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Antibiotic resistance is a threat to humanity, yet we have no idea exactly how big the problem is in Australia A selection of pharmacists across NSW have been licensed this year to prescribe antibiotics to women suffering suspected urinary tract infections, or UTIs. The trial program mirrors similar schemes being rolled out in other states. One in two Australian women will contract a UTI in their lifetime and antibiotics are a common treatment. Although GPs have complained about the quality of care women might receive under the program, the idea is obvious: If pharmacists can take over prescribing antibiotics, so less the burden on an overwhelmed health sector. In our hyper-connected world, however, nothing is so simple. While the pharmacy model might make perfect sense for an individual patient, and potentially for her dedicated, enterprising pharmacist, it might not for the rest of us. If these schemes contribute to the wider use of antibiotics, they risk exacerbating so grave a threat to humanity it is often compared with climate change: antimicrobial resistance, or AMR. AMR is the ability of microbes and bacteria to acquire resistance to antibiotics and become what is often dubbed a "superbug". This phenomenon is corroding one of the core pillars of modern pharmaceuticals, and it is rampant. Already, AMR is narrowing the range of medicines available to treat tuberculosis, HIV, leprosy, gonorrhoea, typhoid and malaria. Multi-drug resistance contributed to almost 5 million deaths in 2019, according to the WHO, and directly killed another 1.29 million people. In 2020, Australia launched a 20-year National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy "to protect the health of humans, animals and the environment" from AMR. It's an ambitious new plan to ensure antibiotics can continue to be effective in this country into the future, and encompasses food and the environment and a series of medium-term goals to "achieve the vision". Long-term observers of AMR policy will be watching its progress with some caution, however. It is another of the very many wicked, over-the-horizon quandaries which confound our system of government. A civil service struggling with AMR’s complexity, politicians who see little electoral up-side in the issue, and vested interests careful to protect their bottom line. The resulting inertia has put a stop to the most fundamental of policy responses: gathering the data. We still do not know how many AMR incidents are occurring across Australia, and we do not know how many antibiotics are in circulation. What happened to JETACAR? In 1999, a Commonwealth quango — the Joint Expert Advisory Committee on Antibiotic Resistance, or JETACAR — recommended a multi-pronged approach to tackle AMR. At its heart would need to be "an internationally acceptable and scientifically defensible … continuous surveillance program" of both drug-resistant infections and antibiotic use. Rather than action, the government commissioned an examination of such a program's "feasibility". In 2004, we were told a new "strategy" was "being finalised". It took another two years for this document to be handed over to another government committee. From there, it sank without trace. Another seven years floated by. Finally, the Senate at last asked the obvious question: what had happened to JETACAR? The answers made for depressing reading. One expert told the Senate that "barely any of the 22 JETACAR recommendations have been implemented", including the surveillance program. The Senate Inquiry identified a conga-line of committees — CIJIG, EAGER, EPHA, AMRAC — which briefly flamed to life before being snuffed out. Committees "rarely met and did nothing", according to one of the original JETACAR authors, while the Department of Health was "totally unresponsive and disinterested". The crisis was growing Meanwhile, the crisis had grown only more acute. It was now a "common event" that children "with resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections of the skin, bones and soft tissues, and resistant Escherichia coli infections of the urinary tract, gall bladder and bowel" were forced onto "intravenous therapy as there are now no effective oral antibiotics available". Antibiotics report "The issue of untreatable infections is no longer an abstract notion; it is now a reality." The Senate recommendations were, by now, all too familiar, including the establishment of a surveillance system and mandatory reporting of the sales of antibiotics across the country. Finally, in 2014, the AURA (Antimicrobial Use and Resistance in Australia) Surveillance System creaked into life. It collects data from hospitals, aged care homes and laboratories, and builds on a patchwork of other, isolated AMR initiatives. Be under no misapprehension, however. It is not anything like the national surveillance program envisaged 24 years ago. Critically, it does not measure all incidences of AMR, the true volume of antibiotics in use, nor the impact on patients. Swathes of Australia's medical community have declined to hand off their data to the engine that drives AURA (known by another acronym, APAS, or Australian Passive AMR Surveillance), including private health giant Healius, and some of Sonic Health Care's pathology companies. Even the Northern Territory's pathology department has declined to plug in its data. The agricultural sector has escaped scrutiny But these are mere teething problems. The real scandal is the failure of the government to force the agricultural sector to participate. There has long been compelling evidence of a causal link between the use of antibiotics in the farming sector and the rise of superbugs. Australian health officials have known of it since 1969.

Can you be Muslim and vegan? What about Jewish or Christian? It depends who you ask When Lujayn Hawari decided to become a vegan, she knew her parents would not take it well. The 27-year-old Palestinian journalist grew up in Brisbane in a "moderately conservative Muslim household". That meant praying five times a day, observing Islamic holidays and traditions, and eating what her mother cooked — including meat. So when Lujayn made the decision to stop eating animal products in 2016, her parents were unimpressed. "It was an argument [at] breakfast, lunch and dinner," she says. "We would have arguments all day, every day." But a much bigger crisis, happening outside her home, was motivating Lujayn's decision. And it sparked the beginning of a long journey to disentangle her religion from her diet. Carrying a burden At 20, Lujayn had just finished her university degree and was looking to her future. But she was confronted with news reports of catastrophic climate change. "As millennials, we carry the burden of a deteriorating world," she says. It was impacting her mental health. "I was going through a very dark time and I needed a purpose, something that would give me a reason to wake up in the morning, to feel like I had an impact." At the same time, Lujayn was finding it increasingly hard to balance her identities as a Muslim and an Australian. The more she tried to "pave [her] own path", the more her parents resisted and the more alienated she felt. "Growing up within a Western lifestyle, [at a certain point] you start to question your own culture, your own background and your own religion," she says. "You start to ask many questions … and you want answers." Part of Lujayn's questioning involved looking at traditions within her religion and her home. She started to think critically about things she'd previously taken for granted, like the role of meat in her diet. She began researching the impacts of meat and dairy production on the environment. And what she learnt hit her hard. She discovered that cows and other livestock release methane, the potent greenhouse gas, and that scientists and environmentalists had long been calling for a reduction in methane emissions in animal agriculture to combat climate change. "It was an overnight decision. I cut out dairy the next day," she says. That was followed by the removal of all animal products from her diet. Lujayn's father was deeply unhappy with her choice and felt she was going against Islam by choosing not to eat what he considered to be the bounty God had provided. "[He said], 'You're going to go to hell, God will never be happy with you, and you'll never find success in life'," she recalls. But she stood her ground and even embarked on an Honours thesis on veganism in Islamic religions. "I wanted a comprehensive research article that I could present to my dad and tell him, 'See, there's nothing wrong with being vegan as a Muslim,'" she says. As she delved deeper, Lujayn discovered a community of young people who felt the same way, and were similarly torn between their religious identity and environmentalism. "A lot of people would message me and tell me, 'We totally agree with you, but it's so hard to be able to adopt that lifestyle in our families and our culture.'" So what are the rules, exactly? Some religions, like Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, are explicit about promoting plant-based diets. But for Australia's most common religions, how, why and when we eat meat is nuanced and complex. Various religious communities interpret the rules differently, and there's debate within religious groups too. Bekim Hasani is an expert in Halal certification and Imam of Melbourne's Albanian Muslim community. "In Islam, we know that everything around us is created to benefit us as human beings, and therefore, it is important to use those animals," he tells ABC RN's God Forbid. "We eat certain meats and certain animals, and we are prohibited to eat others." Based on the teaching of the Qu'ran, pork, alcohol and shellfish are considered "haram" or non-permissible. Meats that are permitted must be slaughtered in a specific way and "in the name of God", using a very sharp knife to kill the animal quickly and with the least pain possible, while allowing the blood to drain from its carcass. But Dr Hasani says the Qu'ran also urges moderation when it comes to meat consumption and considers all plant-based foods "halal by default". The holy scripture also doesn't explicitly condemn those abstaining from meat. The Prophet Muhammad is believed to not have eaten much meat in his lifetime, reserving it for special occasions. Jewish traditions around meat eating are prescriptive in a similar way to those of Islam. The Jewish holy texts define specific animals that are permitted to be eaten, which parts are to be avoided, and ways in which to farm and slaughter, says Yankel Wajsbort, general manager at kosher certification agency Kosher Australia. Forbidden foods typically include pork, shellfish, birds of prey, reptiles, rodents and most insects. That also extends to products derived from forbidden animals, including rennet, an enzyme used to harden cheese, and gelatin, a protein made from animal collagen. But these holy rules are not without debate. There was a new type of chicken discovered in Europe about five years ago, and there's been massive discussions about whether it's actually a kosher chicken," Wajsbort says. "Then there are the different types of ducks: wild ducks aren't kosher but some domesticated ducks are." While plant-based products aren't automatically deemed kosher, Wajsbort says they could be helpful to kosher consumers. "We don't mix dairy and meat together, so for example, if you're going to have a kosher cheeseburger, you have two options: either the cheese is not really cheese, or the meat is not really meat." A plant-based product filling the gap could be more accessible and affordable for Jewish consumers than specialty kosher products, he says. Joel Hodge, head of the Australian Catholic University's School of Theology, argues that Christian traditions tend to have a less rigid view of diet. "[It's] about a relationship with God through Jesus ... so in that sense, Christianity is a flexible religion, in terms of deciding on ethical principles, because it relies on reflection, discernment and living out Jesus' way of life." According to Biblical teachings, humans and animals are given the gift of life by God — but there are differing opinions on exactly how that relates to eating animal products. "[Someone] can say, 'I don't want to engage in eating meat [because] the vision of God is one of love, of non-violence, of not harming and of actually celebrating life,'" Dr Hodge says. "But a lot of Christians don't subscribe to that, because they see that animals can be recognised as a gift … and sustenance for human beings." A personal ethical journey Thea Ormerod, president of the Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC), believes religious communities may be uniquely placed to fight climate change through their diet. She says people of faith "could and should" respond to the environmental importance of reducing meat consumption because "caring for the earth is something common to all the different faith traditions". Another common message across religions is that "an individual's behaviour does count". That thinking is behind the ARRCC's Eat Less Meat campaign, which has been running for the past 15 years. The campaign focuses on small, incremental diet changes, like encouraging people to have at least one meat-free day a week. "[For people of faith], our personal, ethical journey counts because we count. We are important," she says. "My personal little contribution to reducing emissions in the atmosphere may be relatively small, but it's still important, and it goes to the kind of person I am." She says climate science is compatible and even complementary to religious ideology and scripture. "There isn't really a conflict, it's like two different kinds of truth," she says "[There's] religious truth that talks about the importance of love and compassion, then there's scientific truth, that [says]: 'If you eat this much meat, it causes this much methane in the atmosphere, which then contributes to global warming.'" It's a message that rings true for Lujayn, whose parents have now come around to accepting her veganism. "I think we need to shift our cultural ideas and interpretations and ideologies to what's happening in today's world, and look at science and statistics and be able to adapt our religion to that," she says. You always hear from Muslims that science and religion are one; the Qu'ran has so many verses that indicate a love for science and research. "So why aren't we adapting that to the environment and our diets?" She wants to share with other young people of faith that a plant-based diet isn't counter to religion: it's an expression of it. "I think to be religious is to care about what God created," she says. "If you're not caring for that, then where do your beliefs lie?"

Volunteer translators and interpreters play a vital role in Shepparton but union says there are significant risks As the first Afghan nurse in Shepparton, Bushra Samadi is often asked by Afghans living in Shepparton for help with medical issues. Sometimes to check a mole or a rash, sometimes for more immediate concerns. One night Mrs Samadi was woken at 2am by a phone call. The distressed caller was in the emergency department at the hospital and sounded in pain. "She was at the triage desk and she wanted me to tell them that she's pregnant and she's bleeding and she wants help now," Mrs Samadi said. "At times like that, you cannot say no, and you help them. "The people in Shepparton, if they need help, they don't call TIS (Translating and Interpreting Service), they're going to call people that they know within their communities that they know are going to help them instantly. "When someone speaks English they are just automatically a translator." But there is more to translating than just being bilingual. Seeking help from people they know Professional interpreters and translators must complete three years of formal training and pass the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) exam. Professionals Australia chief executive Jill McCabe said that multicultural communities must have access to translators and interpreters but that it wasn't a job for volunteers. "Non-qualified individuals should not be referred to as translators or interpreters as this undervalues the skill, responsibility and professional requirements and status of qualified and certified providers," Ms McCabe said. "Using non-professional volunteers creates significant risks for the volunteers and community members." IMPARO, a Monash University research project, discovered that even when professional translators were available, like during the 2022 floods in Shepparton, local volunteers were often still preferred. Project lead Margherita Angelucci said people often felt more comfortable talking to people they knew. "With the certified translators and interpreters, there can be a level of shyness from the community," Dr Angelucci said. The IMPARO project, developed in partnership with NAATI, aimed to find out why previous training courses hadn't resulted in more volunteer translators becoming certified, and to shape what future training is needed to prepare more locals to be eligible to take the NAATI test. The development of new training programs will be dependent on funding. In the meantime, an online toolkit has been made available to non-professional interpreters and translators. "We decided, OK, let's actually put some training resources together that people can access freely, and that's the toolkit," Dr Angelucci, said. "An interim solution to make sure people who are still practising as translators and interpreters in the community do so in a safe way, in an ethical way." Volunteers, community exposed to risks But Ms McCabe said that having people that are untrained could be "a significant health and safety issue". "Using volunteers who are not adequately trained and certified undermines the translators' and interpreters' profession," Ms McCabe said. "It is highly exploitative and presents a significant risk to the volunteers and the community they seek to assist." While there are many volunteers willing to take on the responsibility of an interpreter, Dr Angelucci said that shouldn't be the status quo. These are non-professionals doing these jobs, they're doing it as volunteers, and sometimes they're more than happy to do it as volunteers but it can't be the norm because yes, it does carry some risks," Dr Angelucci said. Mistranslation can be life-threatening in health care and can throw legal cases or visa applications into disarray. There are personal risks for volunteers too. From the toll on their own mental health to legal implications. "Imagine being blamed for something going wrong and they're telling you that it's your fault because you're not certified," Dr Angelucci said. According to her research, non-professional interpreters and translators believe "if they were certified they'd be less taken advantage of and also more respected and they wouldn't be treated as the weak link in the chain". Accreditation would mean these volunteers could charge for their services, but Mrs Samadi said she wouldn't. "I don't see myself working as an interpreter because I have a really good job and I don't think I'll have time to work as a professional interpreter," Mrs Samadi said. "I want to get NAATI certification because of the interpreting that I already do. I want to do that better." NAATI national operations manager Michael Nemarich said certification assures consumers that the interpreter or translator employed has been tested at the highest level. "Google translate has its place, and family and friends and community members have a place, but the skill level that a professional interpreter brings can be lifesaving," he said. But Mr Nemarich acknowledged non-professional interpreters and translators did play an important role. "There is always going to be a requirement and a desire for people to use bilingual friends, family, community members, particularly when there is a lack of interpreters around. "In an emergency scenario to say you wouldn't have anyone unless they were professional, could mean that something even worse could happen."

Macquarie Dictionary names 'cozzie livs' its Word of 2023. Here's what it means Cozzie livs" — a light-hearted play on the term "cost of living" — has been named the 2023 Word of the Year by Macquarie Dictionary. After more than a year of rampant price rises and soaring interest rates, it is little wonder the term has struck a chord with Australians. Amusing names for everyday things were over-represented in this year's winning words and they included "angry water", "rizz", and "bopo". The Australian dictionary has chosen a Word of the Year since 2006. What does 'cozzie livs' mean? Macquarie Dictionary describes "cozzie livs" as a "humorous play on cost of living". The dictionary goes on to define the termas "the average retail prices of food, clothing, and other necessities paid by a person, family, etc., in order to live at their usual standard". Where did the term 'cozzie livs' come from? Many of us have been feeling the pinch for quite some time as we've been required to pay more for most things like utilities, groceries, petrol, rent, mortgages, and basic essentials. The most commonly cited measure of cost of living is the Consumer Price Index, which represents the prices of a fixed basket of goods and services. AKA, a lot of the things just mentioned. The change in price of the basket of goods is known as inflation — and that's what we've all been talking about and hearing about over the past few years. Hence the popularity of the term cozzie livs. The Macquarie Dictionary Committee said the term first appeared in the UK. However, it has "resonated soundly with Australia". "What could be a more Australian approach to a major social and economic problem than to treat it with a bit of humour and informality?" the committee said. What are the other winners and honourable mentions? When put to the public, Aussies voted "generative AI" as the People's Choice Word of the Year. The committee says "generative AI" isn't a humorous construction, but shows that "AI is figuring prominently in our minds this year". Meanwhile, honourable mentions went to "blue-sky flood" (a flood in low-lying areas caused by water that has made its way from higher ground) and "algospeak" (code words or expressions social media users have adopted to avoid being censored or taken down). Here are some other phrases that made it to the Word of the Year shortlist: Angry water (carbonated water) Bopo (body positivity) Doof stick (a long pole topped by a placard, decoration, et cetera, used as a location marker for a group of friends at a dance or music festival) Rizz (charisma) Scrotox (botox for the skin on your scrotum) US dictionary Merriam-Webster's 2023 word of the year is "authentic". The word has a number of meanings including "not false or imitation", a synonym of real and actual; and also "true to one's own personality, spirit, or character". The dictionary said searches for the word "substantially increased" in 2023 thanks to "stories and conversations about AI, celebrity culture, identity, and social media". Celebrities such as singers Lainey Wilson, Sam Smith, and Taylor Swift all made headlines in 2023 with statements about seeking their "authentic voice" and "authentic self".

How Perth's real-time pollen monitoring is transforming understanding of allergy risks Until 12 months ago, Perth only had access to daily pollen count data, created by researchers looking at a daily sample under a microscope. But in November 2022, researchers atCurtin University installed an automated monitor to collect air samplesand take holographic images of pollen "in-flight". "This revolutionary instrument measures by hour, and so we can actually see how it fluctuates within the day," Ivan Hanigan, senior lecturer in climate change and health, told Gianni Di Giovanni onABC Radio Perth. The system uses two cameras that take shots of particles from two angles as they pass through a pipe in the monitor. "We use an artificial intelligence algorithm that takes those two images and puts them together and draw a hologram, which is then analysed by the computer to tell us exactly what species these pollen grains are as they go past," Dr Hanigan said. The only other such automated monitoring machine is installed in Melbourne. New real-time information Dr Hanigan said the device had yielded valuable information about the prevalence and patterns of pollen levels throughout the year and across the day. "Something that we've managed to find out is different in Perth, it's peaking earlier, in October, whereas in Melbourne, it's peaking in November. "During the day, we've also seen a difference. It's peaking in the evening in Perth, whereas it peaks in the middle of the day in Melbourne. "It has implications for how you treat yourself." This year however, the pollen count has been quite low, thanks to lower-than-average rainfall, leading to less grass, and more bare earth in the Perth environment. "The grass pollen has been really low. We have tree pollen as well, but most people are allergic to the grasses, and it's been going down over the last few weeks," he said. "I think we've had our peak. "But the flipside of not having grass is that you've got bare earth, and exposed soil, and you get a lot of windblown dust." There has been so much dust that the machine has had to be cleaned three times as often as the one installed in Melbourne, and the dust levels also have implications for respiratory health. Clues to medication use Dr Hanigan said more research was needed but it could give people a better understanding of when it was most valuable to use hayfever medication. "We know that when you take your hayfever medication has a big impact on how you protect yourself, and it's probably best to start taking medication before you expect high pollen days. "That's why we've worked on a forecasting system as well, where we use weather data and the grass maps, along with this near real-time data we're collecting to build a predictive model that says what [levels] will be in a few days' time." Since Melbourne's severe thunderstorm asthma event in 2016, when two people died and 2,000 people called triple-0 for ambulances, due to a sudden change in the size of pollen particles, researchers around Australia focused attention on better understanding and predicting pollen levels. WA is second only to Victoria in the amount of money spent on over-the-counter hayfever medication, and Dr Hanigan said the impacts at a population level were significant. The AIHW [Australian Institute of Health and Welfare] have done an estimate that something like 18 per cent of Australians suffer from the kinds of chronic respiratory conditions that hayfever exacerbates," he said. "It's not just the allergies, it's asthma, but also things like chronic respiratory diseases that are exacerbated, and it spreads across other aspects of our lives. "It impacts mood, it's probably influencing mental health problems. It means there's lost productivity, as people can't work as effectively. "Potentially [the] lost productivity is up to $5 billion a year."

