International

The Islamic World Heritage Committee of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) has announced the registration of 91 historical sites and cultural elements on ISESCOs lists of Islamic World Heritage.The final report of the 12th meeting of the Committee, hosted by the city of Shusha in the Republic of Azerbaijan, said that these sites and elements will be added to the final and preliminary lists of tangible and intangible heritage, bringing the number of sites and elements registered on ISESCOs lists to 724 sites and elements.It added that the Committee approved, after studying the files submitted by the Organizations member states, the registration of 69 historical sites and cultural elements on the final list in 23 countries, and decided to register 22 files submitted by 4 countries on the preliminary list of Islamic World Heritage.The Committee also decided to adopt the report on the activities of the ISESCO Center for Islamic World Heritage for the year 2024, the Centers vision for the next two years, the document on the proposed methods and processes for registration on the Islamic World Heritage List, the document on activating the Fund for Supporting Heritage Projects in the Islamic World, in addition to the Green Heritage Document, the Document on Museums and Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property, the Document on Establishing the Cultural and Intellectual Register of the Islamic World, and the Document on Developing Heritage Work in the Islamic World.At the end of its meeting, the Committee recommended developing a number of programs aimed at raising awareness among officials, students, and youth about the importance of cultural heritage.It also called for holding intensive training courses for workers in heritage sites and museums in member states, submitting more files for registration on the Islamic World Heritage Lists, as well as preparing a strategy to identify heritage sites and cultural elements registered on the final list and update them using alternative means and modern technological media, and enriching the Islamic World Heritage Portal.

UN investigators accused the Israeli entity Thursday of deliberately targeting health facilities in the Gaza Strip and killing and torturing medical workers, considering that this amounts to crimes against humanity.The UN International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the Israeli entity, consisting of a large number of experts, said in a statement that Israel implemented a coordinated policy to destroy the health care system in Gaza as part of a broader attack on Gaza, committing war crimes.The committee confirmed the collapse of the international legal system in the face of the atrocities in the Gaza Strip. The experts said in a statement today, coinciding with the first anniversary of the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, that last year witnessed genocidal attacks, ethnic cleansing and collective punishment of the Palestinians, threatening the collapse of the multilateral international system.

India bade farewell yesterday to one of its most respected corporate leaders – Ratan Tata, who expanded companies under his brand name into a global behemoth spanning multiple industries.Ahead of a state funeral, hundreds of people including corporate leaders, politicians and celebrities gathered in India’s financial hub Mumbai to pay their last respects to Tata, who died aged 86 on Wednesday.Known for his exemplary business acumen and philanthropic nature, Tata as chairman led various companies within the Tata conglomerate for more than 20 years. It recorded revenue of $165bn in 2023-24.Although in recent years Tata was not as active in the day-to-day running of the group, he was consulted on big decisions by the Tata Sons leadership, a senior company executive said.Tata had been in a Mumbai hospital since Monday, but the cause of his death was not immediately made public.After his death, tributes poured in from around the world, underlining a popularity that transcended boundaries and generations.“India and the world have lost a giant with a giant heart,” US ambassador Eric Garcetti said on X regarding Tata, who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour.Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said on LinkedIn: “Ratan Tata was a visionary leader whose dedication to improving lives left an indelible mark on India-and the world... His loss will be felt around the world for years to come, but I know the legacy he left and example he set will continue to inspire generations.”Draped in the Indian national flag, Ratan Tata’s body was kept at a cultural centre in Mumbai before being cremated with full state honours.

