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  • Tom Hanks pays tribute to Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell | US news

    Tom Hanks pays tribute to Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell | US news

    Late Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell has received a tribute from Tom Hanks, the actor who brought him to life in an Oscar-winning movie and said he had gone places most wouldn’t dare.

    “There are people who dare, who dream, and who lead others to places we would not go on our own,” Hanks said of Lovell in a heartfelt Instagram tribute post published after the astronaut’s death was announced Friday. “Jim Lovell, who for a long while had gone farther into space and for longer than any other person of our planet, was that kind of guy.”

    Hanks portrayed Lovell in the 1995 film Apollo 13. Directed by Ron Howard and earning Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound, the film depicted the failed lunar mission that nearly cost Lovell and his crew their lives in 1970.

    Apollo 13 was intended to be Nasa’s third crewed moon landing. But during the US space agency’s mission, manned by Lovell and fellow astronauts John Swigert and Fred Haise, an oxygen tank in the service module exploded roughly 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) from Earth.

    Lovell famously informed mission control, “Houston, we’ve had a problem.” Hanks later immortalized the line in the film, which slightly altered the phrase to, “Houston, we have a problem.”

    With their power and life-support systems crippled, the crew was forced to abandon their lunar landing and use several engine burns to slingshot around the far side of the moon, setting a course back to Earth. About three days after the explosion, they splashed down safely in the South Pacific, concluding what became known as the Apollo program’s “successful failure”.

    “His many voyages around Earth and on to so-very-close to the moon were not made for riches or celebrity, but because such challenges as those are what fuels the course of being alive,” Hanks wrote on Friday of Lovell. “And who better than Jim Lovell to make those voyages.”

    “On this night of a full Moon, he passes on – to the heavens, to the cosmos, to the stars. God speed you, on this next voyage, Jim Lovell,” reads the end of the tribute.

    Lovell died on Thursday at age 97 in Lake Forest, Illinois, Nasa said. The cause of death was not immediately released.

    He made a brief cameo in Apollo 13 as the captain of the USS Iwo Jima, the Navy ship that recovered the crew after splashdown. The film was nominated for a total of nine Oscars, including best picture.

    Hanks starred in Apollo 13 alongside actors Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan and the late Bill Paxton.


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  • Pakistan: Karachi records 536 traffic deaths in 2025 amid rising public outrage – ANI News

    1. Pakistan: Karachi records 536 traffic deaths in 2025 amid rising public outrage  ANI News
    2. 2 killed in accident as mob torches 7 dumper trucks in Karachi  Dawn
    3. Road carnage: 546 lives lost in traffic accidents  The Express Tribune
    4. Sindh Govt agrees to address Transporter’s legitimate concerns  Associated Press of Pakistan
    5. I don’t know how the motorcycle came under my vehicle: Dumper driver  Aaj English TV

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  • Elon Musk’s Tesla applies to supply electricity to households in Great Britain | Tesla

    Elon Musk’s Tesla applies to supply electricity to households in Great Britain | Tesla

    Elon Musk’s Tesla is gearing up to launch a household electricity supplier in Great Britain in the coming months.

    The US electric car manufacturer run by the world’s richest man has formally applied to the energy regulator for Great Britain, Ofgem, for an electricity supply licence, according to a notice published on the watchdog’s website.

    This would enable Tesla, which also runs an energy supply business in the US, to provide electricity to domestic and business premises in England, Scotland and Wales as soon as next year. It can take Ofgem up to nine months to assess an application.

    The business is expected to be branded Tesla Electric and could focus on supplying electricity to consumers who own Tesla products such as cars or batteries.

    However, it would not work for households on dual-fuel contracts because the company is only applying for an electricity licence.

    Tesla Energy Ventures, the company’s Manchester-based energy subsidiary, made the application last month, and the move was first reported by the Sunday Telegraph. The application was signed by Andrew Payne, who has worked for Tesla since 2016 and runs the company’s energy business in Europe, with responsibility for a team of 60-plus.

    The move comes at a time when Tesla’s electric car sales across Europe have been falling. Sales of Teslas in the UK more than halved last month, according to data from the main industry body. Only 987 new Teslas were registered in the UK in July – down almost 60% on the 2,462 registered in July 2024. This means Tesla’s UK market share shrank to 0.7% in July, from 1.67% a year ago.

