By Matthew Knott

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Traffic will be affected for several hours on an inner-city Brisbane road after a truck carrying heavy machinery crashed into a power pole.Police have advised Rouen Road at Bardon is closed southbound between the roundabout and Towong cemetery.A truck has hit a power pole in Bardon this morning.Credit: Queensland Police ServiceThe road is expected to be shut for several hours with local diversions in place, and motorists are asked to use a different route.Images released by police show skid marks on the road and it appears the truck has rolled or crashed backwards into the power pole.Energex is reporting 392 customers are affected in Auchenflower, Bardon and Toowong.Latest postsLatest postsThe US government is facing an imminent shutdown as Congress remains locked in an ongoing funding dispute.In March, Republicans and Democrats agreed to a temporary fix that extended existing approved spending levels through to the end of the US financial year.But with the deadline for an agreement now just hours away, Congress has been unable to agree on a new short-term extension of funding or a new full-year appropriations bill.Donald Trump has threatened mass firings of federal workers as the US hurtles toward a shutdown, with Democrats and Republicans at an impasse.Credit: BloombergCongressional Democrats have not given Republicans the votes they need to pass a short-term funding agreement and are demanding overhauls to Medicaid cuts and extensions to health care tax credits that Republicans oppose.It would be the first shutdown for the US government since 2019. If it goes ahead, up to 4 million federal employees could be temporarily laid off and forced to forgo paychecks.Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has defended Treasury modelling of the government’s 5 per cent deposit scheme for first-home buyers, which comes into effect today, despite analysts suggesting the program could see significant increases in house prices.“The Treasury has modelled the impact of this, and their analysis shows there will be about a half a per cent change to house prices over a six-year period,” O’Neil told ABC News this morning.Housing Minister Clare O’Neil.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen“The Treasury is the analysis that I trust … Ultimately, we know the housing affordability answer is to build more homes more quickly.“I’m not going to look a generation of young people in the eye and tell them they have to wait until we’ve addressed the supply issues before they get any help and support. People around the country need help with housing right now.”Many analysts have suggested the increases to house prices from the program would far exceed the 0.5 per cent over six years modelled by the Treasury.A report from the Insurance Council of Australia released in August found the program could fuel a 10 per cent increase in house prices in the next year.

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of Brisbane City Council. On this day in 1925, two cities (Brisbane and South Brisbane), six towns (Ithaca, Hamilton, Toowong, Windsor, Sandgate and Wynnum), and ten shires (Balmoral, Belmont, Coorparoo, Enoggera, Kedron, Moggill, Sherwood, Stephens, Taringa and Toombul) were joined to create the City of Brisbane.The towns and shires that formed the City of Brisbane in 1925.Credit: Brisbane City CouncilTo mark the anniversary, there are school holiday activities designed for families at City Hall throughout the day, including “spy tours” run by Brisbane Greeters and walking tours of the building.A historical image of Brisbane City Hall.Credit: Brisbane City Council

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A motorbike rider died this morning after running into the back of a truck stopped at traffic lights in Capalaba in Brisbane’s south.Police said the black Suzuki GSX-R1000 had been travelling eastbound along Duncan Road, before it struck the truck near the intersection of Redland Bay Road shortly after 3am.The truck had been stopped at a set of temporary road work traffic lights.The motorbike rider, a 42-year-old from Runcorn, was assessed by paramedics, but died at the scene.The 41-year-old truck driver was not physically injured.Officers from the forensic crash unit have asked anyone who witnessed the crash, or has footage of the incident, to contact police.Here is today’s cartoon on the subject of Netanyahu and Trump, for this piece by Matthew Knott.Trump and Netanyahu.Credit: Matt GoldingAs of today, all first-home buyers will be able to apply for a loan having saved only 5 per cent of the home price’s deposit, under an expansion of the government’s First Home Buyers’ Scheme.Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise this morning, Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has defended the expansion of the scheme amid criticism that the changes will drive up house prices, which have increased for the eighth consecutive month.Clare O’Neil.Credit: Rohan Thomson“What the government is doing now is slashing the time that it will take first home buyers to get into the housing market,” O’Neil said.Asked whether the government is on track to meet its target to build 240,000 new homes each year, O’Neil did not give a direct response.“What I’m saying is that for the first time in 70 years, Australians have got a government at the Commonwealth level that is throwing absolutely everything at the housing crisis …“What you’re seeing is our government investing $43 billion in building more homes, getting renters a better deal, and getting more Australians into home ownership. Now, is there more to be done? Absolutely.”Appearing alongside O’Neil was Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie, who slammed the government’s scheme, saying it was “making the housing crisis worse, not better,” claiming that it would both increase the likelihood that interest rates stay high and increase the demand for housing supply.

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The Brisbane Lions’ back-to-back premierships will soon be recognised with their very own Metro bus.Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner teased the announcement on Instagram overnight, saying: “All aboard the Premiership express!”Special branding features on other public transport options in Brisbane, with two CityCats rebranded as Blue and Bingo CityDogs, while buses get advertising wraps.The first electric Metro buses began rolling on Brisbane’s streets in October 2024, before being relaunched in January, and they started using the new Adelaide Street tunnel in the CBD on Monday.Traffic will be affected for several hours on an inner-city Brisbane road after a truck carrying heavy machinery crashed into a power pole.Police have advised Rouen Road at Bardon is closed southbound between the roundabout and Towong cemetery.A truck has hit a power pole in Bardon this morning.Credit: Queensland Police ServiceThe road is expected to be shut for several hours with local diversions in place, and motorists are asked to use a different route.Images released by police show skid marks on the road and it appears the truck has rolled or crashed backwards into the power pole.Energex is reporting 392 customers are affected in Auchenflower, Bardon and Toowong.Brisbanites are in for a warm Wednesday, with an expected top of 30 degrees forecast for what should be a cloudy day.The weather bureau is hinting of the chance of a storm, too, although there is only a 10 per cent chance of rain.And tomorrow is set to be even hotter, with a summery top of 34 predicted.Here’s the seven-day outlook:

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Nicole Kidman has filed for divorce from Keith Urban after 19 years of marriage.Kidman petitioned to end the marriage in a Nashville court. The filing states the marriage “suffered irreconcilable differences”.The 58-year-old Oscar-winning actor and the 57-year-old Grammy-winning country singer, both raised in Australia, met in 2005 at a Los Angeles event honouring Australians and were married in Sydney the following year.LoadingA source close to the family, who did not want to be named due to the sensitive nature of the matter, told this masthead Kidman was “broken-hearted” and the actor had been attempting to keep the family together for several months for the sake of their children.The pair have two teenage daughters.The split comes amid a number of other changes in Urban’s life. In January, the musician parted ways with three of his long-serving band members, including band leader and guitarist Jerry Flowers and multi-instrumentalist Nathan Barlowe, ahead of his world tour.