Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has been accused of going "rogue" after penning a letter to US Republicans vowing to reverse Australia's recognition of Palestinian statehood.

In an unprecedented move, Ley wrote to US Republicans to assure Congress members a Coalition government would revoke Palestinian recognition if elected.

The letter was reportedly sent to a group of Trump allies ahead of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's address to the United Nations in New York City, after he formally confirmed Australia's position on a Palestinian state.

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"I write to reassure you, and the Congress, that this decision taken at this time by the Labor government does not enjoy bipartisan support here in Australia," Ley wrote in an excerpt of the letter published by the Sydney Morning Herald.

"The federal opposition opposes this decision and would reverse it should we form government."

The opposition leader said the decision "does not reflect the view of a majority of Australians" and references an August Resolve poll which said 44 per cent of voters believed the government should not recognise statehood.

Another 32 per cent said Labor should have waited until Hamas was destabilised and a further 24 per cent supported the federal government's announcement.

Ley later said she spoke with Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar to "express my disappointment" with Albanese's announcement.

"I expressed my disappointment at this break with bipartisanship and reiterated the Coalition's long-held position that recognition must only come at the end of a genuine two-state process," Ley said in a post on X.

"Now is the wrong time while Hamas holds hostages and while conflict still rages.

"I voiced concerns for Australia's Jewish community, the rise of antisemitism, and the humanitarian toll of the conflict. I also expressed my hope for the safe return of hostages and a ceasefire as soon as possible.

"The Coalition will continue to stand firmly with Israel and oppose reckless decisions that reward terrorists."

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Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg told Today this morning that Ley wanted American politicians to "know that this is not something that's widely supported here in Australia".

Bragg also described Albanese's move as a "deeply unserious" proposal.

Communications Minister Amanda Rishworth said it was Ley simply "shoring up" her interests locally.

She said Ley was hurting Australia's reputation as a united front.

"I do think that she has misstepped here," Rishworth told Today. 

"I think, quite frankly, I think this is more about her shoring up her political survival than it actually is about what's in Australia's interests."

Foreign Minister Penny Wong backed Rishworth's remarks.

She told the ABC's Radio National Breakfast that Ley was running a "rogue foreign policy" by contradicting Australia's official position on Palestine.

"It is possible to back Australia and still be an effective opposition, and really, it's time that Ms Ley and the Liberals understood that," Wong said. 

"We know we're strongest when we speak with one voice, we all understand that as Australians, and the opposition should understand that too."

Albanese addressed the UN General Assembly in New York hours after Australia formally recognised a Palestinian state.

"Working together, we can build a future where instead of children in Gaza dying in pain, living in fear, or being taught to hate – they can go to school, build a 'life in larger freedom', aspire to raise children of their own," he said earlier today.

"That future depends on recognition being followed by reconstruction and reform."

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A serial rapist known as the "Night Stalker" has admitted sexually assaulting eight women after a decades-old crime spree that terrified millions of Australians.

WARNING: This story contains details and content that some readers may find distressing.

At least 10 women reported being assaulted in Sydney's Moore Park and Inner West areas between 1991 and 1993, leading media to decry the "Night Stalker" or the "Moore Park Rapist".

After more than three decades, breakthroughs in forensic technology led to the arrest of Glenn Gary Cameron at Sydney International Airport in February 2024. 

The 61-year-old was charged with dozens of offences related to eight of the women who were targeted after dark during the years-long crime spree.

After managing to keep his identity as the rapist secret for 30 years, Cameron appeared in the Downing Centre Local Court today to admit 18 sexual assaults and one attempted sexual assault.

The Alice Springs resident wore rectangular glasses on a clean-shaven face, with his white hair contrasting his green prison tracksuit.

He admitted raping eight women while wielding a variety of knives, which he threatened to use on the victims.

Then aged in his 20s, he indecently assaulted each of the eight women and detained one of them at knifepoint for his sexual gratification.

