Category: Evening Report

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Piatkowski, Senior Research Fellow in Public Health, The University of Queensland

Injectable peptides are the new anti-ageing trend sweeping the beauty industry.

These compounds are promoted on social media as tools for skin repair, collagen production and “cellular rejuvenation”. They are widely available online from overseas sellers, despite many peptides being unregulated in Australia.

But what’s in them? And are they safe?

Earlier this year, three people in the United States were fined thousands of dollars for their role in providing peptide injections, at an anti-ageing festival in Las Vegas, to two women who later became critically ill. The pharmacy board was unable to determine why they got sick, and what precisely the serums contained.

Our work with colleagues at Steroid QNECT, a hotline where people can seek confidential advice about enhancement drugs, tell us people are already injecting peptides in Australia.

But regulation is not keeping up. And there are still major gaps in the evidence about whether peptides’ anti-ageing claims stack up, and whether they are safe for humans.

What are injectable peptides, and why are they trending?

Peptides are short chains of amino acids – the building blocks of proteins. They act as chemical messengers in the body and play a key role in many processes. These include helping repair skin and calming inflammation.

The body naturally produces peptides. Synthetic peptides are manufactured to mimic or enhance these natural functions.

Certain peptides have clear medical uses. For example, glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs, such as semaglutide, are approved for diabetes and weight management – sold as Ozempic and Wegovy. This is based on strong clinical trial evidence they are effective.

But a growing number of peptides are being marketed for cosmetic and anti-ageing purposes, without approval from Australia’s therapeutic goods regulator.

Peptides such as GHK-Cu, BPC-157 and TB-500 are sold online with claims they can enhance collagen production, accelerate skin repair, reduce wrinkles, and even reverse aspects of biological ageing.

Are these products legal in Australia?

Currently, regulated injectable peptides fall under prescription-only medicine categories. This means they should only be accessed through a qualified health professional for a legitimate medical indication.

Australian regulators have already issued fines to companies for illegally promoting weight-loss injections directly to consumers.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) lists other synthetic peptides not yet approved for human consumption, such as BPC-157, as Schedule 4 poisons.

To get around this, many products circulating online are sold as “research chemicals” labelled “not for human consumption”.

Yet in practice, they are packaged, dosed and marketed in ways that clearly anticipate human use. Online sellers typically require minimal verification of age or identity, and promise rapid shipping and high purity (for example, “99%+ tested”).

This creates a parallel market operating outside clinical oversight and regulatory safeguards. While importing or possessing prescription-only peptides without authority can lead to fines or legal penalties, enforcement is challenging in global, digital markets.

At the same time, injecting appears to be becoming less taboo, particularly in the cosmetic and wellness industry. Most cosmetic injectables (including anti-wrinkle injections and dermal fillers) also involve prescription-only substances. Yet there are many clinics that offer injections with very little oversight from prescribing doctors.

This broader “injectable culture”, with simulataneous increases in steroid use, may be lowering barriers to more experimental practices, including peptide use.

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Read more: Thinking of getting botox or filler? These are the laws for cosmetic injectables

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What does the evidence actually say?

For many peptides promoted for anti-ageing and skin health, high-quality human evidence remains limited.

Claims peptides such as GHK-Cu, BPC-157 and TB-500 can help regenerate and repair tissue and calm inflammation are based on a handful of laboratory studies – in cells or animals, not humans.

For example, there is some limited evidence GHK-Cu could play a role in collagen production, and wound healing in mice. But these findings have not been confirmed in humans.

Similarly, some research suggests BPC-157 can promote new blood cell growth, reduce inflammation and heal tissue in rats.

But human evidence is extremely limited. Only three small studies have looked at BPC-157 and these were not well designed, and lacked a control group to compare the reported effects (such as improvement in knee pain). No large clinical trials exist. So its safety and effectiveness in humans remain uncertain.

A consistent pattern emerges:

• evidence is mostly limited to animal studies

• human studies, where they exist, are small and short-term

• there are no high-quality trials reflecting real-world use, including combinations, higher doses or long-term administration.

So currently, we don’t have enough quality evidence to support the many anti-ageing claims made for peptides.

And there are risks

First, there is the issue of unknown product quality. Unregulated peptides may be mislabelled, contaminated or incorrectly dosed – a problem already documented in adjacent markets, such as counterfeit steroids.

Second, there are biological risks. Peptides that influence growth, repair or hormonal pathways may also stimulate unintended processes. In theory, this could include promoting the growth of existing tumours or disrupting normal endocrine function. This cancer risk is amplified by the high presence of heavy metals in illicit enhancement drug markets.

Third, injecting carries its own risks — including infections, abscesses and tissue damage, particularly when products are self-administered without sterile technique.

At Steroid QNECT, we are already seeing people seeking advice after using peptides they bought online – often unsure what they have taken, how much, or what to expect.

In some cases, dosing far exceeds anything studied in clinical trials.

What needs to change?

We need clearer, more consistent regulation of peptide supply and marketing. But this is unlikely to be enough on its own, given the global and digital reach of peptide supply chains.

A more effective response would also include clear, accessible public health information on the potential benefits and risks of peptide use.

Importantly, responses need to reflect reality: people are already using these substances.

– ref. Injectable peptides are the new anti-ageing trend. But what evidence do we have they’re safe for humans? – https://theconversation.com/injectable-peptides-are-the-new-anti-ageing-trend-but-what-evidence-do-we-have-theyre-safe-for-humans-278878

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/09/injectable-peptides-are-the-new-anti-ageing-trend-but-what-evidence-do-we-have-theyre-safe-for-humans-278878/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kylie Walker, Visiting Fellow, National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science, Australian National University

Australian science policy is in a confused place. The government is negotiating with the European Union to join the Horizon Europe program for funding and collaboration. Australian facilities are crucial to NASA’s Artemis II mission around the Moon.

At the same time, a decision announced over the weekend highlights a lack of vision. A longstanding membership with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) will not be renewed. This will cut Australian astronomers and engineers off from a vital source of data and experience.

Australia is playing a key role in a historic NASA mission right now. The 2026 Australian of the Year is an astronaut and space engineer – Katherine Bennell-Pegg. This year, we finally have a comprehensive report on research and development in Australia, and what needs to improve.

But instead of building a shared scientific vision, the federal government is still focused on funding a patchwork of siloed projects, while pulling out of other initiatives entirely, as the ESO decision shows.

What’s lacking is a bold vision not only for Australian astronomy, but science and research and development more broadly. With the right unifying vision – and investment to back it up – Australia can be ambitious. We can be driven by the vision that space gives us: that we are all in it together on a tiny planet nestled amid the stars.

Losing a window to the universe

As a member of the ESO since 2018, Australian researchers have had access to some of the largest optical telescopes in the world, including the eight-metre Very Large Telescope in Chile.

A 2023 evaluation of Australia’s ESO participation showed it had boosted Australian astronomical skills and knowledge, and enabled millions of dollars in industry collaborations.

Australian astronomers will soon lose this access to some of the world’s most advanced technology. They will also lose access to the complex pathways that scientific collaboration affords Australia. It diminishes our scientific global diplomacy pathway to Europe and globally.

When an established research superhighway like this is closed, it can’t easily be reopened.

The sky is not the limit

The ESO decision arrived while astronauts on NASA’s Artemis II mission make their way around the Moon, travelling further into space than humans ever have before.

One of Australia’s contributions to the mission comes via a team of engineers, technologists and astronomers who designed a laser-based communication system. During the mission, the Quantum Optical Ground Station at the Australian National University has been receiving high-definition video and imagery for distribution around the world.

This team’s existence is deeply connected to Australia’s astronomical instrumentation program, which from 2018 has been centred around the ESO.

Australia has played a role in many historic human ventures into space, right back to the first Moon landing when Neil Armstrong took his historic “small step”.

Australian scientists, engineers and innovators produce excellent research and development. But fundamental scientific research is a non-negotiable foundation for all kinds of innovation.

In the past year, Australian science has seen cuts to critical national infrastructure and research and development agencies. History has shown such research investments are highly productive for the nation.

However, federal budgets increasingly see research in narrowed, siloed terms that miss the big picture. Unless this changes, Australia’s prospects of innovation, economic diversification, enviable lifestyles and health will dwindle.

Australia’s global role

Australian astronomy and engineering stretch back millennia to First Nations peoples. Australia played an important role in the Apollo missions. Research done in Australia led to the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, for which one of us (Brian) was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Physics.

But Australia’s national investment in research and development is falling each year. We’re now well behind our international counterparts. A long, slow erosion in investment has seen Australia slide down the Global Innovation Index rankings, from 12th in 2017 to 22nd today.

Our economic complexity rating – a marker that shows how resilient an economy is overall – is also plummeting. We currently sit in 105th place out of 145 nations, down from 86th in 2019 and 64th in 2003.

Creating an innovation vision

In an unsettled world, it can seem prudent to scrimp and save. It’s sacrificing the future to prop up today’s budget bottom line. But Australia’s productivity is growing at a glacial pace. Recent world events have thrown a spotlight on our lack of resilience to geopolitical shocks.

We can’t counter these forces by shuttering our efforts at the frontiers of science and technology. The only hope is to think big, be bold, and reach for the stars.

– ref. Humanity is heading back to the Moon. Australia isn’t even funding telescopes – https://theconversation.com/humanity-is-heading-back-to-the-moon-australia-isnt-even-funding-telescopes-280136

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/09/humanity-is-heading-back-to-the-moon-australia-isnt-even-funding-telescopes-280136/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Gander, Associate Professor, Business, Murdoch University

Mining is a critical industry for the Australian economy and has the potential to offer secure, well-paid and meaningful careers.

But the evidence from our review of the 29 studies of 40 years of research on women working in the Australian mining sector is clear: gender inequality is built into the structures, cultures and places that define the industry.

Until those are addressed, progress will remain partial and many women will continue to decide that entering or staying in the mining industry is not worth the cost.

This is not a pipeline problem

The latest data from Workplace Gender Equality Agency, released last month, shows mining remains one of the most unequal industries in Australia when it comes to gender and pay.

In addition, under new legislation in effect from April 1 this year, employers with more than 500 staff are now required to commit to action targets to improve the gender pay gap.

Companies that are heavily involved with mining make up four of the top ten biggest companies listed on the ASX: BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue and Newmont. Although their gender pay gaps are smaller than those of the major banks, they remain substantial, ranging from 7.2% to 12.8%.

Across Australia’s mining sector, women remain significantly under-represented, making up only 23% of the total workforce according to the latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency data.

However, this hides the facts that the majority of women in mining work in the lower-paid and feminised clerical and service occupations (69% and 45%, respectively), rather than the higher-paid site-based technical or senior management roles (10% and 25%, respectively).

Gender equity in mining is often framed as a pipeline problem, meaning not enough women are entering the industry, particularly into technical and operational roles.

But this explanation is incomplete, and our review paints a different picture. The issue is not simply who enters mining; it is how mining work is organised, and who that organisation works for.

Who is the ideal mining worker?

Mining work is not neutral. Work is designed and structured around a particular model of the “ideal worker”. This is someone who is continuously available, geographically mobile and able to work long, uninterrupted shifts.

In practice, this means fly-in fly-out (FIFO) arrangements where staff fly from cities and stay on site, or drive-in drive-out (DIDO) where staff live in remote towns but still have to commute into the mine, often several hours each way.

On mine sites, operations run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. So work schedules are often based on people working 12-hour shifts for two weeks, before they can return home for a break.

