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Topic:Doctors and Medical Professionals

The moral injury of The Pitt is clear, and it is what grabs your heart throughout the show.(HBO Max: Warrick Page)

It's sickening to watch a healthcare worker trying to help someone, to save a life even, whilst lacking the right tools, or resources to do so. Not enough blood, donor organs, equipment, beds, staff.

There are some moments in The Pitt, a 15-part Max series spanning a single 12-hour workday (with three extra hours of overtime following a mass shooting event) in an emergency room in a Pittsburgh hospital, which are gruelling to watch. Patients, shot in the heart, losing blood too quickly to replace, a young girl dying because she fished her sister out of a pool but couldn't save herself, the crimson underpants of a miscarriage. Bellies bulging, skulls slicing, flesh oozing, veins spurting.

The hospital staff are peed on, punched in the head, splattered in blood, startled by rats that escape from a patient's clothing, blamed for unavoidable deaths. It's brutal.

Taylor Dearden plays Dr Melissa King in The Pitt.(HBO Max: Warrick Page)

In a closing scene, the lead character, Dr Michael "Robby" Robinavitch, played superbly by Noah Wyle, says to the assembled staff, who are wired, exhausted, relieved and devastated: "This place will break your heart." He tells them to be proud of what they did, of the lives they saved, but that it's also okay to cry: "It's just grief leaving the body."

The social problems blaze like flares through the episodes: fentanyl, homelessness, gun violence, custody battles, lost young men, junior doctors struggling to pay their own rent, a crowded emergency room that never empties.

Underpinning it all is the trauma of the most senior doctor, Dr Robby. This day is the fifth anniversary of the death of the former head doctor, Dr Adamson, from COVID-19 complications, one that has weighed on Dr Robby ever since, as he was forced to eventually divert sparse resources from Adamson to a younger patient in need. Both died.

They didn't have enough resources then, and are understaffed now.

The moral injury is clear, and it is what grabs your heart throughout the show.

Moral injury is generallydefinedas "the psychological, social and spiritual impact of events involving betrayal or transgression of one's own deeply held moral beliefs and values occurring in high stakes situations."

The term was first used to described soldiers returning from war, who felt their moral code had been burned in some way. These were "transgressions that involve[d] people doing or failing to do things themselves (deliberately or unwittingly); and being exposed directly or indirectly to transgressions on the part of someone else (betrayal, bearing witness to grave inhumanity)."

This can lead to a grief, shame, and a range of mental consequences, including depression, anxiety, lack of belief in people, justice, or particular moral causes.

It was during the overwhelm of COVID that many first began to become aware of moral injury, and the literature on it has mounted rapidly in the past five years.

When qualified, experienced people leave the medical system, we all suffer.(Reuters: Shannon Stapleton)

Aguideto moral stress among healthcare workers during COVID-19 was produced in 2020 by Phoenix Australia, Centre for Post Traumatic Mental Health. It describes moral stress as a spectrum: "In the context of COVID-19 a severe moral stressor would be, for example, a healthcare worker having to, due to lack of resources, deny treatment to a patient they know will die without that treatment."

More common and less severe moral stressors would include "being unable to provide optimal care to non-COVID-19 patients, and concern about passing the virus on to loved ones."

When there are systemic problems, shortages of staff, lack of money, insufficient organ donors, delays in treatment, and over-burdened medical systems with long wait times in or out of emergency systems, doctors and nurses can feel it deeply.

Sometimes they are unable to help in the way they have been trained, and sometimes, they are tooexhausted. It's the difference betweensaying: "We did all we could" to a patient's relatives, and saying "We did our best with the resources available, but it wasn't enough."

This is why it is recommended that in ICU settings, triage staff, who assess priority of need, are separated from clinical staff.

Studies have shownnursesalso experienced post traumatic growth after COVID-19, with greater gratitude, a sense of their own competence and insight.

But burnout of health care workers even before the pandemic has been well documented, and it is only recently that moral injury is being factored in.

Around the country, doctors, nurses, midwives and specialists like psychiatrists have been resigning, signing group letters and protesting in the streets in recent years. This is often portrayed simply as a bid for more pay. This is part of it. But it's also a cry for recognition of the pressures they and the medical system are under.

In January, 200 psychiatrists resigned from NSW's public health system, arguing that they were unable to care properly for their patients due to systemic decline.

Doctors and nurses see people in crisis being turned away, patients discharged before it is safe, and interminable wait times boil over into life-threatening violence.

Professor of psychiatry Pat McGorry told theABC: "It's like working in a third world sort of environment, to be honest — the moral injury of turning away seriously ill people every day and not being able to provide the care that people need and could benefit from." What is needed, he said, is for the NSW government to "commit to a plan to rebuild".

ADecember 2023 surveyby the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists found 94 per cent Australian psychiatrists said the workforce shortage negatively impacted patient care, and 82 per cent said these shortages were the main factor contributing to burnout (which seven in ten reported experiencing symptoms of).

In April, NSW hospital doctors walked off the job for three days,citingchronic understaffing, low pay and impossible workloads. Nurses and midwives have protested for better staffing, as have Victorian mental health workers.

Let's remember, too, that doctors in war zones and third world countries wrestle with this in far more extreme, horrific circumstances. Imagine being a doctor in Gaza now, struggling to care for kids with blasted limbs and dead parents, lacking basic equipment and supplies.

An MSFsurveyfound 40 per cent of those who died of injuries there were under 10. We read reports of medical teamsfaintingfromfatigue, heat and lack of food, ofmobilehospitals waiting to gain entry. Theaccountsof Gaza's most senior doctors are hellish.

When The Pitt's charge nurse, Dana, says she wants to leave, you gasp at the thought that her skill and expertise might be lost.(HBO Max: John Johnson)

When qualified, experienced people leave the medical system, we all suffer.

Even watching The Pitt, when the long serving charge nurse of the ER, Dana, says she wants to leave after an angry patient gives her a black eye, you gasp at the thought that her obvious skill and expertise might be lost.

If you snuggle under blankets with a cup of tea at night to watch compelling dramas like The Pitt, to worry about the pain on doctor's faces, the tears in nurse's eyes, the broken people slumped in emergency room chairs, just know that this is no fictional tale and the people who sign up to serve us deserve to be heard.

Juila Baird is an author, broadcaster, journalist and co-host of theABC podcast, Not Stupid.

Doctors and Medical Professionals

Stan Grant walked away from daily journalism two years ago and has spent more time on Wiradjuri land, the country of his ancestors.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

The leaves have turned from green to yellow and red and some have fallen already. Soon the branches will be bare, that is when the smoke from the early morning fires will settle over the village that sits beside a stream, all nestled in the valley.

My valley. Here is the land of my ancestors — Wiradjuri land, Wiradjuri Ngurumbang.

Protected, we are. Held. Yes, nature holds us all here and time turns on the seasons not the hands of a clock.

There is an ancient rhythm in this place. Everyone says the same thing, whenever they come here, they say "I feel like time has stopped".

It hasn't, time still works its way into us. Entropy will hasten us to our end. Physicists may debate whether time is real but life is finite. Or rather our lives are finite.

Each of us allotted a number of years, for some tragically so few. For others maybe too long; long enough to grow lonely, left with too many memories.

Time turns on the seasons not the hands of a clock.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

Every morning I wake in the cold before dawn to walk the hill past the shedding trees, from my house to the graveyard to sit with all the stories of all the people buried here.

All my people because that's what we are. So many stories. One headstone marks the lives of three children, their deaths each separated by a few years and each gone before their first birthday.

They've been dead now for more than a century. I wonder, what pain their parents must have endured. What took their lives?

There are headstones under which wives and husbands rest together for all-time.

There are some plots so old that no marker remains. And others forgotten. No one visits any more.

Here at the graveyard I watch the sun rise every morning. I close my eyes and I feel it warm my body. In the quiet — and there is nothing as quiet as a graveyard — I say a prayer.

Every morning I walk the hill to the graveyard to sit with all the stories of all the people buried here.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

This is so far from the world of noise in which I have spent too many years. It istwo years now since I walked away from daily journalism. In truth, I stayed too long.

Journalism stopped answering my questions a long time ago. I don't know if it ever did answer them.

It is not that I am ungrateful, or regretful. My career was audacious and unimaginable. A boy like me was not meant to have this life.

My journey took me from Aboriginal missions, to small towns in outback New South Wales, long dark nights in a cramped cold car looking out a foggy window as my family wandered from town to town looking for somewhere we might settle.

Stan Grant, aged seven, second from the right in the middle row.(Supplied: Stan Grant)

I kept moving. Journalism led me to more than 70 countries as I watched the world turn reporting on coups, wars, calamity, disasters of nature and humans.