The sacking of Mike Pezzullo has the Home Affairs boss leaving knowing 'where the bodies are buried' Mike Pezzullo got his first frontline taste of politics as an adviser to Labor's foreign minister Gareth Evans in the early 1990s. On Monday, the party which once hired him demonstrated how suddenly fortunes can change in Canberra, dispensing "the Pez" via a brief statement issued by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "Earlier today the Governor-General in Council terminated the appointment of Michael Pezzullo as Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs," Albanese revealed in a move widely anticipated for weeks. This action was based on a recommendation to me by the Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australian Public Service Commissioner, following an independent inquiry". That inquiry, led by Lynette Briggs, made numerous findings against the man who until recently was arguably Canberra's most powerful, divisive, and yet indestructible bureaucrat. In September, the government asked Pezzullo to stand aside as secretary, launching an investigation into a series of text messages he had exchanged with Liberal Party powerbroker Scott Briggs, which were leaked to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Among 14 apparent breaches of the public service code of conduct; was using his "duty, status or authority to seek to gain a benefit or advantage for himself" and failing to "act apolitically in his employment". Over the past decade, the former acting Defence secretary had demonstrated an unflinching resolve to build up the mega Department of Home Affairs, whose first minister was Peter Dutton, the now Opposition Leader. Mr Pezzullo had also helped craft the Australian Border Force, which would become a highly visible arm of the Coalition government's push to deter unauthorised arrivals. When elected last year, Albanese's government resisted internal calls to sack Pezzullo, who earned more than $930,000 a year, but his department's wide-ranging portfolio of responsibilities was scaled back — with the Australian Federal Police returning to the Attorney-General's Department. Since September, the department has been led by experienced public servant Stephanie Foster, but it continues to grapple with numerous headaches on several fronts, not least the High Court's recent decision to end indefinite detention for asylum seekers. The court's reasons for its ruling, which will shape future legislation, will be released on Tuesday. Other crises, such as evidence of widespread rorting of Australia's visa system by migration agents and human trafficking operations led by organised crime figures, emerged earlier during Pezzullo's tenure, which began in 2017. Critics of Pezzullo have also pointed to his department's mishandling of multi-million-dollar immigration detention contracts, and his now infamous "drums of war" warning to staff back in 2021. Prior to the creation of Home Affairs, Pezzullo had also been drawn into the 2015 botched "Operation Fortitude" visa crackdown in Melbourne, where critics accused police and immigration officials of relying on racial profiling. In a message to staff on Monday morning, the current Acting Home Affairs boss confirmed to her colleagues that "Minister [Clare] O'Neil has asked me to continue to act as Secretary until a permanent appointment is found". Foster, who helpfully included a link to the findings against Pezzullo in her all-staff email, is considered the frontrunner to take over the powerful but troubled organisation. Before terminating Pezzullo less than a year before his term was due to expire, Labor also quietly changed regulations that would have granted the powerful bureaucrat a more generous severance payout. The party also decided to announce his sacking via a media statement, issued 30 minutes after Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil held a press conference in Canberra, during which no indications on Pezzullo's future were made. Mike Pezzullo has for weeks maintained a disciplined silence, and his next moves are not clear, but those close to the former secretary say he maintains he's done nothing to warrant his immediate dismissal. For the hardheads inside Labor, Pezzullo's presence had often been seen as an uncomfortable necessity; a force of nature who could help keep doubts about the party's handling of national security off the front pages of newspapers. Now those same Labor figures wait nervously to see whether he unleashes against his former political masters. They appreciate all too well – the Canberra veteran "knows where all the bodies are buried".

Paddy the green turtle spends winter in South Australian waters, defying 'natural history books' An endangered green turtle that was rescued from Middleton Beach in early 2023 has surprised experts by being the first known hard-shelled marine turtle to spend winter in South Australian waters. Key points: Paddy the green turtle has been tracked since being released in April She spent the coldest part of winter at the top of Spencer Gulf She is the first green turtle known to have spent winter in SA waters Paddy the green turtle was found tangled and sick in an overwhelming amount of seaweed at the beach 80 kilometres' south of Adelaide in March. After being cared for by Zoos SA in Adelaide, Paddy was released at Rapid Bay on the Fleurieu Peninsula in April with a satellite tracker attached. It was initially thought she would return to warmer waters off Queensland or Western Australia but instead she travelled around Gulf Saint Vincent and then into Spencer Gulf. Tracker data showed that she spent the coldest part of winter at Port Augusta, in between the two bridges of the town where good sea grass patches could be found. Aub Strydom, who placed the tracker on Paddy and watched her travels with interest, said her winter stay had "rewritten the natural history books". As a volunteer turtle tracker for more than 30 years, he was a little concerned when he saw the water temperature at Port Augusta drop to 8.2 degrees Celsius in July, knowing green turtles could not usually survive at temperatures of less than 8C. As the water began to warm up and Paddy started to move south, Mr Strydom thought she was finally going to make a move to the west or east coasts but instead she turned again and was currently in waters near Whyalla. "She tootles along, spends a week or so in each place," he said. While the battery in Paddy's tracker could last up to three years, marine growth often caused issues with trackers' circuit breakers. Mr Strydom said there was also the risk that the tracker could be lost at any time as turtles tended to shed scutes — the scales of their shell — every 18 months or so. Is warmer water driving turtles south? Deakin University turtle researcher Dr Jared Tromp has also been fascinated by Paddy's movement around SA waters. "It is an unusual case, that one is here [in SA] and happy and swimming around," he said. Dr Tromp agreed that, to his knowledge, this was the first time a hard-shelled marine turtle had been tracked in SA waters over winter. "It will be interesting to see if [Paddy] was able to make it back to its nesting grounds or foraging grounds back up further north," he said. News Home SHARE Paddy the green turtle spends winter in South Australian waters, defying 'natural history books' ABC South East SA / By Caroline Horn Posted 7h ago7 hours ago, updated 6h ago6 hours ago A large marine turtle in seaweed Paddy was rescued from seaweed at Middleton Beach in March.(ABC News: Caroline Horn) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article COPY SHARE An endangered green turtle that was rescued from Middleton Beach in early 2023 has surprised experts by being the first known hard-shelled marine turtle to spend winter in South Australian waters. Key points: Paddy the green turtle has been tracked since being released in April She spent the coldest part of winter at the top of Spencer Gulf She is the first green turtle known to have spent winter in SA waters Paddy the green turtle was found tangled and sick in an overwhelming amount of seaweed at the beach 80 kilometres' south of Adelaide in March. After being cared for by Zoos SA in Adelaide, Paddy was released at Rapid Bay on the Fleurieu Peninsula in April with a satellite tracker attached. It was initially thought she would return to warmer waters off Queensland or Western Australia but instead she travelled around Gulf Saint Vincent and then into Spencer Gulf. A map of South Australia showing a tracker line where the turtle has been Tracker data showed that she spent the coldest part of winter at Port Augusta, in between the two bridges of the town where good sea grass patches could be found. Aub Strydom, who placed the tracker on Paddy and watched her travels with interest, said her winter stay had "rewritten the natural history books". As a volunteer turtle tracker for more than 30 years, he was a little concerned when he saw the water temperature at Port Augusta drop to 8.2 degrees Celsius in July, knowing green turtles could not usually survive at temperatures of less than 8C. As the water began to warm up and Paddy started to move south, Mr Strydom thought she was finally going to make a move to the west or east coasts but instead she turned again and was currently in waters near Whyalla. "She tootles along, spends a week or so in each place," he said. "I think she's here because she wants to be." Middleton's green turtle is released into the sea at Rapid Bay.(Zoos SA) While the battery in Paddy's tracker could last up to three years, marine growth often caused issues with trackers' circuit breakers. Mr Strydom said there was also the risk that the tracker could be lost at any time as turtles tended to shed scutes — the scales of their shell — every 18 months or so. Is warmer water driving turtles south? Deakin University turtle researcher Dr Jared Tromp has also been fascinated by Paddy's movement around SA waters. "It is an unusual case, that one is here [in SA] and happy and swimming around," he said. Dr Tromp agreed that, to his knowledge, this was the first time a hard-shelled marine turtle had been tracked in SA waters over winter. "It will be interesting to see if [Paddy] was able to make it back to its nesting grounds or foraging grounds back up further north," he said. Leatherback turtle on the beach with a satellite tracker on back on a beach Dr Tromp has been studying the historical records from databases and old newspaper clippings of marine turtle sightings along the southern coasts of Australia to find sightings of turtles on beaches. He hopes to get funding for a citizen science project to try and encourage people to log sightings of marine turtles off the Victorian and SA coasts, in particular, of the leatherback turtle. "In my experience, not many people have heard of a leatherback turtle, or aware they are down here [off the southern coasts], but it's actually a hotspot for them to forage," Dr Tromp said. He said historical records showed they had been seen in the past in both Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent. "There are a number of fisherman that have seen them," Dr Tromp said. 'Will we be seeing more?' He said some of the key questions scientists were keen to answer was the impact climate change was having on turtle movements. "As water temperatures are getting warmer, will we be seeing more occurrences of these turtles? "It's too early to tell at the moment but, certainly in the next few decades, we might see more turtles coming down to our southern shores." He said people seeing marine turtles could log sightings at the Australian living atlas. DNA testing carried out while Paddy was in the care of Zoos SA showed that she was related to the majority of female turtles in the Southern Great Barrier Reef, with relatives in New Caledonia and the Seychelles. Paddy's progress can be tracked at seaturtle.org.

Double amputee Shona Muckert competes with able-bodied canoeing team at national sprints Shona Muckert relies on a wheelchair for many routine activities, but her disability does not hold her back when it comes to competitive canoeing. Key points: Bilateral amputee Shona Muckert competed in the outrigging National Sprints on Friday Her team won a bronze medal in their division at the event She was the only woman with a disability to compete The bilateral amputee made a triumphant return to her beloved sport on Friday when she won a bronze medal with her team in the outrigging National Sprint Championships at Lake Kawana on the Sunshine Coast. All of Muckert's teammates from the Mooloolaba Outrigger Canoe Club are able-bodied. "It feels really nice for me to know that I can compete in my age group, as well as competing as a person with a disability," she said. "You always feel like you're just another club member." 'A really challenging time' It had been four years since the Sunshine Coast resident was able to participate in the event. In 2020, her life-changing osseointegration implant limbs became infected and she had to travel to Sydney for surgery. "There was a lot of talk about them removing the implants, which would have completely changed the course of my life," Muckert said. Pandemic travel restrictions then stopped her returning to Queensland. "I actually got stuck down there for six weeks," Muckert said. Afterwards, she took an extended break from the sport. "It was a really challenging time," Muckert said. "I just wasn't emotionally or mentally ready to get back in the water." Life turned upside down Muckert was a competitive swimmer as a child and always loved the water. When she was 25, a car accident changed her life forever. She was driving home one night when her four-wheel drive flipped and rolled four times "I was pinned underneath the car on a lonely road for about 12 hours," she said. She was found the next morning and flown to hospital, where both of her legs were amputated. For a decade, Muckert was confined to a wheelchair. "I used to climb into the boot of my car, and pull the wheelchair in behind me and then climb through to the driver's seat," she said. "You kind of just adapt." After reading about osseointegration implant surgery, she was determined to have the operation. Her local community quickly helped Muckert raise the $45,000 she needed. "There was just no way that I was going to be able to fund that on my own," she said. "So I'm really, really fortunate." The implants helped her to walk again and regain her independence, but spending time on her legs was still strenuous. "It takes 250 per cent of my energy to walk." The most beautiful thing' Outrigging has been a special outlet for Muckert because it relied on core and upper-body strength. "The paddling kind of works for me," she said. "I just use the right leg in the canoe. I don't actually use my left leg. "I'm actually using my core strength and leaning forward." Muckert said she loved the feeling of being on the water. "We're on the water at five o'clock [and] you're seeing the sun come up in the morning, and it's just the most beautiful thing. "It starts your day off really well."

Marija Peričić's novel Exquisite Corpse tells the grisly story of Carl Tänzler who lived with a corpse Carl Tänzler was a German radiographer who, in the 1930s, lived for seven years with the corpse of the woman he loved. Australian author Marija Peričić, who won The Australian/Vogel's Literary Award in 2017 for her debut novel, The Lost Pages, first learned about Tänzler in 2017. For several years the macabre tale played on her mind and eventually inspired her new novel, Exquisite Corpse (Ultimo Press). It features — just as Tänzler's own story does — a dangerous obsession, a bespoke mausoleum and an illegal body exhumation. Who was Carl Tänzler? Tänzler — also known as Carl von Cosel — was born in Dresden, Germany in 1877. He travelled to Australia in the early 1900s. At the outbreak of World War I, he was detained in an internment camp at Trial Bay Gaol in NSW with other "enemy aliens" — mostly fellow Germans. After the war, Tänzler was deported to the Netherlands, where he married a woman named Doris Schäfer and had two children. They emigrated to the US in 1926. The following year Tänzler moved nearly 700 kilometres away to the American island Key West, leaving his family behind, to take up a job as a radiographer at the Marine Hospital. It's here that he met patient Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, or Elena. "He was at work one day, and [Elena] came in. She was very beautiful, and he instantly fell in love with her," Peričić tells ABC RN's The Book Show. The 21-year-old Cuban-American woman was diagnosed with tuberculosis, a typically fatal disease at the time. A lovestruck Tänzler "took it upon himself to try to save her life", Peričić says. He tried a range of treatments in his efforts to cure Elena, and even constructed an X-ray machine from scratch to treat her with radiation. Unfortunately, no one knows how Elena, who was already married, felt about being the subject of Tänzler's ministrations. "We don't have her version of the story, but she agreed to these treatments — she had no other option available," Peričić says. A deluded obsession Tragically, despite Tänzler's efforts to help, Elena died in 1931. Distraught, Tänzler commissioned an elaborate mausoleum and a coffin to house her body, custom-designed to minimise decomposition. "He took over every detail of the funeral: the music, the clothes, the flowers. As time went on, his obsession with her only grew," Peričić says. Tänzler spent hours daily at Elena's grave until, one day, he did the unthinkable — he stole Elena's body from its tomb and took it home. "He tried to restore her body using household objects like wax and piano wire and horsehair," Peričić says. The author says, in Tänzler's mind, he and Elena were having a domestic relationship. "He had her dressed in this gown, she lay on his bed, he would make breakfast for her and dance with her and talk to her." This went on for seven years. During that time, Tänzler dedicated himself to building equipment and machinery designed to bring Elena back to life. But it was what happened next that truly piqued Peričić's interest. Love story or tale of coercion? Eventually, Elena's sister, Florinda, discovered the body was missing from the tomb and went to the police. Tänzler was arrested and the story became front-page news. Tänzler was presented as a tragic hero — and the public lapped it up. "Women flocked to the prison to support him … They were serenading him, they were bringing him gifts, everyone thought he was the most romantic man alive," Peričić says. "That idea [that he was a romantic hero] really horrified me." Elena's body was eventually returned to her family and given a proper burial in a secret location. The legal case against Tänzler was dropped. He went on to build a life-sized effigy of Elena that he lived with until his death in 1952. "The whole story is so much wilder than what I have put in the book," Peričić says. That story has inspired the writing of Exquisite Corpse, in which Tänzler becomes Dr Carl Dance, a man who falls in love with his patient, Lina, in Stockholm, not Florida. Peričić tells the story from the perspective of four characters: Lina, her sister Greta, Dr Dance and his wife Doris. "I really wanted to reclaim the story … [for] the women," Peričić says. She was also interested in exploring the idea of romance, which she believes we tend to associate with "roses and someone lovely taking you out to dinner … It's sort of adjacent to love". But in practice, she sees romance as something very different — closer to a fantasy than anything else. "It's very much based on idealising someone … and not really apprehending the person. This [Tänzler] story interested me so much because it's that concept taken to the extreme," Peričić says. If you are in Carl Tänzler [or] Dr Dance's version of the story, it's a romantic story. "But from everyone else's point of view, it's a story about misunderstanding and entitlement and coercion, and I wanted to bring those elements out." While Peričić says both Tänzler and Dr Dance are unlikeable characters who did awful things, she ended up feeling a little sympathy for the real man. "[Tänzler] preferred this dead woman to any other living person," she says. "[His] must not have been a very rich life." RN in your inbox Get more stories that go beyond the news cycle with our weekly newsletter.

