Cities around the world were turning landmark lights off Saturday for Earth Hour, with this year's theme highlighting the link between the destruction of nature and increasing outbreaks of diseases like COVID-19.
The big picture: City landmarks around the world went dark for an hour at 8:30p.m. to mark global action on climate change. Organizer WWF said in a statement, "COVID-19 has given us a stark warning of the risks, vulnerabilities and inequalities of our interconnected systems."
5,000 masked music fans packed into the Palau Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday for a rock concert with no social distancing, as part of a study into the effectiveness of same-day COVID screenings.
Why it matters: Organizers say Spanish rock group Love of Lesbian's concert is the "first commercial event of this size held in Europe during the pandemic," AP notes. The event is an exception to Spain's four-person limits on gatherings in enclosed spaces, per Euronews.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is threatening to sue the federal government if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) doesn't allow cruises to restart by the summer.
Why it matters: Florida is at the heart of the U.S. cruise industry, with Miami, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral among the busiest ports in the world. Millions of passengers pass through in a typical year. It's worth billions of dollars for the state's economy, per AP.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's Facebook page has been frozen by the tech giant for claiming without evidence that a herbal remedy was a "miracle" cure for COVID-19, Reuters first reported.
Driving the news: Facebook said it removed a video, posted in January, in which Maduro makes the claims about Carvativir, an oral solution derived from thyme. The tech company said the video violated its policy against false claims "that something can guarantee prevention from getting COVID-19 or can guarantee recovery from COVID-19."
Populations of the American bald eagle have quadrupled since 2009 when there were only around 72,000 in the lower 48 states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week.
Why it matters: The birds, the national symbol of the U.S. and a sacred species to American Indian tribes, once teetered on the brink of extinction because of hunting, insecticide pollution and habitat loss.
A series of novels that have been turned into a TV show offers one of the most realistic visions of what the colonization of space might actually be like.
Why you should read and watch: "The Expanse" imagines a future where human beings have moved into space without growing much beyond the often unjust political and economic systems of today.
