More than 25,000 homes and businesses were left without power after storms across south-east Queensland on Monday afternoon.

Hailstones up to three centimetres were reported as the first of the forecast severe storms hit.

It comes after almost two weeks of heatwave conditions across the state, driving temperatures as high as the mid-40s. 

These conditions have driven very high and severe fire danger ratings for parts of Queensland’s south, east coast and central interior as firefighters continue battling blazes threatening populated areas of Fraser Island.

The UK will launch the world’s first mass inoculation of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination this week, having ordered 40 million doses of the newly developed vaccine. 

Health officials will begin administering the drug in hospitals, before distributing stock to doctor’s clinics. 

The first set of vaccinations are set to be rolled out on Tuesday, with priority going to those over 80, frontline healthcare workers, and care at home staff and patients.

Brexit negotiations are ongoing between the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen but haven’t come to a successful conclusion yet, despite the fact they have been negotiating the whole of last week.

The decision of what trading relations will look like early 2021 is still not complete, as they released a statement that said issues of fishing rights, competition rules and how any deal is enforced still needed to find common ground.

Both leaders will speak tonight to debrief the situation.

More than 60,000 koalas were impacted by the devastating bushfires that swept across the country last summer, with total numbers of wildlife affected estimated to be 3 billion.

A new report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) revealed that 143 million mammals were killed or lost their habitat last summer.

Chief executive of WWF Australia, Dermot O’Gorman, said that it is hard to think of an event in living memory that has caused this much impact on wildlife and nature.

In 26 May 2020, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his plan to reform the industrial relations system in response to the pandemic, but the Australian Council of Trade Unions seems to believe the government would have no intention of addressing the issue of insecure work.

In a statement released this morning, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said the Industrial Relations Omnibus legislation would take the rights of casual workers backwards as it would make it almost impossible for them to convert to permanent work.

As part of its 5Oth anniversary celebrations, James Cook University has given its Cairns’ campuses local Indigenous names to acknowledge the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the advancement of the University.

JCU’s Smithfield campus has been named Nguma-bada, which means belonging to tomorrow: "Place for tomorrow's learning, knowledge and wisdom" from the Yirrgay coastal dialect of Djabugay.

Extinction Rebellion protesters staged a protest in Brisbane CBD this morning, sitting on top of a stationary rental truck parked at the intersection of Edward and Queen Street.  

Fire and Rescue extracted the protestors from the top of the truck by using a cherry picker. 

Traffic has started to ease along Adelaide street, Edward Street and Queen street.