One of the complainants was groped and raped five times in the span of half an hour at Moore Park.

Cameron pleaded guilty to 13 charges, with another 14 to be taken into consideration when he is sentenced later in the year.

Nine charges – including that Cameron punched two women in the head, hit another in the face multiple times, and robbed two women – were withdrawn by prosecutors. 

He will face the NSW District Court on October 24 before being sentenced for his crimes. 

Cameron's arrest was made possible by a forensic review of the historical sexual assaults, which used modern DNA and fingerprint technologies.

At the time, a magistrate made suppression orders that prevented the media from identifying Cameron or publishing the charges against him.

The court order was quietly revoked in May.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

Kash Patel met Winston Peters in the Beehive before the trip was officially disclosed.

Hugo McGregor lived for only five days before his parents made the heartbreaking decision to turn off his life support.

An inquest into Hugo's hospital death is under way in the Queensland coroners court at Townsville, detailing the string of problems encountered before the family's gut-wrenching call.

Hugo was born on March 11, 2023, and died five days later when parents Jenna and Andre made the painful decision to turn off life support.

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The cause of death was listed as a brain injury from a lack of oxygen or blood flow at birth.

There had been no sign of trouble throughout McGregor's pregnancy, but when she went into labour and was transferred to Mackay Base Hospital on March 11, her delivery failed to progress.

After hours of labour, nurse Sharni Dolphin told the coroner she was concerned when Hugo's heart rate began to drop just after 4pm.

"I noticed that Hugo's heart rate had a bradycardia (abnormally slow heart rate), it was reduced down to 50 to 60 beats per minute," she told the court.

When medical attempts to progress the labour failed, the doctor ordered an emergency caesarean.

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Dolphin said there was disagreement over treatment between medical staff in the operating theatre.

"I had voiced my concern in the room to say that I could no longer hear Hugo's heart rate, and that because they were discussing wanting to do a spinal anaesthetic, and I said it wasn't appropriate," she said.

"I said 'no, we need to do a general anaesthetic. Hugo's heart rate had been down for some time, and a spinal is not appropriate' and he (the doctor) told me pretty much that he wasn't talking to me.

"My concern was that I didn't think a spinal should have been performed. I feel a general anaesthetic should have been done straight away … so we could have got baby Hugo out faster."

Midwife Jesse Potts also gave evidence that there had been concerns surrounding an epidural administered earlier in labour as McGregor was still suffering breakthrough pain.

"(The anaesthetist) looked at the pump and advised that the epidural infusion settings were incorrect," the midwife said.

The medical team leader disagreed and overruled the correction ordered by the anaesthetist.

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McGregor was given Syntocinon, a medication to increase the speed of labour, and the baby's heart rate plummeted.

While the fetal alarm sounded, doctors tried to slow contractions using Terbutaline before determining Hugo would be delivered by emergency caesarean.

More problems were encountered during the procedure, the court was told.

Hugo had no heartbeat when delivered and when suction was ordered to clear his airway and start his breathing, the machine failed, and staff resorted to CPR to resuscitate the newborn.

Despite the efforts of the medical staff, Hugo was unable to survive when life support was turned off.

Hugo's death followed a damning report into Mackay Hospital's obstetrics and gynaecology services in 2022, which found catastrophic failings led to the death of three infants.

The report called for systematic change, issuing 122 recommendations that included improving communication, culture and empathy towards patients.

The inquest before Deputy State Coroner Stephanie Gallagher is scheduled to run until Friday.

The Red Nose Grief and Loss Support Line is available 24/7 for anyone affected by the loss of a pregnancy, stillbirth or death of a baby or child on 1300 308 307.

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Five days of rugby to decide Hawke’s Bay’s representative primary schools champions.

Spring has arrived in Australia, and whilst experts predict it could be a wetter one than normal, places like Sydney have enjoyed a bit more sun in recent days after a record amount of rain in August.

