When Matt Stevenson's mum suddenly died earlier this week, while devastated, he was at least able to book a last-minute flight to New Zealand for the funeral, which takes place tomorrow.

But the sudden pause of the 'travel bubble' between New Zealand and NSW after just two local COVID-19 cases were recorded has left him and fiancee, Suzy Hansen, angry and upset.

The Sydney couple will now miss the funeral for Pauline Paku, 72, in Tauranga. The funeral would have also allowed Mr Stevenson to reunite with other family members for the first time in a year.

READ MORE: No new cases linked to new Sydney virus outbreak

Ms Hansen, 45, said the pair, feel the move, which was initiated by the New Zealand government, is an "overreaction".

"It just seems like such an over-response," she said.

READ MORE: India travel pause to end

"It's a husband and a wife, it's not like it's somebody he knocked into at Woolies.

"The fact that it's his wife and they've paused the bubble, it just seems over and above what is required.

"Matt's very angry and I am too that just for two cases, that that's the case."

While Matt's mum, who was 72, did have a chronic illness, she passed away suddenly after a few days in hospital.

The couple, who are both from New Zealand, woke up to missed call at 2am in the morning, and were due to fly home today.

Mr Stevenson is now struggling with the fact he cannot take part in the Mauri funeral service with his family, his partner, said.

They will instead stay in Sydney as they would have to do 14-day hotel quarantine if they went to New Zealand.

READ MORE: Wife of man with coronavirus also diagnosed, sparking new restrictions

"He's not good. He's very up and down. Very emotional. It's a rollercoaster," Ms Hansen, said.

"A lot of anger and disbelief and just the overreaction."

The pair, who got engaged earlier this year said while they have each other, they have no other family in Australia to help them cope.

"You might have each other, but you're alone," she said.

The New Zealand trans-Tasman travel bubble, which allowed Aussies to go to the nation without doing 14 days hotel quarantine, started on April 17.

Authorities are in talks about when it might resume, after the pause began at midnight.

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand would monitor the situation "very closely".

"We'll continue to monitor it, and obviously we'll make decisions where we need to," Mr Hipkins said.

New Zealanders could already come to Australia without quarantine.

But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned Australia and New Zealand viewed each other as "another state" and said the scheme could be halted if there were new virus cases.

It was also paused last month when WA reported a handful of cases.

"Anyone in Australia who is travelling between states is prepared for outbreaks and there possibly being disruption, and I can't believe I am saying this, view New Zealand as another state in that way," Ms Ardern told Today in April.

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"If there is a hot spot in one of the states of Australia, we may just act in the same way that another state would, with just limitation of people to come in and out of our borders until that issue is resolved.

"We are trying to make it as simple for travellers as possible. Just prepare that there may be disruptions."

Sydney today didn't record any new cases in relation to the fresh outbreak, which also sparked the reintroduction of some restrictions, including masks in public indoor places and transport.

New Zealand is renowned for its virus eradication policy, while Australia maintains it is trying to suppress the virus.

New Zealand has only had 2582 total cases and 26 deaths.

A total of 26 people in hotel quarantine in the nation currently have the virus, and nobody is in hospital.

Around four percent of the population has had one vaccination, according to Our World in Data.

Australia is in danger of being left with a critical "submarine capability gap" in a future Asia Pacific conflict, a Senator and naval veteran has warned.

Senator Rex Patrick wants the Federal Government to fast-track the upgrade of Australia's ageing Collins class submarines to ensure the country retains an effective submarine force in the near future.

"With tensions rising between Australia and China, it is vital we have effective submarine capability," he told nine.com.au.

READ MORE: The escalating threat of "grey zone" warfare

The Collins vessels are scheduled to end their service by 2026, while the first of Australia's 12 new Attack-class submarines is not expected to be delivered until about 2035 – potentially leaving the Australian Defence Force without submarines for years.

Despite costs blowing out to almost $90 billion, the French-designed vessels – being built under the Future Submarines Program – remain in the design stage.

The Federal Government said about 4000 jobs in Adelaide will be involved in building the vessels.

