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S. Korea detects shots apparently launched by North Korea

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S. Korea detects shots apparently launched by North Korea

According to Reuters, South Korea’s military said on Sunday it had detected the trajectories of what appeared to be shots fired by North Korea, possibly from multiple rocket launchers (MLRs).

South Korea’s Joint Chief of Staff announced that the shots were detected after 6 p.m. and that the military had strengthened surveillance and alert levels, without mentioning any further response.

A large part of the area surrounding Seoul, the capital, is home to about half the population of 52 million, and is within range of North Korea’s long-range guns and multiple rocket launchers.

The United States stations around 28,500 troops in South Korea, where they train alongside South Korean troops to counter the North. The allies have conducted missile drills of their own in response to some of North Korea’s previous launches.

North Korea often test-fires MLRs during military drills, and in recent years has also developed larger versions of such rockets. Smaller rockets and missiles are seen as central to North Korea’s plans for striking targets in South Korea in the event of a conflict.

This year North Korea has test-fired a range of missiles, including from its largest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to its small MLRs. All are banned under U.N. Security Council resolutions that have imposed sanctions on North Korea’s missile development.

South Korea is pursuing a $2.6-billion artillery interception system, similar to Israel’s “Iron Dome”, designed to protect against North Korea’s arsenal of long-range guns and rockets.

Average US gasoline price plunges 19 cents to $4.86 per gallon

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Average US gasoline price plunges 19 cents to $4.86 per gallon

The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plunged 19 cents over the past two weeks to $4.86 per gallon.

Nationwide, the highest average price for regular-grade gas was in the San Francisco Bay Area, at $6.14 per gallon. The lowest average was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at $4.19 per gallon.

According to the survey, the average price of diesel dropped 13 cents since June 24 to $5.76 a gallon.

Industry analyst Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg Survey said Sunday that the continued decline comes as crude oil costs also fall.

“Assuming oil prices do not shoot up from here, motorists may see prices drop another 10-20 cents as the oil price cuts continue making their way to street level,” Lundberg said in a statement.

The average price at the pump is down 24 cents over the past month, but it’s $1.66 higher than it was one year ago.

Djokovic tops Kyrgios for 7th Wimbledon, 21st Slam trophy

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Djokovic tops Kyrgios for 7th Wimbledon, 21st Slam trophy

Novak Djokovic waited. He waited for Nick Kyrgios to lose focus and lose his way. Waited to find the proper read on his foe’s big serves. Waited until his own level rose to the occasion.

Djokovic is not bothered by a deficit — in a game, a set, a match. He does not mind problem-solving. And at Wimbledon, for quite some time now, he does not get defeated.

According to AP, Djokovic used his steady brilliance to beat the ace-delivering, trick-shot-hitting, constantly chattering Kyrgios 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on Sunday for a fourth consecutive championship at the All England Club, seventh overall there, and 21st from all Grand Slam tournaments.

“It’s weird. I felt like he didn’t do anything amazing today,” said the unseeded Kyrgios, offering an assessment with which some might not concur, given that Djokovic accumulated 31 winners and merely eight unforced errors over the last two sets, while facing zero break points in that span.

“But he was just so composed. That’s what I was just thinking to myself. In big moments, it just felt like he was never rattled. I feel like that’s his greatest strength: He just never looks rattled,” said Kyrgios, about whom those words likely have not been uttered. “He just looks completely within himself the whole time. Didn’t look like he was playing overaggressive, even though it felt like he was playing big.”

On Sunday, it was Djokovic holding the trophy, as he has so often. He trailed in the final, just as he had in the quarterfinals (when he was two sets down) and the semifinals. Just as he had in last year’s French Open and Wimbledon finals. Just as he had in the 2019 final at the All England Club, facing two championship points against Federer.

Each time, he waited for the opportunity to seize control. Each time, he won.

“So the run keeps going,” Djokovic said after his unbeaten streak at Wimbledon reached 28 victories. “I feel very connected with this court and with this tournament, without a doubt.”

