for the state government to instead pay the costs.

Declaratory relief means a court can determine the legal rights of parties without ordering anything to be done or awarding damages.

Again, the state government argued the Supreme Court's decision should be upheld because none of the group was at risk of future prosecution for not complying with the revoked mandate and there were "no foreseeable consequences".

The Court of Appeal on Tuesday granted the appeal and overturned the state government's summary dismissal application.

"There is no other good reason to deny the applicants their day in court in their attempt to establish the merits of their claims for declaratory orders in relation to alleged past contraventions," Justice John Bond ruled.

"There is a strong public interest in determining whether or not there is any merit in their claims."

Justice Bond also ruled the state government and Gerrard must pay the costs of the application.

"There is no good reason why costs should not follow the event, and they should not have their costs in this court and below," Justice Bond said.

The granting of the appeal means the teacher and small business owner's case can now go back before the courts.

It comes after the Queensland Supreme Court made a landmark ruling in 2024 that police and ambulance service workers were unlawfully directed to receive vaccines or face potential disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.

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A south-western Sydney driver has been fined after trying to drive with a full-sized mattress hanging from the back of his ute cab.

Officers in Liverpool stopped a Kia Tasman over the weekend after spotting the large mattress in the back of the car, not tied down with anything.

The driver told officers that there was "nothing wrong with it," however, police disagreed.

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"All loads carried must be adequately restrained to prevent the load from falling off, moving excessively, or affecting the vehicle's stability," NSW Police said.

The vehicle's number plate was also blocked by the mattress.

"Motorists are also reminded that number plates must be clearly visible from a distance of 20 meters and within an arc of 45 degrees from the plate's surface, both above and to either side of the vehicle," NSW Police said.

Driving with an overhanging load can lead to a $481 fine and three demerit points.

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An unusual attack by bees in the French town of Aurillac has left 24 people injured, including three who were in critical condition but have since improved, according to local authorities.

Passersby were stung over a period of about 30 minutes on Sunday morning, according to the Prefecture of Cantal, in south-central France.

Firefighters and medical teams were rushed to the scene to treat the victims, while police set up a security perimeter until the bees stopped their attack.

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The three people in critical condition were evacuated to a local hospital.

Pierre Mathonier, the mayor of Aurillac, told French broadcaster BFM TV yesterday that their condition has improved.

One of them was a 78-year-old person who had to be resuscitated after cardiorespiratory arrest and is now in stable condition, he said.

The two others "are in good health," he added.

According to the mayor, the incident may have been related to Asian hornets threatening a beehive that had been installed on the roof terrace of a downtown hotel more than a decade ago.

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He said that this had likely caused the bees to become aggressive.

Mathonier said that the beekeeper has removed the beehive and relocated it outside of the town.

Lieutenant Colonel Michel Cayla, in charge of the local fire services, said that he had never experienced such an attack.

He said the victim who was in cardiorespiratory arrest had to be resuscitated in the fire department's ambulance.

"In terms of the number of victims, the panic among the people and the severity of some of the injuries, it was impressive," he told broadcaster TF1.

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Some flights between Australia and Bali have been delayed after an Indonesian volcano erupted for the second time in recent months.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted on Monday and sent a cloud of ash 18 kilometres into the sky at the popular holiday destination.

A Virgin Australia spokesperson said two scheduled morning departures out of Brisbane and Melbourne to Denpasar have been delayed this afternoon as the airline monitors ash cloud movement.

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"Our team of expert meteorologists is closely monitoring conditions and ash cloud activity following the eruption of Mount Lewotobi yesterday," the spokesperson said.

"We encourage guests travelling to or from Bali today to closely monitor their flight status via the Virgin Australia website or app."

Jetstar and Qantas flights between Australia and Bali are expected to operate as normal today.

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"Our meteorologists and operations teams are closely monitoring the movement of volcanic ash from the latest eruption of Mount Lewotobi in Indonesia," a spokesperson for the airlines said.

