Junior Digest

New Delhi, Apr 21,2021: The government on Tuesday postpones the UGC NET exam that was scheduled to begin on May 2, Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank informed.

“…Looking at the present situation of the COVID pandemic and also taking into account the safety and well being of the candidates and the examination functionaries, it has been decided to postpone the UGC-NET December 2021 cycle (May 2021) examination,” a National Testing Agency order shared by the Education Minister, read.

The order further read that candidates will be informed about the new exam date 15 days before the examination. Mr Pokhriyal requested all to stay safe and follow all necessary precautions for COVID-19.

All major national level examinations are being cancelled or postponed keeping in view the grim pandemic situation in the country. The country recorded 2,59,170 new Covid cases and 1,761 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Washington, Apr 22,2021: US rover Perseverance has extracted oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars for the first time in history, NASA said.

“The growing list of ‘firsts’ for Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian day, or sol, since the mission landed Feb. 18.,” NASA said in a statement on late Wednesday.

According to NASA, such devices could be used in the future for providing astronauts and rockets with oxygen on the Red Planet.

Perseverance was launched in July last year and landed on the surface of Mars in February. Since then, the rover sent to Earth photos from Mars, as well as a video made during the landing. Earlier this week, NASA engineers successfully launched the Ingenuity helicopter from the Perseverance rover on Mars’ surface, marking the first controlled, powered flight conducted on another planet.

Washington DC [US], April 20,2021: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday stressed on doing two things — reducing emissions and preparing for the unavoidable impacts of climate change.
In the speech in Annapolis, Maryland, Blinken said it would be a mistake to think about climate only through the prism of threats. “Every country on the planet has to do two things – reduce emissions and prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change,” said Blinken.
“Our diplomats will challenge the practices of countries whose action – or inaction – is setting us back.
“When countries continue to rely on coal for a significant amount of their energy, or invest in new coal factories, or allow for massive deforestation, they will hear from the United States and our partners about how harmful these actions are,” he added.

The US Secretary of State quoted US President Joe Biden, saying, “When I think of climate change, I think jobs.”
Blinken further said: “We won’t have much of a world left” without stronger leadership from the US on climate change.
“If America fails to lead the world on addressing the climate crisis, we won’t have much of a world left,” he said, adding that, “If we succeed, we will capitalise on the greatest opportunity to create quality jobs in generations; we’ll build a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable society; and we’ll protect this magnificent planet. That’s the test we face right now.”
Setting goals for climate policy, Blinken stated that goal number one of their climate policy is preventing catastrophe. “We’re rooting for every country, business, and community to get better at cutting emissions and building resilience.”
Concluding the speech, he said, “We will convey a strong message to the meeting of the G7 next month, and I’ll represent the US at next month’s Ministerial meeting of the Arctic Council, where I’ll reaffirm America’s commitment to meeting climate goals and encourage other Arctic nations to do the same.”

April 21,2021: Chad’s President Idriss Deby, who ruled his country for more than 30 years and was an important Western ally in the fight against Islamist militants in Africa, has been killed on the frontline against rebels in the north.

Deby’s son, Mahamat Kaka, was named interim president by a transitional council of military officers, spokesman Azem Bermendao Agouna said in a broadcast on state television.

Deby, 68, came to power in a rebellion in 1990 and was one of Africa’s longest-ruling leaders, surviving numerous coup attempts and rebellions.

His death was announced the day after he was declared the winner of a presidential election that would have given him a sixth term in office. Most of the opposition, which had long complained of his repressive rule, boycotted the vote.

Deby – who often joined soldiers on the battlefront in his military fatigues – visited troops on the frontline on Monday after rebels based across the northern frontier in Libya advanced hundreds of km (miles) south toward the capital N’Djamena.

“Marshal Idriss Deby Itno, as he did each time that the institutions of the republic were gravely threatened, took control of operations during the heroic combat led against the terrorists from Libya. He was wounded during the fighting and died once repatriated to N’Djamena,” Bermendao said.

The government and National Assembly have been dissolved and a nationwide curfew imposed from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.

“The National Council of Transition reassures the Chadian people that all measures have been taken to guarantee peace, security and the republican order,” Bermendao said.

Deby had pushed through a new constitution in 2018 that would have allowed him to stay in power until 2033 – even as it re-instated term limits.

He took the title of Marshal last year and said before last week’s election: “I know in advance that I will win, as I have done for the last 30 years.”

He was dealing with mounting public discontent over his management of Chad’s oil wealth and crackdowns on opponents.

But in the election results announced on Monday, Deby claimed 79% of the vote.

Western countries have counted on Deby as an ally in the fight against Islamist militant groups, including Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin and groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State in the Sahel.

Former colonial power France had based its Sahel counter-terrorism operations in N’Djamena. Chad had announced in February the deployment of 1,200 troops to complement 5,100 French soldiers in the area.

Déby’s death could mean tremendous uncertainty for Chad as the military is internally divided and because of the widespread domestic opposition, said Nathaniel Powell, author of a history of French military involvement in Chad.

April 22,2021: Australia says a decision to cancel two deals between Victoria state and China on the Belt and Road Initiative was about ensuring consistency in foreign relations and was not aimed at any country.

The Chinese embassy earlier criticised the move by Foreign Minister Marise Payne to veto two agreements signed by Victoria state as “provocative” and said it would further damage ties with Australia.

The Australian federal government scrapped the memorandum of understanding and framework agreement signed between Victoria and China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Beijing’s top economic planning body.

Payne said on Thursday that she has received a thousand notifications from Australian states about deals they have with multiple foreign governments, under a new process that gives her veto over such arrangements.

“This scheme is very focussed on Australia’s national interest. It’s about ensuring consistency of our foreign relations across Australia and it’s most certainly not aimed at any one country,” she told ABC radio’s AM programme.

Beijing had been notified of the decision before it was made public on Wednesday evening.

She added that Australia was committed to engaging with China, and was “asking all governments around the world to respect our government’s decision-making authority”.

Australia’s conservative coalition government had declined to agree to a country-level MOU with China on the Belt and Road Initiative. But Victoria Labor Premier Dan Andrews signed an agreement to promote the infrastructure development initiative in 2018 and 2019, saying it would bring Chinese investment to his state.

The Chinese embassy said in a statement the cancellation was “another unreasonable and provocative move taken by the Australian side against China”.

Australia “basically fired the first major shot against China in trade and investment” conflicts, Chen Hong, the director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, told the Communist Party-backed Global Times. “China will surely respond accordingly.”
Souring ties

Relations between Australia and its largest trading partner have been in free-fall for a year after the government called for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus. Beijing has since inflicted a range of trade reprisals, including imposing crippling tariffs on Australian barley and wine while blocking coal shipments.
The bans are the first under laws passed by Australia’s national parliament in December that give the foreign minister the ability to stop new and previously signed agreements between overseas governments and Australia’s eight states and territories and also with bodies such as local authorities and universities.

On Wednesday, a senior Chinese embassy official again criticised Australia’s move to effectively ban Chinese telecommunications company Huawei from its 5G network in 2018, the first country to do so, saying Canberra had “even persuaded others to follow suit”.

Payne’s announcement, which included bans on two other deals between Victoria and the governments of Iran and Syria, came the same day a Chinese diplomat indicated that there will be no immediate thaw in ties between Beijing and Canberra.

New Delhi [India], April 20,2021: China brought enormous force to the border, apparently referring to the Line of Actual Control (LAC), without provocation, said Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Monday.
Speaking at the All India Management Association National Leadership Conclave, the external affairs minister pointed that for the last 40 years, India and China have had peace and tranquillity on the border though not “suggesting that we solved the boundary dispute”.
“For last 40 years, we have had peace and tranquillity on the border. I’m not suggesting that we solved the boundary dispute… But the rest of our relationship got built on an assumption that neither would use force or threaten another. We had different agreements that translated those good intentions into commitments,” he said at the conclave.
“Last year, that changed. The Chinese, without provocation, brought an enormous force to the border. This not rocket science; you cannot disrupt peace & tranquillity at the border and carry on with the rest of the relationship. I have been saying it for the last year and it has not changed,” he said.
The minister reiterated India’s call for peace and stability at the border in order for ties to normalise. If this relationship is to progress, Jaishankar said, “I must have a return to peace and tranquillity on border and there are no two ways about it”
India has stood firm on the northern border against China and has proved that it will not get pushed, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue here, General Rawat said India stood firm in preventing a change of status quo on Line of Actual Control (LAC) and has gathered international support.
Indian security agencies are keeping a close watch on the Chinese surface to air missile batteries which continue to remain deployed close to the Line of Actual Control near eastern Ladakh.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has continued the deployment of surface to air missiles including the HQ- and HQ 22 close to the Indian territory in view of the ongoing tensions, government sources told ANI last week.
The two countries have been engaged in a military standoff for almost a year but disengaged from the most contentious Pangong lake area last month after extensive talks at both military and political levels.

