President Dr. Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Imran Khan in their separate messages on the occasion of International Labour Day, have reaffirmed the government commitment to effectively protect the rights and welfare of the workers.
In his message, the President Arif Alvi paid rich tribute to the valiant and heroic struggle of the workers for their fundamental rights.
He said this day is not only a reminder of the struggle of workers but also an acknowledgement of their contribution towards national growth and progress.
The President said Ehsaas Emergency Cash Relief Program has been launched to provide immediate relief to the deserving class in the country.
In his message, Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed his government's commitment to improve the working and living conditions of workers and to supplement their welfare by providing better housing, education facilities and health cover for them and their families.
He said our religion has also emphasized the principles of social justice and respect for rights of people.
The Prime Minister said that as workers' role is pivotal for economic development of any country, his government is committed to ensure that benefits of economic progress translated into prosperity of all sections of the populations including workers.
An international team of scientists was able to capture images of planet-forming disks hundreds of light years away from Earth. The photos, which are an achievement in itself, shed new light on how planetary systems come to be.
Those protoplanetary clouds of dust and gas, shaped like vinyl music records, appear around young stars and astronomers believe the matter found in them eventually turns into planets.
Scientists previously struggled to properly capture planet-forming disks, as even the images from the largest telescopes weren’t detailed enough. A new study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics on Thursday, solved this problem by coming up with completely different observation techniques.
For the first time, astronomers captured details of planet-forming disks that sprout planetary systems 💫💪 https://t.co/8i4llps6w7
Lead author Jacques Kluska from KU Leuven in Belgium and his colleagues, who were working on the project at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile, have relied on the method called infrared interferometry.
They used ESO’s PIONIER instrument to combine the light collected by four telescopes and obtain the images of the disks. That was not the end of their work, as the light of the stars hindered the level of detail in the photos, so the missing pieces had to be recovered through mathematical reconstruction.
“I’m thrilled that we now for the first time have fifteen of these images,” Kluska said. The photos showed the inner rims of planet-forming disks where rocky planets like Earth are believed to be forming.
“Distinguishing details at the scale of the orbits of rocky planets like Earth or Jupiter – a fraction of the Earth-Sun distance – is equivalent to being able to see a human on the Moon, or to distinguish a hair at a 10 km distance,” pointed out Jean-Philippe Berger of the Université Grenoble-Alpes in France, who was in charge of working with the PIONIER instrument.
The images received by the team have revealed “brighter or less bright” spots in the disks, which could be “instabilities” that would eventually result in the formation of planets. Kluska and his team are planning to do additional research to figure out what causes those processes, while also trying to obtain even more detailed images of protoplanetary clouds.
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The government on Thursday announced that it had slashed petrol prices for May owing to sharp decline in crude oil prices in the international market.
The price of petrol has been brought down to Rs81.58 after a reduction of Rs15, meanwhile the rate of high-speed diesel has been slashed by Rs27.15 and reduced to Rs80.10.
According to the notification, kerosene oil and light diesel will now be sold at Rs47.44 and Rs47.51 after a reduction of Rs30.01 and Rs15 in their prices respectively.
The new prices will be effective starting midnight, the notification said.
On Wednesday, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had recommended to the government to reduce petroleum prices by up to Rs44 per litre for May 2020.
The regulatory body had suggested that the price of diesel may be reduced by Rs33.94 per litre (or 31.6%), petrol by Rs20.68/ litre (21.4%), kerosene oil by Rs44.07/ litre (56.9%) and light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs24.57/ litre (39.3%).
It is worth mentioning that the government is also charging 17% general sales tax (GST) on all petroleum products. Aside from it, the government is also collecting petroleum levy (PL) on these products, which is directly taken from consumers.
The government, in order to meet the revenue shortfall for March 2020, had increased the petroleum levy (PL) on these products. The PL on diesel was increased by 7.05 to Rs25.05 per litre.
Noted economist Dr Kaiser Bengali, however, has opposed the move to cut the POL prices in the country.
“Domestic fuel prices must NOT be reduced, surplus must be used to: (1) liquidate circular debt, it will stabilize fiscal base n (2) lower GST Goods rate, it will boost industry n employment,” Bengali said in a statement on Thursday.
The speaker of the National Assembly (NA), Asad Qaiser, as well as his son and daughter, have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
"I have put myself in self-quarantine," Qaiser said on Twitter, confirming he had the virus.
"I request the entire nation to take precautions and to pray for my recovery," he said.
The NA speaker noted that he had symptoms of fever for the past couple of days and had himself tested earlier as well. At that time, however, the result was negative.
"Today, when I had myself tested again, the report came out positive," he added. "I have been advised to stay at home and take care.
"The test results of my son and daughter have also come out positive," Qaiser added.
میرا کورونا وائرس کا ٹیسٹ مثبت آیا ہے۔ میں نے خود کو اپنے گھر میں قرنطینہ کر لیا ہے۔ میری پوری قوم سے درخواست ہے کہ وہ احتیاط کریں۔
دعا کی درخواست ہے۔
Qaiser becomes the latest politician and third PTI leader to test positive for the virus. On Monday, Sindh Governor Imran Ismail announced that he was infected with COVID-19 but vowed to "fight it out".
Prior to that, PPP lawmaker Rana Hamir Singh, of Sindh Assembly, tested positive for COVID-19.
PTI's MPA from Mardan, Abdul Salam Afridi, had tested also positive for the novel virus. Apart from that, Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani had contracted the virus last month. Both Ghani and Afridi have recovered now.
MPA Syed Abdul Rasheed of Sindh Assembly also contracted positive for the virus, as did eight of his family members reportedly.
