Officials sound optimistic during the first round of negotiations while peace talks resume with the Taliban, but the Taliban says it's confident it can still win on the battlefield. 

A heatwave in one of the coldest locations in the world, Siberia, has sparked concerns after exceeding air quality controls by 40 times the safety limit due unprecedented forest fires causing the worst fire seasons in recorded Russian history. 

Global warming has caused a month of an intense smoke haze that Siberian officials have now begun removing young children to safer locations. 

A bridge named after now disgraced former Ipswich City mayor Paul Peeze- a sale should be renamed after Ipswich-born tennis champion Ash Barty, according to a new online petition.  

On the change.org petition, Ms Weston wrote the bridge should be named after "an Indigenous woman, a sporting legend, a woman of character who is proud to call this community her hometown".

More explicit and age-appropriate education on consent and reporting sexual assaults will be delivered in Queensland schools, following a state government review of its respectful relationships program.

This comes after a review aimed to examine whether the state's Respectful Relationships Education Program "adequately addresses issues of sexual consent and reporting in schools".

Australian Foreign Affairs minister, Marise Payne, told the ABC she remains “inclined to returning to Afghanistan in the next few months”.

A spokesman for Senator Payne said Australia's diplomatic arrangements in Afghanistan "were always expected to be temporary, with the intention of resuming a permanent presence once circumstances permit.

Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is expected to push his government into working towards a 2050 net zero commitment this weekend at the Annual Convention of the Liberal National Party in Brisbane after facing criticism from other world leaders at the G7 Summit earlier this year. 

The Queensland Veterinary Researcher who developed the test that can rapidly check for Chlamydia in Koalas has now advanced the technology to test for Hendra Virus in horses to prevent the spread to humans. 

There have been 7 reported cases of Hendra in humans with a death rate of 57%, however, the virus is almost fatal in horses with an 80% death rate once contracted.

A fire in Oregon has grown to a scathing 483 Kilometres yesterday afternoon, which half the size of the Australian Capital Territory, says United States officials. 

The nicknamed “Bootleg Fire” has caused the evacuation of over 2000 homes and another 5000 are considered at risk. 

Brisbane Company and known Liberal Party Donor, Canstruct International, has secured an uncontested contract extension of $180M over the next six months to continue running Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru.