Category: Life & Style

A UNESCO report has warned of a ‘negative link’ between excessive use of digital technology and student performance, calling for a ban on smartphones in schools. The move will help tackle classroom disruption, improve learning, and help protect children from cyberbullying, recommended the report.

The UN’s education, science and culture agency, UNESCO, has said that there was evidence that excessive mobile phone use was linked to reduced educational performance and high levels of screen time had a negative effect on children’s emotional stability.

The UN experts said the call for a smartphone ban is to underline the fact that digital technology, including artificial intelligence, should always be subservient to a “human-centred vision” of education, and never replace face-to-face interaction with teachers.

The UN agency warned policymakers against a thoughtless embrace of digital technology, arguing that its positive impact on learning outcomes and economic efficiency could be overstated, and new was not always better. With more learning moving online, especially in universities, it urged policymakers not to neglect the “social dimension” of education.

There was little robust research to demonstrate digital technology essentially added value to education, UNESCO said in its 2023 Global Education Monitor report. Much of the evidence was funded by private education companies trying to sell digital learning products. Their growing influence on education policy around the world was “a cause for concern,” it added.

A Norwegian woman and her sherpa guide climbed Mount K2 in Pakistan on July 27 – their 14th highest mountain in just over three months – becoming the world’s fastest climbers to climb all peaks above 8,000 metre (26,246 feet) in the shortest time.

Kristin Harila, 37, and Nepal’s Tenjen (Lama) Sherpa, 35, scaled K2, which is the world’s second highest peak at 8,611 metres (28,251 feet) with eight other guides, Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, said an official of their Nepali organising company, Seven Summit Treks (SST) in Kathmandu. They had scaled Shishapangma in Tibet region of China on April 26.

The climbers have beaten the earlier fastest climbing record of Nepal’s Nirmal Purja, who scaled all peaks in six months and one week in 2019. Both climbers have since scaled Everest, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu, and Annapurna in Nepal before proceeding to Pakistan, where they climbed Nanga Parbat, Gasherbrum I, Gasherbrum II and the Broad Peak before topping K2, completing all 14 in 92 days.

One of the sherpas, the 17-year-old Nima Rinjin Sherpa, also became the youngest to climb K2.

Kristin Harila is a former professional skier. Even though her team’s climb has been witnessed by other climbers, their achievement is yet to be confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

The pioneering conservation initiative Project Tiger has helped India secure 70 percent of the world’s tigers, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 28. In a video message to the G20 Environment and Climate Sustainability Ministerial Meeting in Chennai, the Prime Minister said that Project Lion and Project Dolphin are in the pipeline.

Under PM Modi’s leadership, India launched the International Big Cats Alliance (IBCA) at Mysore University in Karnataka, on the ‘Commemoration of 50 years of Project Tiger’ in April this year.

The IBCA aims to conserve seven big cats on our planet. The alliance is based on India’s learnings from Project Tiger, said PM Modi. He also emphasised India’s climate commitments, underlining that the country is one of the top 5 countries in the world in terms of installed renewable energy capacity. He added that India has consistently been at the forefront of taking action on biodiversity conservation, protection and enrichment.

The Environment and Climate Sustainability Minister’s Meeting was held after the conclusion of the two-day-long 4th Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) meeting. The ECSWG meeting witnessed the launch of the Resource Efficiency-Circular Economy Industry Coalition, which has been set up to unite nations, industries, and experts to propel the global circularity agenda forward. 

In a blunt warning to the world, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared that the era of global warming has ended and we have now entered an “era of global boiling.”

The alarming statement came as scientists confirmed that July 2023 is on track to become the hottest month ever recorded in human history. The past three weeks have been the hottest since records began, with global temperatures shattering previous records. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the EU’s Copernicus Earth observation programme attribute this unprecedented heat to the burning of fossil fuels, which has led to violent weather patterns.

“Humanity is in the hot seat,” Guterres told a press conference on July 27. “For vast parts of North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, it is a cruel summer. For the entire planet, it is a disaster. And for scientists, it is unequivocal – humans are to blame,” he added.

The UN Secretary-General emphasised that while it is still possible to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, this would require immediate and dramatic climate action.

Despite initiatives such as the rollout of renewable energy sources and initiatives from sectors such as shipping, he stressed that these efforts are not going far enough or fast enough. “Accelerating temperatures demand accelerated action,” he warned, underlining the urgency of the situation.

The recently-built Surat Diamond Bourse is believed to surpass the Pentagon in the US, as the world’s largest office building, according to a report in the CNN.

The impressive 15-story complex spans over 35 acres and features a unique design of nine interconnected rectangular structures originating from a central ‘spine.’ The bourse has been completed after four years of construction work. It is set to welcome its first occupants in November.

The “one-stop destination” for more than 65,000 diamond professionals, including cutters, polishers, and traders, it has over 7.1 million square feet of floor space. It has more than 4,700 office spaces that can also serve as small diamond-cutting and polishing workshops. The development also includes 131 elevators, and dining, retail, wellness, and conference facilities for the workers.