President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed yesterday his proposed “victory plan” with Britain and France’s leaders and the incoming head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) as he seeks to garner military support to put himself in a position for eventual peace talks.Western officials and Zelensky have said the war with Russia is at a critical point.With a US election less than a month away and winter set to arrive in Ukraine amid a barrage of Russian strikes on key energy infrastructure, the Ukrainian leader is keen for the West to give further support to try to change the balance on the battlefield.“The next peace summit has to be in November. The plan will be on the table ... early November the plan will be with all the details,” Zelensky told reporters in Paris when asked about a potential peace conference.He dismissed any talk of a ceasefire.He gave no specific details either in London or Paris on the “victory plan”.Zelensky earlier held talks with Nato chief Mark Rutte and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.In addition to the “victory plan” they discussed whether Ukraine could use Western missiles against targets in Russia.Zelensky has pushed for the United States and Britain to join France in letting it use long-range missiles donated by its allies inside Russian territory, something Rutte said had come up at the meeting.“We discussed it today, but in the end it is up to the individual allies,” Rutte told reporters in Downing Street after the talks.Starmer’s spokesperson said there had been no change to the UK government’s position on the use of long-range missiles.Russia has previously said it would respond if Western countries allowed Ukraine to strike Russia with their missiles.President Vladimir Putin said last month that such a decision would mean Nato countries were directly fighting with Russia and that “the very essence of this conflict will be changed”.Unlike Britain and the United States, France has said Ukraine should be allowed to use its SCALP cruise missiles, the French version of Britain’s Storm Shadow, to strike legitimate targets in Russia.It is unclear whether Ukraine has already done so.Another ally, Italy, where Zelensky will meet Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni later this week is staunchly against Ukraine using its Storm Shadows to hit Russia.The meetings yesterday, along with one in Berlin today, were aimed at outlining Ukraine’s position and possibly outlining its requirements for accepting future peace negotiations after a summit in Germany of its main backers was cancelled when US President Joe Biden pulled out to focus on Hurricane Milton.Zelensky said after the London meeting that he had outlined how to create “the right conditions for a just end to the war” without going into detail.In Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to show that his country is still fully behind Kyiv in its war against Russia despite political difficulties at home that have raised questions about how much help France will be able to give in the coming months.Macron said France would keep to its current commitments, which include €3bn ($3.28bn) in support this year.Paris is training and equipping a brigade of 3,000 Ukrainian troops and plans to send Mirage fighter jets to Ukraine at the beginning of next year.“It was important to exchange with the president on the coming weeks and months on military and diplomatic work (to come),” Macron said alongside Zelensky.

Hurricane Milton ploughed into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday after cutting a destructive path across Florida that spawned tornados, killed at least 10 people and left millions without power, but the storm did not trigger the catastrophic surge of seawater that was feared.Governor Ron DeSantis said the state had avoided the “worst-case scenario”, though he cautioned the damage was still significant.The Tampa Bay area appeared to sidestep the storm surge that had prompted the most dire warnings.US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing that the government had reports of at least 10 deaths from Milton, adding it appeared they were caused by tornados.In St Lucie County on Florida’s east coast, a spate of tornados killed five people, including at least two in the senior-living Spanish Lakes Communities, county spokesperson Erick Gill said.There were 19 confirmed tornados in Florida as of 8pm on Wednesday, about the time Milton made landfall, DeSantis said.Some 45 tornados were reported throughout the day, mostly in the central and eastern parts of the state, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.More than 3mn homes and businesses in Florida were without power yesterday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.At least some had already been waiting days for power to be restored after Hurricane Helene hit the area two weeks ago.Milton shredded the fabric roof of Tropicana Field, the stadium of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team in St Petersburg, but there were no reported injuries.The ballpark was a staging area for responders, with thousands of cots set up on the field.In the Tampa area, the storm toppled trees, threw debris across roadways and downed power lines, video footage from local news showed.Some neighbourhoods were flooded, but the extent of the damage will not be known until crews can assess the destruction, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a morning news conference.Steven Cole Smith, 71, an automotive writer and editor who lives in Tampa about seven miles (11km) from the Gulf Coast, rode out the storm with his wife.He said the wind shook the windows so hard he thought they would shatter.“We really didn’t have anywhere else to go,” Smith said of their decision not to follow evacuation orders. He has a house in central Florida, but said the forecast for that area looked as bad as where he was staying.On a street near Sarasota Bay, Kristin Joyce, a 72-year-old interior designer who opted not to evacuate, took photos of tree branches snapped by the wind.“This is very tragic, especially for an area that relies on a lot of tourism and real estate,” she told AFP, surveying the damage. “There is no question it needs to be a serious wake-up call for everyone in terms of climate change.”Ken Wood, 58, a state ferryboat operator in Pinellas County, fled his Dunedin home on Florida’s Gulf Coast with his 16-year-old cat Andy, after making the “harrowing” mistake of riding out Hurricane Helene two weeks ago in his mobile home.They heeded evacuation orders and headed north but only made it as far as a hotel about an hour’s drive away when he decided it wasn’t safe to stay on the roads.“It was pretty loud, but Andy slept through it all,” he told Reuters by telephone.Emergency crews responded overnight to dozens of calls for help, including one in which 15 people were rescued after a tree fell on top of a house, Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said.The winds toppled a large construction crane in St Petersburg, sending it crashing onto a deserted street.The state was still in danger of river flooding after up to 18” (457mm) of rain fell.Authorities were waiting for rivers to crest, but so far levels were at or below those after Hurricane Helene two weeks ago, Tampa Mayor Castor said yesterday.Most of the severe damage reported so far stemmed from the tornados, according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Deanne Criswell, who was in Tallahassee yesterday.“The evacuation orders saved lives,” she said, noting that more than 90,000 residents went to shelters.President Joe Biden, who postponed an overseas trip to monitor Milton, spoke to local leaders in Florida yesterday and pledged the federal government’s full support.The storm hit Florida’s west coast on Wednesday night as a Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 120mph (205kph).While still a dangerous storm, Milton had weakened from the rare Category 5 status as it trekked over the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida.Milton tailed off further over land, dropping to a Category 1 hurricane with top sustained winds of 85mph (145kph) as it reached the peninsula’s east coast, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said.By morning yesterday, the storm was moving away from the Florida Atlantic coast after lashing communities on the eastern shoreline.The eye of the storm made landfall in Siesta Key, a barrier island town of some 5,400 people off Sarasota about 60 miles (100km) south of Tampa Bay.Meanwhile, in a video posted on social media, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he and his wife Melania were praying for Florida residents affected by the storm and urged them to vote for him.“Hopefully, on January 20th you’re going to have somebody that’s really going to help you and help you like never before,” the former president said, referring to the date when US presidents are inaugurated.Hurricane Helene had just struck the US southeast late last month, and the back-to-back storms have become election fodder as Trump spreads conspiracy theories claiming that Biden and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris are abandoning victims.That prompted a furious response from Biden, who on Wednesday called Trump “reckless, irresponsible”.

Several people were killed, homes were destroyed, and more than two million homes were without power in the US state of Florida as a result of Hurricane Milton."We are not going to get into how many, but I can tell you its more than one person who has lost their life that we already recovered," St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson told CNN, adding that hundreds of homes were "completely totaled" by tornadoes across the county.The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the hurricane's wind speed reached 193 km/h, as it made landfall as a Category 3 storm, making it one of the most dangerous hurricanes the region has recently faced, along with heavy rains and dangerously high tides.The NHC expected Hurricane Milton to move from the Gulf Coast of Florida across the state towards the Atlantic Ocean, with severe destruction occurring offshore.The hurricane caused severe storm surges in parts of Florida, with water levels rising rapidly, causing massive flooding.US authorities have called on millions of residents to evacuate their homes, adding that there have been reports of traffic jams and fuel shortages.Hurricane Milton arrived just two weeks after the devastating Hurricane Helene hit Florida and other southeastern states, leaving extensive destruction and casualties.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that Israeli occupation's airstrikes on Lebanon have increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure.In a statement on Wednesday, OCHA warned that Lebanon's humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate."Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded into previously unaffected areas and increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure," OCHA said in the statement."The relentless bombardment is amplifying the suffering of vulnerable populations," it added.In a single day Oct. 6, more than 30 airstrikes struck the Beirut southern suburbs and surrounding areas frightening residents and forcing additional displacement from densely populated areas, including Shatila Palestine refugee camp.On Tuesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health reported that the ongoing Israeli aggression since October 2023 has resulted in 2,141 deaths and 10,099 injuries.In recent days, the Israeli entity has significantly intensified its aerial and artillery bombardment and expanded its targets to include the capital, Beirut, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries and forcing over a million people to flee their homes.

Ukraine has announced that five people were killed and nine were injured as a result of a Russian ballistic missile strike targeting the port infrastructure in Odesa region, southern Ukraine.Five dead and nine injured is the consequence of yet another ballistic missile attack by Russia on the port infrastructure in Odesa region, the Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine Oleksiy Kuleba said in Telegram post.During the attack, a civilian vessel flying the flag of Panama - the container ship Shui Spirit - was damaged, he added.

The French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the international conference on Lebanon, announced by President Emmanuel Macron, will be held on Oct. 24.The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement that this ministerial conference will bring together Lebanon's partner countries, the United Nations, the European Union, international and regional organizations, and civil society.It added that the conference aims to mobilize the ranks of the international community to respond to the urgent protection and relief needs of the Lebanese people, and to identify ways to support Lebanese institutions, especially the Lebanese Armed Forces, which guarantee internal stability in the country.The ministry stressed that in the face of a serious and profound political and humanitarian crisis, France will recall through this conference the urgent need to stop the fighting and reach a diplomatic solution based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701 and allow the safe return of the displaced to their homes, noting that electing a president in Lebanon is the first step towards the return of regular political institutions.