But some security experts have expressed concern that the 2035 delivery date may be on the optimistic side.

Mr Patrick, a former Royal Australian Navy submariner, says the underwater craft are essential for Australia's defences and provide a deterrent against aggressors.

READ MORE: China freezes high-level economic dialogue with Australia

"Submarines are an important part of our defence the force … they are one of the few assets that provide some form of invisibility being hard to track by satellite," Mr Patrick said.

"During a rise in tensions, they enable Australia to respond in a conflict."

He said they offer a wide range of military capabilities including, anti-surface warfare, intelligence gathering and deploying special forces.

Other Asia Pacific nations – including China, Taiwan and Singapore – are modernising their submarine fleets.

Mr Patrick says the rising in tensions with China makes it vital to start upgrading the Collins class submarines soon under the life-of-type extension (LOTE) program.

"We definitely need to focus on that," Mr Patrick said.

The planned work would see a major overhaul of the submarines, which were commissioned with the RAN in 1996, ensuring they could remain operational beyond 2026.

Last year's Federal Government Defence Update warned of the increased risk of Australia being involved in an Asia Pacific conflict.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week announced major upgrades to military bases in the Top End – but denied it was a signal to China.

Mr Morrison unveiled the $747 million spending package on four key training bases during his visit to Darwin in the Northern Territory.

The expansion of the defence facilities will enable more joint exercises with forces from the United States – Australia's key ally.

Former NRL star Jarryd Hayne has started the appeal process against his conviction for sexual assault after he was yesterday sentenced to a maximum of five years and nine months in prison.

Hayne, who is currently behind bars, and ineligible for parole until 2025, lodged a Notice of Intention to Appeal in the NSW Supreme Court.

READ MORE: Jarryd Hayne jailed for 2018 sexual assault

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The notice of intention is for "all grounds", meaning he is appealing the two guilty verdicts as well as the sentence.

His lawyers now have six months to formally lodge the appeal.

Hayne was found guilty in March of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent after meeting up with the woman on league grand final night in September 2018.

He kept a taxi waiting while he went inside the woman's home and assaulted her, before travelling back to Sydney.

Hayne maintained the sex was consensual.

Judge Helen Syme, delivering the sentence, yesterday said it was clear the woman had been resisting Hayne during the sexual assault.

"I do not accept he was not aware that she was attempting to push him away and trying to physically resist him… it was very clear she said no several times," Judge Syme said.

"I have found the offender was fully aware that the victim was not consenting and went ahead anyway. His decision to do so increases the objective seriousness," she said.

The 33-year-old was a superstar in the NRL, playing for Parramatta Eels and briefly for the Gold Coast Titans.

At least one police officer and two dozen others died during a raid targeting drug traffickers in a slum in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro on Thursday.

The civil police’s press office confirmed the death of the cop and 24 alleged “criminals" in a message to the Associated Press.

A police helicopter flew low over the Jacarezinho favela as heavily armed men fled police by leaping from roof to roof, according to images shown on local television.

READ MORE: The deadliest cities in the world revealed

One woman told The Associated Press she saw police kill a badly wounded man she described as helpless and unarmed who they found after he had fled into her house.

Felipe Curi, a detective in Rio’s civil police, denied there had been any executions. “There were no suspects killed. They were all traffickers or criminals who tried to take the lives of our police officers and there was no other alternative,” he said during a press conference.

Police had to struggle to enter the favela because of concrete barriers built by the criminals, according to the detective. Shooting spread throughout the community. During the operation, several people Curi described as criminals invaded neighbouring houses trying to hide. Six were arrested, he said.

The police also seized 16 pistols, six rifles, a submachine gun, 12 grenades and a shotgun.

Service on a subway line was temporarily suspended “due to intense shooting in the region,” according to a statement from the company that operates it. Earlier, two subway passengers were injured when a stray bullet shattered the glass of one car.

Jacarezinho, one of the city’s most populous favelas, with some 40,000 residents, is dominated by the Comando Vermelho, one of Brazil’s leading criminal organisations. The police consider Jacarezinho to be one of the group’s headquarters.