Former Pakistan captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Rashid Latif has rated all three national wicketkeepers in the fray including ex-skipper Sarfraz Ahmad, Mohammad Rizwan and Rohail Nazir as mentally strong.
In his video session with the three wicketkeepers on Wednesday under a PCB programme, Rashid said that a good wicketkeeper has to have strong nerves and high class physical fitness which all the three current wicketkeepers possess.
Rashid said a good wicketkeeper must also have a good balance and complimented former captain and wicketkeeper-batsman Moin Khan for having strong feet and good balance which helped him prolong his career.
Rashid said to keep himself alert, he used to have conversation with the fielders standing in the slip area.
He, however, emphasised the current trio should bring more improvement in their batting skills and also gave them tips on how to improve further.
He also advised them to keenly watch the vidoes of two high profiling world wicketkeepers namely Alan Knot and Jack Russel of England.
Terming the wicketkeeping department as a vital one in the game of cricket, Rashid said a good run out or one good catch could turn defeat into victory.
The video session was also attended by head coach Misbah-ul-Haq, bowling coach Waqar Younus and a member of the team’s management Shahid Aslam.
The "Stars Wars" actor Harrison Ford was involved in an incident in which he was piloting a small plane that wrongly crossed a runway where another aircraft was landing.
According to Reuters, the United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident.
There was no danger of a crash in the incident that occurred last week at an airport in southern California, according to an FAA statement cited by the New York Times.
A publicist for Ford told media the actor misheard a radio instruction from the air traffic controller (ATC).
“He immediately acknowledged the mistake and apologized to ATC for the error,” Ina Treciokas, Ford’s publicist, said.
“The purpose of the flight was to maintain currency and proficiency in the aircraft. No one was injured and there was never any danger of a collision.”
The planes had come within 1,100 meters of each other at the Hawthorne Airport in Los Angeles last Friday.
The actor, who played swashbuckling space smuggler Han Solo in the “Star Wars” film franchise, was at the controls of a two-seat Aviat Husky light plane in the incident.
Ford, 77, had also come under investigation in 2017 after he mistakenly flew his single-engine private plane over an American Airlines passenger jet and landed on a taxiway, rather than a runway, at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.
The FAA did not discipline the actor over that incident but asked him to complete awareness training.
Actress Hilarie Burton has joined the ranks of attention-starved celebrities desperately seeking to stay relevant during the Covid-19 pandemic with an ostentatious display that does nothing to help the situation.
The 37-year-old announced in an emotional Instagram post that she is ditching hair dye in a symbolic show of support for essential workers on the coalface of the public health crisis.
“The ‘silver lining’ is literally growing out of my skull,” she wrote. “For all of our frontline and essential workers who are too busy to fuss with things like hair color, I grow mine out in solidarity with you,” Burton added.
When I see it, I’m reminded of all you’re doing to keep us safe. I’m reminded that you deserve to be taken care of.
Unfortunately for the former ‘One Tree Hill’ star, the publicity stunt didn’t quite have the desired effect as it inspired a jaundiced reaction from the public.
“Wow, the courage this takes is immeasurable. I’m sure that the people dealing with this pandemic will read about this and surely feel the appreciation of their efforts. God bless her soul for the sacrifice,” one person sarcastically replied. Meanwhile, another commenter upped the stakes: “Just lit my neighbor’s front door mat on fire to show my solidarity with the frontline workers. Your move, Hilarie.”
Of course Burton’s roots are far from the only coronavirus attention grab. Here are some of the worst offenders.
Greta Thunberg
Unsurprisingly, teen climate activist Greta Thunberg has been keen to keep herself in the news and she has done this by lecturing the world’s governments about how to do their jobs.
The 17-year-old instructed leaders that they must fight the twin crises of climate change and the global coronavirus pandemic simultaneously. The climate change call to arms was perceived by many as somewhat tone deaf, as it came while many countries struggled to equip frontline medical staff with vital equipment.
Unperturbed, Thunberg pressed on and sprang into action again in recent days, launching a fundraising campaign to help the children of the world survive Covid-19. Though the pandemic has largely spared the young, Thunberg nonetheless branded it a “child-rights crisis.”
As lockdowns began to be introduced in many countries, some two-dozen celebrities released a cringe-inducing cover of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ that was so embarrassingly bad that it’s hard to believe it was cleared by the army of PR experts that those involved have in their employ.
‘Wonder Woman’ star Gal Gadot masterminded the entire sorry production, which was so nauseatingly bad that we’re reluctant to revisit it here. The only positive out of the entire sorry exercise is that it quickly became fuel for parody.
Ever the expert at drumming up publicity, Madonna managed to grab the spotlight in late March with a bizarre bathtub video in which she made the nonsense claim that coronavirus has “made us all equal.”
“What’s terrible about it is that it’s made us all equal in many ways and what’s wonderful about it is that it’s made us all equal in many ways,” the veteran popstar claimed from her flower-petal-festooned tub. OK, Madge. Whatever you say.
#ClapForCarers
It may have begun as a genuine outpouring of appreciation for Britain’s healthcare workers but the weekly routine of applauding the National Health Service quickly morphed into a jingoistic display in which, staggeringly, participants openly flouted all social distancing guidelines.
The viral phenomenon saw a ferry performing donuts in the river Thames and all manner of other high-jinks passed off as “support for the NHS.” The most galling example took place on Westminster Bridge in mid-April when social distancing rules went out the window as crowds of people stood cheek-by-jowl to take part in the spectacle while the police stood idly by.
The pandemic has hammered the airline industry worldwide. With seat capacity dropping by three-quarters, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) predicts a drop of 1.5 billion passengers by the end of 2020.