Ratan Tata, the former Tata Group chairman who put a staid and sprawling Indian conglomerate on the global stage with a string of high-profile acquisitions, has died, the Tata Group said in a statement late on Wednesday. He was 86.Tata, who ran the conglomerate for more than 20 years as chairman, had been undergoing intensive care in a Mumbai hospital, two sources with direct knowledge of his medical situation told Reuters earlier on Wednesday.After graduating with a degree in architecture at Cornell University, he returned to India and in 1962 began working for the group his great-grandfather had founded nearly a century earlier.He worked in several Tata companies, including Telco, now Tata Motors Ltd, as well as Tata Steel Ltd, later making his mark by erasing losses and increasing market share at group unit National Radio & Electronics Company.In 1991, he took the helm of the conglomerate when his uncle J.R.D. Tata stepped down - the passing of the baton coming just as India embarked on radical reforms that opened up its economy to the world and ushered in an era of high growth.In one of his first steps, Ratan Tata sought to rein in the power of some heads of Tata Group's companies, enforcing retirement ages, promoting younger people to senior positions and ramping up control over companies.He founded telecommunications firm Tata Teleservices in 1996 and took IT firm Tata Consultancy Services , the group's cash cow, public in 2004.But to grow properly, the group determined it needed to look beyond Indian shores.It "was the quest for growth and changing the ground rules to say that we could grow by acquisitions which earlier we had never done," he said in an interview with the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2013.The group purchased British tea firm Tetley in 2000 for $432 million and Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007 for $13 billion, at the time the biggest takeover of a foreign firm by an Indian company. Tata Motors then acquired British luxury auto brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Co in 2008 for $2.3 billion.His pet projects at Tata Motors included the Indica - the first car model designed and built in India - as well as the Nano, touted as the world's cheapest car. He contributed initial sketches for both models.The Indica was a commercial success. The Nano, however, priced at just 100,000 rupees (about $1,200) and the culmination of Ratan Tata's dream to produce an affordable car for India's masses, was hurt by initial safety issues and bungled marketing. It was discontinued a decade after its launch.A licensed pilot who would occasionally fly the company plane, Ratan Tata never married and was known for his quiet demeanour, relatively modest lifestyle and philanthropic work.About two-thirds of share capital of Tata Sons, the group's holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts.His leadership at Tata was not without controversy - most notably a bitter public feud after the company ousted Cyrus Mistry, a scion of the billionaire Shapoorji Pallonji clan, as chairman of Tata Sons in 2016.The Tata Group said Mistry had failed to turnaround poorly performing businesses while Mistry accused Ratan Tata, who was chairman emeritus of the conglomerate, of interfering and creating an alternate power centre at the group.After he stepped back from the Tata Group, Ratan Tata became known as a prominent investor in Indian startups, backing a plethora of companies including digital payments firm Paytm , Ola Electric, a unit of ride hailing firm Ola, and home and beauty services provider Urban Company.Among his many awards, he received the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour, in 2008 for exceptional and distinguished service in trade and industry.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Israel's military offensives in Lebanon as an "invasion" on Wednesday, saying that the international community had to act."It is clear that there has been an invasion by a third country of a sovereign state such as Lebanon, and therefore the international community cannot remain indifferent," the Socialist premier told parliament."We denounced (this situation) in Ukraine, we also denounce it in Gaza and now we are also denouncing the invasion of Lebanon," he added.Having weakened Hamas, whose unprecedented October 2023 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, the Israeli military is now focused on Hezbollah, the Lebanese ally of Hamas.Israel launched ground incursions into southern Lebanon on September 30 where some 10,000 peacekeepers are deployed under the command of a Spanish general.It says the aim is to keep Hezbollah away from the border areas where the group is established and stop it firing rockets towards northern Israel, so that some 60,000 of its displaced inhabitants can return to the region.According to official Lebanese figures, nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 2023, including more than a thousand since the start of Israeli strikes in the south and east of its territory, as well as in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on September 23.Sanchez is one of the most outspoken critics among European Union leaders of Israel's response to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. He has angered Israel by saying he had "serious doubts that Israel is complying with international humanitarian law" in Gaza and under his watch Madrid in May recognised a Palestinian state.Sanchez also expressed his regret at the "lack of agreement within the European Union" on the situation in the Middle East."I regret this because I believe that on these issues, we should be consistent not with our position, but consistent with the defence of international law and international humanitarian law," he said.

A Turkish Airlines pilot died after collapsing mid-flight, forcing the Turkish national carrier to make an emergency landing in New York, the airline said on Wednesday.The plane had taken off from the western US coastal city of Seattle on Tuesday evening, airline spokesman Yahya Ustun wrote on X, formerly Twitter."The pilot of our Airbus 350... flight TK204 from Seattle to Istanbul collapsed during the flight," he wrote."After an unsuccessful attempt to give first aid, the flight crew of another pilot and a co-pilot decided to make an emergency landing, but he died before landing."The 59-year-old pilot, who had worked for Turkish Airlines since 2007, had passed a medical examination in March, which gave no indication of any health problems, Ustun wrote.

