Dehradun: A rainbow-coloured sun halo was sighted here on Sunday afternoon prompting the residents to record the unusual visual spectacle in their mobile phones and uploading it on the social media where it soon became viral.A rare optic phenomenon, the sun halo or ‘22 degree halo’ appears like a rainbow encircling the sun or moon at a radius of approximately 22 degrees.It occurs due to sunlight refracting in millions of hexagonal ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere, Director Meteorological Centre Bikram Singh said. —PTI

A rainbow-coloured sun halo was sighted here on Sunday afternoon prompting the residents to record the unusual visual spectacle in their mobile phones and uploading it on the social media where it soon became viral.

Rare Spectacle: Rainbow-Coloured Sun Halo Sighted In Dehradun

Washington: According to a new study, climate change will increase opportunities to see rainbows. The study's authors estimate that by 2100, the average land location on Earth will experience about 5% more days with rainbows than at the beginning of the 21st century.
Rainbows are produced when water droplets refract sunlight. Sunlight and rainfall are therefore essential ingredients for rainbows. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels are warming the atmosphere, which changes patterns and amounts of rainfall and cloud cover.
"Living in Hawai'i, I felt grateful that stunning, ephemeral rainbows were a part of my daily life," said the study's lead author, Kimberly Carlson, now at New York University's Department of Environmental Studies. "I wondered how climate change might affect such rainbow viewing opportunities." Camilo Mora, at the UH Manoa Geography and Environment department, was intrigued by the question and pitched it as the focus of a project for one of his graduate courses. According to Mora, "We often study how climate change directly affects people's health and livelihoods, for instance via the occurrence of heat stroke during climate change-enhanced heat waves." However, few researchers have examined how climate change might affect the aesthetic qualities of our environment, and no one had bothered to map rainbow occurrences, much less under climate change. To answer this question, a team including students at UH Manoa looked at photographs uploaded to Flickr, a social media platform where people share photographs. They sorted through tens of thousands of photos taken around the world, labeled with the word "rainbow," to identify rainbows generated from the refraction of light by rain droplets. Amanda Wong, then an undergraduate student in Global Environmental Science in the UH Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and a co-author on the paper, noted, "We had to sort through photos of rainbow artwork, rainbow flags, rainbow trout, rainbow eucalyptus, and rainbow foods to find the real rainbows."
Then, the scientists trained a rainbow prediction model based on rainbow photo locations and maps of precipitation, cloud cover, and sun angle. Finally, they applied their model to predict present day and future rainbow occurrences over global land areas. The model suggests that islands are rainbow hotspots.
"Islands are the best places to view rainbows," according to Steven Businger, professor of Atmospheric Sciences in SOEST. "This is because island terrain lifts the air during daily sea breezes, producing localized showers surrounded by clear skies that let the sun in to produce majestic rainbows."
The Hawaiian Islands, recently dubbed the "rainbow capital of the world," are predicted to experience a few more days with rainbows per year. The authors stopped short of discussing how changes in rainbow occurrence might affect human wellbeing. However, rainbows are an important part of human culture throughout history and around the world and are aesthetically pleasing.
"Climate change will generate pervasive changes across all aspects of the human experience on Earth. Shifts in intangible parts of our environment such as sound and light are part of these changes and deserve more attention from researchers," said Carlson.
In this case, the overall findings are encouraging it seems people will have more opportunities to make a rainbow connection under climate change. —ANI

 According to a new study, climate change will increase opportunities to see rainbows. The study's authors estimate that by 2100, the average land location on Earth will experience about 5% more days with rainbows than at the beginning of the 21st century.

Climate Change To Produce More Rainbows: Study

Prayagraj: Ramakant Dubey, an official of the Prayagraj-based Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), has not slept peacefully since April 15, the day gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead.

Dubey has sought security cover for himself and his family since he and his family apprehend retaliation from the henchmen of slain gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad.

It was Dubey who had lodged an FIR against Atiq in February 2017 that had led to the arrest of the latter.

After this, the gangster-turned-politician never walked free -- right till his death on April 15 night.

On December 14, 2016, Atiq Ahmed, along with a dozen henchmen, had created ruckus at SHUATS in support of a youngster (a student at the deemed university) who also used to give tuition to Ahmed's two youngest sons.

After being rusticated by SHUATS officials on charges of cheating during examinations, the youth had sought Atiq's support to force officials to revoke the rustication order.

