Nevertheless, polls now consistently show his new centrist Blue and White party on course to win the election, taking 35 seats compared to 30 for Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud.

His main electoral asset seems to be simply that he is not Netanyahu, who has been in power for 10 consecutive years and is now facing criminal corruption charges.

Netanyahu has responded to his mounting legal and political woes by lashing out in all directions, including falsely accusing  Gantz of attending a memorial service for dead Palestinian terrorists.

Much like the US President, Donald Trump, he claims the criminal investigations against him are "a witch hunt" mounted by his political enemies.

Gantz's strategy is to project a statesmanlike calm as the prime minister politically self-immolates. "My government will not be a government of extremists and inciters, but a government for all," he said at a campaign launch.

Yair Lapid, Gantz's running mate and likely foreign minister in a new government, said Netanyahu's slash-and-burn tactics were "irresponsible". "It's tearing the country apart. We need to make sure that Israelis understand that we're a family and need to stay that way," he said.

At the Golan Heights Gantz offered generic tough words. "We will never relinquish the Golan Heights," he said, promising to fight against Iran in Syria while pledging that he would never give the strategic spot back to the Assad regime.

Since rising from political obscurity he has remained vague on major policy issues, like whether he supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and because he has never served in parliament he has no voting record to be judged on.

He spent 38 years in the army, rising from a paratrooper fighting in south Lebanon to become Israel's top military officer, and served loyally under governments of the Right and Left, giving no hints of his own personal politics.

Netanyahu's circle sneers at the idea that the general could become prime minister without serving a day in parliament first. "Let's be a little more humble. Being a general gives you an idea about the military and about security but national leadership is something above that," said Yoav Gallant, a Likud minister who served as a senior general alongside Gantz.

Polls show voters are evenly divided between Gantz and Netanyahu on the question of who would be a better prime minister. That suggests Gantz may be wise to avoid getting into a debate on policy detail and focus instead on his family history, which is a story of the Zionist dream fulfilled.

Both his parents were Holocaust survivors, who went on to found a kibbutz-like collective and send their son to an elite army unit. "My mother weighed 17kg the day she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, and then her son joined the paratroopers," he said.

Telegraph, London

"Fortunately, the emergency department physicians immediately recognised the symptoms of severe tetanus," Judith Guzman-Cottrill, an author of the report and a pediatrics professor at Oregon Health & Science University, told The Washington Post in an email. "Physicians have all read about tetanus, and we have seen pictures of people suffering from tetanus . . . It is profound."

It would be only the start of a downward spiral and lengthy hospital stay for the boy. When he was first admitted to the hospital, he was alert - but couldn't open his mouth, the report said. Physicians sedated and intubated him because the spasms of his diaphragm and larynx were causing breathing problems.

The boy was given an anti-tetanus immunoglobulin for his wound, as well as the DTaP vaccine, which protects against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis. He was also placed in a dark room with ear plugs, which helped reduce the intensity of his spasms. His scalp wound was cleaned by medical professionals.

Still, the arching of the boy's neck and back worsened. His blood pressure shot up, and he became feverish. Doctors inserted a tube in his windpipe so a ventilator could help with his breathing, and treated him with neuromuscular-blocking drugs to reduce his muscle spasms. He would remain on those drugs for more than a month, and in the intensive care unit for a total of 47 days.

By the time he was transferred out of the ICU, the boy needed help walking 20 feet. His tracheal tube was removed on Day 54, the report said. On Day 57, he was transferred from the pediatric hospital to a rehabilitation centre, where he spent two-and-a-half weeks.

In all, the boy's medical charges in the hospital amounted to $811,929 - which did not include the cost of being airlifted to the hospital or of inpatient rehabilitation, according to the CDC. It's unclear from the report who covered his hospital expenses. It took about a month after his rehab for the boy to return to "normal activities" such as running and bicycling, the report added.

"The patient was in the intensive care unit, in critical condition, for over six weeks," Guzman-Cottrill said. "The complex and prolonged care led to the high treatment cost. In contrast, the cost of one DTaP dose is somewhere around $24-$30 a dose, and this illness could have been prevented with five doses of DTaP vaccine."

Notably, physicians counseled the boy's family to bring the child up to date on all of his vaccinations, as well as receive a follow-up dose of the DTaP vaccine.