Among men, only Roger Federer owns more Wimbledon titles than Djokovic, with eight, and only Rafael Nadal owns more major trophies, with 22.

“The more you win, it’s logical the more confident, the more comfortable you feel out there every next time you step out on the court,” said the top-seeded Djokovic, who was pleased to hear some spectators at Centre Court chanting his nickname, “No-le! No-le!” as he served out the final point of a tremendously well-played tiebreaker.

As of now, Djokovic will not be able to try to pull even with Nadal by winning the U.S. Open, which begins in late August: The 35-year-old Serbian can’t enter the United States because he decided not to get any shots against COVID-19, the same reason Djokovic missed the Australian Open in January.

“I’m not vaccinated,” Djokovic said Sunday, “and I’m not planning to get vaccinated.”

Aside from his experience — 32 Grand Slam final appearances versus one for the unseeded Kyrgios — his skill and his clutch gene shined in the concluding tiebreaker, and all of those qualities were present for two particularly pivotal games that helped swing the match.

“Key moments,” Djokovic called them.

They were games in which Djokovic steeled himself, and Kyrgios blinked. And games that Kyrgios would not let go as he began engaging in running monologues, shouting at himself or his entourage (which does not include a full-time coach), earning a warning for cursing, finding reason to disagree with the chair umpire he fist-bumped before the match, and chucking a water bottle.

With Djokovic serving for the second set at 5-3, Kyrgios got to love-40 — a trio of break points. But Kyrgios played a couple of casual returns, and Djokovic eventually held. When that set ended, Kyrgios waved dismissively toward his box, sat down and dropped his racket to the turf, then groused to no one in particular: “It was love-40! Can it get any bigger or what?! Is that big enough for you?!”

Djokovic noticed.

“He knew on this stage, when Nick starts to talk, he’s going to be vulnerable,” said Djokovic’s coach, 2001 Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic. “That happened.”

In the third set, with Kyrgios serving at 4-all, 40-love, he again let a seemingly sealed game get away, with Djokovic breaking there.

“It was a huge momentum shift,” Djokovic said, “because up to that point we were quite even.”

Kyrgios was almost perfect in the first set, with 11 winners before he made a second unforced error. The 40th-ranked Kyrgios, a 27-year-old from Australia, never had been past the quarterfinals in 29 previous Grand Slam appearances — and the last time he made it even that far was 7 1/2 years ago.

His talent is unmistakable. But over the years, Kyrgios has drawn more notice for his preference for style over substance on court, his tempestuousness that has earned him ejections and suspensions and his taste for the nightlife.

During the past two weeks alone, Kyrgios racked up $14,000 in fines — one for spitting at a heckling spectator after a first-round victory, another for cursing during a wildly contentious win against No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round — and caught flack for wearing a red hat and sneakers before or after matches at a place where all-white clothing is mandated. Word also emerged that he is due in court next month in Australia to face an assault allegation.

On Sunday, Kyrgios tried shots between his legs, hit some with his back to the net, pounded serves at up to 136 mph and produced 30 aces. He used an underarm serve, then faked one later.

For all of the significant records and other factoids logged in the 560-page Wimbledon Compendium — including categories such as “ambidextrous players” or “runners-up who wore glasses in a final” — no mention is made of “underarm serves in a gentleman’s final,” but it seems safe to say that was a first.

Perhaps, in some ways, it would have been fitting for such a unique player to emerge as the champion at such a unique Wimbledon.

All players representing Russia or Belarus were barred by the All England Club because of the war in Ukraine; among those banned was No. 1-ranked Daniil Medvedev, the reigning U.S. Open champion. In response, the WTA and ATP tours took the unprecedented step of revoking all ranking points from Wimbledon (Djokovic, for example, earned zero points for his title and will slide to No. 7 on Monday).

A woman who was born in Russia but has represented Kazakhstan for four years, Elena Rybakina, won the women’s trophy Saturday with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Ons Jabeur. There’s more: Federer missed the tournament for the first time since the late 1990s, The No. 2 man in the rankings, Alexander Zverev, sat out injured. Three of the top 20 seeded men, including 2021 runner-up Matteo Berrettini, pulled out of Wimbledon after testing positive for COVID-19. And Nadal withdrew with a torn abdominal muscle before he was supposed to face Kyrgios in the semifinals.

Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, assassinated at a campaign stop

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Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, assassinated at a campaign stop

 Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving leader of modern Japan, was gunned down on Friday while campaigning for a parliamentary election, shocking a country wherepolitical violence had become almost unthinkable.

According to Reuters, he had received more than 100 units of blood in transfusions over four hours, Hidetada Fukushima, the professor in charge of emergency medicine at Nara Medical University Hospital, told a televised news conference.

NHK quoted the suspected shooter, identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, as telling police he was dissatisfied with Abe and wanted to kill him. The suspect told police he had made multiple handmade explosives and guns in the past, NHK said.

Abe, 67, was pronounced dead around five and a half hours after the shooter opened fire on him from behind as he spoke to members of the public from a drab traffic island in the western city of Nara. Authorities arrested a 41-year-old man. Japanese media reported that the weapon appeared to be a homemade gun.

“I am simply speechless over the news of Abe’s death,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Abe’s protege, told reporters.

Earlier, as Abe still lay in hospital where doctors tried to revive him, Kishida struggled to keep his emotions in check.

“This attack is an act of brutality that happened during the elections – the very foundation of our democracy – and is absolutely unforgivable,” he said.

Abe had been making a campaign speech outside a train station when two shots rang out. Security officials were then seen tackling a man in a grey T-shirt and beige trousers.

“There was a loud bang and then smoke,” businessman Makoto Ichikawa, who was at the scene, told Reuters. “The first shot, no one knew what was going on, but after the second shot, what looked like special police tackled him.”

Kyodo news service published a photograph of Abe lying face-up on the street by a guardrail, blood on his white shirt. People were crowded around him, one administering heart massage.

Relief checks: In the face of inflation worries, local politicians are trying to get cash to their citizens

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Relief checks: In the face of inflation worries, local politicians are trying to get cash to their citizens

In the face of inflation worries, local politicians are trying to get cash to their citizens any way they can. An analysis by Yahoo Finance finds that at least 20 states have so far enacted plans to send checks into people’s bank accounts, reported by Yahoo Finance.

The efforts are made possible thanks to state budgets that currently are flush with funds and typically presented as a way to help people deal with inflation at a 40-year high.

The most aggressive move of late came last week when California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a budget which included a “Middle Class Tax Refund” that will send checks of up to $1,050 to qualifying Golden State residents beginning in October. Newsom says around 23 million Californians are in line for the funds.

The programs come after three rounds of stimulus checks from Washington D.C. in recent years. The most recent checks, for $1,400, were included in the American Rescue Plan that President Biden signed in March 2021. That bill — and those checks in particular — have been criticized for some as likely contributing to inflation.

However some economists note that such relief programs may have little effect on inflation and might, in some cases, be making the problem worse. “It really won’t do anything to solve the problem,” American Action Forum President Douglas Holtz-Eakin said in a recent Yahoo Finance interview. “What it does is temporarily disguise the inflation problem and hope maybe the Fed and other efforts can solve it in the interim.”

“I don’t think it’s too complicated to say that massive checks really kicked off this big inflation problem,” said Holtz-Eakin, who added, “and now the states are getting into the game.”

But California is far from the only one. States across the geographic and political spectrum doling out the cash — which are often described as either direct payments or one-time tax rebates — to their citizens. In Maine, some citizens are receiving $850 payments, and then — over 5,000 miles away — some Hawaii residents will soon be getting a tax rebate of $300 per person.

There are a range of plans: from the “Colorado Dividend” of $400 to a “Relief Rebate” of $300 in Delaware to an “automatic taxpayer refund” program in Indiana that promises $125 checks.

Many of the moves are being pushed by Democratic politicians, though not exclusively. New Jersey’s Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed legislation to mail checks for up to $500, while Gov. Henry McMaster in deep-red South Carolina has plans for checks of up to $800 for his state’s residents.