Americans David Baker and John Jumper, together with Briton Demis Hassabis, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for work revealing the secrets of proteins through computing and artificial intelligence.The three were honoured for cracking the code of the structure of proteins, the building blocks of life, with the jury hailing their work as holding "enormous potential" in a range of fields.Biochemist Baker, 62, was given half the award "for computational protein design", while Hassabis and Jumper shared the other half "for protein structure prediction," the Nobel committee said."David Baker has succeeded with the almost impossible feat of building entirely new kinds of proteins," it said in a statement.The committee added that his work has led to the creation of proteins that "can be used as pharmaceuticals, vaccines, nanomaterials and tiny sensors."Hassabis and Jumper developed an AI model "to solve a 50-year-old problem: predicting proteins' complex structures," the jury said of the duo who head up AI research lab Google DeepMind.Hassabis, 48, and Jumper, who was born in 1985, were among those speculated to be contenders for this year's Nobel for their work on the AI-model Alphafold.They received the prestigious Lasker Award in 2023.The AI tool is used to predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins based on their amino acid sequence, and the Alphafold database now contains the predicted structure of over 200 million proteins.In a post to X, Google DeepMind congratulated the duo."This is a monumental achievement for AI, for computational biology, and science itself," the research lab said.Heiner Linke, chair of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry, told a press conference that "proteins are the molecules that enable life. Proteins are building blocks that form bones, skin, hair and tissue."The shape of proteins is key as it determines their function."To understand how life works, we first need to understand the shape of proteins," Linke said and added that being able to predict their structure from their amino acid building blocks had "long been a dream."Baker meanwhile told reporters Wednesday was turning out to be "quite a unique, special day" for him."I was sleeping when the phone rang, and I answered the phone and I heard the announcement," Baker said via phone link after the prize was announced in Stockholm.The researcher said he was really excited about "all the ways in which protein design can now make the world a better place," while listing areas such as health, medicine as well as technology and sustainability."Our new AI methods are much more powerful than our previous traditional scientific model methods," he said.Tuesday's physics prize honoured key breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI), going to American John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton, known as the Godfather of AI.Last year, the chemistry prize went to French-born Moungi Bawendi, Louis Brus of the United States and Russian-born Alexei Ekimov for developing tiny "quantum dots" used to illuminate TVs and lamps.Awarded since 1901, the Nobel Prizes honour those who have, in the words of prize creator and scientist Alfred Nobel, "conferred the greatest benefit on humankind".On Monday, the Medicine Prize was awarded to American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated.Wednesday's chemistry prize will be followed by the highly watched literature and peace prizes to be announced on Thursday and Friday respectively.The economics prize wraps up the 2024 Nobel season on October 14.The winners will receive their prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque, from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his will.

In a time when global tensions seem to be at an all-time high, Rajan Luthra, the visionary director behind the upcoming spiritual film Mahayogi, is stepping into the music scene with a powerful and timely anthem titled - Stop The War. This newly launched song is a heartfelt plea for unity, urging people across the globe to eclipse their differences - be it spirituality, color, ethnicity, or culture - and come together in peace and oneness.Rajan Luthra is not a singer and songwriter. His entry into the world of music was driven not by a desire for fame or financial success, but by a deep-seated passion to elevate human consciousness. With a background that spans diverse industries including real estate, consulting, and philanthropy, Rajan has always been a visionary. His work as the CEO of Triloc LLC and Triloc Films Studio Inc., as well as his leadership of Help Foundations Group Inc. and OneDollar.Media underscores his commitment to making a positive impact on the world.Rajan’s transition from filmmaker to singer-songwriter is driven by a deeply personal mission to inspire change through the universal language of music. The song, also featured in his movie ‘Mahayogi’, is a call to action, a message of hope, and a reminder of the shared humanity that binds us all.Be one with everyone,There is a one within everyone,No more hatred,No more discrimination,No more jealousy,No more judgments,No more bombs,No more missiles, STOP THE WARI want to see the Oneness between husband and wife children and parents,I want to see the oneness between father and daughter father,and son I want to see the oneness between friends, human and homeless neighbors.Oneness spreads throughout the world just as the sun spreads its race throughout spaceI want to see the Oneness.The lyrics of Stop the War resonate with a profound simplicity, addressing the core issues that plague modern relationships and global interactions. His words, though straightforward, carry a weight that reflects Rajan’s deep contemplation on the human condition. The song was created with a heartfelt desire to see unity not only on a global scale but also within the most intimate of human connections. His message is clear: true peace begins at home, within families and communities, and from there, it can ripple out to heal nations and the world.Rajan’s inspiration behind the song emerges from his own personal experiences and observations. He notes the growing disconnect he sees in relationships; the silence that often pervades modern human interactions.“Humans today are missing that connection,” Rajan explains. “I see husbands and wives living together but not truly being together. Social media and the fast pace of life have created so much confusion and silence within their consciousness. They don’t even come out and talk about the truth, quarantining themselves.”For Rajan, this lack of open communication is a microcosm of larger societal issues. He believes that the principles of peace, love, and oneness should be applied not only within families but also on a global scale, where they can help resolve conflicts and build stronger, more compassionate societies.“This song starts from the family and extends to neighbors, to religions, to countries,” Rajan continues. “Creating oneness between all religions, for example, is a challenge. Everyone claims their God is the best, but at the end of the day, it’s all one God. We need to raise the consciousness of humanity to recognize that oneness.” The song is a movement Rajan hopes his audience can resonate with, from all walks of life, inspiring them to break down the barriers that divide them and to work together toward a more peaceful world.The launch of this song comes at a critical time when the world is grappling with conflicts on multiple fronts - political, social, and environmental. Rajan’s anthem is a timely reminder that peace begins with understanding and that unity is not just an ideal but a necessity for the survival and flourishing of humanity.As this song begins to make waves across the globe, Rajan’s message states: It’s time to stop the wars within and without, to embrace the oneness that lies within us all, and to build a world where love, peace, and understanding prevail. Rajan adds: “The foundation of the world is missing, once we establish oneness in the world we can finally eradicate hunger, suffering, war, and all the false egos and beliefs. Everyone will live in peace, love, and oneness. Be one with everyone,There is a one within everyone.”