The whole country will also now start enjoying more sunlight, with days now becoming longer than nights across Australia, according to Weatherzone.

"Today, September 23, marks the 2025 spring equinox in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, meaning days will be longer than nights for the next six months," meteorolgoist Ben Domensino explanied.

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In the days leading up to the spring equinox, days and nights are usually the same length, which has been the case for around a week across Australia.

But with the equinox happening today, that will now change.

For example, in Melbourne tonight, there will be around 12 hours and 10 minutes between sunrise and sunset today, a trend that will continue to grow.

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Days will be longer than nights in Australia for about three months, until the summer solstice in December.

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year with the least time between sunset and sunrise.

Nights will remain shorter than days across the country until the next equilux in March next year.

The equilux marks the next point where days and nights are equal in length, before nights will then become longer than days in Australia as winter hits.

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A scathing review has savaged NSW transport authorities over the lead-up and response to the failure that brought trains in Sydney to a standstill in June.

The independent report was commissioned by the state after an overhead wire broke and fell onto a train near Homebush station on May 20, wreaking havoc across the entire network for two days.

It found authorities took too long to get the hundreds of passengers off the stricken train, there was a "comprehensive failure" to keep commuters informed about the disruptions, and a warning about the exact wire that snapped had gone ignored five years earlier.

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Transport Minister John Graham said the report was sobering reading for the government.

"Incidents are inevitable from time to time on a rail network the size and age of Sydney's, but the missteps and mishandling of the response ensured two days of chaos on our city's public transport system when a well-managed response could – and should – have limited disruption to one day," he said.

"A well-managed rail maintenance program could – and should – have fixed this fault after it was detected and prevented the disruption affecting so many."

Among the most damning findings was that railroad equipment supplier Teksol International measured the wire that failed in 2020, and found a fault measuring more than half a metre.

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Not only were no repairs carried out as a result of that finding, but visual and hands-on inspections conducted in the following five years – including one just a month before the May 20 failure – failed to notice the defect.

Compounding the disruptions was a complete lack of effective communication to the more than a million commuters who use the Sydney train network every day.

The report found there was a sense of complacency among Sydney Trains executives, and that the network's Opal Travel app didn't send out a notification alert to travellers about the outage until almost 18 hours after it had happened.

"A disturbing feature on 20 May and the next day was the absence of effective communications," the report stated. 

"The passengers stuck on the train did not know what was happening; the passengers expecting to get a train home did not know either; and neither did the general public. 

"The government received some limited communication from Sydney Trains but not in detail and not reliable, especially about available train running or when normal operations would recommence…

"People are not surprised by the odd incident (they happen), but they do expect to know what is going on so that alternative plans can be made."

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This lack of communication came despite the introduction of the $276 million Rail Operations Centre (ROC) in 2016, which had promised to act as a "new nerve centre" and keep the public informed during outages.

The review found a litany of issues with the centre, including that "communication technology that was intended to be installed as part of the ROC was not included".

It was also scathing of the time taken to get the roughly 300 passengers off the train at Homebush.

Commuters didn't start disembarking for almost two hours, and it wasn't until more than three hours after the wiring failed that the final passenger was helped off.

In that time, commuters hadn't been able to use the bathroom and had only been given water if they'd asked for it.

"We could find no defensible reason why it took so long to detrain the passengers at Homebush," the report stated.

"A confusion about safe rules for detraining in this type of incident occurred even though a 2024 incident at Redfern had posed the same issues and as a result the appropriate procedure to follow had been widely circulated. 

"We were also concerned about the lack of care offered to the 300 passengers on that train."

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In response to the review, the NSW government has announced an almost half-billion-dollar, four-year response, which includes improving maintenance on Sydney Trains, upgrading technology, reforming the ROC and bettering passenger communication systems.

"The people of Sydney expect a safe and reliable rail network – and right now, it's not up to scratch," Graham said. 

