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Sydney To Lift 106-Day Lockdown As Vaccination Rate Hits 70%

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Sydney To Lift 106-Day Lockdown As Vaccination Rate Hits 70%" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/d58khqp_sydney-coronavirus-lockdown-reuters_625x300_07_October_21.jpg" title="Sydney To Lift 106-Day Lockdown As Vaccination Rate Hits 70%" /></div>
Australia has been spared the worst of the pandemic -- recording 1,379 deaths.
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Sydney, Australia:
Australia's largest city will emerge from a 106-day lockdown on Monday, as Sydney authorities confirmed coronavirus vaccination targets had been met.
Stay-at-home orders will be lifted for the Harbour City's five-million-plus people now that 70 percent of state residents over 16 have been double jabbed.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is now very, very close," Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday, hailing the reopening announcement.
From Monday, pubs, restaurants and shops will throw open their shutters and welcome back the fully vaccinated.
Five-kilometre travel restrictions will also be lifted, although state and international borders will remain closed for now.
The reopening -- described by many as "freedom day" -- is both "exciting" and "nerve-racking" according to Alyce Murphy, general manager of The Carrington, a Sydney pub now hustling to get staff and deliveries back on site.
"Obviously going from doing nothing for months, and then the prospect of having a few weeks to get the venue there was a little bit daunting," she said.
Murphy tried to fill the almost four-month lockdown with activities such as painting and gardening. But like millions of Australians, she "also just sat on the couch and watched TV a lot".
Lockdown Under
Australia has been spared the worst of the pandemic -- recording 1,379 deaths in a population of around 26 million.
But for the last 18 months, under-vaccinated Australian cities have endured several gruelling lockdowns to limit the spread of the virus.
Jobs have been lost, kids have missed being at school for a large portion of the academic year, and restrictions have sparked a string of mostly small but noisy protests and a flood of online misinformation.
There is growing evidence that locked-down Australians have been drinking more and existing mental conditions have worsened, according to a recent report by the country's Mental Health Think Tank.
In recent months, Australia's repeated imposition of restrictions and efforts -- now abandoned -- to reach "Covid Zero" have brought it international attention. 
The conservative-run country has become an unlikely lightning rod for the American right keen to vent against vaccine mandates and lockdowns everywhere.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis -- whose state has recorded 55,000-plus deaths in a population slightly smaller than Australia -- even suggested breaking off diplomatic relations.
"It's not a free country at all," he said. "Is Australia freer than communist China right now? I don't know."
Thousands of Australian residents have also chafed at the restrictions, and some have voted with their feet.
The country's population has shrunk for the first time since World War I, as expatriates returned home in droves.
That has hit the hospitality and retail sectors which report staff shortages and logistics bottlenecks at warehouses that could make reopening difficult.
'Critical time'
Some medical experts are also concerned that New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, may be reopening too soon.
The government's own health advice from the Doherty Institute recommended widespread reopening when vaccination rates reached 80 percent rather than the current 70 percent.
The Australian Medical Association warned Thursday that infections will rise with reopening and underfunded hospitals risk being overwhelmed.
"New South Wales must not be reckless at this critical time," the group's president Omar Khorshid said.
"That would cost more lives, cause more suffering, and put the economies of New South Wales and the nation at risk."  
But recently installed state premier Dominic Perrottet was adamant about the reopening.
On Thursday, he brought forward the date for most schools to resume and said masks would not be needed in offices. 
Both measures are designed to get people back to work.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-sydney-to-lift-106-day-lockdown-as-covid-19-vaccination-rate-hits-70-2566851">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-sydney-to-lift-106-day-lockdown-as-covid-19-vaccination-rate-hits-70-2566851</a>

news world Sydney To Lift 106-Day Lockdown As Vaccination Rate Hits 70%

Australia has been spared the worst of the pandemic -- recording 1,379 deaths. Sydney, Australia: Australia's largest city will eme...