These conditions are central to how mining operates. They disproportionately disadvantage those with caring responsibilities, or people who are not constantly available. This is one of the key reasons why women’s participation declines over time, even when recruitment improves.

Working in remote sites, living in camps, and being far from towns or cities can amplify both how work is organised (like job design and rosters) and the workplace culture (for example, more dominant or hyper-masculine behaviours).

Skewed gender ratios, limited access to external support networks, and the conditions of camp life can increase risks of exclusion and harassment.

These factors matter because they embed inequality into the everyday experience of work. They shape not only what work looks like, but how it feels to be there.

Hyper-masculine norms

Mining continues to be characterised by hyper-masculine norms that shape how competence, leadership and belonging are understood. These norms privilege traits such as endurance, toughness and emotional stoicism, qualities historically associated with masculine identities.

Women working in these environments frequently report exclusion, social isolation and exposure to sexist behaviour, hostility, harassment and assault. A parliamentary inquiry in 2022 was told, for example:

I had men come in to my camp room and push me on to my bed and kiss me, I was lucky that it stopped there, it didn’t for some girls and guys. I came home to my camp room on some occasions to find men passed out in my bed and others going through my underwear drawer.

These incidents, or everyday micro-aggressions such as “throwaway” comments, build over time. They are linked to lower job satisfaction, poorer mental health, and higher intentions to leave the mining industry.

Promising to make progress

Over the past decade, mining companies have made visible commitments to diversity and inclusion. Gender targets, leadership programs and reporting frameworks are now common across the sector.

Staying in mining requires both resilience and navigating environments that were not designed with women in mind.

This all helps explain why interventions that focus solely on policy or representation often fall short. They do not address the environments in which the work is actually carried out.

Key areas for reform include:

• changing work schedules, so people can keep doing the job in a healthy and manageable way
• allowing flexibility in operational roles, rather than treating it as an exception
• rethinking leadership models that continue to privilege narrow definitions of competence.

It also requires greater accountability for workplace culture, including how work is allocated, how behaviour is managed, and whose contributions are recognised.

– ref. How Australia’s mining sector locks women out of high-paying roles – https://theconversation.com/how-australias-mining-sector-locks-women-out-of-high-paying-roles-279760

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/09/how-australias-mining-sector-locks-women-out-of-high-paying-roles-279760/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daniel T. Blumstein, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los Angeles

The urban monkeys in New Delhi are so bold they’ll steal the lunch right off your plate. If you’ve spent time in New York, you’ve probably seen squirrels try to do the same. Sydney’s white ibises got the nickname “bin chickens” for stealing trash and sandwiches.

This brazen behavior isn’t normal for most species in the countryside, yet it shows up in urban wildlife, and not just in these cities.

Studies show that animals living in urban environments around the world exhibit common sets of behaviors. At the same time, these urban animals are losing traits they would need in the wild. This process of urban animals’ behavior becoming more similar is known as “behavioral homogenization,” and it accompanies the loss of species diversity with urbanization.

We study animals in urban settings to understand how humans can help wildlife thrive in an urbanizing world. In a new study, we explore the causes and the long-term consequences of these behavior changes for urban wildlife.

What makes animals in cities similar?

Cities, despite their local differences, share many of the same features worldwide: They are warmer than the surrounding countryside, noisy, polluted by light and, most importantly, dominated by people.

New York’s squirrels, New Delhi’s monkeys, gulls in coastal cities of the U.K. and other urban wildlife have learned that people are a source of food. And because people typically don’t harm the animals, city-dwelling animals learn not to fear people.

Cities drive evolution as well. Humans and the changes we’ve brought to cities have led to the survival of bolder animals, and those bolder animals pass on their traits to future generations. In genetics, scientists refer to this as the environment “selecting” for those traits.

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It’s not just sandwich-stealing that is more common among city wildlife; urban birds also sound more alike.

Why? Cities are loud and filled with traffic noise, so those who can effectively communicate in that environment are more likely to survive and pass on those traits.

For example, urban birds may sing louder, start singing earlier in the morning or at higher frequencies to avoid getting drowned out by low-frequency traffic noise.

Cities select for smart individuals and species because that’s what it takes to survive.

Animals may behave similarly in cities because they learn from each other how to exploit novel human food sources. For instance, the cockatoos in Sydney have learned to open trash bins. In Toronto, the raccoons are in a race to outwit humans as urban wildlife managers try to design animal-proof trash bins.

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The buildings and bridges in cities become home to bats, birds, and other urban dwellers, at the cost of learning to use more natural nesting sites. Roads and culverts modify how and where animals move.

While rural animals may forage at a variety of places and eat a variety of foods, urban animals may concentrate on garbage bins or rubbish dumps where they know they can find food, but they end up eating a potentially unhealthy diet.

Consequences of similar behaviors

The loss of behavioral diversity is happening everywhere that humans increase their footprint on nature. This is worrisome on several levels.

At the population level, behavioral variation may reflect genetic variation. Genetic variation gives species the ability to respond to future environmental change. For example, for animals that have evolved to breed at a specific time of the year, urban heat islands can select for earlier breeding.

Reducing genetic variation leaves populations less able to respond to future changes. In that sense, having genetic variation resembles a diversified investment portfolio: Spreading risk across a variety of stocks and bonds lowers the risk that a single shock will wipe out everything.

Moreover, as animals become tamer, new conflicts between animals and humans may emerge. For instance, there may be more car crashes, animal bites, property damage and zoonotic disease transmission. Such conflicts cost money and may harm both the animals and humans.

Losing behavioral diversity is also troubling for conservation.

When a species loses behavioral diversity, it loses resilience against future environmental change in the wild, making reintroducing urban animals to the wild harder.

Losing behavioral diversity also risks erasing socially learned, population-specific behaviors, such as local migration routes, foraging techniques, tool-use traditions or vocal dialects.

For example, Australia’s regent honeyeater populations have been shrinking and are critically endangered. The isolation of having fewer of their own species around has disrupted normal song-learning behavior, making it harder for male birds to sing attractive songs that help them find mates and breed successfully.

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Ultimately, behavioral homogenization is making wildlife in cities such as Los Angeles, Lima, Lagos and Lahore behave in similar ways despite living in different environments and having different evolutionary histories.

Many of these behaviors influence survival and reproduction, so understanding this form of diversity loss is important for successful wildlife conservation, as well as future urban planning.

– ref. City animals act in the same brazen ways around the world – https://theconversation.com/city-animals-act-in-the-same-brazen-ways-around-the-world-279977

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/09/city-animals-act-in-the-same-brazen-ways-around-the-world-279977/

COMMENTARY: By Yanis Varoufakis

Having launched an illegal, destructive war that brutally struck the entire planet’s economy (and confirmed once again Europe’s combination of irrelevance and hypocrisy), and after threatening Iran with genocide and “civilisational annihilation,” President Trump ultimately backed down on everything.

Like a Roman Emperor during the Empire’s declining years would declare victory and stage triumphs in Rome following massive defeats of his legions at the hands of Gothic warriors, so now does this modern American Nero struggle to convince us that he “won”.

In reality, Iran now decides which vessels pass through the Strait of Hormuz and, for the first time, charge them tolls for so doing.

The demands of the White House, which Trump had set as prerequisites for stopping the bombings, have bitten the dust.

The surrender of Iran’s enriched uranium, the demand for the destruction of Iran’s missiles, the vain hopes for regime change, the designs on Iranian oil — all of these goals were forgotten.

What has not been forgotten, and will not be forgotten, are the 180 schoolgirls that the US murdered on the first day of their attack by striking their school — along with the thousands of other killed and maimed civilians.

False sense of relief
Lest the world be overtaken by a false sense of relief, it is crucial to brace ourselves for the long-lasting economic repercussions of Trump’s idiotic war.

Make no mistake: the shockwaves of economic hardship caused by the US attack on Iran may wane but it will not be averted.

The wave of soaring prices, the blow to employment, the increase in interest rates and foreclosures will not disappear with this ceasefire.

On the contrary, because of the oligarchic cartels that also see this crisis as an opportunity, it will take political pressure by the many on the very few to reverse the negative consequences of this criminal war, as well as all the various crises that preceded it.

Republished from Yanis Varoufakis’ X feed.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/09/how-trumps-white-house-demands-as-prerequisites-for-stopping-bombings-bit-the-dust/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Australian National University; The University of Western Australia; Victoria University

President Donald Trump’s acceptance of a Pakistani proposal for a two-week ceasefire in the war with Iran brings a sigh of relief to the international community.

Just hours before, many had been alarmed by Trump’s threats to bomb Iran back to “the stone age” and destroy its “civilisation”.

The ceasefire provides a breathing space for hammering out a “definitive agreement concerning long-term peace with Iran, and peace in the Middle East”, according to Trump.

However, the road to a final settlement will be complex and bumpy, though not insurmountable.

Underestimating the enemy

After six weeks of escalating war and rhetoric, starting with joint US-Israel attacks on Iran and the latter’s robust response, the three combatants have not only inflicted serious blows on each other. The region and the world have also suffered from a massive oil, liquefied gas and inflationary crisis as Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz.

This was not something Trump had expected. He initially anticipated the combined US and Israeli military power would rapidly prevail. This would force Tehran, which had suppressed widespread public protests early in the year, to capitulate and thus open the way for favourable regime change.

But the Iranian government proved to be more resilient, entrenched and resourceful than anticipated. The government was also strategic in fighting back by hitting US assets across the Persian Gulf and Israel, as well as closing the strait.

Meanwhile, Trump could not solicit active support from US allies for his joint war endeavours with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Gaza.

The allies had not been consulted. They didn’t consider it to be in their individual national interests to participate in a war contrary to international law and the United Nations Charter.

Costing billions

Further, the United States’ global adversaries, Russia and China – both having strategic cooperation agreements with Iran – vehemently opposed the war. They joined scores of other countries around the world in calling for de-escalation and measures to avoid more economic repercussions.

The conflict widened. Israel unleashed a campaign to occupy southern Lebanon in response to attacks from Iran-aligned Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah.

The costs of the war then soared for all sides. For the US alone, the price tag amounted to at least US$1billion (A$1.4 billion) a day. This added substantially to the federal debt of close to $40 trillion (A$56.6 trillion).

The situation evolved into a race between missiles and interceptors; it would just be a matter of who ran out first.

It was recently reported that Israel was getting low in interceptors and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) faced a shortage of manpower.

Unpopular in the US

On the other hand, despite the US and Israeli decapitation of its leadership, air supremacy and bombardment of thousands of military and non-military targets, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) maintained a sustained retaliatory capability. It managed to fire dozens of advanced missiles and drones on a daily basis against targets in the Gulf and Israel.

More importantly, the war proved increasingly unpopular in the United States. As the public felt the effects of it on the rising cost of living and at the petrol stations, some 61% of citizens opposed the war. Trump’s ratings plummeted in the opinion polls.

In view of these variables, Trump could not possibly stand by his promise of escalating Operation Epic Fury to the level of erasing such a sizeable country as Iran. Iranian cultural and patriotic features, as well as the devotion of the country’s many citizens to Shia Islam, mitigated against outside aggression, as in previous occasions in its history.

Long road ahead

This is not to claim that negotiating and concluding a comprehensive agreement for an enduring peace between the US and Iran will be easy.

But a crucial section of Trump’s acceptance of the ceasefire, which gives us an insight into his thinking, is as follows:

we received a 10 point proposal from Iran (in response to the US 15-point proposal), and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.