Storm-battered Florida girded yesterday for a direct hit from Hurricane Milton, a monster weather system threatening catastrophic damage and forcing President Joe Biden to postpone an overseas trip.As the second huge hurricane in as many weeks rumbled toward the US state’s west coast, a sense of looming catastrophe spread as people raced to board up homes and flee.“It’s a matter of life and death, and that’s not hyperbole,” President Joe Biden said, urging those under orders to vacate to “evacuate now, now, now”.His warning came amid a bitter pre-election quarrel, with his Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris castigating her rival Donald Trump for peddling false claims that recovery efforts after the first storm, Hurricane Helene, were diverted away from Republicans.As of morning yesterday, Milton was generating maximum sustained winds of 150mph (240kph) and threatening up to 15’ of storm surge, the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, as it tracked just north of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.After weakening from a maximum Category 5 overnight, it is forecast to make landfall tonight in Florida as a Category 3 storm and remain powerful as it churns across the state.Governor Ron Santis, at a press conference, ticked off town after town and county after county that are in danger.“Basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning,” he said.The National Weather Service (NWS) said that Milton could be the worst storm to hit the Tampa area, home to some 3mn people, in more than 100 years.A direct hit on the bay would be the first since 1921, when the now-sprawling Tampa-St Petersburg-Clearwater area was a relative backwater.“Milton has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida,” the NHC said.“Helene was a wake-up call. This is literally catastrophic,” Mayor Jane Castor said on CNN, referring to last month’s hurricane.She warned residents that trying to ride out the storm would be foolish.“Individuals that are in a single-storey home – 12’ is above that,” she said, referring to the expected storm surge. “So if you’re in it, basically, that’s the coffin that you are in.”Hurricane expert Michael Lowry warned that “Milton’s storm surge “could double the storm surge levels observed two weeks ago during Helene, which brought some of the most consequential flooding the area has seen in recent memory”.Biden postponed a major trip to Germany and Angola – he had been due to leave tomorrow – to oversee the federal response, as storm relief efforts have emerged as a political battleground ahead of the presidential election on November 5.Trump has tapped into frustration about the emergency response after Hurricane Helene and fuelled it with disinformation, falsely claiming that disaster money had been spent instead on migrants.Biden slammed Trump’s comments as “un-American” and Harris called the claims the “height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness”.“I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level,” she said.In a scene of frantic preparation repeated all over Florida, dozens of cars lined up at a sports facility in Tampa to pick up sandbags to protect their homes from flooding.John Gomez, 75, ignored official advice and travelled all the way from Chicago to try to save a second house he has in Florida.“I think it’s better to be here in case something happens,” Gomez said as he waited in line.Scientists say that global warming has a role in these intense storms as warmer ocean surfaces release more water vapour, providing additional energy for storms, which intensifies their winds.Communities hit by the deadly Hurricane Helene, which slammed Florida late last month, have rushed to remove debris that could become dangerous projectiles as Milton approaches.In Mexico’s Yucatan, workers boarded up glass doors and windows, fishermen hauled boats ashore and schools were suspended.In the southeastern United States, emergency workers are still struggling to provide relief after Helene, which killed at least 230 people across several states.It hit the Florida coastline on September 26 as a major Category 4 hurricane, causing massive flooding in remote inland towns in states further north, including North Carolina and Tennessee.Helene was the deadliest natural disaster to hit the US mainland since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, with the death toll still rising.Ahead of Milton’s arrival, some of the Tampa Bay area’s residents rushed to dispose of mounds of debris left by Helene that the new storm could turn into projectiles.Musician John O’Leary, 38, was securing his Tampa townhouse and packing for a road trip with his girlfriend to New Port Richey, about 40 miles (64km) north.He was worried about his baby grand piano, which he had to leave behind.They plan to stay with friends who have a home on high ground but will keep an eye on the storm’s path and may head farther north.“This storm is so strong, big, it’s unreal,” he said. “We’re in survival mode.”State ferryboat operator Ken Wood, 58, spent the morning packing up his truck in the Gulf city of Dunedin about 24 miles (39km) west of Tampa so he could avoid the brunt of the storm with Andy, his 16-year-old cat.Two weeks ago, Wood defied evacuation orders and hunkered down in his house during Helene, a night he described as one of the most harrowing experiences of his life.“We won’t make the same mistake again,” he said.