"Intimidating": Dubai Ruler Tried To Buy 30 Million Pound Home Next To Ex

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Intimidating': Dubai Ruler Tried To Buy 30 Million Pound Home Next To Ex" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-07/4ltusa1s_sheikh-mohammed-bin-rashid-almaktoum-princess-haya-reuters_625x300_30_July_19.jpg" title="'Intimidating': Dubai Ruler Tried To Buy 30 Million Pound Home Next To Ex" /></div>
Jordanian Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, had raised the matter at the High Court in London. (File)
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London:
Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum tried to buy one of the most expensive properties for sale in Britain which overlooked his ex-wife's rural estate, in a "deliberate" act that was "intimidating", a senior British judge has ruled.
Agents acting for Mohammed were weeks away from exchanging contracts on the 30 million pound ($41 million) Parkwood estate when the sheikh's team decided to pull out of the deal.
His ex-wife, Jordanian Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, had raised the matter at the High Court in London as part of a legal battle, according to a published judgment.
Judge Andrew McFarlane, President of the Family Division in England and Wales, who has previously ruled that the Gulf ruler had waged a threatening campaign against Haya since she fled to England in 2019, said she justifiably regarded the property move as frightening.
"There can be no doubt that this deliberate behaviour, both in negotiating a purchase and then withholding information about it, by those who are acting for the benefit of the Dubai ruling family, will have had the effect of intimidating this mother to a very marked degree," he said in a ruling published on Wednesday.
Haya said she feared the plans would allow the sheikh - who the judge has also ruled hacked her phone and those of her lawyers - to spy on her or possibly try to abduct their two children.
"It feels like I am being stalked ... the prospect of Sheikh Mohammed, or those on his behalf buying the properties around Castlewood is terrifying and utterly wearing," she said in a written statement to the court.
Haya's lawyers said they first became aware of the sheikh's plans in late 2019, and unsuccessfully sought confirmation from his legal team that he would not to buy any properties near her Castlewood home in Berkshire, close to Windsor Great Park where Queen Elizabeth's son Prince Andrew's home is located.
In late 2020, Haya received information that a trust connected to Mohammed was trying to buy the 72-acre Parkwood estate immediately abutting Castlewood, which had been left to her by her father, the late King Hussein of Jordan.
After the sheikh's lawyers failed to reply to requests from Haya's legal team about the intended purchase, in November 2020 they responded to a direct request from the High Court to confirm the trust was in the process of buying Parkwood and it might well take place in the next few weeks.
The same month, those acting for the sheikh confirmed they would not go ahead with the purchase of the estate, which McFarlane said "comprises, according to press reports, the most expensive development land currently on the market".
"Quite simply, if it were not for the mother's persistence and my Lord's assistance in demanding an answer, the purchase of a property sitting right on top of the mother would have gone ahead," Haya's lawyer Charles Geekie said. "It is an absolute game changer when the threat is on your doorstep."
Mohammed's lawyer told the court that the trust behind the property dealings regularly sought commercial opportunities in the area.
The following month, the judge agreed to extend a "non-molestation order" against Mohammed.
This included a 100-metre exclusion zone around Castlewood for the father or those acting for him, a no-fly zone to stop aircraft or drones flying between the ground and 1,000ft above her estate, and a wider area in which he could not buy or rent any property.
The sheikh's lawyers had argued that Haya's initial request for a 14.8 km (9 mile) exclusion zone would have prevented him from being able to access Windsor and Ascot racecourses and Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth's residence to the west of London, and McFarlane said he agreed to "radically" reduce its size.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/intimidating-dubai-ruler-sheikh-mohammed-bin-rashid-al-maktoum-tried-to-buy-30-million-pound-house-next-to-ex-wife-haya-bint-al-hussein-2566834">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/intimidating-dubai-ruler-sheikh-mohammed-bin-rashid-al-maktoum-tried-to-buy-30-million-pound-house-next-to-ex-wife-haya-bint-al-hussein-2566834</a>

news world "Intimidating": Dubai Ruler Tried To Buy 30 Million Pound Home Next To Ex

Jordanian Princess Haya bint al-Hussein, had raised the matter at the High Court in London. (File) London: Dubai's ruler Sheikh Moh...