"Safety is always our top priority, and we will contact customers directly if their flight is disrupted.

"We thank customers for their patience and understanding."

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It was love at first sight when Yvette Colomb spotted Elsa on a greyhound adoption site.

Originally a racing dog, Elsa was almost euthanised before Colomb rescued her and gave her a second shot at life, only to see her horrifically poisoned a few years later.

It was 2020 and they were on a property about an hour north of Sydney when Elsa suddenly started to vomit.

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Colomb immediately put Elsa in the back of the car and raced to Sydney, where her daughter took Elsa straight to the emergency vet.

"I remember I looked at her and it was the last time I looked at her before she was quite disabled," Colomb told 9news.com.au.

By the time Elsa arrived at the vet, she'd vomited again, suffered a seizure and had to be put on life support.

That's when the vet called Colomb and revealed her dog had been poisoned.

Elsa had accidentally ingested sodium fluoroacetate poison baits, better known as 1080.

The poison is used across Australia to cull foxes, rabbits, wild dogs and feral cats by applying it to food items which are left out for animals to find.

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People who lived through the Irish Potato Famine, enslavement in Trinidad and Icelandic measles epidemics all have something in common: Women outlive men in dire circumstances.

That's because the female body is built for resilience and longevity, as CNN found while conducting research for a new book, "The Stronger Sex."

Despite having more complex reproductive organs and the burdensome, sometimes fatal, functions that come with them — menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding — female bodies tend to outlast male bodies.

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And that's the case even though girls in many parts of the world have access to fewer resources, such as food and medical care, than boys do.

That female toughness holds true in extreme circumstances, as Virginia Zarulli, now an associate professor of demography at Italy's University of Padua, found when she analyzed survival data across seven historical populations experiencing famines, epidemics and enslavement.

Under these brutal conditions, women outlived men across almost all ages and locations, including among the "high-mortality" populations who confronted famine in Ukraine, Ireland and Sweden; enslavement in Trinidad; and measles epidemics in Iceland, according to her 2018 study, published in the journal PNAS.

Even newborn girls in these environments had a higher survival rate than newborn boys — a hint that the female survival advantage is rooted in biology.

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Essential female strength also shows up today in places where women experience fewer extreme physical stresses overall: "When we analyze the empirical data, for modern people it shows that death rates for men are higher than for women, pretty much at every age," Zarulli said.

Recognizing and building on these sex-based differences can help transform how we approach health care, including treatments for cancer and vaccine protocols — making medicine more precise, personalized and effective, especially for women.

Female chromosomes and hormones

People assigned female at birth have two X chromosomes, a fundamental advantage over XY, the chromosomes males have at birth.

That's because the X chromosome is much larger, containing roughly 10 times more genes.

Female bodies therefore have access to a wider range of immune genes, making their defense system remarkably strong and diverse.

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As neurogeneticist and evolutionary biologist Dr. Sharon Moalem wrote in "The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women," his book about the XX chromosome advantage, "Women have immunologically evolved to out-mutate men."

Since viruses and bacteria are always mutating, an immune system that can quickly adapt is more resilient.

Estrogen, generally higher in female bodies, also confers a variety of immune advantages.

As a result, female mammals — including humans — have better-equipped immune systems, in both their innate, generalized responses and their adaptive, specialized responses.

Female bodies also have higher counts of active neutrophils, the most common type of white blood cell that fights infections.

Scientists have also found that female bodies have more robust B cell activity — the action of white blood cells that adapt to fight off viruses or bacteria.

This advantage may also be due in part to estrogen, and researchers are trying to tease apart what is mediated by hormones, what is affected by genes and what might be attributable to other causes.

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Women produce more targeted antibodies to fight infections and also retain immunological memory longer, making their bodies more adept at responding to future infections, according to researchers.

this all leads to "the very well-known phenomenon that males tend to be more susceptible to a lot of diseases than females — though not in every disease or every individual, of course," said Marlene Zuk, a Regents Professor and evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul.

