Downtown Sydney, beachside suburbs locked down due to spike in Bondi Beach COVID-19 outbreak - CNA

SYDNEY: Downtown Sydney and the city's eastern suburbs, which include Bondi Beach, will go into a one-week lockdown from midnight Friday (Jun 25) as authorities struggle to contain a spike in the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 virus in the city.

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) said the move was not enough and called for a complete lockdown of the city.

People who live or work in four local government council areas in Sydney have been ordered to stay at home except for urgent reasons, New South Wales state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

People are allowed to leave their homes only for essential work, education, grocery shopping or outdoor exercise.

READ: Singapore tightens COVID-19 restrictions for travellers from Australia's New South Wales

"We don't want to see this situation linger for weeks, we would like to see this situation end sooner rather than later," Berejiklian said.

Authorities said they were "concerned" about a potential super-spreader event in a salon where three staff were infected and over 900 clients visited between Jun 15 and Jun 23.

Officials have issued health alerts overnight for more than a dozen new venues scattered across Sydney, Australia's largest city and home to a fifth of Australia's 25 million population, as total infections in the outbreak topped 60.

NSW has held off calls for a hard lockdown, instead imposing mandatory masks in all indoor locations in Sydney, including offices, restricted residents in seven council areas from leaving the city and limited home gatherings to five.

These restrictions, which were scheduled to end on Wednesday, are now extended until midnight on Jul 2.

READ: Sydney reinstates masks to contain Delta COVID-19 variant

Twenty-two local cases were reported on Friday, the biggest rise in infections since the first case was detected in Bondi last Wednesday in a limousine driver who transported an overseas airline crew.

OUTBREAK COULD GET OUT OF CONTROL

AMA President Omar Khorshid said the latest restrictions were "not quite enough" and urged officials to place the entire city under lockdown.

Khorshid warned officials the latest Sydney outbreak could get out of control and reminded officials of the devastating wave of COVID-19 in Melbourne last year, which resulted in more than 800 deaths.

"What happened in Melbourne is they tried last year to get ahead slowly and were not able to get ahead of it and it resulted in deaths ... that must not be allowed to happen in Sydney," Khorshid said.

The outbreak has prompted New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to postpone her trip to Australia scheduled in early July. "We are deferring the PM's trade mission until later in the year," a spokesperson for the prime minister said.

Lockdowns, swift contact tracing, strict social distancing rules and a high community compliance have largely helped Australia quash prior outbreaks and keep its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just under 30,400 cases and 910 deaths.

READ: Sydney faces 'scariest period' in pandemic amid COVID-19 Delta outbreak

NSW has been effectively isolated from the rest of the country after other states reinstated tough border rules in response to the latest outbreak, including a total ban for visitors from Sydney's virus-hit suburbs.

Neighbouring Queensland and Victoria authorities on Friday said several passengers from Sydney who attempted to enter the states by air without exemptions were sent back to Sydney.

Victoria reported no new local COVID-19 cases beyond the two announced on Thursday, likely linked to the Sydney outbreak. Two local cases were detected in Queensland overnight, both in home quarantine.

A conference of Australian Banking Association in Sydney where Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Philip Lowe was due to speak next week has been postponed by the organisers due to COVID-related curbs.

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2021-06-25 05:02:24Z
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Miami building collapse: At least 1 dead, 99 unaccounted for as search and rescue continues - The Straits Times

MIAMI (REUTERS, AFP) - Rescue crews near Miami combed through tonnes of rubble on Thursday (June 24) for anyone who may have survived the pre-dawn collapse of part of an oceanfront residential tower, with officials reporting at least one person found dead and nearly 100 more missing.

Ms Sally Heyman, a Miami-Dade county commissioner, said officials have been unable to make contact with 51 individuals who “supposedly” live in the building, home to a mix of people including families and part-time “snow bird” residents who spend the winter months in Florida.

Miami-Dade police director Freddy Ramirez later told reporters that 99 people were unaccounted for and that 53 others whose whereabouts were initially unknown have since been located, though he did not make clear whether everyone in the second group was alive.

“Fire and rescue are in there with their search team, with their dogs. It’s a very dangerous site right now. Very unstable,” Mr Ramirez told reporters.

