Almost 400 metres of tunnels have been excavated beneath Roma Street, as part of one of the most crucial steps in the progress of the Cross River Rail project.

The Cross River Rail will transform the Brisbane public transport network and is a vital project for supercharging and recovering the economy, according to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

The project, and the new Roma Street Station, are set to be open and operating in 2025.

Four exotic snakes smuggled into Queensland have been seized by biosecurity officers and euthanised. 

Three American corn snakes and a four-metre Burmese python have been seized in the past two months. 

Agriculture Minister Mark Furner said exotic reptiles pose a serious biosecurity risk to Queensland’s native wildlife, environment and human life and safety.

Criticisms continue to flow after the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition co-hosted the UN Women Australia’s International Womens’ Day breakfast event on 24 February. 

Twitter was alight with criticisms of the choice to have the two men host and be key speakers at the event, which was held in order to celebrate women leaders from across the globe. 

On Twitter, people are providing suggestions for female politicians that would have been better suited to address the group on the successes and issues facing women in leadership roles.

Alexei Navalny’s whereabouts had been unknown since Thursday after allies learned that he was transferred to an undisclosed location from the Moscow prison, Matrosskaya Tishina.

The Moscow Monitoring Commission has now disclosed he has been transferred to a penal colony in the Vladimir region to serve his sentence.

Navalny has been sentenced to more than two and a half years for parole violations that he says are trumped up.

The speedy rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination program has raised awareness of black market vaccinations in the United Kingdom. 

The World Health Organisation said that “no country or World Health Organisation region is unaffected by the issue of substandard and falsified medical products.” 

Currently, over 18.5 million people in the UK have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Refugees brought to Australia for treatment are being released from Kangaroo Point Hotel this morning.

The 23 refugees have been held in the Hotel for up to two years and will be released on bridging visas. Ian Rintoule, from the Refugee Action Coalition, says that the bridging visas are inadequate in providing the refugees with the support they need to survive and thrive in the community. 

More than 70 refugees remain in detention centres and hotels across Australia.

Three of the five green bridges set for inner-city Brisbane are still awaiting decisions on their final design and location, after almost a year.

$550 million will be put toward building all five bridges to create better cross-river links for pedestrians and cyclists. 

A final contract is expected to be awarded mid-year, with construction to start shortly afterwards.

The Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show (RQFWS) Beer Awards are underway at the Brisbane Showgrounds today, with judging commencing to find Australia’s Best Beer.

Locally, entries for the show have increased 20 per cent and the number of interstate entries have doubled.

A team of thirty-eight judges will blind taste 497 entries from seventy-one breweries over the next two days.

An online petition to free the Aboriginal Flag before it’s 50th anniversary birthday has over 150,000 signatories. 

Spark Health Company are running the petition after Victorian Aboriginal owned and led social enterprise Clothing the Gap were issued with a ‘Cease and Desist’ notice for using the Flag on their clothes. The petition aims to get 200,000 signatures and has been publicly backed by members of the AFLW.