April 22,2021: A panel of U.S. senators questioned officials from Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google on Wednesday about the dominance of their mobile app stores and whether the companies abuse their power at the expense of smaller competitors.

Amy Klobuchar, the top Senate Democrat on antitrust issues, said Apple and Google can use their power to “exclude or suppress apps that compete with their own products” and “charge excessive fees that affect competition.”

App makers like music streaming service Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) and dating services giant Match Group (MTCH.O), which owns the Tinder app, have long complained that mandatory revenue sharing for sales of digital goods and strict inclusion rules set by Apple’s App Store for iPhones and iPads, along with Google’s Play store for Android devices, amount to anticompetitive behavior.

Representatives for Apple and Google told senators the companies’ tight control over their stores and the associated revenue-sharing requirements are needed to enforce and pay for security measures to protect consumers from harmful apps and practices.

But when asked by Senator Josh Hawley, Apple’s Chief Compliance Officer Kyle Andeer would not commit to spending all of the mandatory fees on security.

Explanations from Andeer and Google’s Wilson White, senior director for government affairs, about why the companies’ fees do not apply to Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) and apps that sell physical goods also failed to satisfy senators.

“I feel like unfrozen caveman lawyer,” Senator Mike Lee said. “I’m not grasping it.”

Senator Richard Blumenthal expressed concern about a call Match said it received late on Tuesday from its business counterpart at Google.

Match’s Chief Legal Officer Jared Sine said Google wanted to know why Sine’s planned testimony, which had just been released, deviated from previous comments the dating company had made.

“It looks like a threat, it talks like a threat, it’s a threat,” Blumenthal said of the call, vowing to investigate Google’s action further.

Google’s White said the call reflected an effort to ask an honest question and the company would never threaten partners.

In his testimony, Match’s Sine argued that Google and Apple both exact an onerous 30% of any digital transaction, raising prices for consumers.

Match pays nearly $500 million in fees to the app stores annually, the company’s single largest expense, Sine said.

Spotify and Match said Apple’s app review process was opaque. Sine said Apple blocked a safety update to the Tinder app meant to warn LGBTQ+ users if they were traveling to a country where it might be dangerous to expose their identity because Apple said the update violated the “spirit” of a new rule.

But Apple would not explain how to fix the issue, Sine said. He said that Apple approved the update two months later only after senior leaders at Match’s parent company at the time, IAC/Interactivecorp (IAC.O), raised the issue with Apple’s senior leaders.

The hearing came a day after Apple said it would begin selling AirTags – which can be attached to items like car keys to help users find them when they are lost – in direct competition with Tile, which has sold a similar tracking device for more than a decade.

Apple said its AirTags were an outgrowth of its “FindMy” app, which is used for locating lost Apple devices and to share user locations and was introduced in 2010, before Tile’s founding. Apple last month opened its operating system up to alternative item trackers and said that Chipolo, a startup competing with Tile and AirTags, is using the system.

Tile General Counsel Kirsten Daru testified Apple’s FindMy program is installed by default on Apple phones and cannot be deleted.

“Apple has once again exploited its market power and dominance to condition our customers’ access to data on effectively breaking our user experience and directing our users to FindMy,” she said.

April 21,2021: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday challenged his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to meet him in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region for talks on ending the conflict there and easing tensions between the two states.

Issuing the invitation in a video address in the late evening, Zelenskiy also urged Kyiv’s Western backers to give “clear signals” that they were willing to support the country in its standoff with Russia.

Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame for rising clashes in the Donbass, where Ukrainian troops have battled Russian-backed forces in a conflict that Ukraine says has killed 14,000 people since 2014.

Ukraine, its Western allies and NATO have accused Russia of a “provocative” build-up of troops on Ukraine’s eastern border and in Crimea. Russia in turn accused the United States and NATO of “provocative activity” in the Black Sea region.

“Mr Putin: I am ready to go even further and invite you to meet anywhere in the Ukrainian Donbass, where there is a war,” Zelenskiy said.

The standoff has prompted Ukraine to urge NATO member states to admit Ukraine into the military alliance. It also called on the European Union to impose new economic sanctions on Moscow but acknowledged that EU might not be prepared to do so yet.