    For 2025 to date, Tesla sales in the UK were 7% lower. This is a period during which Musk has faced heavy criticism for his relationship with Donald Trump, which has now soured, and his interference in politics in Germany, France and the UK.

    Tesla has sold many home storage batteries called Powerwalls that can be charged by solar power or from the grid at off-peak times to UK households. It also sells home chargers for electric cars.

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    The company effectively revealed its aim to sell electricity to homes two years ago when it posted a job listing looking for a head of operations. It took its first step into the British energy market in 2020 when it was granted a licence to be an electricity generator.

    Tesla already has an electricity supplier in Texas, where it launched household supply deals in 2022. It allows Tesla owners to charge their cars cheaply and pays them for selling surplus solar power or electricity stored in its home batteries back to the grid.

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  • Pakistan PM, Azerbaijan president discuss enhanced connectivity after peace deal with Armenia

    Pakistan PM, Azerbaijan president discuss enhanced connectivity after peace deal with Armenia

    Pakistan warns key ministries of ‘severe’ ransomware attacks, urges security system updates


    ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Cyber Emergency Response Team (NCERT) has issued an advisory to 39 key ministries and institutions and warned them of a “severe risk” posed by the ongoing ‘Blue Locker’ malware attacks, an NCERT spokesperson said on Sunday, confirming that a few Pakistani organizations had already been affected by the ransomware.


    NCERT, which handles cybersecurity threats, alerts and coordination for government ministries and institutions, advisory came after the ransomware targeted some organizations in the South Asian country, according NCERT spokesman Imran Haider.


    “Pakistan Petroleum has been impacted severely and some other organizations were also attacked, but our deployed system is detecting and blocking it continuously,” he told Arab News.


    Blue Locker ransomware can impact Windows-based desktops, laptops and servers as well as network shares, cloud-synced storage and backup systems accessible during the attack, according to an Aug. 9 NCERT advisory seen by Arab News.


    “The Blue Locker ransomware encrypts victim files, appends the .blue (dot blue) extension, and demands ransom in exchange for decryption keys,” it said, adding that the attack may initiate through trojanized downloads, phishing emails, unsafe file-sharing platforms and compromised websites.


    “It has the potential for severe data loss, operational disruption, and reputational harm.”


    Once executed, the ransomware may disable antivirus software, spread laterally across the network, and exfiltrate sensitive information, according to the advisory.


    As a precaution, organizations must keep all systems updated with the latest security patches, apply multi-factor authentication, filter malicious emails or web content, avoid downloading software from untrusted sources, train staff on threat detection, and monitor systems and maintain offline backups of critical data.


    “Immediate isolation of any infected system and prompt reporting to the cybersecurity team are essential to prevent further spread,” NCERT said.


    Independent cybersecurity experts say Pakistani government bodies lack structures, policies and constant vigilance needed to counter increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.


    Tariq Malik, a cybersecurity expert and former Chief Technology Officer with Pakistan’s army, said the country’s ministries and government departments were “ill-prepared” to handle such attacks.


    “They do not have such structure and clear policies to deal with such sophisticated attacks,” he told Arab News. “Government departments need to start using the technology as a whole not only as personal computers and need proper safety mechanisms and trainings.”


    Ammar Jaffery, president of the Pakistan Information Security Association (PISA), said the nature of cybersecurity has changed from reactive to proactive, and organizations now need to continuously train their staff to deal with daily emerging challenges.


    “Hackers are always ahead of experts, so it’s not just about capability but about continuous learning, where organizations must recognize that cyber threats are growing daily, weekly and monthly,” he told Arab News.


    “Therefore, organizations should regularly check their systems and create ongoing awareness among their technical and general staff.”


    Key ministries and departments should have their own cybersecurity teams, according to Jaffery.


    “They should train their Security Operations Center (SOC) teams and ensure up-to-date Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems, and especially their own CERT which acts like a watchman guarding your home — are always on alert,” he said.

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  • ‘Humein missailo ki kami nahi’: Pak’s Asim Munir warmongers at US event, says Indus river isn’t India’s property – India News

    ‘Humein missailo ki kami nahi’: Pak’s Asim Munir warmongers at US event, says Indus river isn’t India’s property – India News

    Pakistan’s Field Marshal Asim Munir issued a stark nuclear threat against India, warning that his country would be willing to plunge the region into nuclear war if faced with an existential threat, ThePrint reported. Speaking at a dinner in Florida, hosted by businessman and Pakistan’s honorary consul Adnan Asad, Munir said, “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.”

