WELLINGTON/CANBERRA: Days-long rallies against COVID-19 vaccination mandates picked up in numbers in New Zealand and Australia on Saturday, with protesters blocking roads and disrupting the life of the countries’ capitals.
Several thousand protesters gathered at Canberra’s major showgrounds, forcing the cancelation of a popular charity book fair, with organizers saying they opted to put their patrons’ safety first.
In New Zealand’s Wellington, hundreds of demonstrators gathered for a fifth day despite drenching rain. Inspired by truckers’ demonstrations in Canada, the protesters have occupied and blocked several streets surrounding the distinctive “Beehive” parliament with their trucks, vans and motorcycles .
Protests remain relatively small in highly vaccinated New Zealand and Australia, where overwhelming majority of population supports inoculations. However, the movement has persevered, with rallies occasionally turning violent.
Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison urged demonstrators to keep their protests peaceful.
“My message to them today is Australia is a free country and they have a right to protest, and I would ask them to do that in a peaceful way and a respectful way,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney.
Australian Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, speaking at a media conference in Sydney, said the rallies were not going to gain widespread support. “Go home,” he told the demonstrators.
Police put up new barriers in Wellington’s parliament grounds on Saturday and said they would maintain a strong presence over the weekend.
New Zealand media footage showed one person being stretchered from the rally, carried by paramedics and police. No arrest had been made as of midday Saturday, according to the police, who arrested more than 100 people on Thursday.
New Zealand logged a daily record of 454 community COVID-19 cases on Saturday.
A country of five million people, New Zealand has reported just under 19,000 confirmed cases and 53 deaths since the pandemic began. About 94 percent of eligible people are vaccinated, with shots mandatory for some staff in frontline jobs.
The country’s borders are still closed, however, with tens of thousands of expatriate New Zealanders facing being cut off from families. Many tourism businesses are struggling to stay afloat.
In neighboring Australia, which is opening its borders to tourists later this month, 94 percent of those aged 16 and over are double-vaccinated, but the country is still battling a wave of the highly transmissible omicron variant.
There were at least 64 coronavirus-deaths reported across Australia on Saturday.
New Zealand, Australia vaccination mandates protests gain in numbers
https://arab.news/vc8zc
New Zealand, Australia vaccination mandates protests gain in numbers
- Inspired by truckers’ demonstrations in Canada, New Zealand protesters have occupied several streets surrounding Parliament
- Australia Prime Minister Scott Morrison urges demonstrators to keep their protests peaceful
Russia military police building collapses near Saint Petersburg, causes unclear: governor
- Sertolovo is a small village just outside Saint Petersburg
- Local media outlet 47news reported that three people died in the incident, citing emergency services
MOSCOW: A Russian military police building collapsed on the grounds of an army base outside Saint Petersburg, the local governor said Tuesday, adding that authorities were probing the causes of the incident.
“I have instructed the security forces to assist the military in clearing the rubble and rescuing victims following the collapse of a military police building on the territory of a military unit in Sertolovo,” governor Alexander Drozdenko said.
“The causes of the incident are being investigated,” he added.
Sertolovo is a small village just outside Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city.
Local media outlet 47news reported that three people died in the incident, citing emergency services.
It reported that the collapse was caused by an “explosion.”
The outlet also published an unverified photo purporting to show the building, a grey three-story block with damage visible on at least two floors.
Russia has been regularly hit with sabotage attacks on military bases and civilian infrastructure since the start of its Ukraine offensive nearly four years ago.
Gas leaks are a frequent cause for explosions in Soviet-era buildings in Russia, although authorities gave no immediate indication this was the cause.