"The review makes tough reading for the government and will be disappointing for those 1.1 million people who rely on Sydney Trains every day. 

"Even more so for commuters who were inconvenienced, or even stranded, on trains and platforms that day. 

"This review shows just how much work there is to do, and we're determined to get on with it."

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An eighth teenager has been charged over the alleged machete stabbing murders of two children in Melbourne's west earlier this month.

Dau Akueng, 15, and Chol Achiek, 12, were allegedly attacked by a group of people wielding knives and machetes shortly before 8pm on Saturday, September 6 in Cobblebank.

The pair were found critically injured about 200 metres apart, with Chol on Marble Drive and Dau on Cobble Street.

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They both died at the scene.

Police on Friday charged a 19-year-old Thornhill man, two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old boy with the murder of Dau.

A 19-year-old Caroline Springs man, an 18-year-old Wollert man and a 16-year-old boy were charged with the murder of Chol.

An eighth person, a 15-year-old boy, has today been charged with Dau's murder.

The charged teenager is in custody on unrelated matters, police said.

He will appear at a children's court at another date.

Community leader Richard Deng issued a statement last week thanking police hours after the arrests were made.

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"Today's arrests are great news and a relief not only to the South Sudanese community but also to the wider community," Deng said.

"The arrests will renew hope and trust in Victoria Police and the government."

The community was left reeling in the wake of the boys' deaths and tributes remain at the spots where both of the boys died.

Police have also increased patrols in the Cobblebank area following the alleged murders.

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Many doctors and scientists were reeling Monday after President Donald Trump went on TV to insist that pregnant women should never take Tylenol and revive debunked theories about vaccines and autism.

Trump went beyond his own Food and Drug Administration's more modest advice that doctors “should consider minimising” the painkiller acetaminophen's use in pregnancy — amid inconclusive evidence about whether too much could be linked to autism.

His comments came as the administration also moved to make more available a possible but unproven autism treatment — and also announced more research into the disorder.

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Dr Steven Fleischman, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, worried that the Tylenol claims would terrify mothers-to-be and parents of children with autism.

“I don't want you going back and looking and saying to yourself, ‘I shouldn’t have done this, I shouldn't have done that.' It's nothing you did. It really is not,” he said.

“Not treating the fever probably has more adverse effects that you need to worry about than taking the medication.”

As for vaccines, “studies have repeatedly found no credible link between life-saving childhood vaccines and autism," said American Academy of Pediatrics president Dr Susan Kressly.

”Any effort to misrepresent sound, strong science poses a threat to the health of children."

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism by September.

That baffled brain experts who say there is no single cause and that the rhetoric appears to ignore decades of science into the genetic and environmental factors that can play a role.

Here's what we know about autism and the Trump administration's new steps to address it.

What is autism?

Autism isn’t a disease. It’s a complex developmental condition better known as autism spectrum disorder that affects different people in different ways.

It can include delays in language, learning or social and emotional skills.

For some people, profound autism means being nonverbal and having intellectual disabilities, but the vast majority of people experience far milder effects.

Autism rates have been going up for decades

There are two main reasons.

First, the definition of autism broadened as scientists expanded their understanding of its wide range of traits and symptoms.

That led to changes in the criteria doctors use to diagnose autism and improvements in screening.

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At the same time, parents increasingly sought a diagnosis as autism became better known and schools began offering educational services they hoped could help their kids.

As late as the 1990s, only children with the most profound symptoms were considered to have autism.

In the early 2000s, as the definition began changing, the autism rate was estimated to be 1 in 150 children.

The latest count found 1 in about 31 children are affected by autism spectrum disorder.

The increase isn't among the profound cases; it's an increase in the milder cases that weren't historically considered autism, said expert Helen Tager-Flusberg of Boston University.

There is no single test for autism, which is diagnosed mostly through developmental and behavioral assessments.

It's hard to tell if there may be additional factors behind the increase.