“Our citizens need clear signals that in the eighth year of the war, a country that is a shield for Europe at the cost of its lives, will receive support not just as partners, from the stands, but as players on the same team, directly on the field, shoulder to shoulder,” Zelenskiy said.

Ukraine wants to end the conflict through diplomacy but is ready to defend itself if attacked, he added.

“Does Ukraine want the war? No. But is Ukraine ready for the war? Yes.”

Ottawa [US], April 21,2021: Shift-work and irregular work schedules can cause several health-related issues and affect our defence against infection, according to new research from the University of Waterloo.
These health-related issues occur because the body’s natural clock, called the circadian clock, can be disrupted by inconsistent changes in the sleep-wake schedule and feeding patterns often caused by shift work. To study this, researchers at Waterloo developed a mathematical model to look at how a disruption in the circadian clock affects the immune system in fighting off illness.
“Because our immune system is affected by the circadian clock, our ability to mount an immune response changes during the day,” said Anita Layton, professor of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Pharmacy and Biology at Waterloo.

“How likely are you to fight off an infection that occurs in the morning than midday? The answer depends on whether you are a man or a woman, and whether you are among the quarter of the modern-day labour force that has an irregular work schedule,” she said.
The researchers created new computational models, separately for men and women, which simulate the interplay between the circadian clock and the immune system. The model is composed of the core clock genes, their related proteins, and the regulatory mechanism of pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators. By adjusting the clock, the models can simulate male and female shift-workers.
The results of these computer simulations conclude that the immune response varies with the time of infection. Model simulation suggests that the time before we go to bed is the “worst” time to get an infection. That is the period of the day when our body is least prepared to produce the pro- and anti-inflammatory mediators needed during an infection. Just as importantly, an individual’s sex impacts the severity of the infection.
“Shift work likely affects men and women differently,” said Stephanie Abo, a PhD candidate in Waterloo’s Department of Applied Mathematics. “Compared to females, the immune system in males is more prone to overactivation, which can increase their chances of sepsis following an ill-timed infection.”

New Delhi, Apr 21,2021: Stressing that there was a need to prevent the country from COVID-19 lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged the states to consider lockdown as the last option and the focus should be on creating micro containment zones.

‘In today’s situation, we have to save the country from lockdown. I would also request the states to use lockdown as the last option,’ Mr Modi said while addressing the nation on the COVID-19 situation.

He requested the state governments to urge the workers to stay where they are.

‘My request to the state administration is to keep the trust of the workers alive, urge them to stay where they are,’ Mr Modi said.

‘This trust given by the states to the workers will help them, and that they will be vaccinated in the city where they are,’ the Prime Minister said.

He said that from May 1 onwards, anyone above 18 years of age can be vaccinated.

Mr Modi said till now, more than 12 crore vaccine doses have been administered.

New Delhi, Apr 20,2021: Under phase III of the ongoing Covid vaccination programme beginning from May 1 onwards, all adults will be eligible for inoculation, the government announced on Monday evening.

The decision was taken in a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as India has been hit hard by the second wave of Covid-19. Over two lakh case are being recorded from past 5 consecutive days.

The prime minister said that the Government has been working hard from over a year to ensure that maximum numbers of countrymen are able to get the vaccine in the shortest possible of time. ‘India is vaccinating people at world record pace and we will continue this with even greater momentum,’ he added.

Under the Liberalised and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of the National COVID-19 Vaccination programme, the vaccine manufacturers would supply 50 per cent of their doses to the Centre while rest can be given to states and in the open market, a report said.

It was decided that the manufactures will have to release their price list in advance for the 50 per cent vaccines earmarked for the States and the open market. This channel will be open for adults but healthcare and frontline workers and all people above 45 years of age can continue to receive the vaccine free of cost at government-operated vaccination centres.

Also, all indigenously produced vaccines will be distributed equally between the Centre and States. The stock and availability of vaccines will have to provided by all centre on a real-time basis.

In another way, the government paved the way for certain foreign vaccines approved by bodies of the European Union or the US for inoculation in India. However, these vaccines will be provided only in other-than government channels like open markets.

The Centre, from its share, will allocate vaccines to States and UTs based on the criteria of extent of infection (number of active Covid cases) and performance (speed of administration). Wastage of vaccine will also be considered in this criteria and will affect the criteria negatively.