His family said no.

"Despite extensive review of the risks and benefits of tetanus vaccination by physicians, the family declined the second dose of DTaP and any other recommended immunisations," the CDC report stated.

Tetanus is an infection caused by spores of the Clostridium tetani bacteria in the environment that enter the body through contaminated wounds or new puncture wounds, such as stepping on a nail. Throughout history, the disease was sometimes referred to as "lockjaw" because of the cramping of the jaw muscles that occur with its onset. Other symptoms include stiff neck and abdominal muscles, difficulty swallowing, and painful, involuntary muscle spasms.

In the 1940s, there were about 500 to 600 cases of tetanus reported in the United States annually, according to the nonprofit Immunization Action Coalition. That was also around when both anti-tetanus immunoglobin and the tetanus vaccine became widely used, a practice that has led to a 95 percent decrease in tetanus cases and a 99 percent decrease in tetanus-related deaths since the 1940s, according to the CDC.

The CDC recommends children receive five doses of the DTaP vaccine - at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 15 to 18 months, and 4 to 6 years of age. Booster shots are recommended every 10 years through adulthood.

In many states such as in Oregon, successful vaccination programs meant tetanus had not been seen in children for years - until the 2017 case. Other vaccine-preventable diseases, such as measles, have re-emerged in recent years, in large part because of an anti-vaccination movement and vaccine misinformation.

The World Health Organization has identified "vaccine hesitancy" as one of the top 10 global health threats for 2019.

"The reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines . . . threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases," WHO stated. "Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease - it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year, and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage of vaccinations improved."

The Washington Post

The letter seems to express remorse and confusion over the crimes, which set off a massive search for the missing teen and shook the state's residents for months as they went unsolved.

"I knew when I was caught (which I thought would happen a lot sooner) I wouldn't fight anything," the letter says. "I tried to give [police] everything . . . so they didn't have to interview Jayme. They did anyways and hurt her more for no reason."

The letter claims that the writer planned to plead guilty later this month so her relatives wouldn't have to "worry about a trial." In response to various questions about his motives for carrying out such crimes, the letter writer told Raguse it was "not black and white."

"I can't believe I did this," the letter says. ". . . It was really stupid though looking back. . . . At the time I was really pissed. I didn't 'want' to. . . . The reason I did this is complicated."

On the back of the letter, according to an image posted by KARE 11 News, are large bubble letters: "I'm Sorry Jayme! For everything. I know it doesn't mean much."

A full transcript and images of the letter are on the news station's website.

Patterson has been charged with two counts of intentional homicide and one count each of kidnapping and armed burglary. He is being held at the Polk County Jail on $5 million bail.

The kidnapping and killings were publicised across the country as a desperate search for Jayme unfolded over nearly three months. Only after her rescue would police detail the lengths Patterson had allegedly gone to keep the 13-year-old captive, as The Washington Post reported in January:

"The girl told police that Patterson would have her hide under his twin bed, stacking the area around it with tote bags, laundry bins and weights so that he would be able to hear or see if she moved," The Post report said. "Police said she told them that 'Patterson made it clear that nobody was to know she was there or bad things would happen to her.' Guests had apparently come and gone to his house while she was under the bed, the complaint said.

"And he made her stay under the bed when he left the house, sometimes as long as 12 hours with no food, water or bathroom break, the complaint said," the report said. "He struck her with a hard household object one time when she upset him, threatening that the punishment would be worse if it happened again.

"On January 10, Patterson told her he was going to leave the house for five or six hours, the complaint said, making her crawl under the bed beforehand," according to report. "But after he left, Jayme moved the bins and weights away, put on a pair of his shoes, and walked out toward the road until she found a woman walking her dog. Jeanne Nutter told police that Jayme told her her name during the encounter. 'I don't know where I am,' the disheveled girl told her. 'He killed my parents.' And, 'Please help - I want to go home.' "

In the letter, the writer says he tried to control what Jayme saw on the news about her kidnapping while she was trapped in his cabin.

"I followed it . . . through my phone," the letter says. "If something popped up on TV about it, I would change the channel. . . . Would tell Jayme 'I'm sorry, I can't watch this.' [I don't know] what she knew."

The letter notes that the writer was able to keep his family members from learning Jayme was at the cabin because he kept her hidden on Saturdays, the days his father visited.

