Welcome back: Restaurants, movie theaters, gyms reopen in L.A. County today

After months of crippling COVID-19 closures, Los Angeles County on Monday unlocked a significant portion of its battered business sector, allowing the return of in-restaurant dining and the resumption of indoor activities at gyms, movie theaters and other venues.

https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/full-movie-watch-trust-2021-full-movie-online-free-hd/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/full-watch-trust-2021-hd-online-movie-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/raya-and-the-last-dragon-2021-watch-hd-online-full/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-the-courier-2021-full-hd-movie-online-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-the-courier-2021-o-n-l-i-n-e/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-the-bachelor-season-25-episode-11-episode-12-online-full-hd/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/full-watch-the-bachelor-season-25-episode-11-online-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-season-20-episode-1-online-watch-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-season-20-episode-1-online-full-series/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-greys-anatomy-season-17-episode-8-full-episodes/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-greys-anatomy-season-17-episode-8-hd-online-full-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/mayans-m-c-season-3-episode-1-watch-hd-online/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-mayans-m-c-season-3-episode-1-online-full-series/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/riverdale-season-5-episode-8-watch-hd-online/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-riverdale-season-5-episode-8-online-full-series/
https://orimovie.com/tv/88396/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier/1/1
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-season-1-episode-1-watch-hd-online/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-season-1-episode-1-online-watch-free/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-season-1-episode-1-online-full-series/
https://www.govloop.com/forums/topic/watch-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-season-1-episode-1-hd-online-full-free/
https://www.posts123.com/post/1372762/welcome-back-restaurants-movie-theaters-gyms-reopen-in-l-a-county-today
https://paiza.io/projects/LsAcWzBeo6HFO-OX4LFv9g?language=php
http://paste.jp/517d37fa/
https://onlinegdb.com/Hyl9VHHamO
https://paste.nu/429
https://paste.tbee-clan.de/LsYm4

Proprietors and employees alike hope the latest round of reopenings — prompted by falling numbers of new coronavirus cases and rising vaccinations — will give the region’s economy a desperately needed shot in the arm.

But business as usual remains a far-off concept, and those establishments that are open are still subject to restrictions on how many customers can be served at any one time, as well as requirements for physical distancing and face coverings.

L.A.'s wider reopening was made possible by its advancement from the purple tier, the strictest category in the state’s four-level coronavirus roadmap, to the more lenient red tier.

A dozen other counties — Orange, San Bernardino, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Placer, Mendocino, San Benito, Tuolumne, Siskiyou, Amador, Colusa and Mono — also officially progressed over the weekend.

Those 12, along with L.A., are home to a total of 17.7 million Californians.

Moving from purple to red clears the way for those counties to: permit indoor dining at restaurants and movie theater showings at 25% capacity; welcome back students in person in grades 7 through 12; reopen indoor gyms and dance and yoga studios at 10% capacity; and expand capacity restrictions at nonessential stores and libraries.

Ashraf al Homsi, a Syrian refugee from the Homs province, told Al Jazeera that the protesters were forced by the government to fight in 2011.

“The regime forced us to take up arms and turned the uprising into a war …. it was no longer possible to face guns with our screams,” he said.

The decade of war has wrought unfathomable destruction on Syria.

Millions have been pushed into poverty, and most households can hardly scrape together enough to secure their next meal.

Deraa, the birthplace of Syria’s uprising in 2011, has been under the control of Assad’s forces since 2018.

Maysoun al-Masri, a Syrian activist, told Al Jazeera that he almost had a breakdown when Syrian government forces raised their flag in Deraa.

“The town had a lot of symbolism for the revolution. We have been forced to give up on our dreams. The international community failed the Syrian people,” he said.

Today, more than half the prewar population of 23 million displaced, including more than five million who are refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon said that most Syrian refugees living in the country want to go home.

“According to the UN, nine out of 10 Syrian refugee families in Lebanon are poor and they rely on UN support in order to survive,” she said.

“Although they want to go home, they have little choice. They are afraid to go back because there are no safety guarantees put in place by the Syrian government,” she added.

“In fact, the United Nations and the European Union believe that mass returns are not conducive at this point because of lack of safety guarantees for refugees.”

Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said most of the approximately 4.5 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey established their lives in large cities.

“Most of them do not want to go back, as they established their lives in these cities. They have jobs and their children go to schools here,” she said.

“After spending five years in Turkey, refugees are also entitled to apply for Turkish citizenship by law.”

Today, Syria is economically devastated and remains divided.

Armed groups dominates the northwestern Idlib province, with Turkey-backed rebels controlling stretches along the Turkish border.
US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces hold around a quarter of the country in the northeast while Assad controls the rest.

Through most of the conflict, Assad was able to shield Syrians in government-held territory from unbearable economic pain. Even if barely sometimes, the state kept fuel, medicine and other supplies coming and the currency propped up.

Now he has gained a decisive upper hand in the war with Russia and Iran’s help, his grip on areas under his control is unquestioned, and the rebellion is largely crushed.

But the economy has fallen apart with startling swiftness. It was hit by a double blow of new, far-reaching US sanctions imposed last year and the financial meltdown in Lebanon, Syria’s main link with the outside world.

That proved too much, on top of the strains of war, government corruption, other Western sanctions in place for years and the coronavirus pandemic.

The UN says more than 80 percent of Syrians now live in poverty, and 60 percent are at risk of hunger. The currency has crashed, now at 4,000 Syrian pounds to the dollar on the black market, compared to 700 a year ago and 47 at the beginning of the conflict in 2011.

Ashraf al Homsi, a Syrian refugee from the Homs province, told Al Jazeera that the protesters were forced by the government to fight in 2011.

“The regime forced us to take up arms and turned the uprising into a war …. it was no longer possible to face guns with our screams,” he said.

The decade of war has wrought unfathomable destruction on Syria.

Millions have been pushed into poverty, and most households can hardly scrape together enough to secure their next meal.

Deraa, the birthplace of Syria’s uprising in 2011, has been under the control of Assad’s forces since 2018.

Maysoun al-Masri, a Syrian activist, told Al Jazeera that he almost had a breakdown when Syrian government forces raised their flag in Deraa.

“The town had a lot of symbolism for the revolution. We have been forced to give up on our dreams. The international community failed the Syrian people,” he said.

Today, more than half the prewar population of 23 million displaced, including more than five million who are refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries.

Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr, reporting from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon said that most Syrian refugees living in the country want to go home.