Atiq asked SHUATS officials to withdraw the rustication order, but when they refused citing rules, the gangster and his henchmen barged on to the campus in Naini and allegedly beat up whoever they found there.

He even went to the Vice-Chancellor's office.

Unable to find him there, he allegedly assaulted SHUATS PRO Ramakant Dubey after locking the room. If the FIR in this regard is to be believed, he even threatened to kill him.

Guddu Muslim and Sabir (now accused in lawyer Umesh Pal murder) were also present along with Atiq, police officials confirmed.

"I got the FIR lodged on the day of the incident at Naini police station and he was arrested in February 2017 after the Allahabad high court questioned the police over delay in action against him and sent him to jail," recalled Ramakant Dubey.

The arrest led to many more cases being registered against Atiq and he never could secure bail despite several efforts in lower courts and the Allahabad High Court.

He said that Atiq and his supporters held him responsible for the troubles he faced after his arrest in the SHUATS case.

After he was killed along with his brother Khalid Azeem while on police remand in Prayagraj on April 15, Dubey said: "I fear that his henchmen, who are on the run, could target me in retaliation. I had approached local officials for my security, but in vain.

"Therefore, on April 18, I wrote to the chief minister, UP DGP, principal secretary (home), ADG (Prayagraj zone), district magistrate-Prayagraj and Prayagraj police Commissioner seeking security."

Dubey claimed that he had received threats from Atiq while he was in state jails and even when the gangster was in Sabarmati jail of Gujarat.

He said officials were informed about these threat calls from time to time but no action was taken.

Ramakant Dubey, an official of the Prayagraj-based Sam Higginbottom University has not slept peacefully since the day gangster Atiq Ahmad was shot dead

Why this man has not slept since the night Atiq was killed

New Delhi: At the G20 Health Ministers' Meeting, participants reached an agreement on the importance of providing low and middle income countries, as well as small island developing states, with equitable access to safe, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures. All 25 paragraphs of the outcome document addressing the geopolitical situation in Ukraine were approved by all G20 delegations with the exception of paragraph 22, which deals with the chair's summary.
According to the document released after the 19th of August meeting in Gandhinagar, a consensus was reached on establishing a platform for making open-source and inter-operable digital solutions readily available, as well as establishing a research and development and manufacturing network for vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. The health ministers also hope that by May 2024, negotiations in the intergovernmental negotiating body (INB) for a legally binding World Health Organisation convention, accord, or other international instrument on pandemic prevention, readiness, and response would have resulted in a positive resolution. According to reports, health ministers agreed to make climate-resilient health systems development a top priority in order to reduce vulnerability to the effects of climate change. They also pledged to work towards creating low-carbon/low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission health systems and healthcare supply chains that provide high-quality care.
By bolstering multi-sectoral governance, coordination, research and development, infection prevention and control, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), awareness of AMR, responsible use of antimicrobials, and preservation of existing therapeutics across human, animal, and plant sectors through antimicrobials, the G20 members committed to tackling AMR (antimicrobial resistance) comprehensively following the One Health approach. Also, according to reports, they acknowledged the potential importance of traditional and complementary medicine (T&amp;CM) based on evidence and noted WHO's initiatives in this respect, such as global and collaborating centres and clinical trial registries.—Inputs from Agencies

At the G20 Health Ministers' Meeting, participants reached an agreement on the importance of providing low and middle income countries, as well as small island developing states, with equitable access to safe, quality-assured, and affordable vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other medical countermeasures. 

G20 Health Ministers call for building resilient, equitable access to affordable medicines in developing world