The ten points include a secession of hostilities on all fronts, including Lebanon, though Israel has since claimed Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire.

Some of the other key elements are:

• the US must fundamentally commit to guaranteeing non-aggression

• the continuation of Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz

• removal of primary and secondary sanctions on Iran

• and acceptance of Iran’s right that it can enrich uranium for its nuclear program (for peaceful purposes).

It is now incumbent on Trump to pull into line Netanyahu, who has toiled for a long time not only to destroy the Iranian government, but also to reduce the Iranian state as a regional actor.

If this happens and all the parties negotiate in good faith, there is room for optimism. We could potentially see the dawn of a post-war regional order based more on a localised collective security arrangement than on a regional supremacy of one actor over another.

– ref. The US-Israel ceasefire with Iran presses pause on a costly war, but can peace last? – https://theconversation.com/the-us-israel-ceasefire-with-iran-presses-pause-on-a-costly-war-but-can-peace-last-280147

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/the-us-israel-ceasefire-with-iran-presses-pause-on-a-costly-war-but-can-peace-last-280147/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Morrison, Industry Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney

It might feel like a lifetime ago, but it was just last week analysts began talking about fuel rationing in Australia.

This week, that prospect seems less likely. A temporary ceasefire in the Iran war has been announced, even as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heads off to Singapore – a crucial refinery hub – to firm up fuel supplies.

United States President Donald Trump has pledged a two-week ceasefire, while Iran has pledged safe passage for ships through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil is shipped.

Does this mean the fuel crisis is over? Not by half. In its response to US-Israeli bombing, Iran didn’t just block the strait – it targeted the oil and gas infrastructure of its neighbours. Repairs will take months.

Serious fuel shortages are now hitting many nations hard – especially poorer ones such as the Philippines, Pakistan and Thailand.

Australia is in a better position, as it is wealthier and can pay more for fuel. As a major exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and thermal coal, it also has leverage with the Asian nations who refine most of Australia’s liquid fuels.

This will help in the short term. Longer term, the energy vulnerability this crisis has exposed has to be solved by winding down reliance on oil imports.

A ceasefire, not an end

Iran announced the closure of the strait the day the war began, February 28. Over the following 37 days, nations have scrambled to try to find alternate supplies or workarounds to avoid the bottleneck of the Strait of Hormuz.

Even if the ceasefire holds, it won’t magically resolve the oil crisis. Tightness of supply will persist for months. The war has effectively removed about 11 million barrels a day from the market – roughly halving the flow of oil through the strait, according to shipping data.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens as Iran has promised, it won’t mean shipping can instantly return to pre-war levels.

Damage to oil refineries and pipelines in many countries will limit supply, while insurance rates and shipping costs may remain prohibitively high for some time.

Iran’s missiles have done significant damage to infrastructure in major oil and gas exporters such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The crisis has driven prices of refined fuels such as diesel and jet fuel to record heights – well over US$200 a barrel.

How is Australia getting supplies?

Australia imports about 90% of its liquid fuels, largely as petrol and diesel. Some comes as crude oil to be processed at our two remaining refineries.

When Albanese goes to Singapore, he goes not only as a customer but as a major seller of the LNG and coal many regional trading partners rely on. Australia imports most of its fuels from Singaporean and South Korean refineries, but it also exports LNG to Singapore and LNG and thermal coal to Korea.

What Albanese will be focused on is not so much petrol as diesel. Surprisingly, Australia is the world’s single largest importer of diesel, though not the largest consumer.

The fuel is a mainstay for trucks and heavy equipment, due to the combination of high power output and efficiency offered by diesel engines. Farmers also rely heavily on diesel for their machinery and transport. The mining sector accounts for around 35% of Australia’s diesel use through trucks and back-up generators at remote mines.

Compared to petrol users, most diesel users have no alternative. Petrol is mainly used in cars in cities. If petrol prices are too high, car owners could switch to public transport. But truckies and farmers don’t have other options.

The supply crunch isn’t just affecting oil – it’s fertilisers and other oil-derived products as well. For Australian farmers, this is unwelcome, as most fertilisers are imported and local production is low.

Calls for more drilling are misguided

Australia uses about one million barrels of oil a day. Even during its heyday in the 1970s, the local oil industry never came close to that. Australia has huge gas reserves, which is why so many gas companies are active, but very little conventional oil. The Gippsland Basin, one of the richest sources of oil, is now running dry.

Is there more? Yes, but not much. Geoscience Australia estimates our proven commercial reserves are around 229 million barrels of oil. That sounds like a lot, but given how much we burn, that’s about seven months. After that it would all be gone. This is why calls to drill more oil are misguided.

If Australia had commercially viable oil, the oil companies would be here trying to extract it. It’s significant that they’re not. Unconventional oil reserves are likely to be much larger, but the controversial technique of fracking has to be used to access these. Queensland is spruiking its Taroom Trough oil reserves, but these are unproven and would require fracking.

Wilder calls to look at coal to liquids and gas to liquids don’t stack up. Other alternate fuels such as hydrogen and biofuels haven’t panned out commercially on a large scale.

There’s only one realistic alternative to oil: avoiding it altogether. Battery and electric vehicle costs have fallen very sharply in just a few years and keep getting cheaper. That’s why the simplest, quickest solution is to go electric.

As electric vehicles (EVs) surge in popularity, they’re likely to reduce demand for petrol at first, not diesel. That’s because passenger cars tend to run on petrol, and EVs are most viable at this size.

But change is coming for diesel machinery too. Iron ore magnate Twiggy Forrest has invested heavily in heavy duty electric mining machinery, replacing large volumes of diesel. Many miners in China have gone down this route too.

From oversupply to undersupply

It’s easy to forget that before the attacks on Iran, the world was facing a perceived oversupply of oil. China’s demand for refined fuels is falling as it electrifies, while the US has become the world’s top producer.

These concerns about oversupply have gone out the window because so much capacity has been knocked offline. We could be well into the southern winter before we see supplies returning to more comfortable levels.

For many people in Australia and around the world, that likely means more months of fuel price pain.

– ref. Does the Iran ceasefire mean the fuel crisis is over? Not even close – https://theconversation.com/does-the-iran-ceasefire-mean-the-fuel-crisis-is-over-not-even-close-280145

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/does-the-iran-ceasefire-mean-the-fuel-crisis-is-over-not-even-close-280145/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Nationals leader Matt Canavan has urged the embrace of work-from-home opportunities as a way to boost the growth of smaller towns and regions.

In a Wednesday speech calling for an “economic revolution”, Canavan told the National Press Club that today many families needed two jobs to make moving to a regional area viable.

“Professional roles in law, finance and engineering can be done from regional areas,” he said.

He said the public service should lead by example.

The Coalition has had a bumpy road with work-from-home policy. Before the last election, frontbencher (now deputy leader) Jane Hume proposed all Canberra public servants should return to the office, a controversial policy the opposition had to ditch very quickly.

Canavan said when people lived in a smaller town they could afford a bigger house and a backyard – “the kind of home that makes it easier to have children”.

“There is no doubt that delayed home ownership and smaller housing is one reason our birth rate has collapsed,” he said.

Arguing Australia needed an “economic revolution”, Canavan declared “our nation’s leaders remain trapped in the narrow thinking of the old economic rationalist superhighway. Most of our leaders grew up in the era of the Reagan-Thatcher revolution. Like ageing hippies, they desperately want to return to the elixir of their youth by performing more economic Woodstock.

“But our times have changed. A microwaved Milton Friedman is not going to solve our economic woes – and it is certainly not going to calm the rightful rage of the Australian people at their political leaders’ incompetence in trashing the promise of the luckiest country in the world”, Canavan said.

“The chief cheerleader of this economic cul-de-sac remains the prime minister [who] still believes that a few more subsidies for batteries and hydrogen will fix everything”.

Canavan put forward a multi-faceted plan, which he dubbed “a Patriot Agenda for an Australian economic revival”:

• key manufacturing industries should be protected, including by tariffs, against unfair competition.

• Australia’s borders should be closed to mass migration so the “intake is properly calibrated to the infrastructure, services and housing we have”.

• net zero should be scrapped, with investment in all forms of energy to bring lower prices and fuel security.

• a national works program should build dams, roads, rail, ports, and space ports, “to renew our pioneer spirit”.

• new cities should be built “so young Australians can afford a home and access the same services offered in capital cities”.

• a new baby boom should be encouraged “so that our Australian way of life can be passed on to the next generation”.

Canavan’s economic agenda, notably on tariffs, sits uneasily with the more free market policy approach of Opposition leader Angus Taylor.

On tariffs, Canavan said while he didn’t agree with Donald Trump that “tariff” was the most beautiful word in the English language “it’s not a dirty word either”. “A tariff is just a tool that we should use with a more consistent and realistic approach.”

“Other countries are trying to steal our jobs and our industries. We must respond with a more permanent approach to protecting the industries that are crucial to our sovereign capability.”

Canavan said that “just as our open borders to trade has cost Australian jobs, our open borders to people is costing Australians their lifestyles”.

He homed in on student visas.

“We are taking in around 100,000 more students per year than before COVID. I speak to many young people who do not feel welcome on campuses where Australian students are a minority.

“Australian universities should primarily be there to teach Australian students and conduct Australian cutting edge research. The student visa system has become a scam and it must be reined in.”

– ref. Nationals leader Matt Canavan promotes work from home to grow regional areas – https://theconversation.com/nationals-leader-matt-canavan-promotes-work-from-home-to-grow-regional-areas-279203

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/nationals-leader-matt-canavan-promotes-work-from-home-to-grow-regional-areas-279203/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Ball, Professor of Community Health and Wellbeing, The University of Queensland

Another interest rate rise and a spike in fuel prices is placing increasing pressure on household budgets. Many households are also seeing the impact of the war in the Middle East on the price of groceries.

Now the weekly food shop requires more planning, brand swaps and deciding whether to cut back on non-essentials.

So how can you reduce grocery costs without compromising taste and nutrition?

Plan meals around what’s on sale and in season

Food prices fluctuate week to week, so planning meals around what’s low-cost or on special can make a difference to grocery bills.

A simple starting point is to buy fruit and vegetables that are in season. These are typically cheaper because they are more abundant and require less storage and transport. In cooler months, this includes vegetables such as pumpkin, carrots, potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower, along with fruits such as apples and pears.

A practical shift is to “reverse meal plan”. Instead of starting with a recipe, identify what foods are affordable that week and build meals around them. Compare unit prices (per 100 grams or per litre) rather than shelf prices, to identify the best-value options.

Supermarket catalogues, apps or social media accounts such as @Wholesavers and @Supermarket.swap can help identify discounts and compare prices across retailers.

Many staples – including olive oil, cleaning products and pantry items – also follow predictable discount cycles every four to six weeks, making it worthwhile to delay non-urgent purchases.

Shopping habits matter too. Spend 15 minutes before shopping to check the fridge, freezer and pantry, then write a list to limit impulse purchases.

Online grocery shopping may make it easier to track spending and stick to a list, while digital tools can help generate meal ideas using ingredients already at home, such as Woolworths’ online planning tool.

Stretch expensive ingredients and save leftovers

You don’t need to remove meat or dairy entirely to save money. Instead, combine them with lower-cost ingredients.

Mince is a good example: lean beef mince often costs around A$18–20 per kilogram, while dried lentils are closer to $4–6. In practice, this might mean using half mince and half lentils in meals such as spaghetti bolognese, tacos or shepherd’s pie. The flavour and texture remain familiar, but the cost per meal drops and fibre intake increases.