The size of the project was determined by demand, with all offices being purchased by diamond companies before construction commenced. It is aimed at promoting imports, exports and trading of diamonds, gems and jewellery from India. By providing state-of-the-art infrastructure to diamond traders, it intends to promote, advance, protect and develop trade, commerce and industry relating to gems and jewellery including cutting, polishing and processing.

Seven-year-old Indian-origin schoolgirl, Moksha Roy has received the British Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award for being the World’s Youngest Sustainability Advocate.  UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden bestowed the award to Roy.

Roy started volunteering for a United Nations’ sustainability initiative against microplastic pollution when she was just three. She has been recognised for volunteering for several sustainability campaigns, including raising funds to help children in need.

Championing UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), she has gone to significant lengths to have these included in the school curriculum and has been in communication with leaders all over the world to encourage them to consider this. Her school no longer uses plastic glitter, confetti or plastic art supplies, a testament to her strong beliefs and ability to change those around her to create a better world, said Dowden.

According to Downing Street, the Points of Light awards recognise outstanding people whose service is making a difference in their communities and whose story can inspire others towards innovative solutions to social challenges in their own communities and beyond.

Tens of millions battled dangerously high temperatures in the United States on July 16 as weather agencies forecast record heat over Europe and Japan.

Firefighters tried to control blazes in parts of Greece and the Canary Islands mid-July.

In Arizona, one of the hardest-hit US states, residents faced high temperatures. Its capital Phoenix recorded 16 straight days above 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius), with temperatures hitting 111 degrees Fahrenheit on July 15. California’s Death Valley, one of the hottest places on Earth, also registered new peaks on July 17, with the mercury possibly rising to 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54 degrees Celsius). Southern California is fighting numerous wildfires, including one in Riverside County that has burned more than 3,000 acres (1,214 hectares) and prompted evacuation orders.

In Canada, the government reported that wildfires had burned a record-breaking 10 million hectares this year, with more damage expected as the mercury keeps on rising.

In Europe, Italy faced weekend predictions of historic temperature highs with the health ministry issuing a red alert for 16 cities, including Rome, Bologna and Florence. The European Space Agency also warned that the islands of Sicily and Sardinia could suffer under temperatures as high as 48 degrees Celsius.

In China, the temperature soared to 80 degrees Celsius (176 degrees Fahrenheit) on July 19. A remote township in the Turpan Depression on July 16 registered a maximum temperature of 52.2 degrees Celsius (126 degrees Fahrenheit), overtaking the national record of 50.3 degrees Celsius (122.5 degrees Fahrenheit) set in the basin in 2015.

Honduras plans to build the only island prison colony in the Western Hemisphere and send its most-feared criminals there.

President Xiomara Castro plans to build an isolated prison for 2,000 gang leaders on the Islas del Cisne archipelago 155 miles off the coast in a larger crackdown after the gang-related massacre of 46 women in one prison.

Once common across Latin America, island prisons were located in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru. The last island prison closed in Mexico in 2019. On June 20, 46 women were killed in a fight between gang members in one prison in Tegucigalpa. Honduras officials hope that the planned island prison will prevent gang leaders from running their operations from inside the prisons. Escape would be difficult as the island takes about a day to reach by boat from the mainland.

Escape from the prison on Islas del Cisne would be difficult as the island takes about a day to reach by boat from the mainland. The only way to communicate is by satellite, the head of Honduras’ armed forces said in an interview. Honduras’ secretary of natural resources and the environment Lucky Medina said in an interview that the maximum security penitentiary will be built in harmony with nature.

Singapore’s passport is the most powerful in the world, according to the latest Henley Passport Index, which was published on July 18. According to the index, Singaporeans can travel to 192 out of 227 travel destinations in the world without a visa.

Japan’s passport ranked No. 1 on the index for the last five years. The country fell behind Germany, Italy and Spain, all of whom are tied for second place, offering visa-free access to 190 travel destinations to their passport holders. 

Japan is now in a tie for third on the index with six other nations, Austria, France, Finland, Luxembourg, South Korea and Sweden with 189 destinations without a visa. 

The index ranked the US a spot from last year to eighth place, tied with Lithuania, with 184 travel destinations without a visa.

According to Henley & Partners, a London-based global migration consultant group, only eight countries have seen less visa access than they had a decade ago. It found that the three weakest passports in the world are Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, which can take its citizens to 30, 29 and 27 destinations, respectively.

The index is based upon exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association, a major travel information database.

Doctors from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston have suggested the use of active ingredients in “magic mushrooms” and other psychedelics to bring comfort to women with late-stage cancer.

Conventional approaches to soothe women suffering from malignancies such as late-stage gynaecological cancer include psychotherapeutic approaches like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) but take too long to change old habits and need much stamina, wrote the researchers in a commentary published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.

Late stages associated with poor prognosis and chronic side effects of treatment add to the woes of women, the authors said. The commentary underlined that up to a quarter of ovarian cancer patients report depression, anxiety and death anxiety.

The doctors cited recent studies that showed that psychedelics, especially psilocybin, have promising effects in treating various psychological symptoms such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and end-of-life distress. It has also been shown to have beneficial effects when combined with psychotherapy in just one or two sessions, they added.

A recent analysis of 10 clinical trials found that one or two doses of psilocybin can have “rapid and sustained” antidepressant effects that lasted for up to six months, the doctors said.