“They’re in search-and-rescue mode, and they will be in that mode for a while. They are not quitting. They’re going to work through the night. They are not stopping.”

Mr Ramirez said the numbers of known casualties and people missing were likely to fluctuate.

“I don’t want to set false expectations,” he said. “This is a very tragic situation for those families and for the community.”

A fire official said 35 people were rescued from the building in Surfside, a seaside enclave of 5,700 residents on a barrier island across Biscayne Bay from the city of Miami, including two who were pulled from the rubble as response teams used trained dogs and drones in the search for survivors.

Officials said the building, built in 1981, was going through a recertification process requiring repairs and that another building was being built next door, although the cause of the collapse remained unclear.

“We have 51 people that were assumed to have been there, but you don’t know between vacations or anything else, so we’re still waiting,” Ms Heyman told CNN by phone earlier in the day. “The hope is still there, but it’s waning.”

Ms Jenny Urgelles woke up to the news that her parents’ building had collapsed. She called them, but both their phones went straight to voicemail, she told WSVN 7 News.

“I am holding on to hope. I very desperate to know what’s happening,” she told the local Fox affiliate.

Footage from WPLG Local 10, a Miami TV station, showed a rescue team pulling a boy from piles of debris and rebar, and firefighters using ladder trucks to rescue residents trapped on balconies.

Boy rescued from the rubble of a building collapse in Surfside, Florida -- near Miami Beach.
Hundreds of first responders are on the scene right now.
Rescue operation continues at 8777 Collins Ave. pic.twitter.com/Hnq7Gd9QW4

— Brian Entin (@BrianEntin) June 24, 2021

The search effort was slowed by at least one fire that burned at the site as emergency crews doused the rubble with water, local media reported.

Emergency responders and officials were still looking for people who might be in the rubble, as well as trying to identify residents who were not home at 1.30am (1.30pm Singapore time), when an entire side of the building gave way and fell to the ground below.

“We all woke up in the early morning hours to a tragic scene,” said Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene of the catastrophe on Thursday afternoon. “We still have hope to identify additional survivors.”

At least six Paraguayan nationals were among those unaccounted for, Paraguay’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, including the sister of Paraguay’s First Lady, the sister’s husband Luis Pettengill and their three children.

Part of the building with balconies facing the beach collapsed, with one floor appearing to have fallen atop another, cascading down. PHOTO: AFP

Subject to various inspections

The Champlain Towers South had more than 130 units, about 80 of which were occupied. It had been subject to various inspections recently due to the recertification process and the adjacent construction of a building called 88 Park, Surfside Commissioner Charles Kesl told Local 10.

“There were garage underground issues related to that, to make sure that it was done soundly,” Mr Kesl said.

“And, to my understanding, there were some cracks from that project – minor cracks – that were just patched up. Nothing, based on my understanding, to the magnitude that would indicate that there was a structural problem that could result in something so catastrophic.”

An aerial view showing a partially collapsed building in Surfside near Miami Beach, Florida on June 24, 2021. PHOTO: AFP

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said construction work was being done on the roof of the Champlain Towers South but there was no indication that it caused the collapse.

“It’s hard to imagine how this could have happened,” Mr Burkett told reporters. “Buildings just don’t fall down.”

Mr Burkett said that part of the building with balconies facing the beach collapsed, with one floor appearing to have fallen atop another, cascading down.

“The back of the building, probably a third or more, is totally pancaked,” he said.

The building is home to a mix of people, including families and part-time “snow birds” who spend the winter months in Florida. PHOTO: NYTIMES

Resident Barry Cohen and his wife were rescued from the building.

“At first it sounded like a flash of lightning or thunder,” Mr Cohen, a former vice-mayor of Surfside and a resident of the building, told reporters at the scene. “But then it just kept on - steadily for at least 15 to 30 seconds – it just kept on going and going and going."

Mr Cohen also said there had been construction for more than a month on the building’s roof.

Mr Santo Mejil, a local resident, said his wife was an overnight caretaker who was in the complex when it collapsed.

"She said she heard a big explosion. It felt like an earthquake," he told the Miami Herald newspaper, tearing up as his wife called again to say she was being evacuated from the complex.

The Miami-Dade Police have assumed control of the investigation. More than 80 fire and rescue units responded, the Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue Department wrote in a Twitter message early Thursday.

