Lockdown protesters storm London HQ of broadcaster ITN: New York City mandates vaccines for teachers

NEW YORK: New York announced a vaccine mandate for all public school staff, including teachers and principals on Monday as the city escalates attempts to slow the spread of the hyper-contagious Delta variant.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said every department of education employee must receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine by September 27. There will be no option of a weekly test instead. "We know this is going to help to ensure that everyone is safe," he told reporters.

New York City has America’s largest public school system with some 1.1 million students across 1,800 schools. The directive will affect almost 150,000 employees. Just 63 percent of education staff are vaccinated so far.

The announcement comes as public bodies and private businesses in the United States grapple with boosting vaccination rates. Many unions and critics of mandates have spoken out against required vaccinations, citing personal freedom arguments.

On Monday the US Food and Drug Administration fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, which is expected to trigger a slew of new vaccine mandates around the country. New York’s directive comes after Los Angeles and Chicago announced their own vaccine mandates for teachers.

De Blasio wants all students to return to classrooms when schools start the new academic year on September 13 after a mixture of remote and in-person learning last year. The Big Apple now requires proof of vaccination for people attending indoor venues such as restaurants, gyms and shows, as the city tries to get back on its feet.

In New York, a city of more than eight million inhabitants, 75.6 percent of adults have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to official figures.Meanwhile, Australian police on Monday criticised a Sydney church for flouting the city’s Covid-19 lockdown by holding a service for 60 people in a pandemic hotspot. The church is part of Christ Embassy, an international religious group headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, which has a record of spreading Covid-19 conspiracy theories.

After being tipped off by residents on Sunday, police moved in on the Christ Embassy Sydney church, issuing a fine of 5,000 Australian dollars ($3,600) to the organisation and Aus$1,000 fines to 30 parishioners.

Australian media quoted a Facebook-streamed sermon on Sunday from the church in the western Sydney region’s Blacktown as saying: "In the name of Jesus we refuse every lockdown in our cities. We declare the lockdowns are over in the name of Jesus."

The Sydney church did not immediately respond to a request to comment. "It is always disheartening and disappointing when you see people blatantly take it upon themselves to contradict what we know works, to contradict what we know is keeping people out of hospital," Gladys Berejiklian, premier of New South Wales state -- of which Sydney is the capital -- told a news conference.

"That is the key: to keep people out of hospital, to make sure that we keep people as safe and as healthy as possible. And we know the vaccine is having such a huge impact on that." The whole of greater Sydney is currently under stay-at-home orders, as Australia’s largest city struggles to contain a Delta variant outbreak that now tops 800 new cases a day.

Residents are only allowed to leave home to shop for essential items, exercise, in health emergencies or for a handful of other reasons. The state’s deputy police commissioner Gary Worboys said the church service was a "disappointing" event that would "anger, no doubt, a lot of people". Videos from the church service were no longer available Monday on the Christ Embassy Sydney’s Facebook page.

The Sydney church’s website showed a video of Prime Minister Scott Morrison explaining in April 2020 that churches could broadcast or stream services and that people presenting such services should follow workplace rules and abide by social distancing protocols. The rules have since been tightened to ban all in-person services.

The global Christ Embassy organisation is headed by Chris Oyakhilome, described on its website as pastor, teacher, television host and best-selling author of ‘Rhapsody of Realities’. He is also president of Loveworld Inc, a religious broadcast and streaming network.

Britain’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom in April ruled that Loveworld Ltd., which it said was associated with Christ Embassy, had for a third time breached the country’s broadcasting code by making misleading and potentially harmful statements about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines.

In a related development, Indonesia’s ex-social affairs minister was jailed for 12 years on Monday after being convicted of taking $1.2 million in bribes linked to food aid for poor families hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

A Jakarta court handed out the stiff sentence to Juliari Batubara following his December arrest and a sting operation that turned up suitcases, backpacks and envelopes stuffed with cash. "The court sentences the defendant to 12 years in prison and orders him to pay 500 million rupiah ($35,000) in fines or serve six more months in prison," presiding judge Muhammed Damis told the hearing, which was held virtually for virus safety reasons.

The former politician was also ordered to pay the equivalent of about $1 million in restitution, or face an additional two years in prison, the court said. Batubara would take cash from two contractors hired to supply basic food packages for Indonesians hit hard by the health crisis, the court heard earlier.

President Joko Widodo vowed not to protect corrupt officials in the wake of Batubara’s arrest and described the stolen funds as "the people’s money". Graft remains a big problem in Indonesia, where politicians are widely seen as among the most corrupt.

The country’s anti-corruption agency has arrested scores of public officials in recent years, including ex-fisheries minister Edhy Prabowo who last month was jailed for five years in a graft case linked to baby lobster exports.

The Southeast Asian nation is among countries worst hit by Covid-19 with nearly four million confirmed infections and more than 126,000 deaths, although the official tally is widely thought to be a severe undercount due to low testing and patchy data collection.

Meantime, Anti-lockdown protesters on Monday, forced their way into the offices of British television news broadcaster ITN, leaving some journalists confined to their offices. Hundreds of protesters joined the march in central London, with a small group then breaking into the broadcaster’s headquarters.

A video posted online showed veteran news anchor Jon Snow being verbally abused as he made his way into the building. Many journalists were "prevented from being able to go about their newsgathering activities" due to the incident, said an ITN spokeswoman.

"ITN staff including those working in ITV News, Channel 4 News and 5 News have been advised to either stay in the building or stay away while the situation is being dealt with," she added.