Powerful winds have swept across midwestern US states creating ‘dust bowl’ conditions, less than a week after the region was devastated by several tornadoes.

The low-pressure system winds triggered power outages in four US states on Wednesday leaving over one hundred thousand without power in Colorado alone.

The weather system whipped up topsoil and dust, reducing visibility to zero in parts of Kansas, New Mexico and Colorado, forcing highway closures

Queensland has recorded 22 cases of COVID-19, 18 of which have been in the community and 3 of which have been identified as the Omicron variant.

Cases have been detected in Brisbane South, Brisbane North, Darling Downs, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Moreton and Wide Bay, the source of most being primarily interstate travel. The majority of positive cases are those who have been fully vaccinated. 

QLD Health Minister Yvette D’Ath has urged Queenslanders to wear a mask stating that “there is nowhere in QLD where you can hide from this virus."

A new $3.8 million dollar social housing complex supporting vulnerable Queenslanders has officially opened its doors in Townsville. 

Member for Thuringowa, Aaron Harper, said the new 14 unit complex in Kirwan had been built to deliver more social and affordable homes for North Queensland. 

All of the units have been built to either Gold, Platinum or Silver Standard under the Liveable Housing Design Guidelines, meaning they were designed with accessibility in mind. 

Labor senator, Pat Dodson, has blasted the Western Australian government for failing its one opportunity to protect Aboriginal heritage and stop the “tyranny of cultural genocide” after the state’s controversial new heritage bill was passed into law. 

The new law, introduced after Rio Tinto destroyed a 46,000-year-old cultural site at Juukan Gorge, has drawn anger from Aboriginal traditional owners, shareholder groups and even federal MPs. 

Under the new law, traditional owners do not have veto rights over the destruction of their sacred sites. 

In a developing story, several children have fallen from a height of 10 meters, causing serious injuries, after wind blew a jumping castle into the air at a Tasmanian Primary School.

Hillcrest Primary School, in Tasmania’s North West, was running an end of year celebration within school grounds as opposed to a usual school picnic. 

Ambulance Tasmania said it responded to the incident after quote “a wind event caused a jumping castle to lift into the air” - noting as well that “some serious injuries occurred.”

Former Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, has pleaded guilty in a federal court to charges he violated the civil rights of George Floyd, likely extending Chauvin’s prison sentence by several years after his earlier conviction for Floyd’s murder in state court.

The 45 year old former police officer had already been sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison in June after a jury convicted him for the murder of Floyd in 2020.