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Prakash Raj Shredded On Social Media For Chandrayaan-3 Post

Prakash Raj Shredded On Social Media For Chandrayaan-3 Post

by | Aug 21, 2023 | top-stories


The post was termed insensitive and derogatory by users.

New Delhi:

A recent post by actor Prakash Raj on India’s Moon mission Chandrayaan-3 has sparked outrage on social media. The 58-year-old’s illustration of an old Malayali joke about a tea seller on the Moon has been seen by some on X, formerly known as Twitter, as a sarcastic and derogatory swipe at the Chandrayaan-3 mission.

He has now reacted to the backlash, clarifying it was “a joke of Armstrong times” in reference to the people of Kerala.

 “Hate sees only Hate.. i was referring to a joke of #Armstrong times .. celebrating our kerala Chaiwala .. which Chaiwala did the TROLLS see ?? .. if you dont get a joke then the joke is on you .. GROW UP #justasking,” read his new tweet.

 The actor earlier shared a post on social media featuring a cartoon that depicted a man pouring tea.

The post was termed insensitive and derogatory by users who urged him to show respect for the scientists responsible for India’s historic Moon mission.

“Chandrayaan-3 is something the whole of India must be proud of, irrespective of political ideology. Know the boundary between political vs national trolling,” wrote one user. 

“There is a difference between hating someone and hating your country. So sad to see this state of yours!” wrote another.

“This is tragically sad. The work of ISRO and Chandrayaan-3 are one of those rare things which ignites sparks of unity, passion and optimism in a billion hearts. If you can’t celebrate that, then your hate for an individual is more intense than your love for the nation,” wrote one person.

“Never let hate consume you so much that you begin to hate the progress, achievements, and endeavours of your country and your own people,” shared another.

However, one user pointed out that the post is a referencee to an old joke that “predates anyone you feel he is insulting”.

“Those who know only hate will see only hate. If it makes any difference, Prakash Raaj is referencing a joke (that predates anyone you feel he is insulting) about how we find Keralites in every corner of the world and how the first thing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin saw when they stepped foot on the moon was a Malayali selling tea there. This is a classic joke made by us Keralites about ourselves and we wholeheartedly accept and laugh about it for decades. Now, if you have to insist on sticking to hate even after it has been explained to you, that says a lot about you, doesn’t it?” the user wrote with a photo of a tea seller, apparently a Malayali, on the Moon with an astronaut on the fore.

Prakash Raj is a vocal critic of the ruling party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He ran as an independent candidate in the Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha constituency in the 2019 Indian general election but lost.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched into space by the LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14 and entered lunar orbit on August 5. It is expected to make a soft landing on August 23. 





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Video: Nitin Gadkari Introduces “Marvel Of Engineering” Dwarka Expressway

Video: Nitin Gadkari Introduces “Marvel Of Engineering” Dwarka Expressway

by | Aug 20, 2023 | top-stories



On both sides of the expressway, there are three-lane service roads.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari shared a video today on X, formerly Twitter, unveiling the newly built Dwarka Expressway, India’s first eight-lane elevated expressway.

Nitin Gadkari shared the video with the caption, “Marvel of Engineering: The Dwarka Expressway! A State-of-the-Art Journey into the Future”

According to the video, the Dwarka Expressway is a four-package highway with a lane-wide length of 563 km. The road starts at Shiv Murti on National Highway 8 and ends at Kherki Daula toll plaza in Gurugram. It is the first project in India for which, 1,200 trees were retransplanted.

Once completed, the project will significantly improve connectivity between Delhi and Haryana. According to the video, the travel time from Dwarka to Manesar will become 15 minutes, Manesar To Indira Gandhi International Airport will become 20 minutes, Dwarka to Singhu border will become 25 minutes and Manesar to Singhu border will become 45 minutes. The project will also strengthen the connectivity of the International Convention Centre in Dwarka, Sector 25.

On both sides of the expressway, there are three-lane service roads. To avoid traffic congestion, entry points have been made on these service lanes.

According to the video, two lakh tonnes steel has been used in the construction of the expressway, which is 30 times more than that used in the Eiffel Tower. Also, 20 lakh cubic metre cement concrete has been used in the project, which is six times more than that used in Burj Khalifa.





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UP Muslim Couple Beaten To Death After Son Elopes With Hindu Girl

UP Muslim Couple Beaten To Death After Son Elopes With Hindu Girl

by | Aug 20, 2023 | top-stories


The couple, Abbas and his wife Kamrul Nisha, died on the spot in the attack on Friday

Sitapur:

A man and his wife were beaten to death with iron rods and sticks by their neighbours in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur. Three people have been arrested in the case, and police say that the murder was allegedly a result of an affair between the victim’s son and the daughter of one of the accused.

