As it happened: Brisbane on Friday, July 25

Thanks for joining us for live coverage of the news in Brisbane and beyond. We’ll be back on Monday morning with another live coverage. In the meantime, catch up on the stories making headlines today:

Two teenagers have been charged over an early morning stabbing in the centre of Fortitude Valley that has left a man fighting for his life.

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers have suffered a legal setback after abandoning part of their application to have the former Liberal Party staffer’s rape case thrown out.

A public servant working for the Department of Main Roads has been reprimanded after she admitted calling her German co-worker “Helga” behind her back and using the phrase “nein, nein”.

Arts Minister John-Paul Langbroek unsuccessfully pressed State Library leaders on two occasions before issuing a direction that led to the last-minute cancellation of a First Nations author’s award ceremony in May.

NRL premiership-winner Scott Prince has thrown his support behind the rugby league governing body’s harsh stance on contact to kickers, despite the crackdown drawing criticism from an Immortal of the game.

And do you know the name that’s been chosen for Brisbane’s newest theatre? Answer this question and nine others in our weekly Brisbane Times quiz.

Bruce Lehrmann’s lawyers have suffered a legal setback, abandoning part of their application to have the former Liberal Party staffer’s rape case thrown out.

Last year, Lehrmann was committed to stand trial over allegations he raped a woman he met on a drug-fuelled night in 2021 at a nightclub in Toowoomba, west of Brisbane.

Lawyer Zali Burrows and Bruce Lehrmann.Credit: Edwina Pickles / Wolter Peeters

Lehrmann, 30, is accused of two counts of rape, and is expected to fight the charges.

Last month, Lehrmann’s legal team made an application to have the case thrown out of court, with part of it seeking a declaration that intercepted phone calls between Lehrmann’s lawyers and Queensland police were obtained illegally.

Read the full story.

Greyhound advocates have called for a government investigation into The Q, after a 12th dog died after just four months of venue operation.

Racing on the Q2 Parklands track at the $85 million facility was suspended this month due to unsafe conditions, but it was the Q1 Lakeside track that proved deadly on Tuesday.

A Racing Queensland steward’s report notes two-year-old Cool Hand Rio had to be euthanised for injuries sustained during a fall in race 11 – the 12th death since the venue started operations in March.

Cool Hand Rio had to be euthanised after this fall at The Q on Tuesday night.Credit: Racing Queensland

Cool Hand Rio was leading the race at the time.

Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds president Amy MacMahon, the former Greens MP for South Brisbane, said the Crisafulli government needed to conduct an independent inquiry into the sport in Queensland.

“The crisis in Queensland greyhound racing grows bigger every day,” she said.

“There have already been more racing deaths this year than for the whole of 2024. More retired dogs are being kept by owners because the rehoming system can’t cope, placing these dogs at risk. Many are being euthanised.”

US President Donald Trump has taken to Truth Social to celebrate the Albanese government’s decision to lift import restrictions on American beef, declaring that “we are going to sell so much” to Australia and that the removal of the ban constituted “undeniable and irrefutable proof that US beef is the safest and best in the entire world”.

“The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE,” Trump wrote.

“All of our Nation’s Ranchers, who are some of the hardest working and most wonderful people, are smiling today, which means I am smiling too. Let’s keep the Hot Streak going. IT’S THE GOLDEN AGE OF AMERICA!”

Anthony Albanese said in April that Australia would not compromise on biosecurity while Donald Trump demanded access for US beef.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The Albanese government has denied the decision to lift the ban, confirmed yesterday, was done to appease Trump, saying that it followed an expansive review from Australian biosecurity officials who concluded that the import of US beef wouldn’t compromise national security standards.

Cattle Australia chief executive Will Evans said yesterday he expected very little US beef to enter Australia after the ban lifted, finding that the trade terms still favoured Australian farmers and that any US beef imports would be in small quantities and often boutique products.

Health Minister Mark Butler has batted away suggestions the Albanese government’s lifting of US beef import restrictions was done to appease President Donald Trump, saying that new traceability arrangements added to track the origins of cattle in America led to the change.

Trump has publicly demanded that the restrictions on American beef be repealed, drawing suspicion from Coalition MPs and farmer groups that the lifting of the ban was done to please US officials as the Australian government pleads its case for an exemption to the proposed tariffs.

US President Donald Trump publicly called for the beef import restrictions to be dropped.Credit: Bloomberg

Speaking on Seven’s Sunrise alongside Liberal senator Jane Hume, who lent her voice to an independent review of the decision in the segment, Butler said the lifting of the ban was “not at all” done to create another bargaining chip with the Trump administration.

“This was a biosecurity decision … not a trade decision,” Butler said.

“This process has been going on for some years now but over the last six or nine months, as I understand it, the Americans introduced new traceability arrangements to ensure that we know where the cattle that are involved here, potentially Mexico, Canadian cattle that then are moved to America for processing, where exactly they’ve come from.

“The American systems were assessed by our independent officials over the last several months and found to be up to scratch, up to the sort of arrangements that we have with our strict biosecurity laws.”

It’s round 21 of the NRL premiership and this time the Brisbane Broncos are taking on the Eels, tonight at Lang Park.

A smaller (and cheaper) alternative to the Ekka, the Mount Gravatt Show on Saturday and Sunday has rides, food, animal shows, dance performances, craft and meet-and-greets with Bluey and Bingo.

The world’s best news photography comes together in the World Press Photo exhibition at Brisbane Powerhouse, until August 17.

QAGOMA’s Winter Design Market.Credit: QAGOMA

The team at QAGOMA knows how to pick great design, and the Winter Design Market in the GOMA Forecourt has more than 80 stallholders selling ceramics, jewellery, homewares, textiles and clothing, Saturday and Sunday 9am-4pm.

Farm Gate to City Door Market is on Saturday at the Breakfast Creek Lifestyle Precinct, 8am to noon, selling honey, cheese, olives, flowers, jam, soap, seeds and much more.

Coins, autographs, rare Lego, cards, comic books, toys, skateboards – whatever you love to accumulate, Collect Fest at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre has it all weekend.

And in big-ticket shows, Jesus Christ Superstar continues at QPAC with its evergreen earworms Superstar, Everything’s Alright and I Don’t Know How to Love Him.

A cleaner has been accused of stealing from elderly clients across Brisbane.

The 44-year-old woman allegedly stole from homes she working at in Carindale, Wellington Point and Thornlands over three months.

A woman is reunited with her missing ring.Credit: QPS

A ring that had reportedly been in a family for more than 40 years was one of the items that went missing.

Jewellery was allegedly pawned at stores in Capalaba and Victoria Point.

The alleged crimes occurred over about three months, between April and June 2025.

The accused was charged with nine offences including stealing and forgery, and was due to appear at Cleveland Magistrates Court on August 19.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Albanese government would work “really closely” on the spending of a near $5 billion pledged to Britain under the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, ahead of meeting with his UK counterpart in Sydney today.

Marles said the funding, designed to support the expansion of British production for the nuclear reactors eventually installed on AUKUS submarines in Adelaide, would be closely monitored to ensure it underpins strong outcomes for Australian national security and defence interests.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles.Credit: AP

“We will work really closely with the United Kingdom on the way in which that’s spent,” Marles told ABC’s 7.30 program last night. “But to give you a sense, I’ve visited that factory, I’ve seen the plans on how that expansion is going to occur.”

Foreign Minister Penny Wong will also meet her UK counterpart today, which will mark the second ministerial consultations staged since the election of the Labour Party in last year’s UK general election.

A stabbing in the centre of Fortitude Valley early this morning has left a man fighting for life, and police have taken two other people into custody.

The alleged assault occurred on Brunswick Street about 3.40am, reportedly near the Prince Consort Hotel.

The man was allegedly stabbed on the corner of Wickham Street and Brunswick Street early on Friday.Credit: William Davis

The victim was stabbed multiple times in his chest. The Queensland Ambulance Service said he was found by paramedics in a life-threatening condition, with “significant” wounds.

Nine News reported the man was attempting to break up a fight when he was attacked.

Two people have been arrested. “They are assisting police with inquiries,” a police spokesperson said. “Investigations into the circumstances of the incident are ongoing.”

The stabbed man remains at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Flu and COVID-19 cases are continuing to spike across the state, with Queensland Health warning more hospitalisations are expected in coming weeks.

Category two and three elective surgeries were paused for 48 hours at four Brisbane hospitals – Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, The Prince Charles Hospital, Redcliffe Hospital, and Caboolture Hospital – last week to free up emergency beds in response to a spike in flu and COVID cases.

Data released on Thursday shows flu hospitalisations have continued to increase in the past week, with 270 people hospitalised with the flu across the state from July 14-20. This is 13 per cent higher than at the same time last year.

A total of 3650 flu cases were recorded across Queensland during the same period, the highest number in a single week this year to date.

Queensland Health said flu cases and hospitalisations are likely to increase in coming weeks, with the peak yet to be reached, and urged anyone yet to receive a vaccination to consider doing so.