Adding vegetables such as carrots, capsicum and peas can further reduce the amount of meat used. Increase your intake of plant-based foods such as legumes is also associated with lower blood pressure and a reduced risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Cooking habits can further extend savings. Using a “cook once, eat twice” approach – doubling recipes and saving leftovers for lunches or freezing for later – reduces reliance on more expensive convenience foods and can improve diet quality. Soups, stews, curries and pasta sauces are especially suited to batch cooking.

Rethink convenience and reduce waste

Convenience foods consistently cost more per kilogram than their basic equivalents. Pre-sliced meats and cheeses, pre-diced vegetables and marinated products often carry a price premium. Whole chicken breast may cost around $14 per kilogram, for example, while pre-cut strips can exceed $20.

Reducing grocery costs can be as simple as buying foods in their original or minimally processed form. Choose whole vegetables instead of pre-chopped options, or plain meat with a homemade marinade rather than pre-marinated products.

Small swaps also add up. Using concentrated stock instead of liquid cartons lowers the cost per litre, buying yoghurt in bulk reduces the cost per serve, and using a spray bottle for oil can help limit unnecessary use.

Rethink your pantry staples

Some of the most affordable foods are also the longest-lasting. Staples such as lentils, beans, chickpeas, rice, oats and pasta are relatively inexpensive, versatile, and form the basis of many healthy meals. Grains and legumes provide some of the lowest-cost sources of nutrition per serve, making them central for budget-friendly diets.

Buying these items when discounted and storing them for later use can help with food costs over time. Retailers such as Aldi often offer particularly low prices on staples, and buying in bulk, where storage allows, can further reduce costs.

Other long-life options can also reduce costs and waste. Powdered milk is often cheaper than fresh and stores well, while frozen fruit and vegetables are typically less expensive than fresh, are nutritionally comparable (and sometimes superior), and last far longer.

Use rewards programs, but know their limits

Supermarket rewards programs can help some households save, especially for those able to shop consistently and track offers.

While there are valid concerns about loyalty programs, such as pushing shoppers to buy things they don’t need, you can activate bonus point deals online before shopping to earn points on items you’re already purchasing. Programs such as Woolworths Everyday Rewards EXTRA offer double points and a 10% monthly discount for frequent shoppers.

Other strategies include checking discounted products nearing expiry. Harris Farm Markets’ Save Me Stacks often discounts products by up to 50%, while the Friend of the Farm program provides 5% off vegetables and access to weekly specials and “imperfect picks”.

Buying meat directly from farmers and freezing it can also reduce costs, though this requires freezer space and is not accessible to all.

But it’s not just about individual choices

Eating well on a budget isn’t just about individual choices – access to time, transport, cooking facilities and local food environments all shape what households can realistically buy and prepare.

For many lower-income families, healthy diets can be unaffordable. Around 3.5 million Australian households experienced food insecurity in the past year.

While individual households can make small tweaks to their trolleys to save at the checkout, we need broader policy action to reduce the cost of healthy foods and support household incomes.

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Read more: 1 in 8 households don’t have the money to buy enough food

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– ref. Money’s tight but food prices are up. Here’s how to save on your grocery bill – https://theconversation.com/moneys-tight-but-food-prices-are-up-heres-how-to-save-on-your-grocery-bill-279562

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/moneys-tight-but-food-prices-are-up-heres-how-to-save-on-your-grocery-bill-279562/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xanthe Weston, Criminologist, CQUniversity Australia

You have probably never heard the term “crimefluencer”.

These are members of decentralised online crime networks who take crime content and amplify it to build notoriety and status in their online communities.

They also recruit content creators to film themselves or others committing crimes, with the vision shared across social media, forums, or messaging apps.

Late last year, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) set up a taskforce to “identify, disrupt and dismantle those online ecosystems that target Australians”.

So, what exactly is happening, how bad is the problem, and what are some possible solutions?

What is a decentralised online crime network?

A decentralised online crime network is not a single organised crime group, but a loose collection of people and small online communities who are connected through shared interests and platforms.

They don’t have clear leaders or formal membership. Instead, people and sub-groups interact across social media such as TikTok, forums, and messaging apps like Snapchat, often anonymously.

The AFP states members of these networks are “typically young males from English-speaking countries with common beliefs on violent extremism, nihilism, Nazism, satanism and sadism”.

These networks have been responsible for numerous online crimes, including the production of violent extremist material and the exploitation of young people, predominantly young girls. Known as “post and boast” activities, crimes range from joyriding through to serious physical assaults.

The AFP states victims are often “coerced online into performing explicit and violent acts on themselves, siblings, others or their pets”.

The crimefluencers then take this content and remix or amplify it to gain attention, followers, or status online.

States and territories are beginning to recognise the dangers. Laws have been established in Western Australia where crimefluencers could face up to three years in prison for glorifying violent acts, and Queensland has laid charges against more than 200 people under similar laws.

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The online recruitment process

Crimefluencers recruit content creators through gaming platforms such as Roblox as well as messaging apps such as Discord and Telegram. They hunt for targets – often a young, vulnerable child or teenager, or those with mental health conditions – whom they encourage to create content for them to distribute.

The more depraved, the more they have to gain in their online communities. Violence is a form of currency.

Unlike traditional true crime creators – who analyse or retell events after the fact – crimefluencers are participants in the crime cycle itself. They do not just document harm, they incentivise, reward and sometimes orchestrate it.

Young people are easily targeted

Revealing Reality, a consultancy and research agency in the United Kingdom, analysed Roblox, a gaming platform popular among young people, and found:

• adults and children are free to interact with no meaningful age verification

• sexualised environments are accessible to accounts registered to users as young as nine years old

• safety measures can be circumvented with simple workarounds

• private (or relatively private) conversations between strangers of all ages are normalised

• content rating systems fail to accurately reflect the nature of experiences

• there are opportunities for potentially predatory behaviour through private spaces and off-platform communication.

The eSafety Commission is also working to address emerging risks, including to young people on Roblox.

But this is a rapidly changing space with multiple platforms implicated, including TikToK, Snapchat, Discord, Telegram and Kick.

Why young people are vulnerable to manipulation

Young people are particularly susceptible to these dynamics as they are more likely to prioritise social validation over long-term consequences especially in environments where harm is normalised, reinforced and rewarded.

This is because their stage of brain development is primed for reward-seeking and peer approval.

In some cases the same young person coerced into producing harmful content is later encouraged to recruit others, blurring the line between victim and perpetrator in ways that complicate both policing and support responses.

For the young people involved, the consequences are significant. Content can be reshared indefinitely, criminal charges may follow and the digital record of their involvement, whether coerced or not, can shape education, employment and relationships for years to come.

These vulnerabilities are actively exploited by crimefluencers. As a result, effective responses must directly target these mechanisms, rather than focusing solely on individual behaviour.

What is the solution?

To disrupt the reward-seeking, peer validation and coercive dynamics outlined above, a number of interventions are needed.

Firstly, at a platform-level, it’s crucial the visibility of harmful content is downranked, reduced, or removed entirely, as well as hiding the metrics to remove the reward element.

Secondly, the coercive control dynamics the crimefluencers develop need to be interrupted. Users being targeted should have access to a one-click account lockdown, evidence capture, and reporting mechanism.

There should also be silent help options to assist vulnerable young people, including quick exit features and disguised support links.

Thirdly, we need to de-glamorise crimefluencing and instead highlight consequences and show victim impact. Young voices are important here, so peer-led campaigns would be really powerful.

Fourthly, language pattern recognition models could be used to identify grooming-style escalation, similar to child exploitation methods. The AFP is already working on an AI tool to better understand the language used by these networks as crimefluencers often use slang and emojis to communicate.

If we are going to tackle this issue before it gets worse, authorities must focus on identifying and pursuing the amplifiers and organisers, not solely the young people who are often as much a victim as a perpetrator.

– ref. From joyrides to assault, ‘crimefluencer’ networks are coercing young people into breaking the law – https://theconversation.com/from-joyrides-to-assault-crimefluencer-networks-are-coercing-young-people-into-breaking-the-law-280027

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/from-joyrides-to-assault-crimefluencer-networks-are-coercing-young-people-into-breaking-the-law-280027/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor in Urban Planning, The University of Queensland

The current fuel crisis, instigated by the war in the Middle East, has prompted countries to respond in different ways to ensure their fuel supply.

One popular measure has been directing people to work from home to save fuel. Many countries in Asia, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka and most recently, Malaysia, have implemented remote work orders for some workers or four-day work weeks.

The Australian government has shown little appetite to adopt similar measures, despite Energy Minister Chris Bowen referring to remote work as “a sensible thing to do”.

But what does the evidence say about whether government-mandated work from home orders, even if it’s just one day a week, are a good idea? The short answer is a qualified “yes”, but there are lots of factors to consider.

[embedded content]

Weaning people away from cars

This oil crisis is the third since the start of the decade. One of the other two crises was also due to war: the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A silver lining to these crises is that they can help reduce people’s dependency on cars. Urban planners have advocated for reduced reliance on cars for decades, to little avail.

My team’s research in Queensland has repeatedly shown locals are attached to driving and road infrastructure. Under normal circumstances, instances of people voluntarily giving up or reducing car use are few and far between.

Yet, even in this car obsessed culture, cycling rates went up during the pandemic, as did public transport use once fares were permanently reduced to 50 cents.

This shows drastic measures or extreme conditions can break entrenched habits.

But what about working from home? Let’s take a closer look at the evidence. The following draws on findings from a systematic review of the academic literature.

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Read more: Politics aside, new research shows there are good financial reasons to back working from home

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The pros

There are many environmental, social, and economic benefits associated with working from home (WFH). And, many are already used to it and the digital infrastructure is (mostly) in place.

Travel behaviours of people working from home can reduce traffic. This, in turn, can improve fuel combustion efficiency and reduce transport-related pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. From an environmental perspective, remote work is a good policy option for cities and regions struggling with pollution and congestion.

In suburbs with plenty of service and amenities, working from home can lead people to patronise nearby businesses more, rather than shopping or running errands near their workplace or along the commute. People engaging more locally may enhance community wellbeing and public health.

Another benefit of remote work is a potential growth in active travel for non-work activities, such as people walking around their neighbourhood to get lunch. This may lower Medicare expenditures, as walking and cycling are known to promote good health.

In terms of budgets, avoiding long commutes can help people save on car maintenance, workplace parking, tolls and insurance. The time and money formerly wasted sitting in traffic can be used for productive or recreational activities.

Spreading traffic throughout the day rather than concentrating it in peak hours also helps cities “sweat their assets” – that is, make more efficient use of existing road infrastructure.

The cons

Attaining the potential benefits of remote work is not straightforward, partly because current urban patterns were not created for this work style.

Instead, Australian cities are “zoned”, with housing, industrial work, service work, shopping and entertainment segregated into separate and distant locations.

At present, only pricey inner-city areas – such as Sydney’s Darlinghurst, Melbourne’s Fitzroy, and Brisbane’s West End – offer a good mix of land-uses. Maintaining a decent quality of life by being able to easily access what you need nearby while working from home, is largely limited to the privileged.

In more remote suburbs, lifestyle adjustments can offset any gains from working from home. People may use the time saved from commuting for longer, more frequent, and more car-based trips for non-work purposes. The phenomenon of induced demand can also come into play: when traffic flows more smoothly, people may choose to drive instead of staying home, erasing the initial environmental benefits.