The couple, Abbas and his wife Kamrul Nisha, died on the spot in the attack on Friday and all the accused fled from the spot.

Sitapur Superintendent of Police Chakresh Mishra said a few years back Abbas’s son had eloped with a girl from the neighbouring household. A case was registered in this regard and Abbas’s son was sent to jail.

When Abbas’s son was released from jail a few days back, some members of the family planned the attack on the couple, police said.

“According to the villagers, the son of the deceased couple and Shaukat Rampal’s daughter Ruby had an affair. Shaukat had abducted Ruby in the year 2020. At that time, Ruby was a minor and after registering a case, the police sent Shaukat to jail. He again abducted and married Ruby in June,” Chakresh Mishra said.

Police say that the three main accused have been arrest and a hunt is on for two more.



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Explainer: New, Highly Mutated Lineage Of Virus That Causes Covid

Explainer: New, Highly Mutated Lineage Of Virus That Causes Covid

by | Aug 19, 2023 | top-stories


It is too soon to know whether BA.2.86 will cause more-severe illness.

The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Six cases in four countries have been detected since late July. Scientists are keeping an eye on the new lineage, named BA.2.86, because it has 36 mutations that distinguish it from the currently-dominant XBB.1.5 variant.

So far there is no evidence that BA.2.86 spreads faster or causes more serious illness than previous versions. The CDC said its advice on protecting yourself from COVID remains the same.

What is new about COVID?

COVID infections and hospitalizations have been rising in the U.S., Europe and Asia, with more cases in recent months attributed to the EG.5 “Eris” subvariant, a descendant of the Omicron lineage that originally emerged in November 2021.

Over the past few days, public health authorities have documented one case each of BA.2.86 in the United States, the UK, and Israel, and three cases in Denmark.

What do scientists say about BA.2.86?

BA.2.86 stems from an “earlier branch” of the coronavirus, so it differs from the variant targeted by current vaccines, explained Dr. S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital.

He said it remains to be seen whether BA.2.86 will be able to out-compete other strains of the virus or have any advantage in escaping immune responses from prior infection or vaccination.

But many countries have drastically reduced testing of patients and their efforts to analyze the genomes of the viruses causing new COVID cases. In that situation, the trajectory of BA.2.86 “doesn’t look good right now,” given the speed at which new cases are being identified, said Dr. Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.

Its many mutations make BA.2.86 “radically different in its structure” compared to earlier variants, Topol said.

The main question, he added, is whether BA.2.86 will turn out to be highly transmissible.

Do the new variants make people sicker?

U.S. emergency department visits and hospitalizations for COVID remain low, but have been rising since early July, according to data on the CDC website. So far, however, doctors have been reporting that patients seen in recent weeks, as the Eris variant has been spreading, are not as sick as those they treated during earlier waves of the pandemic.

Wider spread of BA.2.86 would likely cause more illness and death in vulnerable populations, Topol said.

It is too soon to know whether BA.2.86 will cause more-severe illness.

“Based on the available evidence, we do not yet know what risks, if any, (BA.2.86) may pose to the public’s health beyond what has been seen with other currently circulating lineages,” a CDC spokesperson said.

Will vaccines protect against new variants?

Due to the waning of the pandemic, it may have been a year or more since many people were either previously infected or vaccinated against COVID.

“The vaccine is still going to provide you great defense against illness and death,” Long said.

Updated COVID booster shots now being developed have been designed to target the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.

Moderna said preliminary trial data suggest its latest version of the vaccine shows promise against Eris and a related variant called Fornax, which has begun to circulate in the U.S.

Pfizer Inc has said its updated COVID-19 shot showed neutralizing activity against the Eris subvariant in a study conducted on mice.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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Lucy Letby: From Nurse To Child Murderer

Lucy Letby: From Nurse To Child Murderer

by | Aug 18, 2023 | top-stories


Letby was accused of harming 17 babies.

The trial of nurse Lucy Letby, who was on Friday found guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill another six, was one of the longest in British criminal history. 

Here are some of the key points.

Lucy Letby 

Originally from Hereford in western England, Letby studied nursing at the University of Chester.  “I have always wanted to work with children,” she told Manchester Crown Court during her trial.

Letby graduated in 2011 and started full-time at the Countess of Chester Hospital the following year, joining the neo-natal unit.  In 2015, she qualified to work on intensive care babies, which would have allowed her to work with the sickest babies in the unit. 

