Sydney to Get Extra Vaccines Amid Lockdown Protests

Police block the path of protesters during an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney, July 24, 2021. Steven Saphore, AFP

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10:41-24 July 2021 AD ـ 14 Thul-Hijjah 1442 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

10:41-24 July 2021 AD ـ 14 Thul-Hijjah 1442 AH

Sydney to Get Extra Vaccines Amid Lockdown Protests

Police block the path of protesters during an anti-lockdown rally in Sydney, July 24, 2021. Steven Saphore, AFP

Sydney will get 50,000 more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week to battle its worsening COVID-19 outbreak, Canberra said on Saturday.

Australia reported 176 new locally acquired COVID cases on Saturday, a third consecutive daily record with nearly all cases in the state of New South Wales, centered in the country's largest city, Sydney.

Officials fear the outbreak could jeopardize the rest of the country.

Defying a statewide stay-at-home order, however, 3,500 mostly unmasked protesters clashed with police in downtown Sydney, decrying a month-long lockdown in what the state police minister said was the best case study of a superspreader event since the start of the pandemic.

The participants marched from Sydney’s Victoria Park to Town Hall, carrying signs calling for “freedom” and “the truth."

"You don't have to be an epidemiologist to work out that if this is a superspreader event, we can forget about lifting restrictions next week," New South Wales Police Minister David Elliott told reporters.

Police arrested 57 people with more under investigation, facing hefty fines and penalties.

There were protests in Melbourne and Adelaide, also under lockdown, and in Brisbane, where there are no restrictions.

Police arrested six people in Melbourne, including one for assaulting an emergency worker, and fined dozens of others for failing to comply with orders to stay within 5 km of home.

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard stressed the state's urgent need for extra vaccine supply, adding that with so many people flouting the stay-at-home orders it was the only way to stop transmission of the virus.

New South Wales reported 163 locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, up from 136 the previous day, with 37 patients in intensive care.

Hazzard renewed a call for other states to give up some Pfizer vaccines so that younger people in Sydney's hotspots could be vaccinated, reminding neighboring states about the help New South Wales had provided during other crises.

By Friday, 15.4% of the nation’s population aged 16 and above have received both jabs for COVID-19.

WhatsApp Accuses Russia of Trying to Fully Block its Service

FILED - 21 January 2022, Berlin: The icon of Whatsapp is seen on the screen of a smartphone. Photo: Fabian Sommer/Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH/dpa

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09:42-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

09:42-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

WhatsApp Accuses Russia of Trying to Fully Block its Service

FILED - 21 January 2022, Berlin: The icon of Whatsapp is seen on the screen of a smartphone. Photo: Fabian Sommer/Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH/dpa

US messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, accused authorities in Russia on Thursday of trying to fully block its service in order to drive Russians to a state-owned app, which it alleged was used for surveillance.

"Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia," WhatsApp said in a statement.

"We continue to do everything we can ‌to keep users connected."

Some ‌domain names associated with WhatsApp on Thursday disappeared from Russia's ‌national ⁠register of domain ⁠names, meaning that devices inside Russia stopped receiving its IP addresses from the app and that it could be accessed only by using a virtual private network (VPN), Reuters reported.

Roskomnadzor, the state communications regulator, and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Roskomnadzor first began restricting WhatsApp and other messenger services in August, making it impossible to complete phone calls on them, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of failing ⁠to share information with law enforcement in fraud and terrorism ‌cases.

It said in December it was taking ‌new measures to gradually restrict the app, which it accused of continuing to violate Russian ‌law and of being a platform used "to organize and carry out terrorist acts ‌on the territory of the country, to recruit their perpetrators and to commit fraud and other crimes."

Since then, many Russians have been able to use WhatsApp only in conjunction with a virtual private network and have switched to using rival messenger apps, though some ‌of those - like Telegram - are also under pressure from the authorities for the same reasons.

In a video published by state ⁠news agency ⁠TASS on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a possibility of reaching an agreement if Meta entered into dialogue with the Russian authorities and complied with the law.

"If the corporation (Meta) sticks to an uncompromising position and, I would say, shows itself unready to align with Russian legislation, then there is no chance," Peskov said.

Russian authorities, who also block or restrict social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, are heavily pushing a state-backed messenger app called MAX, which critics say could be used to track users.

The authorities have dismissed those accusations as false and say MAX, which integrates various government-related services into it, is designed to simplify and improve the everyday lives of citizens.

