novak djokovic will hear in the next few hours, whether or not he ll be allowed to remain in australia. the government says the world number one tennis player, who hasn t been vaccinated against covid, is a threat to public health. his lawyers are appealing, describing the latest decision to cancel his visa, as irrational. shaimaa khalil has more from melbourne. free, free the refugee! once again, novak djokovic is in detention, and once again, the world number one is challenging the cancellation of his visa. in court documents which were released today, we learned that the immigration minister alex hawke made his decision because the player s presence in australia may foster anti vaccination sentiment. the tennis star s legal team say the argument was invalid and irrational, and that deporting him would potentially undermine support for the vaccination programme. we want novak djokovic to play! and while some of djokovic s
tsunami warnings across a vast area, including japan and the entire us west coast. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. in the next few hours, novak djokovic will hear whether or not he ll be allowed to remain in australia. the government says the world number one tennis player, who hasn t been vaccinated against covid, is a threat to public health. his lawyers are appealing, describing the latest decision to cancel his visa, as irrational. shaimaa khalil reports from melbourne. free the refugee! once again, novak djokovic
we re at here in serbia. and we re hearing outrage both on a sporting front and on a diplomatic front. so, on the sporting front, a nice little pithy quote from the serbian tennis federation, who said that preventing novak djokovic from playing was unacceptable for the entire sports world on the planet and contradicts the sacred olympic principles, which are well known . i must admit, i ve forgotten which the sacred olympic principles are to which they re referring, but i ll take their word for it. but there s also been a lot of political reaction, now. the leaders of serbia s political. their political leaders, the government, have been quite quiet in the days running up to the ministerial intervention. i think they were hoping that by standing back, they wouldn t do novak djokovic s case any harm. now, though, they ve come out all guns blazing, with the president aleksandar vucic, blazing in particular, asking, why do you mistreat him? why do you harass him as well as his family a
translation: nobody - is following the guidelines. announcements are being made to urge people to wear masks. what can the government do? the mistake is on our part that we should be following the rules, but nobody is following the rules, nobody is ready to listen to the rules. at the gangasagar festival in west bengal, officials try to enforce covid restrictions. pilgrims have to show their vaccine certificates along with an rt pcr test report ta ken two days before arrival. but most here believe god will save them from covid. three million people are expected here. doctors asked the state high court to stop the festival, fearing it would become a super spreader event, but that was rejected. they are worried because last april there was a record rise in coronavirus cases after the government of uttarakhand state in the north allowed the massive kumbh mela festival to go ahead.
important than any player so if he is playing, finally, ok, if he s not playing, the australian open will be a great australia open with or without him. that is my point of view. sunday s court decision is crucial for both sides the top seed whose chance at a 21st grand slam rides on it, and a government that has been hugely embarrassed by the mishandling of this saga. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, melbourne. the government s latest daily coronavirus figures show there were 81,713 new infections in the latest 24 hour period. that means there were 117,800 new cases on average per day in the last week. another 287 deaths were reported, that s of people who died within 28 days of a positive test. on average in the past week there were 263 deaths per day. vaccinations are continuing,