In a statement released on Thursday, the ICAO, the UN’s aviation agency, predicted that, by December, passenger numbers will have fallen by more than a third on the most recent figures from 2018.
The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent travel restrictions have posed an existential threat to the airline industry. While the ICAO broadly supports grounding flights, it states on its website that “longer-term restrictions are normally not effective once appropriate containment measures are in place.”
In the US and much of Europe, talk has now shifted to how and when to lift the current lockdown measures. For the aviation industry, this is a matter of survival. The International Air Transport Association estimates that as many as 25 million jobs in the industry could be lost worldwide, and several airlines – Flybe and Germanwings to name but two – have already permanently ceased operations. Others, such as Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, and Air France, have pleaded for government bailouts.
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As EU top dogs attempt to agree on a Covid-19 rescue package for the worst-affected member states, including Italy and Spain, Dutch PM Mark Rutte publicly reaffirmed his view on the matter to a concerned voter: “No, no, no.”
Rutte was approached on Wednesday by a worker at a waste collection plant, who implored: “Please! Do not give the Italians and Spanish the money!”
“Oh! No, no, no,” Rutte responded in a comment captured by news cameras, adding that he would “take note” of the request, all while offering a thumbs up to the worker.
A person to Rutte, PM of the Netherlands (@MinPres):
'Please! do not give the Italians and Spanish the money!'
The exchange was a timely reminder that domestic politics often trumps European “unity” when it comes to touchy subjects like financial bailouts.
While EU finance ministers last week agreed on a short-term rescue package of about €540 billion ($588.3 billion) for hard-hit member states, it is still struggling to agree on debt distribution, with Germany and the Netherlands in particular reluctant to spread the burden around too much.
Rutte’s comment sparked angry backlash from some of the more unity-minded MEPs on Twitter, who said his rhetoric flies in the face of EU solidarity.
“This is really shameful,” MEP and vice-president of the European Greens Ernest Urtasun tweeted, adding that Rutte was feeding domestic nationalism which could ultimately break apart the EU.
“This is not a football match, there’s no rival to beat. We are part of the same team,”wrote Iratxe Garcia Perez, a Spanish politician who leads the socialist bloc of MEPs in the European Parliament.
Rutte’s comment did not go unnoticed in Spanish and Italian media either, with the El Espanol news website writing that the Dutch PM was continuing to work hard to create “antipathy” to southern Europe. Meanwhile, an article in Italian newspaper Il Giornale said the exchange “speaks volumes about the phantom European solidarity.”
Spain and Italy have been the worst-affected countries in Europe so far in the coronavirus pandemic, with Spain reporting almost 240,000 cases of Covid-19 and over 24,500 deaths, while Italy has over 203,000 confirmed cases and reported nearly 28,000 deaths as of April 30.
Berlin is reportedly considering issuing IDs confirming the bearer is immune to Covid-19 and may have more freedom than the as-yet uninfected. It adds to debate on whether recovery from the virus protects humans from reinfection.
Germany's federal government has passed a bill that would allow for handing out “coronavirus immunity cards” to anyone who has recovered from – and thus developed enough antibodies against – the disease, according to Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, citing a copy of the document.
The IDs, similar to a vaccination certificate, could make life easier "in many places," Health Minister Jens Spahn believes. Owners of the "immunity passports" will be afforded a chance to carry out certain activities more easily, he said, citing healthcare staff as an example.
While such a rationale looks legit at a glance, further passages of the bill suggest more intrusion. They refer to the Infection Protection Act, under which the state can forcefully send contagious people or those with "suspicious" symptoms into quarantine, or even bar them from entering certain public places.
The draft would also allow employers to learn about all the "transmittable diseases" of their staff, possibly including Covid-19. So far, this right has only applied to "diseases that can be prevented by vaccination." The plan, however, appears to be on hold because there is no reliable scientific data as to whether coronavirus immunity insures against catching the virus again.
But online observers have already likened these sections to what had happened in Germany under the Nazi regime. One user suggested"sticking a [yellow] star to my right breast and sending me into an internment camp," while another netizen reminded readers that "curbing basic rights for a group of the population has already existed in Germany."
Others draw attention to the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) warning against giving out such IDs. There's "no evidence" that people who recover from Covid-19 are protected from a second infection, it said, in the latest brief widely quoted by German Twitter commenters.
Some of them pointed out that the measure would have the opposite effect. It will cause people "to get infected deliberately, in the hope that the course of the disease will go off lightly and that they will receive the special card," one opined.
Local politicians have been equally skeptical of the idea. "Under no circumstances should such data be misused or lead to discrimination," Ulrich Kelber, federal data protection commissioner, told Suddeutsche. Kordula Schulz-Asche, the Green Party speaker in charge of healthcare, called the plans "questionable."
Meanwhile, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is set to trial a "digital immunity card" throughout the course of two or three weeks. Patients will have to use a mobile application to save the results of their Covid tests in an encrypted database; authorities and other concerned entities will then be able to digitally check the test status.
The Swedish town of Lund has taken the drastic step of dumping a ton of chicken manure in its central park in a bid to stink out an annual festival that officials fear could spark a massive outbreak of Covid-19.
Sweden has gained attention across the world for its softer approach to tackling the coronavirus pandemic, but the university town in the south of the country is taking no such chances.
Thursday is Walpurgis Night, an event which would usually see thousands of revelers gather in the town to celebrate the traditional northern European festival that heralds the arrival of better weather.
Authorities feared the feast would be a boon to the novel coronavirus so they decided to smear the park, which is in the middle of the town, with chicken droppings to keep people away.