News doesn't like triumph. It feasts on suffering.

It took its toll on my mind and my soul. There are friends I shared this journey with who are no longer here. The road took them.

There are others I may no longer see but we are bonded forever.

In the end, I don't know that I served journalism as well as it served me and that's probably true of all of us, whatever we do. We are never the equal of our calling.

Maybe I never respected the craft. There is something shallow, ultimately un-serious about it all. Journalists think events determine our world, yet events tell us nothing.

If we follow events we miss what the French callquestions d'existence. We miss the meaning of it all.

Journalism took Stan Grant to more than 70 countries but wonders if he ever respected the craft.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

My yearning has led me to physics, philosophy, theology, accumulating a library of books, completing a PhD, writing books of my own and all of it maybe amounts to less than a falling leaf.

Saint Thomas Aquinas after experiencing the presence of God late in life, said that all he had written was straw.

We do not derive the truth from knowledge or news, we feel it. We participate in God — what Aquinas calledipsum esse, the act of existence — in our repose, in the quiet, in nature and in our mortality, the finality of our existence.

No one reads yesterday's headlines. But we return to the poets. A line of poetry is greater than a mountain of newsprint.

Stan Grant's yearning led him to physics, philosophy, theology and the awarding of a PhD.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

In the period since I have disappeared from our television screens, I have spent more time back here in this valley, in the land of my ancestors.

I still read a newspaper occasionally, quickly and distractedly and sometimes I tune into the television but I don't pay it a lot of mind.

We are only undefeated because we have continued to try.(Supplied: ABC Compass)

I want to be closer toipsum esse. I want to wonder at the turning seasons and be attentive to the souls of those with whom I share a breath, the water, the stars and this land.

When I sit in the graveyard I laugh quietly at the silliness of making claims on nature. This land of my people is a land I share with all people.

The souls buried here lived, laughed, cried and loved. Their battles now fought, won or lost. Their trails all at an end.

This is their place. Our place. One day I will rest here with them.

"the point of intersection of the timeless with time, is the occupation of the saint."

For all the distractions of life, the noise of news, for most of us, "there is only the unattended moment, the moment in and out of time."

We are only undefeated because we have gone on trying. We find our rest, our truth, in the ultimate journey of our passing.

if our temporal reversion nourish

(not too far from the yew-tree)

Stan Grant is a former ABC journalist and global affairs analyst. Compass visited him at his property on Wiradjuri country in the Snowy Mountains. Watch Compass tonight at 6.30pm on ABC TV or ABC iview.

There's growing concern in Europe Russian President Vladimir Putin could be eyeing future invasions.(Pool: Sergey Bobylev via Reuters)

As the Russian president's war in Ukraine continues to rage, Poland is preparing to be his next target.

It is clear we are being watched.

Authorities have already stopped our car twice as we approach the heavily fortified border, via back roads.

As one guard reminds us while inspecting our IDs, we are a long way off the tourist trail.

Tensions are high here, where Poland and Russia intersect. It is — literally — a clash of worlds.

To one side, democracy, NATO and the European Union. On the other? Vladimir Putin's increasingly aggressive and expansionist regime.

Some people are concerned this remote region could be the Russian president's next target, perhaps after the conclusion of his war in Ukraine.

Poland's government is not taking any chances, spending up big on a suite of measures aimed to deter its hostile neighbour from launching an attack.

Lieutenant Iwona Misiarz is involved in the preparations and agreed to show us what is being done to prevent this frontier becoming a front line.

"To put it bluntly," she begins, "if they try to bite us, they'll break their teeth".

Poland's 232-kilometre border with Russia's Kaliningrad region is an exclave — a geographical quirk that means it is separated from the rest of the country's territory.

As maps were redrawn amid the Soviet Union's dissolution in the early 90s, it became surrounded by Poland, Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.

Getting to Moscow now requires a journey of more than 1,000km, and crossing two foreign countries.

Despite its isolation, the territory remains a vital military, shipping and economic centre for the Kremlin today.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 put this region on high alert.

Last year, the Polish government announced a new program, dubbed Operation East Shield, which is designed to fortify its borders with Kaliningrad and Moscow's puppet state of Belarus.

With a price tag of 10 billion zloty ($4.1 billion), it is among the country's most significant national security spends since the end of World War II.

It includes constructing obstacles like ditches and hills, as well as deploying thousands of anti-tank concrete traps (or "hedgehogs"), and ramping up surveillance technology.

"They're not meant to stop an enemy completely," Lieutenant Misiarz explains.

"Their purpose is solely to slow them down. No barrier can fully stop someone who truly intends to get through."

There's even space for a minefield, if the situation deteriorates.

Only a fraction of the 800km project has been completed. Construction is supposed to continue until at least 2028.

"Let's be honest, this is a massive undertaking," says Lieutenant Misiarz.

Last year, Mr Putin said during an interview he was "not interested in attacking Poland".

But that is little comfort to the people here: the 72-year-old autocrat also pledged not to invade Ukraine the month before he started the war there.

After more than three years of intense fighting, large parts of Russia's economy are now propped up by the Kremlin's massive military spending.

But the cost has been more than financial.

Nearly 1 million of Mr Putin's troops have been killed or wounded during the conflict in Ukraine, according to a study by the Washington DC-based Center for Strategic and International Studies released earlier this month.

Moscow's unbridled appetite to bolster its military, whether with money or new recruits, is among the reasons Poland is upping its game.

Mr Putin has also spoken about his desire to see Russian influence increase in former Soviet states, and countries like Poland, that was once a communist dictatorship ruled by the Kremlin.

Whether that means an invasion is likely depends on who you talk to.

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has made his thoughts clear.

Earlier this year, he told parliament his government would roll out "large-scale military training for every adult male" in the country. Specifics are set to be announced in the coming months.

It is part of a plan to increase the size of Poland's army from around 200,000 to 500,000, including reservists.

Mr Tusk said he hoped the training would make the country's men "fully-fledged and competent soldiers during a conflict".

Some people are already taking matters into their own hands.

At a military base outside Poland's capital, Warsaw, more than 100 civilians braved a chilly Sunday morning to learn basic combat and first aid skills last month.

Barbara Biedrzycka-Bialonoga, a PE teacher and mother of four, was among those who had never done anything like it before.

"My husband is in the military, and I told him to sign me up," she said.

"I've met lots of new people and gained new experiences. In case something serious happens, I want to know how to protect my kids, and myself."

Piotr Pietruczuk was doing the training for a fifth time.

"I've been interested in this ever since Russia attacked Ukraine," he said.

"I decided it's worth learning at least the basics, so that in the future I can join the army."

Mr Pietruczuk, 36, lives in Bialystok — a city just 50km from the border with Belarus. He said the two countries were already engaged in a type of "hybrid warfare".

While Poland and Belarus are not yet fighting with weapons, analysts warn Mr Putin's puppet state is waging a different kind of battle: migrants.

There is evidence to suggest the country is sponsoring passage for thousands of people from the Middle East, and elsewhere, to its borders with EU nations, and advising them on how to cross successfully.

Belarusian dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko has even said he wants to flood Europe's democracies with "migrants and drugs".

A sudden influx of either could be politically destabilising for his country's neighbours, and force them to divert precious government resources to combat any crisis.

Poland's massive military expansion goes well beyond the slated increase in troops.

Using Ukraine as a blueprint, the country is rapidly increasing the number of drones it has in its arsenal, too.

Unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, have become a critical part of how Ukraine and Russia are trading blows on the battlefield.

Kyiv's surprise attack on multiple Russian air bases earlier this month, which involved smuggling drones over the border and directing them to blow up warplanes from thousands of kilometres away, perhaps best underscored how effective they can be.

Polish company WB Electronics has been "ahead of the curve" in this space, says John Bason, one of its advisers.

Initially, the business made drones with cameras on board.

Now they have warheads attached, to carry out "kamikaze-style" missions.

"Ukraine has used these very effectively. They've led to a change in the way modern warfare is done, and we're a big part of that," Mr Bason says.

WB Electronics has increased its drone production by "250 fold" over the past three years, the adviser says, and can now manufacture around 1,000 a month.

There are plans for further expansion, too, to meet demand.

"It's not just Ukraine," Mr Bason explains, pointing out a wider conflict in the future, involving more nations, was not out of the question.

"Poland is looking to make itself ready for a potential invasion, so they've activated multiple programs in order to be able to increase their drone inventory.

"Countries like the UK, France, Germany and Australia. This is a capability they're going to need."

According to a report released earlier this month by California-based research organisation RAND, Poland plans to create two new heavy divisions in its army, which will be equipped with advanced armoured vehicles, artillery and air-defence systems.

