New York to ease COVID-19 lockdown

Three months after the pandemic brought life to a standstill, some offices and non-essential business will be allowed to partially reopen.

New York City is getting ready to loosen a number of coronavirus restrictions, three months after the pandemic brought life there to a standstill.

On Monday, some offices and non-essential business will be allowed to partially reopen, but the United Nations campus in New York will not be following suit.

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, James Bays, has more.

Last pocket of tropical rainforest in North America under threat

About 90 percent of the Lacandon rainforest is believed to be already lost to deforestation.

The last pocket of tropical rainforest in North America is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.

About 90 percent of the Lacandon rainforest is believed to be already lost to deforestation.

That is why biologists and Indigenous leaders in Mexico are battling to save it.

Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo travelled into the heart of the jungle in southern Mexico.

Spain: Seaweed invasion hurting fishermen's livelihoods

Seaweed native to the northwest Pacific is invading the rich marine waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and the brown algae is clogging up fishermen’s nets and endangering their way of life.

Seaweed native to the northwest Pacific is invading the rich marine waters of the Strait of Gibraltar and preventing traditional fishermen from catching tuna.

They say the brown algae is clogging up their nets and endangering their way of life.

Al Jazeera’s Victoria Gatenby reports.

Dubai Eases Air Travel Restrictions for Tourists and Residents

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Dubai will begin allowing tourists into the Middle East business hub from July 7 for the first time since the United Arab Emirates imposed travel restrictions because of the coronavirus.

“Tourists required to present recent Covid-19 negative certificate or undergo testing at Dubai airports,” the Dubai Media Office said on Sunday.

The city will also allow residents stuck abroad to begin returning from Monday. Citizens and residents can resume outbound travel from June 23, according to the tweet.

Dubai locked down the city for about a month to halt the spread of the virus. Its flagship Emirates airline grounded passenger flights and the Expo 2020 exhibition scheduled to start in October was delayed by a year. Dubai still imposes some movement restrictions.

Emirates Resumes Flights to More Cities as It Ramps Up Services

The United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part, has been reporting lower number of coronavirus cases in the past weeks as the government continued with programs to sterilize its cities and stepped up testing. It has so far recored about 50,000 cases of coronavirus, with 302 deaths.

California Reports a Record 4,515 New Virus Cases; 71 New Deaths

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California added 4,515 new coronavirus cases, a daily record, bringing the total in the state to 173,824.

The number of deaths increased by 71 to 5,495, according to data the state released Sunday.

Cargo of Iranian Food Is Set to Arrive in Struggling Venezuela

A ship from Iran was scheduled to deliver food to Venezuela on Sunday, according to Bloomberg’s vessel-tracking maps.

The tanker, called the Golsan, was just off the coast of Caracas on Sunday evening, Golsan left Iran’s Bandar Abbas port a month ago and sailed through the Suez Canal.

Venezuela state television reported the news, citing a tweet by the Iranian embassy in Caracas that said the ship’s food cargo would supply the first Iranian supermarket in the South American nation.

Iran has recently been shipping fuel to Venezuela, whose socialist government has squandered some of the world’s biggest oil reserves and is now rationing gasoline.

After years of a well-documented economic collapse, Venezuela is now on the verge of famine, the International Crisis Group has warned. And the tightening vice of U.S. sanctions threatens to strangle what little foreign food and oil is managing to enter the country.

Facebook in Talks for Neiman Marcus’ Space at Hudson Yards: WWD

Facebook Inc. is considering taking over Neiman Marcus’ retail space at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, Women’s Wear Daily reported, citing a person familiar with the matter it didn’t identify.

The operator of high-end department stores filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on May 7, which would allow it to back out of its 188,000-square-foot store lease free of penalties.

If Facebook takes over the space, it would add to the lease the tech giant signed last year for more than 1.5 million square feet of space in the same development.

Related Companies, a co-developer of Hudson Yards, and Facebook didn’t respond to Women’s Wear Daily’s requests for comment.