US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated, solving a decades-old mystery, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said.If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune illnesses.“Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans,” the jury said.Ruvkun said he was shocked to win the prestigious prize.“It’s quite a sea change,” the 72-year-old professor at Harvard Medical School told AFP after receiving the news in a call from the prize committee in the early hours of Monday.The Nobel committee failed to reach Ambros by telephone to give him the news. He heard it instead from a reporter who called.“Wow, that’s incredible! I didn’t know that,” the 70-year-old professor at the University of Massachusetts medical school said, adding: “Good. Wonderful.”Collaborating but working separately, Ruvkun and Ambros conducted research on a 1mm roundworm, C. elegans, to determine why cell mutations occurred and when.They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation, which in turn allows each cell to select only relevant instructions.Their findings were published in two articles in 1993. – AFP

US scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence (AI) boom.The pair’s research on neural networks in the 1980s paved the way for technology that promises to revolutionise society but has also raised apocalyptic fears.Hinton has been widely credited as a “godfather” of AI and made headlines when he quit his job at Google last year to be able to more easily speak about the dangers of the technology he had pioneered.“We have no experience of what it’s like to have things smarter than us,” Hinton said over the phone to the Nobel press conference, speaking from a hotel in California.“It’s going to be wonderful in many respects, in areas like healthcare,” Hinton said. “But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences. Particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.”Hopfield, 91, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data.“When you get systems that are rich enough in complexity and size, they can have properties which you can’t possibly intuit from the elementary particles you put in there,” he said in a press conference convened by Princeton. “You have to say that system contains some new physics.”He echoed Hinton’s concerns, saying there was something unnerving about the unknown potential and limits of AI.“One is accustomed to having technologies which are not singularly only good or only bad, but have capabilities in both directions,” he said.The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said it awarded the prize to the two men because they used “tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today’s powerful machine learning” that is “revolutionising science, engineering and daily life”.The award comes with a prize sum of 11mn Swedish crowns ($1.1mn) which is shared by the two winners.British-born Hinton, 76, now professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data and carry out tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures, the academy said. – Reuters/AFP

Qatar and France on Tuesday launched joint humanitarian aid to Lebanon. A Qatari and a French aircraft carrying aid including medical supplies, medication and shelter equipment provided by the State of Qatar and the French Republic arrived in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.This aid comes within the framework of the strategic partnership between Qatar and France aimed at supporting those affected by the recent developments in Lebanon.

