Current Final

Category: Lifestyle

  • India’s solar observation mission reaches its final orbit

    India’s solar observation mission reaches its final orbit

    India’s solar observation mission on Saturday entered the Sun’s orbit after a four-month journey, the latest success for the space exploration ambitions of the world’s most populous nation.

    The Aditya-L1 mission was launched in September and is carrying an array of instruments to measure and observe the Sun’s outermost layers.

    India’s science and technology minister Jitendra Singh said on social media that the probe had reached its final orbit “to discover the mysteries of Sun-Earth connection”.

    The United States and the European Space Agency have sent numerous probes to the centre of the solar system, beginning with NASA’s Pioneer programme in the 1960s.

    Japan and China have both launched their solar observatory missions into Earth’s orbit.

    But the latest mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation is the first by any Asian nation to be placed in orbit around the Sun.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed it as yet another “landmark” in the country’s space programme.

    “It is a testament to the relentless dedication of our scientists,” he said on social media.

    “We will continue to pursue new frontiers of science for the benefit of humanity.”

    Aditya, named after a Hindu Sun deity, has travelled 1.5 million kilometres (932,000 miles) from the Earth — still only one percent of the distance between humanity’s home planet and the star at the centre of our solar system.

    It is now at a point where the gravitational forces of both celestial bodies cancel out, allowing it to remain in a stable halo orbit around the Sun.

    The orbiter, which reportedly cost $48 million, will study coronal mass ejections, a periodic phenomenon that sees huge discharges of plasma and magnetic energy from the Sun’s atmosphere.

    These bursts are so powerful they can reach the Earth and potentially disrupt the operations of satellites.

    The mission also aims to shed light on the dynamics of several other solar phenomena by imaging and measuring particles in the Sun’s upper atmosphere.

    India has a comparatively low-budget space programme, but one that has grown considerably in size and momentum since it first sent a probe to orbit the Moon in 2008.

    In August last year, India became the first country to land an uncrewed craft near the largely unexplored lunar south pole, and just the fourth nation to land on the Moon.

    India became the first Asian nation to put a craft into orbit around Mars in 2014, and it is slated to launch a three-day crewed mission into Earth’s orbit later this year.

    It also plans a joint mission with Japan to send another probe to the Moon by 2025 and an orbital mission to Venus within the next two years.

  • Talk TV presenter Julia lambasted for racist interview with Palestinian MP

    Talk TV presenter Julia lambasted for racist interview with Palestinian MP

    British radio presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer has been slammed on social media for an unprofessional and racist interview after a clip from her show went viral.


    During an interview on Wednesday with Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, Hartley-Brewer raised her voice while he was speaking to say he was “not used to women talking” and disrespectfully spoke to him throughout the interview.


    While Julia’s tone was aggressive and harsh, Dr Barghouti kept his tone calm and listened to her patiently, winning over the hearts of netizens with his courtesy.

    In the clip, Julia can be seen aggressively counter-arguing, not letting him speak, and using the rhetoric of telling Muslim men that they are not used to hearing women.


    Barghouti was interrupted several times by the journalist, who prevented him from finishing his remarks on Benjamin Netanyahu and the moral imperative of supporting Palestinians’ struggle for a dignified life in their homeland.


    “Please don’t say that again, we don’t have time for that, you’ve made that point five times already,” she said in one instance.


    When Barghouti attempted to respond, she screamed, saying: “For the love of god, let me finish a sentence man.”


    She then made a sexist accusation: “Maybe you’re not used to women talking, I don’t know, but I’d like to finish the sentence!”


    Barghouti remained calm during the interview while stressing that the journalist has been attempting to “mislead the public.”


    In response, the presenter raised her voice again: ‘If you don’t think Israel’s reaction is acceptable, what would have been an acceptable reaction to you? You’ve got ten seconds left.”


    The Palestinian politician then replied calmly, calling for ending the occupation and oppression of Palestinians to allow peace to prevail for both people.
    Seemingly unsatisfied with the reply, the presenter sarcastically responded: “Brilliant.”


    Hartley-Brewer’s haughty attitude throughout the interview has been heavily criticized, with many pointing out that the show was a display of Islamophobia.


    Social media user Nadene commented that Julia is an utter disgrace in this interview, showcasing Islamophobic tropes 101.


