Queensland has banned single-use plastic straws, cutlery and plates, as well as containers and cups made from expanded polystyrene.

Initially announced in March, businesses had until 1 September to stop using items listed under the first stage of the state government ban.

The plan received huge support from the community during consultations, with 94 per cent of 20,000 respondents supporting the proposal.

Australia’s leading scientists and engineers have told the Morrison government the technologies needed to make significant cuts in greenhouse gas emissions already exist.  

In an explicit response to the government’s “technology, not taxes” approach to reducing emissions; the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering have released a position statement urging the government to set more ambitious goals ahead of the climate summit in Glasgow. 

Lachlan Murdoch has been invited to appear before a re-convened Senate inquiry into YouTube’s temporary ban on Sky News Australia for uploading videos in breach of the platform’s Covid misinformation policy.

The inquiry will seek to understand how and why it was left to the video sharing platform to pull down potentially dangerous material. 

The city of San Francisco has launched a bold initiative to curb rising gun violence by paying high risk individuals to put the guns down and become more productive members of society.

San Francisco will launch the ‘Dream Keeper Fellowship’ as a pilot program in October. 

Those who authorities believe are most at risk of gun violence will be offered $300 per month to meet with life coaches and to talk other high risk individuals out of committing gun crimes.

As of July, shootings in San Francisco have doubled since last year.

The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has warned of a looming "humanitarian catastrophe" in Afghanistan. 

The UN chief has urged countries to provide emergency funding following the departure of US forces.

Mr Guterres expressed his "grave concern at the deepening humanitarian and economic crisis in the country," adding that basic services threatened to collapse "completely."

The JobKeeper scheme is under fire after reports the Federal Government plans to deny transparency to Australians by refusing to release the billionaire businesses that wrongly received JobKeeper.

Whilst the Government has announced they expect businesses to pay back the tax-payer money, it’s likely billions of dollars that wrongly went to giant corporations who didn’t need JobKeeper to maintain their business,  will go undetected. 

Coalition MPs are reportedly pushing Prime Minister Scott Morrison into the government’s school chaplaincy program to address concerns that activism against global heating is causing mental health problems for Australian children. 

Liberal MP Andrew Wallace told party members on Tuesday he supported the motion and compared children’s fear of climate change to the 70s fear of nuclear annihilation, with assistant youth minister, Luke Howarth, backing his claim

From September 13, children aged between 12-15 will be eligible for the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine.

This comes after the Queensland School cluster, causing thousands of school students into home isolation.