And it appears no amount is too small. Illinois is set to provide income tax rebates of $50, while Idaho has plans for a $75 rebate on the books.

Other states, meanwhile, have enacted programs more directly targeted to segments of their population.

New York and West Virginia have programs to send checks to help homeowners in those states. The New York program is expected to aid an estimated 2.5 million residents.

Minnesota is providing $750 payments to its frontline workers while Maryland sent out more traditional style checks in 2021 but is following it up in 2022 with offers of up to $2,000 in assistance, but only to households struggling with their water bills.

And then of course there is Alaska. The state has been sending direct payments to its citizens for decades via the state’s “Permanent Fund” which passes along energy revenue to citizens.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy promises that this year’s check will be the biggest in state history because families “need help now with rampant inflation, record-high fuel costs, and the economic damage caused by the pandemic.”

And plenty more programs could be on the way with a range of other states — from Massachusetts to Kansas to North Carolina— continuing to debate their own proposals for various forms of tax rebates.

The programs have largely been made possible by state budgets that are extraordinarily healthy this year thanks to better-than-expected tax revenues and leftover coronavirus assistance from Washington, D.C.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) recently signed a budget that includes one-time $250 rebates to eligible taxpayers. He recently appeared on Yahoo Finance to tout the elements of the budget, which also includes a bevy of tax cuts, and said it “is an extraordinary step to allow Virginians to keep their money.”

In a statement about his state’s plan, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, “In challenging times like these, it’s more important than ever to have a government whose first focus is on working families and those who are struggling.”

Derek Chauvin sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights

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Derek Chauvin sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights

Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been sentenced to 21 years in a federal prison for violating George Floyd’s civil rights. Chauvin, who pleaded guilty in December, will also be required to pay restitution. 

Three other former Minneapolis police officers — Tou Thao, J. Alexander Keung and Thomas Lane — were convicted in February on federal civil rights charges in Floyd’s killing. Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for them.

Lane is also due to be sentenced on Sept. 21 after pleading guilty in state court to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Thao and Kueng turned down plea deals and are due to be tried in state court Oct. 24 on aiding and abetting charges.

During the sentencing, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said that Chauvin “must be held responsible” for his actions, including destroying the lives of the other three officers involved in Floyd’s death.

“I really don’t know why you did what you did,” the judge said. “To put your knee on a person’s neck until they expired is simply wrong. … Your conduct is wrong and it is offensive.”

According to CBS News, Chauvin’s plea deal, which Magnuson accepted in May, called for a sentence of 20 to 25 years. Magnuson shaved seven months off of the 21-year sentence for time already served — last year, Chauvin was convicted in a state court on murder and manslaughter charges related to Floyd’s May 2020 death and sentenced to 22 1/2 years. He will serve the state and federal sentences concurrently in a federal prison.

Chauvin, who is White, killed Floyd by pinning the unarmed Black man to the pavement with his knee for 9 1/2 minutes, despite Floyd’s fading pleas of “I can’t breathe.” Floyd’s death sparked protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning over police brutality and racism.

Prior to his sentencing Thursday, Chauvin wished Floyd’s children “all the best in their lives” and that they have “excellent guidance in becoming good adults,” CBS Minnesota reports. He did not offer an apology.

Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, asked the judge for a life sentence, adding that he has had nightmares since his brother’s death, according to CBS Minnesota.

Prosecutors pushed for the former police officer to serve all 25 years on the grounds that his actions during Floyd’s death were cold-blooded and needless. They also argued that he had a history of misusing restraints — Chauvin’s plea included an admission that he violated the rights of a then-14-year-old Black boy whom he restrained in an unrelated case in 2017.

The defense instead asked for 20 years, saying Chauvin accepts responsibility for what he did and has already been sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison by a state court in Floyd’s murder. Attorney Eric Nelson wrote that Chauvin’s “remorse will be made apparent to this Court.”

In pleading guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights, Chauvin admitted for the first time that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck — even after he became unresponsive — resulting in his death. The former officer admitted he willfully deprived Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure, including unreasonable force by a police officer.