Based on the above criteria, state-wise quota would be decided and communicated to them adequately in advance.

The government said the second dose of all existing priority groups that is health care workers, front line workers and population above 45 years, wherever it has become due, would be given priority, for which a specific and focused strategy would be communicated to all stakeholders, adding that the policy will be reviewed from time to time.

India launched the vaccination programme in the middle of January in phases for health care and frontline workers and people above 45 years of age. Two vaccines — indigenously developed Covaxin and UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine called Covishield — are being administered currently.

So far 12,38,52,566 vaccine doses have administered, as per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

New Delhi [India], April 21,2021: The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed 13 crores on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
According to the ministry, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 13,00,27,370 as per the 9 pm provisional report today. More than 28.98 lakh vaccine doses administered till 9 pm.
Total 71,051 COVID vaccination Centres (CVCs) were operational, marking a rise of more than 26,051 operational vaccination centres. Workplace vaccinations have also enabled such a high turnout of beneficiaries.
These include 92,01,040 Healthcare Workers (HCWs) who have taken the 1st dose and 58,16,538 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 1,15,59,218 Frontline Workers (FLWs) who received the first dose, and 58,52,669 FLWs who received the second dose, 4,34,85,752 for over 45 years old to 60 years old received first dose 14,90,460 for over 45 years old to 60 years old, 4,73,31,326 first dose for above 60 years and 52,90,367 second dose for above 60 years.
On day 95 of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination, a total of 28,98,257 vaccine doses was given till 9 pm. Out of which 19,18,155 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 9,80,102 beneficiaries received 2nd dose of the vaccine as per the provisional report.

Meanwhile, Union Health Secretary and Union Secretary (Pharmaceuticals) held a Video Conference meeting with States and UTs on various issues connected with medicines used for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the hospital setting.
The Secretary Pharmaceuticals made a presentation giving the present status of Remdesivir. She informed that the drug has been approved as investigational therapy in patients who are on oxygen with moderate/ severe Covid 19 disease.
“Due to the recent surge in Covid 19 cases, the demand for the drug also grown rapidly with reported shortages. Considering the same, DoP, NPPA along CDSCO have undertaken an exercise to work out Remdesivir injection allocation to States based on objective criteria. Since the clinical guidance provides that Remdesivir should be used in cases where oxygen is also required, the allocation is based on the oxygen allocation carried out by the Empowered Group-2 to various states,” read the release.
This schedule for allocation for the period of 10 days starting from April 21 has been worked out.
“The position will be reviewed after a few days. For the states, for which oxygen allocation was not made, Remdesivir allocation will also be made shortly,” the health ministry said.
All states were requested to ensure judicious use of Remdesivir as per Clinical Management Protocol for COVID-19, conduct a campaign to address any possible black marketing or hoarding of drugs used in Covid treatment, and also facilitate the smooth and unimpeded movement of drugs including inter-state supplies.

New Delhi, Apr 21,2021: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved Bangalore Metro Rail Project Phase 2A (Central Silk Board Junction to KR Puram) and Phase 2B (KR Puram to Airport via Hebbal Junction) of total length 58.19 km.

Briefing mediapersons about the decision, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said the total completion cost of the project is Rs 14,788.101 crore.

Implementation of the project will provide the much needed additional public transport infrastructure to Bangalore.

The project will streamline the urban transportation system in Bengaluru, which is stressed due to intensive developments, increase in the number of private vehicles and heavy construction in the city putting stress on travel infrastructure and industrial activities and to provide the people a safe, secure, reliable and comfortable public transport.

The Metro Project in itself is an innovation over the conventional system of urban transport.

The project involves integration with other urban transport system in an efficient and effective manner which is possible only by adopting innovative methods of designing, technology and institutional management.

Paris [France], April 24,2021: An anti-terrorism investigation has been launched in France after a policewoman was stabbed to death in Paris commuter town in Rambouillet by a 36-year-old Islamist terrorist from Tunisia on Friday.
President Emmanuel Macron said France would never give in to “Islamist terrorism”.
Macron vowed on Twitter that “in our fight against Islamist terrorism, we will never give in,” identifying the murdered woman as Stephanie, reported France24.
“The nation is by the side of her family, her colleagues and security forces,” he said.
The attack took place in the secure entrance area of the station at around 2:20pm (1220 GMT), a police source added.