    Another pointed out that she is using imagined sexism to hide her racism.


    Dima Khatib wrote, “Journalism is committing suicide after this interview.”


    Sana Saeed posted, “What an absolutely disgusting, racist display of whatever “journalism” this is supposed to be.”


    Bisan poured her heart out and said that after this I have discovered that Western media is a lie.


    Maryam Alkhawaja lamented that not only are Palestinians being subjected to a genocide, they also have to put up with being dehumanized and insulted.

  • India-settled Pakistani Seema’s husband has not seen his children in seven months, asks government for justice

    India-settled Pakistani Seema’s husband has not seen his children in seven months, asks government for justice

    Pakistani woman Seema Haider, who went viral last year for illegally crossing the border to marry an Indian PUBG friend, is now expecting her fifth child, her first with her cross-border paramour.

    Seema made headlines last year when she took her four children and crossed the border to marry Noida-based Sachin Meena, got arrested but still managed to officiate the marriage by converting to Hinduism.

    Recently, while speaking at a YouTube show, Seema said she would welcome the newborn soon. When the reporter asked if 2024 would bring new happiness, Seema said, “Definitely,” adding, “2023 also brought a lot of joy”.

    The Pakistani national, who lives with Sachin and her four other children in Greater Noida, said that her husband’s birthday was also approaching, “and it would be great to have another member around the same time.”


    Asked about the delivery date, Seema said, “It’s impossible before Holi but the good news will come soon.”


    Meanwhile, Sachin’s father, a palmist, had a look at Seema’s palm and predicted the newborn would be a baby boy.


    Seema moved to India via Nepal with her four children. Her eight-year-old son, Farhan Ali was named Raj after the family arrived here. Her three daughters Farva, 6, Fariha Batool, 4, and Farha, are now Priyanka, Munni, and Pari respectively.

    Ghulam Haider, Seema’s Pakistani husband, has approached the Pakistani Foreign Office and the Indian High Commission seeking the return of his children to Pakistan.

    His lawyer says that the children were taken there illegally without the consent of the biological father.

    Haider hasn’t spoken to his four children in seven months, says his legal team.

    Haider plans to pursue legal actions in Indian courts and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

  • McDonald’s CEO admits markets in Middle East affected by boycott

    McDonald’s CEO admits markets in Middle East affected by boycott

    McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski revealed on Thursday that a number of markets in the Middle East, and some beyond, were undergoing a “meaningful business impact” following the Israel-Hamas escalation and “associated misinformation” with regards to the brand.

    Since October 7, when Israel intensified its ground and air raids in Gaza and killed more than 22,000 people, several fast-food chains, including McDonald’s and Starbucks, have been boycotted by consumers due to their “pro-Israeli stance and alleged financial ties to Israel”.

    Kempczinski deems the “misinformation” regarding the brands “disheartening and ill-founded.”

    “In every country where we operate, including in Muslim countries, McDonald’s is proudly represented by local owner operators who work tirelessly to serve and support their communities while employing thousands of their fellow citizens,” Kempczinski said in a LinkedIn post.

    In October, following the escalation, McDonald’s Israel posted on social media that it gave thousands of free meals to Israel Defense Forces members.

    This move was repudiated by McDonald’s franchises in some Islamic states.

    Since then, many brands have felt the impact of boycotts in Egypt and Jordan as well as non-Arab countries like Muslim-majority Malaysia.

    Reuters reports that as of fiscal 2022, the company franchised and operated about 40,275 McDonald’s restaurants across more than 100 countries. The fast-food chain reported total annual revenue of $23.18 billion in the year.

    Shares of the company were down marginally in afternoon trading.

  • British-Pakistani given royal award for saving 29 lives

    British-Pakistani given royal award for saving 29 lives

    Pakistani-British rail worker Rizwan Javed, who has saved 29 people from taking their own lives since 2015, has been appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), Geo’s Murtaza Ali Shah reported.

    Rizwan Javed, from Leyton in East London, works for the MTR Elizabeth line at Ealing Broadway and Paddington stations. He joined the railway around 10 years ago and at the start of his career, he attended the Samaritans training course.

    Talking to the Geo News, Rizwan said, “I am thankful to Allah for this honour. It’s all due to the prayers of my parents that I have been recognised in the King’s New Year’s Honours List. It’s a huge honour for me that my work in the mental health area has been recognised this way.”