Since female bodies mount stronger immune defenses, they generally have a stronger vaccine and virus response, a greater ability to fight off sepsis and a decreased risk of some cancers.

The downside of this powerful system, however, is that women get more autoimmune diseases than men do.

Women are also more likely to live with chronic illness after surviving diseases that would have killed male bodies.

The effect of testosterone

Testosterone also seems to be an immune disadvantage, and males have more of that hormone than females do.

Zuk said that in early experiments scientists found they could "neuter male animals and their immunity would get better or inject female animals with testosterone and their immunity would get worse."

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Why?

It may be that testosterone enables male animals toward greater reproductive success by "living hard and dying young," Zuk said.

Some of the female immune advantage may be male immune disadvantage, and while it's accepted that hormones affect immunity, determining to what degree is an ongoing research question.

Physiology and culture

Some scientists argue that lifestyle and culture lead to a significant part of the male longevity disadvantage.

As a population, men tend to smoke more, drink more alcohol and engage in riskier activities than women, and men tend to exclude most women from more physically dangerous jobs.

Studies focused on what happens when women adopt some of the unhealthy habits traditionally more likely among male populations, such as smoking, still show that women live longer than men, Zarulli said.

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"In populations where men and women had the same lifestyle, there was still a difference in mortality — women had a higher life expectancy than men."

The female advantage is likely due to more than genetic and hormonal factors, according to new research: It's also found in the very structure of women's bodies.

At North Carolina State University, a team led by microbial ecologist Erin McKenney and forensic anthropologist Amanda Hale conducted a landmark study measuring the lengths of the small intestines in cadavers for the first time since 1885.

The team discovered that women's small intestines were significantly longer than men's — an advantage that allows women to extract more nutrition from the same quantity of food.

This finding, published in the journal PeerJ in a 2023 paper, might be explained by the extra demands on female bodies throughout human history: "The vast majority of the nutrients you need to replenish your system — especially during reproduction and nursing, like protein and fat — that's what's being absorbed by your small intestine," Hale said.

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This could be a key piece of the "Female Buffering Hypothesis" — the idea that female biology evolved to withstand environmental and physiological stress better — according to Hale.

Traditional medical research has long ignored the complexities of the female body. As these genomic and physiological functions are better studied and understood, the drivers behind the strength and resilience of the female body will come into focus.

This knowledge will inform more targeted treatments for infection and immunity—for all bodies.

Timelapse video has captured just how quickly floodwaters rose along the Llano River in Kingsland, Texas.

The video, which was sped up and taken on Friday, shows the water rush in and rise within 30 minutes.

The death toll from catastrophic flooding over the July Fourth weekend has now surpassed 100 as search-and-rescue teams continued to wade into swollen rivers and use heavy equipment to untangle trees as part of the massive search for missing people.

Authorities overseeing the search for flood victims said they will wait to address questions about weather warnings and why some summer camps did not evacuate ahead of the flooding that killed at least 104.

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The devastation along the Guadalupe River, outside of San Antonio, has drawn a massive search effort as officials face questions over their preparedness and the speed of their initial actions.

The floods grew to their worst at the midpoint of a long holiday weekend when many people were asleep.

The Texas Hill Country in the central part of the state is naturally prone to flash flooding due to the dry dirt-packed areas where the soil lets rain skid along the surface of the landscape instead of soaking it up.

Friday's flash floods started with a particularly bad storm that dropped most of its 30 centimetres of rain in the dark early morning hours.

After a flood watch notice midday Thursday, the National Weather Service office issued an urgent warning around 4 am that raised the potential of catastrophic damage and a severe threat to human life.

By at least 5.20am., some in the Kerrville City area say water levels were getting alarmingly high.

The massive rain flowing down hills sent rushing water into the Guadalupe River, causing it to rise eight metres in just 45 minutes.

The flash floods have erased campgrounds and torn homes from their foundations.