The 49-year-old woman, an administrative assistant and mother of two who was returning from a lunch break, was stabbed in the throat twice and died of her wounds shortly afterwards, the source said.
The attacker was shot dead by the security forces. Three people have been detained in connection with the attack, reported France24.
France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutors said they had opened a terror investigation, also involving the DGSI domestic intelligence service, into the murder of a person holding public authority. Three people from the suspect’s “entourage” were detained on Friday, according to a judicial source.
A source close to the inquiry told a news agency that the attacker shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) during the attack.
Chief anti-terror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, who spoke outside the station along with Prime Minister Jean Castex, confirmed that “comments made by the assailant” indicated a terror motive, without giving further details, reported France24.
Several attacks over the last year have reignited concerns about the spread of radical Islam inside France as well as immigration.
Meanwhile, Macron’s government has introduced legislation to tackle radical Islamist activity in France, a bill that has stirred anger in some Muslim countries.

April 22,2021: Police rounded up more than 1,700 protesters on Wednesday as Russians in dozens of cities took part in rallies organised by allies of hunger-striking Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny over his failing health in jail.

His spokeswoman was jailed for 10 days, and another close ally detained, on the same day that President Vladimir Putin delivered a state-of-the-nation speech warning the West not to cross Russia’s “red lines” and pointedly made no mention of Navalny. read more

“This is one of the last gasps of a free Russia, as many are saying. We came out for Alexei … against a war in Ukraine and the wild propaganda,” said Marina, a student at the Moscow protest.

OVD-Info, a group that monitors protests and detentions, said 1,782 people had been arrested, including 804 in St. Petersburg and 119 in the Urals city of Ufa.

Protesters in central Moscow chanted, “Freedom to Navalny!” and “Let the doctors in!”. Navalny’s wife Yulia joined the rally in the capital, where demonstrators chanted her name.

The opposition had hoped the rallies would be the biggest in modern Russian history, and presented them as an attempt to save Navalny’s life by persuading the authorities to allow his own doctors to treat him.

But turnout looked smaller than during protests earlier this year before Navalny was jailed for 2-1/2 years for parole violations related to what he said were politically motivated charges of embezzlement.

Police said 6,000 people protested illegally in Moscow, while Navalny’s YouTube channel said turnout in the capital was up to 10 times higher. Alexey Venediktov, a veteran journalist and head of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, said 10,000-15,000 people had rallied in Moscow and 7,000-9,000 in St Petersburg.

The 44-year-old Navalny, who last year survived a nerve agent attack that Russian authorities denied carrying out, is thin and weak after starving himself for three weeks, and his allies say he risks kidney failure or cardiac arrest. The United States has warned Russia it will face “consequences” if he dies.

The state human rights commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, said four doctors from outside the federal prison agency had visited Navalny on Tuesday and found no serious health problems. Russia says he has been treated as would any other prisoner.

The confrontation over Navalny’s fate is a flashpoint in Moscow’s dire relations with the West, already aggravated by economic sanctions, diplomatic expulsions and a Russian military buildup near Ukraine.

U.N. human rights experts urged Moscow to let Navalny be medically evaluated abroad. They said they believed his life was in danger as he was being held in “conditions that could amount to torture”.

New Delhi, Apr 24,2021: Amidst a severe shortage of Oxygen for COVID-19 patients in various parts of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the manufacturers to utilise tankers meant to transport other gases for oxygen supply.

“There is a need to increase the availability of oxygen cylinders as well as upgrade the logistics facilities for its transportation,” the Prime Minister said during a meeting with leading oxygen manufacturers across the country via video conferencing.

He said this time is not only to deal with the challenges, but also to provide solutions in a very short time. Mr Modi stressed on the need to maintain good co-ordination between the government and the oxygen producers.

He appreciated the oxygen producers for increasing their production in the last few weeks. He acknowledged the several steps taken to increase the production of liquid oxygen. Mr Modi also thanked the industry for diverting industrial oxygen to meet medical requirements in the country.

To improve the situation further, Mr Modi spoke about utilising the full potential of the industry to meet the demand of oxygen in the coming days. Mr Modi noted that there is a need to increase the availability of oxygen cylinders as well as upgrade the logistics facilities for transportation of oxygen.

The Prime Minister said keeping in mind the requirements of states pertaining to oxygen, government is working on effective use of Railways and Air Force so that the tankers reach the production centre as soon as possible.

