World
Vanuatu set to sign policing deal with China. Cholera outbreak, war devastate Darfur. Autism warnings defy science. By Jonathan Pearlman.
Albanese formally recognises state of Palestine at UN
Great power rivalry
Gaza: Australia joined France, the United Kingdom and Canada in recognising a Palestinian state this week, amid growing concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Addressing a United Nations summit on the two-state solution sponsored by France and Saudi Arabia, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday the aim of recognition was to “break this cycle of violence and build something better”.
“Australia recognises the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the Palestinian people,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the summit: “We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security.”
The moves to recognise Palestine were condemned by United States President Donald Trump, who described recognition as a “reward … for Hamas terrorists, for their atrocities”.
At least 157 of 193 UN member states recognise Palestine.
Addressing the UN General Assembly by video, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was barred from attending by the Trump administration, said recognition was an “important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace”.
But analysts say serious hurdles remain in the way of a two-state solution, including Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the popularity of Hamas – which does not recognise Israel – among Palestinians, and the devastation of Gaza, which has been left in ruins by Israel during its two-year war with Hamas.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has threatened to annex parts of the West Bank in response to the international recognition of Palestine, which he said would “impose a terrorist state in the heart of our land”.
Israel pressed on this week with its advance into Gaza City, which aid groups say threatens to worsen the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Officials in Gaza said 33 people were killed on Wednesday, including 28 in Gaza City. About 550,000 of the city’s one million residents have fled following Israel’s orders to evacuate.
In Gaza, the reaction of residents to the various recognitions of Palestine was mixed.
Rahi Abu Daf told Reuters: “It’s a good thing we have a state, an entity, to live in dignity at least.”
Another resident, Abu Mustafa, said: “We want the war to end, we want our slaughter to end, that’s what we need now, not declarations.”
The neighbourhood
Vanuatu: Vanuatu is set to sign a policing deal with China but insisted this week the move will not undermine plans to conclude a wide-ranging security pact with Australia.
Andrew Napuat, Vanuatu’s police minister, said the government plans to complete a police deal with China similar to those it has with Australia, New Zealand, France, the UK and Papua New Guinea. He said these deals are “not the same as the Nakamal Security Agreement”, referring to a proposed $500 million pact between the two countries.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited Vanuatu on September 9 to complete the pact but left without signing it after members of Vanuatu’s ruling coalition became concerned it could affect the flow of Chinese funding.
Napuat met last week with China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, in Beijing as part of an annual policing dialogue between China and Pacific nations.
After the meeting, Napuat said relations between the two countries had “reached an unprecedented level”.
Australia has been trying to secure deals with Pacific nations to try to prevent China deepening security ties across the region.
Following the failure to clinch the Nakamal pact, Albanese last week visited Papua New Guinea to sign a new defence treaty, but that agreement was also delayed after the PNG cabinet failed to achieve a quorum.
War zone
Sudan: A cholera outbreak in Sudan has added to concerns about the fate of an estimated 260,000 people trapped in El Fasher, a besieged city that is the government’s last hold-out in the Darfur region against a rival paramilitary force.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization said Darfur was the hardest-hit region by a current cholera outbreak and that 2.7 per cent of cases there were fatal. Since July last year, authorities have recorded more than 113,000 cholera cases across Sudan and more than 3000 deaths.
The outbreak, caused by contaminated food or water, comes as fighting has intensified in and around El Fasher, where about 11,000 soldiers are battling the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary army that has been at war with the Sudanese military since April 2023. More than 12 million residents have been displaced and tens of thousands killed.
El Fasher, surrounded by an earthen barrier built by the RSF during the 18-month siege, has received no aid since April, leaving residents to survive on animal feed. The city’s water plant has been regularly attacked, as has its last remaining hospital.
A drone strike that hit a mosque last Friday killed at least 70 people, including Omar Selik, a doctor interviewed by phone a week earlier by The New York Times.
“People seem to have forgotten us,” he said, reportedly breaking into tears. “Even we’re eating animal feed. There’s nothing else.”
Aid groups say the RSF has been escalating its attacks and is moving closer to capturing the city – a development that analysts say could lead to mass killings of its civilians. Médecins Sans Frontières reported earlier this year that RSF troops plan “to ‘clean El Fasher’ of its non-Arab ... community”.
A report on El Fasher by the United Nations Human Rights Council said the RSF had committed murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual violence and massacres of civilians, including the killing of 1500 to 2000 people at a camp in April.
Spotlight: Autism warnings defy science
United States: Donald Trump this week warned pregnant women not to take paracetamol because it could lead to autism in children, despite the objections of scientists who roundly rejected the guidance.
At a press conference on Monday, the US president said his message to pregnant women was: “Don’t take it [paracetamol]. You’ll be uncomfortable. It won’t be as easy, maybe. But don’t take it.”
Trump also warned that newborns who took paracetamol were at risk of developing autism and that parents should spread out vaccines for children rather than delivering them in one. Both recommendations were dismissed by scientists.
Referring to his vaccine advice, he acknowledged he was not relying on medical experts but on his “common sense”.
“This is based on what I feel,” he said. “I’m not a doctor, but I’m giving my opinion.”
Trump said he and his health secretary, Robert Kennedy Jr – a notorious vaccine-sceptic who believes autism is being caused by “environmental toxins” – understood “a lot more than a lot of people who studied” autism.
Scientists have been investigating the causes of autism for decades, including possible links to paracetamol, but have not arrived at conclusive findings. The medical consensus is that paracetamol can be safely used in pregnancy, and that autism likely results from a mix of genetic and environmental factors.
During their press conference, Trump and Kennedy made a series of spurious claims, including that autism does not occur in Amish communities or among older adults.
Helen Tager-Flusberg, an autism scientist at Boston University, told The New York Times she was appalled by the claims made by Trump and his officials.
“In some respects, this was the most unhinged discussion of autism that I have ever listened to,” she said. “It was clear that none of the presenters knew much about autism … and nothing about the existing science.”
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on September 27, 2025 as "Albanese formally recognises state of Palestine at UN".
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