Washington DC [US]: The White House is closely monitoring the situation after the 'vehicle explosion' incident at the US-Canada border that killed two people, a senior official told reporters on Wednesday (local time). The White House official also informed that law enforcement is on scene and the matter is being investigated.
"The White House is closely monitoring the situation, law enforcement is on scene and investigating," the senior White House official said. This comes after a 'vehicle explosion' at the US-Canada border crossing near Niagara Falls in the afternoon hours on Wednesday killed two people, CBS News reported citing sources.  Four US-Canada border crossings in the region have been closed as investigators respond to the situation, it said. A senior US law enforcement official told CBS News that the car was coming from the US side. It hit the customs station and the vehicle was charred. It is not yet known why the car exploded. A senior administration official described the incident to CBS News as "more than a freak accident, but we don't yet have details." A Canadian visitor to New York said he was walking close by when the incident happened and he noticed the vehicle speeding in the direction of the border crossing. Meanwhile, the FBI Buffalo Field Office said in a statement that the incident is being investigated in coordination with local, state and federal law enforcement partners.  "The FBI Buffalo Field Office is investigating a vehicle explosion at the Rainbow Bridge, a border crossing between the US and Canada in Niagara Falls. The FBI is coordinating with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners in this investigation. As this situation is very fluid, that's all we can say at this time," it posted on X. The Rainbow Bridge, which links Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Niagara Falls, New York, is a well-liked tourist destination. The Lewiston-Queenston Bridge, the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, and the Peace Bridge are the other border crossings in the area. Following the incident, New York Governor Kathy Hochul has said in a statement: "At my direction, the New York State Police is actively working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor all points of entry to New York". Adding further, she stated that as of now, she is on her way to Buffalo to "meet with law enforcement and emergency responders" and take stock of the situation.  The Rainbow Bridge crossing connecting the US and Canada near Niagara Falls has been shut as the federal authorities in Buffalo, New York, have said that an investigation is underway.
—ANI

The White House is closely monitoring the situation after the 'vehicle explosion' incident at the US-Canada border

White House "closely monitoring" vehicle explosion at US-Canada border, says official

The world's largest cryptocurrency has leapt 22 per cent this year to $52,005, pushing it past a market value of $1 trillion mark for the first time since its record heyday of late 2021.
Its resurgence has electrified the broader cryptocurrency market, including ether and other digital coins, which has now exceeded $2 trillion, as per data from CoinGecko.  The sector has been bolstered by the US regulatory approval of several spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), from BlackRock and Fidelity among others, which allow access to the crypto coin vis regular stock exchanges.  The US spot ETFs added 60,000 bitcoin in the first month of their launch, more than twice the miner production in the same period, brokerage Bernstein said.  "The amount of flows far outstrips anyone's expectation," said Mark Connors, head of research at Canada's 3iQ Corp.  Crypto trading volumes are also robust.  Total spot trading volumes on centralized exchanges rose 4.4 per cent to $1.4 trillion in January, recording the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the highest reading since June 2022, a report by London-based researcher CCData said.  The resurgence of interest helped the largest listed crypto exchange Coinbase Global post its first quarterly profit in two years last week .  "The bitcoin appreciation is contributing to better spot bitcoin ETF flows, which is in turn driving bitcoin prices higher, and pulling other tokens higher as well," J.P.Morgan analysts said.
$150,000 BITCOIN IN 2025?  Many industry watchers say the outlook is looking bright at the moment, with investors buying bitcoin ahead of the blockchain's "halving" - a preplanned process that reduces mining rewards in half every four years - due in April.  Gautam Chhugani, analyst at Bernstein, expects 2024 to be a break-out year for cryptocurrencies where bitcoin hits all-time highs followed by a peak of $150,000 by mid-2025.  "This optimistic outlook is bolstered by the expectation of an upcoming halving event and the possibility of interest-rate reductions," CCData analysts said.  While bitcoin remain 32 per cent away from its record high of $69,000, it notched an all-time high against the Japanese yen at 7,919,000 yen last week.  Beware Greedy Correction  It's not all crypto high-fives: There are some signs the market is being by investors driven by FOMO.  CoinGlass' Crypto Fear Greed Index, a scale of 0 to 100 where zero denotes "extreme fear" and 100 signals "extreme greed", hovered at 72. Usually when investors get too greedy, it signals the market is due for a correction.  Riskier assets such as bitcoin could be threatened by persistently high interest rates; traders' have pushed back bets of a rate cut to June from March following a string of strong US economic data.  "While we remain bullish with liquidity rushing back into risk assets, inflation being sticky over 3% remains a downside risk and would also mean increased volatility across markets," analysts at crypto trading firm QCP Markets said.
—Reuters

Bitcoin's surge propels market value past $1 trillion; US-approved ETFs drive $2 trillion crypto market. Coinbase profits, 2024 predictions, and caution amid greed.

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Rare Spectacle: Rainbow-Coloured Sun Halo Sighted In Dehradun

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Rare Spectacle: Rainbow-Coloured Sun Halo Sighted In Dehradun

Inam Ansari

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