Mr Modi remarked that the government, the states, the industry and the transporters, and all the hospitals need to come together and work in unison. The better the synergy and coordination, the easier it will be able to deal with this challenge.

Appreciating the oxygen producers, Mr Modi extended government’s full support to them and hoped the country would be successful in combating the crisis soon.

Mukesh Ambani, CMD of RIL, Soma Mandal, Chairperson of SAIL, Sajjan Jindal of JSW, Narendran of Tata Steel, Naveen Jindal of JSPL, Dilip Oommen of AMNS, M Bannerjee of LINDE, Sidharth Jain of Inox, Noriyo Shibuya, MD of Air Water Jamshedpur, Rajesh Kumar Saraf of National Oxygen Ltd and Saket Tiku, President of All India Industrial Gases Manufacturer’s Association were present during the meeting.

April 20,2021:The American space agency NASA has successfully flown a small helicopter on Mars.

The drone, called Ingenuity, was airborne for less than a minute, but Nasa is celebrating what represents the first powered, controlled flight by an aircraft on another world.

Confirmation came via a satellite at Mars which relayed the chopper’s data back to Earth.

The space agency is promising more adventurous flights in the days ahead.

Ingenuity will be commanded to fly higher and further as engineers seek to test the limits of the technology.

The rotorcraft was carried to Mars in the belly of Nasa’s Perseverance Rover, which touched down in Jezero Crater on the Red Planet in February.

“We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet,” said a delighted MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

“We’ve been talking for so long about our ‘Wright Brothers moment’ on Mars, and here it is.”

This is a reference to Wilbur and Orville Wright who conducted the first powered, controlled aircraft flight here on Earth in 1903.

Ingenuity even carries a small swatch of fabric from one of the wings of Flyer 1, the aircraft that made that historic flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, more than 117 years ago.
The demonstration saw the Mars-copter rise to just over 3m, hover, swivel 96 degrees, hover some more, and then set down. In all, it managed almost 40 seconds of flight, from take-off to landing.

Getting airborne on the Red Planet is not easy. The atmosphere is very thin, just 1% of the density here at Earth. This gives the blades on a rotorcraft very little to bite into to gain lift.

There’s help from the lower gravity at Mars, but still – it takes a lot of work to get up off the ground.
Ingenuity was therefore made extremely light and given the power (a peak power of 350 watts) to turn those blades extremely fast – at over 2,500 revolutions per minute for this particular flight.

Control was autonomous. The distance to Mars – currently just under 300 million km – means radio signals take minutes to traverse the intervening space. Flying by joystick is simply out of the question.

Asked whether she was surprised the flight had worked, MiMi Aung said: “No, I’m not. We really had nailed the equations, the models and the verification here on Earth in our laboratory tests. So, it then became a question of: have we chosen the right materials to build Ingenuity, to survive the space environment, to survive the Mars environment?

“We’ve gone from ‘theory says you can’ to really now having done it. It’s a major first for the human race,” she told BBC News.

Ingenuity has two cameras onboard. A black-and-white camera that points down to the ground, which is used for navigation, and a high-resolution colour camera that looks out to the horizon.

Sample navigation images sent back to Earth revealed the helicopter’s shadow on the floor of the crater as it came back in to land.

The Perseverance rover was watching and snapping away from a distance of 65m. Its full-sequence video can be seen at the top of this page.
Michael Watkins, JPL director, said: “What the Ingenuity team has done is given us the third dimension; they’ve freed us from the surface now forever in planetary exploration, so that we can now make a combination of driving on the surface and sampling the surface, doing reconnaissance, and even scientific experimentation on inaccessible places for a rover. This is exactly the way we build the future.”

Bob Balaram, Ingenuity’s chief engineer, said ideas for larger helicopters were already being discussed.

“We are thinking of things in the 25-30kg class of vehicles, and those vehicles would carry maybe about 4kg of science instruments,” he told reporters.

Nasa has already approved a helicopter mission to Titan, the big moon of Saturn. Dragonfly, as the mission is known, should arrive at Titan in the mid-2030s. It will be easier to fly on this moon given its very thick atmosphere.

Mumbai (Maharashtra), April 20,2021: The first ‘Oxygen Express’ departed from Central Railway’s Kalamboli yard on Monday evening to ferry liquid oxygen for Maharashtra from Vishakhapatnam steel plant in Andhra Pradesh amid the worsening COVID-19 situation.
In a statement, the ministry of railways informed that the Mumbai Division built a ramp overnight within 24 hours at Kalamboli goods yard to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons.
“The Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) service with seven empty tankers departed from Kalamboli goods yard for Visakhapatnam steel plant siding at 8.05 pm on Monday.”