    He has been instrumental in saving several lives at the platform during the course of his work by being alert and approaching vulnerable individuals in weak moments.

    He gave credit to his training at Samaritans, “With the Samaritans, I learned how to identify vulnerable people, what sort of conversations to have with them, how to engage them, how to look out, and how to take them to the point of safety.”


    Within the first week after starting his railway job, Javed helped stop someone from taking their own life.


    Recalling an incident Rizwan shared that in one instance he talked to a girl in her mid-20s after identifying that she needed help. “A few days later, she came running to me at the station and gave me a big hug. She said she wouldn’t be alive today if I had not talked to her that night and if I had not convinced her that life was worth living. That was very emotional and rewarding.”


    He said people are not educated about mental health issues and these things create an impact.


    He told Geo News that he believes that Allah will always reward him for helping others and being there for those who have no one else to talk to them or undergoing. He credited his Pakistani parents for teaching him from a young age the importance of being helpful and charitable.


    He said: “My parents always taught me how to be a good and useful citizen, how to make a positive difference.”


    Javed and his parents were thrilled when they received the government letter telling him he was being appointed MBE for his services.


    MBE is the third highest ranking Order of the British Empire level (excluding a knighthood/damehood), behind Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and then Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE).

  • American couple’s dog eats cash worth more than 11 lac and they retrieve it through vomit and poop

    American couple’s dog eats cash worth more than 11 lac and they retrieve it through vomit and poop

    A Pittsburgh couple’s dog Cecil ate through 4,000 dollars in cash, leading his owners to embark on a difficult recovery mission.

    The couple, Clayton and Carrie Law were in shock when their dog ate the huge sum they had just withdrawn from the bank. Clayton had set the money on the kitchen table and within 30 minutes their usually restrained dog just decided to hop onto it. The dog ingested about half the money and ripped up the other half, Clayton said.

    After searching online, the couple found that damaged currency can be mailed or dropped off at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s office along with a letter stating the estimated amount and the reason for damage.


    However, this is expected to take six months to three years. Instead of waiting, Carrie said the couple called their bank to see if they could deposit damaged currency. They learned this happens often, and the bank advised them to wait until Cecil expelled the cash – one way or another.
    That same night, the dog vomited almost 100 dollars, the couple told USA Today in an interview.


    During the next three days, Cecil excreted a couple of 50 and 100-dollar bills. The couple had a system in place: Clayton would pick up the feces and stand at their sink, sorting what came out. Meanwhile, Carrie would try to match the serial numbers on the scraps of bills and tape them together.
    The Laws were able to recover around $3,500 of the original $4,000 Cecil ripped up and ate. They still have the recovered money in their home and they are planning to see if the bank will accept it.


    When Carrie posted a video of what happened on Instagram, she initially thought only a few friends would see it and engage with it.
    Since it was posted on Dec. 14, the video has received nearly 11.6 million views on Instagram.

  • Covid testing of foreign arrivals starts again in Pakistan

    Covid testing of foreign arrivals starts again in Pakistan

    The National Institute of Health (NIH) has provided COVID-19 testing kits to the Border Health Services Department in Islamabad, reports Geo.

    According to the officials of the Federal Ministry of Health, 40,000 rapid diagnostic kits have been given to the Border Health Services Department.
    The authorities told Geo that COVID testing of those coming from abroad has started at many airports including Islamabad. Two percent of the passengers coming from abroad will be subjected to mandatory Covid testing.


    Officials said that genome sequencing of a few detected Covid cases is also being carried out.


    Testing kits have not yet arrived at Multan and Faisalabad International Airports.


    Meanwhile, a new sub-variant of the Omicron strain of coronavirus named JN.1 has health experts on alert, as it has been classified as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organisation (WHO) due to its fast-growing spread. A staggering fifty percent increase in COVID-19 infections has been observed worldwide.

  • Punjab: 261 Startups ‘graduate’ under National Expansion Plan

    Punjab: 261 Startups ‘graduate’ under National Expansion Plan

    A total of 261 startups graduated under the National Expansion Plan (NEP) of the National Incubation Centres (NICs) Programme, a collaborative effort of the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT), from January 2023 to December 2023, reports the Express Tribune.

