The Washington National Cathedral in the US rang its bell 900 times on Monday evening to recognise the 900,000 deaths from Covid-19 that have been registered in the country, a milestone that was reached last week.
“Our nation marks another tragic milestone — 900,000 American lives have been lost to Covid-19,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement on Saturday.
“They were beloved mothers and fathers, grandparents, children, brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends. Each soul is irreplaceable.
“We pray for the loved ones they have left behind and together we keep every family enduring this pain in our hearts.
“After nearly two years, I know that the emotional, physical and psychological weight of this pandemic has been incredibly difficult to bear.”
Each ring of the cathedral's 12-tonne bell represents 1,000 lives lost to Covid-19 in what has become a national expression of grief.
“This cathedral joins you in grieving the lives lost to the coronavirus pandemic and we share the pain of anxiety and loss in these uncertain times,” organisers said in a memorial hosted on the cathedral's website.
“As a house of prayer for all people, this cathedral aims to serve as a sacred space where the nation can come together at times of both joy and sorrow.”
The cathedral is officially known as the Protestant Episcopal Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington.
The 57-acre cathedral often hosts funerals for national leaders, such as former senator Bob Dole and former US secretary of state Colin Powell.
You can watch the YouTube video stream of the bells here.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash
Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.
Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.
Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.
Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.
Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.