World

Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in Australia 'Frightening'

Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Asharq Al Awsat

09:02-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

09:02-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Israel President Says at End of Visit Antisemitism in Australia 'Frightening'

Israel's President Isaac Herzog reacts during a Jewish community event in Melbourne on February 12, 2026. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST / AFP)

Antisemitism in Australia is "frightening" but most people want good relations, Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day visit and was met by protests in the city of Melbourne.

Herzog's tightly policed visit to Australia this week was meant to offer consolation to the country's Jewish community following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people in December, said AFP.

However, it sparked demonstrations in major cities, including in Sydney, where police used pepper spray on protesters and members of the media, including an AFP photographer, during scuffles in the central business district on Monday night.

Herzog told Channel Seven's Sunrise ahead of his Melbourne stop that a "wave" of anti-Jewish hatred in Australia had culminated in the December 14 killings at Bondi.

"It is frightening and worrying," he said.

"But there's also a silent majority of Australians who seek peace, who respect the Jewish community and, of course, want a dialogue with Israel."

The Israeli head of state said he had brought a "message of goodwill to the people of Australia".

"I hope there will be a change. I hope things will relax," he said.

Herzog attended a Jewish community event after a meeting with Victoria's governor at Melbourne's Government House.

Protesters waving Palestinian flags and chanting slogans squared off with police outside the event.

More are expected to turn out later at around 5 pm (0600 GMT) on Thursday.

Herzog told the audience at the community event: "We came here to be with you, to look you in the eye, to embrace and remember."

He also said demonstrators outside should instead "go protest in front of the Iranian embassy".

The Australian government accused Iran last year of orchestrating a recent wave of antisemitic attacks and expelled Tehran's ambassador.

Canberra, citing intelligence findings, accused Tehran of directing the torching of a kosher cafe in the Sydney suburb of Bondi in October 2024 and a major arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024.

- Controversial visit -

Ahead of his arrival, national broadcaster ABC reported that a building at Melbourne University had been graffiti-ed with the phrase: "Death to Herzog".

Many Jewish Australians have welcomed Herzog's trip.

"His visit will lift the spirits of a pained community," said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, the community's peak body.

But some in the community disagreed, with the progressive Jewish Council of Australia saying he was not welcome because of his alleged role in the "ongoing destruction of Gaza".

The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry found last year that Herzog was liable for prosecution for inciting genocide after he said all Palestinians -- "an entire nation" -- were responsible for the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.

Israel has "categorically" rejected the inquiry's report, describing it as "distorted and false" and has called for the body's abolition.

World

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear Deal

FILE PHOTO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks during an interview with Reuters at the 23rd edition of the annual Doha Forum, in Doha, Qatar, December 6, 2025. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File Photo

Asharq Al Awsat

08:53-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Asharq Al Awsat

08:53-12 February 2026 AD ـ 24 Sha’ban 1447 AH

Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Says the US and Iran Showing Flexibility on Nuclear Deal

The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington appearing "willing" to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.

“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.

“The Iranians now recognize ‌that they ‌need to reach a deal with the ‌Americans, ⁠and the Americans ⁠understand that the Iranians have certain limits. It’s pointless to try to force them.”

Washington has until now demanded Iran relinquish its stockpile of uranium enriched to up to 60% fissile purity, a small step away from the 90% that is considered weapons grade, said Reuters.

Iranian ⁠President Masoud Pezeshkian has said Iran would continue ‌to demand the ‌lifting of financial sanctions and insist on its nuclear rights including ‌enrichment.

Fidan told the FT he believed Tehran “genuinely ‌wants to reach a real agreement” and would accept restrictions on enrichment levels and a strict inspection regime, as it did in the 2015 agreement with the US and others.

US ‌and Iranian diplomats held talks through Omani mediators in Oman last week in ⁠an effort ⁠to revive diplomacy, after President Donald Trump positioned a naval flotilla in the region, raising fears of new military action. Trump on Tuesday said he was considering sending a second aircraft carrier to the Middle East, even as Washington and Tehran prepared to resume negotiations.

The Turkish foreign minister, however, cautioned that broadening the Iran-US talks to ballistic missiles would bring "nothing but another war."

The US State Department and the White House did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

Sydney to Get Extra Vaccines Amid Lockdown Protests

Sydney to Get Extra Vaccines Amid Lockdown Protests

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