Brisbane’s national rugby team, the Broncos, have this week confirmed that former Maroons coach Kevin Walters will be head coach for the team in the 2021 NRL season.

This follows a disappointing and turbulent 2020 season which saw former head coach Anthony Seibold resign and the Broncos win only 3 of 20 games.

With the support of the Broncos chairman, Walters is focused on uniting the team and club for the 2021 season.
 

Cardinal George Pell will return to Rome today for the first time since he was accused of child sex abuse in 2017.

The reason for Pell’s visit to Rome is unknown; however, prior to taking leave to face child sex abuse convictions, he was in charge of setting up reforms for the Vatican finances.

An ABC correspondent claims Pell is no longer employed by the Vatican, making the reason for his visit unclear but that he is likely return to put his affairs in order.

Pell previously served a 13 month prison sentence which was overturned by the high court in April.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone has widened as Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each-other of firing intentionally over their shared border and into each others territory.

This comes after accusations that a F-16 jet belonging to Azerbaijan’s ally Turkey shot down an Armenian warplane.

Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied the accusations.

The 3.6 billion Santos coal seam gas project has been approved by the new south wales independent planning commission. 

The project is poised to construct 850 coal seam gas wells projected to supply half of new south wales gas supply.

A large number of concerns have been raised about potential ill effects the wells could have on the groundwater of nearby farmers.

The IPC has ensured that Santos would need to meet strict conditions in order to move into the construction and production phase. 

The Australia Defence Force is in talks to end their presence on the Queensland border as domestic travel restrictions begin to ease.

Approximately 500 troops have been supporting the Queensland governments efforts to maintain strict border regulations.

Deputy Premier Steve Miles has accused  the Prime Minister of using the ADF as a barging chip in to pressure Queensland into a more swift reporting of own borders.

The diversion come with the intention to redeploy troops to monitor hotel quarantine as more travellers return form overseas. 

A call has been made for South-East Queenslanders to take part in a US developed coronavirus vaccine trail. 

The trail comes as a collaboration between the University of the Sunshine Coast and the American ‘Operation Warp Speed’ project that is currently trailing a vaccine created by the US company Novovax.

Researchers are looking for 160 participants between the ages of 18 and 84 and joins nine other facilities around Australia as part of the current round of vaccination trails.

The Greens have proposed that all Queenslanders under the age of 18 should have their club sport registration paid for one season.

The proposal also outlines the ability for clubs to apply for grants up to $10,000 to help youth sports clubs to recover from the coronavirus. 

Yesterday Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that Australia would not be signing the global leaders pledge for nature, following suit with other nations such as the US, Russian, China and Brazil, ahead of the UN summit on biodiversity scheduled to happen later today.

The pledge has so far been endorsed by 64 countries committed to reversing damages to biodiversity by the year 2030. A spokesperson for Morrison stared that “Australia has already committed to a net zero emissions target by the second half of the century as set out in the Paris agreement.”