"My family respects privacy so no one even went in my room," the letter says.

The letter also accused the police of misrepresentation.

"The cops say I planned this thoroughly, and that I said that," the letter says. "They're really good at twisting your words around, put them in different spots, straight up lie. Little mad about that. Trying to cover up their mistakes I guess. This was mostly on impulse. I don't think like a serial killer."

Fellow Conservative Party lawmaker Phillip Lee said on Saturday he was "deeply concerned" by Javid's handling of the case.

He said it was clear 19-year-old Begum "holds abhorrent views," but called her a child who was a product of British society. Britain had a moral duty to her and to her baby, he said.

When Begum first started speaking to reporters more than three weeks ago, she said the first two children she had given birth to since joining the extremist group had died of malnutrition and other ailments. She said she wanted to come home so she didn't lose another child.

Her predicament sparked a national debate on how the UK should handle Britons who had joined the extremists and now seek to return because IS has lost its territory in Syria and Iraq.

Kirsty McNeill, a director at Save the Children UK, said Britain should "take responsibility for their citizens" in Syria.

"It is possible the death of this baby boy and others could have been avoided," she said.

Javid didn't comment directly on the baby's death. A government spokesman said "the death of any child is tragic" and reiterated the British government's advice that citizens avoid travel to Syria.

AP

The two climbers were last heard from on February 24, when Nardi, an experienced climber with a high profile in Italy, called his wife.

Ballard is the son of famed British climber Alison Hargreaves who became the first woman to climb Mount Everest unaided in 1995 but died later the same year while descending from the summit of Pakistan's K2, the world's second-tallest mountain.

The first successful winter ascent of Nanga Parbat was made in February 2016. A Polish climber died on the mountain in January 2018, but his female French climbing partner was saved by climbers who had been airlifted from K2 to conduct a daring night-time rescue mission.

In June 2017, a Spanish man and an Argentinian were killed in an avalanche while trying to reach the summit.

"When 9000 people's jobs are at stake, it is a public policy problem of the highest order," Butts said. "It was our obligation to exhaustively consider options the law allows."

While no one disputed that it was the attorney-general's decision to make, he said, "it would, however, be Canadians' decision to live with".

Butts, who knows Trudeau from their days at McGill University, faced a difficult task: To change the political narrative around the controversy, rehabilitate the public image of his best friend and former boss, while not disparaging Wilson-Raybould, whose testimony suggested unsavoury political backroom tactics.

With the federal election seven months away, and Trudeau's popularity sinking, Butts' testimony was critical in re-establishing the prime minister's image as a feminist leader committed to an open, "sunny" style.

In the wake of Butts' testimony, Trudeau himself spoke directly about the controversy that has consumed the country for the past month, saying that there had been a breakdown in trust and communication but that he had done nothing wrong.

Bluntly asked by a reporter in the packed national press gallery in Ottawa if he was apologising, he said no — though indirectly.

"In regards to standing up for jobs and defending the integrity of law, I continue to say that there was no inappropriate pressure," he said.

"He did express regret about the breakdown of the relationship," said Andrew McDougall, a lecturer in political science at the University of Toronto. "Whether that was enough is another question.

"We're at the point in this story where both sides have shared their views, so he was trying to just get it behind him," he added. "Unless there's more to come, it's up to Canadians to decide who is telling the truth."

Although in some ways the accusations seem mild — no money changed hands and no laws appear to have been broken — the political wreckage from the perception of backroom dealing by the Trudeau government has been huge.

The picture Butts and Trudeau painted differed starkly from the one Wilson-Raybould depicted in testimony to the committee a week ago - that she had been hounded for over four months with "inappropriate pressure" and "veiled threats" to avoid a criminal conviction of the Canadian construction giant SNC-Lavalin, by letting the company pay a multimillion-dollar fine instead.

The belief, Butts said, was that a criminal conviction would have imperilled Canadian jobs by barring the company from doing government business for a decade.

Many believed Wilson-Raybould paid a heavy price for her refusal to comply - demoted to a lesser cabinet position at veterans' affairs. She abruptly resigned last month.

But Butts portrayed the situation as ordinary government operations.

He denied that staffers pressured Wilson-Raybould, saying they merely advised her to seek independent legal advice on how to apply a new law that would allow the fine.