It will also completely revamp its air force by refurbishing and modernising existing assets and procuring dozens of new warplanes.

On the water, it will acquire three modern frigates, and explore "options for a small submarine force", according to the report.

The document describes the country's armed forces as being "at a crossroads".

"If Poland fails to realise its plans, it might come out of this moment relatively weakened and vulnerable," it says.

Financing Poland's rapid defence expansion will be a balancing act for officials in Warsaw, and comes amid the country's significant military and monetary support for Ukraine, estimated to be more than $6 billion since Russia's full-scale invasion began.

Poland has also borne the brunt of the refugee crisis sparked by the war, with around 1 million Ukrainians remaining in the country, according to a UK government estimate.

But three years after the influx began, some Poles are becoming hostile towards their country's new inhabitants.

Reports of racism directed at Ukrainians are on the rise, and Poland's services have been stretched.

A divisive presidential election campaign last month also fuelled tensions.

The conservative victor, Karol Nawrocki, has been compared to Donald Trump and has made it clear his priority is "Poland first", which could affect aid to Ukraine.

For companies like WB Electronics, the threat of war is an undeniable business opportunity.

"We see the Russian danger. Historically, Poland has come under threat from Russia on multiple occasions, so this is something that Poland takes seriously," Mr Bason says.

"A lot more needs to be done in order to thwart any further Russian advances, and everything that we hear from Russia suggests that they are not going to stop at Ukraine.

"They will be quite keen to advance and to go further."

Back on the border with Kaliningrad, local woman Maria Chlopiecka is not concerned.

She's lived in the area for 40 years, has friends in Russia, and is angry about what the Polish army and government are doing here.

"They're building barriers. What's the point? I don't like it," she says.

"I don't think we're in any real danger. To me, it feels like political manipulation."

Still, the massive project rolls on a few kilometres from her home.

Another resident, aged 71, tells us Mr Putin poses a serious threat to Poland.

"I'm scared, I won't hide it," the woman says, adding that she's considering moving in with her daughter, who lives in Spain.

"Everyone's afraid. We see what's happening in Ukraine," she says.

During our tour of the latest East Shield construction site, land once used to grow crops is being ripped up to make way for ditches and concrete barriers.

Lieutenant Misiarz strides around the project, showing off where landmines will be positioned, should they ever be needed.

"In the beginning, people were somewhat sceptical," she says.

"The public didn't quite understand [what we are doing]."

As she reminds us about the threat facing Poland, her eyes shift to scan a thick forest about 50 metres away, on the Russian side of the border, admitting: "I have no idea what's behind that line of trees."

Every now and then, she says, local farmers have reported spotting Mr Putin's troops moving between the foliage.

A sign, perhaps, the new defences may be needed soon.

Reporting:Riley Stuart, Elias Clure

Camera operators:Daniel Pannett

Israel's military says it has damaged Iran's Isfahan nuclear facility, pictured here in 2007.(AP: Vahid Salemi)

As the bombs keep landing and Israel continues its devastating attacks on Iran's nuclear program, it's easy to forget Iran remains a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or NPT.

Up until Israel's strikes Iran was still submitting to inspections by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The nuclear watchdog has continued to gather data on Iran’s nuclear program, but Tehran has increasingly placed severe restrictions on access.

But with thedevastating damage to its nuclear installations, some analysts believe this confrontation could drive Iran out of the treaty — and actually provide more impetus to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian, second from right, with the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, right, at an exhibition about Iran's nuclear achievements in Tehran in April.(AP: Iranian Presidency Office)

"Iran's reaction would be, 'What was the point of adhering to the Non-Proliferation Treaty?'" Middle East historian Ibrahim al-Marashi told 7.30.

"'We might as well, even with all the damage done, we should get a nuclear weapon. As our ultimate guarantor of survival.'"

In an interview with 730 this week,Iran's ambassador to Australia Ahmad Sadeghi denied his country is developing a nuclear weapon.

"The nuclear program of Iran is for the peaceful measures," Mr. Sadeghi said.

The NPT came into force in 1970 and currently more than 190 countries are signatories. Its aim is to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

An inspector from the International Atomic Energy Agency installs a surveillance camera in Iran's Isfahan uranium conversion facility in 2005.(Reuters/Stringer AP/KS)

Inspections in Iran have become more difficult since theUS walked away from an agreement with the country in 2018. That deal saw the US and other countries loosen economic sanctions in return for Iran agreeing not to develop a nuclear weapon.

"The deal was working until Donald Trump was elected in 2016," said Barbara Slavin from not-for-profit think tank the Stimson Centre. She's been analysing American-Iranian relations for four decades.

"[Trump] began criticising the agreement and he finally left it in 2018, while Iran was still in full compliance with that deal. Now following that, Iran gradually began to ramp up the programme again, to the point where it was very, very advanced."

US President Donald Trump signs a proclamation declaring his intention to withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement in 2018.(Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)

The day before Israel launched its first attacks, the IAEA declared Iran was in breach of its NPT obligations and said it could not assure that Iran's nuclear programme was only peaceful.

"Just before the Israelis attacked, the IAEA board of governors actually issued a censure resolution against the Iranian government for its lack of cooperation," Ms Slavin said.

"I think the Israelis thought that strengthened their case to attack Iran."

Israel is believed to have nuclear weapons but has never declared them.(AP: Ronen Zvulun)

Israel has long argued that a nuclear-armed Iran would threaten its existence.

But Ms Slavin and many analysts point out there's an important caveat to that argument: Although it is not officially acknowledged, Israel is believed to possess multiple nuclear weapons.

"So if Israel really felt that its existence was at stake, it could use nuclear weapons against Iran or any other adversary. That's why Israel developed nuclear weapons in the 1960s," Ms Slavin said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency declared Iran was in breach of its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations the day before Israel launched its first attacks.(Reuters: Leonhard Foeger)

Mr al-Marashi says that contradiction — that Iran is part of the NPT and Israel isn't — is hard to ignore.

"A lot of commentators or just regular people would say that there's a double standard: that Iran [belongs to] the NPT, but that Israel practises a policy of nuclear opacity," Mr al-Marashi said.

"Not being a member of the NPT … [Israel] deliberately tries to be vague about its nuclear arsenal to keep people guessing."

While not confirming it has nuclear weapons, Israel argues a nuclear capable Iran poses an existential threat because its leaders have repeatedly said they want to destroy Israel.

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Michael Farrelly was first investigated by medical authorities in 2016, before going on to set up multiple companies to sell testosterone therapy unimpeded for almost a decade.(ABC News)

When Michael Farrelly stepped out onto a Gold Coast street in late 2016, wearing a jumper plastered in oversized Chanel logos, an ABC TV crew was waiting for him.

As he walked to a waiting convertible, the self-described "serial entrepreneur" dodged questions about charging patients as much as $44,000 for untested stem cell therapy with the promise it could treat everything from multiple sclerosis to cancer.

"Just wondering if you're aware that your company … has been referred to the Queensland Health Ombudsman for misleading and deceptive practices?" the reporter asked him.

"You'll have to talk to my lawyer about that," he replied, before speeding off into the night.

The Queensland Health Ombudsman never took any action against Michael Farrelly, who'd been operating his stem cell business in that state under an alias, Mikael Wolfe.

It would be nearly a decade before Michael Farrelly came onto the ABC's radar again.

When Background Briefing started looking into serious complaints about him last year, the businessman had undergone a makeover — he'd found a new product to spruik, moved to New South Wales and even taken up a new alias, Vergel Page.

Listen for free on ABC Listen on your mobile device.

As Vergel Page, he was selling testosterone online to men with the promise of making them feel like a "million bucks", giving them "big coconut balls" and sending their sex drive "through the roof".

Many of his clients told us the reality of this treatment fell far short of his shiny sales pitch. Some were left thousands of dollars out of pocket, while others even experienced serious health impacts.

But now, almost a decade after he was first investigated by health authorities, Michael Farrelly has been permanently banned from the healthcare industry by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC).

In issuing the permanent ban this month, the HCCC found that in operating three online testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) clinics — Climax Clinic, Australian Institute of Sports Science and Peak Performance Clinic — Farrelly's conduct had "posed a risk to public safety".

It said that despite having no qualifications to do so, he'd made recommendations to his clients about medication, including telling one patient to double his testosterone dose "against the instruction of the named prescriber".

"A permanent prohibition order means Mr Farrelly is banned from providing any health service in any capacity in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria," NSW Health Care Complaints Commissioner John Tansey told the ABC.

Testosterone replacement therapy is marketed as a silver bullet that can increase libido, boost energy levels and help men stay active as they age.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

"Mr Farrelly showed little regard for client safety or the laws that regulate health services. The evidence confirmed he posed a serious and ongoing risk to the public, and his refusal to cooperate left the Commission with no option but to impose a permanent ban."

