The Brisbane City Council has cut down several jacaranda trees in Brisbane’s south east, after blacklisting them as weeds in some parts of the city.

Labor’s Brisbane Mayoral candidate, Rod Harding, has labelled the decision “absolutely ridiculous”.

Mr Harding says the council’s concerns that seeds will spread through waterways is "a made up problem".

The number of home drug kitchens found by police has dropped by more than 50 per cent over the last five years, however police say they have not won the war on drugs.

Statistics have shown the total of drug offences has almost doubled between 2011 and 2017, with authorities attributing this to the emergence of the “dark web” and portable drug labs.

Detective Senior Sergeant Sasha Finney said that although there are dedicated teams working against these emerging trends, “it will continue to provide [them] with challenges”.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature has compared deforestation on the East Coast of Australia to the Amazon Rainforest, highlighting the threat to our koalas and other native species.

Eastern Australia was the only developed world location of the 11 “deforestation hotspots” assessed in the report, with land cleared so rapidly that koalas could completely disappear from NSW by 2050.

A record $718 million dollars has been invested in homegrown film and TV titles during the 2017/2018 financial year, according the annual Screen Australia Drama Report.

Record expenditure on projects like Pirates of the Caribbean has occurred despite the federal government reducing the screen funding body’s budget by over $50 million dollars since 2013.

Screen Australia’s Michael Brealey described the report as a “good news story” that signifies “steady growth” for Australian cinema.

American Muslims have raised more than $120 000 for the families of those killed and injured by the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.

The organisations, Celebrate Mercy and M PowerChange hit their target of $25 000 within 6 hrs, and hope to distribute the funds to affected families to help with funeral expenses and medical bills.

Celebrate Mercy director Tarek El-Messidi said the action was to respond to evil with good.

Japan has successfully launched a pair of satellites designed to study the Earth this week, including the first satellite built by the UAE.

One satellite is designed to monitor greenhouse gases, measuring emissions and helping scientists to evaluate the role of human activity in climate change.

A spokesperson from the launch team said the satellite will make the mandatory emissions reporting in the Paris Agreement more transparent, and called it Japan’s “trump card” for global warming.

Over 200 guinea pigs have been seized by the RSPCA from a Brisbane garage suspected of being used for commercial breeding.

RSPCA Queensland CEO Mark Townend says complications could follow if the females housed in the mixed cages fall pregnant over the next 2 months.

The RSPCA is looking for households to re-home the animals, and is accepting donations of guinea pig housing, vegetables and pellets to support its network of foster carers.

A new bill being introduced to Parliament this week is set to implement human rights into Queensland law.

The Queensland Act will include a long list of basic rights, such as a right to life, protection from torture and cruelty, freedom from forced work and much more.

Human Rights Act for Queensland campaign coordinator Aimee McVeigh says this is a historic moment for the state, claiming these new laws will be more practical than the laws existing in Victoria and the ACT.