Chauvin is appealing his murder conviction, arguing that jurors were intimidated by the protests that followed and prejudiced by heavy pretrial publicity.

Mortgage rates dropped notching the largest decline since 2008.

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Mortgage rates dropped notching the largest decline since 2008.

Mortgage rates dropped for the second week in a row, notching the largest decline since December, 2008, reported by CNN.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 5.30% in the week ending July 7, down from 5.70% the week before, according to Freddie Mac. That is still significantly higher than this time last year when it was 2.90%

Rates rose sharply at the start of the year, hitting a high of 5.81% in mid-June. But since then, economic concerns have pushed them lower. The 40 basis point fall offset some of the significant rate increases of May and June.

“Over the last two weeks, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped by half a percent, as concerns about a potential recession continue to rise,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist.

But affording a home still remains a challenge. Mortgage rates are at their highest levels since the late 2000’s and listing prices have grown by more than 8.5% year-over-year for 24 consecutive months, said Joel Berner, Realtor.com’s senior economic research analyst.

While the Federal Reserve does not set the interest rates borrowers pay on mortgages directly, its actions influence them. Mortgage rates tend to track 10-year US Treasury bonds. As investors see or anticipate rate hikes, they often sell government bonds, which sends yields higher and with it, mortgage rates.

In addition, continued fears that we are heading into a bear market have driven investors into safer, longer-term bonds, said Berner.

“This inversion might sound ominous, especially in the midst of sustained inflation that both markets and the Fed agree will likely require more fed funds rate hikes to tame, but it remains to be seen whether these market conditions will lead to increases in the unemployment rate or decreases in production that characterize a recession,” he said.

If there’s any silver lining for homebuyers, it’s that more homes are hitting the market, he said. In June, active listings increased by the largest annual growth in the history of Realtor.com’s data.

“With more homes on the market, sellers are being forced to compete on prices,” he said. “Though the cost of financing a home remains high relative to recent years, buyers will have more chances to find homes in their price range as the undersupplied and overheated housing market starts to cool.”

Higher rates are also tamping down demand among prospective buyers. Mortgage applications dropped 5.4% in the week ending July 1 from the week before, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

“Rates are still significantly higher than they were a year ago, which is why applications for home purchases and refinances remain depressed,” said Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting. “Purchase activity is hamstrung by ongoing affordability challenges and low inventory, and homeowners still have reduced incentive to apply for a refinance.”

Buyers are finding it harder to buy homes as inflation takes a larger chunk of their income and the cost of borrowing has reduced their purchasing power.

A year ago, a buyer who put 20% down on a median priced $390,000 home and financed the rest with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage at an average rate of 2.90% had a monthly mortgage payment of $1,299, according to calculations from Freddie Mac.

Today, a homeowner buying the same priced house with an average rate of 5.30% would pay $1,733 a month in principal and interest. That’s $434 more each month.

The decline in mortgage rates this week follows recent volatility in the 10-year Treasury yield, which dropped below 2.8% in the first week of July after spending most of June above 3%.

Beijing appears to back off vaccine mandate after pushback

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Beijing appears to back off vaccine mandate after pushback

According to AP, the Chinese capital Beijing appears to have backed off a plan to launch a vaccine mandate for entry into certain public spaces after pushback from residents.

While not explicitly saying it had dropped the plan, a city official was quoted in state media late Thursday saying that people could enter venues with a negative virus test result and a temperature check, as has been the norm. They also said vaccinations would continue on the principle of “informed, voluntary consent.”

Online and offline, some criticized the policy, worrying that it would force those who weren’t vaccinated to get the shots, or lose out on access to many public spaces. The announcement was trending Thursday on the Chinese social networking service Weibo.

The government is concerned about the remaining numbers of unvaccinated people, especially those over age 60 who are vulnerable. In April, the Beijing government announced that over 80% of people over 60 had gotten a vaccine, some 3.4 million people.

An unidentified official in the pandemic control office said residents of the city could enter any sort of public venue with a negative PCR test done in the last 72 hours and a temperature check, according to a short question and answer post from the official Beijing Daily, the main paper of the city government, published late Thursday night.