Israel-Gaza war: Emmanuel Macron urges Israel to stop bombing Gaza, Hamas says Israeli strikes hit hospitals Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, French President Emmanuel Macron says, as deadly Israeli air strikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school, according to Palestinian officials. It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest comments to date on civilian suffering, denounced the number of Palestinians killed. Gaza health authorities said that at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have died since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. Israel says about 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 attack. This figure was revised down by Israel's foreign ministry on November 10 from a previously reported 1,400. Israel has rejected growing calls for a ceasefire, saying it would not stop until about 240 hostages taken by Hamas were returned, pushing further into Gaza City in its ground invasion aiming to eliminate the militant group. Here are the latest developments: Israeli strikes hit multiple hospitals and a school in Gaza City, say Palestinian officials Blinken says 'far too many' Palestinians killed Medecins Sans Frontieres calls for attacks against hospitals to stop Gaza health system at 'point of no return': Red Cross Thousands flee north Gaza, including from Al Shifa hospital after strike Hamas says it fired rockets into Israel UN rights chief urges probe of Israel's 'high-impact' weapons French president urges ceasefire from Israel Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview with the BBC. Mr Macron said there was "no justification" for the bombing and that a ceasefire would benefit Israel. He said that France "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza. When asked if he wanted other leaders — including in the United Sates and Britain — to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: "I hope they will." Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-long war with Hamas but says the Gaza-based militants would exploit a truce to regroup. Speaking the day after a humanitarian aid conference in Paris about the war in Gaza, Mr Macron said the "clear conclusion" of all governments and agencies present at that summit was "that there is no other solution than first a humanitarian pause, going to a ceasefire, which will allow to protect… all civilians having nothing to do with terrorists". "De facto — today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop," he said. In a statement responding to Mr Macron's comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas [is] committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Mr Netanyahu said. On Monday France's foreign affairs ministry said of the eight French nationals who have been missing since Hamas' October 7 attack, some have since been confirmed to have been taken hostage. Another French national who had been reported missing has now been confirmed dead, bringing the total of French victims of the Hamas attack to 40. Israeli strikes hit hospitals and school, say Palestinian officials Israeli air strikes have hit Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, on Friday, killing at least one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said. Officials said other strikes damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Rantissi paediatric and cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel claims Hamas militants are concentrated. Israeli tanks in part of the ground invasion into the enclave have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al Quds and Nasser Children's hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli snipers at Al Quds hospital killed one person and injured 28, primarily children. The Israeli military claimed Hamas was "operating from within the hospital" following reports of deaths from the sniper fire. Many Palestinians who had not left the northern part of the Strip upon Israeli warnings have fled to hospitals to shelter. "Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital. Mr Selmeyah later said that at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al Buraq school in Gaza city, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering. News Home SHARE News Ticker BUSHFIRE WARNING An Emergency Warning has been issued for the Silvergrass mine camp in the Shire of Ashburton in Western Australia. For the latest, search on ABC Emergency Get breaking news alerts directly to your phone with our app Israel-Gaza war: Emmanuel Macron urges Israel to stop bombing Gaza, Hamas says Israeli strikes hit hospitals Posted 13h ago13 hours ago, updated 3h ago3 hours ago large cloud of black smoke rises into a blue sky above an urban area Israel has continued its heavy bombardment of the Gaza Strip, hitting refugee camps, schools and hospitals in retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack. (Reuters: Evelyn Hockstein) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article COPY SHARE Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, French President Emmanuel Macron says, as deadly Israeli air strikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school, according to Palestinian officials. It comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in his strongest comments to date on civilian suffering, denounced the number of Palestinians killed. Gaza health authorities said that at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have died since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas. Israel says about 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 attack. This figure was revised down by Israel's foreign ministry on November 10 from a previously reported 1,400. Israel has rejected growing calls for a ceasefire, saying it would not stop until about 240 hostages taken by Hamas were returned, pushing further into Gaza City in its ground invasion aiming to eliminate the militant group. Here are the latest developments: Israeli strikes hit multiple hospitals and a school in Gaza City, say Palestinian officials Blinken says 'far too many' Palestinians killed Medecins Sans Frontieres calls for attacks against hospitals to stop Gaza health system at 'point of no return': Red Cross Thousands flee north Gaza, including from Al Shifa hospital after strike Hamas says it fired rockets into Israel UN rights chief urges probe of Israel's 'high-impact' weapons French president urges ceasefire from Israel Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview with the BBC. Mr Macron said there was "no justification" for the bombing and that a ceasefire would benefit Israel. Emmanuel Macron and Benjamin Netanyahu lean in close to each other for a handshake and embrace He said that France "clearly condemns" the "terrorist" actions of Hamas, but that while recognising Israel's right to protect itself, "we do urge them to stop this bombing" in Gaza. When asked if he wanted other leaders — including in the United Sates and Britain — to join his calls for a ceasefire, Macron said: "I hope they will." Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-long war with Hamas but says the Gaza-based militants would exploit a truce to regroup. Speaking the day after a humanitarian aid conference in Paris about the war in Gaza, Mr Macron said the "clear conclusion" of all governments and agencies present at that summit was "that there is no other solution than first a humanitarian pause, going to a ceasefire, which will allow to protect… all civilians having nothing to do with terrorists". "De facto — today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop," he said. In a statement responding to Mr Macron's comments, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said world leaders should be condemning Hamas, and not Israel. "These crimes that Hamas [is] committing today in Gaza will be committed tomorrow in Paris, New York and anywhere in the world," Mr Netanyahu said. On Monday France's foreign affairs ministry said of the eight French nationals who have been missing since Hamas' October 7 attack, some have since been confirmed to have been taken hostage. Another French national who had been reported missing has now been confirmed dead, bringing the total of French victims of the Hamas attack to 40. Israeli strikes hit hospitals and school, say Palestinian officials Israeli air strikes have hit Gaza's biggest hospital, Al Shifa, on Friday, killing at least one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said. Officials said other strikes damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Rantissi paediatric and cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel claims Hamas militants are concentrated. An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa hospital. Israeli tanks in part of the ground invasion into the enclave have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al Quds and Nasser Children's hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli snipers at Al Quds hospital killed one person and injured 28, primarily children. The Israeli military claimed Hamas was "operating from within the hospital" following reports of deaths from the sniper fire. Many Palestinians who had not left the northern part of the Strip upon Israeli warnings have fled to hospitals to shelter. "Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital. Mr Selmeyah later said that at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al Buraq school in Gaza city, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering. injured women in wheelchairs being pushed along on road Israel has claimed Hamas militants have hidden command centres and tunnels beneath Al Shifa and other hospitals, allegations Hamas denies. The Indonesian Hospital on Friday categorically refuted claims by the IDF alleging Hamas was using its basement as a central command and control centre in a lengthy video posted to social media platform X, stating that there were no tunnels beneath it and the accusations were "false and misleading". Attacking health establishments and units, including hospitals, the wounded and sick, medical staff, and means of transport is considered a violation of international humanitarian law. Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have been struggling to cope in the war now entering its second month, with medical supplies, clean water and fuel to power generators running out due to Israel's blockade, and surgery being done without anaesthetics. Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Al Shifa hospital buildings five times since Thursday night, including the maternity department and the outpatient clinics building. Israel has warned people to evacuate but Mr Qidra said it was impossible. We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in intensive care units, hundreds of wounded and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people," he said. Indonesia confirmed parts of the Indonesian Hospital had been damaged, condemning the blasts without saying who was responsible. The World Health Organization confirmed that there was significant bombardment at Al Shifa hospital, as well as Rantissi hospital, which it said was the only hospital providing care for children in north Gaza. MSF calls for attacks against hospitals to stop In a statement released today from humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), they say many of their staff working in Gaza's hospitals have had to stop due to "attacks" or the "risk of being attacked at any time". They say the attacks against Al Shifa Hospital have dramatically intensified into what staff have called a "catastrophic situation". Attacks on medical facilities, ambulances, staff and patients must stop. Al Shifa hospital is the main operational health facility in Gaza city providing emergency and surgical care, with hundreds of patients and civilians inside," the statement said. One MSF nurse was on his way to work at Al Shifa hospital when it was hit. "All of us were horrified, some of us threw ourselves to the ground," Maher Sharif said. "I saw dead bodies, including women and children. This scene was horrific and made all of us cry. Medical staff were terrified, trying to save their lives and their families." While a number of patients remain inside the facility, some in critical condition and unable to move, others have joined the throngs of refugees heading for Gaza's south. In their statement the MSF say there are still caretakers inside the hospital helping those who cannot escape. "This is a war against hospitals," Arunn Jegan, Humanitarian affairs lead for MSF Australia, said. "This is the fourth attack on hospitals in the last 48 hours, and we have lost all contact with our medical teams working on the ground. We need a ceasefire right now. 'The Israeli military cannot continue to make Gaza into a graveyard for children. Saving lives right now means first and foremost sparing the lives that remain, the wounded, and the hundreds of newly orphaned kids." Blinken says 'far too many' Palestinians killed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has denounced the soaring number of Palestinians killed in Gaza, saying more needs to be done to protect the civilians. In his strongest comments to date on civilians bearing the brunt of the war, Mr Blinken welcomed the four-hour humanitarian Israeli pauses the White House announced on Thursday but said further action was required to protect Gaza's civilians. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi as he wrapped up a nine-day trip to the Middle East and Asia, he said: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks." "And we want to do everything possible to prevent harm to them and to maximise the assistance that gets to them." The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of northern Gaza for four hours a day, and the army said Palestinians on Friday were allowed to leave over seven hours along a road south, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting that has laid waste to the seaside enclave. Mr Blinken said the US had concrete plans to get more humanitarian assistance in. "This is a process, and it's not always flipping a light switch, but we have seen progress. We just need to see more of it," he said. Gaza health system at 'point of no return': Red Cross The Red Cross said on Friday Gaza's health system had "reached a point of no return" and called for medical facilities and workers to be protected. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the "sharpened hostilities" was severely affecting hospitals and ambulances. "Overstretched, running on thin supplies and increasingly unsafe, the healthcare system in Gaza has reached a point of no return," it said. The ICRC pointed out that children's hospitals had not been spared from the violence, including the Al Nasser Hospital, which had been heavily damaged, and Al Rantissi Hospital, which had been forced to cease operations. "Any military operation around hospitals must consider the presence of civilians, who are protected under international humanitarian law," ICRC said. "The rules of war are clear. Hospitals are specially protected facilities under international humanitarian law." The WHO said earlier that half of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip, at least 20 out of 36, were no longer operational. 'Cynical' pauses not coordinated with UN On Thursday, Israel agreed to daily four-hour pauses to allow evacuations. UN humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke said on Friday that the four-hour battle pauses had not been coordinated with the UN. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories, further criticised the pauses, calling them "very cynical and cruel". "There has been continuous bombings, 6,000 bombs every week on the Gaza Strip, on this tiny piece of land where people are trapped and the destruction is massive," she told reporters on Friday. "There won’t be any way back after what Israel is doing to the Gaza Strip. “So four hours ceasefire, yes, to let people breathe and to remember what is the sound of life without bombing before starting bombing them again. It's very cynical and cruel." At least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on a road used by displaced Palestinians heading south in the enclave, Hamas-affiliated media cited Gaza health officials as saying. Hamas says it fired rockets on Israel Hamas said it fired rockets deep in Israel on Friday, triggering sirens in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas, in what the militant group described as a response to mounting civilian deaths in the Gaza war. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds. The Israeli military said about 9,500 missiles, rockets and drones have been fired at Israel from Gaza and other fronts since October 7, 2,000 of them shot down by air defences designed to ignore projectiles on a course to land harmlessly in open areas. It said 12 per cent of the rockets had fallen short within Palestinian territory, and that the launches had dropped off significantly since Israeli forces invaded the Strip. UN rights chief urges probe of Israel's 'high-impact' weapons UN human rights chief Volker Turk has called for an investigation of what he called the "indiscriminate effect" of Israel's bombardment and shelling in densely populated areas in the Gaza Strip. Speaking in the Jordanian capital on Friday, Mr Turk said Israel "must immediately end the use of such methods and means of warfare and the attacks must be investigated". "The extensive Israeli bombardment of Gaza, including the use of high-impact explosive weapons in densely populated areas … is clearly having a devastating humanitarian and human rights impact," Mr Turk said. He said the high levels of civilian casualties and the wide destruction of civilian infrastructure raised "serious concerns that these amount to disproportionate attacks in breach of international humanitarian law". Mr Turk pointed to strikes on and near hospitals as "particularly intense", adding that any use of civilians or civilian structures by Palestinian armed groups to shield themselves contravenes the laws of war. But he said such conduct "does not absolve Israel of its obligation to ensure that civilians are spared". He also called for Israel to take immediate measures to protect Palestinians in the West Bank, where violence has been escalating between Palestinians and Israeli soldiers and settlers, killing at least 176 Palestinians. On Friday, three Palestinian human rights groups said they asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Israel, accusing it of committing war crimes including genocide by striking densely populated civilian areas of the Gaza Strip, Israel's siege of the territory, and the displacement of the population. Israel, which is not a member of the court and does not recognise its jurisdiction, did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Kandinsky: AGNSW resumes its Modern Masters series with the biggest exhibition of the Modernist's work ever staged in Australia An Emergency Warning has been issued for Nambeelup, North Dandalup, Myara and Kalamunda in Western Australia. For the latest, search on ABC Emergency Get breaking news alerts directly to your phone with our app Kandinsky: AGNSW resumes its Modern Masters series with the biggest exhibition of the Modernist's work ever staged in Australia ABC Arts / By Anna Freeland Posted 12h ago12 hours ago, updated 9h ago9 hours ago Kandinsky's Dominant Curve painting, featuring a tangle of abstract colourful shapes. Vasily Kandinsky is one of the pioneers of Abstraction.(Supplied: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article Vasily Kandinsky had a spiritual relationship with colour. Who was Vasily Kandinsky? Kandinsky was a Russian avant-garde artist, working in the late 19th to mid-20th century. He is best known for his abstract paintings, many of which were inspired by music. It is speculated he had synesthesia and experienced colour as sound, and sound as colour. He was a teacher at the famous Bauhaus school in Germany before it was closed by Nazis in the 30s. He described it as a "living being" and a channel through which to reach the spiritual realm. "Blue is the typical heavenly colour," he wrote in his 1912 manifesto Concerning the Spiritual in Art. It was radical thinking for a Russian artist working in the early 20th century, whose predecessors favoured rationalism — and an aspect of Kandinsky's colour theory sometimes neglected by historians, averse to anything too "woo woo". But that history, along with Kandinsky's place in the canon of Abstract art, is being revised. The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has today opened its doors to a major retrospective of the modernist — its first in more than 40 years. Boasting 53 works, it is the largest exhibition of Kandinsky ever mounted in Australia. Kandinsky is best known for his abstract paintings. Recognisable by their swirling constellations of lines, splodges of colour and geometric shapes, his work is synonymous with the form, and has earned him the title "the pioneer of Abstract art". Although that has been contested in recent years. More on this later. The exhibition opens with several of the Moscow-born painter's earlier, Impressionist-inspired works — taken from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The museum has partnered with AGNSW and contributed 47 works to this retrospective, most of which have never been seen in Australia before. (None of Australia's major public galleries hold Kandinsky works.) Boldly setting the tone at the exhibition's entrance is the vivid Blue Mountain, painted in 1908–09. Its namesake cobalt blue mountain is framed by bursts of crimson and ochre foliage. In the foreground is a sprightly assembly of horses and riders — a recurrent motif of Kandinsky's early works and a nod to his crusade against the Aesthetic movement of the late 19th century, which valued beauty over meaning. (Art for art's sake, as they say.) Unlike the Aestheticists, Kandinsky believed in the transformative power of art, says Guggenheim's curator of modern art and provenance and the exhibition's co-curator, Megan Fontanella. "These ideas of looking for deeper meaning or the 'hidden power of the palette', as [Kandinsky] calls it, is all very much a part of his practice," she told ABC RN's The Art Show. "For Kandinsky, it's always about the emotive element, the psychological and spiritual effects of his art on the viewer." Over six rooms, Kandinsky's artistic evolution plays out chronologically from his Impressionist experiments of the early 1900s, in works like Blue Mountain, through to his final years playing with biomorphic shapes (freeform and non-geometrical) in the mid-1940s. "His artistic style evolved against the backdrop of the socio-political upheavals occurring around him," says Fontanella. "But in the unwavering threads throughout Kandinsky his career, however, is his fervent belief in art's ability to transform self and society." He wrote in his book Point and Line to Plane that art should be felt actively and "with all one's senses". At age 30, he was famously inspired to abandon his career as an economics and law professor to pursue art after encountering Monet's Haystack series, later saying the artist's use of colour "surpassed [his] wildest dreams". Kandinsky was particularly drawn to yellows and blues, often using them in contrast with each other: yellow was considered earthly and associated with human energy; blue was spiritual and represented infinity. Fontanella says: "The colour yellow was this really loud, assertive, present colour. As you walk through an exhibition like this one … that yellow presents itself again and again, and it feels like the sound of the trumpet blast, hopeful and loud and present." Kandinsky loved music (notably Wagner) and felt sound was inextricably linked to colour, which many historians believe could be attributed to undiagnosed synesthesia. He described hearing flutes when he saw light blue, cellos for dark blue, a double bass for a richer dark blue and an organ for deep "serene" blue. "Kandinsky was very interested in this idea of a multi-sensory experience that we could hear colour or see sound," says Fontanella. "I see a musicality pulling throughout his work even as the language [and the location] changes. It shifts from those really vibrant jewel-box colours, to the geometry, to these more biomorphic forms … and you see it [and] feel it in different ways. "The more you look at his canvases, you're rewarded for slow looking." The birth of Abstraction The exhibition is curated by the three primary chapters of Kandinsky's working life — roughly corresponding with his time spent in Russia, Germany and France — each with its own dominant artistic style. Born in 1866, Kandinsky lived during a time of great upheaval in Western Europe. Sociopolitical ruptures, war and forced migration had a profound effect on his art "I think Kandinsky's story, even 100 years later, feels very compelling. Here's an artist whose life and work is so much defined by these periodic upheavals [and] redefinitions of his life," says Fontanella. "There's something in that story of resilience, adaptation [and] hope that feels deeply relevant to me today." After discovering Monet's Haystacks in 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich — then the epicentre of art-making in Germany — to study at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Kandinsky's early works were more Impressionist in style (as in Blue Mountain) and featured a bold chromatic palette depicting two-dimensional landscapes and Russian folkloric scenes. One of the paintings from this period titled Murnau with Church II (1910) was sold at auction earlier this year for a record £37.2 million ($70.3 million). It was stolen from its Jewish owners by Nazis during World War II. After graduating, Kandinsky began experimenting more seriously with abstraction, moving away from representational forms and motifs, like the horse and rider, the tower and rolling hills. Fontanella says: "By 1913 [they] had really become subsidiary to line and colour and their expressive possibilities." His first known abstract work was produced in 1913, Nothing Whatever to Do with an Object. Experimentation through dislocation With the outbreak of World War I, Kandinsky returned to Russia and became part of the Constructivist movement, an offshoot of the Russian avant-garde that reflected industrial society with austere geometric shapes. Kandinsky continued experimenting with geometric shapes when he returned to Germany in 1921, amid the Russian Revolution. This time he settled in Weimar, where he took up a position teaching mural painting and analytical drawing at the Bauhaus school, alongside contemporaries Paul Klee, Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy. During this period Kandinsky produced Composition 8, one of a series of 10 "compositions" inspired by music that the artist painted between 1910 and 1939. It's the work he was most proud of and features a dominant circle, a signature of Kandinsky's work in this period, representing the "cosmic realm". The closure of the Bauhaus in 1933 at the behest of the Nazi party saw Kandinsky relocate yet again to the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, which features in several of his later works. The Nazis branded Kandinsky a "degenerate" in 1937 and ordered 57 of his paintings be removed from German museums —14 were seized and displayed in Hitler's infamous exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). In the final chapter of his life, Kandinsky became embedded in the Abstract andSurrealistart circles of Paris. He returned to his earlier interest in Russian and Siberian folklore around this time too, which he reimagined in the abstract. "I actually find his late period in France deeply interesting … it feels like this accumulation of all these different experiences, cultural references, identity points, and also this sense of memory," says Fontanella. "He writes that the light and the colours of Paris itself did affect his shift, yet again, in his artistic language, where we see this lightening of his palette, the pinks, the turquoises, purples, golds [start] coming to the fore." His works in this period, such as Capricious forms (1937), feature whimsical biomorphic shapes, often floating dizzyingly adrift in space. On the surface, many of his works from the Paris period defy meaning but, to Kandinsky, they signified renewal and metamorphosis. He remained in France until his death in 1944. SHARE News Ticker BUSHFIRE WARNING An Emergency Warning has been issued for Nambeelup, North Dandalup, Myara and Kalamunda in Western Australia. For the latest, search on ABC Emergency Get breaking news alerts directly to your phone with our app Kandinsky: AGNSW resumes its Modern Masters series with the biggest exhibition of the Modernist's work ever staged in Australia ABC Arts / By Anna Freeland Posted 12h ago12 hours ago, updated 9h ago9 hours ago Kandinsky's Dominant Curve painting, featuring a tangle of abstract colourful shapes. Vasily Kandinsky is one of the pioneers of Abstraction.(Supplied: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article COPY SHARE Vasily Kandinsky had a spiritual relationship with colour. Who was Vasily Kandinsky? Kandinsky was a Russian avant-garde artist, working in the late 19th to mid-20th century. He is best known for his abstract paintings, many of which were inspired by music. It is speculated he had synesthesia and experienced colour as sound, and sound as colour. He was a teacher at the famous Bauhaus school in Germany before it was closed by Nazis in the 30s. He described it as a "living being" and a channel through which to reach the spiritual realm. "Blue is the typical heavenly colour," he wrote in his 1912 manifesto Concerning the Spiritual in Art. It was radical thinking for a Russian artist working in the early 20th century, whose predecessors favoured rationalism — and an aspect of Kandinsky's colour theory sometimes neglected by historians, averse to anything too "woo woo". But that history, along with Kandinsky's place in the canon of Abstract art, is being revised. The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has today opened its doors to a major retrospective of the modernist — its first in more than 40 years. Boasting 53 works, it is the largest exhibition of Kandinsky ever mounted in Australia. Installation view of colourful Kandinsky paintings hanging on white walls in a gallery. Kandinsky is best known for his abstract paintings. Recognisable by their swirling constellations of lines, splodges of colour and geometric shapes, his work is synonymous with the form, and has earned him the title "the pioneer of Abstract art". Although that has been contested in recent years. More on this later. The exhibition opens with several of the Moscow-born painter's earlier, Impressionist-inspired works — taken from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The museum has partnered with AGNSW and contributed 47 works to this retrospective, most of which have never been seen in Australia before. (None of Australia's major public galleries hold Kandinsky works.) Boldly setting the tone at the exhibition's entrance is the vivid Blue Mountain, painted in 1908–09. Its namesake cobalt blue mountain is framed by bursts of crimson and ochre foliage. In the foreground is a sprightly assembly of horses and riders — a recurrent motif of Kandinsky's early works and a nod to his crusade against the Aesthetic movement of the late 19th century, which valued beauty over meaning. (Art for art's sake, as they say.) Blue Mountain, a vividly coloured Impressionist style work featuring horses and riders between trees and a blue mountain. Unlike the Aestheticists, Kandinsky believed in the transformative power of art, says Guggenheim's curator of modern art and provenance and the exhibition's co-curator, Megan Fontanella. "These ideas of looking for deeper meaning or the 'hidden power of the palette', as [Kandinsky] calls it, is all very much a part of his practice," she told ABC RN's The Art Show. "For Kandinsky, it's always about the emotive element, the psychological and spiritual effects of his art on the viewer." Over six rooms, Kandinsky's artistic evolution plays out chronologically from his Impressionist experiments of the early 1900s, in works like Blue Mountain, through to his final years playing with biomorphic shapes (freeform and non-geometrical) in the mid-1940s. "His artistic style evolved against the backdrop of the socio-political upheavals occurring around him," says Fontanella. "But in the unwavering threads throughout Kandinsky his career, however, is his fervent belief in art's ability to transform self and society." Transformational colour It was the emotive power of colour that obsessed Kandinsky. A black and white photo of Vasily Kandinsky taken in 1905 shows him seated, wearing a suit and looking thoughtful. He wrote in his book Point and Line to Plane that art should be felt actively and "with all one's senses". At age 30, he was famously inspired to abandon his career as an economics and law professor to pursue art after encountering Monet's Haystack series, later saying the artist's use of colour "surpassed [his] wildest dreams". Kandinsky was particularly drawn to yellows and blues, often using them in contrast with each other: yellow was considered earthly and associated with human energy; blue was spiritual and represented infinity. Fontanella says: "The colour yellow was this really loud, assertive, present colour. As you walk through an exhibition like this one … that yellow presents itself again and again, and it feels like the sound of the trumpet blast, hopeful and loud and present." A vibrant abstract painting on a lemon yellow background with colourful geometric shapes cobbled together in the centre. Kandinsky loved music (notably Wagner) and felt sound was inextricably linked to colour, which many historians believe could be attributed to undiagnosed synesthesia. He described hearing flutes when he saw light blue, cellos for dark blue, a double bass for a richer dark blue and an organ for deep "serene" blue. "Kandinsky was very interested in this idea of a multi-sensory experience that we could hear colour or see sound," says Fontanella. "I see a musicality pulling throughout his work even as the language [and the location] changes. It shifts from those really vibrant jewel-box colours, to the geometry, to these more biomorphic forms … and you see it [and] feel it in different ways. "The more you look at his canvases, you're rewarded for slow looking." The birth of Abstraction The exhibition is curated by the three primary chapters of Kandinsky's working life — roughly corresponding with his time spent in Russia, Germany and France — each with its own dominant artistic style. Born in 1866, Kandinsky lived during a time of great upheaval in Western Europe. Sociopolitical ruptures, war and forced migration had a profound effect on his art. Listen: Megan Fontanella on ABC RN's The Art Show Read more "I think Kandinsky's story, even 100 years later, feels very compelling. Here's an artist whose life and work is so much defined by these periodic upheavals [and] redefinitions of his life," says Fontanella. "There's something in that story of resilience, adaptation [and] hope that feels deeply relevant to me today." After discovering Monet's Haystacks in 1896, Kandinsky moved to Munich — then the epicentre of art-making in Germany — to study at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Kandinsky's early works were more Impressionist in style (as in Blue Mountain) and featured a bold chromatic palette depicting two-dimensional landscapes and Russian folkloric scenes. One of the paintings from this period titled Murnau with Church II (1910) was sold at auction earlier this year for a record £37.2 million ($70.3 million). It was stolen from its Jewish owners by Nazis during World War II. Installation view of colourful Kandinsky paintings hanging on white walls in a gallery. After graduating, Kandinsky began experimenting more seriously with abstraction, moving away from representational forms and motifs, like the horse and rider, the tower and rolling hills. Fontanella says: "By 1913 [they] had really become subsidiary to line and colour and their expressive possibilities." His first known abstract work was produced in 1913, Nothing Whatever to Do with an Object. Experimentation through dislocation With the outbreak of World War I, Kandinsky returned to Russia and became part of the Constructivist movement, an offshoot of the Russian avant-garde that reflected industrial society with austere geometric shapes. Kandinsky continued experimenting with geometric shapes when he returned to Germany in 1921, amid the Russian Revolution. This time he settled in Weimar, where he took up a position teaching mural painting and analytical drawing at the Bauhaus school, alongside contemporaries Paul Klee, Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy. During this period Kandinsky produced Composition 8, one of a series of 10 "compositions" inspired by music that the artist painted between 1910 and 1939. It's the work he was most proud of and features a dominant circle, a signature of Kandinsky's work in this period, representing the "cosmic realm". Kandinsky's painting Composition 8, which feature an array of coloured geometric shapes seemingly floating in space. The closure of the Bauhaus in 1933 at the behest of the Nazi party saw Kandinsky relocate yet again to the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, which features in several of his later works. The Nazis branded Kandinsky a "degenerate" in 1937 and ordered 57 of his paintings be removed from German museums — 14 were seized and displayed in Hitler's infamous exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art). In the final chapter of his life, Kandinsky became embedded in the Abstract and Surrealist art circles of Paris. He returned to his earlier interest in Russian and Siberian folklore around this time too, which he reimagined in the abstract. An abstract painting featuring colourful and fluidly-moving biomorphic shapes against a teal background. "I actually find his late period in France deeply interesting … it feels like this accumulation of all these different experiences, cultural references, identity points, and also this sense of memory," says Fontanella. "He writes that the light and the colours of Paris itself did affect his shift, yet again, in his artistic language, where we see this lightening of his palette, the pinks, the turquoises, purples, golds [start] coming to the fore." His works in this period, such as Capricious forms (1937), feature whimsical biomorphic shapes, often floating dizzyingly adrift in space. On the surface, many of his works from the Paris period defy meaning but, to Kandinsky, they signified renewal and metamorphosis. He remained in France until his death in 1944. An abstract painting featuring a series of freeform pastel shapes that mimic gelatinous ocean creatures. Was Kandinsky the father of Abstract art? Kandinsky has long been touted as one of the pioneers of European Abstraction, along with his contemporaries Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich. But, recently, art historians have begun to recognise the contributions of lesser-known female artists like Hilma af Klint and Georgiana Houghton, whose abstract work predates the established pioneers. "Even as we recognise his [Kandinsky's] importance as an artist, it is so critical to bring him back down to earth and [recognise] there were others … in the decades prior, if not centuries … [who] were coming to abstraction as this language that could unlock for them something essential, something critical," says Fontanella. Alongside Kandinsky, AGNSW will stage an adjunct exhibition of Houghton's work. Invisible Friends features Houghton's rarely-seen "spirit drawings" from the 1860s and 1870s, on loan from the Victorian Spiritualists' Union (VSU) in North Melbourne, which astoundingly holds the largest collection of Houghton's drawings in the world. The British artist was also a medium and believed she could commune with spirits. She would create drawings "guided by spirits" using a planchette, a board on wheels with an affixed pencil (similar to a ouija board.) President of the VCU Rev Lorraine Lee Tet told The Art Show: "Each one has its own story and the more you look at it, the more you see in the minute details of the drawing. The feeling that it brings to you can be quite different for everyone."

