Three tradies in training from the Australian Industry Trade College in Cleveland will represent Queensland at the WorldSkills Trade Olympics competition this month.

Brayde Turrall-Poulter, Levi Ehue, and Ryan Thomsen will be competing at the Alexandra Hills TAFE campus where they will be battling it out for a spot in the international level of the event.

The competition is a skills Olympics which showcases skills from more than 50 trades, and the international level will be hosted in Shanghai in 2022.

Moreton Bay Regional Council is fighting back against illegal dumpers who are costing ratepayers more than $6.5 million in clean-up fees every year.

Mayor Peter Flannery said last financial year there was 263 tonnes of waste illegally dumped.

That equates to roughly 7,000 wheelie bins worth of waste that includes hazardous waste like asbestos, which needs to be cleaned up and processed by Council at the cost of ratepayers.

Mr Flannery said the new state-funded technology, called the MicroPhazir Asbestos Analyser, is a game changer when combating illegal dumping.

Western Australia has joined the other states by introducing a law which will make protesting outside of abortion clinics illegal.

The law will allow for safe access zones for women accessing abortions and will prevent people from protesting within 150 metres of facilities that provide abortion services.

Family planning healthcare provider Marie Stopes says the new law will stop women facing harassment from protesters who spent almost 2,300 hours each year outside their clinic where even staff had also been targeted.

Researchers from QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute and Indian Institute of Technology are in the early stages of using infrared scanning to detect who is at risk of developing severe Covid-19 symptoms.

The technique scans for different chemical groups in blood samples, and doctors hope this test could be a quick and cost-effective way of triaging patients at overwhelmed hospitals.

QIMR Associate Professor Michelle Hill says the 85 percent accuracy rate is good but says there is room for improvement.

The United States and the United Kingdom have announced their plans to evacuate staff from their embassies in Afghanistan amidst the Taliban advance in the country. 

Over the past week, the government has effectively lost control of most of north, south and west Afghanistan, and are now trying to retain their hold on the capital and a number of dwindling cities.

The Pentagon says they will be deploying 3,000 US troops within the next 24-48 hours, and the UK also says that they will send 600 of its own troops.

Brisbane citizens have been given ultra-low doses of the Pfizer vaccine due to an error at a Brisbane immunisation centre. 

66 people have been contacted by Queensland health after the error was made at Kippa Ring Vaccination Centre over the weekend. Of the 66, 6 have received the ultra low dose but have not yet been identified. 

A spokeswoman for the immunisation clinic says, “I am incredibly sorry for any distress this has caused to those 66 people and their families. We will, of course, be supporting every single person impacted”.

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The death of a five-month-old baby, after her mother fell while dodging the swooping magpie in a park, has devastated the community, throwing the spotlight onto the birds’ behaviour.

Although experts say deaths related to magpie attacks do happen but are extremely rare. Australia has recorded 212 magpie attacks across the country so far this year. Queensland clocking up the most of any state with 88 reported attacks. 

National law firm Slater and Gordon has urged parents to be wary of potentially dangerous and harmful baby products promoted as sleep-safe or sleep-inducing via social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.

Animal shaped plush pillows for babies to sleep with, suspended cots and hammocks, nests and cocoons advertised on social media could potentially restrict an infant’s ability to breathe or cause them to overheat. 

A fake check-in app is being used by anti-lockdown groups to deceive business owners and keep location data out of the hands of contact tracers.

The over 15,000 strong group shares links that allow users to generate fake check-in confirmations on their phones. 

The app passes no information to the government, making it difficult for contact tracers to find people.

Polish MPs have passed a controversial new media ownership law that may lead to the country’s largest remaining independent TV station loss of licence.

After a night of protests in Warsaw and 80 other towns against the bill, which opponents see as an attempt to silence an often critical broadcaster, the law passed on late Wednesday.

The vote came amid stormy scenes after the prime minister on Tuesday fired his deputy coalition member, prompting the party to leave the government.