    The meeting was presided over by PITB Chairman Faisal Yousaf who informed the participants that 87 of the successful startups from Punjab, 64 from Sindh, 39 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 31 from Balochistan and 20 each from Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

    The PITB chairman said the objective of the plan was to democratise entrepreneurship, boost business activity across the country, grow the IT industry and promote economic growth. “The incubation programme is tailored to the needs of early-stage startups and runs on a zero-equity model,” he added.


    In partnership with public sector universities, 13 tech incubation centres have been set up across the country, where startups are provided free of charge workspace, mentorship, networking opportunities and stipend.

  • Japan quake death toll rises to 92, missing 242

    Japan quake death toll rises to 92, missing 242

    Anamizu (Japan) (AFP) – The death toll from a devastating earthquake in central Japan rose to 92 on Friday, regional authorities said, with the number of missing jumping to 242.

    Two elderly women were pulled from the rubble, but hopes of finding other survivors faded as thousands of rescuers raced against the clock four days after the 7.5-magnitude quake on New Year’s Day.

    Thousands of rescuers from all over Japan have been battling aftershocks and roads littered with gaping holes and blocked by frequent landslides in the Ishikawa region to reach hundreds of people in stranded communities.

    On Thursday afternoon, 72 hours after the quake, the two older women were miraculously pulled alive from the remains of their homes in Wajima, one of them thanks to a sniffer dog called Jennifer.

    The port city of Wajima on the Noto Peninsula was one of the worst hit, with a pungent smell of soot still in the air and faint columns of smoke visible from a huge fire that destroyed hundreds of structures on the first day.

    “I was relaxing on New Year’s Day when the quake happened. My relatives were all there and we were having fun,” Hiroyuki Hamatani, 53, told AFP amid the burnt-out cars, wrecked buildings and fallen telegraph poles.

    “The house itself is standing but it’s far from livable now… I don’t have the space in my mind to think about the future,” he told AFP.

    Grief

    The powerful main tremor, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, injured at least 330 people, local authorities said.

    Around 30,000 households were without electricity in the Ishikawa region, and 89,800 homes there and in two neighbouring regions had no water.

    Hundreds of people were in government shelters.

    The Suzu area was also devastated, with fishing boats sunk or lifted like toys onto the shore by tsunami waves that also reportedly swept one person away.

    Noriaki Yachi, 79, fought back tears after his wife was pulled from the rubble there and confirmed dead, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.

    “My life with her was a happy one,” Yachi said.

    Earthquakes have hit the Noto region with intensifying strength and frequency over the past five years.

    The country is haunted by a massive 9.0-magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that left around 18,500 people dead or missing.

    It also swamped the Fukushima atomic plant, causing one of the worst nuclear disasters in history

  • Spain police investigate suspected poisoning of 47 cats

    Spain police investigate suspected poisoning of 47 cats

    Spanish police said Thursday they had opened an investigation into the suspected poisoning of nearly 50 street cats that could see the perpetrators serving several years’ jail time under a new animal welfare law.

    The incident occurred in La Carlota village just outside the southern city of Cordoba, with local residents discovering the bodies of at least 10 cats on December 31 at the local dump where the colony was based.

    They alerted the animal rights party PACMA which on Tuesday filed a complaint with the Guardia Civil police over “the mass poisoning of a 47-strong feline colony”.

    “Some of the animals were found inside nearby containers while others were lying in the street with only one survivor, a young male cat which is in very poor state,” said the complaint, a copy of which was seen by AFP.

    The rest of the cats had disappeared, with a PACMA spokeswoman saying they were believed to have died in the nearby woods after the poison took hold.

    In response, officers from the Guardia Civil’s nature protection service Seprona were dispatched to the scene on Wednesday to investigate, a spokesman for the force said.

    “They are looking into whether the deaths were due to poisoning or from other causes. And if there was a crime, to identify the culprits,” he added.

    Under terms of a new law that came into force in September, anyone found guilty of cruelty leading to an animal’s death could face up to three years behind bars, up from a previous penalty of 18 months.

    In a separate operation, police said Thursday they had smashed a ring which allegedly imported puppies from Hungary and Slovakia and then sold them in Spain with forged documents.

    Officers arrested eight people and rescued over 100 animals during four searches they carried out as part of the operation, a police statement said.