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun win Nobel medicine prizePrize awarded for discovery of microRNADiscoveries shed light on role in gene regulationMedicine prize the first of this year's Nobel awardsUS scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for the discovery of microRNA and its crucial role in how multicellular organisms grow and live.Their work helped explain how cells specialise and develop into different types, such as muscle and nerve cells, even though all the cells in an individual contain the same set of genes and instructions for growing and staying alive."The Nobel's, you know, there's a word we use for Major League Baseball, it's called 'The Show'. Which means it's not any show, it's THE show," Ruvkun told Reuters, describing what it was like being thrust into the global spotlight.He joked that collaborating with Ambros and receiving previous awards meant they had been "joined at the hip for quite a while"."That's been great. He's a wonderful guy," Ruvkun added by phone. Ambros seconded by saying he was happy to share the award with "a great friend".The Nobel Assembly, the award-giving body, said in a statement that the laureates discovered a new class of tiny RNA molecules, which play a crucial role in gene regulation."Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans," the assembly said.Also speaking to Reuters, Ambros described microRNA as a "communication network amongst genes that enables the cells in our bodies to generate all kinds of different complex structures and functions".Ambros is a professor at the UMass Chan Medical School, while Ruvkun is a professor at Harvard Medical School and also affiliated with Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.In the late 1980s, Ambros and Ruvkun undertook postdoctorate studies in the laboratory of Robert Horvitz, himself a Nobel Prize winner in 2002, studying a 1 mm long roundworm.Their discoveries on how certain microRNAs in the roundworm govern growth of organs and tissue was initially dismissed as specific to the species.More work published by Ruvkun's research group in 2000, however, showed that all animal life had relied on the mechanism for more than 500 million years.MicroRNA comes into play when single-strand messenger RNA - the subject of last year's Nobel Prize in medicine - is decoded and translated into making proteins, the building blocks of all human and animal life.Messenger RNA, or mRNA, in turn, emerges from the universal blueprint in every cell nucleus, the double-helix DNA.Professor Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam of the Karolinska Institute said that, while the 2023 prize was linked to the specific use in Covid-19 vaccines, this year's award was for a leap in basic understanding with many potential future applications.Janosch Heller, Assistant Professor in Biomedical Sciences at Dublin City University, who was not involved in selecting the winners, said that the findings had boosted the understanding of diseases such as epilepsy.The winners of the prize for physiology or medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).As in every year, the physiology or medicine prize was the first in the crop of Nobels, arguably the most prestigious prizes in science, literature and humanitarian endeavour, with the remaining five set to be unveiled over the coming days. Created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes have been awarded for breakthroughs in science, literature and peace since 1901, while economics is a later addition.Past winners of the Nobel medicine prize include many famous researchers such as Ivan Pavlov in 1904, most known for his experiments on behaviour using dogs, and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 prize for the discovery of penicillin. Last year's medicine prize was awarded to the runaway favourites Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist, and U.S. colleague Drew Weissman, for discoveries that paved the way for Covid-19 vaccines that helped curb the pandemic. Steeped in tradition, the science, literature and economics prizes are presented to the laureates in a ceremony on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, followed by a lavish banquet at Stockholm city hall. Separate festivities attend the winner of the peace prize in Oslo on the same day.

Prize awarded for work laying foundation for machine learningHinton quit Google last year to speak more freely about dangers of AIPrinceton professor Hopfield created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct imagesPhysics second award in this year's Nobel line-upPrizes announced through course of weekUS scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries and inventions that laid the foundation for machine learning, the award-giving body said on Tuesday. Hinton has been widely credited as a godfather of artificial intelligence and made headlines when he quit his job at Google last year to be able to more easily speak about the dangers of the technology he had pioneered."We have no experience of what it's like to have things smarter than us," Hinton said over the phone to the Nobel press conference, speaking from a hotel in California."It's going to be wonderful in many respects, in areas like healthcare," Hinton said. "But we also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences. Particularly the threat of these things getting out of control."Hopfield, 91, a professor emeritus at Princeton University, created an associative memory that can store and reconstruct images and other types of patterns in data, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said."This year's two Nobel Laureates in physics have used tools from physics to develop methods that are the foundation of today's powerful machine learning," the academy said in a statement."Machine learning based on artificial neural networks is currently revolutionising science, engineering and daily life."The award comes with a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million) which is shared by the two winners.British-born Hinton, 76, now professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, invented a method that can autonomously find properties in data and carry out tasks such as identifying specific elements in pictures, the academy added.Though he quit Google in 2023 after realising computers could become smarter than people far sooner than he and other experts had expected, Hinton said the company itself acted very responsibly.Hinton also said that he regretted some of his research, but that he acted on the information he had at the time."In the same circumstances I would do the same again," he told the Nobel press conference. "But I am worried that the overall consequence of this might be systems more intelligent than us that eventually take control."Asked about the concerns surrounding machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence, Ellen Moons, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, said: "While machine learning has enormous benefits, its rapid development has also raised concerns about our future."Collectively, humans carry the responsibility for using this new technology in a safe and ethical way, for the greatest benefit of humankind." Widely considered the most prestigious award for physicists across the world, the prize was created, along with awards for achievements in science, literature and peace, in the will of Alfred Nobel.The prizes have been awarded with a few interruptions since 1901, though the Nobel economics honour is a later addition in memory of the Swedish businessman and philanthropist, who had made a fortune from his invention of dynamite.Outside the sometimes controversial choices for peace and literature, physics often makes the biggest splash among the prizes, with the list of past winners featuring scientific superstars such as Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr and Enrico Fermi. Last year's physics prize was awarded to Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L'Huillier for their work in creating ultra-short pulses of light that can give a snapshot of changes within atoms, potentially improving the detection of diseases. Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week, after US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the medicine prize for their discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation, shedding light on how cells specialise.