Heart Damage Plagues Covid Survivors A Year After Infection, Study Shows

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Heart Damage Plagues Covid Survivors A Year After Infection, Study Shows" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/ontt01q_hospital-generic-pixabay-650_625x300_17_June_21.jpg" title="Heart Damage Plagues Covid Survivors A Year After Infection, Study Shows" /></div>
Covid hospitalisation is associated with a 5.8-fold increased cardiac arrest risk. (Representational)
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Heart damage from Covid-19 extends well beyond the disease's initial stages, according to a study that found even people who were never sick enough to need hospitalization are in danger of developing heart failure and deadly blood clots a year later.
Heart disease and stroke are already the leading causes of death worldwide. The increased likelihood of lethal heart complications in Covid survivors -- who number in the hundreds of millions globally -- will add to its devastation, according to the study, which is under consideration for publication by a Nature journal.
"The aftereffects of Covid-19 are substantial," said Ziyad Al-Aly, director of the clinical epidemiology center at the Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System in Missouri, who led the research. "Governments and health systems must wake up to the reality that Covid will cast a tall shadow in the form of long Covid, and has devastating consequences. I am concerned that we are not taking this seriously enough."
The chances of a heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event in the first 12 months of Covid recovery increase with the severity of the initial illness, the researchers found. They compared the risks of heart complications in 151,195 veterans who survived Covid to the risk in more than 3.6 million of their peers who didn't contract the pandemic disease.
The data were collected from the largest integrated health-care system in the U.S. Most of its users are are white and male, which may limit how generalizable the study's findings are to other groups, the authors said.
They found non-hospitalized Covid patients had a 39% increased risk of developing heart failure and a 2.2-fold increased risk of a potentially deadly blood clot, known as a pulmonary embolism, in the following year, compared with someone who didn't develop the disease. That works out to an extra 5.8 cases of heart-failure and 2.8 cases of pulmonary embolism for every 1,000 Covid patients who were never hospitalized.
Intensive Care
Being hospitalized for Covid is associated with a 5.8-fold increased risk of cardiac arrest and almost a 14-fold greater chance of myocarditis, or inflammation or the heart muscle, the study found. Covid patients who needed intensive care are at significantly greater risk, with almost one in seven suffering a major adverse cardiac event that they wouldn't have otherwise had within a year.
Researchers are still trying to unravel the causes of heart damage in Covid patients. Possible mechanisms include lingering damage from direct viral invasion of heart-muscle cells and the cells that line blood vessels, blood clots and aberrant and persistent inflammation, the authors said.
The findings from natural disasters and previous pandemics suggest indirect effects of Covid-19, including social isolation, financial distress, changes in dietary habits and physical activity, as well as trauma and grief, may also influence the risks for cardiovascular disease, they said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-heart-damage-plagues-covid-survivors-a-year-after-infection-study-shows-2566775">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-heart-damage-plagues-covid-survivors-a-year-after-infection-study-shows-2566775</a>

news world Heart Damage Plagues Covid Survivors A Year After Infection, Study Shows

Covid hospitalisation is associated with a 5.8-fold increased cardiac arrest risk. (Representational) Heart damage from Covid-19 extends...

