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Islam’s holiest observances began Wednesday as a small group of pilgrims arrived in Mecca to begin the Hajj, which has been dramatically scaled-back due to the coronavirus pandemic.  Instead of the two million-plus people from around the globe that normally make the required once-in-a-lifetime journey to Islam’s holiest site, Saudi Arabia has barred all international travelers from entering the kingdom to perform the Hajj, limiting the attendees to just 1,000 people made up of Saudi nationals and foreign residents who were pre-selected weeks ago. The pilgrims are between the ages of 20 and 50 and have been tested for COVID-19 before traveling to Mecca, where they were required to quarantine in their hotel rooms before the start of the Hajj.  They will also be required to enter quarantine for a week after the end of their five-day pilgrimage.   Muslim pilgrims maintain social distancing as they circle the Kaaba at the Grand mosque during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, in the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, July 29, 2020. (Saudi Ministry of Media/via Reuters).The small band of pilgrims will observe social distancing as they walk counterclockwise around the cube-shaped Kaaba placed in the center of the Grand Mosque during the first ritual of the Hajj — a far different scene than usual, with the mosque packed with pilgrims standing shoulder-to-shoulder as they circle the Kaaba.   Saudi Arabia has more than 270,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 2,800 deaths.   Australia imposes travel ban
In Australia, authorities in the northeastern state of Queensland have announced that it will ban residents from Greater Sydney effective Saturday to curb the spread of the coronavirus.  The ban was imposed after two women tested positive for COVID-19  after returning to the state capital of Brisbane from a trip to Melbourne via Sydney and without going into self-isolation.   FILE – A person in a protective face mask walks along the Princes Bridge amidst a lockdown in response to an outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Melbourne, Australia, July 17, 2020. (AAP Image/Daniel Pockett via Reuters)Melbourne, the state capital of the southern state of Victoria, is at the halfway mark of a six-week lockdown due to a dramatic spike in new COVID-19 cases, including another 295 new cases reported Wednesday.  Victoria state has also reported 804 coronavirus cases connected to elderly citizens homes.  Sydney, the capital of neighboring New South Wales, posted 19 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday, most of them related to several clusters that have emerged at restaurants, funeral homes and parks.  Vietnam rushes to quell new COVID outbreak
In Vietnam, officials are rushing to control a sudden new outbreak of COVID-19 after reporting one of the world’s most successful control efforts earlier in the year.People walk toward an ambulance to be driven to a hospital for quarantine relating to a suspected COVID-19 case in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 29, 2020.Authorities in the Southeast Asian country sealed off the central coast tourist city Danang Sunday after two people tested positive for the deadly atypical pneumonia, domestic media reports say. The new spike in and near Danang had grown to 30 cases as of early Wednesday, mostly traced to a local hospital.  While Vietnam’s latest figures still hardly match the hundreds of daily cases still being reported in much of the world, the country prides itself on throttling the disease earlier in the year with no deaths to date. Vietnam had gone without transmission for 99 days through Saturday and its domestic economy roared back to life by May.  Can’t smell, can’t taste? Scientists know why
A new report in the journal Science Advances has discovered why COVID-19 patients lose their sense of smell. Researchers at Harvard Medical School say the coronavirus infiltrates the cells that provide major structural support to sensory neurons — the neurons that detect odors and send those messages to the brain.    Since the sense of smell is linked to the sense of taste, the coronavirus also affects the ability to taste food.    The researchers said 90% of recovering COVID-19 patients who lost their sense of smell and taste regained it.    In separate studies, scientists are still trying to conclude whether it is possible to get COVID-19 twice.    They say the particular coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is new and much is still unknown. 