The HCCC regulates hundreds of thousands of practitioners in NSW and this is just the third permanent ban it has made this year.

While the ban stops Farrelly from running a healthcare service, it appears there's nothing to stop him starting up another company in another industry.

He has also not been charged with any criminal offences.

TRT has exploded in popularity in recent years, spruiked to men by manosphere influencers including Joe Rogan. Many men are inundated with ads on social media, with clinics promising it's a cure-all for everything from flagging energy to low libido.

For one of Farrelly's former clients, retired builder Sam, the draw was the hope of alleviating the crippling pain of his osteoarthritis.

An online ad led him to contact one of Farrelly's online TRT clinics, the Australian Institute of Sports Science — mistakenly thinking it was associated with the Australian Institute of Sport — and he spoke to a man who called himself "Vergel Page".

Michael Farrelly's lawyers admitted to the HCCC that Vergel Page was a "sales pseudonym" for Farrelly.

Michael Farrelly went under the alias "Mikael Wolfe" when he was selling stem cell treatments a decade ago.(Supplied: Mikael Wolfe Facebook)

After a short phone consultation with a doctor, Sam paid $3,500 for a year's supply of TRT and ongoing care. But when his testosterone shot up to more than 10 times his original levels, neither Vergel Page nor the clinic would respond to him.

"I had no help," Sam says. "Zero."

Sam created a Facebook group whose members uncovered Michael Farrelly's business history.(ABC News: Dean Faulkner)

Sam is just one of many former Farrelly clients who spoke to Background Briefing, recounting similar stories of paying thousands of dollars for TRT, only to be ghosted.

Jamie, 48, developed a chronic heart issue, atrial fibrillation, after starting on injectable testosterone prescribed by a Farrelly TRT business called the Climax Clinic.

He and others also received abusive messages from Farrelly after contacting him for a refund.

In March last year, Farrelly put his TRT clinics into liquidation, saying there was no money left, and disappeared.

So Sam and some of his other clients started organising in a Facebook group to try and find him — to get their money back, and to get some answers.

They thought Farrelly was still operating in New South Wales, until one day Sam got an intriguing Facebook message: a tip that the TRT salesman, with his distinctive facial tattoos, had been spotted in a small, sleepy town in northern Tasmania.

Background Briefing found that property records showed a house in the Tasmanian town was purchased in late 2023 under Farrelly's mother's name.

A liquidator's report also confirmed that a car at this property, a white Mercedes-Benz, was owned by Michael Farrelly. Eyewitnesses said the TRT salesman was living at the address, too.

HCCC commissioner John Tansey told the ABC that Farrelly first came onto the regulator's radar in 2022, but his move interstate, while operating under multiple businesses and aliases, made its investigation very difficult.

In Australia, each state has its own individual health regulator. The national healthcare watchdog, AHPRA, currently only polices registered healthcare practitioners, such as doctors and nurses, and not unregistered practitioners like Farrelly.

The NSW HCCC's investigation into Farrelly stretched out for over a year, as investigators combed through business records and even got clinical records from the TRT clinics' software provider when, the HCCC said in its decision, Farrelly stopped cooperating.

Jamie was convinced to go on an injectable testosterone called Primoteston.(ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Commissioner Tansey said the evidence collected during the HCCC's investigation confirmed Farrelly had facilitated the supply of prescription medication without having the qualification to do so, and that the commission was keeping an eye on him.

"Any breach of the order is a criminal offence and may result in prosecution," the commissioner said.

While the HCCC is only the regulator for NSW, its ban on Farrelly is also enforced by Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

And in December last year, his new home base of Tasmania passed laws to recognise other states' healthcare prohibition orders, putting an end to the possibility of him being able to practise there too.

Sam thinks more needs to be done to make TRT safe, including national regulation and stricter rules on who can open up these clinics.

"I know there's a lot of people on Facebook that will hate me because they don't want it regulated because they won't get their medication," he says. "I just think the whole industry needs to be regulated."

Sam is now accessing TRT from a different source. He says his problem isn't with TRT, it's with unscrupulous providers like Michael Farrelly.(ABC News: Dean Faulkner)

He points to the fact that in January this year, while still under a temporary prohibition order from the HCCC over his existing TRT clinics, Michael Farrelly was able to open a new business that supplied testosterone replacement therapy.

Company records show that the business was registered at the Tasmanian address, where the HCCC's orders didn't apply, and Farrelly was named as its director. Its directorship was only transferred to someone else this week.

The ABC understands ASIC has not disqualified Farrelly from managing corporations.

The liquidator of Farrelly's TRT businesses has spent more than a year trying to trace more than $15 million of transactions that flowed in and out of the companies. He's expected to report to creditors within the month.

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Topic:Mining Environmental Issues

Raja Ampat is a globally significant tourist and conservation attraction.(AFP: Goh Chai Hin)

With its crystal-clear waters and picturesque islands, Raja Ampat — often described as "the last paradise on Earth" — has long been a dream destination for tourists.

But this archipelago off Indonesia's east coast has emerged as the latest battleground between groups at odds over the country's nickel industry.

A manta ray swims in the water off Raja Ampat islands.(AP: Herman Harsoyo)

For Indigenous Papuan man Matias Mambraku, Raja Ampat, or the "Four Kings", is more than just a paradise.

"It's so important not only because of its beauty, but [because] it provides us a livelihood," Mr Mambraku told the ABC.

"Many of us here are fishermen, so we really depend on the water, it can fulfil our everyday needs."

Matias Mambraku works as a tour guide and promotes ecotourism in Raja Ampat.(Supplied)

The archipelago of 1,500 islands, cays and atolls are a UNESCO Global Geopark because of the historic limestone karst rock formations that jut out of the sea.

The area is also home to some of the most diverse marine life on earth, said Australian conservationist Lynn Lawrence.

With the organisation that she founded with her husband, The Sea People, Ms Lawrence has been trying to restore and protect Raja Ampat for more than a decade.

She said over 75 per cent of the world's known hard-coral species, 1,800 reef fish and five endangered turtle species are among the significant sea life here.

Five species of rare and endangered sea turtles are found in the waters of Raja Ampat.(Supplied: Greenpeace)

However, conservationists said the archipelago's delicate ecosystem is being sacrificed to support Indonesia's burgeoning renewable energy industry.

Indonesia is the biggest refiner of nickel in the world.

Over the past decade the rapid expansion of the industry — to support the electric vehicle and green energy transition — hascreated opportunities for some while leaving others strugglingto get by.

Ms Lawrence does not agree with calling Raja Ampat "the last paradise" on earth.

Raja Ampat is a world-famous spot for scuba divers.(AFP: Lillian Suwanrumpha)

"Raja Ampat doesn't need to be admired for what it still has; it needs to be protected for what it still gives," she said.

Greenpeace Indonesia has been campaigning to protect Raja Ampat and released an investigation into nickel mining in the area earlier this month.

A Greenpeace report says 309 hectares of forest have been cleared for nickel mining on Gag Island.(Reuters)

The report revealed nickel mines are responsible for least 550 hectares of deforestation across three islands: Manuran Island, Gag Island, and Kawe Island.

"Forests have been destroyed, and rainwater runoff now carries sediment from the cleared areas," Greenpeace said in its report.

"This is causing reef-smothering elevated turbidity in the sea, evident as discolouration of water near jetties and mines."

Forests have been cleared for a nickel mine on Raja Ampat's Kawe Island.(Supplied: Greenpeace)

Shortly before the Greenpeace research was released, the Indonesian government revoked four of the five active licences within the UNESCO geopark.

The government's decision came after a national outcry over nickel mining in Raja Ampat, and in response to a popular social media campaign, "#SaveRajaAmpat".

The sea is the Raja Ampat locals' livelihood.(Supplied: Greenpeace)

Indonesia's mines minster, Bahlil Lahadila, said at the time the decision to revoke the mining permits was due to "environmental violations" within the UNESCO geopark.

The one remaining permit not revoked by the government is on Gag Island.

It's held by Gag Nickel, a subsidiary of the Indonesian state-owned mining company Aneka Tambang, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Barges ready for nickel ore at Gag Island in Raja Ampat.(Supplied: Greenpeace)

Arie Rompas from Greenpeace Indonesia urged the government to revoke the Gag Nickel permit.

"There must be a formal decision to ensure that the revocation is actually carried out," Mr Rompas told ABC.

He warned the government had reactivated mining permits it had revoked in the past.

The ABC contacted Gag Nickel, Aneka Tambang and multiple Indonesian government ministries but did not receive a response.

Gag Island is about 43 kilometres from Piaynemo — a famous cluster of karst formations that feature on an Indonesian bank note.

