SBS News in Easy English 22 September 2025

SBS News

Source: SBS News / SBS News

A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability.


Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to SBS News in Easy English, I'm Sam Dover.

----

Australia has officially recognised a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly, along with Canada and the United Kingdom, with more countries due to follow soon.

The decision brings Australia into line with more than 150 countries, including over 140 of 191 member states of the General Assembly now recognising Palestine.

It comes as Israel continues to bomb and invade the famine-hit city of Gaza City, with the Gaza health ministry reporting the death toll from Israel's war with Hamas has now passed 65,000.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made the announcement in New York on Sunday.

"The Commonwealth of Australia recognises the state of Palestine. We have had, in Australia, a long term position on a bipartisan basis of two states. One of those states is, of course, Israel. The other, of course, is Palestine, and this recognition being announced today in sync with our international partners, the United Kingdom and Canada, means that three of the Five Eyes nations are all making this decision today."

France, Belgium, and Portugal are among the other countries due to recognise Palestine at the General Assembly this week.

----

Tens of thousands of people have gathered at a stadium in Arizona to honour conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated at a university in Utah nearly two weeks ago.

Many paid tribute to the 31 year-old founder of the youth action campaign Turning Point USA are Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump, who spoke briefly before travelling to the service.

“He was a young man, but a great man. And we look forward to it. It really is. We want to look at it as a time of healing, a time of ... whatever. That something like this could have happened is not even believable. So we'll be– we’re going to have a very interesting day. Very tough day."

Mr Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, is to address the audience at the 63,000-seat stadium outside Phoenix.

A 22 year-old man has been charged with Charlie Kirk's murder, with prosecutors saying they will seek the death penalty.

----

In sport, Penrith have beaten Canterbury-Bankstown 46-26, keeping their hopes of a fifth consecutive NRL premiership alive.

The Panthers played a near-perfect first half, going to the break nearly 30 points up - scoring six tries to one and destroying any hope the Bulldogs had of rescuing their season.

Penrith captain Nathan Cleary said the victory has given them confidence for Sunday the 5th when they'll face the Broncos at Lang Park.

"It's sort of been weird the last two weeks. I probably felt much more nerves going into the games, just not really knowing how they're going to go and but to the young guy's credit, like the way they started the game today, in particular, under a fair bit of pressure. So it's given I think it's given all of us a lot more confidence that you know those guys can perform in big games and they've proven that throughout the year too and they just seem to be getting better and better."

----

That is SBS News in Easy English, I'm Sam Dover.

Share

Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world
SBS News in Easy English 22 September 2025 | SBS News