What are Israel and Hamas working with in the face of brutal Gaza urban warfare? A ground operation in Gaza was considered to be a high-cost,low-reward scenario for Israel. It is expected to escalate and prolongthe war,make it much more devastating for both sides, and result in mass civilian casualties. "There is no good ground option in Gaza. Period. Full-stop," Raphael Cohen, the head of US think tank RAND's Project Air Force, said. "It will be very, very messy and bloody." Israel has one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world. It has spent decades painstakingly developing its defence capabilities, and has access to the best of the best US weapons systems. The United States also provides Israel with around $US3.8 billion ($5.9 billion) a year in military aid. In contrast, Hamas militants are heavily armed and have received weapons and technology assistance from Iran, "but it's pretty basic stuff," Marcus Hellyer, head of research at Strategic Analysis Australia, said. But while Israel may have advanced technologies, thousands of tanks and sophisticated fighter jets, urban warfare can completely change the dynamic. "Urban combat is the great leveller," Dr Hellyer said. "Hamas is forcing Israel to fight the way Hamas wants." Already, we've seen Hamas taking an asymmetric, unconventional approach, flying over fences fitted with advanced sensors using paragliders, and bulldozing through the border fence. On the ground in Gaza, analysts expect rapid improvisation and adaptation will play a big role, and it will come down to old-fashioned "messy" fighting between Hamas militants and Israeli defence forces. So what are both sides working with? Comparing numbers Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not used the word invasion, but said the ground operation in the territory is the "second stage" of what will be a "long and difficult" war with Hamas. There has been no word on how many ground troops might enter Gaza, but Israel Defense Force (IDF) spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, on Sunday said they were "gradually expanding the ground activity and the scope of our forces in the Gaza Strip". Ahead of the ground operation, the Israeli military called up around 360,000 reservists — on top of some 170,000 active defence force personnel. In comparison, when Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, he amassed about 100,000 troops along the border. Israel says Hamas has some 30,000 fighters. They generally get around in utility vehicles and motorbikes with machine guns and small arms. Meanwhile, Israel has armoured personnel carriers and around 1,700 combat-ready tanks to support any street-to-street battles. But in a densely populated environment like Gaza, where threats are harder to detect, size may not always be what matters. Often, close-quarter settings can favour guerilla groups. Dr Hellyer believes Hamas aimed to goad the IDF into ground fighting. "One of the things we see from urban conflict is that the defenders can continue to operate in incomplete rubble," he told the ABC. "If you look at any kind of urban fight, the defenders can hang on for a really, really long time, and all the time inflicting casualties." Tanks versus drones The Israeli military used to be known as "the masters of armoured combat," Dr Hellyer said. Their Merkava main battle tanks are the backbone of the IDF's Armored Corps and considered among the best in the world. It is similar to the German Leopard 2 tank which became highly sought after in Ukraine. But a tank is best when it is shooting a target several kilometres away. And when you bring them into a city, all aspects of a tank can be threatened — especially by drones. We will see very quickly what we have already seen in Ukraine, and that is that Hamas will weaponise stock-standard commercial drones," Dr Hellyer said. "You can simply attach the warhead of a rocket launcher — which exist in hundreds of thousands across the Middle East — and fly it into an armoured vehicle." The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a military and geopolitical research institute, said videos have shown quadcopter-dropped munitions destroying an Israeli Merkava tank. Hamas has likely stockpiled large amounts of drones, both developing them independently and with assistance from Iran, analysts say. A video the militant group released after its October 7 attacks also showed it has larger drones similar to the Iranian ones used by Russian forces in Ukraine. As one of the world's leading unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) users and manufacturers, Israel has its own vast drone capabilities — for surveillance and combat. It also has sophisticated counter-drone technology, but urban environments also make them more difficult to use. Rockets and missiles In past conflicts, Hamas militants have defended Gaza using rockets, mortars, anti-tank guided missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades. On Sunday, Hamas said it had been firing mortars against Israeli forces in north Gaza and had hit Israeli tanks with missiles. Israeli intelligence estimates the total number of rockets available in Gaza was around 30,000, including some with a range of about 250 kilometres. While Iran and Syria have smuggled rockets to Gaza in the past, many now appear to have been locally produced, Jean-Loup Samaan, a senior research fellow at the University of Singapore's Middle East Institute, said. "The less sophisticated rockets you don't need Iranian support," Dr Samaan told the ABC. "The big unknown is how many rockets and drones Hamas may have in storage." Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, said in an interview with Russia Today's Arabic news channel RTArabic that the militant group has been preparing for two years. "We have local factories for everything. We have rockets with ranges of 250km, 160km, 80km, 45km, and 10km," he was quoted as saying. "We have factories for mortars and their shells … We have factories for Kalashnikovs and their bullets." Hamas has also been known to use a wide-range of anti-tank guided missiles, including the Soviet Malyutkas and Konkurs. There are now "Iranian knock-off versions of those Russian systems," Dr Hellyer said, which the group likely has access to. Hamas claimed it fired around 5,000 rockets in 20 minutes in its October 7 attack, which is almost more than the amount used in the 11-day Gaza conflict in 2021. Although most were intercepted, the mass attack saturated Israel's Iron Dome air defence system with several rockets getting through. Several thousand rockets are reported to have been fired towards Israel since the conflict broke out. "The issue becomes how much of that is left, because the moment Hamas loses its firepower it will lose its edge," Dr Samaan said. If the Iran-backed Hezbollah gets involved — the militant Shia Muslim group based in Lebanon — then Israel will be facing much larger bombardments with much more sophisticated missiles. Hezbollah is believed to have around 100,000 rockets and missiles of various types. In the lead-up to the ground operation, Mr Netanyahu boasted about "raining down hellfire on Hamas" and killing "thousands of terrorists" in its aerial strikes. The IDF also claimed its fighter jets struck multiple Hamas command centres in Gaza. Now to reach militants, soldiers will need to go door-to-door — or underground. Hamas has spent around 15 years building a warren of tunnels that runs underneath much of Gaza, which Israeli troops call the "Gaza Metro". If the IDF wants to destroy Hamas, they will need to fight militants in their vast network of tunnels, Mr Cohen said. "Hamas knows this and would have been working presumably on booby-traps and the like," he said in a media call. "Also operating underground means that it negates some of Israel's technological supremacy, particularly its air power." Israel has a small number of GBU-28 "bunker buster" bombs, which Dr Samaan said could prove useful to destroy Hamas tunnels. They are designed to penetrate targets deep underground and have been used by the US in operations av GTV gainst Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The IDF have in the past alleged that Hamas uses the tunnels as weapons caches, bunkers, command centres and a concealed transportation artery for terrorists and weapons, including rocket launchers. It is also suspected that many hostages are also located in the tunnels. "It's likely Hamas will distribute hostages and put them in strategically important places for Hamas, and essentially use them as human shields," Dr Hellyer said. How dirty could it get? Already thousands of Gazans are believed to have died in the intense aerial bombardments Israel launched in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7. Israel says 1,400 people, mainly civilians, were killed in the militants' cross-border rampage and more than 200 were taken hostage. By putting boots on the ground, Mr Netanyahu believes Israel will be able to "eradicate Hamas" and bring home the remaining civilians being held captive. But eradicating Hamas might not be possible, and the high civilian and troop casualties will likely further fuel the criticisms already being directed at Israel. "The price of victory against Hamas will be very high … There's not a lot of good options for Israel here, other than expressing rage," Dr Hellyer said. Israel is known to have weapons such as cluster bombs, which pose a high risk to civilians, and has also long maintained an undeclared nuclear weapons program. But Dr Hellyer said it's unlikely there will be that level of escalation. Israel has been accused of using white phosphorus bombs in recent military operations in Gaza and Lebanon which can inflict "excruciating burns and lifelong suffering," on civilians, Human Rights Watch said in a statement. But the IDF has denied the claims, saying it was "unequivocally false". "Everybody's going to have their view on whether Israel is doing everything it can to avoid civilian casualties," Dr Hellyer said. But regardless of what's used in an expanded ground operation, in the small enclave that was home to 2.1 million people, "there will inevitably be major civilian casualties".