Further, if employees move to the outer suburbs in search of cheaper housing when allowed to work from home some days a week, remaining commutes could become longer. CBD-based businesses, such as restaurants and shops, may follow remote workers to the suburbs, potentially increasing private car use.

In the end, this could lead to more pollution and higher infrastructure costs for all transport modes.

Working from home can also add stress for parents and caregivers, who must juggle work and family responsibilities under the same roof.

Finally, if many more people work from home, demand for buses, trams, and trains would likely fall, potentially threatening their financial viability. In a widespread WFH scenario, public transport could be the biggest loser.

The bottom line

A real drop in travel, enough to make a difference to conserve fuel, only happens when most employees work from home at least three days a week.

Policymakers shouldn’t just nudge people to work from home or take public transport. They should require businesses to let staff work remotely if their job doesn’t need face-to-face contact.

Of course that won’t work for everyone, and there are downsides. But with fuel prices forecast to remain high even if the war ended immediately, having more people work remotely would help ease the burden of driving on both the environment and on many people’s wallets.

– ref. Should the government encourage people to work from home to save fuel? – https://theconversation.com/should-the-government-encourage-people-to-work-from-home-to-save-fuel-279749

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/should-the-government-encourage-people-to-work-from-home-to-save-fuel-279749/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Deane, Professor of Trade Law and Taxation, Queensland University of Technology

From July 31, the United States will impose up to 100% tariffs on pharmaceuticals coming into the US. Some Australian-made exports look set to pay that highest rate, while some other countries – including the UK, Japan and the European Union – have negotiated lower rates.

The new US tariffs are not specific to Australian-made products. However, the US pharmaceutical industry has long called for tougher tariffs on Australia because of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), a subsidised scheme that supports cheaper medicines for Australians.

Following the announcement of the new tariffs, Health Minister Mark Butler said Australia’s position hasn’t changed, promising:

this will not impact drug prices for Australian consumers […] There will be no negotiation around the PBS under an Albanese government.

What could these new tariffs mean for affordable medicine in Australia? And is there anything Australia could offer to get a better deal?

How the tariffs will apply

US President Donald Trump first threatened to bring in pharmaceutical tariffs of up to 200% last year.

These sector-specific tariffs are separate from last year’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, which have been ruled unlawful by the US Supreme Court.

The pharmaceutical tariffs have been introduced under section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act, used for other products such as steel and aluminium. These tariffs are legal and can apply indefinitely.

Starting from July 31, the US will:

1. impose a 100% duty on the total value of some import pharmaceuticals
2. but with some exceptions, set to pay only zero, 15% or 20% duties.

Broadly speaking, essential and generic medicines will pay zero tariffs.

Companies can receive a discounted 20% tariff for four years if they offer the US competitive pricing and commit to manufacturing in the US.

Products from trading partners Japan, the EU, South Korea, Switzerland and Liechtenstein will be charged a 15% tariff.

The UK has struck what might appear to be the best deal for zero-tariff access for UK-made medicines to the US for three years. But the UK got that deal by agreeing to pay more for medicines – which some warn could cost the UK’s National Health System more than it saves.

Most Australian exporters won’t pay 100%

The US is Australia’s biggest pharmaceutical export market, worth around A$2.1 billion in 2024.

Most of those exports (87%) are blood plasma products, an essential medicine that’s exempt from the incoming tariffs, mainly from manufacturing giant CSL.

CSL has said it expects most of its products to be exempt from the 100% tariff. Smaller medicines maker Mesoblast manufactures in the US, so is also exempt.

That leaves only a fraction of smaller Australian pharmaceutical makers set to pay the 100% tariff.

The PBS saves Australians hundreds a year

The federal government has promised to try for a better deal. So what concessions might the US ask for?

The US pharmaceutical industry has long pushed for changes to Australia’s PBS, which forces them to negotiate on prices with just one buyer: the Australian government. The industry says the scheme “undermines American competitiveness, jobs and exports”.

But the scheme makes a big difference for Australians needing affordable medicines. No matter the cost of the medicine, under the PBS Australians pay a maximum of A$25 per script (or $7.70 for concession card holders).

In 2023, an average of 13 PBS-funded prescriptions were dispensed per person over the year.

On average, that government funding saved individuals around $641 per person for the year. For people living in lower socioeconomic areas, that personal saving was even greater: $714 per person.

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Read more: Australia’s PBS means consumers pay less for expensive medicines. Here’s how this system works

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What the tariffs mean for prices in Australia and the US

Assuming the Albanese government sticks to its position – keeping the PBS out of negotiations over the pharmaceutical tariffs – medicine prices in Australia should not change after July 31.

In fact, the maximum cost of PBS-listed medicines has actually fallen since the start of 2026.

Instead, the US tariffs are likely to raise the cost of medicines for Americans. Looking at who had paid the price of previous Trump tariffs on imports into the US, Federal Reserve Bank of New York economists recently found “nearly 90% of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on US firms and consumers”.

What could Australia offer for a better deal?

Until now, Australia has done better than many countries with Trump’s tariffs.

It may seem tempting to match the UK’s zero-tariff deal. But on balance, protecting affordable medicines for Australians is worth far more than a deal for a small number of exporters.

However, there could be one avenue for offering to work on the PBS, which could also offer a win for Australians in getting faster access to new medicines.

National industry body Medicines Australia has urged the federal government to streamline how soon drugs that are officially approved are made available under the PBS. In 2016-2021, Medicines Australia says that time blew out to 466 days.

A 2024 government review backed the need to speed up the PBS listing process.

The speed of Australian medicine approvals is only one of the US industry’s complaints about the PBS, so it’s not a major bargaining chip.

But it could be worth offering as a win for US companies exporting to Australia, all while keeping bigger changes to the PBS firmly off the negotiating table.

– ref. Why Australia is right to put affordable medicine ahead of beating US pharmaceutical tariffs – https://theconversation.com/why-australia-is-right-to-put-affordable-medicine-ahead-of-beating-us-pharmaceutical-tariffs-280026

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/why-australia-is-right-to-put-affordable-medicine-ahead-of-beating-us-pharmaceutical-tariffs-280026/

There is a bitter truth that must be spoken before we can talk honestly about what is happening to us now. Michael West Media reports on Australia’s quiet complicity in the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran.

COMMENTARY: By Andrew Brown

When the bombs fell on Gaza, Australia was quiet.

When the hospitals were destroyed, when the aid was blocked, when children were pulled from rubble in pieces, when the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and humanitarian organisations with decades of credibility in conflict zones used words like genocide, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment, Australia was quiet.

Not uniformly. Not entirely. There were protests in every major city, sustained over months, of a size and seriousness this country has not seen since the Iraq War.

There were independent senators who stood in Parliament and said what needed to be said, in plain language, without diplomatic hedging. There were journalists, academics, former diplomats, and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Australians who signed petitions, marched in the streets, and wrote letters that went largely unanswered.

Palestinian-Australian, Muslim-Australian, Arab-Australian communities, and many others with no personal connection to the conflict beyond a functioning conscience, screamed into a political void and were told, in effect, to calm down.

Or apprehended for wearing a t-shirt.

“I’m offended by crocs,” says man apprehended by many police & special ops for wearing “F… Israel” t-shirt

The footage #andrewbrown #legend #auspol pic.twitter.com/fc1p3f911d

— 💧Michael West (@MichaelWestBiz) April 6, 2026

The country, as a political entity, its government, its major institutions, its official voice to the world, was quiet.

The cost of silence
That silence had a cost. Not just a moral cost, though the moral cost is staggering and will take generations to fully reckon with.

A strategic cost. The cost of allowing a logic of unchecked military impunity to establish itself as the operating principle of the US-Israeli alliance. A logic that, once normalised in Gaza, did not stay in Gaza.

It never does.

More than 72,000 people killed so far. More than 171,000 injured. An entire civilian population, in one of the most densely populated places on earth, was systematically starved, displaced, and destroyed.

Journalists were killed in numbers that constitute, by any honest accounting, a deliberate campaign to eliminate witnesses. Paramedics were bombed. UN peacekeepers were struck.

Aid workers from Australia’s own partner organisations were killed in strikes so precise they could not have been accidental.

Australia expressed concern.

Calibrated, diplomatically worded, operationally meaningless concern.

And then, when the same alliance, emboldened by 18 months of zero meaningful consequence, turned its weapons on a sovereign nation-state, on Iran, on February 28 of this year, Australia expressed support. Called it constructive. Offered the American justification back to its own people as sovereign Australian policy.

Warnings ignored
The people warning loudest about Gaza were not merely warning about Palestinians. They were warning about a system. A system in which American military power and Israeli strategic ambition, freed from the constraints of international law and serious allied pushback, would expand. Would find new targets. Would come, eventually, for the stability of every country caught in its orbit.

They were right. And they were called antisemitic for saying so.

Iran did not come from nowhere. The assault on Iran is the direct and logical extension of the impunity normalised in Gaza. If you can destroy a civilian population with no meaningful consequence, you can bomb a sovereign nation.

If the ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu means nothing, then international law means nothing. And if international law means nothing, then the only operating principle is force.

And the consequences of force are distributed not just to the combatants but to every country whose government chose alignment over principle.

Australia chose alignment over the people of Gaza. It chose it again over Iran. And now it is discovering, at the bowser and the checkout and the business bank account, exactly what that choice costs.

The war came home
Here is what makes this moment different from every protest march and every unanswered letter that came before.

The pain is no longer abstract.

When Gaza burned, the average Australian, cocooned by geographic distance, insulated by a media that kept the most confronting images off prime time, reassured by politicians who described it as heartbreaking while doing nothing, could maintain the fiction that this was someone else’s tragedy.

Terrible, certainly. Distant. Manageable. Something that happened over there, to people over there, in a conflict that had been going on forever and would presumably continue

without any particular bearing on the school fees or the mortgage or the quarterly business figures.

That fiction is now dead.

The fuel price spike is not over there. The supply chain disruption is not over there. The investment uncertainty showing up in superannuation statements, in business loans that just got harder to service, in the job that exists today and may not exist in three months.

None of that is over there.

The war came home. Not in body bags. Not in the specific grief of a military family. It came home in the way that imperial adventurism always eventually comes home to the countries that enable it.

Through the economy. Through the slow, grinding, distributed punishment of a population that was never consulted, never warned, and never honestly told what their government’s choices would cost them.

Australia’s complicity
Australia was a participant in Gaza’s destruction. Not with weapons. Not with soldiers. With silence. With diplomatic cover. With the specific, material legitimacy that flows from a liberal democracy declining to formally object. And with the arms adjacent, intelligence and security cooperation that flows through Five Eyes and has never been seriously interrogated in the Australian public domain.

Complicity is not passive.

When you have the power to intervene, to sanction, to condemn, to withdraw diplomatic cover, and you choose not to, you are not a bystander. You are a participant. And participants, eventually, share in the consequences.

The Palestinian people could not make Australia listen with their suffering alone.

Not because Australians are cruel. They are not. But because the suffering was made distant. The media made it complex. The politicians made it delicate. The lobby groups made it professionally dangerous to say in plain language what was plainly happening.

The whole architecture of managed consent did its job with brutal efficiency for 18 months.

But a 40 percent fuel price increase cuts through managed consent, as does a wave of small business closures. And young Australians told to absorb the economic consequences of a war their government endorsed without their knowledge or consent. That cuts through everything.

