Category: Life & Style

On Wednesday, the European Union issued a warning to consumers to avoid using their garments as throwaway facial tissues and announced plans to combat the polluting usage of trendy fast fashion.

In the EU, almost three-quarters of all textiles and clothing are imported. In 2019, the EU’s 27 nations imported more than 80 billion euros (USD89.2 billion) in clothes, mainly from China, Bangladesh, and Turkey, and consumers discard 11 kilograms (more than 24 pounds) of textiles each year.

As per the new rule, the EU executive arm call for a mandatory minimize the use of recycled fibres by 2030 and also aim to ban the destruction of many unsold products.

Additionally, the European Commission regulations seek to contain the release of microplastics and improve global working conditions in the garment industry. The Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said, “We want sustainable products to become the norm. The clothes we wear should last longer than three washes”.

It would require a major shift in a sector that, in order to keep costs low, produces items with a short shelf life in developing nations in Asia and Latin America, often under poor working conditions.

A $7.3 billion plan was unveiled by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut carbon emissions. The nation aims to meet its target by significantly reducing the oil-and-gas sector. 

According to the plan announced on Tuesday, $2.3 billion (2.9 billion Canadian dollars) will be invested in zero-emission vehicles and related infrastructure, as well as $800 million (one billion Canadian dollars) to “green” Canadian homes and buildings.

On Tuesday, PM Trudeau linked Europe’s effort to reduce the dependency on Russian oil and natural gas after its invasion of Ukraine. He said, “The leaders I spoke with in Europe over the past few weeks were clear: They don’t just want to end their dependence on Russian oil and gas, they want to accelerate the energy transformation to clean and green power. The whole world is focusing energy and Canda cannot afford not to do that”.

As a part of this effort, the provincial and territorial governments will work together to develop a plan for capping oil-and-gas emissions so that net-zero emissions will be achieved by 2050 and oil-and-gas methane emissions can be reduced by at least 75 per cent by 2030.

India’s power project replaces the Chinese venture in Sri Lanka which was cleared by Colombo last year.

Sri Lanka’s Cabinet announced in January 2021 that Sinosoar-Etechwin had won the competitive bid for renewable energy projects in Nainativu, Delft or Neduntheevu, and Analaitivu islands. The Indian government expressed concern to Sri Lanka over the Chinese project in Palk Bay, only 50 km off the coast of Tamil Nadu.

The same project could be executed with a grant instead of a loan by New Delhi. Colombo was unable to decide and later suspended the project for over a year, apparently deterring China.  In a recent press briefing, the Chinese ambassador in Colombo criticised the projects being interrupted for “unknown reasons”, saying it sent the wrong message to potential foreign investors.

Meanwhile, India is set to build a hybrid power project on three Islands off Jaffna. This project was signed during the meeting between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and G.L. Peiris EAM of Sri Lanka.

The upcoming project is the third on the list to be built in Sri Lanka’s north and east. The new project comes post recent agreements for National Thermal Power Corporation’s solar venture in the eastern Sampur town along with the Adani Group’s renewable energy projects in Mannar and Pooneryn in the north.

“CODA”, a sweet heartwarming story of a child of Deaf adults (the acronym in the title) finding her way with her family and fulfilling her dreams won the Academy Award for best picture, a win that no one could have imagined when awards season began. Perhaps Marlee Matlin, the first person cast in “CODA”, could have imagined it.

 The Oscar for adapted screenplay went to writer-director Siân Heder. Apple TV+ became the first streaming service to win the industry’s most prestigious award on Sunday.

Despite only having three nominations, “CODA” won the best picture. A film hasn’t won the best picture with fewer than four nominations since 1932’s “Grand Hotel”

Producer Patrick Wachsberger on winning the award said, “I really want to thank you for recognizing a movie of love and family at this difficult time that we need today.”

Despite Mattlin’s unshakeable faith, “CODA” stands out as one of the most unlikely best picture winners in Oscar history. The Academy has rarely recognized feel-good family stories in the past, so even getting a nomination was far from guaranteed. Family dramas are often viewed negatively at the Oscars.

“CODA” earned three awards, including for Heder and Kotsur, a low total for the best picture contender

American mathematician Dennis P. Sullivan is awarded the Abel Prize for the year 20202 by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

According to the citation, the award was given for his contributions to topology in its broadest sense, including its algebraic, geometric, and dynamical aspects.

A field of mathematics known as topology was founded in the nineteenth century, and it studies surfaces whose properties do not change despite deformation. A circle and a square are topologically equivalent, and a doughnut and a coffee mug with one handle are topologically equivalent, but a sphere and a coffee mug are not.

The concept was so striking to him that he used it in later research, especially during a 10-year struggle to show mathematically, by 1990, the numerical universality discovered by physicists in the mid-1970s.

Among his key accomplishments is the development of a new understanding of rational homotopy theory, a subfield of algebraic topology. In the late 1970s, he began studying dynamical systems, a subject considered far removed from algebraic topology. Dynamical systems is the study of a point moving in geometrical space.