He also denied that the justice minister had been punished, saying her new assignment was part of an ordinary cabinet reshuffle.

Over more than 2½ hours of testimony and questions, Butts kept his voice low and his tone muted and cordial. He presented himself not as the throne of political power, but the son of a coal miner who knew the price of shuttered plants and lost jobs.

His tie was askew and he wore a coal miner's pin in his lapel. He repeatedly called Wilson-Raybould a "valued colleague" and a friend.

"Gerald Butts' testimony casts the SNC-Lavalin issue in a very different light, and will likely alter Canadians' perception," said Myer Siemiatycki, a politics professor at Ryerson University in Toronto.

Others disagreed. "We need to hear more, from more people involved," said Maureen Mancuso, a political science professor at the University of Guelph.

At the centre of the crisis, which began a month ago, is SNC-Lavalin, charged in 2015 with bribing Libyan officials during the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi and defrauding the Libyan government.

It was Wilson-Raybould's job to either allow the prosecution to continue, or apply a new criminal law allowing the company to pay a large fine, as companies can do in similar arrangements in Britain and the United States.

In her testimony, which lasted almost four hours, she said she felt it was improper for politics to influence the case.

She described 10 meetings, 10 calls and several emails in which she had been asked to order prosecutors to use the new law to cut a deal with the company.

But Butts said that the number of interactions was minimal, compared with the 100 meetings he had attended to debate the government's purchase of the contested Trans Mountain pipeline or meetings on the NAFTA agreement.

"This, to me, begs the entire question of what constitutes pressure," Butts said. "According to the former attorney-general, 11 people made contact with her office over four months. That's two meetings and two phone calls per month."

Butts took pains throughout his testimony not to criticise Wilson-Raybould, or pick apart her version of events.

But he did cast a dinner they had last December in a very different light. She remembered having told him she wanted "everyone to stop talking to me about SNC as I had made up my mind". He said he recalled no such statement.

"There was nothing remotely negative about the exchange from my perspective," Butts said. "In fact, I walked away from dinner thinking it was the best discussion we had had in a while."

A couple of hours after the meal, they exchanged friendly text messages, which he read aloud, that bore no residue of conflict. Instead, Wilson-Raybould appeared to thank him and say "alo" to the prime minister.

In a statement, Wilson-Raybould did not directly comment on Butts' testimony, but expressed willingness to again appear before the committee.

In the end, SNC-Lavalin's case is proceeding as a criminal prosecution. But in January, Wilson-Raybould was moved from justice to the less prestigious post of veterans' affairs.

"The January cabinet shuffle had absolutely nothing to do with the SNC-Lavalin," Butts told the justice committee, adding, however, that his relationship with Wilson-Raybould had deteriorated significantly by then.

The reshuffle was sparked by another cabinet minister's departure, he said. Wilson-Raybould, a lawyer and a former Indigenous leader in British Columbia, was offered the Indigenous Affairs portfolio.

"Then Minister Wilson-Raybould did something I didn't expect," Butts said. "I had never seen anyone do it before, in many shuffles, over many years. The former attorney-general turned down a cabinet portfolio."

Butts said Wilson-Raybould explained that she had "spent her life opposed to the Indian Act and couldn't be in charge of the programs administered under its authority."

While Wilson-Raybould wanted to remain at justice, her "dream job", Butts said he had advised Trudeau that allowing that would set a bad precedent, and the only other post Trudeau could offer her was veterans' affairs.

"Cabinet invitations are not the product of shared decision-making," he said. "It is the prime minister's decision to make and his alone to make."

Butts resigned two weeks ago out of what he called loyalty to the prime minister.

"If I stayed on, his actions or inactions toward me could have been used to accuse him of playing favourites, that he was choosing his best friend over a minister," he said. "I could not allow our friendship to be held against him."

Butts' final words to the committee seemed like a farewell note. He thanked members for their service and friendship. The question that remains is whether his sacrifice worked.

The New York Times

Jane Philpott, another senior member of team Trudeau, resigned last Monday. Gerald Butts, a top Trudeau aide, resigned last week, and he delivered testimony on Wednesday denying he inappropriately pressured Wilson-Raybould.

Butts, who resigned as Trudeau's principal private secretary on February 18, said he had had one short conversation on December 5 with Wilson-Raybould about SNC-Lavalin."I am firmly convinced that nothing happened here beyond the normal operations of government," Butts told the Canadian House of Commons justice committee.

At a press conference on Thursday, Trudeau denied interfering in Canada's judicial system, and offered no apology, asserting only that lessons had been learned, Reuters reported. "There was never any inappropriate pressure," Trudeau said. "As we look back over the past weeks, there are many lessons to be learned and many things we would have liked to have done differently," he said, adding he should have been aware Wilson-Raybould was unhappy.

The whole story is particularly scandalous because Trudeau, elected in 2015, was a media darling for years, perceived as a champion of women and Indigenous rights. Though this is arguably the first time Trudeau's golden boy status has been tarnished, the shine had faded a few times before. Below, a look at Trudeau's previous - albeit far lower stakes - scandals.

The time Trudeau explained quantum computing

In 2016, Trudeau was at a news conference at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario. A reporter half-jokingly asked the prime minister to explain quantum computing. He did. The moment went viral. It then turned out that, earlier that day, he said that he'd hoped someone would ask him about quantum computing. It was staged.

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The time Trudeau broke an ethics law

In December 2017, Canada's ethics commissioner ruled that Trudeau had violated ethics laws with two all-expenses-paid trips to the Bahamas. The island they visited was owned by the Aga Khan, spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims (and a billionaire). Trudeau and his family took an undisclosed trip to the island at the end of 2016, and his wife took another in March of that same year.

Trudeau tried to say that taking trips on a private helicopter to the island wasn't a violation of the Conflict of Interest Act because he and the Aga Khan were friends, and public officeholders can accept gifts from friends. The ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson, wasn't buying it; Trudeau and the Aga Khan had spoken once in 30 years before Trudeau became Liberal Party leader. Her report said Trudeau violated four sections of the act - the first time a sitting prime minister had done so since it became law in 2006.

The time Trudeau told a woman to say "peoplekind", not "mankind"

"Maternal love is the love that's going to change the future of mankind," said a woman asking about laws on the charitable status of religious organisations at a February 2018 event.

"We like to say 'peoplekind,' not necessarily 'mankind,' because it's more inclusive," Trudeau replied.

People had a field day. Trudeau and his political correctness had gone too far this time! Trudeau corrected a woman! Fox News was on the case! Trudeau later apologised and said he made a "dumb joke".

The time Trudeau went to India

Going to India is not, in and of itself, scandalous. But Trudeau made a few missteps when he went there in February 2018 (a big month for Trudeau scandals).

First, there were the Trudeau family outfits, which were made fun of by locals, who said the Trudeau clan was playing "fancy dress".

Then, there was the fact that a Sikh man convicted of attempted murder of an Indian politician was invited to dine with Trudeau in New Delhi (the invitation was rescinded, but the man, Jaspal Atwal, was also seen with Trudeau's wife at a reception in Mumbai). A security report found "gaps" in the process of vetting events. And the whole thing cost more than the government initially disclosed.

The time Trudeau addressed groping allegations

Last northern summer, a reporter asked Trudeau to address allegations that he'd groped a woman at a music festival 18 years before. Trudeau said that he "did not act inappropriately" but that he apologised to the woman "in the moment" and said: "I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced this differently."

The Washington Post

The man held a gun to the side of Wilson's head and pulled the trigger. In that split second, Wilson turned his head and the bullet, miraculously, lodged in the back of his head. The man kept firing, hitting Wilson in the throat, stomach and ribs, until an elderly neighbour on her balcony yelled, "stop shooting that boy, you gonna kill him".

"In the ambulance, I could see the blood pressure monitor falling. I could feel air coming in my jaw. I was just so tired, I wanted to close my eyes but the paramedic said 'hey, stay with us', so I prayed with my eyes open," he says.

The 2015 shooting was a horrific case of mistaken identity. The day before, Milton Bowden, 29, had caught his wife in that apartment block in bed with another man. Wilson drove the same car, had the same skin colour and was wearing the same fedora-style hat as that man.

The shooting left the father-of-two with unfathomable injuries but his physical and mental recovery was only part of the battle he faced. The financial woes were yet to come.

As gun crime and healthcare costs continue an upward march in the United States, the two are intersecting with particular brutality for a vast and increasing number of Americans.

There were 39,773 gun fatalities in the US in 2017, the highest in 20 years, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (That's 12 per 100,000 people, compared to Australia's one per 100,000.) Two-thirds were suicides.

About 705,000 people arrive alive at emergency departments with firearm-related injuries each year, the vast majority from assaults and unintentional shootings. For those that go on to receive inpatient care, the average cost of their stay is $US95,887 ($134,000), a study by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published in Health Affairs in 2017, found.

Shootings disproportionately affect young, poorer males, the study found, meaning victims are more likely to be uninsured and possibly go on to incur crippling debts.

About 29 million Americans are uninsured. More than 86 per cent have insurance, but even that may not be enough, as Wilson came to find out. Big deductibles, surprise bills and restrictive insurance networks are the norm.

"You’re making a choice - 'do I get this surgery or do I let my kids go on this class trip?'" he says. "That's not a choice you should have to be making."

Tip of the iceberg

The $US2.8 billion in annual hospital charges for gun-related injuries is the tip of the iceberg, says Johns Hopkins Hospital's director of emergency general surgery, Dr Joseph Sakran, who co-authored the study. It doesn't account for lost work and outpatient care such as rehabilitation or therapy.

"The other difficult thing about accounting for [the true cost] is the fact that there’s essentially been a limitation on research," he says.

A 1996 provision inserted into a funding bill by Republican  congressman Jay Dickey mandated that no funds provided to the CDC could be used to "advocate or promote gun control". Congress redirected $US2.6 million from the agency's budget, the exact amount allocated for firearms research the year before, for traumatic brain injury research.

Although then president Barack Obama directed the CDC to research gun violence in 2013, the Dickey Amendment remains in law and no funding has been re-appropriated by Congress. It has had a chilling effect on researchers.

Sakran, who was shot in the throat as a teenager in Baltimore, has mobilised a coalition of doctors in support of universal background checks for potential gun buyers and limiting availability of guns to people with criminal records or a history of violence.

"It's such a polarised topic and it doesn't need to be because the reality is Americans have more in common than what divides us," he says. "Nearly 97 per cent of Americans agree on universal background checks for all firearms [according to a 2018 Quinnipiac University poll]. The problem is that elected officials stand at a divide on a lot of these aspects for, honestly, not a lot of good reasons."

Gun reform and medical costs are likely to become hot-button issues in the 2020 election, with several Democratic candidates promising true universal healthcare or "Medicare for all", an issue that has remained on the political fringes until now. (About 20 per cent of Americans have public insurance like Medicare or Medicaid, which cover seniors and low-income earners). But both issues have powerful enemies: the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries, and the National Rifle Association, respectively.

"For the first time in a generation, the realisation of a right to healthcare ... is on the horizon," Adam Gaffney, a Harvard Medical School instructor and secretary of Physicians for a National Health Program, wrote in a recent op-ed. "But achieving it requires not repeating the mistakes of history. It means somehow countering a staggeringly rich corporate opposition while at the same time preserving the essence ... of the vision. It is a formidable task, but one that has never seemed so winnable."

Recovering in the spotlight

For Patience Carter, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016, intense publicity surrounding the event was a double-edged sword.

She was attacked by conspiracy theorists who found the aspiring actress and singer's online portfolios and accused her of being a crisis actor in a hoax shooting.

But, because the incident was worldwide news, the hospital agreed to cover all medical bills. "I would've had absolutely no way of paying for it, I don't come from a stable home, there would be no way for me to even scratch together a tenth of those bills," she says. "I was looking at the bills flooding my house, like $20,000 for surgery. All these expenses for something I didn't ask for."

Carter, then a 20-year-old college student, was on holiday in Orlando with her best friend Tiara and Tiara's cousin Akyra. As the nightclub was being showered with bullets, Carter and Akyra ran outside but, after realising Tiara was still inside, they ran back in. The women huddled in a bathroom with about 20 others until they heard gunman Omar Mateen's footsteps and he started blasting the bathroom too. Akyra was among 49 people killed.

Carter was shot multiple times in both legs and had a painful recovery, learning to walk again and spending almost a year on crutches and in physical therapy.

"I was going through a lot emotionally," says Carter, who has since written a book, Survive Then Live, and begun work as an outreach director for the Gun Violence Survivors Foundation.

