Brisbane news live: Two meteor showers to light up Brisbane sky; Young man dies in six-vehicle crash; Crisafulli in hot seat for budget estimates

Brisbane are managing the workload of prop Payne Haas but won’t rest him from games and training for the sake of it as he continues to handle a back complaint with typical stoicism.

The NSW front-rower is on track to play against South Sydney on Friday night after training with the Broncos on Monday.

Haas has been coping with a lower back issue for most of the season, but that hasn’t stopped him shining for the Broncos and the Blues.

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 25: Payne Haas of the Broncos is tackled during the round 21 NRL match between Broncos and Eels at Suncorp Stadium, on July 25, 2025, in Brisbane, Australia.Credit: Getty Images

The 25-year-old warhorse was limping at the end of the 22-20 loss to Parramatta on Friday night after a knock to the ankle but scans weren’t required and he trained on Monday.

Broncos head of football Troy Thomson, who was high-performance manager for the premiership-winning Rabbitohs in 2014 and world champion Australian side, said the Broncos would continue to manage Haas’s training for his own individual needs.

“If Payne can’t play a game of footy of course we are going to give him a rest, but this whole notion that giving him a rest is going to fix him is not how the human body works,” Thomson said. “Movement helps recovery. If you don’t move, you get sorer.”

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It’s showers with a chance of fireballs this week as two cosmic events converge to put on a dazzling double-act for those willing to seek out the dark, brave the cold and ditch their phones.

“We’ve got two meteor showers peaking at the same time,” Associate Professor Devika Kamath, an astrophysicist at Macquarie University, said. “You see them really well from the southern hemisphere and Australia has a front-row view.”

A stargazer from the American Meteorological Society captured seven fireballs in one night during 2023’s Alpha Capricornid meteor shower.Credit: The American Meteor Society/University of Arizona

The Southern Delta Aquariids meteor shower will reach peak intensity from Monday to Wednesday amid its annual six-week appearance. The Aquariids are the third-strongest meteor shower of the year, with up to 20 meteors zipping past per hour at the peak.

The Alpha Capricornids shower is also firing up to near-peak levels on Monday night and will reach its brightest on Wednesday. The Capricornids shower is weaker than the Aquariids, with about five meteors per hour, but it can send unpredictable and dramatic bursts of light scorching across the sky.

Associate Professor Devika Kamath from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University.Credit:

The best time to view the showers will be between midnight and 4am on the nights between Monday and Wednesday (July 28-30) when both cosmic events are at their most brilliant.

Stargazers keen to catch a glimpse of the action should find a viewing spot away from light pollution such as buildings, street lights and car headlights and allow half an hour for their eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Read more here.

The temperature dipped to a chilly 7.5 degrees around sunrise this morning, but the good news is we’re set for a sunny day with a top of 22 degrees.

Here is the forecast for today and the rest of the week:

Here’s what’s making news further afield this morning:

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is under threat from an emerging populist bloc on her party’s right flank, threatening splinters on its contentious net zero emissions pledge, woke culture and immigration, as MPs fear a further slump in the polls.

Toddlers at a Sydney childcare centre had their mouths taped shut by educators as part of a “breathing exercise”, prompting an investigation by the state’s regulatory authority.

Children at the centre had their mouths taped as part of a breathing exercise.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions will demand that employers guarantee workers’ job security before introducing artificial intelligence into their businesses, in a bold proposal that will inflame tensions before the Albanese government’s productivity roundtable next month.

Moving from a coal-dominated power grid to cleaner sources of energy may end up costing more than first thought, as CSIRO warns of higher construction costs hitting the industry and giant premiums involved in developing new generation technologies, including offshore wind farms, for the first time.

And, US President Donald Trump has called on Israel to speed up the flow of food to families in Gaza and set a new deadline for Russia to end the war in Ukraine, urgently intensifying his demands on both global flashpoints.

Good morning, and welcome to Brisbane Times’ live news coverage for Tuesday, July 29. It should be another sunny day with a top temperature of 22 degrees, but a slight chance of late showers.

In this morning’s local headlines:

Hailstorms will become more frequent in Brisbane as the climate warms over coming years, new modelling shows.

The largest recorded hail in Queensland on October 31, 2020. Credit: Facebook

A former reality television star who appeared on a popular cooking show allegedly dragged a complainant by the hair down a hallway, and then choked her against a wall, after a dispute involving tomato sauce.

The Crisafulli government has called in Queensland’s industrial relations watchdog to help end its pay dispute with public school teachers, just hours before the union’s ballot on industrial action was due to close.

And while it might be a sport associated with cheap beer and food at suburban clubs, the 180th anniversary of the first recorded game of bowls has intensified a push to have it included at the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.