This train will move via Vasai Road, Jalgaon, Nagpur, Raipur Junction to Visakhapatnam steel plant siding in ECoR zone where it will be loaded with Liquid Medical Oxygen.
On Sunday, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, in an interview to ANI, had informed that the central government was creating a green corridor for fast movement of ‘Oxygen Express’ trains to facilities for the smooth transport of oxygen to states.
“A decision has been taken to start transportation of oxygen cylinders or tankers in trains. The transportation of cylinders has already started. Green corridors will be introduced to ensure a fast supply of oxygen where these trains can reach their destination at a high speed,” Goyal had said.
“For the transportation of liquid oxygen, military wagons will be used to transport 3.3 meter high tankers. These trains will not be stopped so that they can reach their destination at a fast speed,” he added.
The worsening COVID-19 situation has seen a surge in the demand for medical oxygen and beds for the COVID-19 patients and many states are reporting a shortage in essential medical supplies.

Geneva:April 20,2021: The world can bring the global COVID-19 pandemic under control in the coming months provided it distributes the necessary resources fairly, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) told a news briefing on Monday.

Global climate change activist Greta Thunberg, joining the briefing as a virtual guest from Sweden, took a swipe at “vaccine nationalism” and said it was unethical that rich countries were prioritising their younger citizens for vaccination ahead of vulnerable groups in developing countries.

“We have the tools to bring this pandemic under control in a matter of months, if we apply them consistently and equitably,” said the head of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

However, he also expressed concern over the “alarming rate” at which COVID-19 is spreading in those aged 25-59 worldwide, possibly due to much more contagious variants.

“It took nine months to reach one million deaths; 4 months to reach 2 million, and 3 months to reach 3 million.”

Thunberg said that whereas one in four people in high-income countries had now been vaccinated against COVID-19, only one in more than 500 people in poorer countries had received a shot.

“Vaccine nationalism is what is running the vaccine distribution,” she said.

“The only morally right thing to do is to prioritise the people who are most vulnerable, whether they live in a high income or a low income country.”

ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE

Thunberg also drew a direct link between the pandemic and the environmental destruction that she said made it much easier for dangerous viruses to leap from animal populations to humans.

“Science shows we will experience more frequent, devastating pandemics unless we drastically change our ways and the ways we treat nature … We are creating ideal conditions for diseases to spill over from one animal to another and to us,” she said.

Thunberg urged young people everywhere to get vaccinated if given an opportunity, even though they are the age group least at risk from COVID-19, out of “solidarity with people in the (high) risk groups”.

A leading WHO epidemiologist, Maria van Kerkhove, told the same briefing that the latest surge in COVID-19 infections worldwide included increases among age groups previously less affected by the pandemic.

“We are seeing increased rates of transmission across all age groups,” she said, adding that some 5.2 million cases were reported last week, the highest weekly increase since the start of the pandemic.

“We are seeing a slight age shift in some countries, driven by social mixing,” she added.

New Delhi , April 20,2021: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said that the alliance between the United States, Australia, Japan and India — also known as the quad — would not “become another” North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) but the alliance is a common platform looking at unmet demands in the market.
Speaking at the All India Management Association National Leadership Conclave, the external affairs minister said that since independence, India has stayed away from alliances.
“The short answer is no,” replied Jaishankar when asked if the four-country informal grouping could become ‘another NATO’.

“The people who use that NATO kind of analogy either do not understand us at all, where we are coming from and what our independence means to us. The explanation I have is complete ignorance or the lack of understanding of the Indian mindset or they are using these words to discourage us,” he said.
“Think of quad as a common platform for four important players who actually are looking at the unmet demands of the market… It’s reasonable in international relations for countries that have a common interest to work together. I would not exaggerate this to create that image of NATO military alliance because that has never been India’s heritage,” he added.
The Quad is a strategic informal grouping of four democracies India, Australia, the United States and Japan to counterbalance and check China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Along with diplomatic engagements, Quad countries also engage in military and naval exercises, freedom of navigation, and rule-based order is the key principle of this informal grouping.
China is critical of Quad and the Chinese ambassador was recently quoted as saying, “Building small circles in the name of multilateralism is in fact ‘group politics’.”