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One of the most frustrating symptoms of COVID-19 coronavirus is the loss of the sense of smell and scientists now say they think they understand why it happens. The experts writing in the journal Science Advances said the coronavirus infiltrates the cells that provide major structural support to sensory neurons — the neurons that detect odors and send those messages to the brain. Since the sense of smell is linked to the sense of taste, the coronavirus also affects the ability to taste food. Harvard Medical School researchers said 90% of recovering COVID-19 patients who lost their sense of smell and taste regained it.   “Once the infection clears, olfactory neurons don’t appear to need to be replaced or rebuilt from scratch,” neurobiology professor Dr. Sandeep Robert Datta writes in the Science Advances study. “But we need more data and a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms to confirm this conclusion.”  In separate studies, scientists are still trying to conclude whether it is possible to get COVID-19 twice. They say the particular coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is new and much is still unknown.Health-care workers prepare to test people with COVID-19 symptoms near the beach in Saint Jean de Luz, southwestern France, Monday, July 27, 2020.U.S. officials told The Associated Press that Russian military intelligence is using three different English language websites to spread disinformation about the coronavirus. Among the headlines that Russian agents spread, according to the officials, is one that suggests Russia has given the United States substantial amounts of aid to fight the coronavirus, and another saying Chinese authorities believe the coronavirus is a biological weapon. The U.S. officials told AP that about 150 different articles were published on the websites that both praise the U.S. response and tear it down as inadequate. It is unclear exactly why the Russian operatives may be spreading disinformation, but the U.S. officials said it may be an attempt to stir up confusion ahead of the November presidential election, although the stories do not appear to give an advantage to one candidate over the other.  McDonalds said Tuesday that it had missed its profit expectations because of a nearly 25% drop in same-store sales because of the coronavirus pandemic.  Nearly every McDonald’s dining room is closed, and the restaurants are open for drive-thru or curbside delivery service only.  McDonald’s shares lost more than 2.5% on Wall Street Tuesday. But the company said it expect July sales figures to be up, saying it has adjusted to a different way of doing business.  Elsewhere, Malta’s health ministry said Tuesday that 65 people out of a group of 94 migrants rescued at sea a day earlier tested positive for COVID-19. “Migrants arriving by boat are immediately quarantined for 14 days and tested. The migrants who are positive will continue to be isolated and the rest will remain in quarantine and followed up,” the ministry said. The nationalities of the migrants were not disclosed, but authorities believe their overcrowded boat had taken off from Libya.  And starting Saturday, the North Atlantic island of Madeira will become the first Portuguese territory to make it mandatory to wear face masks in public. Authorities on Madeira have reported only 105 COVID-19 cases and no new ones since last week.   “The use of the mask is exactly to show those who visit us the reason why we have these results,” the region’s general health secretary, Pedro Ramos, said. Masks on Madeira are already required in stores and on buses.  Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has resisted measures such as lockdowns and social distancing, said Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with COVID-19 and recovered “on his feet.” “As I said, 97% of our population carry this infection asymptomatically,” he said.  Belarus has confirmed more than 67,000 cases and 543 deaths related to the coronavirus.  Lukashenko’s apparent indifference to the virus has been a part of recent protests against his authoritarian rule ahead of next month’s presidential election. Belarus’ refusal to put two major opposition leaders on the ballot all but assures him of another term. 
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Saudi Arabia has presented a resolution to implement the stalled Riyadh agreement, the Saudi state news agency said in a statement, but there was no announcement of a deal to end a standoff between nominal allies under a Saudi-led coalition. Under the resolution, Yemen’s Southern Transitional Council (STC) would rescind self rule, implement the Riyadh agreement and appoint a governor for Aden, said the statement on Wednesday. Yemen’s prime minister would form a government within 30 days from both northern and southern Yemen, it said. Shortly after the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) report, STC spokesman Nizar Haitham tweeted that his group would abandon self-administration. “The consent of the Yemeni parties to accelerate the implementation of the agreement reflects the serious desire for dialog…and supporting paths of a comprehensive pol. solution to end the crisis,” Saudi Arabia’s vice minister of defenses Khalid bin Salman tweeted. A Saudi-brokered deal last November, called the “Riyadh agreement,” was negotiated in response to a southern separatist takeover of Aden city, the de facto headquarters of the internationally recognized Yemeni government. The “Riyadh agreement,” which aimed to centralize all military factions and form a government made up equally between the north and south, was never implemented. Yemen has been mired in conflict since the Iran-allied Houthi group ousted the government from the capital Sanaa in 2014. A Saudi-led military coalition in 2015 intervened in a bid to restore the government. The U.N. has been holding virtual talks between the warring parties to agree to a permanent ceasefire and confidence-building steps to restart peace negotiations last held in December 2018. The U.N.’s Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths on Tuesday said that after four months of negotiations, no final text has been agreed and warned that the window of opportunity was not indefinite. “I don’t want today to sugar coat things. There is a real risk that these negotiations will slip away, and that Yemen will enter a new phase of prolonged escalation, of the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19, and of severe and threatening economic decline,” he told the U.N. security council. 