Prince Andrew Can Review 2009 Jeffrey Epstein Settlement: UK Judge

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Prince Andrew Can Review 2009 Jeffrey Epstein Settlement: UK Judge" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/6r6jklj8_prince-andrew-reuters_625x300_07_October_21.jpg" title="Prince Andrew Can Review 2009 Jeffrey Epstein Settlement: UK Judge" /></div>
Britain's Prince Andrew speaks at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Windsor Great Park, Britain.
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London:
Prince Andrew will have a chance to review a 2009 settlement agreement that he hopes will shield him from a civil lawsuit accusing him of sexually abusing a woman two decades ago, when she was underage.
In an order on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan granted permission for Andrew's lawyers to receive a copy of the confidential agreement between the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and Virginia Giuffre, the prince's accuser.
Giuffre has also accused Epstein of abuse.
Epstein's estate had agreed to letting the Duke of York, who is also Queen Elizabeth's second son, review the agreement, but court approval was needed.
The prince, 61, has not been charged with crimes, and has "categorically" denied Giuffre's claims against him.
Andrew Brettler, a lawyer for the prince, said in an email he expects to receive the agreement soon from Giuffre's lawyers.
At a hearing last month, Brettler told the judge overseeing Giuffre's lawsuit that he believed the agreement "absolves our client from any and all liability."
Lawyers for Giuffre did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
David Boies, one of the lawyers, said in a court filing last month that he believed the settlement was "irrelevant" to Giuffre's case against Andrew.
Giuffre, 38, accused the prince of forcing her to have sex when she was underage at the London home of Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
She also said Andrew abused her at Epstein's mansion in Manhattan, and on Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Andrew faces an Oct. 29 deadline to formally respond to Giuffre's lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Epstein, a registered sex offender, killed himself at age 66 in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to helping recruit and groom underage girls for Epstein to abuse. Her trial in Manhattan is scheduled for Nov. 29.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/prince-andrew-can-review-2009-jeffrey-epstein-settlement-uk-judge-2566625">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/prince-andrew-can-review-2009-jeffrey-epstein-settlement-uk-judge-2566625</a>

news world Prince Andrew Can Review 2009 Jeffrey Epstein Settlement: UK Judge

Britain's Prince Andrew speaks at the Royal Chapel of All Saints at Windsor Great Park, Britain. London: Prince Andrew will have a ...

French Ambassador To Return To Australia After Submarine Row

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="French Ambassador To Return To Australia After Submarine Row" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-09/dkoeacig_submarine-afp_650x400_16_September_21.jpg" title="French Ambassador To Return To Australia After Submarine Row" /></div>
France announced Wednesday it will return its ambassador to Australia. (File)
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Paris:
France announced Wednesday it will return its ambassador to Australia, ending a weeks-long diplomatic protest over Canberra's decision to scrap a submarine contract.
Paris recalled its envoy on September 17, enraged at Australia's decision to tear up a landmark defence contract worth about US$65 billion in favour of a US offer.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told parliament the ambassador would now return to Canberra with "two objectives".
He said envoy Jean-Pierre Thebault would "define our relationship with Australia in the future" and "firmly defend our interests" as the two sides negotiate a settlement.
Since the contracts for the 12 French attack submarines had already been signed, the severance deal could cost Australia hundreds of millions of dollars.
The ambassador's planned return was welcomed by Australia's government.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he hoped the allies could now "move beyond our recent disappointments".
"Obviously the two countries, France and Australia, share a number of common interests, particularly in our work together in the region. So, let's hope we can get that relationship back on track," he told Channel 9 television.
French President Emmanuel Macron reacted furiously to Australia's announcement on September 15 that it had secretly lined up a new, nuclear-powered submarine deal with the United States and Britain.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused Australia of back-stabbing and the United States of betrayal, calling the move reminiscent of the unilateralist attitude of former president Donald Trump.
Paris recalled its envoys to both Australia and the United States over the furore.
But Macron later ordered the ambassador to Washington to return to his post after a call with US President Joe Biden, which helped soothe tensions.
France, however, made clear it was not in a rush to mend fences with Australia, and kept its envoy to Canberra in Paris.
France's anger stemmed not only from the financial loss of the submarine deal but also the shattering of an alliance with Australia that it saw as a cornerstone of its Indo-Pacific security strategy.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/french-ambassador-to-return-to-australia-after-submarine-row-2566589">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/french-ambassador-to-return-to-australia-after-submarine-row-2566589</a>

news world French Ambassador To Return To Australia After Submarine Row

France announced Wednesday it will return its ambassador to Australia. (File) Paris: France announced Wednesday it will return its amba...

