Turkey has condemned China's treatment of its Muslim ethnic Uighur people as "a great cause of shame for humanity" and asked it to close the "concentration camps".

In a statement on Saturday, Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said that China has arbitrarily detained more than a million Uighurs.

Just weeks after the longest government shutdown ended in the United States, talks between democrats and republicans have stalled once again.

Fresh tension arises as Democrats want officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to direct their efforts towards migrants with criminal records, rather than those who have simply overstayed their visas.

Negotiators also refuse to offer more than 2 billion dollars for President Donald Trump’s border wall, which falls far short of his 7 billion dollar goal.

Insurance companies are being urged not to skip out on Townsville residents left to clean up the damage left behind by floodwaters that swamped much of the far north city.

Deputy Premier and Treasurer Jackie Trad has invited insurers and the Insurance Council of Australia to meet on Friday after media reports that claimants who had lost their insurance documents were not being paid out.

State governments are upholding environmental standards despite strong mining industry protests.

On Friday judge John Preston established a precedent to move all three categories of carbon emissions to the forefront of New South Wales planning approval process.

In Queensland, Adani’s Carmichael Mine is halted by groundwater management concerns as regulators prioritise water flow for graziers off the Galilee Basin.

Cafes have changed the way we socialise, according to QUT senior lecturer Emma Felton.

Dr Felton’s project shows cafe culture is now a firm fixture in Australian living and provided a meeting place for a diverse range of people, and are even outpacing the craft breweries popping up in many suburbs.

She says more Australians are bonding over coffee, as it’s a business-friendly location, it’s quicker, and, with the rise of contract work, it is often the chosen location for contract workers who still want to be around people.

Queensland politicians are heading back into parliament today to debate a number of social issues.

A long-awaited Human Rights Bill will enshrine 23 human rights such as a freedom of expression and a right to education.

The Palaszczuk will introduce a revenge porn bill to criminalise the sending, or threatening to send, intimate material without consent.

Debate will also resume on the Land, Explosives and Other Legislation bill which aims to ban perpetrators of domestic violence from obtaining an explosives license.

The African Union is communing in Ethiopia for its annual summit today to examine whether it has succeeded in its aims to provide African solutions for African problems.

Since the union’s inception in 2001 it has failed to enforce democratic principles and institutions after questionable election results in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2018 and Burundi in 2015, while the continent still hosts 6 of the world’s top 10 longest serving non-monarch leaders.

A group of 27 Russian children whose mothers are being held in Iraq for belonging to Islamic State of Iraq and ISIS arrived home in Russia over the weekend.

A Russian foreign ministry official says the fathers of the children aged four to 13 were killed during three years of fighting between ISIL and Iraqi troops.

Anna Kuznetsova, Russia's envoy for the rights of children, confirmed the comments, according to the state news agency.

Australia’s aged care systems will be examined in a new royal commission beginning today.

The inquiry comes after whistleblowers revealed Adelaide’s Oakdale nursing home was overmedicating and mistreating its residents.

On the eve of the enquiry prime minister Scott Morrison announced an additional $1800 spent on every Australian living in residential aged care.