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U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday federal intervention was needed to calm ongoing protests in the Northwestern U.S. city of Portland, Oregon. Barr pushed back against congressional Democrats’ accusations he has placed loyalty to President Donald Trump ahead of upholding the rule of law in the United States. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.Produced by: Katherine Gypson
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An Iranian internet activist sentenced to prison last year by a U.S.-sanctioned judge known for harsh treatment of dissidents has started serving a five-year jail term recently upheld by an appellate court.  In a Monday phone call with VOA Persian, an Iran-based source familiar with the case said activist Ataollah Rezaei surrendered himself the day before to Iranian judicial authorities who had summoned him to their Tehran office. The source said the authorities transferred him on Monday to Langerud prison near the city of Qom where he lived, 150 kilometers south of the Iranian capital, to serve the prison sentence.  The source said a Tehran appellate court upheld Rezaei’s five-year prison sentence last week, clearing the way for authorities to summon the activist to start the jail term. He was arrested in Qom in May 2019 by Iranian cyberpolice and released on bail in August of that year, pending trial. The nature of the online activities that prompted Rezaei’s arrest has remained unclear.  A lower Revolutionary Court had convicted the activist last December on three charges of “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security,” insulting Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and spreading anti-government propaganda, according to Iranian rights activists. The court imposed sentences of five years, two years and one year for the charges, respectively.  Rezaei’s effective jail term is five years rather than eight because under Article 134 of Iran’s penal code, defendants serve the longest prison sentence in cases involving convictions on multiple charges.  The source told VOA that Rezaei’s lawyer plans to appeal the upholding of the activist’s jail term to Iran’s Supreme Court in the hope of lessening the sentence.  The Iranian Revolutionary Court judge who issued the verdict was Abolghassem Salavati, whom the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned in December for delivering harsh sentences, including death sentences, to political prisoners, human rights activists and peaceful demonstrators.  The informed source said one basis for appealing Rezaei’s five-year jail term is Salavati’s refusal to give the activist access to a lawyer for the December 2019 trial. The source said Rezaei was able to choose a lawyer to work on his defense after Salavati convicted him.  In a December statement explaining its rationale for sanctioning Salavati, the Treasury Department said Iranian Revolutionary Court judges, including Salavati, have acted as “both judge and prosecutor, deprived prisoners of access to lawyers, and intimidated defendants.” Access to legal counsel is guaranteed in Iran’s constitution adopted after its 1979 Islamic Revolution. But in a 2016 report on Iran’s latest criminal code that took effect the year before, the rights group Amnesty International said “various laws including the 2013 Islamic Penal Code … undermine … fair trial guarantees by including restrictive and vaguely worded provisions.”  “Combined with major flaws in the structure and administration of the (Iranian) criminal justice system, the result is a continued proliferation of harsh and unjust sentences following grossly unfair trials,” Amnesty wrote.  This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. 