“Lund could very well become an epicentre for the spread of the coronavirus on the last night in April, I think it was a good initiative,” Gustav Lundblad, from the local council’s environment committee, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper.
Mayor Philip Sandberg said that Walpurgis Night would usually see 30,000 people gather in the town and officials there fear young people, especially students, will still want to enjoy a picnic and drink in the park.
“Most students in Lund and other parts of Sweden respect the recommendations ... although even a small number of people still going to the park can become a big risk,” Sandberg explained.
Sweden has taken a relaxed approach to combating Covid-19, asking, rather than ordering, people to observe social-distancing guidelines. In keeping with this approach, authorities have requested that people avoid gathering for Walpurgis Night this year; however, the festivities have not been banned.
Despite it not being outlawed, one suspects that Lund’s approach will ensure that Walpurgis Night is a quiet one this year.
Traces of the Covid-19 virus detected in wastewater could act as an “early warning system” to identify potential flareups of the infection in populations, researchers in Switzerland claim.
Scientists are working to develop a system whereby sewage samples could be used to warn public health bodies of possible surges in cases of the illness around a week before diagnostic testing.
“Wastewater doesn't lie, and it reflects what is excreted by the public within a few hours,” lead researcher Christoph Ort of the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) said in a statement.
While concentrations in the most recent samples are very high, researchers were surprised that they were also able to detect the virus in very low concentrations in wastewater samples collected in February.
“We didn’t expect that we’d already be able to measure a signal in wastewater from Lugano, with only one, and from Zurich, with only six known cases,” said Tamar Kohn, a professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne.
The team managed to detect the virus in all the samples they’d analyzed from Lausanne, Zurich and Lugano.
The ability to detect low viral concentrations in wastewater suggests that it could be possible to retrospectively trace the rise of the Covid-19 infection curve by analysing 300 additional samples currently frozen in storage, Eawag said.
The main goal of the research, however, is not to trace the past, but to signal any resurgence in cases as the country comes out of lockdown. “With samples from 20 large treatment plants distributed across Switzerland, we could monitor wastewater from around 2.5 million people,” Ort said.
While the scientists have had good success with the method so far, they said it still needs to be “further optimized” before drawing robust conclusions.
This week, US-based startup Biobot Analytics raised $4.2 million for technology that monitors wastewater, in hopes they can track the spread of the virus and map hotspots across the US.
Australian researchers are also planning to use widespread wastewater analysis to identify high-risk communities, beginning this month.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pakistan rose to 16,117 on Thursday after new infections were confirmed in the country.
The province-wise break up of the total number of cases are as follows:
Total confirmed cases: 16,117
• Sindh: 6,053
• Punjab: 6,061
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 2,313
• Balochistan: 978
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 313
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 333
• AJK: 66
Deaths: 358
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa: 122
• Sindh: 112
• Balochistan: 14
• Gilgit-Baltistan: 3
• Punjab: 103
• Islamabad Capital Territory: 4
Officials have recorded more than 3.19 million cases and 226,880 deaths since the virus emerged in China in December.
Officer who met Sindh governor tests positive for virus
An officer who met Sindh Governor Imran Ismail has tested positive for the virus, Matiari's district health officer (DHO) said.
“Assistant Commissioner New Saeedabad Ammar Rizvi has tested positive for the virus,” the DHO said.
The DHO said Rizvi had gone for a test two days ago after he had complained of fever, cough and flu.
Tiger Force to become operational from next week in Punjab, KP: Usman Dar
Special Assistant to PM on Youth Affairs Usman Dar has said the Corona Tiger Force will become operational from next week in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Those that are part of the Tiger Force will be given protective gear while dispensing their duties” Dar told a press conference.
He added that the Tiger Force will also help in ensuring SOPs are being followed in mosques and will also work with utility store owners during rush hours.
Islamabad: Opposition calls for Senate session
The opposition has called for a session of the Senate stating that parliament has become idle amid the coronavirus lockdown.
“If a meeting of 50 to 60 cabinet members can be convened, then why can’t a Senate session be summoned,” the opposition members demanded while attending a virtual meeting with Deputy Senate Chairman Saleem Madilwala in the chair.
For the third year running, RT is among the nominees for the ‘Oscars of the internet’ – the Webbys. This year, RT picked up an impressive four nominations, but now we need your vote as well!
More than 13,000 entries were submitted for the 24th annual Webby Awards, dubbed the ‘Webbys From Home,’ as the ceremony will be held online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The RT creative projects are among nominees for the internet’s highest honor featuring celebrities, artists, studios, designers, brands, and media including BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, Marvel, HBO, Netflix, Disney, National Geographic, Jimmy Fallon, Ellen deGeneres, Billie Eilish, and others.
#Romanovs100 AR Photo Album – the innovative and immersive journey into the history of Russia’s last royal family – is in the running for Best Use of Augmented Reality.
The interactive album was released in 2018 following a digital project dedicated to the last days of Russia’s ruling imperial family, which ran on four social media platforms.
#Romanovs100 published some 4,000 rare, and in some cases previously unseen, photographs that the Romanov family took of their extraordinary lives. The project was built on a partnership with Russia’s State Archive to bring these images to a wider audience. You can download the book here.
RT’s VR project Lessons of Auschwitz, marking 75 years since the liberation of the camp, is nominated in three categories for best use of immersive and mixed realities. Among the competition for the award is the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Al Jazeera.
For Lessons of Auschwitz we brought nine students from a Moscow high school – between 13 and 16 years old – to the memorial in Poland. After the trip, we asked them to express their reactions in VR animation under the creative guidance of Russia’s leading XR artist, Denis Semionov, and the Phygitalism studio.