The people who protested over Gaza, who were dismissed and belittled and accused of antisemitism and told they were being naive about geopolitical complexity, understood something that the political class is only now beginning to grasp: That the world does not offer permanent non-involvement. That the wars you enable reach you. That the impunity you excuse comes back denominated in currencies you understand personally.

Fuel. Food. Jobs. Mortgages. Businesses. Futures.
This is that reckoning. The genocide in Gaza did not wake Australia up, the bill for enabling it will.

And when Australia wakes, fully, clearly, with the focused fury of people who now understand exactly what was done to them, the politicians who called it constructive and the media that told them to blame the Energy Minister are going to find that managed consent has a shelf life.

That shelf life has expired.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/ignoring-genocide-the-bill-for-australias-silence-has-arrived/

ER Report: Here is a summary of significant articles published on EveningReport.nz on April 8, 2026.

Are we ever truly free to make decisions? New study tracks a universal process in the brain
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Claire Fong, PhD Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne Imagine you’re in line at your favourite bakery, deciding whether to have a doughnut or a tart. You weigh them up, the doughnut wins, and you settle on that. By the time you’re at the

Is sitting with your legs crossed actually bad for you?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Pate, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney Most of us were told off at some point for how we sat. “Don’t cross your legs, you’ll ruin your knees.” “You’ll get varicose veins.” “Sit properly.” “Sit up straight.” It belongs to that familiar pile of

‘Someone, everyone, stop them’ – and now Trump has pulled back from the brink
COMMENTARY: By Marilyn Garson, of Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices Vietnam survived Nixon’s madman theory and the world survived the era of mutually assured destruction. Now we face the moment of two super-empowered shitheads. There is nothing nicer to call them. Who will stop two self-obsessed, very old men, already dedicated to tearing down

Spotted a jellyfish bloom recently? Here’s what may have triggered it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa-ann Gershwin, Research Scientist in Marine Biology, University of Tasmania On a calm summer morning in southern Australia, the water can look deceptively clear, until you see thousands of gelatinous shapes washing ashore. In January, thousands of pink lion’s mane jellyfish washed into Port Phillip Bay, prompting

What’s the place of humans in a world redefined by AI? Steve Toltz’s new novel has some ideas
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Seth Robinson, Lecturer, Professional Communications, Public Humanities & Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne The conditions for Russell “Rusty” Wilson’s life were set with the roll of a dice. After his parents announced their divorce, Rusty and his twin sister, Bonnie, were split up in a move

Polls suggest Trump still shielding Labor as right-wing vote drops
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne In my March 30 article about Newspoll and two other polls, I said Donald Trump’s unpopularity was shielding Labor from a backlash over the fuel crisis. The

The government has boxed itself in over fuel saving strategies – but there is a way out
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Welch, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau While the government works to reassure New Zealanders that fuel stocks are stable, the numbers tell an uncomfortable story: the country has about 27 days of onshore cover for petrol and 17 days of

Earthrise to Earthset: how the planet’s climate has changed since the photo that inspired the environmental movement
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Dunstone, Climate Science Fellow, Met Office Hadley Centre A new Earthset image has been captured by the crew of Artemis II, 58 years since the iconic Earthrise photograph taken by the crew of Apollo 8. Over these past six decades, the climate has changed dramatically. “Oh

Swum into a jellyfish bloom recently? Here’s what may have triggered it
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa-ann Gershwin, Research Scientist in Marine Biology, University of Tasmania On a calm summer morning in southern Australia, the water can look deceptively clear, until you see thousands of gelatinous shapes washing ashore. In January, thousands of pink lion’s mane jellyfish washed into Port Phillip Bay, prompting

Keith Rankin Analysis – The Axis Nuclear Option in light of Japan 1945
Analysis by Keith Rankin, 8 April 2026. Based on my reading of the latest upscaling of US rhetoric, one of the military options being considered by the Israeli-American axis is the nuclear option. Refer Trump says a ‘whole civilization will die tonight’ if deal isn’t reached, One News, 8 April 2026. The possibility of Netanyahu

Should clinics prescribe medicinal cannabis that they also supply? We asked 5 experts
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Mintzes, Professor in Pharmaceutical Policy, School of Pharmacy and Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney You can have an online consultation, be prescribed medicinal cannabis, and have it sent directly to your home, in a seamless operation. This one-stop-shop certainly sounds convenient. But not everyone’s happy.

6 things Australia should do to tackle the energy crisis rather than just building bigger fuel reserves
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University The three-page fuel plan the Australian government released last week was very light on detail. So too was Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s address to the nation. This week, Energy Minister Chris Bowen moved to reassure Australians their fuel supply was

Australia’s biggest stock exchange needs tougher competition, or we all risk paying the price
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Helen Bird, Industry Fellow, Corporate Governance & Senior Lecturer, Swinburne Law School, Swinburne University of Technology Almost every Australian has a stake in how well the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) works. Most working adults have superannuation savings invested in companies listed on the ASX, which together are

Ancient Romans were obsessed with a plant said to be contraception and aphrodisiac. Then one day, it went extinct
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thomas J. Derrick, Gale Research Fellow in Ancient Glass and Material Culture, Macquarie University Roman leader Julius Caesar is said to have kept a stock of it in the treasury. Ancient writer Pliny the Elder says Rome’s Emperor Nero owned the last stalk of it. And some

Plagiarised research passed automated tests, and I detected it – but only because it copied my work
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Carolyn Heward, Senior lecturer, Clinical Psychology, James Cook University Earlier this year, I published a paper on the ethics of researching military populations. The core argument was straightforward: the standard rules researchers follow to protect participants – for example, informed consent and voluntary participation – don’t work

Slopaganda wars: how (and why) the US and Iran are flooding the zone with viral AI-generated noise
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Alfano, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Macquarie University In early March, a week after the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, the White House posted a video of real American attacks mixed with clips from popular movies, television series, video games and anime. Iran and its sympathisers responded

Open letter to Peters: We fought fascism. Why are we silent now?
OPEN LETTER: By Nureddin Abdurahman to NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters Minister, You are about to meet US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at a time of real global tension. Moments like this define countries. My great-grandfather fought fascism. In 1935, when fascist Italy invaded my country of birth, Ethiopia, then Abyssinia, Emperor Haile Selassie

Ben Roberts-Smith is accused of 5 war crime murder charges. How did we get here?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Taucher, Lecturer in History, Murdoch University After landing in Sydney airport following a flight from Brisbane, Australia’s most decorated living soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith, was arrested by Australian Federal Police. He’s faced court in New South Wales and been charged with five counts of the war crime

This isn’t journalism – Australia’s Bowen beat-up and the Iran war
The Murdoch press runs cover for an illegal war by blaming the wrong man entirely, instead of informing the public of facts. Michael West Media reports. COMMENTARY: By Andrew Brown Here is a reliable indicator that you are being managed rather than informed. When the story gets complicated, when the real cause of your pain

It’s now easier to get antibiotics for UTIs. But here’s what to do if your symptoms don’t go away
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Iris Lim, Assistant Professor in Biomedical Science, Bond University You wake up with that familiar urgency to go to the toilet and burning when you pee – and no matter how many times you go, that urgency doesn’t let up. You know exactly what it is: a

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/er-report-a-roundup-of-significant-articles-on-eveningreport-nz-for-april-8-2026/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lauren Claire Fong, PhD Candidate in Cognitive Neuroscience, The University of Melbourne

Imagine you’re in line at your favourite bakery, deciding whether to have a doughnut or a tart. You weigh them up, the doughnut wins, and you settle on that.

By the time you’re at the front of the line, however, only tarts are left. So, you buy one.

These two decisions feel completely different. One involves deliberation based on our unique and personal preferences, while the other involves simply recognising and picking the only available option.

But our latest research published in the journal Imaging Neuroscience shows our brains actually make these decisions in surprisingly similar ways.

What exactly is a free choice?

When we make free decisions, we recognise multiple options exist, weigh them up, and commit to one based on something internal: our preferences, values and goals.

Forced decisions are different. There’s only one possible outcome, and our job is simply to identify the option and take it.

Because free decisions feel so closely tied to who we are, neuroscientists have long assumed they rely on different processes in the brain compared to forced decisions. Some brain imaging studies support this, showing different patterns of neural activity distributed across the brain.

However, knowing where in the brain free choices happen tells us little about how they are formed – and whether this process is any different from forced decisions.

How does the brain form a decision?

Decades of research have shown that, to make decisions, our brains gradually gather evidence for each option over time.

Think of it like a judge evaluating the facts of a case. Once enough evidence has been accumulated in favour of one party, a verdict is reached. For some types of decisions, this happens very quickly (over hundreds of milliseconds), making it feel like the choice just popped into your head.

By measuring electrical brain activity, researchers have identified a brain signal that reflects this accumulation of evidence during simple decisions – such as judging whether a traffic light is red or green.

Like a loading bar building to 100%, the signal gradually rises to a particular level before a decision is made. Because the action of neurons in the brain is noisy, this decision-making process also occurs in a noisy fashion: rather than climbing steadily towards one option, the signal fluctuates back and forth between the alternatives.

This partly explains why we aren’t always consistent with our choices – even when our preferences are stable, some days we will go for the tart and others, the doughnut.

This signal has been identified for forced decisions with a clear correct answer. But what about choices that are open-ended – shaped not just by what’s in front of us, but by something internal like preferences or personal goals?

Tracing brain signals of decision formation

To answer this question, we recorded people’s brain activity while they chose between sets of coloured balloons. They viewed either two balloons of different colours to freely choose between, or a single balloon they were forced to pick.

They pressed a button the moment they made their choice, and we tracked how brain activity unfolded in the lead-up to that moment.

For both free and forced decisions, the brain activity unfolded in a very similar way. Like a loading bar, it climbed steadily to the same peak level just before a choice was made. When people decided quickly, the signal increased faster. When they took longer, it rose more slowly.

That’s exactly what you would expect if the brain were tracking and weighing up evidence over time, rather than simply reacting to a decision at the last moment.

Does this mean our free choices aren’t really free?

From this finding, one might assume the brain forms free and forced decisions in the same way, suggesting decision-making in the brain may be more automatic than it feels.

This echoes famous experiments by neuroscientist Benjamin Libet in the 1980s. He and colleagues found brain activity begins ramping up before people are even consciously aware of their intention to act – suggesting the brain has already begun deciding before the person consciously realises they’ve made a choice.

But while the process may be automatic, what the brain is accumulating tells a different story. The evidence it weighs up is drawn entirely from who you are – your preferences, your goals, your experiences. Two people may go through the same neural process and land on the same choice, and yet arrive there for completely different reasons.

So rather than asking whether our choices are truly free, perhaps the better question is what it really means for a choice to be yours. And the next time you find yourself in line at the bakery, know that your brain has already been quietly gathering evidence toward your baked good of choice, and that choice happens a little faster than you realise.

– ref. Are we ever truly free to make decisions? New study tracks a universal process in the brain – https://theconversation.com/are-we-ever-truly-free-to-make-decisions-new-study-tracks-a-universal-process-in-the-brain-279747

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/are-we-ever-truly-free-to-make-decisions-new-study-tracks-a-universal-process-in-the-brain-279747/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Pate, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney

Most of us were told off at some point for how we sat.

“Don’t cross your legs, you’ll ruin your knees.”

“You’ll get varicose veins.”

“Sit properly.”

“Sit up straight.”

It belongs to that familiar pile of health warnings many of us heard as kids, alongside cracking your knuckles or sitting too close to the television. But is crossing your legs actually bad for you?