What’s the state of autism research?

Science has shown autism is mostly rooted in genetics, with the discovery of several hundred genes that play a role.

Those genes can be inherited, even if the parent shows no signs of autism, or mutations can occur as the brain is developing and its rapidly dividing cells make mistakes.

Experts say different combinations of genes and other factors can all affect how a fetal brain develops.

They include such factors as the age of a child's father, preterm birth and whether the mother had health problems during pregnancy such as fevers, infections or diabetes.

What about Tylenol?

Some studies have raised the possibility that taking the over-the-counter painkiller in pregnancy might be associated with a risk of autism — but many others haven’t found a connection.

In addition, the Coalition of Autism Scientists said on Monday that acetaminophen use during pregnancy hadn’t increased in recent decades like autism rates have.

But untreated fevers in pregnancy, particularly the first trimester, increase the risk for miscarriages, preterm birth and other problems, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

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Part of the difficulty in settling the question is that studies using medical records can't tell if the fever, or a drug to lower the fever, might be connected to later health.

The FDA wrote doctors on Monday advising them to minimise acetaminophen's use during pregnancy but acknowledged uncertainty: "To be clear, while an association between acetaminophen and autism has been described in many studies, a causal relationship has not been established and there are contrary studies in the scientific literature.”

Tylenol's label already advises women to ask their doctor about use in pregnancy, and the society continues to advise that it's an appropriate option.

What is the possible new autism treatment?

Also Monday, the FDA announced it was taking initial steps to try to approve a folic acid metabolite called leucovorin as a treatment option for some people with autism.

It's based on a theory that some people have too little folate, a form of vitamin B, in the brain and that giving them more could alleviate some symptoms.

Women already are told to take folic acid before conception and during pregnancy because it reduces the chances of certain birth defects, advice that possibly could help lower autism risk as well, Tager-Flusberg said.

Leucovorin is sold for other health conditions and already used by some families in hopes of helping autism.

But Tager-Flusberg cautioned that only a few small, first-step studies have been done so far.

“Is this something worth pursuing? Yes, it is in potentially a subset of individuals,” she said. But there needs to be a large, very rigorous study to prove if it really works.

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What about vaccines?

Any concern that vaccines could be linked to autism has been long debunked, stress scientists and leading advocacy groups for people with autism.

Childhood vaccines — and how and when to give them in combination — go through rigorous studies, and safety tracking continues for years as the shots are used.

“No doubt children will suffer” from Monday's claims, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

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The British teenager who stabbed to death three girls in the Southport knife attacks "illicitly" obtained driving licences to buy machetes, a public inquiry has been told.

Axel Rudakubana, 19, was jailed earlier this year to at least 52 years for killing the girls and stabbing 10 others last July in the northern English town of Southport.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the stabbing rampage one of the most harrowing moments in Britain's history.

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The inquiry has been hearing how Rudakubana has amassed a collection of weapons in his bedroom for at least two years, the BBC reports.

Detective Chief Inspector Jason Pye, who headed the police investigation into the attacks, said a machete was found in a holdall beneath the teenager's bed, along with a bow and arrows.

Two other machetes had apparently been "intercepted" by his parents.

Pye told the inquiry for two of the purchases, Rudakubana had got hold of two real driving licences "illicitly". They belonged to adults named only as "Alice" and "Samuel".

The licence holders were unaware he had used their identities.

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Moss said police examination of the attacker's emails showed questions about age verification checks for online purchases.

Other records revealed two companies had refused to sell him a crossbow in 2023.

Following his arrest, Rudakubana also admitted possessing an al-Qaeda training manual and producing ricin, a deadly poison which the judge said it was likely the teenager would have used.

The public inquiry was set up by the UK government to examine events leading up to the stabbings.

Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice Dasilva Aguiar, nine, were killed in a murder spree that shocked Britain and was followed by days of nationwide rioting.

They were among 26 children attending the summer holiday event.

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