The music score is by Peter Theremin, great-grandson of Leon Theremin – the creator of the world’s first electronic musical instrument.
The music video, part of a larger project #VictoryPages, is the result of months of preparation and work. Read more about the project here.
RT’s video agency Ruptly is also among this year’s nominees – their work on Yellow Vest protests in France is nominated in Events & Live Streams – you can vote for it here. Another Ruptly production – ‘Dyatlov’s Journal: The Last Page’ – became a 2020 honoree. The video ‘Married Days Before Death’ by In The Now & Maffick is nominated for the award in Social Video, Education & Discovery (vote here).
The Webby Awards are the most established internet awards, annually presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. In 2019, the #Romanovs100 social media documentary was nominated for Best Use of Photography and, in 2018, a project by the same team – #1917LIVE – won the Webby’s People’s Voice award for Best Use of Social Media. RT was also a 2016 People’s Voice winner for best use of social media in the News & Information category.
Voting for the 2020 People’s Voice will continue until May 7.
Prime Minister Imran Khan says the country won’t progress towards the “knowledge economy” until it spends its resources on education and research.
Speaking at an event at COMSTECH, he said the ongoing coronavirus crisis has brought many things to light for them.
“We have a dependency syndrome, we lack self-belief,” the prime minister said, adding it is this crisis that made us realise that producing ventilators is not difficult. He pointed out the country had the capacity to make nuclear bombs but found it hard to make ventilators.
He said it is the self-belief that takes a nation forward and brings it at a stage where it can overcome any challenge.
Prime Minister Khan said the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t differentiate between the rich and the poor, lamenting the ruling elite didn’t spare a thought for developing the country’s health infrastructure in the past and went abroad for treatment at the taxpayers’ expense.
Now, they can’t go abroad because the situation is more dangerous there than in Pakistan, he added.
The prime minister stressed the need for strengthening the health system so as to face any challenges in future.
Towards the end, he lauded Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry for making endeavours to produce hand sanitisers, disinfectants and ventilators in the country.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) has said that Pakistan’s dismal human rights record will further deteriorate due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, heaping misery on the already marginalized sections of the society.
The HRCP released its State of Human Rights 2019 annual report today, in which its honorary spokesperson, I.A. Rehman, termed Pakistan’s human rights record in 2019 “greatly worrisome”.
Rehman noted that the ongoing global pandemic “is likely to cast a long shadow on prospects for human rights,” according to the official press release.
On the release of its flagship annual report, HRCP’s Secretary-General Harris Khalique observed: “Last year will be remembered for systematic curbs on political dissent, the chokehold on press freedom, and the grievous neglect of economic and social rights”.
He informed that the 2019 report also offered standalone chapters on each federating unit and administered territory so that no area was underreported or missed out.
The report stated that Pakistan has failed to protect its most vulnerable. It noted that reports of child labourers being sexually abused in mines surfaced in Balochistan this year, while news of young children being raped, murdered and dumped have “become frighteningly common”.
“Women continued to bear the brunt of society’s fixation with ‘honour’, with Punjab accounting for the highest proportion of ‘honour’ crimes. Equally, Pakistan does not protect those to whom it has a duty of care: prisoners in the country’s sorely overpopulated jails remain relegated to subhuman level,” mentioned the human rights watchdog.
The HRCP statement stated that numerous journalists reported that it had become even more difficult to criticize the state policy.
According to former HRCP chairperson Zohra Yusuf, the erosion of social media spaces and a deliberate financial squeeze on the media ‘led to Pakistan’s position slipping on the World Press Freedom Index’.
The human rights body observed that mysterious disappearances of people continued during the year as well, demanding that the government should deliver on its commitment to criminalise enforced disappearances.
The report said that the continued operation of internment centres cannot be justified on any grounds.
HRCP director Farah Zia said: “In the case of Balochistan and KhyberPakhtunkhwa) — both historically under-reported provinces — the acknowledgement of real issues and their political resolution is vital if the state is serious about strengthening the federation”.
Religious minorities remained unable to enjoy the freedom of religion or belief guaranteed to them under the constitution, it stated. “For many communities, this has meant the desecration of their sites of worship, the forced conversion of young women, and constant discrimination in access to employment,” said the HRCP report.
The report further noted that constitutional compliance remained a major cause for concern.
“For instance, Article 140-A has yet to be implemented effectively, given the prolonged delay in holding local body elections in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan,” it mentioned.
The human rights body said that the restoration of student unions and space for trade unions to function should also be mulled over.
Chairperson Dr Mehdi Hasan highlighted the HRCP’s distress over the gross violations of human rights committed in Indian-held Kashmir since August 2019 and the impact of the situation on regional peace and stability.
The Western media has been flooded with stories about a “mysterious disease” affecting children in the UK and the US that is supposedly linked to Covid-19. RT has asked a number of pediatricians if there is cause for concern.
On Monday, the UK’s Paediatric Intensive Care Society (PICS) sent a memo to British doctors warning them about a rise in cases of a “multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care” that had been exhibited in “children of all ages” in several regions across the UK, including London. It further noted that the symptoms of the condition were “consistent with severe Covid-19,” and were observed particularly in those youngsters who had previously tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
*Urgent alert*
Rising no of cases presenting to #PedsICU with multi-system hyperinflammatory state, overlapping features of toxic shock syndrome & atypical Kawasaki disease, bloods consistent with severe #COVID19 - seen in both #SARSCoV2 PCR +ve AND -ve
The news was quickly picked up by the media across the UK, as well as in the US, which started reporting on such cases both in Great Britain and across the pond. It was reported that doctors in Australia, too, are “on alert,” following the worrying developments. Journalists rushed to inextricably link the new disease to the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has thus far infected more than 3.2 million people and claimed over 215,000 lives across the world.
