Page 5998

Sindh makes foolproof arrangements for Muharram: Sharjeel – Pakistan

KARACHI: Sindh Senior Minister and Minister for Information, Transport and Mass Transit Sharjeel Inam Memon, has said that the Sindh government has made foolproof security arrangements for Muharram.

He stated that the Sindh chief minister held meetings with scholars from various schools of thought and reviewed the security plan for gatherings and processions during the mourning period. Memon added that 14,546 police personnel will be deployed for gatherings and 35,116 for Muharram processions, with over 14,000 additional personnel assigned to ensure the security of all events.

Addressing at a press conference in Karachi, Sindh Senior Minister and Provincial Minister for Information, Transport, and Mass Transit, Sharjeel Inam Memon, announced that a total of 49,662 police personnel will be deployed across Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, and Shaheed Benazirabad from the 8th to 10th of Muharram to prevent any untoward incidents.

Sharjeel Inam Memon stated that the Commissioner of Karachi had issued a notification on April 15, 2025, imposing a ban on the movement of rickshaws on 11 major highways in the city. He clarified that the ban does not apply to all of Karachi but is limited to specific main roads. This measure, he added, has been implemented under the Sindh Motor Vehicle Ordinance, 1965.

He stated that it is the administrative authority of the government to regulate traffic and ensure convenience for citizens. He also questioned whether rickshaws operate on major highways in any other part of the country.

Speaking about the education sector, Sharjeel Inam Memon said that the Sindh government has recruited 93,118 teachers across the province, including 58,613 men and 31,075 women. He added that 2,100 teachers were appointed under the minority quota, while 1,330 positions were filled by individuals with special abilities.

He said that the recruitments were carried out through the IBA test with complete transparency, leaving no room for criticism. As a result of these measures, 5,000 previously closed schools have been reopened. Currently, 5.5 million children are enrolled in government schools across Sindh, 4 million in private schools, and 1 million in Sindh Education Foundation schools.

Senior Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon further stated that the Sindh government has taken revolutionary steps in key sectors such as health, energy, infrastructure, and climate change. He noted that after the devastating floods of 2022, the government successfully began achieving its target of constructing 2.1 million houses. He also emphasized that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari raised his voice on climate change at the global level, while the Sindh government undertook extensive mangrove plantation efforts to promote environmental protection.

Sharjeel Inam Memon remarked that Ali Amin Gandapur does not require an opposition, as he acts as his own opposition. He criticized the deteriorating law and order situation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, adding that the Chief Minister is focused on making threats to attack Islamabad while remaining oblivious to the pressing issues within his own province.

He said that Jamaat-e-Islami has never fulfilled its responsibilities in Karachi and has consistently engaged in the politics of sedition. He said that while the Sindh government tolerates criticism, it will not allow anyone to dictate its policies. He added that the government had also proposed allocating a large designated area for protests to ensure that public life remains unaffected.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025

Continue Reading

July 4, 2025

Astronomers have spied an interstellar object zooming through the Solar System

This week, astronomers spotted the third known interstellar visitor to our Solar System.

First detected by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS) on July 1, the cosmic interloper was given the temporary name A11pl3Z. Experts at NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies and the International Astronomical Union (IAU) have confirmed the find, and the object now has an official designation: I3/ATLAS.

The orbital path of I3/ATLAS through the Solar System.
NASA/JPL-Caltech, CC BY-NC

There are a few strong clues that suggest 3I/ATLAS came from outside the Solar System.

First, it’s moving really fast. Current observations show it speeding through space at around 245,000km per hour. That’s more than enough to escape the Sun’s gravity.

An object near Earth’s orbit would only need to be travelling at just over 150,000km/h to break free from the Solar System.

Second, 3I/ATLAS has a wildly eccentric orbit around the Sun. Eccentricity measures how “stretched” an orbit is: 0 eccentricity is a perfect circle, and anything up to 1 is an increasingly strung-out ellipse. Above 1 is an orbit that is not bound to the Sun.

3I/ATLAS has an estimated eccentricity of 6.3, by far the highest ever recorded for any object in the Solar System.

Has anything like this happened before?

An artist's impression of the first confirmed interstellar object, 1I/'Oumuamua. — An artist’s impression of the first confirmed interstellar object, 1I/‘Oumuamua.
ESO/M. Kornmesser, CC BY

The first interstellar object spotted in our Solar System was the cigar-shaped ‘Oumuamua, discovered in 2017 by the Pan-STARRS1 telescope in Hawaii. Scientists tracked it for 80 days before eventually confirming it came from interstellar space.

The interstellar comet I2/Borisov, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA, ESA, and D. Jewitt (UCLA), CC BY-NC

The second interstellar visitor, comet 2I/Borisov, was discovered two years later by amateur astronomer Gennadiy Borisov. This time it only took astronomers a few weeks to confirm it came from outside the Solar System.

