Toxic haze in Delhi after Diwali festival
Residents of India’s capital, Delhi, woke up to smoky skies as air quality dropped after the festival of Diwali.
People in the city burst crackers late into Sunday night despite a ban on fireworks due to high pollution levels.
Delhi has been battling toxic air for weeks, with the government announcing an early winter break for schools in an effort to protect children.
The city has high pollution through the year due to factors including vehicular emissions and dust.
But the problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants – such as those produced by firecrackers – in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.
On Monday morning, according to the Sameer app – which provides hourly updates based on federal pollution control board data – the Air Quality Index (AQI) across 37 monitoring stations in Delhi was above 200, with several places recording readings above 350. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 – fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases – in the air.
Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate while those between 201 and 300 are categorised as poor. Anything over 300 is categorised as “very poor” and a figure higher than 500 is considered “severe”.
Prolonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause discomfort and breathing difficulties to people.
India’s Supreme Court has banned the use of firecrackers during Diwali, only allowing “green crackers” or those with reduced emissions. The Delhi government has also banned firecrackers during Diwali for the past few years, but there is little enforcement of the rule.
The ban on fireworks has also developed political tones, with some arguing that it is an attempt to target Hindu festivals.
On Monday, Delhi’s environment minister Gopal Rai alleged that leaders from the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – which is in power nationally but in the opposition in Delhi – had “incited” people to light firecrackers.
“The bursting of firecrackers has increased pollution levels in Delhi. Not many people have burst firecrackers but it was done in some places in a targeted manner,” he said.
Leaders from the BJP had not officially responded to this.The poor air quality on Monday came after rains on Friday morning led to a drop in pollution levels in Delhi over the weekend
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Popular live video chat website Omegle is shutting down after 14 years following user claims of abuse.
The service, which allowed users to socialise with random strangers online, grew in popularity with children and young people during the pandemic.
Omegle’s closure announcement included an image of its logo on a gravestone.
Founder Leif K Brooks said in a statement that operating the website was “no longer sustainable, financially nor psychologically”.
The decision comes as social media platforms are facing increased scrutiny from regulators around the world.
Just this week, Ofcom issued its first guidance for tech platforms complying with the UK Online Safety Act and the communications regulator singled out online grooming.
Omegle has been the subject of controversy, including in a landmark case where a young American accused the platform of randomly pairing her with a paedophile.
The account user was a minor when the incident took place and the lawsuit against Omegle was filed 10 years later in November 2021.
Omegle’s legal team argued in court that the website was not to blame for what happened, and denied that it was a haven for predators.
On Thursday, Mr Brooks said “There can be no honest accounting of Omegle without acknowledging that some people misused it, including to commit unspeakably heinous crimes.”
However, he also pointed, without giving specific details, to the “constant barrage of attacks on communication services” like Omegle by “a malicious subset of users”.
“As much as I wish circumstances were different, the stress and expense of this fight – coupled with the existing stress and expense of operating Omegle, and fighting its misuse – are simply too much,” Mr Brooks said.
“Frankly, I don’t want to have a heart attack in my 30s,” he added.
The announcement also drew comments from users on social media who shared their favourite memories of Omegle. Their reactions ranged from surprise to nostalgia.
The BBC found that Omegle has been mentioned in more than 50 cases against paedophiles in countries including the UK, US and Australia.
Video-sharing platform TikTok banned sharing links to Omegle, after a BBC investigation in 2021 found what appeared to be children exposing themselves to strangers on the website.
Imagery of young children carrying out sexual acts on camera has risen by more than tenfold since the pandemic lockdowns, according to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).
In 2022, the IWF logged more than 63,000 webpages showing the material compared to 5,000 before the pandemic.
Source: BBC
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Earlier the Israeli military said “there are tactical, local pauses for humanitarian aid for Gazan civilians” and made clear “there is no ceasefire”.
US President Joe Biden says Israel’s decision to implement pauses in fighting comes after he has been speaking to the country’s leadership about the issue for weeks.
Writing on X (formerly Twitter), he says that from Thursday, there will be two humanitarian corridors in Gaza allowing people to escape the hostilities.
Biden also says that while the number of aid trucks getting supplies into the Strip via Egypt’s Rafah border is increasing, the US is aiming for at least 150 trucks a day. On Wednesday, that number was 106.
On Thursday heavy fighting was reported around two big hospitals in Gaza City.
(BBC News)
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is in hospital in Mexico, according to multiple reports.
It is not currently clear what the cause is. The 73-year-old was in Mexico City attending the World Business Forum (WBF), a business conference.
An unnamed source from the WBF said that Mr Wozniak fainted on Wednesday afternoon at the event, according to the CNN news website.
The BBC has contacted representatives of Mr Wozniak for comment.
Better known in the tech world as Woz, Mr Wozniak is a Silicon Valley veteran who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976 and invented the first Apple computer.
(BBC News)
