Shopping centres across Brisbane are gearing up for a frantic few days ahead of the final weekend before Christmas.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers are expected with many centres opening for extended trading hours.

Alison Pearson from Westfield says they’re also taking additional steps to keep customers COVID-Safe.

Australia’s beautiful palm cockatoos are expected to more than halve over the next 50 years due to slow breeding rates and habitat loss according to new research. 

The birds are found near the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland and have an estimated population of 1,500.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to announce the new COVID-19 cases at 11am this morning after an outbreak this week on Sydney's Northern Beaches. 

New genomic testing has revealed that the Northern beaches outbreak was an international strain of the virus however it is still unclear how it got into the community. 

QLD has announced anyone who has visited the Northern beaches since Friday 11 December would have to quarantine. 

More than three hundred schoolboys who were abducted last week in Northwestern Nigeria have been freed, according to a state official. 

State governor Aminu Bello Masari said the boys were kidnapped by bandits masquerading as the ISlamist terrorist group, Boko Haram. 

French President Emmanuel Macron has a fever after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thrursday. 

The President will self isolate for a week in the presidential residence in Versailles. 

His diagnosis has sent ripples through the French and European political sphere, with multiple figures now forced to quarantine.

A fire at a Brisbane recycling facility is expected to continue for the next few days, affecting nearby buildings and road safety in the area.

The cause of the fire is unknown, and due to the buildings collapsed roof it is hard to locate the origin of the blaze and extinguish it, especially as it is considered too dangerous for fire crew to enter the building.

Although paramedics have been at the scene, there have been no known injuries, yet anybody experiencing breathing difficulties due to smoke are encouraged to call triple zero. 
 

Eleven campers at the Canungra campsite have become stranded by Scenic Rim creeks due to the ongoing heavy rainfall in south-east Queensland, with fresh food and water being delivered by helicopter.

The campers crossed several creeks to arrive at their high ground camping spot, not anticipating the drastic amount of rain that caused the creeks to become flooded and impossible to cross safely.  

Australia-based international airline crews are under review as Australia’s COVID-19 rates decrease, and governments look to national safety standards for the pandemic.

Currently, flight crews are exempt from mandatory quarantine, despite many coming from countries that have high COVID-19 infection rates, and interacting with potentially high risk passengers. 

Epidemiologist Mike Toole has recommended increasing quarantine and safety precautions around international flight crews, following the recent infection of a Sydney international airport driver.