A candidate for Clive Palmer’s United Australia party has attempted and failed to trade favourable coverage in regional newspaper, Shepparton news, for a large advertising payment.

The paper quickly rejected the offer saying decisions made on editorial content are based on news value.

One United Australia party senator predicts the party’s advertising spending will exceed $60 million by the end of the campaign.

A new study has found that more children are surviving into adulthood as the world’s population continues to rise, but the number of disabled people has also increased.

The JAMA Pediatrics journal published research that has found a decrease of 51.7% of global child and adolescent deaths from 1990 to 2017, but there has been a 4.7% increase of disability.

Tougher safety regulations have been implemented starting today for Queensland amusement rides and theme parks following the Dreamworld tragedy which claimed four lives.

New regulations will require major inspections of rides by qualified engineers every 10 years and improved training of ride operators.

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace says the government is taking action to ensure tourists and the wider community have faith in the safety measures that are in place.

NASA is undertaking a “doomsday” exercise this week in preparation for the end of the world.

The purpose of the rehearsal, which began yesterday, is to ascertain what would happen in the event an asteroid does in fact hit the Earth and how survivors would react to a potential apocalypse as a result.

The drill has been named the Hypothetical Asteroid Impact Scenario and considers all possibilities of the event ranging from when the make-believe asteroid was initially discovered, its hypothetical orbit size, as well as potential hit zones across the world.

The first provisional step has been taken by the Trump administration towards protecting Giraffe’s under the Endangered Species Act.

This move comes as a result of legal pressure from environmental groups because the population of the World’s tallest land animal in Africa has declined by about 40 per cent in the past 30 years according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Traditional owners of the Doongmabulla springs are concerned for the safety of the sacred site as a result of Adani’s Carmichael mine.

The company has yet to prove the wetlands will not be affected, as experts warn the mine could cause the springs to dry up.

Spokesman for the local elders Adrian Burragubba says the springs are significant to his people because they are the only source of water in our country that is eternal and continues to be alive and give life.

A car has caught fire in a garage early this morning causing thick smoke to spread across Brisbane’s south-east.

Fire crews were called to the home in Carindale just after 6:30am and according to a fire service spokeswoman, the home was “smoke-logged”.

All residents were accounted for and the flames were extinguished just after 7am.

The Queensland government has spent $4 million on demountable classrooms in the last year, as the number of students enrolled full time in Queensland schools is up by 6.7 per cent since 2014.

LNP education spokesman Jarrod Bleijie accused the state government of not having a plan, while Education Minister Grace Grace pointed out that only a small percentage of Queensland’s 35,000 classrooms are in demountable buildings.

Ms Grace said $210 million will be spent on maintenance projects in schools this year.