Camp Mystic says it is "grieving the loss" of 27 campers and counsellors as the search continues for victims of catastrophic Texas flooding over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

The statement adds another layer of heartbreak to the devastating flooding that sent a wall of water through the century-old summer camp.

"We have been in communication with local and state authorities who are tirelessly deploying extensive resources to search for our missing girls," the camp said in a statement posted on its website on Monday morning (Monday night AEST).

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"We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of support from community, first responders, and officials at every level."

With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in central Texas on Monday even as crews searched urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed more than 80 people. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.

Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late on Friday (Saturday AEST).

Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbour was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

"Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbours throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together," Brown said.

A few kilometres away, rescuers manoeuvring through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including those from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage. On Sunday afternoon (Monday morning AEST), more than two days after the floods tore through the camp, authorities had said that some of the girls and a counsellor had still not been found.

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Governor Greg Abbott said on Sunday that 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.

In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said.

Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.

The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.

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Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning.

One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.

One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.

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Searching the disaster zone

Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.

Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.

Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.

President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: "I would have done it today, but we'd just be in their way."

"It's a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible," he told reporters.

Prayers in Texas — and from the Vatican

Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared Sunday a day of prayer for the state.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster.

The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing.

"I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them," he said.

Desperate refuge and trees and attics

Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn't reach them.

At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs.

Among those confirmed dead were an eight-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.

Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls' grandparents were unaccounted for.

Warnings came before the disaster

On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months' worth of rain for the area.

Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.

Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something "we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working." He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticised its performance.

Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.

"I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn't see it," the president said.

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A farmer from South Australia's mid-north is facing the prospect of spending his final days away from his Crystal Brook home because his regional hospital can't provide him with adequate care.

Chris Thomas, who uses a wheelchair and is experiencing declining health, had been receiving life-saving dialysis treatment three times a week in Port Pirie. 

However, according to daughter Alex Thomas, the option is no longer available. 

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"I'm being told that he needs to make the decision to turn the dialysis machine off and he passes or move to Adelaide," she said.

"Your postcode should not be a determining factor in the standard of care that you have access to," she added.

Following a cardiac arrest in May, Mr Thomas was transferred to the Lyell McEwin Hospital. But his daughter claims that the Port Pirie dialysis unit lacks the capacity to meet her father's needs. 

"I'm hearing stories about the dialysis room being too small, them not having enough access to equipment, and not having the staff to be able to facilitate that," she said.

The state government says there is a dialysis unit in Port Pirie but that it's not equipped to deal with Mr Thomas' complex needs. 

It's now begun a review into his case

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"We will continue to look at every opportunity that we have to provide people with better care closer to home, but obviously we are guided by what the decisions of doctors are," Health Minister Chris Picton said.

The opposition has criticised the government's handling of the situation.

"We are calling on the government to do more by investing in more renal dialysis chairs in SA," shadow regional health spokesperson Penny Pratt said.

SA Health has denied claims that Mr Thomas was told to move or discontinue treatment. 

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.

Security at airports across Australia is under scrutiny after a man broke into Parafield Airport in Adelaide's north-east yesterday.

The incident occurred at around 3:30pm, when the man was spotted breaching the perimeter fence and running along the runway. 

Emergency services, including Star Group officers and the Metropolitan Fire Service (MFS), were dispatched to the scene, however the suspect got away.

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An investigation is underway to determine how the man gained access to the secure area. Authorities are examining all potential entry points, including the airport's stormwater drainage system. 

"Accessing drains is a very simple way of getting into an airport and breaching the security fences," aviation expert Geoffrey Thomas said.

He labelled the security lapse that allowed the intruder in "grossly irresponsible".

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"It could have been an act of terrorism and in a worst-case scenario, the response group could in actual fact take the person responsible down," he said.

The incident has triggered calls for comprehensive security reviews at airports nationwide, including Adelaide Airport. 

"It's a warning to all airports around Australia to have a very robust review of every access to the interior of the airport no matter how silly it may seem," Thomas said.

The man who broke into Parafield Airport is yet to be located.

This article was produced with the assistance of 9ExPress.