Earth Hour marked across world digitally amid coronavirus pandemic
Beijing: The annual observation of Earth Hour took place this year in a digital form in various places across the world due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Initiated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007, the Earth Hour has become a popular movement worldwide, reports Xinhua news agency.
Held every last Saturday in the month of March, individuals, communities, enterprises and government departments around the globe are encouraged to turn off their lights for an hour, with the purpose of inspiring reflections and actions regarding environmental issues.
At 8:30 pm on Saturday evening in Moscow, the facade lighting of the Kremlin was turned off and so was the external lighting of the Russian White House, as part of the global environmental event.
Indonesia also joined the movement on Saturday evening but without traditional gatherings to avoid the spread of novel coronavirus. Awareness calling for serious efforts to slow down the global warming was relayed online.
“Through the participation in this Earth Hour and the voice for planet movement, we have helped world leaders make a decision to support improvement in the health sector and earth protection as well as the welfare for all the living things,” said Lukas Adhyakso, acting CEO of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Indonesia.
Due to the pandemic, restaurants or museums were closed in Hungary. However, the lockdown did not stop people from joining the Earth Hour movement. They, too, observed it in a digital way.
“In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, the Earth Hour is also a sign of solidarity for the planet: communities around the world are organizing their events digitally. WWF is also relocating this year’s Earth Clock to the online world,” WWF Hungary told Xinhua.
Kenya on Saturday also leveraged digital platforms to raise visibility on the green agenda to mark the Earth Hour during the curfew.
Partners and stakeholders were encouraged to stay at home and use digital tools like Skype and mobile phones to sensitise the public on the need to adopt sustainable lifestyles.
Mohamed Awer, CEO of WWF Kenya, said the event highlighted the need for the east African nation to accelerate low carbon development while supporting ongoing efforts to contain the highly contagious disease.
“The Earth Hour will always remain a people-led movement to raise awareness on sustainable practices that communities should adapt to reduce global warming,” he added. (IANS)
50-year-old Indian-American publication ends print edition
New York: The New York city-based India Abroad, the iconic ethnic Indian-American weekly newspaper with a 50-year-long legacy, has announced the shutdown of its print edition, a media report said.
Founded by Indian-American publisher Gopal Raju in 1970, the oldest Indian newspaper in North America rose to great heights of popularity as it effectively filled the gap of a publication catering to the Indian diaspora in the US, said the American Bazaar in a report on Saturday.
In 2001, Raju sold the publication to Rediff.com. In late 2016, Rediff.com sold its venture to 8kMiles Media Inc.
Finally on Friday, the current chairman and publisher, Suresh Venkatachari, announced the decision to cease the print edition.
“For the thousands of readers for whom India Abroad has been an integral part of their Indian-American journey, the close of the publication may be heart rending, but hardly surprising, given the reversal of fortunes of print publications in the US and across the world,” the American Bazaar quoted Venkatachari as saying in a statement.
“Compounding all of this was the advent of the ominous coronavirus pandemic and the devastating repercussions in its wake, which led to several advertisers, cancelling their advertisements and hence the looming outlook for future revenue generation appearing even more bleak,” he added.
During its 50-year run, India Abroad published commentaries and opinion pieces by renowned economists, academics, social anthropologists and change-makers. (IANS)
Twitter deletes tweet by lawyer, activist for virus misinformation
San Francisco: Twitter has deleted a tweet posted by US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Republican activist Charlie Kirk for violating its rules over novel coronavirus misinformation.
Giuliani posted a tweet, “Hydroxychoroquine has been shown to have a 100 per cent effective rate treating COVID-19. Yet, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer is threatening Doctors who prescribe it. If Trump is for something – Democrats are against it. They’re ok with people dying if it means opposing Trump.”
The anti-malaria drug, promoted by Trump as a cure for COVID-19 disease, has not been approved by the FDA as it has not been clinically tested.
Twitter immediately deleted the tweet posted by Giuliani and Kirk with deceptive claims about COVID-19, reports HillReporter.
“This Tweet is no longer available because it violated the Twitter Rules,” read the message.
Twitter has admitted that it will not be able to remove every Tweet that contains incomplete or disputed information about COVID-19.
Twitter is also likely to bring back public-facing verification requests for health experts to battle the spread of misinformation in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. (IANS)
Google cancels April Fools’ jokes
San Francisco: Google has decided to cancel this year’s April Fool’s prank out of respect for those fighting coronavirus pandemic globally.
An internal email from Google marketing head Lorraine Twohill reportedly said that Google is playing it straight on April 1 out of respect for those fighting the coronavirus, reported Business Insider.
“We have already stopped any centralised April Fool’s efforts but realised there may be smaller projects within teams that we don’t know about. Make sure your teams pause on any jokes they may have planned — internally or externally,” Twohill wrote.
“Our highest goal right now is to be helpful to people, so let’s save the jokes for next April, which will undoubtedly be a whole lot brighter than this one,” Twohill added.
Google usually goes all out on April 1, with numerous pranks across its many products.
The search engine giant has also updated its popular Duo chat app by increasing the group video user limit from 8 to 12 people into a single group call to help more people stay connected and practise social distancing.
The new 12-person limit compares to eight for house party, 32 for Apple’s FaceTime, 50 for Skype and Messenger, and 100 for Zoom’s free tier. (IANS)