This time, the interstellar origin of I3/ATLAS has been confirmed in a matter of days.

How did it get here?

We have only ever seen three interstellar visitors (including I3/ATLAS), so it’s hard to know exactly how they made their way here.

However, recent research published in The Planetary Science Journal suggests these objects might be more common than we once thought. In particular, they may come from relatively nearby star systems such as Alpha Centauri (our nearest interstellar neighbour, a mere 4.4 light years away).

Two bright stars of the Alpha Centauri triple star system. — Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, from the triple star system Alpha Centauri.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, CC BY

Alpha Centauri is slowly moving closer to us, with its closest approach expected in about 28,000 years. If it flings out material in the same way our Solar System does, scientists estimate around a million objects from Alpha Centauri larger than 100 metres in diameter could already be in the outer reaches of our Solar System. That number could increase tenfold as Alpha Centauri gets closer.

Most of this material would have been ejected at relatively low speeds, less than 2km/s, making it more likely to drift into our cosmic neighbourhood over time and not dramatically zoom in and out of the Solar System like I3/ATLAS appears to be doing. While the chance of one of these objects coming close to the Sun is extremely small, the study suggests a few tiny meteors from Alpha Centauri, likely no bigger than grains of sand, may already hit Earth’s atmosphere every year.

Why is this interesting?

Discovering new interstellar visitors like 3I/ATLAS is thrilling, not just because they’re rare, but because each one offers a unique glimpse into the wider galaxy. Every confirmed interstellar object expands our catalogue and helps scientists better understand the nature of these visitors, how they travel through space, and where they might have come from.

A swarm of new asteroids discovered by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

Thanks to powerful new observatories such as the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, our ability to detect these elusive objects is rapidly improving. In fact, during its first 10 hours of test imaging, Rubin revealed 2,104 previously unknown asteroids.

This is an astonishing preview of what’s to come. With its wide field of view and constant sky coverage, Rubin is expected to revolutionise our search for interstellar objects, potentially turning rare discoveries into routine ones.

What now?

There’s still plenty left to uncover about 3I/ATLAS. Right now, it’s officially classified as a comet by the IAU Minor Planet Center.

But some scientists argue it might actually be an asteroid, roughly 20km across, based on the lack of typical comet-like features such as a glowing coma or a tail. More observations will be needed to confirm its nature.

Currently, 3I/ATLAS is inbound, just inside Jupiter’s orbit. It’s expected to reach its closest point to the Sun, slightly closer than the planet Mars, on October 29. After that, it will swing back out towards deep space, making its closest approach to Earth in December. (It will pose no threat to our planet.)

Whether it’s a comet or an asteroid, 3I/ATLAS is a messenger from another star system. For now, these sightings are rare – though as next-generation observatories such as Rubin swing into operation, we may discover interstellar companions all around.

Continue Reading

July 4, 2025

Putin tells Trump he won’t back down from goals in Ukraine

MOSCOW:

Russian President Vladimir Putin told US President Donald Trump in a phone call on Thursday that Moscow wants a negotiated end to the Ukraine war but will not step back from its original goals, a Kremlin aide said.

In a wide-ranging conversation that also covered Iran and the Middle East, Trump “again raised the issue of an early end to military action” in Ukraine, the aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters.

“Vladimir Putin, for his part, noted that we continue to seek a political and negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov said.

Putin briefed Trump on the implementation of agreements reached between Russia and Ukraine last month to exchange prisoners-of-war and dead soldiers, Ushakov said, and told him that Moscow was ready to continue negotiations with Kyiv.

“Our president also said that Russia will achieve the goals it has set: that is, the elimination of the well-known root causes that led to the current state of affairs, to the current acute confrontation, and Russia will not back down from these goals,” he added.

There was nothing in the Kremlin readout to suggest that Putin had made any shift in Moscow’s position during the conversation with Trump, who took office with a promise to end the war swiftly but has voiced frequent frustration with the lack of progress between the two sides.

The phrase “root causes” is shorthand for the Kremlin’s argument that it was compelled to go to war in Ukraine to prevent the country from joining NATO and being used by the Western alliance as a launch pad to attack Russia.

Ukraine and its European allies say that is a specious pretext for what they call an imperial-style war, but Trump in previous public comments has shown sympathy with Moscow’s refusal to accept NATO membership for Ukraine.

Putin and Trump did not talk about the US decision to halt some shipments of critical weapons to Ukraine, Ushakov said.

On Iran, he said, “the Russian side emphasised the importance of resolving all disputes, disagreements and conflict situations exclusively by political and diplomatic means”.

Trump last month sent US military bombers to strike three Iranian nuclear sites, in a move condemned by Moscow as unprovoked and illegal.