Global Forest Watch reported that between 2017 and 2024, deforestation caused by nickel mining on Gag Island reached 262 hectares.

Nickel ore mined on Gag Island is loaded onto barges and transported to be refined at the Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) on Halmahera Island, North Maluku, Greenpeace said.

Nickel ore from Gag Island is taken to a large industrial park at Weda Bay that processes nickel.(ABC News: Graphic by Jarrod Fankhauser)

According to public reports from Aneka Tambang, Gag Nickel's parent company, ore from Gag Nickel is processed by Tsingshan, a large Chinese-run subsidiary operating within IWIP.

IWIP is an integrated mineral industrial complex backed by investment from three huge Chinese companies, which have proliferated since former Indonesian president Joko Widodo first banned the export of unprocessed minerals in 2014.

Weda Bay Industrial Park (IWIP) on Halmahera Island, North Maluku.(Supplied: Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru)

The ban "ushered in a new era of growth and prosperity for the people of Indonesia,"the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce Madam Chairperson, Arsjad Rasjid, told the ABC in 2023.

But a study from Indonesian not-for-profit organisation Nexus3 and Tadulako University on the pollution around IWIP showed alarming results.

Water samples from the river that serves as the Weda Bay community's drinking water source showed high concentrations of heavy metals.(Supplied: Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru/Uddy)

Published in May, the study results are based on tests run on water, blood and fish samples taken around Weda Bay in July 2024.

Water samples from the main river which serves as drinking sources had high concentrations of heavy metals, including chromium and nickel, that exceeded safe limits set by the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA).

Researchers take a blood sample.(Supplied: Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru/Andri Saputra)

Blood samples taken from residents living near IWIP recorded the presence of heavy metals like mercury — and arsenic at levels exceeding safe thresholds in 15 people.

Nexus3 principal researcher Yuyun Ismawati said, apart from inhaling pollutants, heavy metals detected in blood came from eating contaminated fish.

The study found that fish caught in Weda Bay contained elevated levels of arsenic and mercury.

Ms Ismawati said the arsenic levels in fish surpassed national safe thresholds and posed a serious risk to people who live in the area and ate them.

Nexus3 researcher Yuyun Ismawati warns of a "cocktail of toxic" pollutants around big nickel industrial parks.(Supplied: Yuyun Ismawati)

"The fish samples were taken at the fish landing site, directly from the fishermen's boats — these are the same fish sold at the market," she said.

"We collected fish from there because that's what local residents consume daily.

Fish were measured and weighed before their flesh was used for testing.(Supplied: Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru/Hariyanto Teng)

Rivani Abdurrajak, head of the local government environmental agency, disputed the findings of the Nexus3 research, local media reported in early June.

Mr Abdurrajak told Kompas the water in Weda Bay was not polluted by nickel mining or processing, and government tests showed levels of heavy metals, including arsenic and mercury, at safe levels.

Researchers say the government must learn from the environmental impacts of the nickel industry revealed in previous studies.(Supplied: Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru/Uddy)

Ms Ismawati said that the "cocktail of toxic pollutants" around industrial parks like IWIP were difficult to measure.

"Inside these zones, there are various smelters — not just for nickel, but also for aluminium and other metals, even in small quantities, so even if we could take some samples, there are no standard benchmarks to measure these chemical cocktails," she added.

IWIP has been contacted for comment.

The pollution around IWIP and other major nickel processing parks has acted as a warning to conservations and locals campaigning to defend Raja Ampat from a similar fate.

Yaf Keru is one of the largest community-based reef restoration programs in Indonesia run by The Sea People.(Supplied: SEA People)

While Indigenous Papuans in Raja Ampat depend on the sea for their survival, the archipelago holds a greater significance for locals.

"Raja Ampat's value is inseparable from the people who live in, depend on, and actively shape it," Ms Lawrence said.

The ABC gains rare access to Indonesia's West Papua province, speaking with Papuans ahead of the inauguration of Indonesia's new president — a former military general accused of historic human rights abuses.

Mr Mambraku lives in a village near one of the nickel mines which had its permit revoked.

He said he hoped the Indonesian government would ensure that any kind of future activities in Raja Ampat followed environmental safeguards and included Indigenous people in decision making.

"It's so important not only because of its beauty but it provides us livelihood," Mr Mambraku said.

Topic:Mining and Metals Industry

The "infected" in the 28 Days Later series are much more agile than your regular zombie.(Supplied: Sony Pictures)

Welcome to Cheat Sheet, where we give you all the intel you need about iconic shows and films. In honour of its new addition, this time we're looking at the film franchise that revived the zombie genre, 28 Days Later.

Have you ever heard of a movie trailer so popular that it forced a studio to re-release a 23-year-old film?

That's what happened at the end of 2024, when fans got a first glimpse of the third film in Alex Garland's revolutionary 28 Days Later zombie series.

Chillingly set to Rudyard Kipling's poem Boots — itself about the horrors of war — the teaser for 28 Years Later quickly broke the record formost-viewed trailer of 2024. Soon after, it became the second-most-viewed trailer of all time (just behind 2019's It: Chapter Two).

The demand from fans was so thunderous that, two days later, Sony announced they were re-releasing the original film — which hadn't been available digitally for years due to rights issues.

But 28 Years Later wasn't done gathering steam just yet. After a single day on sale, the filmbroke the recordfor most advanced tickets sold in the US for a horror film this year.

The concept of the animated undead has been lurking in cinema for almost 100 years, and has been terrorising folklore for centuries more.

George A. Romero's influential 1968 flick, Night Of The Living Dead, gave silver screen zombies the reputation of being slow-moving and dim-witted — threatening because of their numbers or lack of personal protection.

But the zombies in 28 Days Later presented a curious alternative.

Inspired by the relentless ghouls in Japanese video game series Resident Evil, writer Alex Garland envisioned a different kind of zombie: agile, angry and lightning fast.

But Garland still yearned to rid zombies of their "magic". Enter Trainspotting director Danny Boyle, who infused Garland's script with the concept of rage. Instead of being supernaturally reanimated corpses, the zombies in 28 Days Later are actually infected with a "rage virus" unwittingly released onto the British population after a test monkey escapes his lab.

Boyle and Garland's rage-fuelled 'infected' are much harder to escape than the lumbering zombies of yore.(Supplied)

With a refreshing concept and a minuscule $US8 million budget under their belts, the team gathered a cast of then-unknowns and began filming in mid-2001.

Beyond briefly explaining how the virus was unleashed, 28 Days Later has little interest in the lore of the infected, instead capturing the human reaction of societal collapse.

Bike courier Jim (Cillian Murphy, 20 years before his Oscar win) wakes up from a coma 28 days after the initial outbreak to an empty hospital. After wandering around London, Jim eventually stumbles upon a handful of fellow survivors. They then must battle not just hoards of infected, but also the ruthless leaders who have survived by brute force.

The production was consistently hounded with monetary issues. Christopher Eccleston, one of the only actors on the cast with a name, agreed to take an emergency pay cut for his work. Until one day it all caught up.

"I just had to say one day, 'We haven't got any more money,' and we packed up and left. We didn't finish the film,"producer Andrew Macdonald said.

They soon returned to cobble together some sort of an ending; after showing the studio their efforts, they ponied up for one last reshoot.

Released in the UK at the end of 2002, 28 Days Later became an unexpected hit, quickly breaking even and then eclipsing its budget with ticket sales.

The film then became a sleeper hit in the US market, pulling down $US45 million despite an initial limited release. By the end of its original theatrical run, the movie had made back its small budget ninefold, grossing $US72 million worldwide.

It was praised by critics for the political analogy hiding behind the blood and gore. Filmed while the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred and released just a year after, Boyle says the film grasped onto a larger uneasiness in a seemingly less safe world.

(L-R): director Danny Boyle, stars Naomie Harris and Cillian Murphy, and producer Andrew Macdonald flanked by men in chemical warfare suits at the 2002 UK premiere of 28 Days Later.(Getty: Yui Mok – PA Images)

"The film was the first one out of the blocks that touched — not directly, but aesthetically and morally — some of the residue of what 9/11 had done to us," he said in 2018.

"And, in our particular case, it made cities, which feel so immense, suddenly, they were utterly vulnerable."

Manycommentatorspointto the critical and commercial success of 28 Days Later as one of the catalysts for the zombie revival of the 2000s and early 2010s. The boom saw the release of other familiar undead fare: 2004's Dawn of the Dead remake; Spanish-language Rec (2007) (as well as its 2008 US remake, Quarantine); and World War Z (2013).

But, just like a mutated virus coursing through a corpse's veins, the boom also opened the door for zombie sub-genres. There were zombie comedies like Shaun of the Dead (2004), Zombieland (2009) and Black Sheep (2006). Films like Warm Bodies (2013) even gave the zombie rom-com a crack.

