Medical experts warned Samoans against heeding anti-vax messages spread by social media influencers amid a deadly measles outbreak in the Pacific nation that has so far claimed 39 lives since late October — most of them children.

"Forcing a medical procedure on an entire country, especially one that is proving to be ineffective, dangerous and making the virus more deadly, is straight up barbaric," she wrote on Facebook.

In the past week, more than 45,000 people have been vaccinated in Samoa

The head of Queensland’s education department, Jackie Trad, dismissed claims she muscled in on the search for a Brisbane school principal.

Opposition education spokesman Jarrod Bleijie claimed Ms Trad interfered with the recruitment process for a principal at a new school in her South Brisbane seat. 

However, Tony Cook, the Education Department’s director-general, said that at no time did Ms Trad try involve herself in the decision making process.

50 litres of a dangerous chemical leaked from a ship into Brisbane river late yesterday afternoon.

Queensland Fire and Emergency services said it was alerted about the substance leaking from a ship at Tingira St at Pinkenba near Brisbane Airport at about 5:30pm.

They said the chemical, styrene monomer, is a class three flammable liquid.

A bushfire covering more than 1000 hectares south-east of Canberra has jumped a fire break.

It was described by the NSW Rural Fire Service as “out of control” on Thursday night and was the only bushfire in NSW to be at a watch and act level.

A spokesman from the NSW Lake George Zone Rural Fire Service says properties are being defended by on-ground crews due to concerns around spot fires.

The fire is burning in Tallaganda National Park, 50 kilometres from Canberra.

South Australians are being urged not to boycott Farmers Union Iced Coffee, following news that a Chinese-owned company would be taking over its parent company.

The news of changing parent companies was met with anger on social media, with many users vowing to stop buying the iced coffee altogether.

The parent company of popular app Tik Tok, ByteDance, said the personal data of users is not shared with Chinese authorities.

However, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute report has found that ByteDance “collaborates with public security bureaus across China, including in Xinjiang where it plays an active role in disseminating the party-state's propaganda".

The planet is said to be facing a “global cascade of tipping points” that could heavily disrupt human societies and ecosystems unless nations slash their greenhouse gas emissions, according to an article in  “Nature”. 

The authors identified several “large-scale discontinuities” in the climate system that may be underway and which could trigger further warming.

The scientists said, "if damaging tipping cascades can occur and a global tipping point cannot be ruled out, then this is an existential threat to civilisation.”

US chemical plant explosion in south-east Texas injures three people and has blown out windows in nearby housing.

A mandatory evacuation was ordered for everyone within a half-mile of the TPC plant while the fire department says the evacuation could expand to wider areas.

Jefferson County Judge, Jeff Branick, told Beaumont TV station KBMT that the blast initially sounded like someone was firing a gun into his house.