Reporting season shows how consumers are responding to cost of living pressures and how retailers are responding

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Australians are buying less pizza but more weight-loss drugs. They love “dupes” but don’t enjoy writing letters.

Here are five key takeaways from the August reporting season that show what consumers are buying as cost of living pressures reignite, and how retailers are responding.

Australian-led trial finds low risk of side effects from common cholesterol-lowering medication for otherwise healthy older people

Taking a common cholesterol-lowering medication can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke for people aged over 70, with a low risk of serious side effects, a world-first clinical trial led by Australian researchers has found.

Statins are already commonly prescribed to people under the age of 75 who meet certain risk criteria, such as having diabetes and high cholesterol, to prevent them from having a major heart event such as a heart attack, stroke, or from requiring heart surgery.

Australian-led trial finds low risk of side effects from common cholesterol-lowering medication for otherwise healthy older people

Taking a common cholesterol-lowering medication can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke for people aged over 70, with a low risk of serious side effects, a world-first clinical trial led by Australian researchers has found.

Statins are already commonly prescribed to people under the age of 75 who meet certain risk criteria, such as having diabetes and high cholesterol, to prevent them from having a major heart event such as a heart attack, stroke, or from requiring heart surgery.

A plug-in solar kit that costs about $1,000 ‘pays for itself in three years’, one expert says

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Millions of Australians could be saving up to $370 a year on energy bills and doing their bit for the climate crisis if Labor followed the UK’s lead in legalising plug-in solar panels, an advocacy group has said.

Plug-in solar refers to small standalone solar units that could be attached to balconies or used in back yards and plugged into power points, offsetting the energy used by household appliances.

More than 40 Australians are among several thousand people unaccounted for after catastrophic flooding on the Nepal-Tibet border

• How the deadly Nepal and Tibet flash flood unfolded – a visual guide

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An 11-year-old child, an ADF member and many other pilgrims and trekkers have been named among the Australians missing after deadly flash floods and landslides tore through valleys on the Nepal-Tibet border.

As of Saturday there were 41 Australians among almost 2,500 people reported missing in the disaster, including at least 777 foreigners. At least 93,000 people were estimated to have been affected by the disaster, according to the Red Cross.

With Lazy Thinking in Sydney the latest venue to shut its doors, the once-vibrant grassroots music scene is becoming increasingly vulnerable

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Jim Flanagan has four days to hand his keys back to his landlord.

Panels engulfed in grungy band posters, handmade plates that have served countless customers, a shelving unit housing a library of iconic vinyls: all of it will be sold for next to nothing in the rush to vacate.

Hearings began amid the grief of the Bondi attack. The community hopes the inquiry will ‘help us to go back to the Australia that we love’

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As the university student Liat was excused from the witness stand of the royal commission into antisemitism and social cohesion, she felt a weight lifted off her chest.

“It was certainly very cathartic for me … having gone through the majority of my university life in a state of fear,” she says.

The $134,000 cost of the statue of the former Victorian premier has been heavily criticised by the Liberal opposition

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The Carroll government in Victoria has cancelled controversial plans for a statue of former Labor premier Daniel Andrews.

Work began in May on the statue commemorating the former premier’s more than 3,000 days in office, as part of a 1999 policy recognising long-serving Victorian premiers.

More and more young people are engaging in sexual strangulation. But experts say there’s no safe pressure – and we have to start talking to teenagers about it

When touching someone’s throat, it can only take the pressure of a handshake to cause serious injury, unconsciousness or death. These injuries, which include brain damage and stroke, are often internal and invisible, showing up days or even months after the initial incident occurred. Experts say many who participate in sexual choking are not aware of the risks.

Choking or sexual strangulation is common among young people, says Prof Heather Douglas of the Melbourne Law School. In a 2024 survey of 4,702 Australians aged between 18 and 35, she and her research team found that 57% reported ever having experienced sexual strangulation; 51% reported ever having strangled a partner and 43.9% reported participating in both.

Book was removed for review earlier this month following complaint but reinstated after petition and State Library letter to Waverley council

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A Sydney library has returned to its borrowing shelves a book critical of Israel called How to Sell a Genocide following a public campaign and an intervention from the State Library of New South Wales.

Waverley library removed the book “for review” earlier this month after the Jewish news outlet JWire reported it had approached the council.

Miranda Luby was only 36 years old when her tinnitus arrived in the middle of the night, without warning and for no clear reason

One night two years ago, I was lying in bed when I began to hear a high-pitched, electronic hum. The scene that followed would be comical if it wasn’t so traumatic. I roamed around the house in my PJs, frantically pressing my ears against various electrical appliances. It took half an hour to realise the sound was coming from inside my own head.

I’d heard ringing in my ears before, rising then falling, like a one-note crescendo of an orchestra. As a kid, I used to believe the myth it was the sound of dying ear cells, playing a swan song for a frequency I’d never hear again. This was different. This time, it didn’t stop.