"I felt a lot of guilt about my friend not making it, I was trying to process what I'd gone through, but the biggest toll was seeing the conspiracy theorists attacking me. I was so weak and broken down emotionally," she says.

Wilson's recovery was long and painful too. He woke from a three-day coma to find he couldn't talk or write. His jaw and leg had to be reconstructed.

In a eerie experience he can't explain, he heard a voice on three consecutive nights in hospital saying, "forgive him". Bowden, as Wilson came to learn, had apparently realised he'd shot the wrong person and fled. As police surrounded him on a nearby highway, he suicided. In his car was a note indicating he planned to kill himself and his children.

"I just had this moment of clarity where I didn’t have any other choice but to forgive him," Wilson says. "After that, everything changed."

The next morning his blood pressure halved and a tracheostomy tube in his throat came out. He could eat and talk.

But as his condition improved, his insurance company began pushing back on bills, questioning if they were necessary. Two years on, symptoms of PTSD have surfaced. He has foregone facial reconstruction surgeries and physical therapy. A bullet remains lodged in his brain and he suffers migraines and mind blanks.

Most of the estimated $US100,000 spent on surgery has been reimbursed by a state-run victims' assistance agency, however he and his wife have lost their credit rating, which is crucial for securing loans and rental leases.

His wife needed a "care" credit card - a card for medical expenses that many patients use - and has racked up $US27,000 just to keep the family fed and housed.

"I want people to know total devastation is happening, especially when the breadwinner gets shot," says Wilson, who has started the 524 Foundation to help victims with mounting bills. "The economic toll, the mental toll, the physical toll, all that together is too much. I’m in a hole - in the double-digit thousands - but I’m not worried."

Although he is sometimes frustrated and angry, he has taken a different approach to recovery. "I've come to realise forgiveness is a journey, not a destination. I've forgiven Milton 137 times by now and I had to forgive him two days ago when I blacked out on something and started thinking, 'I wouldn't have this problem if I wasn't shot'," he says. "I'm going to live the rest of my life forgiving him."

At the last possible moment, the Turkish government had rejected our application to cross into Syria across the southern border via the "shield zone".

"It's not conducive at this time," the Turkish authorities told us. Too dangerous, we presumed. Weeks of planning flew out the window.

But the Middle East is riddled with borders, and there's almost always a Plan B.

So we turned our sights to Syria's border with Iraq. We penned a new plan and revised our budget. The boss agreed to the change of itinerary and the cost. The HR department approved our safety plan to drive west from the Iraqi border across Syria to the recently liberated former IS stronghold of Raqqa, and then to the camps in the north.

But time and money were both running short. We needed the Iraqi permission within days, or we'd miss our flights home. Extending was not an option.

The so-called "official stamp" seemed like a small thing, but it was a big problem. I reckon the Sydney Morning Herald had last had one in about 1964.

I called our Iraqi fixer.

"We don't have a stamp!" I pleaded.

"Well it's a problem because they need a stamp," he replied. "Stamps are really sensitive things in this area."

He asked me to send an official letter authorising him to get one made. I conjured the letter on a spare piece of letterhead in Geraghty's bag, and sent it off.

Our fixer sought advice. Unfortunately, an official stamp would take at least a week for him to make.

The best fixers, however, are blessed with great doggedness.

"I could make you a soft copy," he volunteered.

Not inquiring too closely about what that meant, I agreed. A couple of days later, the Sydney Morning Herald's official "stamp" arrived in my inbox. It was a confection derived from some piece of software - no ink required.

Its design elements are unique. The tiny 2009 under the SMH does not refer so much to the year of founding of the newspaper, but the postcode of its Sydney office. The sun symbols were an embellishment of our man's artistic imagination. And the capitalisation of the rest of the address is, well, idiosyncratic.

But it worked.

I wrote another letter to the border authorities, affixed the "stamp", printed out the document at the hotel, then scanned it again and sent it. By this stage we were in Iraq, talking to refugees in camps there.

Permission to cross the Syrian border finally arrived one Thursday morning in late October.

"I hope you are doing well, I am writing to inform you that you and Ms Kate have the permission to cross border," the email said.

Three-and-a-half hours after the email arrived, the border closed for the weekend. But the border was a four-hour drive from our hotel. We had missed our window by about 30 minutes.

