Queensland’s unemployment rate has stayed at 7.7 per cent this November while the national average dropped to 6.8 per cent, the ABS revealed. 

Over 211 000 Queenslanders are out of work this Christmas, 41 000 more than this time last year. 

Queensland budget papers estimate the state jobless average won’t drop to 6.5 percent until June 2024. 

The Brisbane Transit Centre, known as Brisbane’s ‘ugliest’ building, has been torn down to make way for a new underground rail network and stadium. 

Transport Minister Mark Bailey says tearing the building down over the past 12 months has been a ‘mammoth operation’. 

The new underground rail network in Roma St will be open for passengers mid-2025. 

Shopping centres across Brisbane are gearing up for a frantic few days ahead of the final weekend before Christmas.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers are expected with many centres opening for extended trading hours.

Alison Pearson from Westfield says they’re also taking additional steps to keep customers COVID-Safe.

Australia’s beautiful palm cockatoos are expected to more than halve over the next 50 years due to slow breeding rates and habitat loss according to new research. 

The birds are found near the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland and have an estimated population of 1,500.

Australian National University zoology professor Rob Heinsohn says palm cockatoos are the "animal kingdom's match for Ringo Starr or Phil Collins" due to their unique drumming ability.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to announce the new COVID-19 cases at 11am this morning after an outbreak this week on Sydney's Northern Beaches. 

New genomic testing has revealed that the Northern beaches outbreak was an international strain of the virus however it is still unclear how it got into the community. 

QLD has announced anyone who has visited the Northern beaches since Friday 11 December would have to quarantine. 

More than three hundred schoolboys who were abducted last week in Northwestern Nigeria have been freed, according to a state official. 

State governor Aminu Bello Masari said the boys were kidnapped by bandits masquerading as the ISlamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. 

Some of the abducted children had addressed the Nigerian government in a video released earlier on Thursday, which bore the logo of Boko Haram and requested the Nigerian government to close down schools that teach western education.

French President Emmanuel Macron has a fever after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thrursday. 

The President will self isolate for a week in the presidential residence in Versailles. 

His diagnosis has sent ripples through the French and European political sphere, with multiple figures now forced to quarantine.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are among the political figures going into quarantine. 

A fire at a Brisbane recycling facility is expected to continue for the next few days, affecting nearby buildings and road safety in the area.

The cause of the fire is unknown, and due to the buildings collapsed roof it is hard to locate the origin of the blaze and extinguish it, especially as it is considered too dangerous for fire crew to enter the building.

Although paramedics have been at the scene, there have been no known injuries, yet anybody experiencing breathing difficulties due to smoke are encouraged to call triple zero.