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(CNN) — It’s safe to say no one in the world is sitting down to a three-plus hour, eight-course dinner costing hundreds of dollars at any of the top fine destinations around the globe.The pandemic’s stronghold has all but made it impossible for luxury restaurants to keep doing what they were doing prior to the shutdown.On Wednesday night, however, one of the world’s best restaurants, which (temporarily) closed its doors when New York City pressed pause, did a 180. Three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park, known for providing diners with a luxurious, unparalleled dining experience, among the most memorable in the world, is reincarnating itself. Starting Thursday, it will use its resources to become a food commissary to support New York City’s first responders and others in need.On Wednesday night, in an Instagram posted on his personal page, Daniel Humm, chef and owner of Make it Nice hospitality group, announced plans to turn the lights back on and help NYC weather a storm he thinks is just beginning.”Starting today, we have turned Eleven Madison Park into a commissary kitchen with the goal of producing thousands of meals per day for those who are working in the front lines and those who are deeply effected by the current crisis,” Humm wrote on his Instagram featuring a dark, empty kitchen.The pandemic sweeping the world has been an especially dark time for high-end restaurants, many of which quickly pivoted to take out and delivery — alcoholic beverages to-go included — keeping a bare-bones staff and trying to stay afloat.Not all Michelin-starred restaurants attempted the shift. And, indeed, a restaurant such as Eleven Madison Park, where the price of dinner includes otherworldly hospitality and just the right amount of guest coddling, might have struggled to make a smooth transition to takeout.The economic consequences that posh restaurants have to contend with because of their standstill status are dire, says Hillary Dixler Canavan, the restaurant editor for the global food site Eater.Eleven Madison Park has partnered with a local nonprofit to serve food to first responders.Jake Chessum”The high-end restaurants that are closed are bleeding cash right now,” she says. “In the US, they haven’t gotten economic relief from the government yet, and while some may get cash reprieve by pivoting to a takeout model, broadly speaking, to-go food at upscale restaurants isn’t profitable unless you do high volumes. These places weren’t designed for pick-up and delivery.”As some mid-range restaurants struggle to serve customers during this uncertain period and as more upscale dining destinations opting for an all-out closure, dates of reopening TBD, Eleven Madison Park’s shift is noteworthy.To bring the commissary kitchen to fruition, the restaurant has partnered with Rethink Food NYC, a non-profit that upcycles excess food to distribute meals to underserved communities in NYC.At this time, NYC’s underserved communities includes the men and women on the front lines of the pandemic and individuals who’d typically rely on food banks, many of which have closed due to health concerns around Covid-19. Many doctors and nurses and other hospital staff are staying in Manhattan hotels, many of which have also transitioned from one day accommodating tourists to the next providing a safe, clean space for first responders.Eleven Madison Park is making approximately 2,000 meals a day, which Rethink is picking up and delivering to both hospitals and New Yorkers in need,” Rethink executive director of strategic initiatives Meg Savage tells CNN. As soup kitchens around the city are closing, Savage says Rethink is scaling operations in response so they can serve more food to more people who need it.Eleven Madison Park could not be immediately reached for comment, but the response, according to Humm’s Instagram has been overwhelming. Less than 24 hours after making the announcement, Humm’s post had received over 21,000 likes and over 1,000 supportive, praising comments.Shivani Vora contributed to this story.

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Find out why this stunning archipelago is a diver’s paradise.

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From the abundant wildlife to one of the world’s rare pink sand beaches, here’s why the island nation is a great spot to visit.

