Total fire bans stretching from the Sydney coast to the Queensland border and out into the northwest are being enforced amid a severe fire danger forecast.

Inspector Ben Shepherd from the NSW Rural Fire Service said temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, low humidity and strong winds were a dangerous combination today. 

"It’s been an extraordinary season so far. We’ve seen more land burnt this fire season than the past two fire seasons combined,” he said.

Firefighters are on standby as susceptible fire conditions loom for the next 48 hours. 

Parts of south-east Queensland have recorded their coldest November mornings in 13 years days prior to predicted sweltering temperatures. 

Meteorologist Kimba Wong says a dry air mass lingering above south-east Queensland is responsible for the unseasonably cold morning. 

Ms Wong also says no storms or rain is forecast for the rest of the week because there was not enough moisture in the air. 

“It was windy yesterday as a trough pushed off the coast and there were dusty south-westerly winds near the trough,” she said. 

The heritage-listed restaurant at the top of Mount Coot-tha will be revitalised under a plan from new lessees, Mantle Group, which operates the popular eatery Jimmy’s on the Mall. 

Mantle Group chief executive Godfrey Mantle says his company was very excited about taking on the leases at the popular tourism spot. 

Mr Mantle says he thinks people will be delighted with what they're proposing and it will be somewhere locals will really enjoy coming to.

Italy has become the first country to make sustainability and climate crisis lessons compulsory for all school children.

State schools will incorporate the UN’s 2030 agenda for sustainable development agenda into multiple subjects from next September.  

Italy’s education minister Lorenzo Fioramonti announced lessons in geography, mathematics, and physics, will be taught from the perspective of sustainability.

The incoming head of the European Commission has criticised British prime minister Boris Johnson for failing to meet his ‘do or die’ pledge to leave the EU by October 31st, by requesting the “rapid” nomination of a British candidate to join her Brussels top team.

Ursula von der Leyen has written to the prime minister asking him to propose a British candidate or candidates for EU commissioner “rapidly, in the shortest time possible”. 

A national study has found that longer rural doctor postings and more rural training positions are needed to provide regional areas with the right doctor, at the right time and in the right place.

Rural doctors, supervisors, and trainees took part in The University of Queensland-led study to identify ways to improve medical services and physician training for rural communities, which make up 30 per cent of the Australian population.

The Federal government plans to extend taxpayer assistance for regional newspapers but refused to water down media ownership rules of cut down licence fees for regional TV.

Communications minister, Paul Fletcher says the license fees are ‘very low and media companies are profiting from 2017 changes that diluted cross-media ownership laws.

Mr Fletcher says the one-to-a-market rule had been in place for almost 40 years and despite “some advocacy” for its abolition from Prime Media, the company had already submitted a plan to merge with Seven.

Single-use plastics could be banned in Queensland as early as next year after the Palaszczuk government announced a proposed plan to tackle pollution. 

Plastic straws, cutlery, and plates could be scrapped under the new legislation followed by coffee cups, plastic cups, and heavyweight shopping bags later down the track. 

Environment Minister Leanne Enoch said the scope of the strategy was an "Australian first" and was a chance for Queensland to set a national standard.

Sixty people have fallen ill after drinking water at Moreton Island’s Tangalooma Island Resort was contaminated. 

Health authorities are investigating the possibility of the island’s natural groundwater being polluted by sewage or other contaminants. 

Dr Kari Javenin from Queensland's Public Health Unit advised guests to only use bottled water as the bacterial infection may not be avoided by boiling.