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2021-06-25 00:16:24Z
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COVID-19: Singapore to accelerate its vaccination programme - CNA

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2021-06-24 12:16:14Z
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Covid-19: Two-thirds of S'pore population to be fully vaccinated by National Day - TODAYonline

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2021-06-24 11:12:35Z
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Singapore speeds up COVID-19 vaccinations; those vaccinated to get concessions when travel resumes - CNA

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2021-06-24 10:28:46Z
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Hong Kong's Apple Daily to live on in blockchain, free of censors - CNA

HONG KONG: Hong Kong cyber activists are backing up articles by Apple Daily on censorship-proof blockchain platforms after the newspaper was forced to shut down as it became embroiled in a national security law crackdown.

The latest drive to preserve the paper's content comes after activists rushed to upload documentaries by local broadcaster RTHK investigating people in power after the media outlet said it would remove materials older than one year from its social media platforms.

Under the national security law, the Hong Kong government can request the blocking or removal of content it deems subversive or secessionist, raising fears over internet freedom in the global financial hub.

The Hong Kong government says use of the Internet will not be affected so long as its use is within the law.

"Law enforcement actions taken by Hong Kong law enforcement agencies are based on evidence, strictly according to the laws of Hong Kong, and for the acts of the person(s) or entity(ies) concerned,” a spokesman for the Security Bureau said.

READ: Heartbreak in newsroom as Apple Daily bids farewell to Hong Kong

READ: Hong Kong police raid newspaper Apple Daily, arrest 5 including editor-in-chief

This year, the company that approves Internet domains in Hong Kong said it would reject any sites that could incite "illegal acts". Internet service provider Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) said it had blocked access to HKChronicles, a website offering information about anti-government protests.

Fearing the security law could bring elements of China's great firewall to Hong Kong, limiting access to dissenting views, 21-year-old Ho - who works in tech and did not give his first name because of the sensitivity of the matter - began this week to upload Apple Daily articles on decentralised file storage platform ARWeave.

READ: Hong Kong leader says press must not 'subvert' government

After midnight, as the printers ran one final time, Apple Daily shut off its website and erased all its social media platforms after authorities froze company-related assets as part of a national security probe.

"I’m not doing this because I love Apple Daily, it’s what needs to be done," Ho said. "I never thought that Apple Daily would disappear so quickly."

People queue up for last issue of Apple Daily at a newspaper booth at a downtown street in Hong Kong, Thursday, June 24, 2021. Across Hong Kong, people lined up early Thursday to buy the last print edition of the last remaining pro-democracy newspaper. ( AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Police froze assets of companies linked to Apple Daily and arrested five executives last week, moves that led to the newspaper printing its final edition on Thursday (Jun 24). 

Authorities have said dozens of Apple Daily articles may have violated the security law, but there was no suggestion that Apple Daily content would be blocked or censored.

Similar to BitTorrent, ARWeave breaks down a file into bits of information distributed over an open network of anonymous computers around the world. On its website, it describes itself as a "collectively owned hard drive that never forgets". 

As of Thursday, more than 4,000 Apple Daily articles had been uploaded on ARWeave. Hundreds of RTHK programmes dating back to 2012 are also available.

READ: Hong Kongers snap up final edition of Apple Daily newspaper

Another programmer, Kin Ko, 47, has been building a decentralised registry called LikeCoin. The blockchain platform helps internet users identify the metadata - creator, date, time, location, version - of the content through a unique number called an International Standard Content Number (ISCN), akin to a book's distinctive International Standard Book Number.

Any changes made to the content would be known and tracked through changes to its digital fingerprint.

READ: No jury as Hong Kong's first 'national security' trial gets under way

The digital repository is still in its beta phase and months away from launching officially. But online pro-democracy outlet Citizen News told Reuters its has already used LikeCoin to catalogue its images.

Ko's initial idea was to create a platform that could authenticate any type of content, and did not expect his platform to be embraced so enthusiastically by pro-democracy activists.

But, he said: "History must not be determined by those in power."

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2021-06-24 08:22:55Z
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S'pore targets two-thirds of population to be fully vaccinated by National Day | THE BIG STORY - The Straits Times

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2021-06-24 09:55:07Z
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