Independent commissioners have released their decision

‘Mistakes were made’, the former realtor has stated.

The officer who killed the Lindt Cafe terrorist says he "locked eyes" with the gunman in the moments before he shot him to end the siege.

Café manager Tori Johnson, 34, and barrister Katrina Dawson, 38, were among 18 hostages taken by gunman Man Haron Monis at the Lindt Cafe in Sydney's CBD on December 15, 2014.

On the eighth anniversary today, the man known as officer A is telling his story for the first time, releasing a book called Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! The Lindt Cafe Siege.

READ MORE: Officer sent goodbye text to loved ones during shooting

Officer A, who remains anonymous, told 9News reporter Damian Ryan he still thinks about the siege every day.

"The moment when we went in, we were completely convinced we were going to die," Officer A said.

"I knew from the moment I heard Tori Johnson had been executed, there was only one thing to be done and that was to make entry to save as many hostages as we could."

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Officer A described how police pushed forward to the first window to observe the hostages.

"Seeing the distraught state they were all in because of one man's actions, I felt emotional attachment to them," he said.

"I was texting my wife getting her to send more pictures of my little girl who I whole-heartedly believed I would never see again."

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It was the execution of cafe manager Tori Johnson, which forced police to storm the cafe, leading to Officer A killing the gunman.

"We locked eyes… I engaged and shot the terrorist and there is a lot that occurred after that as well that I don't stop thinking about," he said.

Dawson was fatally wounded by shrapnel from a police gun.

9News understands NSW Police had been opposed to the book and banned officers from his old unit from attending today's book launch.

Officer A left the NSW Police after a knee injury and due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which he developed following the siege.

He wrote the book as therapy for his PTSD, which he believes emergency services need to consider more for their support and training.

"I believe the police force need to do a lot more in this area," he said.

New estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show there were approximately 14.83 million excess deaths linked to COVID-19 across the world from 2020 to 2021.

The paper, published in the journal Nature, revealed that coronavirus has been responsible for nearly three times the number of deaths reported over the same period.

Excess mortality accounts for both the total number of deaths directly attributed to the virus and the indirect impact, such as disruption of essential health services or travel impacts.

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It was previously estimated that 5.42 million people died of COVID-19 from 2020 to 2021.

The WHO report found that excess mortality was 4.47 million in 2020 and 10.36 million in 2021.

Researchers compiled the figures by comparing mortality data from 2020 and 2021 with the number of deaths that would have been expected without a pandemic.

A number of factors have made it difficult to assess the total effect of COVID-19 on the global population.

These include variations in testing access, differing diagnostic capacity, varying reporting of cause of death and inconsistent certification of COVID-19 as a cause of death.

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Beyond what is directly attributed to COVID-19, the pandemic has also caused extensive collateral damage that has led to profound losses of livelihoods and lives.

The 20 nations with the highest estimated excess deaths account for nearly half the world population and represent 80 per cent of the estimated global excess mortalities from 2020 to 2021.

These countries are Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, the Russian Federation, South Africa, Britain, Turkey, Ukraine and the United States.

India alone accounts for an estimated 4.74 million excess deaths.

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Russia and Indonesia have more than 1 million excess deaths.

Data on the leading cause of death during the pandemic years isn't available yet, but it's expected that coronavirus is among the main causes of death in 2020 and the leading cause of death in 2021.

In comparison, the WHO estimates that seasonal influenza may result in 290,000 to 650,000 global deaths each year due to respiratory diseases alone.

The estimate does not take into account deaths from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, which can be influenza-related.

Italian construction company Webuild has completed a deal to buy Australian building giant Clough, following its collapse last week.

Perth-based Clough faced an uncertain future after it was placed into voluntary administration, putting at risk 1200 jobs.

But this week, administrators reached an agreement with Webuild.

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The Italian company is now set to acquire vital projects such as the Snowy Hydro 2.0 and Inland Rail contracts, as well as assets under Clough's Australian business.

The parties have until Wednesday, December 21 to conclude the agreement.

Clough has been involved in numerous large-scale infrastructure projects around the country, including hydropower, energy, transport and mining.

It employs around 1250 Australian-based workers and the same number worldwide, according to its website.

Webuild had been negotiating to acquire Clough Group before the company entered administration earlier this month.

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Australia is Webuild's second largest market after Italy.

It recently finished work on Perth's Forrestfield-Airport rail link, and the company says the deal will enable it to boost its Australian workforce.

A number of construction firms have gone out of business this year, because of tough market conditions over the pandemic.

Companies have battled the rising cost of materials and severe labour shortagesany projects negotiated before the pandemic are now no longer viable.



The final three episodes of the eagerly awaited Netflix docuseries from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are being released tonight.

Netflix split the six-part series into two volumes, with the first installment uploaded to its online platform last week at 7pm AEDT.

Speculation a series was in the works had been rampant for months and when it finally landed on Netflix, the project ended up becoming the platform's biggest documentary debut ever.

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The series was touted by the streamer as a "global event" and was teased in punchy trailers as a tell-all of Prince Harry and Meghan's departure from the royal front lines in 2020.

The initial episodes were a deep dive into the pair individually, how they got together and the demands each faced as a royal.

However, there were few real bombshells or direct revelations about individual family members. Instead, the first episode presented a couple under attack from a relentless media and featured an ensemble of experts and friends to support their position.

Buckingham Palace was braced for possible explosive recollections, as was the case when the couple sat down with Oprah Winfrey last year, but in the end there was little to really respond to – perhaps a few awkward moments but nothing truly embarrassing or damaging.

However, these next three episodes may be a harder watch for the Windsor clan.

Signalling what lies ahead, trailers released this week will undoubtedly have raised some red flags within the royal household.

In a clip released Wednesday, to a background of menacing music, Jenny Afia, a lawyer for the Sussexes, says "there was a real war against Meghan".

"I've certainly seen evidence that there was negative briefing from the palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other people's agendas," she adds.

A friend of the couple then claims unfavourable stories about the pair were leaked to the press, in an effort to bury stories about other members of the royal family.

Meghan adds: "You would just see it play out. A story about someone in the family would pop up for a minute, and they'd go 'we gotta make that go away.' But there's real estate on a website homepage, there is real estate there on a newspaper front cover, and something has to be filled in there about someone royal."

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Meghan previously said she felt like she'd been "fed to the wolves," in a trailer released earlier this week.

Elsewhere in that clip, Harry hit out at "institutional gaslighting" and appeared to accuse the palace of being comfortable with protecting Prince William but not his own family.

"They were happy to lie to protect my brother. They were never willing to tell the truth to protect us," he says.

No members of the royal family have commented on the series so far, with the palace last week saying it would not comment on the show as it was released.

Check back here later tonight for updates on the Harry and Meghan documentary.

– Reported with CNN and AP

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