Name: Downsized hajj begins amid Covid pandemic
Uploaded: 2020-07-30T07:44:14.fff+05:30
Duration: T00M34S
Channel: editorji

Clad in white robes and wearing mask, Muslim pilgrims began the hajj on Wednesday. Devotees began circling the Islam's holiest site along socially distanced paths in the smallest pilgrimage in modern history amid the coronavirus outbreak. The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, is usually one of the world's largest religious gatherings. But only up to 10,000 people already residing in Saudi Arabia will participate in this year's ritual, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

Clad in white robes and wearing mask, Muslim pilgrims began the hajj on Wednesday. Devotees began circling the Islam's holiest site along socially distanced paths in the smallest pilgrimage in modern history amid the coronavirus outbreak. The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime, is usually one of the world's largest religious gatherings. But only up to 10,000 people already residing in Saudi Arabia will participate in this year's ritual, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

The World Health Organization has warned that, despite strong hopes for a vaccine, there might never be a "silver bullet"; for Covid-19. More than 18.14 million people around the world are reported to have been infected with the disease and 688,080​ have died. WHO Director-General urged all nations to rigorously enforce health measures such as mask wearing, social distancing, hand-washing and testing. 'Do it all' was the message to people and governments. Countries with high transmission rates, including Brazil and India, needed to brace for a big battle, the WHO said.

In a setback to Indian IT professionals eyeing the US job market, President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order preventing federal agencies from contracting or hiring foreign workers, mainly those on H-1B visa. Trump told reporters that his administration will not tolerate firing of hardworking Americans in the pursuit of cheap foreign labour. In a tweet, he said, H-1B should be used for top highly paid talent to create American jobs, not as inexpensive labour programmes. Trump's move comes a month after govt in June suspended the H-1B visa program along with other types of foreign work visas until the end of 2020 to protect American workers in an election year. The H1B visa, is the most sought-after among Indian IT professionals, it is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

US President Donald Trump has called for re-sentencing death to the Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev after a federal appeals court overturned the sentence.
Stating that so many lives were lost in the bombing, Trump in&nbsp;a tweet, wrote, "rarely has anybody deserved the death penalty more than the Boston Bomber".
He said the federal government must again seek the death sentence.&nbsp;
Tsarnaev, on April 15, 2013, killed three people and inured more than 260 people in Boston. He was convicted on 30 charges, including conspiracy and use of weapon of mass destruction.
The three judged bench however had said that regardless of the new trial's outcome, Tsarnaev will remain in prison for the rest of his life.

Another year, another wave of #FreeBritney posts hits the internet&nbsp;one more time. editorji goes the&nbsp;extra mile&nbsp;breaking down the popular hashtag and the&nbsp;toxic&nbsp;reason behind it.

In a reprieve for&nbsp;Kulbhushan&nbsp;Jadhav, the Islamabad High Court&nbsp;on&nbsp;Monday deferred his case till September 3 as it noted that India should be given a chance&nbsp;to appoint a lawyer to defend the former Indian Navy commander sentenced to death for&nbsp;his&nbsp;alleged involvement in spying.&nbsp;The Hindustan Times reported that the&nbsp;high court&nbsp;while noting that the lawyer should be a Pakistan national, instructed the Pakistan government to allow India to appoint the legal representative for&nbsp;Jadhav in the case.&nbsp;The offer to appoint a lawyer for Jadhav will be made through Pakistan&rsquo;s ministry of foreign affairs.&nbsp;The former Indian Navy commander has been given a death sentence by the Pakistani military&nbsp;court for his alleged involvement in espionage.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

White House Experts believe that&nbsp;the United States has entered a new phase of the novel coronavirus outbreak with the infection in rural areas as well as cities.
Health officials are now working with different governors to tackle the situation. Uptill now most cases of Covid-19 cases were seen in the cities. Now people living in rural areas have been asked to be cautious and wear masks to protect elderly from underlying conditions.
Admiral Brett Giroir, an assistant Health and Human Services secretary, stressed on wearing masks and warned the people that the worse is not over.
Covid-19 has infected over 4.6 million people in The United States and killed over 1.55.000 people.

Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume, who was responsible for ending violence in Northern Ireland, died at age 83.
Hume, a catholic leader of the moderate social Democratic and Labour Party, was seen as the principal architect behind the peace agreement.
As a civil rights leader in the Northern Irish civil rights movement in the 1960s, Hume believed that the real problem of division of Ireland was not drawn on the map but in the minds and hearts of its people.

&nbsp;An Islamic State group attack on a prison in eastern Afghanistan holding hundreds of its members raged on Monday after killing at least 21 people in fighting overnight, a local official said.
Another 43 people have been wounded in the attack in&nbsp;Jalalabad, the capital of&nbsp;Nangarhar&nbsp;province, that began late Sunday when an Islamic State suicide bomber slammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the entrance of a prison and other assailants opened fire.&nbsp;
Three attackers have been killed so far but the battle continued Monday with sporadic gunfire still coming from the prison grounds, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province said.
Some of the dead are prisoners as well as civilians, prison guards and Afghan security personnel.&nbsp;The Islamic State group's affiliate in Afghanistan, known as IS in Khorasan province, claimed responsibility for the attac

Despite being the 4th worst affected nation in the world due to the global pandemic, Russians ignored all the warnings and participated in running events on Sunday. Strangely, promoted by the government, the country saw competitions simultaneously happen in&nbsp;85 cities including Moscow despite having a ban on mass events. Organisers confirmed that over 17,000 people ran in Moscow while 8,000 people participated in St. Petersburg. Despite having 11 time zones in the nation, all events were organised at the same time and were promoted by the administration. Russia with over 8 &amp; half lakh&nbsp;cases so far is the 4th most-affected nation in the pandemic after India.&nbsp;&nbsp;

US astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavour returned to Earth safely from the International Space Station after an unprecedented&nbsp;mission carried out jointly by SpaceX and NASA.
The spaceship made a water landing off the coast of Florida, the first splashdown of an American crew in 45 years, with the first commercially built and operated spacecraft to carry people to and from orbit.
The return clears the way for another SpaceX crew launch as early as next month and possible tourist flights next year.
It is a major win for Elon Musk&rsquo;s company which is currently the pioneer in the commercial space race. NASA said it is a new era of human spaceflight where NASA is the customer for the first time.
'Crew-1', the next SpaceX mission to ISS for 6 months is next in line with take-off set for late September.

The United Kingdom is considering to have Mahatma Gandhi's image on the British coins, the country's Chancellor of the Exchequer&nbsp;Rishi&nbsp;Sunak's&nbsp;office said on Monday. The idea that was originally proposed in October 2019 by his predecessor&nbsp;Sajid&nbsp;Javid&nbsp;will be implemented in&nbsp;an effort to celebrate the achievements of non-white people. In his letter to the Royal Mint Advisory Committee,&nbsp;Sunak&nbsp;has extended his support to the 'We Too Built Britain&nbsp;Campaign' and has recommended various designs and themes for the British coins. Sunak&nbsp;said that Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority&nbsp;groups have made a profound contribution to the shared history of Britain.&nbsp;

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced Victoria in&nbsp;Australia to declare a state of disaster with cases spiking&nbsp;rapidly.&nbsp;
The state has also imposed new restrictions across Melbourne from Sunday night.&nbsp;An evening curfew will be implemented in the city from 8 pm to 5 am.
The city's stay-at-home order will be enhanced, giving residents fewer exemptions for leaving home. They will&nbsp;not be allowed to travel further than 5 km from their homes, exercise will be restricted to once a day, and one person will be able to go shopping for essentials at a time.
Authorities have assured supermarkets, bakeries, grocery shops will not be impacted.
Australia has had fewer cases than many other countries, but cases are rising rapidly in Victoria.&nbsp;On Sunday, the state reported 671 new Covid-19 cases and seven deaths.

Thousands of Israelis demonstrated outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu&rsquo;s residence on Saturday demanding his resignation.
Israelis have been on the streets throughout the summer protesting Netanyahu&rsquo;s handling of the Covid pandemic and calling for his resignation for being in office while on trial for corruption charges.
The protests that have spanned weeks see no sign of abating with Saturday&rsquo;s demonstration having the largest turnout.
While Netanyahu&nbsp;has dismissed the unrest, calling the protesters 'leftists' and 'anarchists', its interesting to note that Israel has not seen rallies of this scale since the 2011 protests against the nation&rsquo;s high cost of living.