These scientists make the call on fact or fiction in HBO's new hit show, The Last of Us.

The zombie craze leaked into TV as well: 2011's The Walking Dead features protagonist Rick Grimes waking up in a deserted hospital. Reverberations of Boyle and Garland's fast and infected creatures can even be felt in 2023's The Last of Us, which features an unknown fungal infection that transforms the world's population into surprisingly fast monsters.

In the midst of it all, Boyle and Garland (now acting as producers) had another bite at the apple with 28 Weeks Later in 2007. Following a different family caught up in the devastation, the film tracks the slow attempt at rebuilding and sinks deeper into the political ramifications of an apocalypse.

Then, in 2020, 28 Days Later had a cultural resurgence no-one saw coming.

One of the earliest tableaus in the original film sees Jim, disoriented and clad in hospital scrubs, stumbling around the eerily empty streets of London. It was an arresting image at the time but as cities around the world emptied due to COVID-19 lockdowns,many recognisedthesimilarity between what Boyle captured and their current reality.

Speaking to theBBC, Boyle said the world's collective experience with COVID made 28 Years Later "feel possible".

Set nearly three decades after the original, 28 Years Later shows a UK that has been quarantined by the rest of the world. The action shifts from cities to a small surviving community who have barricaded themselves in their island home, following strict, traditional rules to keep the peace.

Jason Di Rosso interviews the makers of the movies and TV you need to see.

"In the last 15 years, the world has become regressive and it's very preoccupied with looking backwards. It's all about making things great again," writer Alex Garland toldThe Screen Show's Jason Di Rosso.

"So [this film] is something to do with a misremembered past and what things survive, what notions survive, what things are lost."

Like its predecessors, 28 Years Later uses the still-ravaging hordes of infected as catalysts for emotional pathos, as 12-year-old villager Spike (Alfie Williams) is taken to the British mainland for the first time by his blood-thirsty father Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

Boyle's affection for unusual camera rigs has also returned. Parts of 28 Days Later were filmed using a small digital video camcorder, which gave the film an almost home-movie look. This time around, Boyle turned to iPhones, binding eight, 12 and 20 phones together.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later(Supplied: Sony)

"We used [the rigs] for the violence … you could whip inside the action almost like in a 3D way, or pause it, or go back on it, startle with it. That's what we were trying to do, put beauty and horror together, which is a great combination for this kind of movie," Boyle told The Screen Show.

"It also gave us a chance to keep a light footprint in the countryside — we wanted it to look undisturbed."

Although not acknowledged in the title, 28 Years Later is actually the first part in Jamie and Spike's story. A sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple — which will see a heavier focus on mysterious cult leader Jimmy Crystal (Jack O'Connell) — will be released in January 2026.

A third, untitled,reportedly finalfilm is currently in the works.

28 Years Later is in cinemas now.

Arts, Culture and Entertainment

The conflict between Israel and Iran has reached its 10th day, with Israeli jets launching fresh strikes on military targets in Iran's south and Iran firing missiles at Tel Aviv.

Israel also says it has killed a veteran Iranian commander in a strike on an apartment in Qoms, calling the strike a "major achievement for Israeli intelligence and the air force".

Follow the latest developments in our live blog.

To get updates straight to your inbox,subscribe to ABC News.

Retired Lieutenant General Mark Schwartzspoke with ABC Weekend Breakfast from Colorado in the United States about the six B-2 bombers reportedly headed towards Guam.

Mr Schwartz said the news the bombers were being tracked by the public via flight control data, despite being "stealth" bombers, was a deliberate move by the United States to"communicate strategically to the Iranian regime that we're serious".

"Advertising the fact that these aircraft were moving is a message to Tehran that the United States is serious," he said.

He said the move was "setting the theatre" but was not necessarily a sign the US wanted to become involved in the conflict.

"All the capabilities and forces … are coming into the theatre of operations for the potential to be employed, if in fact the President makes that decision."

Former advisor and negotiator to the Israeli government Daniel Levyhas told ABC Weekend Breakfast there is "no credible evidence" Iran was an imminent nuclear threat.

Reutersis reporting Israel has told the Trump administration theIDF could act unilaterallyagainst Iran's Fordow nuclear facility before the White House's two-week deadline expires.

The phone call was "tense" and took place on Thursday after Donald Trump issued the loosely defined deadline, according to Reuters's sources.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense MinisterIsrael Katzand defence chiefEyal Zamirreportedly told the US Israel believes it has a limited window of opportunity to move against the site.

US Vice-President JD Vancepushed back against the Israelis' points, according to Reuters, saying the US shouldn't become directly involved.

Deputy PM Richard Marleshas told Sky News two planes -a K-30 and C-17 – were ready to evacuate Australians from the conflict when airspace opens up.

"We have DFAT consular staff who are in Azerbaijan looking at how they can provide assistance across that border," he says.

"We do have civilian aircraft chartered ready to go in the event that airspace opens up over Iran and Israel, and right now that is the biggest constraint here — both airspace over both countries is closed."

Mr Marles also said he would not speculate on whether the United States would be justified in using a bunker bomb atIran's Fordow underground site.

Instead, he reiterated the government's support for a de-escalation of the conflict.

"We recognise Israel's right to defend itself and we very much acknowledge the risk that the Iranian nuclear and ballistic missile program presents to the region and stability of the world … but we are concerned about the prospect of escalation here.

"That is why we are exercising our voice internationally along with many other countries to de-escalate."

Mr Marles said the Australian government views Iran's nuclear program as a threat to regional and global peace and stability — a position it has held for a long time.

But he added that this view can coexist with serious concerns about the risk of escalation.

Former Russian presidentDmitry Medvedevhas spoken out on X,posting a photo of what appears to be a printed pagefeaturing his latest comments on the Iran-Israel conflict.

"Does Iran have nuclear weapons? We don't know for sure, but what we do know is that Israel has a secret nuclear program," he writes.

"Well, let them both abandon such programs under the supervision of the UN Security Council and the IAEA."

"Why is it OK for Tel Aviv but not OK for Tehran?"

Medvedev goes on to question the wisdom oftrying to disarm a potentially nuclear-armed nation by force.

"If you try destroying it altogether, as Israel is doing and the US may be doing soon, then Iran (if it does have nuclear weapons) will definitely use them!" he writes.

"And if not, it will rebuild this program at any cost.

"Netanyahu will go one day, but Iran will remain … probably led by a new ayatollah."

British-Israeli analyst and former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levysays Israel is doing everything it can to draw the US into a wider conflict with Iran — but Donald Trump may not be on board.

Speaking on ABC News Weekend Breakfast, Mr Levy says Trump hasn't made a firm decision on whether to support escalation.

"The threat is credible but I think it's not unreasonable to read into it that President Trump has not decided that option is … alive. We're all aware of this fight inside Trump world, inside the MAGA camp, we've seen the polling [showing] Trump supporters against the US getting engaged."

Mr Levy says polling shows most Trump supporters are against US involvement — 53% oppose it, compared to just 19% in favour.

"We're familiar with those names of people associated with Trump who've come out strongly against it, but you still also have that kind of Israel-first camp pushing for this.

"It makes it more palpable, it doesn't mean it's going to happen but we shouldn't see it entirely as a bluff."

Mr Levy warned Trump's unpredictability remains a wild card.

"Everyone is trying to influence that tiny bit of real estate between his two ears," he said.

"The Israeli government is doing everything to pull the Americans in, they will try to provoke the Iranians … we've had reports from Reuters that there was a tense call between senior US and Israeli officials because the Israeli side didn't like the two-week deadline they think the US needs to act sooner."

About 3,900 Australians are looking to depart the Middle East by registering with the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT).

About 2,600 of those are in Iran, while 1,300 are in Israel.

Air travel out of the region at the moment is tricky, with airspace closed over both Israel and Iran, but DFAT is reportedly deploying consular staff to border crossings to support Australians departing Iran on the ground.

The Australian embassy in Iranwas closed on Friday.

If you're in the Middle East and in need of consular assistance, you can call+61 2 6261 3305(or1300 555 135if someone iscalling for you from within Australia).

Iran'sForeign Minister Abbas Araghchisays any US military involvement in Israel's attacks on his country would be "very, very dangerous for everyone".

Speaking on the sidelines of anOrganisation of Islamic Cooperationmeeting inTürkiye, Araghchi told the Associated Press his country is still open to further dialogue, but repeated his comments from the day before that any dialogue can only begin once Israel's attacks cease.

Araghchi is also due to speak with his counterparts from Türkiye and Jordan while in the country.