Syria was out of reach. On such things do the lives of foreign correspondents sometimes turn.

The first order of business when we got home was to procure a new, official, genuine stamp. This one has the newspaper's correct establishment date, but is regrettably devoid of sun symbols.

Even so, next time, we hope there will be nothing to stand in my way.

The prime minister is arguably not just Canada's most feminist leader, but also one of the world's must public proponents of gender equality.

He appointed the country's first gender-balanced Cabinet and passed its first gender-equality budget. He increased international aid directed specifically at women, introduced policies to protect women from violence and sexual harassment at work and at home, and unlocked funding for grassroots feminist organisations across the country.

Until recently, it proved a winning strategy. The women's vote carried Trudeau's Liberal Party to power in 2015, and while male support has waned, Canadian women have largely stuck with him. But the glow is fading fast.

As the prime minister admitted on Thursday, it's been "a tough few weeks".

The trouble started when Jody Wilson-Raybould abruptly resigned from the Cabinetafter a news report accused Trudeau's team of pressuring her to negotiate a settlement in a corruption case against a large Canadian company, rather than pursuing a criminal penalty.

Compared with political scandals around the world, the accusations seemed tame.

But with just seven months until the next national election, they struck at the core of Trudeau's image as a feminist politician committed to doing politics in a new, clean way.

The loss of Wilson-Raybould, who had been reassigned to head veterans affairs, was particularly bruising. She is not just a woman, but also an indigenous leader who embodied Trudeau's often-stated commitment to correcting the country's colonial wrongs against its indigenous population.

"He's all puff, no solid," said Priscilla Settee, a professor of both indigenous studies and women and gender studies at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

"He is not used to a strong, indigenous woman being defiant to his power," she added. "As an indigenous woman, I know that behaviour."

Last week, in testimony before a parliamentary committee, Wilson-Raybould broke her silence and explained her reasons for resigning — that she felt hounded by the prime minister and his aides to change her decision on the case in an inappropriate way, which she felt would bend the law.

Less than a week later, a second female minister quit Trudeau's Cabinet. The minister, Jane Philpott, who is also a medical doctor, said in her resignation letter that it was a matter of "acting on one's principles".

On Thursday, Trudeau finally told his side. In a rare morning news conference, he repeated that he had done nothing wrong and that at its basis, the problem reflected a breakdown of trust and communication he intended to learn from. He offered no apology.

In his remarks, Trudeau described his leadership as one of collaboration, listening and learning together — a classic feminist approach to power.

"There's one theory that the most effective leaders are adversarial, and tough almost to a fault," he said. "That's not what I believe."

He made a point of saying he'd be celebrating International Women's Day with "incredible young leaders."

"I plan to listen and learn from their lived experiences as we talk about how we can work together to deliver true gender equality in this country and around the world," he said.

For many, it was not enough to erase the image of a group of mostly men ganging up on a woman in order to get her to bend her morals.

Add to that the whispers after Wilson-Raybould's resignation that painted her as difficult, self-centred and untrustworthy — and the characterisation by the country's male finance minister that Philpott's was an act of friendship.

"Philpott is an incredibly accomplished and strong Cabinet minister, and her decision to step down is being reduced to simply being the actions of a supportive friend, falling into sexist tropes," said Shannon Sampert, a columnist for The Winnipeg Free Press and an associate professor in political science at the University of Winnipeg.

She added: "Some feminist prime minister. Too much mansplaining."

Until a month ago, few feminists openly questioned Trudeau's sincerity to the cause.

The Canadian branch of international development agency Oxfam gave his government a positive rating in its third annual "feminist scorecard," saying that its efforts "have undoubtedly started to pay off" and that it had offered "many wins for feminists to celebrate."

While the weekly poll by Canadian firm Nanos Research showed the party's popularity had fluctuated among female voters, it still was strong at 44 percent in early January. Since then, it has dropped so much, it could cost Trudeau the election next year.

The question will be whether Trudeau can regain his reputation by the election, and whether voters think he's a worse choice than his competition.

Many feminists in Canada bitterly recall the last government under Stephen Harper, a Conservative, which scrapped a national child-care plan, shut down federal Status of Women offices across the country and proposed protecting girls with a national hotline to report "barbaric cultural practices".

The New York Times