Thursday’s operation was aimed at investigating the recruitment of teenagers to hijack trains and commit other crimes, police said in a statement.

A group of about 50 residents in Jacarezinho poured into a narrow street on Thursday afternoon to follow members of the state legislature’s human rights commission as it conducted an inspection. They shouted “justice” while clapping their hands and some raised their right fists into the air.

Human Rights Watch Brazil said in a statement that the public prosecutor must immediately investigate possible police abuses.

The police statement said the criminal gang has a “warlike structure of soldiers equipped with rifles, grenades, bulletproof vests, pistols, camouflaged clothing and other military accessories.”

The Candido Mendes University’s Public Safety Observatory said that at least 12 police operations in Rio state this year have resulted in three or more deaths.

Observatory director Silvia Ramos said Thursday's raid was among the deadliest in the city's recent history.

Many of them appear to violate a ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court last year that ordered the police to suspend operations during the pandemic, restricting them to “absolutely exceptional” situations.

The Supreme Court declined to comment when asked by The Associated Press if Thursday’s operation would qualify.

Rio police killed an average of more than five people a day during the first quarter of 2021, the most lethal start of a year since the state government began regularly releasing such data more than two decades ago, according to the Observatory.

The federal government appears poised to lift the India travel ban next weekend and restart repatriation flights soon after.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said leaders "fully expect" the ban to end on May 15 and the federal cabinet's national security committee spent Thursday afternoon discussing a plan to restart repatriation flights from that date.

Anyone who has been in India in the past 14 days is currently banned from entering Australia and breaches are punishable under the Biosecurity Act by fines of up to $66,000 or five years' jail.

READ MORE: India's government eases hospital oxygen shortage as demand jumps

Ms Payne, speaking in London on the sidelines of Australia's guest involvement in a meeting of G7 foreign ministers, said her department was working with airlines and Indian counterparts on the ground.

She met virtually with Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday evening (Tuesday morning AEST) but said although the travel ban was raised, the Indian minister did not ask Australia to lift it.

"The operation of that temporary pause under the (Biosecurity) Act automatically expires at the beginning of the 15th of May," she told reporters.

"And based on the advice that we have at this point, we fully expect it not to be extended beyond that date and we intend for facilitated flights to resume beyond that. 

"My department has been working with counterparts in the airlines and with counterparts on the ground in India throughout this entire process with that view in mind."

READ MORE: Two million coronavirus tests to expire this month

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Dr Jaishankar, who pulled out of in-person meetings at the gathering after members of his country's delegation tested positive for COVID-19, made no mention of the ban when posting about the meeting on Twitter.

"Appreciate the support from Australia on the current situation," he said.

"Discussed the Indo-Pacific and agreed to further strengthen our many convergences."

Amid tough questioning from journalists, Ms Payne denied she was "embarrassed" or felt "shame" to be speaking with her Indian counterpart in the midst of such a policy.

READ MORE: 'I have to make decisions in the national interest' PM says over India ban

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The controversial ban has left more than 9000 Australians, , around 900 classed as 'vulnerable', stranded in India as the country battles a devastating COVID-19 outbreak that has seen hospitals run out of oxygen and bodies burned in the streets.

It has been criticised by Indian community leaders, human rights groups and the UN and challenged in the Federal Court, with more lawsuits looking likely.

READ MORE: Teacher's family torn apart by travel bans

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his ministers have insisted it's necessary to protect Australia from the coronavirus and ease pressure on the hotel quarantine system.

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"I want to ensure that we ready our facilities and our systems and our testing arrangements … to ensure we can bring more Indian-Australians home," Prime Minister Scott Morrison told 2GB's Ray Hadley earlier this week.

He has also assured Australians there was "pretty much zero" chance of any Australian being fined or jailed as a result of the ban, sparking questions from Labor about why the criminalisation was necessary in the first place. 

The expansion of the Commonwealth-run Howard Springs quarantine facility appears key to plans to get Australians home from India, amid an expansion from 850 beds to 2000.

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