For most people, the answer is probably no.

There is little evidence sitting with your legs crossed damages your back, wears out your hips or knees, or causes varicose veins.

If anything, the bigger issue for many of us is staying in one position for too long, getting stiff or sore, and then assuming discomfort must mean something is wrong with the body.

Where did the idea come from?

Part of it probably grew out of older ideas about posture.

For a long time, sitting “properly” was treated as a sign of discipline, self-control and good character. Once that kind of thinking takes hold, it is easy for social rules to start sounding like medical facts.

It is also easy (and common) to confuse discomfort with damage. Sitting cross-legged for a while can make you feel stiff, compressed, or ready to move.

But it is usually a cue to change position, not a sign that you are quietly harming your body.

That fits with modern thinking on posture and pain, which has moved away from the idea there is one “perfect” posture.

What about your back?

Crossing your legs is often lumped into the category of “bad posture”, as if it twists the spine into trouble.

But research on posture and back pain has not found one ideal sitting position that protects everyone, or one everyday sitting posture that reliably causes harm.

In one study, physiotherapists from different countries were asked to choose the “best sitting posture”. Their answers varied widely. The researchers concluded that beliefs about ideal sitting posture are shaped by tradition and professional culture as well as evidence.

Posture is still relevant, but your back is strong and adaptable. It is built to tolerate a wide range of positions.

Usually, the bigger problem is being stuck in any one posture for too long, whether that’s cross-legged, bolt upright, or slumped over a laptop.

What about hips and knees?

Another common claim is that crossing your legs will “wear out” your hips or knees.

Again, there is little evidence that this is true.

Your hips and knees cope with much larger forces when you walk up stairs, rise from a chair, run, jump, or carry shopping.

Sitting cross-legged can change joint angles for a short time, but that is a long way from showing it causes arthritis or lasting joint damage.

Studies looking specifically at cross-legged sitting and long-term joint harm are limited, so the evidence is not perfect.

But the evidence we have does not support the old warning.

When clinical guidelines talk about keeping hips and knees healthy, they focus on things such as physical activity, muscle strength, healthy body weight, and managing overall joint load.

They do not focus on avoiding one ordinary sitting habit.

So if crossing your legs feels comfortable, there is little reason to treat it as dangerous.

If it starts to feel awkward or stiff, uncross them.

Does sitting with crossed legs cause varicose veins?

No.

Varicose veins happen when valves inside the veins do not work as well as they should, which can let blood pool and veins enlarge.

Risk is linked more strongly to factors such as age, family history, pregnancy, obesity and some work patterns, including long periods of standing.

Crossing your legs may briefly change blood flow while you are in that position. But that is not the same as causing varicose veins.

The evidence we have does not support crossed-leg sitting as a cause of varicose veins.

Are there times when it does matter?

Sometimes, yes, but usually for specific clinical reasons and often only for a short time.

After some hip replacements, people have traditionally been told to avoid crossing their legs while tissues heal.

But even here, newer research suggests some of these precautions may be more cautious than necessary for many patients, and removing them did not increase early dislocation risk in one trial.

There are also situations where a clinician might suggest avoiding a position for comfort, or because it irritates a sensitive area for a while. That is very different from saying the position is broadly harmful for everyone.

And most of us know the temporary numbness or pins and needles that can come after sitting awkwardly for too long. That usually settles quickly once you move. Again, that is a prompt to change position, not proof of damage.

So what matters?

Movement variety matters more than posture perfection.

The body tends to do well with options. Sit cross-legged if that feels comfortable. Then uncross them. Shift your weight. Lean back. Stand up. Go for a walk.

The healthiest sitting position is often the one you do not hold for the next hour.

Move more, vary your position, and trust that your body is probably a lot less fragile than you were led to believe.

– ref. Is sitting with your legs crossed actually bad for you? – https://theconversation.com/is-sitting-with-your-legs-crossed-actually-bad-for-you-279090

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/is-sitting-with-your-legs-crossed-actually-bad-for-you-279090/

COMMENTARY: By Marilyn Garson, of Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices

Vietnam survived Nixon’s madman theory and the world survived the era of mutually assured destruction. Now we face the moment of two super-empowered shitheads. There is nothing nicer to call them.

Who will stop two self-obsessed, very old men, already dedicated to tearing down humanity? Today Trump openly declares his intention to destroy a civilisation. They are apparently only able to see war personally, Netanyahu as the climax of 40 years of dreaming, and Trump as his arbitrary prerogative.

In lockstep they destroyed Gaza’s homes, places of learning and culture, health and modernity. They murdered civilians with abandon and drew pictures of capitalist castles on the beach — and still they failed, just as their over-armed predecessors have failed from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

People still live, in great need of our action.

The scorched-earth vision of Trump and Netanyahu rolls onward. Now in Iran and again in Lebanon, they make war on civilian homes and infrastructure. They destroy families and livelihoods, places of beauty and culture, the bridges that connect us, the industries that rebuild and the energy that lights the darkness.

They desecrate all of our religions. The list of their crimes grows daily.

These two evil despots are content to erode the world’s supplies of power, fertiliser, manufacturing components. They are oblivious to the lives they imperil in Iran, Lebanon and Palestine — and countless other people who they will kill around the world by hunger and hardship.

Anything to rule, even over a landscape of bones and dust. They will fail but they must not be allowed to play this out.

We are beyond disgust. We are witnessing the end of an order indeed: America’s empire is flailing in its death throes. How many people will Trump take down with it?

Weighed down with dread, we have no words but these: someone, everyone, stop them!

Republished from Sh’ma Koleinu — Alternative Jewish Voices.

Trump may have backed down for now, but he’s shown how unhinged he is by threatening the death of a “whole civilization.”

I’m heading back to DC to try and get answers for the American people. Congress needs to return to the Capitol immediately and vote to end this war. https://t.co/vZLXb0anhq

— Senator Andy Kim (@SenatorAndyKim) April 8, 2026

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/someone-everyone-stop-them-and-now-trump-has-pulled-back-from-the-brink/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa-ann Gershwin, Research Scientist in Marine Biology, University of Tasmania

On a calm summer morning in southern Australia, the water can look deceptively clear, until you see thousands of gelatinous shapes washing ashore.

In January, thousands of pink lion’s mane jellyfish washed into Port Phillip Bay, prompting beach warnings and startling swimmers more accustomed to cold water than the shock of stinging tentacles.

The same month, unusually high numbers of moon jellyfish were reported across southern Tasmanian coastal waters.

If you’re swimming in southern seas and have an encounter with a jellyfish swarm, you may well wonder what led to it. Could a cold spike, a marine heatwave or other changes in the ocean have triggered the bloom?

Are these blooms normal?

Many Australians associate jellyfish with the dangerous stings of northern species such as box jellyfish and Irukandji. But jellyfish aren’t just confined to tropical waters. In southern Australia, species such as lions mane and moon jellyfish are more common, particularly this summer.

In fact, hundreds of species of jellyfish are found in Australian waters, ranging in size from a mere speck to nearly two metres wide. And it’s natural for jellyfish numbers to boom and bust. When conditions are favourable, they can bloom into superabundance. Their millions of mouths can strip every particle of food out of the water, from fish fry to fish eggs and plankton.

That said, there is a clear pattern visible globally. More disturbed marine ecosystems tend to experience larger and more persistent jellyfish blooms.

Jellyfish blooms can act as a visible indicator that something is out of balance in the ocean. For example, when oceans are overfished, polluted or suffer from other environmental degradation, this can trigger highly visible jellyfish blooms. Overfishing can remove predators and competitors, leaving jellyfish to thrive unchecked.

Coastal impacts from urbanisation add further pressure. When rivers dump huge amounts of nitrogen and other nutrients from farms and cities into the seas, this and other forms of pollution can favour jellyfish growth. For oceans affected by several of these issues, jellyfish blooms often grow larger and last longer.

Researchers have found jellyfish are becoming more abundant in many areas. Warmer waters favour jellyfish. But it is too simplistic to say that all jellyfish are are taking over everywhere. Different species respond to different conditions in their ecosystems.

Warmer water is good for jellyfish

As climate change heats up the oceans, many species are struggling to cope. Warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen than cooler water, making life harder for species with higher oxygen demands, like crustaceans and fish.

Jellyfish are highly responsive to their environment. Warmer water gives their metabolism a boost, so longer warm periods or sudden marine heatwaves can create conditions highly favourable for rapid population growth. They grow faster, eat more, reproduce faster and live longer.

Surprisingly, cold matters too. Researchers have found moon jellyfish can also get a boost from cold water. In their polyp stage, young moon jellies attach themselves to rocks or coral. When a cold period is followed by a return to normal temperatures, the polyps get a cue to begin budding off larval jellyfish (a process known as strobilation).

Interestingly, the size of the temperature change – not just whether it is warm or cool – can make jellyfish blooms more intense.

For example, in the eastern Bering Sea off Alaska and in the waters off Peru, long-term monitoring has shown jellyfish numbers closely tracked warming and cooling periods associated with the El Niño climate driver.

Ocean warming can be a threat multiplier, amplifying pressures on marine ecosystems, creating conditions in which jellyfish populations can expand dramatically.

Less oxygen is bad for fish but jellies don’t care

Heavy breathing marine species such as fish struggle to survive in warmer, less oxygenated water. Here, too, jellyfish do well. They can even survive periods in oxygen-free habitats, as they can store oxygen in their jelly.

As I put it in my TEDx Talk, when marine ecosystems face pressures on several fronts, jellyfish are often advantaged – while the predators normally keeping them in check suffer.

What to do if stung

While life-threatening box jellyfish and Irukandji stings have occurred in subtropical and even temperate Australian waters, both types are commoner in the tropics. For this reason, the Australian Resuscitation Council recommends different treatments for stung swimmers in southern and northern waters.

In the tropics, the priority is saving a life. Douse the sting liberally with vinegar to inactivate stinging cells, seek medical care if appropriate and be prepared to commence CPR if necessary.

Outside the tropics, the priority is pain relief. Rinse the sting well with seawater to wash away undischarged stinging cells, then use hot water or ice for the pain. In either case, seek immediate medical care if breathing difficulties or other systemic symptoms develop.

Blooms are beautiful

Many people who marvel at the beauty of jellyfish in an aquarium might shy away from them in the sea. But while it can feel daunting to think about being stung, jellyfish blooms in southern waters more often present a splendid opportunity to see an unusual natural phenomenon.

– ref. Spotted a jellyfish bloom recently? Here’s what may have triggered it – https://theconversation.com/spotted-a-jellyfish-bloom-recently-heres-what-may-have-triggered-it-276866

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/spotted-a-jellyfish-bloom-recently-heres-what-may-have-triggered-it-276866/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Seth Robinson, Lecturer, Professional Communications, Public Humanities & Creative Writing, The University of Melbourne

The conditions for Russell “Rusty” Wilson’s life were set with the roll of a dice. After his parents announced their divorce, Rusty and his twin sister, Bonnie, were split up in a move reminiscent of The Parent Trap: allocated to their respective parents. If they roll one to six, Rusty goes with his mother; seven to twelve, with his father.

Random, yes, but even so, it seems the odds are stacked. You can’t roll a one with two dice.

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Review: A Rising of the Lights – Steve Toltz (Penguin)

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Forty years later, we bear witness to the breakdown of Rusty’s marriage, the obsolescence of his career as he loses his job to an AI system, and a sense of anxiety that seems to permeate his being at a molecular level.

