Australia

The Australian city of Sydney on Saturday ordered a shutdown of building sites, banned non-essential retail, and threatened fines for employers who make staff come into the office as new COVID-19 cases kept rising three weeks into a citywide lockdown. Authorities in New South Wales state, of which Sydney is …

Russia’s Vladimir Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, and US President Joe Biden, and other world leaders meet virtually on Friday for the Asia-Pacific trade group APEC, seeking collective actions to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts. New Zealand, the revolving Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation host, said this week it will …

New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern on Monday announced a hastily convened extraordinary meeting of APEC leaders aimed at improving the Asia-Pacific region’s response to COVID-19 and its economic impact. Prime Minister Ardern is scheduled to host the annual 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit online in November but called an additional …

Australia reported its first coronavirus-related death of the year on Sunday and a record 77 new virus cases in the state of New South Wales, which is battling an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the numbers in and around the country’s biggest city …

Australia’s New South Wales state reported its biggest daily rise in locally acquired coronavirus infections this year on Saturday, with authorities warning that worse may yet to come for Sydney, which is in a three-week hard lockdown. There were 50 new cases of community transmission in the country’s most populous …

The leader of Australia’s New South Wales (NSW) state on Wednesday ordered a week-long extension of Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown, warning new cases are bound to rise as the country’s biggest city grapples with the highly infectious Delta variant. Sydney, home to a fifth of Australia’s 25 million people, was plunged …

Australia’s New South Wales state reported a fall in new daily coronavirus cases on Sunday, following two days of record 2021 infections, as officials implored Sydney residents to follow rules so they could end a lockdown next week. Australia’s most populous state recorded 16 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, data …

Portugal said on Saturday it hoped to vaccinate a further 1.7 million people against COVID-19 over the next two weeks as authorities scramble to contain a surge in infections caused by the more contagious Delta variant. Cases in Portugal, a nation of just over 10 million, jumped by 2,605 on …

Australian officials extended lockdown and social distancing measures to more of the country on Wednesday, with four major cities already under a hard lockdown in a race to contain an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant. Summary | NSW total cases in latest outbreak top 170 South Australia logs …

Sydney goes into a two-week lockdown as Darwin implements a two-day stay-at-home order amid a surge in cases linked to the Delta variant.

Sydney and some surrounding areas will enter a hard two-week COVID-19 lockdown on Saturday as authorities struggle to control a fast-spreading outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant that has grown to 80 cases.

China has made an appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO) over historic duties introduced by Australia concerning three Chinese products as part of a crackdown on unfair trade practices, including dumping.

Australia’s largest city of Sydney re-introduced “soft touch” COVID-19 curbs on Wednesday to contain a widening outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, mandating masks in offices while neighboring states closed their borders. ———————————————————————————- Summary Workplace masks mandatory, home visits limited to five people Neighbouring states close borders Wellington alert …

The Great Barrier Reef has deteriorated to such an extent it should be listed as a world heritage site “in danger,” a United Nations committee said Tuesday — prompting immediate backlash from the Australian government.

Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales (NSW), on Tuesday, reported its biggest rise in new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in nearly a week, prompting authorities to extend a mask mandate in Sydney for a week.

Wine tariffs imposed by Beijing doubled or tripled the price of Australian wine and made the Chinese market unviable for exporters. The Australian government said on Saturday it was lodging a formal complaint with the World Trade Organization about China’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on Australian wine exports, escalating further …

Australia’s most populous city Sydney has recorded its first locally acquired case of COVID-19 in more than a month, stoking concerns of a fresh wave of infections on Wednesday. New South Wales (NSW) state said it is not clear how the unnamed man in his 60s acquired the virus, but …

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government wants to restart dialog with Beijing, as a series of trade reprisals from China strain the already-weakened relationship between the two countries. “We, of course, would like to see the dialog that was occurring to continue again and start again, Morrison said …

About 30,000 nurses in New Zealand walked off their jobs on Wednesday in a nationwide eight-hour strike after negotiations with the government for better pay and working conditions failed. The strike action came after the New Zealand Nurses Organisation rejected a 1.4% pay hike proposed by the District Health Board …

Law enforcement agencies say they’ve arrested hundreds of criminals across the world in a three-year operation using an FBI-designed app. Since 2018, Australia, New Zealand, and the FBI have used an encrypted app, ANOM, to keep track of organised crime. It has led to drug trade arrests in 18 countries …