The World Health Organization on Saturday warned that the coronavirus pandemic was likely to be 'lengthy' one, as its emergency committee met to evaluate the crisis six months after sounding the international alarm. In a statement shared by the WHO, the committee warned nations about the risk of 'response fatigue' given the socio-economic pressures on each of them. The emergency panel has urged the WHO to support countries in preparing for the rollout of proven therapeutics and vaccines, along with accelerating research into the 'critical unknowns' of the virus, such as the animal source of the disease and potential animal reservoirs. It also called for improved understanding of the epidemiology and severity of Covid-19, including its long-term health effects. The WHO experts' panel first declared Covid-19 as a public health emergency of international concern on January 30. The novel coronavirus has killed at least 680,000 people and infected at least 17.6 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December.

England cricket legend Ian Botham, Indian origin academic Prem&nbsp;Sikka&nbsp;along with Boris Johnson's younger brother Jo Johnson will be inducted in the House of Lords of the British Parliament. Sikka,&nbsp;an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Sheffield is among the 36 people who will enter unelected House. On his induction,&nbsp;Sikka said that the call for social justice and emancipatory&nbsp;change needs to be heard in all quarters, inside and outside parliament.&nbsp;64-year-old Botham&nbsp;was knighted in 2007 to recognise his service to charity and cricket. The English all-rounder has played 102 Test matches with 5200 runs and 383 wickets.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Amid a border row with India, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday said he wants to push for a continued advancement of ties with Nepal. Xi&rsquo;s&nbsp;remark comes&nbsp;amidst Beijing&rsquo;s sustained forays to shore up pro-China Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli&rsquo;s grip on power in the backdrop of intra-party feud in the ruling communist party.&nbsp;In an exchange of congratulatory messages with his Nepalese counterpart&nbsp;Bidhya&nbsp;Devi Bhandari on the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations,&nbsp;Xi&nbsp;asserted that he was ready to work to bring greater benefits to the two peoples of the two&nbsp;neighbouring&nbsp;countries.&nbsp;The Chinese President said that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Nepal relations and is willing to work with his Nepali counterpart Bhandari to push for the continued advancement of the bilateral relationship.&nbsp;

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte&nbsp;on Friday asked his people to use petrol as a disinfectant for face masks if they run out of alcohol. He had made the same comment last week and was criticised for it. The President's&nbsp;spokesperson even called his remarks a joke. Insisting that he&nbsp;wasn't joking, Duterte&nbsp;said the poor should go the petrol pumps and clean their masks with petrol.&nbsp;However, the&nbsp;health experts of the country disapproved of his advice and said that inhaling gasoline may cause harm and could lead to more problems like respiratory diseases.&nbsp; With over 1900 deaths, the Philippines has 85,486 confirmed Covid-19 cases.&nbsp;

Germany has suspended its extradition treaty with Hong Kong in response to the controversial national&nbsp;security law imposed by China.
Berlin's move comes after the&nbsp;Hong Kong administration issued arrest warrants for six exiled democracy activists under the new law.
Hong Kong has also postponed its elections and disqualified a dozen opposition candidates.
Praising Germany for putting human rights before economic benefits, Germany Foreign Minister said that the move reflected widespread concern over the law.
UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have also suspended their extradition treaties with Hong Kong.

Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein allegedly tried to gather incriminating material against Prince Andrew by forcing an underage girl to have sex with him, according to newly released court documents. The papers released by a court in New York say the alleged encounter took place on the late billionaire pedophile's private island in the US Virgin Islands. A document claims Epstein instructed the girl, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, to 'give the prince whatever he demanded and report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse'. Epstein killed himself in jail last year while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested recently on federal charges that she recruited minors, for Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s. Maxwell is in jail awaiting trial in New York.

The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Friday, with the total rising by 292,527. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. Deaths rose by 6,812. The four countries have dominated global headlines with large outbreaks. Nearly 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the last week, around double the number that did so the previous week.

Clad in white robes and wearing mask, Muslim pilgrims began the hajj on Wednesday. Only 10,000 pilgrims from within Saudi allowed this time amid Covid&nbsp;pandemic

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Downsized hajj begins amid Covid pandemic

Jul 30, 2020 07:44 IST

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