Over the next 300 pages, the question of the dice remains: what in his life is a result of circumstance or chaos – and when have the odds been stacked against him? All the while, Rusty both considers and rejects questions of human connection, and our place in a world rapidly redefined by AI.

Testing the bounds of belief

In his first, Booker shortlisted novel, A Fraction of the Whole, Toltz introduced readers to one family, the Deans, using their voices and perspectives to stretch his novel out over generations. A Rising of the Lights keeps a tighter focus.

We stay with Rusty in his discomfort, though his family and others in his life drive the novel, too, through both their presence and their absence. The spaces they leave seem to define him, as much as the moments when they enter his life.

This is as true for his ex-wife Alison as for his dice-rolling parents, the “Secret Alibi Club” (his high school friends, Edwina, Fergus and Charlie), his eccentric tech evangelist neighbour, Dennis, and his sister Bonnie, whose own life seems to have been lived in rejection of their twinhood.

“It’s hilarious and a little sad, now, that I used to avoid my reflection because of a presence at the edge of mirror. Do you know who that presence was?”
“What? Who?”
“You.”
I imagined my face creeping in at the edge of mirrors — I liked that for myself.

A Rising of the Lights embraces elements of the postmodern and the absurd, forever testing the bounds of belief within the story world. Its patchwork of styles is perfect for the contemporary era, when questions of disconnection and the epidemic of loneliness — exacerbated by our rapidly evolving relationship with technology — give our day-to-day lives a stranger than fiction feel. The idea of robots in aged care homes, for instance, might seem preposterous, but they actually exist.

Rusty’s background as a child psychologist gives him the ability to reflect on and question the status and health of his own consciousness. When his mind-numbing government job is usurped by an AI system named DUPIN, a chance encounter with one of his high school friends sees him take on the role of guidance counsellor to a cohort of high school students eager to be millionaires, but unwilling to work.

Indeed, it seems perfectly plausible that in an era when the very nature of work seems uncertain, the most reasonable thing to do might be to take your pet lobster for a walk.

Bio-hacking and human angst

As meandering and bizarre as this story feels at times, the overarching effect is beautiful. A Rising of the Lights is an incredibly human story. Toltz acknowledges the interconnected nature of the “polycrisis” within his work.

Rusty teeters on the bottom rung of the economic ladder, even as crises of climate and technology threaten to upend those structures. The focus, however, remains on the human angst so many of us feel as we consider the uncertainty of our future.

Rusty’s neighbour, Dennis, sings the praises of bio-hacking, and the integration of man and machine.

Up until now, there’s never been a solution to human loneliness. Up until now, all the known cures for loneliness caused loneliness. It’s one of the pillars of human existence.

Dennis’ ultimate goal is to flee to China, undergo cyborg augmentation and join the “quantum entanglement of minds”. He offers perhaps the most extreme view of the AI advocate, eager to assimilate into the oncoming techno-utopia. Humanists will find his level of acceptance challenging. To Dennis, our assimilation is a foregone conclusion – and he relishes the idea of an end to the individualism and loneliness that have defined his life.

Rusty, however, offers an alternative arc. A Rising of the Lights chronicles his reconnection with the human. He rediscovers the relationships that have defined him and re-establishes the connections that give him meaning. This, perhaps, is the most beautiful part of this novel.

It is easy to identify with the chaos and angst these characters feel in the face of uncertainty. But true solace, it seems, lies in human connection – in acknowledging those faces that lurk at the edge of the mirror.

Ultimately, in a world of macro-crisis, Toltz suggests it is by focusing on the micro — those things within our control — that we might find a sense of agency, and of hope.

– ref. What’s the place of humans in a world redefined by AI? Steve Toltz’s new novel has some ideas – https://theconversation.com/whats-the-place-of-humans-in-a-world-redefined-by-ai-steve-toltzs-new-novel-has-some-ideas-275667

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/whats-the-place-of-humans-in-a-world-redefined-by-ai-steve-toltzs-new-novel-has-some-ideas-275667/

Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne

In my March 30 article about Newspoll and two other polls, I said Donald Trump’s unpopularity was shielding Labor from a backlash over the fuel crisis. The YouGov and Morgan polls imply that’s still the case, with the combined vote for One Nation and the Coalition at 45–45.5% (down one in YouGov and 3.5 in Morgan in the last fortnight).

This article also covers Newspoll aggregate data for January to March and the final lower house results of the March 21 South Australian state election.

YouGov poll

A national YouGov poll for Sky News, conducted March 31 to April 7 from a sample of 1,500, gave Labor 30% of the primary vote (up one since the March 17–24 YouGov poll), One Nation 25% (down two), the Coalition 20% (up one), the Greens 13% (steady), independents 6% (steady) and others 7% (up one).

Respondent preferences gave Labor a 55–45 lead over both the Coalition and One Nation, a one-point gain for Labor against the Coalition and a two-point gain for Labor against One Nation.

Anthony Albanese’s net approval was down three points to -16 (55% dissatisfied, 39% satisfied). Angus Taylor’s net approval was up seven points to -1 (39% dissatisfied, 38% satisfied). Albanese led Taylor by 44–36 as better PM, up from a six-point lead.

By 77–6, respondents thought energy costs would increase rather than decrease in the next 12 months. By 63–6, they thought unemployment would increase. Donald Trump was thought to have handled the Iran war badly by 71%, including “more than half” very badly.

Two Morgan polls

A national Morgan poll, conducted March 23–29 from a sample of 1,562, gave Labor 30% of the primary vote (up three since the March 16–22 Morgan poll), One Nation 23.5% (steady), the Coalition 22.5% (down three), the Greens 13.5% (steady) and all Others 10.5% (steady).

By respondent preferences, Labor led the Coalition by 56.5–43.5, a four-point gain for Labor. By 2025 election preference flows, Labor led by 54.5–45.5, a 3.5-point gain for Labor.

The second Morgan poll, conducted March 30 to April 5 from a sample of 1,411, gave Labor 30.5% of the primary vote (up 0.5), the Coalition 24% (up 1.5), One Nation 21.5% (down two), the Greens 12% (down 1.5) and all Others 12% (up 1.5).

By respondent preferences, Labor led the Coalition by 56–44, a 0.5-point gain for the Coalition. By 2025 election preference flows, Labor led by 53.5–46.5, a one-point gain for the Coalition.

In a Morgan SMS poll, conducted March 26 to April 1 from a sample of 2,514, respondents supported the federal government’s fuel excise cut by 83–17. But by 64–36, they were dissatisfied with the government’s management of the fuel shortage.

Newspoll aggregate data from January to March

The Australian released aggregate data on Monday for the four Newspolls conducted from mid-January to late March, from an overall sample of 4,927.

Compared with the October to November Newspoll aggregate, Labor had 32% of the national primary vote (down four), One Nation 25% (up 11), the Coalition 20% (down five), the Greens 12% (steady) and all Others 11% (down two). No two-party estimates were given.

The Poll Bludger’s data has state and demographic breakdowns. In Queensland, One Nation took the lead with 30% of the primary vote (up 12), with Labor on 27% (down six), the Coalition 23% (down four) and the Greens 11% (up one).

In New South Wales, Labor had 31% (down six), One Nation 27% (up 13), the Coalition 18% (down six) and the Greens 12% (steady). In Victoria, Labor had 32% (down three), the Coalition 22% (down four), One Nation 21% (up ten) and the Greens 14% (down two).

In Western Australia, Labor had 34% (down three), One Nation 27% (up 13), the Coalition 20% (down eight) and the Greens 9% (down three). In SA, Labor had 39% (up one), One Nation 27% (up 12), the Coalition 13% (down 12) and the Greens 12% (up two).

Among those without any tertiary education, One Nation led with 34% (up 14), with Labor at 27% (down three), the Coalition 19% (down seven) and the Greens 12% (down two). Among those with a TAFE education, One Nation had 30% (up 11), Labor 29% (down six), the Coalition 19% (down five) and the Greens 10% (up one). Among the university-educated, Labor had 36% (down five), the Coalition 21% (down five), One Nation 17% (up 11) and the Greens 13% (steady).

Polls of three teal-held seats

The Poll Bludger reported uComms polls of three teal-held seats for the left-wing Australia Institute. The polls were all conducted March 17–19 from samples of 1,040 to 1,190 per seat. Seat polls are unreliable.

In Kooyong, teal Monique Ryan and the Liberals were tied at 50–50 (50.7–49.3 to Ryan at the 2025 election). In Mackellar, teal Sophie Scamps held a 56.7–43.3 lead over the Liberals (55.7–44.3 at the election). In Wentworth, teal Allegra Spender held a 59.4–40.6 lead over the Liberals (58.3–41.7 at the election).

South Australian election final lower house results

At the March 21 South Australian election, Labor won 34 of the 47 lower house seats (up seven since the 2022 election), the Liberals five (down 11), One Nation four (up four) and independents four (steady). In the closest seat of Narungga, One Nation defeated the Liberals by just 58 votes after preferences.

The Poll Bludger’s results maps show Labor won 32 of the 33 seats in Adelaide, missing out only in Bragg. The right needs to do better in Australia’s big cities to win elections.

Statewide primary votes were 37.5% Labor (down 2.5% since the 2022 election), 22.9% One Nation (up 20.3%), 18.9% Liberals (down 16.7%), 10.4% Greens (up 1.3%), 5.5% independents (down 1.9%) and 4.8% others (down 0.4%).

The table below shows the SA polls compared against the election results. “F&H” is Fox & Hedgehog. Bold numbers are where the result was within 1% of the poll. The worst poll was the Resolve experimental AI poll that overstated One Nation and understated Labor. The four other pollsters were much better, with YouGov the best. Newspoll was too high on both Labor and the Greens.

In Finniss, independent Lou Nicholson became the first candidate to win an Australian single-member seat from fourth place on primary votes. Primary votes were 27.2% Liberals, 22.8% One Nation, 18.5% Labor, 18.1% Nicholson, 6.3% Greens and 4.1% for another independent (Lewis).

Election analyst Antony Green said after the exclusion of the Greens and Lewis, the Liberals had 28.7%, Nicholson 25.4%, One Nation 24.3% and Labor 21.6%. On Labor’s exclusion, Nicholson had 40.4%, the Liberals 32.7% and One Nation 26.9%. Over half of One Nation’s preferences went to Nicholson ahead of the Liberals, and Nicholson defeated the Liberals by 55.2–44.8.

In the upper house, 11 of the 22 seats are elected by statewide proportional representation with preferences. A quota for election is one-twelfth of the vote or 8.3%.

With nearly all votes counted for the upper house, Labor has 4.43 quotas, One Nation 2.95, the Liberals 2.10, the Greens 1.22 and Legalise Cannabis 0.29. Labor will probably win the final seat, with Labor and the Greens holding a 12–10 combined majority.

Upper house vote shares were 36.8% Labor (down 0.2% since 2022), 24.6% One Nation (up 20.4%), 17.5% Liberals (down 16.9%), 10.2% Greens (up 1.2%) and 2.4% Legalise Cannabis (up 0.3%). One Nation was seven points ahead of the Liberals in the upper house, compared with four points in the lower house.

– ref. Polls suggest Trump still shielding Labor as right-wing vote drops – https://theconversation.com/polls-suggest-trump-still-shielding-labor-as-right-wing-vote-drops-279665

Evening Report: https://eveningreport.nz/2026/04/08/polls-suggest-trump-still-shielding-labor-as-right-wing-vote-drops-279665/