She had an active social life, attended salsa classes, travelled and went to the gym, the court heard. 

Victims

Letby was accused of harming 17 babies, some of them just days old, between June 2015 and June 2016. In the majority of cases she is believed to have injected them with air but prosecutors also accused her of introducing insulin or too much milk.

The jury found her guilty of murdering seven babies and attempting to kill six others on the 22nd day of deliberations. She was found not guilty on two counts of attempted murder and the jury could not reach a verdict on six attempted murder charges.

Among her victims were a twin brother and sister and two triplet boys. The names of the babies were not allowed to be reported and are instead referred to as baby A through to Q.

Letby is said to have on several occasions carried out Facebook searches for the parents of babies that she allegedly attacked. She said she would look up to people when she was thinking about them. 

Suspicion  

The neo-natal unit saw a “significant” increase in the number of babies dying and suffering serious collapses during the period in question, prosecutor Nick Johnson said at the trial. 

A search for the cause revealed “one common denominator” and that was Letby, he added.  Following the deaths of two triplets in June 2016, Letby was removed from the neo-natal unit and placed on clerical duties.

“It was life-changing, in that moment I was taken away from the support system I had on the unit, I was put in a role I did not enjoy and I had to pretend it was voluntary,” Letby told the court. 

Letby said it was “devastating” when she received a letter from the Royal College of Nursing that blamed her for the deaths of the babies. She told the court she was prescribed anti-depressants, which she is still taking, and admitted to having thoughts of harming herself.

Arrests And Search  

Letby was arrested and released twice, with her first arrest in July 2018. On her third arrest in 2020, she was formally charged and placed into custody. 

Among the items found during a search of Letby’s home was a Post-it note on which she wrote: “I don’t deserve to live. I killed them on purpose because I’m not good enough to care for them”. “I am evil I did this,” she wrote in capital letters.

Letby claimed the note was written around the time she was removed from the neo-natal unit, leaving her feeling like she “had done something wrong”.

The prosecution said police also found a “large quantity” of hospital paperwork relating to several of the children that she is accused of harming.

Letby’s Defence 

Representing Letby, lawyer Ben Myers said it’s important that “blame is not heaped on that woman”, while there may be others who made mistakes or systems that had failed. 

He described Letby as a “dedicated nurse”, who “cared deeply” for the babies and their families. 

Mr Myers also said there was “no direct evidence” of Letby committing the crimes and pointed to the condition of the babies at birth, saying they were “clinically fragile”. He also said the unit had staffing issues at the time.

Letby has repeatedly denied hurting or wanting to hurt the babies, saying “that’s completely against what being a nurse is”. She had suggested that a “gang” of four hospital consultants had conspired to pin the blame on her “to cover failings at the hospital”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)



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Ladakh BJP Veteran, 74, Pays Price After Son Elopes With Buddhist Woman

Ladakh BJP Veteran, 74, Pays Price After Son Elopes With Buddhist Woman

by | Aug 18, 2023 | top-stories


A BJP leader in Ladakh was expelled from the party after his son eloped with a Buddhist woman

Leh:

The BJP in Ladakh has expelled a senior leader after his son eloped with a Buddhist woman and married her.

Nazir Ahmad, 74, state vice president of the Ladakh BJP, has been expelled from the primary membership of the party after his son reportedly eloped with a Buddhist woman more than a month ago.

In a statement, the BJP’s Ladakh unit said action against its senior leader was taken after he was given an “opportunity to clarify about his involvement in the sensitive issue of elopement of a Buddhist girl by his son.”

The expulsion order was issued by Ladakh BJP chief Phunchok Stanzin after an executive meeting of the party on Wednesday.

The BJP in a statement said elopement is “unacceptable to all religious communities in Ladakh as it jeopardises communal harmony and unity among the people of the region”.

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The couple married more than a month ago and since then they are untraceable.

The expelled BJP leader said his family was also against the marriage of his son, Manzoor Ahmad, with the Buddhist woman, and he has no idea where they are staying for the past one month.

Mr Ahmad, a veteran BJP loyalist, said he was away on Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia when his son and the woman married in a court.

“My son is 39 years old and the woman he married is 35. I believe both had performed nikah way back in 2011. Last month, they performed court marriage when I was away on Haj pilgrimage,” the expelled BJP leader said.

Mr Ahmad said that before he was expelled from the party, he was told to resign as he was unable to trace his son.

“I don’t know why they blame me for the marriage of my son when our whole family was against it. I have tried to trace him. I visited Srinagar and several other places to find him,” Mr Ahmad said.



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