For a RailFan, watching MPS skips are far more interesting than watching F1 race - Prince Maan

India and Pakistan are without high commissioners in each other's capital since the relations between the two countries nosedived after India withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories in August 2019.

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India and Pakistan may get engaged into a large-scale war that neither side wants, a US intelligence report has warned while exploring the possibilities of miscalculations leading to a war in South Asia.

The assessment is part of the Global Trends report produced every four years by the US government's National Intelligence Council. The report was released in Washington recently.



The report focuses on both immediate and distant futures and is designed to help policymakers anticipate the forces likely to shape the world in the next five to 20 years.

The US intelligence report told Congress that India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is more likely than in the past to respond with military force to perceived or real Pakistani provocations,



The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in its Annual Threat Assessment report to the US Congress, said although a general war between India and Pakistan is unlikely, crises between the two are likely to become more intense, risking an escalatory cycle.

"Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is more likely than in the past to respond with military force to perceived or real Pakistani provocations, and heightened tensions raise the risk of conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, with violent unrest in Kashmir or a militant attack in India being potential flashpoints," it said.



India and Pakistan are without high commissioners in each other's capital since the relations between the two countries nosedived after India withdrew the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two union territories in August 2019.

India has said it desires normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence and that the onus is on Islamabad to create an environment free of terror and hostility.

According to the ODNI report, the fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria has a direct bearing on US forces, while tensions between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan remain a concern for the world.

The iterative violence between Israel and Iran, the activity of foreign powers in Libya, and conflicts in other areas, including Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, have the potential to escalate or spread, it said.

On Afghanistan, the ODNI report assessed that prospects for a peace deal will remain low during the next year.

"The Taliban is likely to make gains on the battlefield, and the Afghan Government will struggle to hold the Taliban at bay if the coalition withdraws support. Kabul continues to face setbacks on the battlefield, and the Taliban is confident it can achieve military victory,'' it said.

"Afghan forces continue to secure major cities and other government strongholds, but they remain tied down in defensive missions and have struggled to hold recaptured territory or reestablish a presence in areas abandoned in 2020,'' the report said.

Lucknow: A mismatch between the official figure of deaths because of COVID-19 and the death count at crematoriums has been reported in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, triggering allegations that the UP government has been underreporting the coronavirus situation in the state.
The cumulative official Covid death count released by the government in the last seven days is 124. However, per the records maintained by the city's crematoriums, over 400 people who died because of the virus had been cremated during the same period. This means the deaths of 276 people were missing from the official records.
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On April 13, the government's official death count was 18, but 86 bodies were cremated. On April 12, 86 were cremated; the official figure was 21. A day before that, 57 bodies were cremated; the official death count was 31. Similarly, on April 10, 59 bodies were cremated against the official death figure of 23.

"It is not in my knowledge. I maintain records of all the bodies of Covid victims I know of...I don't know about other deaths," Amit Singh, a senior Lucknow official, told NDTV.

Asked about the discrepancies in official records, the government said Covid victims from neighbouring districts and other states were also being cremated in the city.

The government only keeps the records of those who are admitted to hospitals or registered with the Chief Medical Officer, it added.

"We have only presented the list of those who were admitted to the hospital or those registered with the CMO...people who come from other districts and states and unfortunately die here, they also get cremated in the city," UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma told NDTV.

Like other parts of the country, Uttar Pradesh has also been facing the rapid second wave of infections. The most populous state in the country on Wednesday reported a single-day spike of 17,963 coronavirus cases. According to the government, 85 people died of the disease in the same period.

The state had reported over 18,000 cases on Tuesday, which was its highest single-day tally.

Covid Deaths In Lucknow Underreported? Cremations vs Government Data
Like other parts of the country, Uttar Pradesh has also been facing the rapid second Covid wave (File)


Lucknow: A mismatch between the official figure of deaths because of COVID-19 and the death count at crematoriums has been reported in Uttar Pradesh's capital Lucknow, triggering allegations that the UP government has been underreporting the coronavirus situation in the state.
The cumulative official Covid death count released by the government in the last seven days is 124. However, per the records maintained by the city's crematoriums, over 400 people who died because of the virus had been cremated during the same period. This means the deaths of 276 people were missing from the official records.

On April 13, the government's official death count was 18, but 86 bodies were cremated. On April 12, 86 were cremated; the official figure was 21. A day before that, 57 bodies were cremated; the official death count was 31. Similarly, on April 10, 59 bodies were cremated against the official death figure of 23.

"It is not in my knowledge. I maintain records of all the bodies of Covid victims I know of...I don't know about other deaths," Amit Singh, a senior Lucknow official, told NDTV.

Asked about the discrepancies in official records, the government said Covid victims from neighbouring districts and other states were also being cremated in the city.

The government only keeps the records of those who are admitted to hospitals or registered with the Chief Medical Officer, it added.

"We have only presented the list of those who were admitted to the hospital or those registered with the CMO...people who come from other districts and states and unfortunately die here, they also get cremated in the city," UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma told NDTV.

Like other parts of the country, Uttar Pradesh has also been facing the rapid second wave of infections. The most populous state in the country on Wednesday reported a single-day spike of 17,963 coronavirus cases. According to the government, 85 people died of the disease in the same period.

The state had reported over 18,000 cases on Tuesday, which was its highest single-day tally.

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Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today tested positive for the virus.

The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday called the government's night curfew an inadequate measure and asked it to consider imposing a full lockdown in worst-hit areas.

Spider webs are some of the most complex natural structures and form an intricate network of 3D structures that they use to hunt and breed. A group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have now translated the structure of a web into music. They also claim that the structure could have applications ranging from better 3D printers to cross-species communication.

Cross-sectional images ( in different colours) of a spider web combined into a 3D image and translated into music. Credit: Isabelle Su and Markus Buehler
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Speaking to the American Chemical Society,Markus Buehler, Ph.D. at MIT, the project’s principal investigator, who is presenting the work said, “Spiders don’t see very well, so they sense their world through vibrations, which have different frequencies.” These vibrations occur when a strand of the is stretched during construction, or when the wind or a trapped fly moves the web.



According to SciTech Daily, Buehler believes that study can help in the extraction of rhythms and melodies of non-human origin from natural materials. Buehler and his colleagues at MIT, are collaborating with Tomás Saraceno at Studio Tomás Saraceno to gain new insights into the 3D architecture and construction of webs.



Explaining how the music was extracted, Gulf News reported that the team scanned a natural spider web with a laser to capture 2D cross-sections and then used computer algorithms to reconstruct the web's 3D network. Different strands of the web were assigned different frequencies, thereby creating "notes" that were stitched together in the patterns based on the web's 3D structure.



The frequencies were assigned musical notes and researchers created a harp-like instrument which was used to play the spider web music at live performances, and a virtual reality setup that allows the listener to "enter" the web.



"The virtual reality environment is really intriguing. By hearing it and seeing it at the same time, you can really start to understand the environment the spider lives in," Buehler was quoted as telling the publication.