    According to ThePrint’s report, Munir was in the US to attend the retirement ceremony of General Michael Kurilla, outgoing commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM). His nuclear threat remarks are reportedly the first such issued against a third country from US soil.

    The report of Munir’s nuke threat comes at a time when India and US relations are not in its best form. Indian politicians have pointed fingers at US President Trump’s decision to invite Asim Munir over for lunch at White House shortly after India’s military escalation with Pakistan. Notably, the Trump-Munir lunch also raised eyebrows as such an invitation was extended to the Pakistani PM or President but an army chief.

    Munir threatens to blow Indian dam on Indus river

    Munir further warned that India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty could endanger 250 million people in Pakistan. “We will wait for India to build a dam, and when it does so, phir 10 missile sey faarigh kar dengey [we will destroy it with 10 missiles],” ThePrint reported him as saying at the dinner. The report further quoted Munir as saying, “The Indus river is not the Indians’ family property. Humein missilon ki kami nahin hai [we have no shortage of missiles].”

    Taking aim at New Delhi, Munir mocked India’s reluctance to disclose its losses in Operation Sindoor. “The Indians should accept their losses,” he said, adding that Pakistan was open to making its own war losses public if India did the same.

    Trump-Munir lunch and Pak’s Nobel Prize nomination

    Commenting on India’s strained ties with Washington, Munir joked that Pakistan should teach a “masterclass” on balancing rival global powers. “The real reason for our success is that we are not misers. If someone does good work, we praise them. That is why we nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Prize,” he reportedly said.

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  • Challenges in the Diagnosis and Management of Methamphetamine-Induced Intestinal Ischemia in a General Hospital With Limited Infrastructure: A Case Report

    Challenges in the Diagnosis and Management of Methamphetamine-Induced Intestinal Ischemia in a General Hospital With Limited Infrastructure: A Case Report


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  • Development and validation of a machine learning model for predicting vulnerable carotid plaques using routine blood biomarkers and derived indicators: insights into sex-related risk patterns | Cardiovascular Diabetology

    Development and validation of a machine learning model for predicting vulnerable carotid plaques using routine blood biomarkers and derived indicators: insights into sex-related risk patterns | Cardiovascular Diabetology

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  • Eating french fries comes with an unexpected health risk

    Eating french fries comes with an unexpected health risk

    A new study that tracked more than 205,000 U.S. adults for almost 40 years reports a 20 percent rise in type 2 diabetes among people who eat french fries three times a week.

    The same analysis found no meaningful change in diabetes rates for similar amounts of baked, boiled, or mashed potatoes. This suggests that preparation, not the potato itself, influences diabetes risk.

    Cooking styles and diabetes risk


    Study lead author Seyed Mohammad Mousavi of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health noted that his team wanted to separate cooking style from the crop itself. Boiling or baking leaves the tuber’s structure mostly intact, so more starch resists quick digestion.

    That slower breakdown keeps blood sugar steadier, while deep frying breaks starch granules and surrounds them with fat, pushing their glycemic index higher.

    Because the index measures how fast a food raises glucose, a higher value can translate into more insulin demand and, over time, greater metabolic strain.

    French fries raise diabetes risk

    “Small changes in our daily diet can have an important impact on risk of type 2 diabetes,” said Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition. He recommended swapping a side of fries for a salad or whole grain roll.

    Deep fried potatoes often arrive salted, sometimes battered, and usually cooked in oils repeatedly heated – creating compounds that may harm pancreatic cells.

    Portion size matters too, because a restaurant “serving” can exceed two cups, far more than the study’s single cup baseline.

    Whole grains lower diabetes risk

    Replacing any potato dish with three weekly servings of whole grains trimmed diabetes risk by up to 8 percent, and the drop hit 19 percent when the swap targeted fries.

    Whole grain kernels carry fiber, magnesium and phytochemicals that blunt glucose spikes and may improve insulin sensitivity. They also displace refined starches, lowering overall dietary glycemic load.

    Participants who regularly chose oats, farro or true whole grain bread tended to exercise more and smoke less, but the researchers adjusted for these habits. The protective link remained after lifestyle factors were stripped away.

