Adrian Raedel, councillor for Moreton Bay, has been charged with official corruption, following an investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission.   

Raedel allegedly misused money, pre-paid travel, accommodation and advertising.

He was charged on Thursday morning with one count of official corruption. 

An accident at Glencore mine in Congo has killed at least 39 illegal miners.

The copper and cobalt mine in Southeast Congo has collapsed, however production has not been affected. 

 Richard Muyej, the governor of Democratic Republic of Congo's Lualaba province says the accident was caused by clandestine artisanal diggers, which caused the old terraces to give way. 

The US Supreme Court has blocked Trump from adding a new citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The question “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” generates concern that it is politically motivated and meant to suppress minorities and immigrants.

Democrats and civil rights groups claim the question is about reducing the number of people of colour that are being counted in the census.

State education ministers are resisting against calls to ban public school students from using phones at school. 

Federal Education Minister, Dan Tehan will meet with state counterparts on Friday to discuss the proposal which has been met with criticism. 

ACT Education Minister, Yvette Berry says banning phones does not help students learn to live alongside devices; part of students’ development is learning appropriate behaviour both online and offline. 

A former member of Australia’s government review tribunal has described the Department of Human Services’ automated debt recovery program as extortion. 

The ‘robo-debt’ scheme matches income data from the ATO with income reported to Centrelink by welfare recipients, and if a discrepancy is detected, recipients are required to offer payslips and bank statements, often from years earlier. 

Terry Carney, former member of the review tribunal, says the conduct of the Department of Human Services’ is abysmal. 

A highly toxic foreign weed continues to spread through western Queensland as state and federal politicians fight over how to fix the problem.

In March, the then Federal Environmental minister and the Queensland Environment Minister both pledged 5 million dollars to fight the prickly acacia. 

However, arguments broke after the ministers failed to agree on where the funds are going. 

Pew Charitable Trust Queensland manager Fiona Maxwell said the risk to the environment was becoming more severe the longer the standoff went on.

Optus has been taken back to court by the ACCC over claims they mislead southeast Queensland customers when it told them what would happen if they didn’t switch to NBN.

Brisbane customers came forward this week claiming optus threatened to disconnect their broadband and landlines if they didn’t switch to NBN in the next three months. 

Wildfires are spreading in the region of Catalonia, Spain after a heatwave across Europe.

At least 6500 hectares are affected by the wildfires, around 45 people have been evacuated and five roads have been closed. There have been no casualties.

Meteorologists say the temperature is expected to keep rising over the next three days across Europe potentially topping at 45 degrees.