Israel's war strategy in Gaza is slowly revealing itself. Here's what we know When Israel launched its military response to the deadly Hamas-led attack on October 7, many expected a swift ground invasion of Gaza that would rival America's shock-and-awe tactics on the battlefield. But three weeks after the massacre, Israel's secretive military strategy, Operation Swords of Iron, is slowly starting to reveal itself. The last few days saw a dramatic escalation in Israel's activities in Gaza. There was a near-total communications blackout in the strip, heavy aerial bombardment, and a ground incursion in the north — albeit in a limited capacity. Troops conducted a night-time raid to destroy "numerous terrorist cells, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts" before returning to home soil, according to the Israel Defence Force (IDF). And on Monday, the Israeli military pushed towards the heart of the enclave, with tanks spotted on the outskirts of Gaza City. Witnesses say they stayed about an hour before retreating from the area. "This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear: to destroy Hamas's governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. "We are only at the start. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground." Israeli officials are referring to this new phase of the war as a "ground operation" rather than an invasion. Mr Netanyahu has also warned Israelis to expect a "long and difficult" fight, indicating that this war could last months, rather than weeks. Whether this is a precursor to a full-scale ground invasion or an indication that Israel plans to push into Gaza metre by metre, the three main objectives of Operation Swords of Iron are becoming clear. LIVE UPDATES: For all the latest news about the Israel-Gaza war follow our blog. Step 1: Pressing into Gaza slowly Israel has put boots on the ground in Gaza before, occupying the coastal enclave from 1967 to 2005. A large-scale invasion of the territory in 2014 turned into a gruesome urban battle that left 2,251 Palestinians and 73 Israelis dead, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. This time, Israel is not rushing in. Grainy footage released by the IDF of their night-time raid in northern Gaza shows Israel's tanks and armoured bulldozers engaging in what's known as a "shaping operation", clearing obstacles so that it's safer for troops to follow. They will likely … go building-to-building to search for and destroy Hamas's military capability, including command and control, weapons caches, key leaders, and Hamas fighters who decide to stay and fight," said Alex Plitsas, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's Middle East Programs' N7 Initiative. "This operation will likely take months if Netanyahu's goal is to be achieved and will be a bloody, difficult fight." Israel has plenty of reasons to enter Gaza slowly. Hamas has trained for urban combat for years and has built a network of underground tunnels that move fighters and weapons undetected. During the raid at the weekend, the IDF said it killed a group of Hamas militants that emerged from a tunnel near the Erez border crossing. "The war in 2014 was really a wake-up call for Israel," said Dr Daphné Richemond-Barak, an expert on underground warfare who teaches at Reichman University in Israel. It created special units, with soldiers that are trained specifically to neutralise, destroy, and fight in tunnels. And so this is Israel trying to face this threat in a more appropriate way than it did in 2014." This slow creep into Gaza is aimed at reducing the number of Israeli casualties, and also dissuading Iranian proxy group Hezbollah from becoming involved in the conflict. But the tactic comes with its own risks. It gives Hamas more time to lay traps and prepare for the advance of Israeli troops as they push further south. And it comes at a devastating cost to the people of Gaza. More than 8,000 Palestinians have died since the beginning of the conflict, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. If the death toll continues to climb and conditions in the enclave worsen, experts say Israel's allies may begin to exert pressure to end the conflict. "As the casualties and devastation grow, the international pressure on Israel will mount for a ceasefire — but the appetite in Israel for a full-scale operation is so far unwavering," said Carmiel Arbit, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative. Step 2: Hopefully freeing some hostages Israel's Minster of Defence Yoav Gallant met with some of the hostages' families to reassure them that freeing their loved ones was still an integral part of the military's strategy. "Returning the hostages and tracking missing Israelis is a mission of utmost importance. I have two goals: returning those who were kidnapped and winning this war. All the rest is less important right now," he said. We have gathered the best people from all branches of the defence establishment, for this specific mission." But it remains unclear exactly how the IDF will save the hostages when they are beyond their reach, deep underground in the Hamas tunnel network. That likely leaves only diplomatic solutions or a hostage exchange. The last three weeks have been unimaginable for the families of the estimated 230 hostages Many members of the forum are now calling for what's known in Israel as an "everyone for everyone" deal. Hamas has said it would be willing to release the 230 hostages — but only if Israel freed every single Palestinian currently being held in its prisons. A spokesman for the IDF dismissed the offer as "psychological terror" by Hamas. That leaves the families of hostages unsure what happens next. Yonatan Zeigen's 74-year-old mother Vivian Silver is believed to be among those currently being held captive by Hamas. "I'm afraid because it seems like the military option is more prevalent for the government and I fear that it will harm the hostages," he said. "I do fear she's more at risk because soldiers are not surgeons. War is chaotic and from the side of Hamas, they took them as leverage and if they lose that leverage, they don't have use for them anymore, so it seems to me that she is more at risk. "I just want her back." Step 3: Eventually cutting ties with Gaza forever For about a decade, Israel has adopted a military strategy in Gaza often referred to as "mowing the grass" — treating Hamas and its weapons as a weed that occasionally needs to be hacked back. But the attack on October 7 has dramatically changed Israel's perception of the militant group. The IDF says the main aim of this war in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas — a lofty goal it may not be able to achieve — before cutting ties with the enclave forever. The third step [of this war] will be the creation of a new security regime in the Gaza Strip, the removal of Israel's responsibility for day-to-day life in the Gaza Strip, and the creation of a new security reality for the citizens of Israel and the residents of the [area surrounding Gaza]," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said earlier this month. Before this conflict, Israel supplied Gaza with most of its energy needs and allowed some people to cross the border to work. In the days after the October 7 attack, Israel ordered a complete siege, blocking all food, fuel, and other supplies from entering the region. "People in Gaza are dying, they are not only dying from bombs and strikes. Soon many more will die from the consequences of [the] siege," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees. How Israel would sever links with Gaza remains unclear. If they decapitated Hamas's leadership and immediately withdrew, surviving members would likely fill the power vacuum and rebuild the group — or start something new. Israel might also try to reinstall the Palestinian Authority (PA), a governing body that was ousted from Gaza in a 2007 Hamas coup. But PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh told the Guardian his group would not return without the "framework of a two-state solution". "There's no going back to the status quo as it stood on October 6," US President Joe Biden said this week. "It also means that when this crisis is over, there has to be a vision of what comes next, and in our view, it has to be a two-state solution."

What will Israeli troops face inside the 'spider's web' of Hamas tunnels? As Israeli forces push deeper into northern Gaza in its most devastating war yet with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3 million Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried underground. A vast labyrinth of tunnels built by the Hamas militant group is estimated to stretch for hundreds of kilometres beneath Gaza, hiding militants, their rocket arsenal and the survivors among more than 200 hostages taken after the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Clearing and collapsing these tunnels — some up to 80 metres deep and which one freed hostage has described as a "spider's web" — is crucial for Israel's campaign to dismantle Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuhasreferredto this new phase of the war as a "ground operation",vowing to "destroy the enemy above ground and below ground". But fighting in densely populated urban areas and moving underground could strip the Israeli militaryof some of itstechnological advantages and give Hamas the upper hand. Here's what we know about the complications Israel will face in this hidden frontline. Why does tunnel warfare raisethe risks? Tunnel battles are considered some of the most difficult for armies to fight because theycreate plenty ofopportunities for ambush. "It's like walking down the street, waiting to get punched in the face," John Spencer, a retired US Army major and the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at West Point'sModern War Institute says. "[Hamas militants have] time to think about where they are going to be and there's millions of hidden locations they can be in." "They get to choose the time of the engagement — you can't see them but they can see you." Military analyst Peter Layton, who is a research fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute, says it raises fears that militants can attack Israeli soldiers from behind. "The Israelis are worried that as they roll forward, Hamas will come up from tunnels which open up in their rear," he says. During a 2014 war, Hamas militants killed at least 11 Israeli soldiers after they infiltrated Israel through tunnels. In another incident, an Israeli officer, Lieutenant Hadar Goldin, was dragged into a tunnel inside Gaza and killed. Hamas has been holding his remains since then. Ariel Bernstein, a former Israeli soldier who fought in that war, described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of "ambushes, traps, hideouts, snipers". He recalls the narrow tunnels as having a disorientating effect, creating blind spots as Hamas fighters appeared seemingly out of nowhere to attack. "It was like I was fighting ghosts," Mr Bernstein says. Daphné Richemond-Barak, a professor at Israel's Reichman University and author of the book Underground Warfare, says many of the Israeli military's technological advantages will collapse under these conditions. "When you enter a tunnel, it's very narrow, and it's dark and it's moist, and you very quickly lose a sense of space and time," she says. "You have this fear of the unknown, who's coming around the corner? ... Is this going to be an ambush? "Nobody can come and rescue you. You can barely communicate with the outside world, with your unit." What other complications are there? Israeli forces will face an unprecedented challenge battling militants while trying to avoid killing hostages held below ground, US officials have said. Hamas holds all the cards as far as the hostages go," Dr Layton says. Israeli sources say they also face an enemy that has regrouped and learned from previous operations. "There are going to be a lot of booby traps," Amnon Sofrin, the former commander of the Israeli Combat Intelligence Corps, says. "They have thermobaric weapons [aerosol bombs] that they didn't have in 2021, which are more lethal." The former brigadier general says he also believes Hamas has acquired a lot of anti-tank weapon systems that they will use to try and hit Israel's armoured personnel carriers and tanks. Mr Sofrin, who was also previously head of the intelligence directorate with Israel's Mossad spy agency, says Hamas will also be trying to kidnap soldiers. Dr Richemond-Barak says Hamas's tactics have evolved due to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq. "What the [Israeli military] is likely to face inside the tunnels is also all of the experience and all of the knowledge that has been gained by groups like ISIS [Islamic State] and has been … passed on to Hamas," she says. So how will Israeli troops clear the tunnels? Since 2004, the Israeli military has had a dedicated unit for locating and destroying the tunnels called Samur — the Hebrew word for "weasel". While the military has sometimes used remote-controlled robots to do so, fully dislodging Hamas will require these specialist combatants to actually enter the tunnels. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has said he expects a difficult ground offensive, warning "it will take a long time" to dismantle the vast network. As part of its strategy, Israel has blocked all fuel shipments into Gaza since the war erupted. Mr Gallant said that Hamas would confiscate fuel for generators that pump air into the tunnels. For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us," he said. Still, clearing the tunnels with hostages trapped inside will be a "slow, methodical process," according to the Soufan Center, a New York security think tank. Israelis will have to rely on robots and other intelligence to map tunnels and their potential traps. "Given the methodical planning involved in the [October 7] attack, it seems likely that Hamas will have devoted significant time planning for the next phase, conducting extensive preparation of the battlefield in Gaza," the Soufan Center wrote in a briefing. "The use of hostages as human shields will add an additional layer of complexity to the fight." Why is the operation dangerous for Palestinian civilians? Military analyst Dr Layton says "separating the fighters from civilians will be very difficult" as the ground offensive unfolds in the densely populated Gaza Strip. "Hamas's tactics are to mix itself up so that its fighters get some protection from the Israelis," he says. "The chances of the civilian death toll rising are certainly high — the two will be intermixed and intertwined. So urban warfare is an ugly business." The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza estimates that at least 8,306 Palestinians have been killed, including 3,457 children, since Israeli air strikes began on October 7. The Israeli military accused Hamas on Friday of using Gaza's main hospital, al-Shifa, as a shield for tunnels and operational centres. "Hamas terrorists operate inside and under Shifa hospital and other hospitals in Gaza," Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, Israel's chief military spokesman, said. Israel has made similar claims before, but has not substantiated them. Little is known about Hamas's tunnels and other infrastructure, and the claims could not be independently verified. Hamas official Ezzat El-Reshiq said there was "no basis in truth to what was reported by the enemy army spokesman".

Qantas can't guarantee flights', airline says as it launches defence in ACCC 'ghost flights' case Qantas could be fined hundreds of millions of dollars if found guilty of misleading customers by advertising thousands of "ghost flights" — flights that had already been cancelled — but the airline on Monday launched its legal defence arguing what it did was reasonable. The claim from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is that Qantas allegedly sold tickets on more than 8,000 "ghost flights" it had already cancelled. Qantas has now filed its defence with the Federal Court. In a media statement, Qantas said while it "fully accepts it let customers down during the post-COVID restart, including with high cancellation rates" and "while mistakes were made, the ACCC's legal case ignores the realities of the aviation industry — airlines can't guarantee specific flight times". It states that all customers on cancelled flights were offered an alternative flight or refund and that there was no "fee for no service". "As we've said from the start of this case, we fully acknowledge that the period examined by the ACCC was extremely difficult for our customers," the airline said. "Restarting flying after the COVID shutdowns proved a challenge for the whole industry, with staff shortages and supply chain issues coinciding with huge pent-up demand. "Qantas cancelled thousands of flights as a result and there were many unacceptable delays. While we restarted safely, we got many other things wrong and, for that, we have sincerely apologised." It says legally the ACCC's case "ignores a fundamental reality and a key condition that applies when airlines sell a ticket". "While all airlines work hard to operate flights at their scheduled times, no airline can guarantee that. That's because the nature of travel – when weather and operational issues mean delays and cancellations are inevitable and unavoidable – makes such a guarantee impossible." It says this is acknowledged on the ACCC's own website. "For this reason, our promise is to get customers on their way to their destination as close as possible to the flight time they book, either on their original or an alternative service at no additional cost," the airline said. "If not, we offer a full refund. This is consistent with our obligations under consumer law and is what we did during the period the ACCC examined." A recap of what the ACCC alleges Qantas did The ACCC, led by chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb, alleges that Qantas cancelled certain flights that were scheduled to depart within May 1, 2022 to July 31 2022, and that the airline kept selling tickets on its website for an average of more than two weeks, and in some cases for up to 47 days, after the cancellation of the flights. These are the 8,000 ghost flights it refers to. The consumer watchdog also alleges that for more than 10,000 flights scheduled to depart in May to July 2022, Qantas did not notify existing ticketholders that their flights had been cancelled for an average of about 18 days, and in some cases for up to 48 days. The ACCC alleges that Qantas did not update its "Manage Booking" web page for ticketholders to reflect the cancellation. It alleges this conduct affected a substantial proportion of flights cancelled by Qantas between May and July 2022. In its media release it gives several examples of this and in its Federal Court statement, the ACCC's lawyers stated: "As a result of Qantas' conduct, consumers may have made decisions to purchase flights based on false or misleading information. As a result of such decisions, some Qantas customers may have suffered loss in that they have made travel or other arrangements based upon expected flight schedules." It added that: "Consumers who relied on the flight details on the Manage Booking page had less time to make alternative travel arrangements, and some may have incurred greater cost in making alternate arrangements once they became aware of the cancellation of their flight. "Some consumers may also have paid a higher fare to fly at a particular chosen time, and may not have done so, or may have sought to travel at a different time or date or with an alternative airline, if they had been aware that the flight they were paying for was already cancelled." 'Mistakes were made': Qantas Qantas says in the examples of cancellations identified in the ACCC's media release, "100 per cent of impacted domestic passengers were offered same-day flights departing prior to or within one hour after their scheduled departure time" and that "98 per cent of impacted international passengers were offered re-accommodation options on flights within a day of their scheduled departure date". "In most cases, customers were re-booked on these alternative flights weeks or months ahead of when they were actually due to travel, allowing them to plan," it said. It says the ACCC's case relates to cancelled flights that were left on sale for longer than 48 hours. "We acknowledge there were delays and we sincerely regret that this occurred, but crucially, it does not equate to Qantas obtaining a 'fee for no service' because customers were re-accommodated on other flights as close as possible to their original time or offered a full refund," Qantas added. "Qantas did not delay communicating with our passengers for commercial gain. Nor did we cancel flights to protect slots, particularly given slot waivers were in place at most airports during that time." It says the primary reasons for the delay were "giving our teams time to establish alternative travel options for customers during a period of massive upheaval, avoiding further blowouts in call centre wait times; and in the case of longer delays, some human error". It says the period of the post-COVID restart "was deeply disappointing and frustrating for customers, and difficult for our people". "Mistakes were made. While this level of upheaval is hopefully never repeated, we have strengthened our systems and processes to make sure it doesn't happen again." The airline also rejects the notion it sold "ghost flights", saying that people who paid for a flight were given a flight, or a refund and that again, this was not a case of "fee for no service". It said Qantas cancelled thousands of flights during the period because the airline was struggling in the first half of 2022 under supply chain shortages which meant aircraft were grounded. It said there were also "huge spikes in sick leave and self-quarantine requirements left us short staffed" and that "some international borders were also still in flux". "To help stabilise our operations, we made the decision to make large cuts to our planned flying," the airline said. "That meant cancelling a lot of flights that were already in the system, which we did on average two-and-a-half months before scheduled departure so that we could better manage the impact on customers by finding them alternatives. "But it meant the volume of change was huge, and our systems struggled to cope." It said Qantas had to process more than 415,000 itinerary changes in the months of February and March 2022 alone, and that "in most cases, the delays between us making the decision to cancel a flight and notifying customers allowed Qantas time to find them an alternative". "This was happening months ahead of when they were due to travel and our priority is always to find alternatives within hours or a day of their original departure time, focussing on those closest to their travel date first," Qantas said. Why not cancel flights and then rebook customers? As to whether the airline could have told customers their flight was cancelled first, and then followed up with an alternative flight later, the airline states that, "for the cancellations in question, where the flights were to depart well into future, we believe this would have resulted in a significantly more frustrating customer experience". "If we had sent texts to thousands of customers a week saying their flight had been cancelled and we would get back to them on their alternative flight options, we would have created a lot of needless uncertainty for those customers and even longer call centre wait times," it said. "Instead, we waited to be able to tell customers 'your flight has changed' rather than 'your flight has been cancelled'." It repeated that the flights were not left on sale for financial gain but that "due to system limitations and the sheer number of flights involved, we couldn't remove these flights from sale automatically while also providing impacted customers with alternative flights". "Given these flights were being cancelled well in advance of travel, we wanted to offer our customers alternatives rather than the uncertainty and frustration that would have existed if we had simply pushed through the cancellation in our system before we were able to offer alternative flights to get them to their destination," it said. "While managing this is not a problem in 'normal times', the sheer scale of the changes we were dealing with during this period meant that some flights remained on sale, as the ACCC case flags, for 48 hours or more after they were cancelled. "Some of the longer delays were due to human error and process failures. We place no blame on our people for these processing errors given the incredible difficulties they were operating under. "This was not done for commercial advantage. All customers who booked a flight that was cancelled were offered an alternative flight as close as possible to their nominated time for no extra cost, or a full refund." Qantas said that virtually every airline in the world experienced similar challenges while rebuilding their operations post-COVID and that it was the only Australian-based airline flying internationally at that time where routes were most impacted. News Home SHARE 'Qantas can't guarantee flights', airline says as it launches defence in ACCC 'ghost flights' case By business reporter Nassim Khadem Posted 10h ago10 hours ago, updated 4h ago4 hours ago Qantas planes are visible from inside an airport terminal Qantas has launched its legal defence in the ACCC "ghost flights" case arguing what it did was reasonable.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica) Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article COPY SHARE Qantas could be fined hundreds of millions of dollars if found guilty of misleading customers by advertising thousands of "ghost flights" — flights that had already been cancelled — but the airline on Monday launched its legal defence arguing what it did was reasonable. The claim from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is that Qantas allegedly sold tickets on more than 8,000 "ghost flights" it had already cancelled. Qantas has now filed its defence with the Federal Court. In a media statement, Qantas said while it "fully accepts it let customers down during the post-COVID restart, including with high cancellation rates" and "while mistakes were made, the ACCC's legal case ignores the realities of the aviation industry — airlines can't guarantee specific flight times". A Qantas jumbo takes off It states that all customers on cancelled flights were offered an alternative flight or refund and that there was no "fee for no service". "As we've said from the start of this case, we fully acknowledge that the period examined by the ACCC was extremely difficult for our customers," the airline said. "Restarting flying after the COVID shutdowns proved a challenge for the whole industry, with staff shortages and supply chain issues coinciding with huge pent-up demand. "Qantas cancelled thousands of flights as a result and there were many unacceptable delays. While we restarted safely, we got many other things wrong and, for that, we have sincerely apologised." Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. LISTEN Duration: 12 minutes 30 seconds12m How Qantas turned taxpayer dollars into profits It says legally the ACCC's case "ignores a fundamental reality and a key condition that applies when airlines sell a ticket". "While all airlines work hard to operate flights at their scheduled times, no airline can guarantee that. That's because the nature of travel – when weather and operational issues mean delays and cancellations are inevitable and unavoidable – makes such a guarantee impossible." It says this is acknowledged on the ACCC's own website. "For this reason, our promise is to get customers on their way to their destination as close as possible to the flight time they book, either on their original or an alternative service at no additional cost," the airline said. "If not, we offer a full refund. This is consistent with our obligations under consumer law and is what we did during the period the ACCC examined." A recap of what the ACCC alleges Qantas did The ACCC, led by chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb, alleges that Qantas cancelled certain flights that were scheduled to depart within May 1, 2022 to July 31 2022, and that the airline kept selling tickets on its website for an average of more than two weeks, and in some cases for up to 47 days, after the cancellation of the flights. These are the 8,000 ghost flights it refers to. ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb stands with arms folded looking out the window in an office building. The consumer watchdog also alleges that for more than 10,000 flights scheduled to depart in May to July 2022, Qantas did not notify existing ticketholders that their flights had been cancelled for an average of about 18 days, and in some cases for up to 48 days. The ACCC alleges that Qantas did not update its "Manage Booking" web page for ticketholders to reflect the cancellation. It alleges this conduct affected a substantial proportion of flights cancelled by Qantas between May and July 2022. In its media release it gives several examples of this and in its Federal Court statement, the ACCC's lawyers stated: "As a result of Qantas' conduct, consumers may have made decisions to purchase flights based on false or misleading information. As a result of such decisions, some Qantas customers may have suffered loss in that they have made travel or other arrangements based upon expected flight schedules." It added that: "Consumers who relied on the flight details on the Manage Booking page had less time to make alternative travel arrangements, and some may have incurred greater cost in making alternate arrangements once they became aware of the cancellation of their flight. "Some consumers may also have paid a higher fare to fly at a particular chosen time, and may not have done so, or may have sought to travel at a different time or date or with an alternative airline, if they had been aware that the flight they were paying for was already cancelled." 'Mistakes were made': Qantas Qantas says in the examples of cancellations identified in the ACCC's media release, "100 per cent of impacted domestic passengers were offered same-day flights departing prior to or within one hour after their scheduled departure time" and that "98 per cent of impacted international passengers were offered re-accommodation options on flights within a day of their scheduled departure date". "In most cases, customers were re-booked on these alternative flights weeks or months ahead of when they were actually due to travel, allowing them to plan," it said. It says the ACCC's case relates to cancelled flights that were left on sale for longer than 48 hours. "We acknowledge there were delays and we sincerely regret that this occurred, but crucially, it does not equate to Qantas obtaining a 'fee for no service' because customers were re-accommodated on other flights as close as possible to their original time or offered a full refund," Qantas added. "Qantas did not delay communicating with our passengers for commercial gain. Nor did we cancel flights to protect slots, particularly given slot waivers were in place at most airports during that time." Up close generic photograph of Qantas A330 airbus on the tarmac of a non-descriptive airport. It says the primary reasons for the delay were "giving our teams time to establish alternative travel options for customers during a period of massive upheaval, avoiding further blowouts in call centre wait times; and in the case of longer delays, some human error". It says the period of the post-COVID restart "was deeply disappointing and frustrating for customers, and difficult for our people". "Mistakes were made. While this level of upheaval is hopefully never repeated, we have strengthened our systems and processes to make sure it doesn't happen again." The airline also rejects the notion it sold "ghost flights", saying that people who paid for a flight were given a flight, or a refund and that again, this was not a case of "fee for no service". It said Qantas cancelled thousands of flights during the period because the airline was struggling in the first half of 2022 under supply chain shortages which meant aircraft were grounded. It said there were also "huge spikes in sick leave and self-quarantine requirements left us short staffed" and that "some international borders were also still in flux". "To help stabilise our operations, we made the decision to make large cuts to our planned flying," the airline said. "That meant cancelling a lot of flights that were already in the system, which we did on average two-and-a-half months before scheduled departure so that we could better manage the impact on customers by finding them alternatives. "But it meant the volume of change was huge, and our systems struggled to cope." It said Qantas had to process more than 415,000 itinerary changes in the months of February and March 2022 alone, and that "in most cases, the delays between us making the decision to cancel a flight and notifying customers allowed Qantas time to find them an alternative". "This was happening months ahead of when they were due to travel and our priority is always to find alternatives within hours or a day of their original departure time, focussing on those closest to their travel date first," Qantas said. Why not cancel flights and then rebook customers? As to whether the airline could have told customers their flight was cancelled first, and then followed up with an alternative flight later, the airline states that, "for the cancellations in question, where the flights were to depart well into future, we believe this would have resulted in a significantly more frustrating customer experience". "If we had sent texts to thousands of customers a week saying their flight had been cancelled and we would get back to them on their alternative flight options, we would have created a lot of needless uncertainty for those customers and even longer call centre wait times," it said. "Instead, we waited to be able to tell customers 'your flight has changed' rather than 'your flight has been cancelled'." Brisbane Domestic Airport Qantas departures It repeated that the flights were not left on sale for financial gain but that "due to system limitations and the sheer number of flights involved, we couldn't remove these flights from sale automatically while also providing impacted customers with alternative flights". "Given these flights were being cancelled well in advance of travel, we wanted to offer our customers alternatives rather than the uncertainty and frustration that would have existed if we had simply pushed through the cancellation in our system before we were able to offer alternative flights to get them to their destination," it said. "While managing this is not a problem in 'normal times', the sheer scale of the changes we were dealing with during this period meant that some flights remained on sale, as the ACCC case flags, for 48 hours or more after they were cancelled. "Some of the longer delays were due to human error and process failures. We place no blame on our people for these processing errors given the incredible difficulties they were operating under. "This was not done for commercial advantage. All customers who booked a flight that was cancelled were offered an alternative flight as close as possible to their nominated time for no extra cost, or a full refund." Qantas said that virtually every airline in the world experienced similar challenges while rebuilding their operations post-COVID and that it was the only Australian-based airline flying internationally at that time where routes were most impacted. Sydney Airport Domestically, Qantas "ramped up its schedule faster than others because we reasonably believed we could". The airline said that since then, cancelled flights have been taken off sale, but that "this is a manual process and would not have been possible during the period the ACCC examined given the level of upheaval at that time". "Qantas is currently developing a tailored IT solution that would link to our third-party system and automate this process," the airline said. How much could Qantas be fined? Speaking on ABC Radio National earlier this year, ACCC chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb noted the current record penalty for a breach of Australia's consumer law was $125 million. It was issued to Volkswagen in 2019 for deceiving customers over diesel emissions. But the ACCC media team later clarified to journalists that the fine could potentially run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Section 18 of the Australian Consumer Law states: "a person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive." But if the commission is successful in getting the Federal Court to award a penalty amounting to hundreds of millions, it needs to be seen in context of Qantas making a $1.7 billion profit in 2022-23. There is no definition of the term misleading or deceptive conduct in Australian Consumer Law. The term has been interpreted by the courts to mean conduct that leads, or is likely to lead, a person or persons into error. It remains to be seen whether Qantas will be able to rely on disclaimers to claim customers weren't misled. A case management hearing is scheduled for November 8. Both parties can enter a settlement at any point if they agree. The reputational damage for Qantas took take time to resolve. Law firm Echo Law is running a separate court case against Qantas. The firm has launched a class action seeking refunds and compensation for customers who had their flights cancelled during 2020. It alleges that Qantas had misled customers about their refund options, withheld funds, and engaged in a "pattern of unconscionable conduct". There's also still much heat on Qantas' board, with growing pressure from big institutional investors for board renewal. Qantas will hold its annual general meeting before shareholders on Friday. Both Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson and chairman Richard Goyder have faced intense questioning from senators during an inquiry into airline services. There's been calls for further board changes following CEO Alan Joyce already stepping down, with a potential strike against Mr Goyder — who will be leaving the board next year — as well as potential votes against several high profile directors including former advertising boss and PR guru Todd Sampson.

