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As in other countries, India’s hospitality industry is among the worst hit sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cautiously however some restaurants are reopening, prepped up to navigate a post-COVID-19 world with new norms. And although the Indian capital is one of the cities hit hard by the pandemic, four months on people are ready to step out, bringing some hope to an industry that has cost millions their jobs and where many are still shuttered.Temperature checks, menus and orders being placed on apps, waiters with face shields and masks — dining out is a whole new experience in the Indian capital.  As restaurants reopen, customers are arriving to savor a sense of normalcy as COVID-19 cases begin to climb down in a city that has been cloistered indoors.  Some have come for a celebration, others with their families.  “I know how I have survived for four months in lockdown so I am eagerly waiting for my food right now,” New Delhi resident Neha Yadav said. Restaurateurs are optimistic that in a world overtaken by screens, business will eventually bounce back.  “Restaurants are the last bastions of hope for offline social human engagement. Everything can go virtual in this world but restaurants and bars can never go virtual. People always want to meet each other; people want to celebrate,” Zorawar Kalra, Managing Director of Massive Restaurants, said.They are wooing back customers promising contactless dining, vacant tables to ensure social distancing and safe, sanitized kitchens. But it is still a long haul for an industry that has witnessed massive job losses among the seven million people it employed.  This restaurant is one of just two opened by Priyank Sukhija out of the 25 that he owns in India.  “Out of the 1,200 people I employ, each restaurant used to have about 70 to 80 people. Right now this restaurant is operational with 14 people and the second one has 12 people. So I am down to 28 people employing currently,” Sukhija said. In a city where dining out cornered the highest spending among entertainment options, people are supporting their fight for survival.  “We have to anyhow deal with it, we cannot just sit back at home and let the economy die” Yadav said.That is giving hope to the industry even as the pandemic remains a concern.  “They want to start living and accepting the virus as part of their life,” Sukhija said. 
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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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