French Dissident Eric Zemmour Moves to Within Just 5 Points of Emmanuel Macron

French intellectual dissident and strident mass migration critic Eric Zemmour has moved to within just five points of Emmanuel Macron ahead of next year’s presidential election.
A Harris Interactive poll finds that in a hypothetical run-off against the French leader, Zemmour would score 45 per cent of the vote to Macron’s 55 per cent.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="10.807860262009">
France, Harris Interactive poll:
Run-off
Macron (LREM-RE): 55% 
Zemmour (*): 45%
Fieldwork: 1-4 October 2021 
Sample size: ~1,300 
➤ <a href="https://t.co/oL97q6DoVg">https://t.co/oL97q6DoVg</a> <a href="https://t.co/RbtIvm7cFy">pic.twitter.com/RbtIvm7cFy</a>
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) <a href="https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1445683512250540044?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
That’s pretty significant given that Zemmour has no experience of public office and is almost exclusively known for his controversial opinions on Islam, immigration, feminism, and what he calls the “gay ideology.”
As we previously <a href="https://summit.news/2020/05/11/eric-zemmour-calls-for-frances-no-go-zones-to-be-re-conquered-by-force/">highlighted</a>, Zemmour has called for France’s notorious Islamic ghetto no-go zones, which are routinely the scene of violence and mass rioting, to be “re-conquered by force.”
France’s feared banlieues are suburbs on the edge of major cities controlled by large groups of Muslim gangs who attack police officers, fire crews and ambulance workers who venture into the area.
“I think we reconquer by force,” said Zemmour. “Moreover, in order to reconquer, there’s a problem of the number of people.”
“You think — you are more humanist than I am — you think that we can bring people around by means of education.”
“That’s something I don’t believe anymore. I think that from a certain number — you know it is the sentence from Hegel that I say all the time — the quantity becomes a quality. So in this case it is necessary to reconquer by force or give up.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.2757009345794">
This is the kind of framing for a reactionary politics that's needed in the Anglophone world instead of attachment to contard idiocy <a href="https://t.co/5cEV22lpBZ">pic.twitter.com/5cEV22lpBZ</a>
— Keith Woods ☘️ (@KeithWoodsYT) <a href="https://twitter.com/KeithWoodsYT/status/1445696450512384017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
The decay of law and order in France, driven by the country’s obsession with self-loathing and imposing “diversity,” has become a focal point of the debate, with the election set to take place next April.
Last month, conservative presidential candidate Xavier Bertrand <a href="https://summit.news/2021/09/21/conservative-french-presidential-candidate-warns-of-civil-war/">warned</a> that France faces the risk of a “civil war” due its problems with gang violence and uncontrolled mass immigration.
A <a href="https://summit.news/2021/04/30/poll-majority-of-french-agree-with-military-generals-that-the-country-is-heading-towards-civil-war/">poll</a> taken back in April found that the majority of French citizens thought some form of “civil war” was likely as a result of failed multiculturalism and attacks on French identity.
The poll was prompted by a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luYC9SOcoWw">letter</a> that was signed by 1,000 military servicemembers, including 20 retired generals, warning President Macron of “several deadly dangers” threatening France, including “Islamism and the hordes of the banlieue,” a reference to the fractured suburbs around major cities with high crime and immigrant populations.
In a speech, Zemmour also warned that 1.5 billion Africans wanting to make their way to Europe represented “the death of France.”
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/10/06/french-dissident-eric-zemmour-is-within-just-5-points-of-emmanuel-macron/">https://summit.news/2021/10/06/french-dissident-eric-zemmour-is-within-just-5-points-of-emmanuel-macron/</a>

revolution summit French Dissident Eric Zemmour Moves to Within Just 5 Points of Emmanuel Macron

French intellectual dissident and strident mass migration critic Eric Zemmour has moved to within just five points of Emmanuel Macron ahead ...