About 80 bushfires burning across Queensland with conditions expected to worsen on Tuesday Queensland firefighters continue to work tirelessly to contain a major blaze at Tara with conditions expected to flare up again on Tuesday. An emergency warning was issued this afternoon, advising Tara residents on Lucky Road to leave immediately. It has since been downgraded but Tara remains unsafe to return to as of this evening. About 80 bushfires remain burning on Monday, but interstate aid is on its way to assist fire crews, with six fire trucks from Victoria due to arrive in the south-west this evening. Multiple watch and act warnings remain active across the state, but a warning for a previously fast-moving fire at Landsborough on the Sunshine Coast was cancelled on Monday morning, with conditions easing. Rural Fire Service Area Director Ross Stacey said they were able to put in significant fire breaks over the weekend in the bushfire burning near Tara due to the cooler weather, which eased some pressure on crews. "Tuesday's not looking like a really good day," Mr Stacey said. "Any new fires that start can develop quite rapidly, and anyone's that had fire in their area recently knows that it doesn't take much for a spot fire to occur and the fire's up and running again." Strong winds and higher temperatures are predicted for tomorrow, with gusts reaching up to 50 kilometres an hour, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Extreme fire danger is also forecast for parts of the Darling Downs. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services said more requests for interstate aid have been made to assist fatigued Queensland crews. Rural Fire Service Queensland (RFSQ) Chief Superintendent Tony Johnstone said crews were working tirelessly despite conditions easing temporarily. "We're trying to make sure we get perimeters around the fire so we can allow people to get back into their homes to work out what they need to do to move forward. "We know that we're going to have this tempo probably until the end of the month, looking at the weather ahead, unless we get some sort of rain. "So, we're trying to balance out that fatigue, balance out what locals need to do, make sure that we can jump on top of fires." More than 700 fires have been ignited across the state over the last 10 days and 44 homes in total have been lost in Tara. Some fires believed to be deliberately lit On Monday, police charged a man with setting fire to vegetation, wilful damage, possession of cannabis and obstructing police after a fire at Cleveland. Emergency crews were called to Wellington Road at 7.30pm on Sunday after a number of people reported grass and shrubs were on fire. Police located a man nearby and allege he was in possession of a number of lighters. Specialist intelligence detectives are investigating another fire they believe was deliberately lit, which burned in Beerwah on Sunday. "Initial information indicates the fire started near Stokes Road around 10.30am," a QPS spokesperson said. "The cause of two other fires in the area are still undetermined at this time." Anyone with information is urged to contact police. Homeless and sleeping rough after being evacuated, Jason Brown is exhausted. Like many residents in Tara, 300 kilometres west of Brisbane, he's angry about the lack of communication from authorities about the fires that ripped through his rural community last week. "It's just a nightmare, it's terrible," he said. "No one's getting told if their houses are gone, [there's] no communication." Hundreds of people remain at an evacuation centre in Dalby, over an hour away, but dozens of residents in Tara have resorted to sleeping in their cars. Mr Brown said residents were growing more frustrated by the day. "The whole town is devastated and frustrated because there's [a] lack of communication from police and council," he said. Paul Galloway thought he was safe from the Tara fire as he watched it in the distance from his home. Then the blaze jumped. By the time he had returned to the house, the fire was at his front door. "I started racing around, grabbing all my things," he said. "The rural fire brigade came down in the truck and said 'You've got seconds mate'. I just moved as fast as I could." The fire burnt through Mr Galloway's property. He managed to get out to his home to see what remained yesterday. "It was grey and black and the ground was still hot with 6 inches (15cm) of ash," Mr Galloway described. Fire impacted residents at Toowoomba and the Western Downs can apply for money from the federal government from 2pm tomorrow. A one-off payment of $1,000 per eligible adult and $400 for each child is available for those who have suffered a significant loss from the fires, including those with severely damaged or destroyed homes or serious injuries.

Israel-Gaza war latest updates: Israel strikes near Gaza's largest hospital after accusing Hamas of using it as a base Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes early on Sunday near Gaza's largest hospital, which is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. Israel has said Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have a command post under the hospital, without providing much evidence. The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a "second stage" in Israel's war on Hamas, and three weeks after Hamas launched a brutal incursion into Israel on October 7. Ground forces pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israel pounded the territory from air, land and sea. Here are the latest developments: Israel strikes near Shifa Hospital after accusing Hamas of using it as a base Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes early on Sunday near Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, as residents described the latest attacks as the largest and most intense bombardment of the war. AP reports residents saying air strikes on Sunday destroyed most of the roads leading to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. Gaza City is part of the northern half of the besieged territory, which Israel has told people to evacuate. "Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult," Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, said over the phone to AP. "It seems they want to cut off the area." Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, said the bombing over the past two days was "the most violent and intense" since the war started. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about reports of strikes near Shifa. The army recently released computer-generated images showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Shifa Hospital, as well as interrogations of captured Hamas fighters who might have been speaking under duress. Israel has made similar claims before, but has not substantiated them. Little is known about Hamas' tunnels and other infrastructure, and the claims could not be independently verified. Hamas' government dismissed the allegations as "lies" and said they were "a precursor for striking this facility." Gazans break into aid centres as 'civil order' starts to break down, UN says Thousands of Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centres of UNRWA — the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency — grabbing flour and "basic survival items", the organisation said on Sunday. "This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza," UNRWA said in a statement. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday "Israeli obstacles" including truck inspection procedures were also impeding the prompt delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing. "The trucks must be inspected at the Israeli Nitzana crossing before they head to the Rafah crossing on a journey that takes a distance of 100 kilometres before they actually enter the Rafah crossing, which causes obstacles that significantly delay the arrival of aid," a ministry spokesperson said in a statement. Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked since Israel began bombarding the enclave, with the Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, becoming the main point of delivery. Before the conflict, about 500 trucks a day were crossing into Gaza, but in recent days, an average of only 12 trucks a day have entered, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric took to X to decry "the intolerable level of human suffering" in Gaza and the "catastrophic failing" to solve the problem. "It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza amid the massive bombardments, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible," she said. Early on Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari announced on X that Egypt and the United States "will be expanding" humanitarian aid to Gaza, without giving further details. Israel says ground operation in Gaza is ongoing Israel says its military's ground operation inside Gaza is ongoing, describing it as the "second stage" of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a media conference on Saturday to update the nation on the latest developments. "This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear — to destroy Hamas' governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home," Mr Netanyahu told reporters. "We are only at the start. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground. "Our heroic fighters have one goal; to destroy this enemy and to make sure the existence of our country," Mr Netanyahu told reporters. "Never again. 'Never again,' is now." He vowed that every effort was being made to rescue the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas. "We will win … we will prevail," he said. Mr Netanyahu also defended his soldiers after Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of war crimes. Don't accuse us of war crimes … if you think that you can accuse our soldiers of war crimes that is hypocrisy. We are the most moral army in the world." The IDF was taking precautions, he said, to protect civilians and he accused Hamas of committing crimes against humanity by "using their people as human shields". Earlier, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said a number of troops were holding ground in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while refraining from calling it a ground invasion. "This is a war with multiple stages. Today, we move to the next one," chief of the general staff Herzi Halevi said. "The best soldiers and commanders — well trained and prepared — are now operating in Gaza. "In order to expose and destroy the enemy, there is no other way than to enter its territory with force." Hamas's armed wing confirmed its militants had been fighting Israeli soldiers inside Gaza. Internet and phone connectivity restored for many in Gaza Strip Internet connectivity and communications in the Gaza Strip were being restored, the global network monitor Netblocks said on Sunday, almost two days after it was cut off during heavy Israeli bombardment. "Real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the #Gaza Strip," the company wrote on X, formerly Twitter. An AFP employee in Gaza City said shortly after 4am (1pm AEDT) that he could use the internet and had managed to contact people in southern Gaza by phone. Several Palestinian media outlets also confirmed telephone and internet communications were gradually being restored. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communications blackout since Friday had blocked emergency calls and disrupted critical ambulance services. A spokesperson for the agency said no aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday because communications had been impossible and teams inside Gaza could not connect with Egyptian Red Crescent or the United Nations. Before Saturday, a total of just 84 aid trucks were allowed into Gaza to assist the 2.3 million people in need of power, food, medical supplies and clean drinking water. News Home SHARE Israel-Gaza war latest updates: Israel strikes near Gaza's largest hospital after accusing Hamas of using it as a base Posted 15h ago15 hours ago, updated 1h ago1 hours ago Israel's third ground incursion into Gaza marks "second stage of war". Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article COPY SHARE Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes early on Sunday near Gaza's largest hospital, which is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. Israel has said Gaza's militant Hamas rulers have a command post under the hospital, without providing much evidence. The strikes came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a "second stage" in Israel's war on Hamas, and three weeks after Hamas launched a brutal incursion into Israel on October 7. Ground forces pushed into Gaza over the weekend as Israel pounded the territory from air, land and sea. Here are the latest developments: Israel air strikes hit roads into Gaza's largest hospital Gazans break into aid centres as 'civil order' starts to break down, UN says Israel says it has entered 'second stage of war' as ongoing ground operation in Gaza continues Internet and telephone connectivity restored for many in Gaza Strip Israel warns Gazans to 'relocate south immediately' in online post Palestinian death toll climbs above 8,000 under heavy bombardment Palestinian president calls for urgent help to stop 'genocide' UN chief Antonio Guterres surprised by escalation Iranian president says Israel has 'crossed red line' which may force 'everyone to take action Elon Musk offers Starlink internet to Gaza aid groups amid blackout Hostage deal 'stalled', Hamas armed wing says Lebanon, Australia issue precautionary guidance on Beirut airport 'Anxiety' racks Israeli hostage families as army assaults Gaza Israel strikes near Shifa Hospital after accusing Hamas of using it as a base Israeli warplanes carried out air strikes early on Sunday near Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, as residents described the latest attacks as the largest and most intense bombardment of the war. AP reports residents saying air strikes on Sunday destroyed most of the roads leading to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. The hospital is packed with patients and tens of thousands of Palestinians seeking shelter. Gaza City is part of the northern half of the besieged territory, which Israel has told people to evacuate. "Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult," Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering in the hospital, said over the phone to AP. "It seems they want to cut off the area." Another Gaza City resident, Abdallah Sayed, said the bombing over the past two days was "the most violent and intense" since the war started. The Israeli military had no immediate comment when asked about reports of strikes near Shifa. The army recently released computer-generated images showing what it said were Hamas installations in and around Shifa Hospital, as well as interrogations of captured Hamas fighters who might have been speaking under duress. Israel has made similar claims before, but has not substantiated them. Little is known about Hamas' tunnels and other infrastructure, and the claims could not be independently verified. Hamas' government dismissed the allegations as "lies" and said they were "a precursor for striking this facility." Gazans break into aid centres as 'civil order' starts to break down, UN says Thousands of Gaza residents broke into warehouses and distribution centres of UNRWA — the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency — grabbing flour and "basic survival items", the organisation said on Sunday. "This is a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down after three weeks of war and a tight siege on Gaza," UNRWA said in a statement. Egypt's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday "Israeli obstacles" including truck inspection procedures were also impeding the prompt delivery of aid to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing. "The trucks must be inspected at the Israeli Nitzana crossing before they head to the Rafah crossing on a journey that takes a distance of 100 kilometres before they actually enter the Rafah crossing, which causes obstacles that significantly delay the arrival of aid," a ministry spokesperson said in a statement. Aid supplies to Gaza have been choked since Israel began bombarding the enclave, with the Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt and does not border Israel, becoming the main point of delivery. Before the conflict, about 500 trucks a day were crossing into Gaza, but in recent days, an average of only 12 trucks a day have entered, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. International Committee of the Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric took to X to decry "the intolerable level of human suffering" in Gaza and the "catastrophic failing" to solve the problem. "It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza amid the massive bombardments, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible," she said. Early on Sunday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Daniel Hagari announced on X that Egypt and the United States "will be expanding" humanitarian aid to Gaza, without giving further details. Israel says ground operation in Gaza is ongoing Israel says its military's ground operation inside Gaza is ongoing, describing it as the "second stage" of the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a media conference on Saturday to update the nation on the latest developments. "This is the second stage of the war whose goals are clear — to destroy Hamas' governing and military capabilities and to bring the hostages home," Mr Netanyahu told reporters. "We are only at the start. We will destroy the enemy above ground and below ground. "Our heroic fighters have one goal; to destroy this enemy and to make sure the existence of our country," Mr Netanyahu told reporters. "Never again. 'Never again,' is now." He vowed that every effort was being made to rescue the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas. "We will win … we will prevail," he said. Mr Netanyahu also defended his soldiers after Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of war crimes. WATCH Duration: 1 minute 11 seconds1m 11s Benjamin Netanyahu confirms that the "second phase of the war" is underway. "Don't accuse us of war crimes … if you think that you can accuse our soldiers of war crimes that is hypocrisy. We are the most moral army in the world." The IDF was taking precautions, he said, to protect civilians and he accused Hamas of committing crimes against humanity by "using their people as human shields". Earlier, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said a number of troops were holding ground in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, while refraining from calling it a ground invasion. "This is a war with multiple stages. Today, we move to the next one," chief of the general staff Herzi Halevi said. "The best soldiers and commanders — well trained and prepared — are now operating in Gaza. "In order to expose and destroy the enemy, there is no other way than to enter its territory with force." Hamas's armed wing confirmed its militants had been fighting Israeli soldiers inside Gaza. Internet and phone connectivity restored for many in Gaza Strip Internet connectivity and communications in the Gaza Strip were being restored, the global network monitor Netblocks said on Sunday, almost two days after it was cut off during heavy Israeli bombardment. "Real-time network data show that internet connectivity is being restored in the #Gaza Strip," the company wrote on X, formerly Twitter. An AFP employee in Gaza City said shortly after 4am (1pm AEDT) that he could use the internet and had managed to contact people in southern Gaza by phone. Several Palestinian media outlets also confirmed telephone and internet communications were gradually being restored. The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communications blackout since Friday had blocked emergency calls and disrupted critical ambulance services. A spokesperson for the agency said no aid trucks entered Gaza on Saturday because communications had been impossible and teams inside Gaza could not connect with Egyptian Red Crescent or the United Nations. Before Saturday, a total of just 84 aid trucks were allowed into Gaza to assist the 2.3 million people in need of power, food, medical supplies and clean drinking water. Gazans told to 'immediately' move south Heavy bombardment on Israel-Gaza border. In a video address in English posted to X, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari warned people in northern Gaza and Gaza City to move south ahead of an invasion. With internet and phone connections cut, Mr Hagari did not clarify how he intended to deliver this urgent message. "For your immediate safety, we urge all residents to temporarily relocate south immediately," he said. "Moving back to northern Gaza will be possible once the intense hostilities end." Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said its Gaza operation would continue until a new order was put in place. "We attacked above the ground and underground, we attacked terror operatives of all ranks, everywhere," he said. "The instructions for the forces are clear: the operation will continue until a new order." Palestinian death toll 'past 8,000' The Palestinian death toll is now more than 8,000, according to the Gaza health ministry. "The death toll linked to the Israeli aggression is past 8,000, half of whom are children," the ministry told AFP early on Sunday. The previous toll, issued early on Saturday, was 7,703 dead. More than 1,400 Israelis have died, most during Hamas's October 7 attack, while 229 hostages remain in Gaza. Palestinian president pleads for help to stop 'genocide' President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community to put an end to the ongoing Israeli "aggression", which he described as "genocide". Mr Abbas's Palestinian Authority governs parts of the occupied West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza. "Our people in the Gaza Strip are facing a war of genocide and massacres committed by the Israeli occupation forces in full view of the entire world," he said in a speech on Saturday from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. "Israel responded to the UN resolution yesterday with more bombing and destruction," he said. Mr Abbas wants the leaders of Arab nations to organise an emergency Arab League summit in response to Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank overnight, the Palestinian health ministry said early on Sunday. UN chief surprised by escalation Secretary-General Antonio Guterres repeated the call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire for the delivery of aid as a worsening situation unfolds. "A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in front of our eyes," Mr Guterres said in a statement. "I was encouraged in the last days by what seemed to be a growing consensus in the international community … for the need of at least a humanitarian pause in the fighting. "Regrettably, instead of the pause, I was surprised by an unprecedented escalation of the bombardments and their devastating impacts, undermining the referred humanitarian objectives." Aid organisations have said a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding for Gaza's 2.3 million people under an Israeli blockade. The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza on Monday afternoon at the request of the United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the council. Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has demanded a "pause of hostilities" to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, posting on social media. Gaza is in complete blackout and isolation while heavy shelling continues," he wrote. "Far too many civilians, including children, have been killed. This is against international humanitarian law. "A pause of hostilities is urgently needed to enable humanitarian access." Iran says Israel 'crossed red lines' may force 'everyone to take action' Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi has taken to social media to warn Israel it had crossed a red line, while also taking aim at the United States for its support for the bombardment of Gaza. "Zionist regime's crimes have crossed the red lines, which may force everyone to take action," Mr Raisi said on X. "Washington asks us to not do anything, but they keep giving widespread support to Israel. "The US sent messages to the Axis of Resistance but received a clear response on the battlefield." According to Reuters, the Axis of Resistance refers to an alliance among Iran, Palestinian militant groups, Syria, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other factions. Musk offers Starlink service to Gaza Elon Musk said SpaceX's Starlink will support communication links to internationally recognised aid groups in Gaza. He said it was not clear who has authority for ground links in Gaza, but "no terminal has requested a connection in that area". A telephone and internet blackout has isolated those in the Gaza Strip from the world and from each other. Concerns are growing for international humanitarian organisations with the blackout impeding life-saving operations and disrupting logistics for staff on the ground. Following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Starlink satellites were reported to have been critical to maintaining internet connectivity in some areas despite attempted Russian jamming. Hostage deal 'stalled' A spokesperson for Hamas' armed wing said an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant faction over hostage releases was nearly reached, but Israel "stalled". Abu Ubaida, of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, also said the group would only release all the hostages it held if Israel freed all Palestinian prisoners. He said Hamas may hold talks over a "partial" agreement over the captives". Israel's military spokesman dismissed the reports, saying Hamas was "cynically" attempting to sway public opinion. Mr Netanyahu, who met with hostages' families earlier on Saturday with his wife Sara, said contacts to secure their release would continue even during a ground offensive and that military pressure on Hamas could help bring them home. "This effort not only has not stopped, it continues and it continues even harder,” Mr Netanyahu told the families. Caution for travellers in Lebanon Lebanon authorities issued precautionary guidance for travellers in the event that Beirut airport is forced to evacuate, while the Australian government issued an update to its "do not travel" advice for Lebanon. As border tensions rise, Australia's smartraveller website warned of possible armed conflict affecting wider Lebanon. It urged people to take commercial flights as the government may be unable to help if armed conflict arises. The Israeli army and Hezbollah have exchanged fire on a daily basis since the start of the Gaza conflict. In the 2006 conflict, runways at Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport and other infrastructure was hit by Israeli air strikes forcing the airport to close. Anxiety racks Israeli hostage families The families of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip are filled with worry, as ground assaults ramp up. "This night was the most terrible of all nights," lobby group Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. It said families were racked with "anxiety" and "frustration" that the ground invasion will put them in more danger. Hamas took more than 200 hostages back into Gaza during its raids. It has so far released four and said on Thursday that Israeli bombing had killed another 50 — a claim Reuters could not verify. "The families are worried about the fate of their loved ones and are waiting for an explanation," the statement read. "Every minute feels like an eternity." Global condemnation of Israel grows Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Israel's bombardment of Gaza goes against international law and risks creating a catastrophe that could last decades, in an interview with Belarusian news agency Belta. "While we condemn terrorism, we categorically disagree that you can respond to terrorism by violating the norms of international humanitarian law," Mr Lavrov said. "[That] includes indiscriminately using force against targets where civilians are known to be present, including hostages that have been taken. Russia has backed an immediate ceasefire and a two-state solution, despite criticisms of its actions in Ukraine. "If Gaza is destroyed and two million inhabitants are expelled … this will create a catastrophe for many decades, if not centuries. "It is necessary to stop, and to announce humanitarian programmes to save the population under blockade." Saudia Arabia The country's foreign ministry condemned any ground operations by Israeli forces that may threaten the lives of Palestinian civilians. A statement released by the ministry warned "of the danger of continuing to carry out these blatant and unjustified violations of international law against our brotherly Palestinians." Egypt President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the region risked becoming a "ticking time bomb". With drones intercepted in Egypt's air space yesterday, he said his country's sovereignty should be respected. Israel had said it was the target of the drones and blamed Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi movement. Egypt's military said the drones, which injured six in the Egyptian towns of Taba and Nuweiba near the Israeli border, originated in the southern Red Sea. It did not say who launched the drones. "Regardless of where it comes from, I have warned of the expansion of the conflict," he said. "The region will becoming a ticking time bomb that impacts us all." Britain Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Downing Street office in central London to demand its government call for a ceasefire. The government has supported Israel's right to defend itself but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid to reach people in Gaza. Protester Camille Revuelta said the march was "not about Hamas [but] about protecting Palestinian lives."