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Delhi (CNN) — India has 22 official languages. But the real beauty isn’t just in hearing them spoken — it’s in seeing them rendered in script.Scribes sat on the steps of the Jama Mosque putting pen to paper. They chatted, they sipped tea and, on some days, visitors came to watch them work. The minarets of the decorative mosque still tower over the market, but now only a handful of artists remain.One of them, renowned calligrapher and New Delhi native Qamar Dagar, is fighting to keep the tradition alive in an increasingly digital era. “India was a hub of Perso-Arabic, Sanskrit, Pali and many ancient calligraphy in different scripts once upon a time, ” she says. Tucked away in Old Delhi, the bookshops of Urdu Bazaar display some of the finest examples of calligraphy, according to Dagar. Many sell religious texts, which are often ornately handwritten to signify the author’s dedication to learning. It’s not a coincidence that faith and handwriting are so closely linked. Qamar Dagar is fighting to preserve the vanishing art of calligraphy in India.CNN”Calligraphy is a spiritual practice,” Dagar explains, “because it allows one to understand oneself through this medium, and to help learn how to discipline yourself.”It is also a form of self-expression. Dagar uses an abstract style — called pictorial calligraphy — that combines lettering and imagery to reveal her personal understanding of the words depicted.”It’s really a sharing of… my life in a way, of how I look at things, of my emotions. Because art is all about emotions,” she says.But simply promoting her own work isn’t enough. Dagar aims to protect the livelihoods of Delhi’s remaining calligraphers as well.In 2017, Dagar received the Nari Shakti Award — the highest civilian honor for a woman in India. Courtesy India Ministry of Women and Child DevelopmentShe created an organization called the Qalamkaari Creative Calligraphy Trust, which organizes events for artists to share their work with the public. In 2017, she received the Nari Shakti Award, which is the highest civilian honor for a woman in India. Dagar is also passing on her own knowledge to the next generation. She holds three-day workshops with young people at schools and leads calligraphy sessions at the Andaz Delhi Hotel to introduce tourists to the medium. “Now, people are realizing the importance of [calligraphy] and what India can contribute to this field,” she says. “There is no dearth of talent here.”

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San Rafael Waterfall on the Coca River was a prominent tourist attraction for the country, and according to NASA, drew tens of thousands of people every year. The water dropped 150 feet into a crater-like opening on the other side. Now, the iconic waterfall is gone, replaced by three streams, NASA said. All tourism to the site has been closed and it no longer appears on the country’s travel website. Experts at the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) in Ecuador believe the event happened in early February upstream, and diverted the current river pattern underground. Shortly after, MOE technicians said they inspected the waterfall and reported “possible undermining of the river’s path, prior to the fall of the waterfall.” However, they could not determine an exact cause at the time. There is some discrepancy over if it was a natural phenomenon, or caused by construction of a hyrdoplant on the river. The Ministry of Tourism does not plan to reconstruct the falls, NASA said.

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(CNN) — Dozens of spring breakers from Texas boarded a plane for fun and came home with coronavirus.About 70 people in their 20s chartered a plane from Austin, Texas, to Mexico for spring break two weeks ago. They went against the advice of White House officials who asked that people avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 and nonessential air travel.Now 44 of those people have tested positive for coronavirus — all of them University of Texas at Austin students, a university spokesman told CNN on Wednesday. An elected official had a blunt message for the spring breakers.”Quit being an a**,” Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen told CNN affiliate KXAN. “Get over yourselves. Whether you think this is an issue or not, it is. Whether you think it could affect you or not, it does. The reality of it is, if I’m a college kid who’s going to spring break in Mexico, you’re affecting a lot of people. Grow up.”What’s also alarming is that some of the passengers who went on the trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, took commercial flights home, the Austin Public Health Department said. Dozens of other passengers from the chartered flight are being monitored, public health officials said.”The virus often hides in the healthy and is given to those who are at grave risk of being hospitalized or dying,” Austin-Travis County Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott said in a statement. “While younger people have less risk for complications, they are not immune from severe illness and death from COVID-19.”The local public health department and UT Health UT Health Austin and University Health Services have contacted all of the passengers on the plane using flight manifests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The University of Texas at Austin is working to help public health officials. “The university is working closely with Austin Public Health to assist in contact tracing,” university spokesman J.B. Bird said. “The incident is a reminder of the vital importance of taking seriously the warnings of public health authorities on the risks of becoming infected with COVID-19 and spreading it to others.”The students who tested positive are in self-isolation, health officials said. The Department of State Health Services has been alerted.University president Gregory L. Fenves urged students to practice good judgment and think about how their actions can affect others.”(It) is our responsibility to follow local, state and national public health orders, and use good judgment during this crisis,” Fenves said in a statement Wednesday. “Our conduct and the decisions we make have direct ramifications on our own health and the health of everyone in our city and beyond. We must do everything we can to limit the spread of this virus — the consequences of reckless actions at this time could not be clearer.”

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