- Australian doctors threatened and forced to flee as they provide care in Gaza
- Super Typhoon Ragasa lashing Hong Kong
- England announces its five-test Series team as it looks to regain the Ashes from Australia
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Two Australian doctors working in Gaza say they have faced constant threats and fear for their lives since arriving in the besieged enclave.
Gold Coast GP Dr Nada Abu Alrub and Brisbane anaesthesiologist Dr Saya Ayiz are currently based in Al Shifa hospital on a humanitarian mission with the Palestinian Australian NZ Medical Association.
The pair have been in Gaza for almost two weeks, and say they have both received threatening text messages and were forced to leave another hospital Al Aqsa in Gaza City after intensifying Israeli bombardments.
Dr Aziz has told SBS News that it has been an intense and horrifying experience.
"I don't think any person who is walking around in Australia can even begin to imagine the scenes that I've seen. Obviously I'm a doctor. I'm trained to see all sorts of things - we're not squeamish - but this has been next level. It's doomsday. You walk in and it's like an abattoir."
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The Palestinian envoy at the United Nations has pleaded for humanitarian aid access to Gaza during his address to the Security Council today.
Riyad Mansour told the Council that women and children are the primary targets of Israeli military action in Gaza and are the most vulnerable.
Mr Mansour's address came a day after France, Andorra, Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, and Monaco announced or confirmed their recognition of a Palestinian state which the international community hopes will give momentum to a two-state solution and ultimately see peace in the Middle East.
"Mr President, the Palestinian people have suffered from the denial of their existence for decades. Now they are being confronted yet again with an attempt to destroy our nation altogether. Recognition of the state of Palestine is an affirmation that the world rejects such denial, rejects the attempts at our destruction and supports our right to existence, our right to self-determination."
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The world's most powerful tropical cyclone this year is lashing Hong Kong with hurricane-force winds and torrential rain.
The Hong Kong observatory says Super Typhoon Ragasa is packing hurricane-force winds of up to 200 kilometres per hour as it skirts around 100 kilometres south of the territory.
Authorities have warned of rising sea levels, saying they could be similar to those seen during Typhoon Hato in 2017 and Typhoon Mangkhut in 2018, both of which caused billions of dollars in damage.
The observatory says water levels have already started to rise due to a significant storm surge and will reach a maximum of around four metres around noon local time.
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Australia's health minister has criticised Donald Trump for spreading what he has called 'worrying' and unproven claims about autism.
Flanked by Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US president has baselessly linked autism to the use of paracetamol by pregnant women and childhood vaccines.
Health Minister Mark Butler says those comments have the potential to leave more than 200,000 pregnant Australian women unsure or afraid of what to do when they become sick, particularly with fever.
He's also told Channel Nine that the Republican president's remarks about combination jabs such as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine were the most concerning aspect of the press conference.
"I do not want further uncertainty about the importance our childhood immunisation program at a time when, like the rest of the world, frankly - after COVID - rates of childhood immunisation are going the wrong way."
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The ABC has been fined $150,000 for unlawfully sacking journalist Antoinette Lattouf, after she shared a Human Rights Watch post on Gaza.
The penalty has been levied in the Federal Court, which found the public broadcaster breached workplace law when it sacked Ms Lattouf from her casual role on ABC Radio Sydney's Mornings program in 2023.
The ABC has 28 days to pay the fine, which comes in addition to the $70,000 in damages she was previously awarded.
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England has named 16 players for its five-test series with Australia that begins in November.
Chris Woakes, whose last act as an England player was to bat with a dislocated shoulder on the dramatic last day of the England-India series has not been included.
The selections mean the English will come to Australia with a battery of pace bowlers to spearhead their attempt to regain the Ashes but with questions over their batting line-up and the fitness of several players.
