Members of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition  gathered today at Speakers Corner in Brisbane to call on the Queensland Government for justice-centred solutions to the climate and COVID crises. 

Community Organiser Monique Jeffs says “The climate crisis is...affects everyone but not equally. It is often the most marginalised in our societies who are hit first and worst by climate impacts.”

She called for both major parties to listen to First Nation leaders and to transition out of the fossil fuel industry into renewable energy. 

Attempts to incentivise Australians to take up farm labour over the summer in the wake of COVID unemployment are failing. 

Australia’s horticulture industry is predicting a shortfall of 26 000 vegetable and fruit pickers for this summer season, as international border closures mean a lack of working holiday-makers. 

Farmers are worried that crops will go unharvested which could result in a significant economic loss.

Advocates for people with autism are calling for Australian companies to embrace neurodiversity as a report reveals the alarming unemployment rate of people on the spectrum. 

One in 70 Australians have autism, and yet the unemployment rate for those with autism is 30 percent - six times higher than the national average. 

The study from Amaze found that people with autism are often underemployed and underpaid.

The United States has today recorded their deadliest day on record during the Coronavirus pandemic with authorities reporting more than 2,800 COVID related deaths while hospitalisations rose above 10,000 a day. 

The US now has more people in hospital with COVID-19 than at any other point during the pandemic. 

The US death toll since the start of the pandemic stands at about 273,000.

A Chinese lunar probe has taken off from the moon carrying lunar samples and is on the first stage of its return to Earth according to Chinese state media. 

Chang’e 5 is the third Chinese spacecraft to land on the moon and the first to take off from it again. 

Beijing’s space program also has a  spacecraft en route to mars. 

The spacecraft is the first to bring lunar rocks back to earth since 1976.

There is a sad milestone today for Coronavirus globally with the global death toll from the virus reaching more than 1.5 million people. 

One death is reported every nine seconds. 

This last week more than 10,000 people died across the world every day, this number is steadily on the rise. 

The UK government is the first worldwide to temporarily authorise the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergencies. 

Forty million doses are currently being shipped to the UK and vaccinations will start as early as next week. 

Up to 20 million people could access this vaccine in the coming weeks. 

Politicians, human rights lawyers, community advocates and people seeking asylum have rallied together to sign an open letter to the CEO of Accor Group, Sebastien Bazin, to urge him to stop the use of Accor hotels to detain refugees and asylum seekers. 

Nearly 100 refugees are currently detained in prison-like conditions in the Mantra Bell City Hotel and Mercure Darwin Airport Resort. 

The letter was started by Refugee Active Collective, a grassroots organisation in Victoria that campaigns to protect refugee rights. 

New research from Carnival Cruise Lines has found that Australians are in desperate need of a holiday. 

On average, Aussies have taken less than six days of annual leave this year, with over three quarters of those surveyed saying that every day currently feels the same. 

Jennifer Vander from Carnival Cruise said that two thirds of those surveyed said they took travel for granted before COVID.