The city announced Wednesday that starting next week, people had to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination before they can enter some public spaces including gyms, museums and libraries. It drew intense discussion as city residents worried how the sudden policy announcement would disrupt their lives.

A phone call to the Beijing government’s press office to confirm the policy change did not go through. The phone had been set to “do not disturb” mode according to a recorded message.

Highland Park shooter’s rooftop position made it hard for police to find him quickl

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Highland Park shooter’s rooftop position made it hard for police to find him quickl

According to CNN, The Fourth of July parade shooter’s location — concealed on a rooftop along Highland Park’s Central Avenue — made it hard for law enforcement to figure out immediately where bullets were raining from when he opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, the Illinois city’s police chief said Thursday.

“The noise was bouncing off the buildings. People were pointing in different directions,” Chief Lou Jogmen told CNN of the scene of fear and chaos that left seven people dead and dozens more wounded in yet another mass shooting in America.

The motive in the shooting remains unclear four days later.

“That’s the first thing people want to know,” Jogmen said. “At this point, I don’t think I can give you a why based on what I’m hearing from my investigators. … We’d love to have that reason out there so people could process (it), but I’m not sure that we’re there yet.”

As investigators work to determine what led up to the shooting, the Highland community continues to grieve those slain and hurt in the attack.

In the panicked aftermath, authorities spent nearly eight hours hunting for the shooter, fearing he would resume his killing spree, Jogmen said as he offered fresh details of the carnage and what followed.

“Was it a pause, was it a break?” Jogmen said, referring to questions authorities faced during the frantic search. “Is this person intent on continuing until he ended his life? Is this a person that was looking for an escape?”

Robert E. Crimo III was taken into custody by police at a traffic stop that same day after being tipped off by what they described as “an alert member of the community.” He was charged with seven counts of first-degree murder, and more charges are expected, prosecutors have said. He’s being held without bond.

In a voluntary statement, Crimo admitted to authorities he emptied two 30-round magazines before loading his weapon with a third and firing again, Lake County Assistant State’s Attorney Ben Dillon said Wednesday during a virtual bail hearing. If convicted, Crimo faces a life sentence in prison.

While authorities say Crimo acted alone, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart has declined to comment on whether anyone connected could face charges.

There’s no criminal liability for sponsoring someone’s application for an identification card that Illinois requires to buy a weapon in the state — a sponsorship authorities say Crimo’s father provided for his son’s application because the son was under 21 — Rinehart said Thursday, adding his office still is trying to determine “who knew what when.”

The annual Muslim religious pilgrimage is slowly returning to its pre-pandemic number of attendees

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The annual Muslim religious pilgrimage is slowly returning to its pre-pandemic number of attendees

Pilgrims gathered for dawn prayers and performed the initial rites of the Hajj on Thursday in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca, in the largest Islamic pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic upended the event – one of the five pillars of Islam, reported by Aljazeera.

This year’s Hajj is larger than the pared-down versions staged in 2020 and 2021, but is still smaller than those held before the pandemic.

In 2019, some 2.5 million Muslims from around the world participated in the annual event.

The Hajj is a once-in-a-lifetime duty for all Muslims physically and financially able to make the journey.

This year’s Hajj is restricted to vaccinated Muslims under the age of 65 chosen from millions of applicants, mainly through an online lottery system.

Those coming from outside Saudi Arabia were required to submit a negative COVID-19 PCR result from a test taken within 72 hours of travel.

Since the start of the pandemic, Saudi Arabia has registered more than 795,000 coronavirus cases, more than 9,000 of them fatal.

Pilgrims spend several days carrying out a series of rituals intended to bring them closer to God, walking the path traversed by the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago.

That includes praying around the cube-shaped Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam.

At the centre of the Grand Mosque’s open courtyard on Wednesday, thousands of unmasked pilgrims circled the Kaaba.

They moved counter-clockwise seven times around the granite building, which is meant to symbolise the oneness of God in Islam.

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