A new field of string topology was created by him and his wife along with a collaborator, Moira Chas by discovering a new invariant for a manifold based on loops in 1999.

On Tuesday, Novavx Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine has got emergency-use authorization from the Drug Controller General of India for 12-17 years children.

Novavax is manufactured and marketed in India by the Serum Institute of India under the name Covovax. Its vaccine authorization is a global first for the 12-17 years age group.

As per the trials conducted, Novavax is 80% effective against the virus. The testing was conducted on 2,247 teens between the age group of 12-17 years.

In a mid-to late-stage study involving 460 Indian adolescents, the company said its vaccine produced an immune response in the same age group

Following Biological E’s Corbevax, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCoV-D and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Covovax is the fourth COVID-19 vaccine to be authorised for adolescents 12 years and older in India.

Last week, India began vaccinating children aged 12 to 14 with Biological E’s Corbevax, which had previously been given to children 15 and older. In December, the country’s drug regulator approved the COVID-19 vaccine for 18-year-olds and over.

Four countries in southern and eastern Africa launched a drive to vaccinate more than nine million children against polio this week. Malawi confirmed the outbreak and an urgent vaccination campaign has started.

Across the country, drops of inoculation are being placed in the mouths of children including the capital, Lilongwe and the country’s largest city, Blantyre.

On Thursday, according to UNICEF, the campaign will expand and include neighbouring countries of Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. UNICEF is working along with the government and other partners in Africa.

The campaign is said to have three rounds of vaccination in the next few months with a goal of vaccinating more than 20 million children.

UNICEF Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa, Mohamed M. Fall said, “This is the first case of wild polio detected in Africa for more than five years and UNICEF is working closely with government and partners to do everything possible to stop the virus in its tracks”.

He further added that polio spreads fast and can kill or cause permanent paralysis. Drinking water contaminated by the faeces of a person carrying the virus is the most common way to contract polio. Children under five years of age and those living in areas with poor sanitation are most at risk.

The drive started after a three-year-old girl was paralysed by wild poliovirus in Lilongwe.

Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi thanked Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for returning 29 antiquities. Ahead of the virtual meet between the two nations on Monday, Australia sent these artefacts to India.

PM Modi said, “I would like to especially thank you for taking the initiative to return ancient Indian artefacts. Among them are hundreds of year-old idols and pictures illegally removed from Rajasthan, West Bengal, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh along with many other Indian states”.

The relationship between the nations is strengthening and the move is termed historic. Mr Modi had inspected the artefacts that included several paintings and sculptures which are made up of stone, marble, brass, bronze and paper.

The origin of these paintings and sculptures can be traced to several corners of India which are broadly ranged into six categories. The themes are- Shiva and his disciples, Worshipping Shakti, Lord Vishnu and his forms, portraits and decorative objects, and Jain tradition. The artefacts are from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and West Bengal which date back to the ninth to tenth century CE.

Earlier, during Mr Modi’s visit to Australia, a 900-year-old Shiva sculpture was returned by the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott. The sculpture was allegedly smuggled by the infamous art dealer Subhash Kapoor.

Finland is crowned as the world’s happiest country for the fifth year in a row. The report provides scores based on an average of data over a three-year period on a scale of zero to 10.

The World Happiness Report, reports are based on people’s own assessment of their happiness along with economic and social data. The happiness score considers GDP, social support, personal freedom, as well as the level of corruption in each country along with a personal sense of well-being based on Gallup polls in each country.

The authors also used social media data this year to compare people’s emotions before and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

As per the annual UN-sponsored index, Afghanistan is ranked as the unhappiest closely lowered by Lebanon. Lebanon is facing an economic meltdown and slipped to second from last on 146 countries indeed just below Zimbabwe.

The biggest boost in well being was recorded by Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia and the largest fall included Lebanon, Venezuela and Afghanistan.

The list was completed before the Russia-Ukraine war. Co-author Jan Emmanuel De Neve said, “This (index) presents a stark reminder of the material and immaterial damage that war does to its many victims”.

A long-awaited intellectual property waiver for the COVID-19 vaccine has been reached by the United States, European Union, India, and South Africa.

There are still some elements of the consensus agreement that need to be finalized, such as whether the patent waivers will last three years or five years. A comprehensive WTO waiver that had been supported by the United States would apply only to COVID-19 vaccine patents.

According to some source, the talks has described the text as a tentative agreement among the four World Trade Organization members that requires formal approval from the parties ahead of making it official.  A WTO agreement must be approved by all 164 member countries before it can be adopted.

As per the document authorization, use of “patented subject matter required for the production and supply of COVID-19 vaccines without the consent of the right holder to the extent necessary to address the COVID-19 pandemic”.

To grant knowledge to many countries lacking expertise, especially for advanced mRNA-type vaccines, it said IP rights would also be waived for ingredients and processes necessary to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine.