The MELT: Festival of Queer Arts and Culture will return to Brisbane Powerhouse for it’s sixth year, running from 20-30 May 2021.

The festival is designed to celebrate LGBTIQ+ arts and culture to promote visibility and inclusivity among the queer community.

Events will include cabaret, theatre, visual arts, craft workshops and live music and details can be found at the Brisbane Powerhouse website.

A new book by Epidemiologist Shanna Swan has warned human sperm counts may decline to levels below those considered adequate for fertility within a few generations, as well as increased rates of miscarriages and developmental abnormalities in humans.

Ms Swan reports that lifestyle changes along with chemical exposure is contributing to the higher rates of infertility and is calling for stronger public pressure to regulate chemical usage in her book.

A national survey has been launched to better understand patterns of domestic cannabis growing in order to inform government policy.

The survey is being run by Researchers at Curtin University’s National Drug Research Institute, and is part of a larger international campaign running across 20 other countries.

Participants of the Australian survey can answer anonymously, and will be asked questions about their experiences, motivations and views on cannabis policy.

The Tokyo Olympics may still be cancelled less than one hundred days out from it’s scheduled start, says Toshiro Nikai, Secretary General of Japan’s ruling party.

The country is facing their fourth wave of the pandemic, with 4,300 new daily cases reported last Wednesday. This comes as less than 1 percent of the population have received the vaccination.

Both the Japanese and international Olympic committees have been firm about pushing through lockdown measures to host the games, despite over 75% of respondents in polls nationwide have expressed against it. 

A campaign has been launched by Powderfinger bass player John Collins to pressure the Queensland Government to ease COVID-19 restrictions in Brisbane live music venues.

Mr Collins, the venue director of The Triffid and Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, launched the Play Fair campaign, saying strict restrictions on music venues are unfair while sporting arenas like Suncorp Stadium have been allowed to open at 100 per cent capacity. 

The Play Fair petition has reached over sixteen thousand three hundred signatures since opening six days ago.

Brisbane City council will review the Go-Between-Bridge toll credit scheme after complaints that terms and conditions meant only vehicles considered a passenger car or motorcycle were eligible.

The Infrastructure Committee Chair David McLachlan conceded some residents were unable to access the subsidy due to the Transport and Main Roads Department vehicle classifications.

A small Aboriginal fashion brand based out of Melbourne has been ordered to rebrand after a two-year legal dispute with American fashion giant Gap Inc. over the use of the word ‘gap’ in their name. 

Clothing the Gap says their name was a reference to the Australian health initiative focused on closing the gap between Australian and First Nation people, but a judge ultimately found that there was “contextual confusion” and “deceptive similarity”, and ordered them to rebrand.

Disaster assistance in Western Australia has been extended to a further seven local council areas as the state continues to reckon with the damage caused by last week’s Tropical Cyclone Seroja. 

Minister for Emergency Management David Littleproud said the cyclone had left a devastating trail of destruction and the assistance was being extended as the scale of the damage continued to become clearer.

The jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements is now providing support to 13 local government areas.

Hong Kong has marked the first Chinese National Security Day since sweeping national security laws were introduced, which the Chinese government dedicated to promote the nation to defend against foreign threats.

China expanded the definition for national security that goes beyond defense against military or terror attacks.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said while national security in democracies stands for the security of a country against external threats. China’s apparatus targets all external and internal threats.