Israelis and Palestinians in Australia reflect on the week like no other Is this really happening? Has anyone I know been killed? Why aren't they answering their phone? What can I do from Australia to help? Am I safe here? These are just some of the questions swirling around the minds of tens of thousands of Israeli and Palestinian people living in Australia this week. Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel last Saturday, with hundreds of gunmen pouring across the barrier fence from Gaza and rampaging through Israeli towns. Israel retaliated by vowing to annihilate Hamas, putting Gaza under siege, and launching the most powerful bombing campaign in the 75-year history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Live: Stay across the latest on what's happening today with the Israel-Gaza war The war is raging more than 10,000 kilometres from Australia, but there are strong Israeli and Palestinian communities here and it has been a tough week for them both. Many knowsomeone who has either been killed, injured, kidnapped, displaced or is in hiding – and every hour they fear more bad news. 'Helpless' as war rages Tzipi Cohen Hyams, who is from Israel but now lives in Sydney, told the ABC her husband's 80-year-old aunt who lived in Israel near the Gaza border was murdered by Hamas soldiers when she briefly stepped out of her shelter. "She opened the door, she tried to let the cat in … and they shot her," Ms Cohen Hyams, 52, said. "Her husband had to stay with her for more than 24 hours until they were rescued, and he was [messaging relatives] saying 'I'm kissing her' and 'I'm standing next to her'. "He was shattered." Ms Cohen Hyams said one of her nephews was buried under the rubble of his home for 28 hours after an attack, while more family members are living in fear. She also worries for another nephew who is in the army. Her husband flew from Sydney to Israel on Monday to help the family. "I worry about [my husband] and I worry about the rest of my family," Ms Cohen Hyams said. "I feel helpless because I would like to go and help and [I feel] guilty that I'm here, supposedly safe." She added that following the anti-Semitic chanting by some people at the pro-Palestinian protest outside Sydney Opera House on Monday, her family has felt vulnerable. "I put up an Israeli flag on our house to show my support and my kid was saying 'no, don't do that', because my kid is afraid of hate crime." Live: Stay across the latest on what's happening today with the Israel-Gaza war 'How are these people going to survive?' Palestinians in Australia the ABC has spoken to said they were deeply disappointed to hear the anti-Semitic chanting, and wanted people to know those views are not widely shared in their community. Many described feeling "dehumanised" this week, and as though the world had sided with Israel because of the actions of Hamas. Sydney couple Ramia Abdo Sultan, 40, and her husband Forat Sultan, 44, said it was important people "understood the history and context" of what was going on. "I personally would love people to understand both sides to the story," Ms Abdo Sultan, who is a member of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, said. "You cannot understand and interpret the events of the last few days in a vacuum – look up Gaza." The couple has been checking in regularly with relatives in Gaza – 70 of whom evacuated their apartment complex earlier this week just minutes before the building was bombed. "I fear what's going to happen next – how these people, the collaterals of all of this, are going to deal with Israel's response," Ms Abdo Sultan added. She said she hoped a humanitarian aid corridor would be allowed into the blockaded Gaza strip as soon as possible to bring water, food, medicine, blankets, and shelter to the 2.3 million people trapped there. "It's a dire situation, there are shortages of everything … and everyone is quite anxious because we just don't know what to expect next," she said. "How are these people going to survive?" Fears for the future after 'barbaric' attack Israel has said the siege on Gaza will not end until Hamas releases the 150 Israeli hostages it captured during last weekend's deadly attack. Speaking to the crowd at a vigil for the Jewish community in Sydney on Wednesday night, Executive Council of Australian Jewry's president Jillian Segal described the attack as "barbaric". Not since the Holocaust have so many Jewish lives been taken in a single day," Ms Segal told a crowd of almost 10,000. "We are in mourning but we need to be strong." One Jewish man who came to the vigil with his six children told the ABC it had been "a really hard week" for two reasons – he was worried about his father and sister who both live in Israel, and also concerned for his family's safety in Sydney. The man, who did not want to give his name, said he told his children to hide their head coverings under baseball caps following the anti-Semitic comments at Monday's pro-Palestinian protest. He added that Jewish people he had spoken to during the week at his workplace were so anxious about the war they were not sleeping. "Every single one has friends or family or somebody that they know directly affected by this and everybody's just so shocked by what's happened [because] it's just so appalling and disgusting," he said. "It's the worst week of most people's lives right now." 'Heartbreaking' week waiting for news Palestinians in Australia told the ABC they have also been struggling to sleep this week as they wait desperately for updates from friends and relatives in Gaza. "All you want to know is where are the bombs falling? You're checking your phone, you're checking the maps," Gaza-born Melbourne playwright Samah Sawabi, 56, said. All emotion is completely focused on the movement of your loved ones and [wondering] are they still breathing? "Every time we say goodbye [over the phone], we don't know if we're going to talk to them again." Ms Sawabi travelled to Gaza for the first time in many years in July to visit about 70 members of her family. She told the ABC she wanted Australians to know what a "beautiful" place it was. "It's a place with cafes and music concerts and people hanging out at night … people with dreams, people with desires, people with humour," Ms Sawabi said. "People were so positive that they were moving forward and that Hamas was not interested in any more provocations with Israel, and that Israel was also not interested in provocations with Hamas." This week she said she has been looking back at the photos she took on her recent trip, and then finding out many of the buildings in them are no longer there. "It's heartbreaking," Ms Sawabi said. "And it's even more heartbreaking because at the time these buildings were being bombed [by Israel], buildings around the world were projecting the light of the Israeli flag."

LGBTQIA+ journalists on the challenges they've faced working in the media It was a phone call Anton Enus will never forget. On the other end of the line was a newspaper reporter who said they were publishing a story that would out him as gay. Did he wish to make a comment? It was the mid 1990s and Enus was a TV news presenter in South Africa. It was a much more sensitive time," says Enus, who today presents SBS World News. "I think there were certainly dangers involved in coming out then for your career. "But my thought was, I'd rather have some input into the story than not." He provided a couple of quotes to the journalist and waited for the fallout. "I didn't know how it was going to turn out," Enus says. "It was certainly a pretty big issue for anyone with a public profile to be coming out." The story was published and, to his relief, there were no negative repercussions. He says he was not treated any differently in the newsroom, or in public. "It ended up having zero effect on my career. In fact, it was a non-issue in terms of some anxieties I had about it," he says. At the time in South Africa, I did get that kind of correspondence from people who were saying, 'I live in a small town, it's like I'm the only gay person in the world. And suddenly here's this guy on television who's openly gay.' And that was really, really encouraging." Enus's experience echoes a storyline from the ABC drama The Newsreader. Set in 1987, the series features a male TV news presenter, Dale Jennings (played by Sam Reid), who is threatened with being publicly outed by a newspaper gossip columnist. Inspired by The Newsreader, we spoke to three openly LGBTQIA+ television journalists about the challenges they've faced in their media careers. Coming out to Australia Before that newspaper article, Enus says he never felt pressure to hide his sexuality for the sake of his career. He was already active in the gay community and president of a gay sports organisation in South Africa. He says it would have been easy for someone to find out he was gay. "And, in fact, when that Sunday newspaper reporter proficiently ushered me out of the closet, that allowed me then to speak up on the issues involving gay sport," he says. "So in a sense that liberated me to speak about those things, which I probably wouldn't have done before." When he moved to Australia in the late 1990s he essentially came out publicly a second time. After becoming a news presenter for SBS in 1999, a local magazine did a story about him. In it, Enus spoke about being gay, making him one of the first TV news presenters in Australia to do so on the record. He says the response in Australia was even more low-key than in South Africa. "If anything it just underlined the sort of cosmopolitan nature of SBS as an entity, which was great," he says. I tell Enus it meant a lot to me, a young gay person at that time, to have a prominent openly-gay person on Australian TV when they were so few and far between. He thanks me, but goes on to acknowledge that things haven't been as smooth for other LGBTQIA+ people in the industry. He points out that he was working for a big broadcaster in a big city, and the reality could have been very different for someone in a regional area working for a local TV or radio station. "So in a sense I felt like I had a kind of soft landing." Finding a supportive workplace News producer Kate Doak has experienced her fair share of discrimination working in the media. "I had a number of instances where I was told, 'Great CV, great skill set, but we don't feel ready for a tranny in our newsroom," she says. "There were a number of different instances where I had that type of language used to my face, and there were other people who confirmed it had happened behind my back as well when I went for different roles." Doak, a transgender woman, says shocking comments like that are still uttered in newsrooms and other workplaces today. "A lot of people don't realise the sort of impact that it can have on someone," she says. "There's a lot of challenges that a lot of trans people still do face when it comes to finding secure employment." There's only a handful of transgender media professionals in Australia, and the number of journalists who are trans globally is just as sparse, she says. "This has significantly influenced how stories involving the trans community have been covered over recent years." One of the people who inspired Doak to persist in journalism was Enus. Doak interviewed him during her first job at a local radio station in 2009, and they became friends. #australia #russia #unitedkingdom #usa #unitedstates #italy #spain #australiannews

What is Hezbollah and what happens if it gets involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict? Only days after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a multi-front terror attack on Israel, Lebanese armed group Hezbollah joined the conflict by firing a barrage of rockets into a disputed area on the border of Lebanon and Israel "in solidarity" with Palestine. The cross-border exchange has continued back and forth over several days, sparking concern about the Israel-Hamas war spreading wider in the region. Here's some background on Hezbollah and what role it plays in the conflict. Live: Stay across the latest on what's happening today with the Israel-Gaza war What is Hezbollah? Hezbollah is a militant Shia Muslim group and a major political party based in Lebanon. It was formed in 1982 amid the Lebanese civil war when Israel invaded Lebanon, and backed by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The group remains backed by Iran and has significant sway over the Lebanese state. Its military power grew after deploying to Syria in 2012 to help President Bashar al-Assad fight mostly Sunni rebels. In 2021, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the group had 100,000 militants. Some governments, including Australia, the United States and Saudi Arabia, deem the entirety of Hezbollah a terrorist organisation, whereas the European Union only designates the military arm of Hezbollah as a terrorist group. What is the difference between Hamas and Hezbollah? The two groups share a common enemy in Israel and both receive funds and weapons from Iran, but they have their differences. While Hezbollah has its roots in the Shia sect of Islam, which is predominant in Iran, Hamas is a mainly Sunni Muslim group. Hezbollah's military capabilities far outweigh those of Hamas, making it a more dangerous opponent to Israel. It has more sophisticated weaponry, well-trained and battle-experienced troops, and closer ties to Iran. How has Hezbollah been involved in this conflict? On Sunday, Hezbollah fired several rockets and shells at three Israeli positions in a disputed area on the border between Lebanon and Israel. The militant group said the rockets were fired "in solidarity" with the Palestinian people, Reuters reported. "Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you," senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine said at an event in Beirut. On Monday, Palestinian militants slipped from Lebanon into Israel, sparking Israeli shelling into southern Lebanon. The militants said they had wounded seven Israeli soldiers and Israel said its own forces shot and killed several of the gunmen who crossed into the country, according to The Associated Press. An anonymous Lebanese security official told The Associated Press six rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday evening, but it was not immediately clear who fired them. The cross-border violence marked a significant expansion in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza to the Israeli-Lebanese border further north. Senior Hamas official Ali Barakeh said the group's allies, Iran and Hezbollah, did not know of the attack on Israel beforehand. But, they "will join the battle if Gaza is subjected to a war of annihilation", he told The Associated Press in his office in Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Initial US intelligence suggests senior Iranian government officials were surprised by Saturday's attack by Hamas, but a full conclusion is yet to be reached, CNN reported quoting "multiple sources familiar with the intelligence". "Iran likely knew Hamas was planning operations against Israel, but without the precise timing or scope of what occurred," one US official told CNN. Have Hezbollah and Israel fought before? Israel has a long history of conflict with both the state of Lebanon and Hezbollah. Hezbollah was the only militia to keep its weapons at the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1990, and it continued to fight Israeli forces occupying the country's predominantly Shia south, according to Reuters and the Council on Foreign Relations. After years of conflict, Israel withdrew in 2000 but continued to clash with Hezbollah, especially in Shebaa Farms, a disputed area on the border of Israel and Lebanon. In 2006, the conflict escalated into a brutal month-long war, with Israel badly underestimating Hezbollah's military capabilities. The war killed more than 1,000 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and more than 100 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The two sides have traded sporadic fire over the border since then, avoiding a major conflict. What happens now? Hezbollah has not formally said it is joining the fighting, but its involvement has raised concern over a wider conflict in the area. For Israel, that would mean simultaneously fighting Hamas on its southern border and Hezbollah on its northern border. There are also fears further involvement from Hezbollah could also risk an Israeli retaliation towards Iran. US President Joe Biden has directed his team to reach out to counterparts in the Gulf and neighbouring countries to try to prevent a spiral into a wider war, especially focused on keeping Hezbollah from opening a second front on Israel's northern border, Reuters has reported, quoting US administration officials. American ships in the region have been shifted closer to deter an expansion of the conflict against Israel, a senior US Defense Department official told The Associated Press. The official said the US was deeply concerned Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups would make the wrong decision to try to "pile on" and widen the war.