More details have emerged of a phone conversation between Iran'sPresident Masoud PezeshkianandFrench President Emmanuel Macronthat took place earlier today (local time).

Pezeshkian reiterated Iran's longstanding position that it is not seeking to build a nuclear weapon, based on a "religious decree of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution,Ayatollah Ali Khamenei" — referring to a2003 fatwaagainst the use of weapons of mass destruction issued by Iran's supreme leader.

"We are ready to talk and cooperate to build trust in the field of peaceful nuclear activities," he said,according to the Iran Press news agency.

"But on the one hand, we willnot accept reducing nuclear activities to zero under any circumstances, and on the other hand, our response to the continued aggression of the Zionist regime will be more crushing and decisive."

In addition tothe B-2 stealth bombers being flown across the Pacific, a US official has told The New York Times that a group of US fighter jets includingF-16s,F-22 RaptorsandF-35 Lightning IIshave crossed Europe and arenow arriving at bases in the Middle East.

While a deployment doesn't necessarily mean an attack is imminent, fighter jets are often used to escort larger planes on bombing missions.

They could also be used to provide air defence for US bases in the region should they come under attack.

US President Donald Trumpis due to meet with his national security council on Saturday evening — that is, in about an hour and a half, at 8am AEST.

A second meeting is scheduled for the same time tomorrow.

Millitants from the Yemen-based Houthi group warned on Saturday, local time, they'd target US warships in the Red Sea if Donald Trump ordered the country's forces to attack Iran directly.

The Houthis — one of Iran's proxies in the region — have fired missiles at Israel regularly over the course of the war in the Middle East.

They've also disrupted international shipping in the Red Sea routinely.

"We will target US ships and battleships in the Red Sea if Washington participates in the attack on Iran," the group's military spokesperson, Yahya Saree, said in a statement on Saturday.

Earlier this year, the US directly targeted Houthi assets in Yemen.

While Hamas and Hezbollah, two of Iran's other proxies, have had their ability to attack Israel minimised since the beginning of the war in October 2023, the Houthis remain a threat, and able to fire on Israel despite being more than 2,000 kilometres away.

Their geographical separation does limit their efficacy, however.

Israel is keen for the US to join its attacks on Iran directly, and US President Donald Trump has warned that could happen in under two weeks.

The US appears to have deployed six B-2 stealth bombers from a base in the country's Midwest, to Guam on Saturday, local time, fuelling speculation they could be used in an attack on Iran.

Air traffic communication monitors confirmed the movement of planes from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, and said they were likely headed toAndersen Air Force BaseinGuam, a US island territory in the Pacific.

These B-2s are the only aircraft capable of carrying a bomb large enough to impact Iran's primary and most protected nuclear facility — Fordow — whichhas been built deep into a mountain.

Israel has been keen for the US to directly join its attacks on Iran and use its GBU-57 Massive Ordinance Penetrator weapon, sometimes referred to as a "bunker-buster bomb", to destroy the facility.

The fact the B-2s are being moved in itself does not mean the US is planning to attack Iran.

They'd likely need to leave Guam and head to another US-British military base on the island of Diego Garcia — something not yet confirmed — to launch strikes on Iran.

While flying from Guam to Iran is technically possible, experts argue the mission's safety could be compromised because the B-2s would have to fly over several foreign countries to reach the Gulf state.

From Diego Garcia, they'd be able to approach over water.

Earlier this year, six B-2s were deployed to Diego Garcia and used to strike targets from the Houthi terrorist group in Yemen, which is one of Iran's proxy groups in the region.

Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage as we enter the 10th day of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran.

I'mAndrew Thorpe, and I'll be keeping you up to date with developments as they happen throughout the morning.

Here's what happened overnight:

Stay with us as we bring you the latest updates.

According to the latest Digital News Report, Australians’ concern about misinformation is the highest globally.(ABC News: Graphic by Jarrod Fankhauser)

Why are people turning away from mainstream media and seeking alternative sources of news?

Last week, the University of Canberra released its annual survey oftrust in the media, which made fascinating reading.

Among its results, it found Australians' concern about misinformation was the highest globally.

It said Australia "urgently needed" a national media and digital literacy campaign to help news consumers feel confident about their ability to spot misinformation.

But what would that campaign look like?

Let's take a very quick look at the news-gathering model, think about what makes stories "true", and consider some of the pressures journalists face to stop them telling certain stories.

It's a huge topic, but it's necessary to talk about.

Journalists are taught that news stories should contain the "Five Ws":

If a news outlet covers an event, its coverage should contain those basic elements.

Who is this story about? What has happened? Where did it happen? When did it happen? Why did it happen? (And why is it important?)

The first four Ws can be simple enough.

They're the building blocks for basic stories like this: There is a huge flood (what) in outback Queensland (where) right now (when) and more than 100,000 head of livestock are estimated to be dead or lost (who).

The last W in the model — Why — can be more complicated, because that's how you apply "meaning" to an event.

Why has something happened? Why is it important?

Because we're human, the interpretation of events can be hotly contested and lead to accusations of bias and everything else.

But according to the way it works in theory, journalists are trained to gather the facts and seek expert opinion to help them make sense of the facts, to tell us what they mean.

When you put those elements together, you'll hopefully have a decent story.

Now, that's an oversimplified description of the way the news-gathering model works in reality.

The conceptual boundaries between the Five Ws aren't always clear-cut. There's a lot of interplay between them.

For example, depending on the type of story you're covering, you might need an expert's help to know what the facts of certain phenomena are before you can even start writing about them (re: the science of climate change).

There are many things happening in the Middle East at the moment but beneath them lies one single through-line: Israel is attempting to reshape the political map of the region.

If you wanted to teach someone how news was generated, you'd start with a bare-bones, idealised model like that.

You'd say we always need to remember that they're just stories,at the end of the day. They're trying to turn the chaos and confusion of reality into a comprehensible "story" that helps the human brain to make sense of a very complex world.

And what sets the media's stories apart from other kinds of stories (such as fairytales, or novels, or films) is they're supposed to be "true", or an honest attempt to "tell the truth" about reality.

That's the implied social compact.

And given that assumption about the media's stories, people who consume "the news" are more willing to let the media's stories shape their perception of the world in ways they wouldn't dare allow for other kinds of stories (like fairytales).

So, cognitively, readers let their guard down a little. And that makes the media's stories uniquely potent.

It's why there's a global multi-billion-dollar industry dedicated to capturing, controlling, and confusing the "trusted stories" the media tells every day.

Or better still, stopping the media from telling certain stories at all, by harassing, intimidating, andkilling journalists in their hundreds.

Is everyone in the media industry a good person pursuing a noble cause?

Of course not. It's like any industry.

If you work in the media long enough, it's unsurprising to learn that the "father of apartheid" in South Africa,Hendrik Verwoerd, was a former newspaper editor.

March 21 is known around the world as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a solemn reminder of a brutal massacre that took place on this day more than 60 years ago. In Australia, it's called Harmony Day.

Some media companies behave like the media-arm of their preferred political party, do hit jobs on their enemies, and always seem ready to manufacture consent for the next war.

That's been the reality of the industry for hundreds of years. Who owns the world's media companies?

But there are plenty of journalists and editors that really try to tell the truth. In independent media and the legacy media. They appreciate that they have to keep demonstrating to their readersthat their stories can be trusted.

They know if readers start to notice that their stories are omitting crucial facts, including basic facts of history and law, while downplaying some voices and elevating others, their readers will lose trust in their ability to tell truthful stories.

And that would be dire for their news outlet.

They know if they allow the powerful to dictate how stories are told, they'll be allowing the powerful to kill their stories and their audience.

So they really try to stop bad-faith actors from confusing their Five Ws with waves of misinformation and intimidation:

We're living in a dangerous moment in history.

In the last 12 months, arms and weapons manufacturers, and cyber intelligence and security companies linked to the global war machine, have been making extremely handsome profits.

The share price of Palantir Technologies has exploded by 447.57 per cent (to $US139.96) in the last year, and the value of Elbit Systems shares has surged 144 per cent (to $US438.47).

Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, is makingmulti-million-dollar returnsfrom its investments in such companies.

As defence spending ramps up across Europe, Australia's Future Fund is investing in weapons manufacturers, Tesla and Palantir Technologies.

Governments, militaries, and different lobby groups are trying to stop people speaking up about the atrocities they're witnessing and the concerns they have about the future.

How should journalists report on these events?

When it comes to media literacy, Australian audiences might be shocked to learn how difficult it is for the media to write about the world in plain language sometimes, given how strict defamation law is in this country (among other laws).

They might be shocked to learn about the orchestrated bullying that goes on, which is designed to discourage editors and journalists from reporting on certain topics and framing stories in certain ways, even speaking to certain people.