 
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Years of conflict in Syria created millions of refugees in one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crises.  Refugees live in crowded camps with limited access to food or land to grow crops.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports on a camp in Jordan where experts teach Syrian refugees how to farm in tight spaces.Produced by: Arash Arabasadi
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Partial list of nominees for the annual prime-time Emmy Awards, announced Tuesday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. For the complete list, visit Emmys.com: Comedy series: “Curb Your Enthusiasm”; Dead to Me”; “The Good Place”; “Insecure”; “The Kominsky Method”; “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; “Schitt’s Creek”: “What We Do in the Shadows.” Actor, comedy series: Anthony Anderson, “black-ish”; Don Cheadle, “Black Monday”; Ted Danson, “The Good Place”; Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”; Eugene Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”; Ramy Youssef, “Ramy.” Actress, comedy series: Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me;” Rachel Brosnahan, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel;” Linda Cardellini, “Dead to Me;” Catherine O’Hara, “Schitt’s Creek;” Issa Rae, “Insecure;” Tracee Ellis Ross, “black-ish.” Supporting actress, comedy: Yvonne Orji, “Insecure”; Alex Borstein, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Betty Gilpin, “GLOW”; Marin Hinkle, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Kate McKinnon, “Saturday Night Live”; Cecily Strong, “Saturday Night Live”; D’Arcy Carden, “The Good Place;” Annie Murphy, “Schitt’s Creek.” Supporting actor, comedy: Mahershala Ali, “Ramy”; Alan Arkin, “The Kominsky Method”; Sterling K. Brown, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Daniel Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”; Tony Shalhoub, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; Kenan Thompson, “Saturday Night Live”; William Jackson, “The Good Place”; Andre Braugher, “Brooklyn Nine-Nine.” Drama series: “Better Call Saul”; “The Crown”; “Killing Eve”; “The Handmaid’s Tale”; “The Mandalorian”; “Ozark”; “Stranger Things”; “Succession.” Actor, drama series: Jason Bateman, “Ozark”; Sterling K. Brown, “This is Us”; Billy Porter, “Pose”; Jeremy Strong, “Succession”; Brian Cox, “Succession”; Steve Carell, “The Morning Show.” Actress, drama series: Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show”; Olivia Colman, “The Crown”; Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”; Laura Linney, “Ozark”; Sandra Oh, “Killing Eve”; Zendaya, “Euphoria.” Supporting actor, drama series: Kieran Culkin, “Succession”; Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show”; Giancarlo Esposito, “Better Call Saul”; Bradley Whitford, “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Mark Duplass, “The Morning Show”; Nicholas Braun, “Succession”; Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”; Jeffery Wright, “Westworld.” Supporting actress, drama series: Helena Bonham Carter, “The Crown”; Laura Dern, “Big Little Lies”; Julia Garner, “Ozark”; Thandie Newton, “Westworld”; Fiona Shaw, “Killing Eve”; Sarah Snook, “Succession”; Meryl Streep, “Big Little Lies”; Samira Wiley, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Limited series: “Little Fires Everywhere”; “Mrs. America”; “Unbelievable”; “Unorthodox”; “Watchmen.” 
 
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Everyone attending the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee next month will have to wear a face mask, consent to daily testing for COVID-19, fill out questionnaires and maintain a physical distance from others.Organizers of the convention released details of the coronavirus safety plan Monday, three weeks before the Aug. 17 start of the four-day event. The convention has been scaled down from original plans and now will be mostly online with only a few hundred people gathered at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee.Attendees will have to self-isolate for a minimum of 72 hours before departing for Milwaukee or when first entering the convention’s main venue if they’re already in the city. Once at the convention, attendees must fill out a daily questionnaire indicating that they are not experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and have not had contact with anyone who is infected.All convention guests, law enforcement, media, and staff must agree to daily COVID-19 testing, either at the Wisconsin Center or another offsite location. They must also agree to follow any other “reasonable restrictions that convention organizers may impose based on changing health conditions.”While presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and everyone else will be required to wear a mask once inside, anyone making a speech will be allowed to remove theirs. The podium will be 20 feet from other people. Organizers are also encouraging attendees to wear a face shield or goggles to protect their eyes.Organizers are also recommending that attendees “avoid bars, restaurants, and other locations where social distancing is not possible or not practiced.””Ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone involved with the convention is our top priority,” said convention spokeswoman Katie Peters. “After consultation with public health officials, the Democratic National Convention Committee will implement robust health and safety protocols that will govern the convention’s in-person activities and keep attendees safe before and during the convention.”Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, called the safety protocols “thoughtful and thorough.””While it is important to protect every person attending the convention, it is also important to protect the entire Milwaukee community,” Barrett said. “These protocols establish reasonable requirements in order to prevent additional COVID-19 infections in Milwaukee.”Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have spiked in Wisconsin since mid-June, with roughly a third of the state’s 49,417 cases in Milwaukee County and nearly half of the state’s 893 deaths there. A city ordinance requires masks to be worn when in a building that is open to the public or outside in a public space and within 6 feet of any other person who is not a household or family member. 