In some reports, the syndrome was hastily branded Kawasaki disease, provoking a surge of interest in the nature of this rare immune-system disorder, which usually affects children younger than five years old, causing severe fever and virus-like symptoms. In fact, the initial PICS memo said only that the syndrome has “overlapping features” with atypical Kawasaki disease.
The media universally reported the “rising number” of children being affected by the mysterious syndrome, although precise data on how many was noticeably omitted.
So, should we be worried about the potential of a widespread outbreak of this mystery illness, which might have an impact on youngsters around the world? And is there really any connection between that illness and Covid-19?
Panic would be ‘really a mess’
Contrary to how it might seem from some alarming news pieces, the world is highly unlikely to be on the brink of another epidemic, pediatricians believe. Kawasaki disease – if that is indeed what it is or has features of – has so far never been known to rapidly propagate through a population.
“I wouldn’t expect an outbreak of Kawasaki in children, because Kawasaki itself is rare,” Angelo Ravelli, a professor of pediatrics and the director of the Pediatric Residency Program at the University of Genoa, said. “Also, in spite of this increase in the numbers in [recent] weeks, we’re not talking [even] of dozens, [let alone] hundreds of cases.”
Ravelli, who is also the head of rheumatology at the Giannina Gaslini Institute, one of Italy’s largest pediatric hospitals, offered further reassurance, saying that, per year, the medics there see only between seven and nine patients with Kawasaki disease, on average.
In fact, the sudden rise in multi-system inflammations in children might not necessarily even be linked to one particular cause at all, the pediatricians believe.
“We don’t know yet whether the instances we’re seeing these days are real Kawasaki disease [cases]or [cases of] Kawasaki-like disease, which means vasculitis. Indeed, many of these children were found to have non-typical symptoms of Kawasaki disease,” Ravelli warns. Anne Rowley, a professor of pediatrics, microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, in the US, says the recent cases could be triggered by a number of factors.
“It’s not clear whether the cases are caused by the same process, or whether some are caused by Covid-19 and some by another condition, such as toxic shock syndrome, which is [the result of] a bacterial infection,” she told RT.
Kawasaki disease is quite treatable and would not cause serious harm, if detected in time, the doctors said. Its most dangerous complication, a coronary-artery aneurism, can be avoided as long as the child’s condition is properly managed, the pediatricians say.
“Most children escape heart sequelae [after-effects] if they are treated with intravenous gammaglobulin in the first 10 days of fever,” Rowley explained. And Ravelli reported that Italy has not seen “any fatal cases of Kawasaki disease” so far at all.
Undue panic among parents could become a much heavier burden for the medics than treatment of cases of the disease itself. “We don’t need to generate panic among families, otherwise it would really be a mess,” the Italian professor warned.
So, is Covid-19 involved?
As for the link between the Kawasaki-like symptoms in children and the novel coronavirus, medics are not yet entirely sure whether it exists.
Kawasaki disease has been known for decades – long before Covid-19. Yet, the scientists still do not know its root causes. Over the years, theories have been circulating that linked the disease to some sort of viral or bacterial infection that could serve as a trigger for it. No particular virus or bacteria has been “consistently found in association with the syndrome,” as Ravelli put it.
However, if a “significant” number of the recent cases is reasonably linked to coronavirus, it might well be recognized as one of the infections that “may be responsible for Kawasaki disease or, at least, some forms of Kawasaki disease, or part of cases of it,” the Italian professor believes.
Rowley is more skeptical. “Covid-19 is caused by an entirely new virus, and Kawasaki disease has been well recognized for 50 years, [so] it is highly unlikely that Covid-19 is a significant cause of most cases,” she said, adding that it could be being triggered instead by some still-unidentified virus that has been circulating in the human population for decades.
It seems too early to say whether this inflammatory syndrome has anything to do with Covid-19 or to predict with any certainty what we are facing. However, it would appear unlikely that the instances thus far of Kawasaki-like disease in children are the precursor to an epidemic.
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Fresh research has shed light on enormous hailstones that are so big that they can burst through the roofs of houses. Scientists have had to create a new category to describe the lethal weather phenomenon – gargantuan hail.
Boffins have just released a study on an extraordinary supercell thunderstorm that battered the Argentinian city of Villa Carlos Paz in 2018. The violent tempest left residents of the heavily populated town running for cover as they were bombarded by massive hailstones that left a trail of destruction in their wake.
As the storm evolved, residents began posting photos and videos of the freak hail on social media, allowing the experts to run an unprecedented study on the bizarre occurrence.
Amazingly, the team found that one hailstone that assaulted the town measured between 7.4 and 9.3 inches across, likely making it a new world record. The current record belongs to a hailstone that measured eight inches across, about the size of a volleyball, that fell in South Dakota in 2010.
“It's incredible,” said Matthew Kumjian, associate professor in the Department of Meteorology and Atmosphere Science at Penn State. “This is the extreme upper end of what you'd expect from hail.”
Kumjian explained that hail of this size can cause serious damage and his team has proposed that hail larger than six inches should be classified as ‘gargantuan’.
“In some rare cases, six-inch hail has actually gone through roofs and multiple floors in houses. We'd like to help mitigate the impacts on life and property, to help anticipate these kinds of events,” he said.
The supercell storm’s deep rotating updrafts had the effect of holding the hailstones in sub-zero temperatures high in the atmosphere. This allowed them to grow into miniature ice missiles that then blasted the town in the remarkable weather assault.
The study notes that gargantuan hail may actually be more common than previously believed. As if we didn’t have enough to be worrying about right now.
For the first time in the country’s history, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has been allowed to operate direct flights to the United States (US).
Last week, the Chief Operating Officer (CEO) of the PIA Air Marshal Arshad Malik wrote a letter to the US ambassador and the State Department seeking permission to operate PIA special flights to repatriate Pakistanis stranded in the US.
The permission was granted by the US Transport Department on Pakistan’s request to repatriate its stranded citizens in the United States of America.
According to the permission granted by the US, the PIA can operate as many as 12 flights in a month to bring back the stranded Pakistanis.
The PIA spokesperson said that the permission was granted to Pakistan by the US after improvement in the security situation.
CEO PIA Air Marshal Arshad Malik thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan, Foreign Ministry and Aviation Ministry for taking the issue with the US.
The national flag carrier is continuing its operations to bring back stranded Pakistani expats across the globe and so far 11,700 have been airlifted from the various countries.
A coronavirus-themed game has been blocked on Steam in China because of it's a politically motivated content.
In order to win Coronavirus Attack, players have to stop “selfish zombies” from escaping a country infected with the virus.
Players reported the game for using the same colour scheme as the Chinese flag, with virus-shaped animations in place of its stars.
The game has been inundated with negative reviews on Steam’s store.
“A selfish-zombie virus has infected throughout the country,” reads the game’s description.
“The virus carriers are attempting to flee the country.
“Your purpose is to prevent the selfish zombie virus carriers from escaping and infecting the world.”
Players can also collect badges that include “Liberate Honk Kong” and “Taiwan is not in China”.
The creator behind the game, MythZ, told news site Abacus he had developed the project as a protest against the Chinese government.
He said he was unhappy with how it had handled the pandemic.
Some Steam users are calling for the game, which remains available in other countries, to be removed from the platform globally.
“Imagine making a game to joke about the pandemic situation around the world, using people’s death for entertainment,” said one player in a negative review.
Coronavirus Attack is not the first Steam game to be blocked in China.
Hugely popular simulation game Plague Inc. was blacklisted in March as the Covid-19 outbreak worsened.
The plague-themed game, which experienced a spike in popularity around the world in January, tasks players with creating their own pathogen to wipe out the human race.
Some players at the time suggested they were downloading the game as a way to cope with fears surrounding the virus.
The US has tried to cushion the economic blow with nearly $3tn (£2.4tn) in new spending, including direct payments to many families.
The Federal Reserve has also taken with a slew of emergency steps, including lowering interest rates to near zero.
On Wednesday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the bank would maintain those levels until it was “confident that the economy has weathered recent events and is on track”. But he warned that the ongoing crisis would “weigh heavily” on the economy.
“Will there be a need to do more? I would say the answer to that will be a yes,” Mr Powell said at a virtual press conference.
‘Unprecedented’ shock
Since mid-March, more than 26 million people in the US have filed for unemployment, and the US has seen historic declines in business activity and consumer confidence. Forecasters expect growth to contract 30% or more in the three months to June.
“This is off the rails, unprecedented,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The economy has just been flattened.”
The contraction in the US economy is part of a global slowdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
In China, where restrictions were in place for much of the quarter, the economy shrank by 6.8% – its first quarterly contraction since record-keeping began in 1992.
And on Wednesday, Germany said its economy could shrink by a record 6.3% this year.
“We will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic” founded in 1949, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the international community to take notice of the rights violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).
“Under the cover of coronavirus, the Modi govt with its fascist Hindutva Supremacist RSS-driven ideology continues its war crimes in IoK as it violates the Fourth Geneva Convention by continuing its genocide of Kashmiris”, PM Imran Khan said in his tweet.
Under cover of COVID19 global pandemic, the Modi Govt with its fascist Hindutva Supremacist RSS-driven ideology continues its war crimes in IOJK as it violates the Fourth Geneva Convention by continuing its genocide of Kashmiris: & by attempting to change https://t.co/ezFAQBhE7I
The demography in Occupied Jammu & Kashmir is a territory recognised as disputed by the United Nations, the PM said and stressed upon the international community to realize its responsibility and take notice of act against these war crimes by India in violations of 4th Geneva Convention & int humanitarian laws.
The United States has caught no sight of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and is watching reports about his health, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday, adding there was a real risk of famine in the country amid the coronavirus outbreak.
North Korean media has not reported on Kim’s whereabouts since he presided over a meeting on April 11, provoking speculation about his health and raising concerns about instability in the nuclear-armed country that could affect other North Asian countries and the United States.
“We haven’t seen him. We don’t have any information to report today, we’re watching it closely,” Pompeo told Fox News after being asked about conflicting reports about Kim’s health.
Pompeo said the United States was also monitoring the situation more broadly in North Korea, which borders China, given the risk presented by the coronavirus.
“There is a real risk that there will be a famine, a food shortage, inside of North Korea too,” he added. “We’re watching each of those things closely, as they have a real impact on our mission set, which to ultimately denuclearize North Korea.”
Officials in South Korea and the United States have said Kim may be staying at North Korea’s coastal resort of Wonsan to avoid exposure to the new coronavirus, and have expressed skepticism about media reports that he had some kind of serious illness.
They caution, however, that Kim’s health and location are closely guarded secrets and reliable information is difficult to obtain from secretive North Korea.
On Saturday, a U.S.-based North Korea monitoring project, 38 North, said satellite images showed what was believed to be Kim’s personal train parked at a station reserved for his use in Wonsan on April 21 and 23.
New images taken on Wednesday showed a train in the same position, but it was unclear whether it had been there since last week, 38 North said.
