Joe Biden has announced first steps to combat gun violence in America.

Biden said one of the executive actions taken directs the justice department to tighten regulations of the sales of untraceable firearms assembled from kits. He acknowledges 106 people die a day from gun violence in America, hitting Black and brown communities the hardest.

Amy Hunter, a spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, says the Association vows to fight Biden’s proposed actions as they restrict the rights of Americans.

The New South Wales Auditor General released a report that warned the state could run out of space for school enrolments within two years.

The Education Department said it is developing a ten year plan to fund the building of new schools to combat the shortage.

180,000 students are expected to enrol in public schools over the next twenty years.

Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said the government is committed to ensuring both growth areas and existing communities receive funding.

Professor Terry Hughes, Australia’s foremost coral reef scientist, warned that government plans to restore the Great Barrier Reef are too small and expensive to make any real impact towards saving the reef. 

A recent report by the Australian Academy of Sciences said only 1 per cent of corals would survive a 2 degree temperature increase. It forecasted 1.5 degree warming by 2045. 

The federal government committed $100 million for reef restoration, including a $2 million plan to trial underwater fans to cool the reef.

Curatorial staff at the new Home of the Arts Art Gallery on the Gold Coast positioned the first artwork of the gallery this week.

CEO of the gallery, Criena Gehrke, said the painting’s unexpected viewpoints and moments of surprise inspired the gallery building's design, but also served as a metaphor for the curatorial approach.    

Mayor Tom Tate said the gallery is a reflection of the Gold Coast's personality. 

The gallery officially opens on May 8th. 

A group of protestors disrupted work on the Adani Rail line construction this morning for the second time in three days.

The group was headed by 63 year old public servant, Carine Visschers. They blocked vehicles from entering the worksite at Mount Coolon, holding signs calling for ecocide to be made a crime.

This follows a larger global movement to criminalise ecocide under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 

Such a reform would make individuals liable to criminal prosecution for funding, permitting or causing severe environmental harm.

The Queensland government has considered a pumped hydroelectricity plant at the Borumba Dam near Gympie to generate renewable energy for the Sunshine Coast.

SEQ water completed a pre-feasibility study for the state government which identified Borumba Dam as an ideal site. 

Research from UQ researcher Simon Bartlett showed such a plant would be capable of powering four hundred thousand homes - helping the state government reach its goal of fifty per cent renewable energy by 2030.

The British government has announced a $77million fund to help Hong Kong migrants fleeing political repression settle in the country.

The UK has offered special visas to holders of British National passports that opens paths for five million of Hong Kong’s seven point four million people to work, reside, and eventually become a citizen in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

China says the move is an abuse of the passports and that it will no longer recognise them as a form of identification.

Israel has announced it will not recognize the authority of the International Criminal Court, with an investigation set to begin into allegations of war crimes in occupied Palestinian territories.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says although their Government will not be cooperating with the inquiry they will be sending a response, stating they will be rejecting any allegations of war crimes.

“It will be made clear that Israel is a country with rule of law that knows how to investigate itself,” he said.

Researchers at the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane have discovered drugs that lower cholesterol in humans could be the key to treating the deadly facial tumour disease that has endangered Tasmanian devils.

Lead researcher, Dr. Manuel Fernandez-Rojo, says experiments showed the tumour cells required a minimum amount of cholesterol to multiply. Lab tests revealed drugs inhibiting cholesterol synthesis successfully reduced growth.