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President Donald Trump’s lawyers filed fresh arguments Monday to try to block a criminal subpoena for his tax records, saying it was issued in bad faith, might have been politically motivated and calling it a harassment of the president. Lawyers filed a rewritten lawsuit in Manhattan federal court to challenge the subpoena by a state prosecutor on grounds they believe conform with how the U.S. Supreme Court said the subpoena can be contested. They asked a judge to declare it “invalid and unenforceable.” FILE – Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., responds to a question during a news conference in New York, May 10, 2018.The high court ruled earlier this month that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. could subpoena tax records from Trump’s accountant over his objections. But the court said Trump could challenge the subpoena as improper just as anyone else can. Trump’s lawyers had argued that the president could not be criminally investigated while he was in office. In their new court papers, Trump’s lawyers said the subpoena of his tax records was “wildly overbroad” and “amounts to harassment of the President.” They said it was issued in bad faith, copying a Congressional subpoena. “Whether the District Attorney photocopied a congressional subpoena for political reasons, for efficiency reasons, or for both, he knowingly and intentionally issued a wildly overbroad subpoena for the President’s records,” the lawyers said. They said the subpoena seeks detailed information about all of Trump’s assets in the U.S. and abroad for a 10-year period. “Simply put, it asks for everything,” the lawyers wrote. FILE – This combination photo shows, from left, President Donald Trump, attorney Michael Cohen and adult film actress Stormy Daniels.Vance sought the tax records in part for a probe of how Trump’s then-personal lawyer arranged during the 2016 presidential race to keep the porn actress Stormy Daniels and model Karen McDougal from airing claims of extramarital affairs with Trump. Trump has denied the affairs. Vance, a Democrat, has requested eight years of the Republican president’s personal and corporate tax records. Danny Frost, a spokesperson for Vance, declined comment Monday. The Supreme Court had returned the case to a federal judge in Manhattan who has arranged for both sides to finish filing their legal arguments over challenges to the subpoena by mid-August. Last year, the same judge ruled against Trump in a written opinion that was upheld by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. In their new court filing, Trump’s lawyers said the tax subpoena “demands voluminous documents related to every facet of the business and financial affairs of the President and numerous associated entities — from the banal to the complex, from drafts and memoranda to formal records, from source documents to summaries.” They said it was wrong for Vance to seek records dating to 2011 when he was primarily investigating events that took place in 2016. The lawsuit said the subpoena concerns entities in California, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. It said other affected entities are located outside the U.S., including in Canada, the Dominican Republic, Dubai, India, Indonesia, Ireland, the Philippines, Scotland, and Turkey. “Taken together, the subpoena demands an accounting and analysis of every single asset and liability of the President, including each one of the listed entities,” the lawyers wrote, calling the request “an overreaching demand designed to pick apart the President.”  
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The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want them.  
“This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Kansas City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Washington wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty late called for a meeting with Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.
Earlier in the day, a U.S. official said militarized officers would remain in Portland until attacks on a federal courthouse cease — and more officers may soon be on the way.
“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. “We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.”  
Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome.  
The city has had nightly protests for two months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.
Trump’s deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend stoked the Black Lives Matter movement. The number of nightly protesters had dwindled to perhaps less than 100 right before the deployment, and now has swelled to the thousands.Federal officers launch tear gas at a group of demonstrators during a Black Lives Matter protest at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Oregon, July 26, 2020.Early Monday, U.S. agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.
Trump said on Twitter that federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.
The majority of people participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But a few have been pelting officers with objects and trying to tear down fencing protecting the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse.
Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to not allow violence to occur in their presence and to leave downtown before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.
Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were marred by violence over the weekend. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.
The U.S. Marshals Service has lined up about 100 people they could send to hot spots, either to strengthen forces or relieve officers who have been working for weeks, agency spokesperson Drew Wade said.
Kris Cline, principal deputy director of Federal Protective Service, said an incident commander in Portland and teams from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice discuss what force is needed every night.
Cline refused to discuss the number of officers currently present or if more would be arriving.
Some protesters have accused Wheeler of hypocrisy for speaking out against the federal presence because, under his watch, Portland police have used tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.
Cline said Portland police should take over the job of dispersing protesters from the courthouse area from the federal officers.
“If the Portland Police Bureau were able to do what they typically do, they would be able to clear this out for this disturbance and we would leave our officers inside the building and not be visible,” Cline said.
He said relations between the federal officers, some of whom live in Portland, and city police were good.
Portland police responded Sunday evening to a shooting at a park close to the site of the protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.
Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said. 
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The coronavirus pandemic has forced small businesses around the world to come up with new ways to cope with the new reality – including using technology to stay afloat.   VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports.
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