On Tuesday, another North Korea-monitoring website, NK PRO, reported that commercial satellite imagery showed boats often used by Kim had moved in patterns suggesting he or his entourage may be in the Wonsan area.
38 North said that in its new images, the train did not appear to be prepared for departure as the engine could no longer be seen parked alongside its south end.
It said the train’s presence did not prove Kim’s presence, but the station was reserved for the exclusive use of the Kim family, “lending weight to the multiple reports that Kim has been staying in the Wonsan area.”
Pompeo told a later State Department news conference the United States would continue to focus on North Korean denuclearization, “no matter what transpires there.”
President Donald Trump met Kim three times in 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to persuade him to give up a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States. While talks have stalled, Trump has continued to hail Kim as a friend.
Pompeo did not elaborate on the risk of famine in North Korea, but a North Korean economic delegation was due in Beijing this week to discuss food supplies and trade issues as the coronavirus outbreak has severely disrupted the country’s food supply, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Impoverished and isolated North Korea is prone to food shortages. As many as 1.1 million people died during the famines of the 1990s, according to South Korean estimates.
Berlin has banned the Lebanese militant organization and political party, Hezbollah, labeling the group a terrorist outfit as German police carry out raids on those suspected to be members.
“[Interior Minister Horst Seehofer] today banned the operation of the Shiite terrorist organization Hezbollah (Party of God) in Germany,” an Interior Ministry spokesperson tweeted on Thursday morning.
Police measures have been taking place in several federal states at the same time since the early hours of the morning. The rule of law can also act in times of crisis.
Police descended on several mosques and cultural centers – believed to be linked to Hezbollah – in Berlin as well as North Rhine-Westphalia and Bremen. Flats of their leaders, treasurers, and tax advisors were also searched.
German authorities believe some 1,050 people in the country could belong to the group’s “extremist wing,” carrying out raids to sweep up the alleged members.
Though Berlin previously made a distinction between Hezbollah’s political and armed units, the minister’s decision will see the entire group banished from the country as an illicit terrorist cell.
Germany began to float the idea of banning Hezbollah last year, with the debate being fueled by US Ambassador Richard Grenell. The notorious envoy blasted the “artificial distinction,” insisting that “Hezbollah makes no such distinction.”
The US, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, and the UK all banned Hezbollah back in March 2019.
Founded in the 1980s during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, the Shia organization has risen to prominence within Lebanese politics, taking part in governing coalitions while maintaining its armed presence along the border with Israel.
The group has found a staunch ally in Tehran, keeping a close relationship with the Islamic Republic, and has come to the aid of Syrian President Bashar Assad in the fight against jihadist rebel groups which took over swaths of Syria beginning in 2011.
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Apparently not content to rescue mankind from only one doomsday scenario, teenage eco warrior Greta Thunberg has sprung into action again, launching a fundraising campaign to help the children of the world survive Covid-19.
The project will see the young activist partner with Denmark’s Human Act Foundation to pledge $100,000 each to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), which brings humanitarian aid to children around the globe, according to the Associated Press.
Though the Covid-19 outbreak has largely spared the young, Thunberg nonetheless dubbed the pandemic a “child-rights crisis” in a statement announcing the new initiative on Wednesday, calling on people everywhere to “step up and join me in support of UNICEF’s vital work to save children’s lives.”
Thunberg earned her bonafides as a climate soldier at the age of 15 after spearheading a school strike in her native Sweden to demand more aggressive action on climate change, but has since skyrocketed to worldwide fame, touring the planet to angrily lecture ‘adults’ on the dangers of petroleum-addiction.
Some critics might argue that the virus – given her vision of “climate action” at any cost – is achieving precisely what she has always dreamed of: curtailing production, grinding air travel to a halt, slashing carbon emissions and reducing air pollution. Yet Thunberg has now made it her job to take on the coronavirus pandemic as well, calling on the world to “tackle two crises at once.”
In a galaxy billions of light-years away, two gargantuan black holes are trapped in a cosmic dance that routinely unleashes an enormous explosion that’s brighter than one trillion suns.
One of the black holes is a complete colossus; weighing in at about 18 billion times more massive than the Sun, it is one of the largest black holes scientists have ever discovered. It dwarfs its dance partner, which is also huge, weighing 150 million Sun masses.
The pair are trapped in an endless dance in the OJ 287 galaxy, around 3.5 billion light-years from Earth.
Approximately twice every 12 years, the smaller black hole smashes through a huge disk of dust and gas that surrounds its supermassive partner. This unleashes the extraordinary explosion of light that’s brighter than one trillion stars. This stunning eruption is so bright that boffins can spot it from here on Earth and they have become adept at predicting the timing of the interaction.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has released an animation that captures the awesome phenomenon.
The smaller black hole’s oblong orbit makes it crash through the disk at irregular intervals, making it tricky for researchers to know exactly when the next explosion will occur.
However a new study, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, reveals that the experts got their predictions for the most recent event spot-on – and NASA's Spitzer telescope managed to capture the OJ 287 galaxy at the perfect time.
“When I first checked the visibility of OJ 287, I was shocked to find that it became visible to Spitzer right on the day when the next flare was predicted to occur,” said Seppo Laine, a scientist working on Spitzer.
“It was extremely fortunate that we would be able to capture the peak of this flare with Spitzer, because no other human-made instruments were capable of achieving this feat at that specific point in time,” Laine added.
The next flaring is forecast to take place in 2022 and the following ones are set for 2033 and 2034. The stunning cosmic dance will ultimately end in disaster as the smaller black hole looks set to be swallowed by its giant partner within the next 10,000 years.