Builder and manufacturer trade blows as pipes burst in newly-built homes across Perth Major Perth builder BGC is pleading with homeowners affected by bursting pipes not to start legal action as the company grapples with almost seven burst pipe reports a day. Key points: Pipes in newly-built Perth homes are bursting at a rate of almost seven per day Major WA builder BGC says pipes may have to be replaced in almost 12,000 homes in WA BGC says the manufacturer of the pipes is at fault, maker blames faulty installation The issue, which first came to light last year, involves a particular polybutylene water pipe manufactured by Iplex, and installed by BGC in almost 12,000 new homes constructed between 2017 and 2022. Homeowners first began reporting burst pipes and extensive water damage in their kitchens and bathrooms in 2020. Sam Gray, general manager of strategy and commercial at BGC, told Nadia Mitsopoulos on ABC Radio Perth the company had used Iplex pipes for 20 years, but in 2017 the pipes were changed. "Back in 2017, Iplex changed an ingredient in the pipe. The ingredient is called a resin and it's basically the core thing that the pipe is made of," Mr Gray said. "[It was changed] to a resin called TYPLEX-1050 out of Korea, and that is the telltale sign that there is a problem with the pipe." Mr Gray said BGC began to identify the issues with the pipes in October 2020 after the first burst pipe was reported. "It took us 18 months to establish the pattern that there was a problem going on beyond just a random burst occurring here and there," he said. "It's only because BGC is so big and has its own plumbing company … that we've actually been able to join all the dots to establish the pattern, and that there is a problem." Manufacturer blames installation Iplex's parent company Fletcher Building hit back at the claims, saying its investigations pointed to faulty installation as the cause of the frequent pipe bursts. "Our investigation and extensive independent testing points to installation as the cause," the company said in a statement. "Iplex has continued to work with builders and has undertaken 20 separate testing regimes on more than 875 individual samples which show a categoric correlation between basic plumbing installation failures/mistakes and the location of the plumbing failures which have occurred. "At this time, the work that Iplex Australia has undertaken or commissioned does not identify a manufacturing defect." But BGC's claims are backed up by an investigation by the Building and Energy division of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS), which concluded, after an inspection of 50 homes, that workmanship was not the cause of the pipe failures. BGC is in the process of removing the polybutylene water pipes from projects under construction and estimates that the bill for replacing the pipes in all the 11,817 homes the company used it in will come to $700 million, about $60,000 per home. "You need to rebuild half the home, you're stripping it back to lock-up, which is essentially where you've got a roof on, windows and a door," Mr Gray said. "It takes six months, and those homeowners have to find somewhere to live, it's an awful situation." Call for regulator to step in BGC is hoping that the regulator will issue a product recall of the polybutylene water pipe in question. "My understanding is that if there's a product recall the onus shifts to Fletchers to enact that recall and to facilitate that process and fund it," he said. But Mr Gray said the company was urging frustrated homeowners not to launch legal action, saying that could delay the remediation process. Our advice is, if any party starts litigation, the regulators will step away from a product recall," he said. "So the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and WA consumer protection will step away and say, 'guys fight it out in court'. "The last thing we want is for a six-year legal battle, trying to work out who's at fault, like we had with the lead pipes at the Children's Hospital." But Trish Blake, WA Commissioner for Consumer Protection, said her agency could still issue a product recall even if litigation commenced. "Our process around product recall is completely independent of any litigation between the parties … if there is a need for a recall, we would conduct that recall," she said. She said the agency was now conducting its own investigation as well as speaking to both the builders and manufacturers to see if a voluntary resolution was possible Ashley Rozze's pipes began to burst 13 months after he moved into his new Perth home, and said the second, third and fourth leaks occurred within the following weeks. "From that point onwards, we've had sort of two years of living within a building site, essentially, floor coverings ripped up, mould," Mr Rozze said. "Even up until this week, we discovered a lot of mould during repairs that have happened, and this is from leaks that have happened two years ago. "The impact from the start to finish is a lot of stress; a lot of worry, a lot of time off work, a lot of lost revenue. The health impacts we just don't know [about]." It's the second major headache for BGC this year; the companysuspended new house orders in Aprilafter scores of customers complained that the construction of their homes had ground to a halt amid an overheated housing market. In September 800 disgruntled customerslaunched a class action against BGC Housing Groupafter they experienced long delays and steep price rises in trying to get their houses completed.

What is 'plant-based' food and how is it different from vegan or vegetarian food? You might have noticed the label "plant-based" appearing on everything from meatless meatballs to dairy-free cheese at your local supermarket. "Plant-based" is an increasingly popular term to describe food items that are free from animal products. It's like vegetarian or What is 'plant-based' food and how is it different from vegan or vegetarian food? — but without the baggage. Vegetarianism] throughout centuries has been associated with a humourlessness, especially in the Western world," Alicia Kennedy, a food writer from New York, based in Puerto Rico, tells ABC RN's Blueprint for Living. "[The term plant-based] lets people be a bit more flexible about when they want to eat meat, or when they don't want to eat meat, and not feel that they're taking on a new identity." Independent think tank Food Frontier prefers "plant-based" to vegetarian or vegan when referring to meat-free proteins. "Vegan is a very restrictive term," says Simon Eassom, Food Frontier's executive director. "Plant-based" affords more flexibility, covering "a mixture of dietary preferences" from vegetarian and vegan to flexitarian, reducetarian and pescetarian. "A plant-based diet is not a plant-exclusive diet," Dr Eassom says. "A lot of people who eat a plant-based diet will occasionally consume dairy products, occasionally consume meat products, but they're predominantly eating plants." However, Ms Kennedy, whose latest book is No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating (2023), believes the label "plant-based" can be misleading. "It has no real definitive meaning," she says. Today, "plant-based" has become a marketing buzzword, co-opted by brands to sell everything from soft drinks (made from corn) to food that is plant-based by definition, such as pasta. "It's flexible to the point of near-meaninglessness right now," Ms Kennedy says. "Plant-based can mean anything that a company wants it to." A history of the plant-based diet There's nothing new about the plant-based diet. Vegetarianism is an ancient practice popular among Indian and Greek philosophers thousands of years ago, and people have been eating plant-derived protein in the form of foods such as tofu, tempeh and seitan for centuries. However, the language we use to describe diets free from meat, dairy and other animal products is constantly evolving. The term vegetarian first appeared in the 19th century, while "vegan" was coined in the 40s to describe a diet excluding all animal products, not only meat. Veganism has since become associated with a philosophy concerned more broadly with animal welfare. The term "plant-based" is also new, introduced in 1980 by T Colin Campbell, an American biochemist who wrote The China Study (2005), one of the world's bestselling nutrition books, and embraced by health-conscious individuals who were uninterested in the politics of veganism. Mr Campbell, the Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University, used "plant-based" to describe a diet made up of whole foods, "rich in whole grains and legumes and vegetables and fruits," Kennedy says — "not something … to indicate that a product was simply derived mostly from plants." The rise of plant-based meat While "plant-based" can apply to anything free from animal products, it's in plant-based meat that we've seen the most innovation in recent years. In the 90s, British brand Quorn began producing meat substitutes from mycoprotein derived from a naturally occurring fungus. Over the past decade, a wide range of plant-based burgers, sausages, meatballs and schnitzels made from alternate protein sources such as pea, soy, lupin, lentils and hemp has been developed. More recently, the latest iteration of plant-based meat is trying to emulate whole cuts of meat "in chunk form" used in stews and curries. Plant-based meat has become a common sight on fast food menus and supermarket shelves and represents a multibillion-dollar industry in Australia. "Plant-based meats have a plate-share … between 1.5 and 3 per cent," says Dr Eassom. "By 2030, we expect about 10 per cent of plate-share to be taken up with plant-based meats." 'Plant-based' critics But not everyone has embraced the plant-based tag. Proponents of a whole foods diet have reservations about the processing required to produce plant-based meat. And while many people choose to eat plant-based products due to the high levels of greenhouse gases emitted by meat production, plant-based doesn't always equal sustainable, with critics accusing some players in the sector of greenwashing. Impossible Foods, for example, uses genetically modified soybeans to produce its plant-based meat substitutes. GM crops, including soy, are also used to feed livestock — a link Kennedy finds problematic. She says it's concerning that "you can use the same substrate for creating animal protein in an industrial fashion as you can use to make industrial plant protein." Another issue that bothers Kennedy is the investment of major US meat companies in plant-based alternatives. "[The label 'plant-based' obscures] the way these companies are part of the very system and industry they purport to replace," she says. Kennedy would like to see the introduction of regulation governing the label "plant-based". "It demands clear definition because these companies are using the phrase to sell … a vision that isn't necessarily the most sustainable in the end," she says.

Warrnambool's first-ever neurodiverse speed-dating event finds friends across the spectrum Like many guys in their mid-30s, Sam Martina wants a girlfriend. But unlike some of his peers,Mr Martinalives with autism, which canmake the tricky business of dating eventrickier. Key points: A datinginitiativein south-west Victoria is helping neurodiverse people build connections Organisers have offereda crash course in communication and small talk An autism expert says neurodiverse people should be encouraged to be their authentic selves "People were very convinced I didn't have autism so I think the answer would have been to tease me a bit and then say, 'Oh you'll be fine'." Instead of shying away from potential romance, Mr Martinaorganised a neurodiverse speed-dating nightin his home town ofWarrnambool earlier this monthto helpothers who might be on the same wavelength. Billed as the town's first-ever neurodivergent speed-dating event,the night kicked offwith a crash course on communication and small talk, with people givenprompt questions to help conversationsflow. Making connections Social worker Kate Dancey helped facilitate the event, telling the 14 or so attendees to relax and enjoy themselves. "[I wanted them to] to cherish this opportunity to celebrate neurodiversity, to break down barriers, and build connections based on genuine understanding and acceptance," she said. "It's about finding a match. It's about celebrating the beautiful tapestry of the human mind and making new connections." Among the people at the event was Nicole Put. The 37-year-old lives with an acquired brain injury from a traffic accident in her teens. It was her first time speed dating. "I haven't been in a relationship in a while, so I thought I might as well see what is out here and see who I can meet up with. I can't complain if I don't try." Another hopeful on the night was 23-year-old Jack McDonald. "Sometimes your neurodivergence can get in the way of being able to express yourself," Jack says. "That can be a bit hard. Some people might interpret it as you being rude or not being interested." Internet dating 'feels so numb' For Shang Wu, the night was not only an opportunity to meet a partner, but also to make friends. I find joy in socialising in different levels, it doesn't have to be a romantic partner. It could be a really good friend, male or female," he said. The 32-year-old, who lives with well-managed schizophrenia, has used dating apps like Hinge, but says he finds that process anxiety inducing. "I don't expect people to like me and therefore I don't put in much effort," he says. Mr Wu says online dating doesn't compare to meeting people face to face. "Online dating feels so numb — it's a daily thing you do like checking the news," he says. "But this [speed dating] feels so real." Risk of 'masking' neurodiversity Vicki Gibss, head of research at Aspect Research Centre for Autism Practice, says neurodiverse people generally have smaller social circles, which can mean they don't have the same learnt dating experience as their peers. "A lot of the time that's where we learn about the early stages of relationships and dating, we learn the social rules and the way to go about it from our peers." Ms Gibbs says that while learning about social skills is helpful for neurodiverse people, they should not be pressured to conform, which can lead to them masking their neurodivergence. We have to be very careful that we're not training the autism out of them, because you can't do that. You end up teaching them how to pretend," she said. With organisers hoping that Mr Martina's speed-dating night might inspire similar initiatives in Warrnambool and beyond, attendees like Jack McDonald are upbeat about meeting the perfect match. "I just want someone who understands what my neurodivergence is like and actually respects me, not just for being neurodivergent but for being the person that I am."

Reflect and listen': Yes campaigners contemplate what a No vote might look like With just days remaining until polls close in the Voice referendum, some prominent Yes advocates are beginning to contemplate what a No vote might look like — and what it could mean for Indigenous policy going forward. Key points: Liberal MP Julian Leeser says Australia must maintain its commitment to reconciliation, regardless of result Former National Andrew Gee says a No result won't benefit the Coalition long-term Greens senator Dorinda Cox says in the event of a No result, it should be "respectfully" dissected Many are hopeful the positive sentiments they are picking up at polling booths might shift the dial in favour of a Yes vote, but are beginning to quietly consider what a No result would mean for reconciliation. For some, it's seen as a heavy blow to a decades-long effort. For others, who are advocating a No vote, it is a chance to refocus efforts on practical solutions to well-known problems. Julian Leeser quit the Coalition frontbench earlier this year to allow him to freely campaign for a constitutionally enshrined Voice. The Liberal MP said he would keep working until polls closed to secure a Yes outcome, but should No prevail, Australia needed to maintain its commitment to reconciliation. "You respect the decision of the Australian people. And we have to take a moment to reflect and listen deeply to where Indigenous people want us to go next," he said. "But I think the important message is that Australia needs to recommit to the process of reconciliation, which is so important." Senator Kerrynne Liddle has been a strong advocate for the No side, and said success for that campaign would allow focus on what she considered more pressing issues. She said she would cast her vote with a "heavy heart", arguing the referendum should have been avoided altogether. "This could have been done with legislating a Voice to parliament. All of this angst, this terrible distraction from the cost of living," she said. "And I worry about that distraction, I have been for some time, because the people that are doing it toughest are those people in those remote and regional communities." A courtyard campaign surprise In November 2022, the Nationals took some by surprise when they announced their firm opposition to a Voice to Parliament during a parliamentary sitting week. Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was front and centre, arguing the Voice would "divide the nation along the lines of race". No referendum has ever succeeded in Australia without bipartisan support, making the position taken by the Nationals — and eventually the Liberals — particularly significant. Independent MP Andrew Gee quit the Nationals and moved to the crossbench in part over the party's Voice position. "I was pretty shocked at the way it all played out," he said. "They basically held a partyroom meeting while I was attending a funeral in Eugowra. "And then they call the press conference and made out that this was a unanimous decision, when they knew very well that it was not unanimous. I was pretty shocked that they did that." Mr Gee is still highly critical of how his former party has approached the Voice campaign, and argues both the Nationals and Liberals should have offered their members and senators a conscience vote. And he argued it would not benefit the Coalition, in a political sense, in the long run. "If the No campaign is successful, I think there will be a short-term sugar hit in that they will bask in that for a short while," he said. "But then I predict that around the corner, around the middle of next year, the sugar crash will set in. When you don't see that lift in the polls, that's when you'll see leadership speculation." Senator Nampijinpa Price has since emerged as arguably one of the most recognisable figures in either campaign, leading advocacy group Fair Australia's efforts to combat the Voice. Senator Liddle said it was unsurprising her message had resonated with some voters. "She's right in the thick of it, she's living in Alice Springs, she was born and raised either in Alice Springs or around Alice Springs, a bit like myself," she said. "And we come from real-world experiences. "So when we look at some of the voices that are arguing for this Voice, we see — because we've grown up amongst it and we've seen it from the coalface — some of the issues with those very voices that are coming out and saying, 'This is the answer for improving Aboriginal affairs.'" The late push to change minds Some manning pre-poll booths around the country are reporting a lift in energy for the Yes campaign, particularly as undecided voters start to make up their minds. #australia #russia #unitedkingdom #usa #unitedstates #italy #spain #australiannews

Passport stamps being phased out around the world as paper-free travel technology moves closer Passport stamps have been considered a souvenir of sorts for decades but if you have been on a trip overseas recently you might have noticed some countries are no longer inking your passport. Soon, some, including Singapore, will do away with physical passports entirely. It's left some travellers feeling nostalgic as they face the prospect of a blank or completely digital passport in the near future. "It's heaps of fun to sort of go back through your passport," Sydney-based travel blogger Michael Turtle said. After needing to renew his passport recently, Mr Turtle said he counted 155 stamps accumulated over 10 years. "I look at my old passports and there are a lot of happy memories there. You know, the stamps often remind you of trips that you'd kind of forgotten about." Australia was the first country to remove the physical entry and exit stamp system in December 2012, replacing it with the SmartGate system. SmartGates allow passengers to be processed through passport control automatically using facial recognition technology and the passport's electronic chip. Israel, Argentina, Hong Kong, Singapore and Macau are the other countries that have stopped using stamps when people arrive or depart. Next in line to remove them is the European Union (EU). Why the change? Border security expert from Macquarie University Dalbir Ahlawat said it was all about making travel safer as stamps could be tampered with or counterfeited. But he said they were not the only parts of a passport that could easily be manipulated. "I have seen the passports where they have replaced the picture, they've taken the visa label from one passport to the other, passports are stolen, they are tampered with, or pictures are removed or added," Dr Ahlawat said. In a statement, a European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said the EU was in the process of "modernising" its system to improve border security. "[We are] saying goodbye to manual passport controls and welcoming electronic checks [to] speed up queues and improve security," she said. The Entry/Exit System will allow the EU to access more reliable data on border crossings and provide automatic detections of overstayers. End of paper passports? Singapore has recently announced it is introducing "automated, passport-free immigration clearance". Dr Ahlawat said it was likely physical passports would be entirely phased out around the world in the future. "It appears that in the next 10 years, the physical passport can be replaced, at least on a trial basis, with a digital passport," he said. However, he said it was unlikely our passports would be uploaded to our mobile phones like our credit cards have been. "Because your battery may go flat, you may lose your mobile phone, [or] you may not have internet access in some of the countries," he said. He said advancements in using "biometrics" to confirm a person's identity could remove the need for a passport altogether. "Your picture is being taken, palm prints are taken, and fingerprints," he said. "For people who are lost then there will be DNA sampling also. "So, it will be a complex dataset and this dataset has to match [the records]." But he admitted there was still a lot of work to do before the entire world moved away from the stamping system. So, don't throw out your passport yet. "Mainly in Africa, Asian countries and Latin America more work needs to be done," he said. "And whether all countries would like to join or not is also an issue. Some countries are involved in their own national security challenges or economic challenges." A Qantas plane takes off. In the foreground underneath the plane is the barbed wire of an airport fence. A bittersweet farewell Australian travel blogger Jarryd Salem said he would be sad to see passports phased out. "Even though social media and blogs create long-lasting memories, we still consider passport stamps to be one of our favourite souvenirs; they are unique and tangible," he said. "There's something special about a passport that you can physically touch and flick through." Mr Turtle said as a frequent traveller, passports could be a "hassle" because it did not take long for his to fill up with stamps. He said a move away from them would be "bittersweet". "There is some very happy memories in here but there's also a bit of a logistical issue," he said. "So you know, it'd be nice not to have that anymore."