    White rice also raises risk

    When the same models substituted white rice for potatoes, diabetes odds crept upward, a pattern echoed in a 2012 meta analysis of four continents.

    White rice loses bran and germ in milling, leaving almost pure starch that digests quickly.

    Its high glycemic index mirrors that of fries, offering little metabolic advantage. Brown rice fared better but was not the standout that whole grain wheat products proved to be, possibly because it contains less fiber per gram.

    Mousavi’s team pooled data from three well-known cohorts: the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II and the Health Professionals Follow up Study, covering 5.2 million person years.

    Dietary questionnaires repeated every four years enabled the researchers to examine how habits changed, reducing the error that plagues one time food recalls.

    The team adjusted for weight, smoking, exercise, alcohol use, family history and dozens of dietary variables, yet the fry signal persisted. Even after carving out early cases to avoid reverse causation, the 20 percent excess risk stood firm.

    French fries vs. boiled potatoes

    The researchers point to several factors that might explain why fries, but not boiled or baked potatoes, show a clear link with higher diabetes risk.

    Frying increases calorie density, changes starch structure, and introduces compounds formed at high heat that can harm insulin function over time.

    Another factor could be what typically accompanies fries. They are often eaten alongside processed meats, sugary drinks, or refined breads, creating a meal pattern with a higher overall glycemic load and saturated fat intake. This broader dietary context may compound the effects seen in the study.

    Tips for healthier fries

    The experts recommend to choose potatoes that preserve their skin, keep added fat modest, and pair them with vegetables or protein to slow digestion.

    Cold potato salad made from boiled tubers delivers resistant starch, which further tempers post meal glucose.

    You don’t have to give up fries completely, but eating them less often and in smaller amounts can help lower your risk. Instead of a cup of fries, try a cup of barley, quinoa, or air-fried potato wedges to keep your meals tasty without hurting your health.

    The study is published in the journal The BMJ.

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  • iPhone 17 Air screen size compared in new leak

    iPhone 17 Air screen size compared in new leak

    The iPhone 17 Air will be between the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max in terms of screen size, if an image shared by a serial leaker is to be believed.

    The iPhone 17 generation is anticipated to be made up of four devices, with the iPhone 17 Air replacing the Plus model. Its position in the lineup will be similar to where the Plus fitted in, albeit with a wildly different design to the rest of the pack.

    In an image released by serial leaker Majin Bu via X, supposed screen protectors for the iPhone 17 range are on display. The list starts with the smallest, the iPhone 17, followed by the iPhone 17 Pro, then the iPhone 17 Air, then the largest iPhone 17 Pro Max.

    Given the simple nature of the image, it doesn’t really offer much new to the existing pile of rumors. However, it does at least give a good visual representation of what to expect from the different screen sizes.

    As a leaker, Majin Bu prefers volume than accuracy, having switched from a fairly accurate approach in early years to a more recent mass-rumor-release version. It is also apparent that their leaks have often been sourced from elsewhere on the Internet, rather than from their own unique sources, in recent months.

    For example, on August 8, the account made a fairly questionable claim about Apple using Liquid Silicone cases with a “liquid glass effect.”

    Bigger and better

    Current rumors for the iPhone 17 Air generally believe that it will have an OLED screen measuring 6.6 inches diagonally, though some also say it could be 6.7 inches. Made using Samsung’s M14 material, the screen could have a resolution of 2740 by 1,260, similar to that of the iPhone 16 Plus it replaces.

    For comparison, the iPhone 17 is anticipated to have a screen of 6.3 inches, up from the 6.1 inches of the iPhone 16. The iPhone 17 Pro may have the same screen size as the non-Pro, while the Pro Max could have a 6.7-inch screen.

    Majin Bu’s image doesn’t give specifications for the screens, but it does seem like the Air will be slightly smaller than the Pro Max. This may lean toward a 6.6-inch measurement instead of a 6.7-inch one.

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  • Tom Holland on Tank, With Fans

    Tom Holland on Tank, With Fans

    Sony Pictures has released an official first-look teaser for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” taking fans behind the scenes on the first day of production.

    In the 60-second trailer, we see star Tom Holland suit up as Spidey, interact with young fans and shoot a scene on top of what appears to be a tank careening down the street.

    Check out the entire teaser below.

    More to come…

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