Toowoomba residents are upping the solar stakes by investing in battery storage, bringing more jobs to the region and embracing Queensland’s renewable future.

While visiting The Garden City today, Energy Minister Dr Anthony Lynham says Toowoomba was seeing a solar and battery surge thanks to the Government’s interest-free loans and grants.

Dr Lynham said It’s a great opportunity to cut your power bill and your emissions, by being able to store excess solar energy generated during the day to use at night.

A mother who discovered workers are allowed to smoke near the sandpit of her daughter’s childcare centre is calling for a loophole in Queensland’s anti-smoking to be closed.

Smoking has been banned within metres of childcare in Queensland since 2016; Clarissa Brown saw employees from neighbouring business smoking at Edge early Learning in West End in Brisbane.

Ms Brown said she did informally approach the commercial building workers and nicely ask people to stop smoking but that did not work.

A Brisbane law student, Ethel Chan,  has settled her legal case after a two year battle against Brisbane City Council.

Ms Chan claimed that the council painted a yellow line beside her parked car before fining her twice for illegal parking, totalling $252.

Ms Chan says she discussed her case with Brisbane City Council's legal representatives outside the court on Wednesday, and eventually agreed to pay one parking fine, but not the second.

A Gold Coast couple has been granted extra time in court  to sue an ultrasound clinic and doctor after both parties failed to diagnose their unborn daughter with Down syndrome.

A sonographer and a doctor reported that the risk was in the "low range" and advised not to undergo more extensive testing.

The parents claimed they would not have continued with the pregnancy if they had known, and indicated they would seek damages for child-rearing costs of their daughter, who is now four years old.

Leading refugee advocates are using  World Refugee Day to call for a "rethink" on Australia’s approach to refugee policy.

The globally recognised day falls during International Refugee Week, which this year is themed ‘With Refugees’, encouraging the community to better connect with refugees.

Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power said the occasion is an opportune time for Australia to reconsider its policy on offshore detention and boat turn backs.

Five Aboriginal women artists from a remote Northern Territory community will exhibit their work in Paris.

The group will exhibit their work of cultural and ancestral stories, at the Australian embassy in October.

Ingrid Johanson, the manager of Babbarra Women's Centre, pitched the exhibition to the embassy last year knowing 2019 marked the United Nations Year of Indigenous Languages.

British finance minister Philip Hammond has warned contenders in the race to become Britain's next pm, that a no-deal Brexit could pull the United Kingdom economy apart.

Calls for an independence referendum in Scotland have grown since the Brexit vote, when a majority of Scottish voters backed remaining in the EU.

A opinion poll,  showed a majority of Conservative Party members would accept losing Scotland from the United Kingdom as long as Brexit is delivered.

The first US congressional hearing in ten years was held on the 19th of June to debate compensation for the descendants of slaves.

A bill proposing potential reparations for descendants of slaves was presented for debate during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who is a presidential candidate, said the US is yet to truly acknowledge and grapple with the racism and white supremacy that tainted this country.