Would it improve media literacy if the media wrote about these issues openly and regularly?

Do we want the media to speak matter-of-factly about propaganda too?

Every military engages in it, including the Australian Defence Force. Governments and lobby groups engage in it.

They use different propaganda strategies for different audiences (whether domestic or foreign), and apply different tactics to try to control the media narrative at different times.

Consider Australia's public relations efforts in the Asia-Pacific.

Documents filed in court claim that Australia may have been monitoring the phone calls of political leaders in Timor-Leste in 2000.

Our government is spending a lot ofdiplomatic effortcultivating relationships with our island neighbours and encouraging their people to come to work in Australia on special working visas.

It would like them to think Australia is a trustworthy ally, one they can trust more than other countries in the region.

But one wonders what the people of Timor-Lestethink about that.

Have a read of Hannah Arendt'sfamous essayfrom 1971, on thePentagon Papers, where she expressed amazement at the degree to which the United States government deliberately lied to its citizens about the reality of the Vietnam War, and about its reasons for invading and bombing Vietnam.

Or have a read of the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's most recent book,Lobbying for Zionism on both sides of the Atlantic, which goes into great detail explaining the tactics used by pro-Israel lobbies in the US and UK, including their campaigns against the BBC and the Guardian, and their campaign to stop Jeremy Corbyn becoming Britain's prime minister.

The former Israeli ministerShumalit Aloni, in an interview in the United States in 2002, stated plainly that pro-Israel lobbies used accusations of antisemitism to stifle criticism of Israel.

"Well it's a trick we always use. When in Europe somebody is criticising Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticising well, then they are antisemitic,"she said.

These are all things the media has to navigate.

In last week's media survey, respondents said they wanted journalists "to be more courageous and ask tough questions".

They wanted the media to "report the facts" and "tell the truth".

But let's raise some adjacent issues.

The anniversary of the publication of George Orwell’s greatest novel is an opportunity to recognise literature’s capacity to provoke and instruct, and to inspire independent thought and action.

Do we want journalists to have morals? Do we want their work to be guided by their morals and ethics? Do we want them to speak up about the injustice they see around them, or do we want them to stay quiet? Is it courageous to sit in silence?

George Orwell is considered one of the greatest journalists and writers of the 20th century.

In 1940, he wrote abook reviewof Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf.

In his review, he was scornful of the British elite for their earlier support for Hitler.

He was objective. He said he understood Hitler's charismatic appeal and he could see that Fascism and Nazism were tapping into something primal in the human brain.

He also shared a personal opinion about Hitler: "I would certainly kill him if I could get within reach of him."

Was that OK for a journalist to write that he would like to murder a public figure? It would probably be difficult to find many people who'd have a problem with that opinion of his, given he was talking about Hitler.

But what did it mean for Orwell's journalism?

One might argue that it showed it was possible to write with objectivity while feeling a deep moral disgust at the same time.

Let's wrap things up with a final question.

Sometimes you'll hear people saying journalists shouldn't be activists. But what they're really saying is:

"Journalists shouldn't be regularly writing and talking about the issues I don't want them to be talking about, but I'm happy for them to campaign on the issues I personally think are important."

All journalists are activists, in a sense.

An editorial decision to run a story (or ignore a story) is based on multiple decisions, but many of those decisions relate to what they think is important.

But "important" is a dangerous word.

Why? Because it's impossible to define the word "important" without referencing human judgement.If you say something's important, it begs the question: important to who?

At the moment, some of Australia's major news organisations are reporting very critically on the Albanese government's superannuation plan. There's an obvious media campaign going on.

What's motivating the campaign? Why isn't that considered a form of activism?

If we embarked on a national campaign to improve media literacy in this country, it would be fascinating to see how these topics were tackled.

Vets are increasingly seeing dogs at their clinics with behavioural concerns.(Getty Images: JW LTD)

Two-and-a-half-year-old rescue dog Mabel is sweet and happy when her owner, veterinarian Amy Lee, is at home.

But when Dr Lee is gone, Mabel can be a whole different animal.

"She wouldn't eat when I wasn't home. She would bark, she would whimper, she would cry. She sometimes wouldn't toilet," Dr Lee said.

"When we went overseas recently, for the first time in her life, she escaped the yard because there was a dog sitter with her and not our family."

Veterinarian Amy Lee thinks her rescue Mabel is "the best dog in the world".(Supplied: Dr Amy Lee)

Now,Mabel is one of many dogs on a medication called fluoxetine — a type of antidepressant sold under the brand name Prozac.

For Dr Lee, being able to prescribe fluoxetine for dogs like hers has been "a godsend".

While Dr Lee is comfortable with providing anxiety medicines to dogs like Mabel at her clinic in Blacktown, NSW, she said it wasn't suitable for every animal.

Dr Lee takes dog owners through one-hour long consultations about their pet's history and behaviours before deciding whether to prescribe medication.

But this isn't standard across the veterinarian sector, with some vets only getting a 15-minute appointment to make the decision.

This is creating concerns from some in the industry about how many dogs are going onto anti-anxiety medication as a first-line treatment.

A study looking at millions of canine medical recordsin the US from 2010 to 2020 found a 10-fold increase in behavioural problems, and an increase in antidepressant medications.

Dr Lee says she's seen an increase in dogs at her clinic with behavioural issues like aggression, separation anxiety as well as problematic behaviours.

Although Australia-wide data on use of drug therapies for animals is not recorded by groups like the Australian Veterinary Association, there is evidence that their use is on the rise.

Australian pet pharmacy YourPetPA listed fluoxetine on its website as its third "best selling" prescription medication.

But Paul McGreevy, a veterinarian and a researcher of animal behaviour at the University of Sydney,said the real issue for the dogs was the management by their owners.

"The danger is that pet owners demand a medication to resolve a problem, when the problem is actually them," he said.

Puppy school can be helpful, but behavioural veterinarian Michelle Rassool says it's not enough.(Flickr:Puppy School/Halans/CC BY-NC-SA  2.0)

Dogs, he noted, have different needs and wants to humans, which we struggle to respond to, and instead, we "expect the dogs to adapt to our way of life".

"If you want a dog, expect it to do doggy things, and expect it to have doggy needs," Professor McGreevy said.

Michelle Rassool, a behavioural veterinarian who works in both general practice and a behavioural clinic, said many owners were at their wits end with their dog's behaviour when they came to her.

"The average person gets a dog to have a friend, and they are normally not skilled in behaviour modification," she said.

"People should be aware that there are multiple options for intervening in behaviour.

Instead, Dr Rassool suggested positive behavioural training, changes to the environment, and changes to what the owners expect from their dog could all help create a better dog-owner relationship.

"Is the dog getting enough exercise? Are they fulfilled?

"If we've got a dog that's worried about being left alone, we don't just give medication and leave it alone.

"Our goals are always to use medication to leverage change and then look at weaning off or reducing where we can."

Our canine companions have lived beside us in all shapes and sizes, but plenty of breeds have disappeared along the way.

Dr Rassool said training needed to occur long-term to give dogs the best chance not to develop behavioural problems.

"Going to a couple of weeks of puppy school is not going to cut the mustard," she said.

"Most people should continue to go to — at a minimum — a weekly training session for that dog's first year because there's so much developmental change."

Positive behavioural training should be used over negative methods.(ABC News: Danielle Bonica)

Dr Lee noted that using positive reinforcement, rather than negative, was also extremely important to ensure the behaviour didn't become worse.

"If you've got a dog and you use either a combination of punishment and positive [reinforcement], or if you use just punishment, you're actually more likely to end up with aggression in your dog," she said.

"[Negative reinforcement] will work for a while because the dog doesn't want to be punished, but because they're not solving the underlying emotions it will eventually make the behaviour worse."

Getting the balance right between appropriate training and medication can be life or death for dogs.

"Behaviour problems are the biggest killer of young dogs," Professor McGreevy said.

"Is that because they're they are not medicated correctly? Arguably. But is it possible that they were managed inappropriately to begin with?"

Does your pandemic puppy whine when they're left alone? We asked an expert for the best canine training tips.

Navigating the fine line of when medication might be appropriate is something Dr Lee is very aware of at her clinic.

"I've got a patient that I treat now — Stannis — and he's one of my favourites because when he used to come in … he could have been euthanised in a pound somewhere for being unmanageable," she said.

Now, although Stannis will likely need ongoing anxiety medication, his owners have also undertaken significant behavioural work, and according to Dr Lee "his quality of life is so great".

"Those are the cases that just make your heart so full because you see people who believe in their dogs, and do the work."

Check out What the Duck?! presented by Dr Ann Jones to look atour modern dogs and what we've createdandsubscribe to the podcast for more.