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World

Listen Carefully, The Things I Know…

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Imran Khan addressed his party supporters in Lahore.

Lahore/Islamabad:

Imran Khan on Friday said he will remain “silent” as he does not want to “damage” the country and its institutions, a day after the ISI chief said the former prime minister made a “lucrative offer” to Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa in return for backing his government during the political turmoil in March this year.

Addressing his party supporters at Lahore’s famous Liberty Chowk after launching his protest march towards Islamabad demanding early elections, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief said his march is not for politics or personal interest but to gain real freedom and ensure that all decisions were made in Pakistan and not in London or Washington.

“My only aim is to free my nation and turn Pakistan into a free country,” Khan, standing atop a container, said.

Khan rejected ISI chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum’s allegations in an unprecedented press conference on Thursday, saying it was one-sided and he only “talked about Iman Khan” and never uttered a word against the “thieves” in the government.

“DG ISI, listen carefully, the things I know, I am staying silent for my institutions and the country. I don’t want to damage my country,” the PTI chief said as the crowd cheered.

“Our criticism is for constructive purposes and for your improvement. I can say more but will not say as it will hurt the institution,” he said.

Lt Gen Anjum on Thursday said that Army chief Gen Bajwa was given a “lucrative offer” by the then government amidst the political turmoil in March. Gen. Bajwa is scheduled to retire next month after a 3-year extension.

The unprecedented press conference by the spy chief came as the country was grappling with different versions about the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya and indirect allegations against the armed forces. Sharif was shot dead at a police checkpoint at an hour’s distance from Nairobi on Sunday night, creating a storm in the country.

The Kenyan police later said it was a case of “mistaken identity” during a search for a similar car involved in a child abduction case.

Addressing his supporters, Khan said that, unlike Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif, he was “not a runaway that would either sit quietly here or criticise the military in London”.

“I am not going to leave this country. I will live and die in this country,” added the PTI chief.

“If the handlers and facilitators of the thieves of this imported government think that they (government) should be accepted by us, then listen, this nation will give every sacrifice but will never accept these thieves,” he said.

Khan also promised that the march would be peaceful. “Our march will be according to the law, we will not break any rule. We will not enter the (high security) Red Zone and will only go to the areas which have been designated by the Supreme Court for protests,” he said.

He also alleged that the Supreme Court failed to protect his supporters’ constitutional right during the protest on May 25 but hoped that “this time our rights will be protected”.

Khan, 70, plans to arrive in Islamabad on November 4 and has sought formal permission from the government to allow his party to hold a protest rally. His party has billed the protest as a ‘Haqiqi Azadi March’ or a protest for actual freedom of the country.

It is not clear if he would go back after the rally or transform it into a sit-in on the pattern of his 2014 protest when a 126-day sit-in was staged by his followers in front of the parliament building.

The government rejected the march and Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the nation had refused to be subservient to a “foreign-funded” instigator and had rejected the “bloody march”.

Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah during a press conference flanked by officials of the Federal Investigation Agency in Islamabad, said that Khan tried to “threaten” the government and institutions to “get a date for elections” but failed in this regard.

The minister said that after all of the PTI chief’s tactics failed, he has now resorted to holding a long march.

“He made many speeches and used the word ‘neutral’. But when all this failed, he had no option left but to try something else,” Sanaullah said.

He warned that “strict action will be taken if they attempt to break the law and create a law and order situation in the capital.” Sanaullah added that if PTI stood by its commitment to stay within the places permitted by the Supreme Court, no one would stop them from exercising its democratic right.

Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman has alleged that Khan considers himself to be “above the law and Constitution” as she accused the PTI chief of feeding people lies.

Rehman said that Imran was a “fascist” who considered himself to be the “king”. “This is why he leads people towards violence,” she added.

PTI secretary general Asad Umar earlier told the media in Lahore that the protest would be peaceful. He said that the party decided to dedicate the march to killed journalist Sharif.

The country was grappling with different versions about the killing of journalist Sharif in Kenya and indirect allegations against the armed forces.

Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the PTI’s long march only had one agenda — fresh elections.

The PTI leader told Dawn News that the people of Pakistan wanted new elections to be held. “People have come out in hundreds and thousands. This is our struggle for real freedom,” he said.

He told the “handlers” of the incumbent government that they were facing a “flood of people” against which none could stand.

“Their handlers, listen carefully. This is a flood of people and none can stand against it,” he said while addressing the protesters as his march reached Ichhra in Lahore.

During a short pitstop in Lahore’s Ichhra, Khan delivered another fiery speech, this time targeting the government.

“They steal money, go abroad, come back after receiving an NRO and then return [to power] again,” Khan said from atop his container as Shah Mahmood Qureshi stood behind him.

“What do they think of us? That we are bher bakriyan (fools)? Those who have stolen billions from our country and live in palaces in London are made prime minister,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) has directed television channels not to live telecast programmes and other content, particularly while covering PTI leaders’ speeches and the long march.

The Pemra said while monitoring Friday’s transmission, it was observed during a speech “statements against state institutions were aired live” in violation of the code of conduct and court orders.

It directed television channels to refrain from “airing content that [is] tantamount to malign/ disgrace state institutions (advertently or inadvertently) and to sensitise their editorial boards, directors (new and programming), bureaus and field reporters to comply with these directives.

Legal action, leading to suspensions and revocation of licences, would be initiated in case of non-compliance, Pemra warned.

Khan has been demanding early elections and threatening a protest march towards Islamabad to force his demands if the government failed to give a date for elections. The term of the National Assembly will end in August 2023 and fresh elections should be held within 60 days.

Khan, who was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, has talked about a ‘threat letter’ from the US and claimed that it was part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him as he was not acceptable for following an independent foreign policy. The US has bluntly rejected the allegations.

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

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World

On recognising Taliban regime, India to align itself with democratic bloc of countries | India News

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NEW DELHI: India will align itself with the responses of the democratic bloc of countries on whether the incoming Taliban regime can be recognised, and much depends on the conduct of the new masters of Afghanistan in the weeks ahead.
Unlike in the past when India — as most other nations — did not recognise the Taliban regime led by Mullah Omer, fresh considerations may be at work in the current situation. “We will not be the first to recognise them, but will work with the democratic bloc to assess and take a call on the Taliban,” said a source. These countries could be western democracies, associations like the Quad, as well as Asian partners India has worked with in pursuing shared goals such as acting against terrorism and a rule-bound approach to international relations.
The current situation is seen to be still unfolding as the Taliban leadership is yet to formally claim leadership of Afghanistan and begin the process of formalising structures of governance, though it is clear that a new Islamic Emirate is on the cards, one that is close to India and will enjoy control over a state.
A key determinant will be Taliban’s response to concerns expressed by most nations over Afghanistan becoming a fount of terrorism and the likely treatment of citizens — whether the group will re-impose a harsh version of Islamic law and if incidents of violence and lawlessness will abound.
The role of Pakistan, and its likely leverage with the new occupants of Kabul is also being weighed, and it is felt apprehensions that Islamabad is set to gain a big advantage may need more evidence. Much depends on how the Taliban identify their priorities and how much they will cater to Pakistan’s interests.
It is pointed out that this time around, the Taliban seem a stronger and more confident force, emboldened by their takeover of Kabul on their own might. Pakistan’s ability to manipulate the regime could clash with Taliban seeing themselves as the new centre of the Islamic world rather than a “partner” of ISI.
Yet, Pakistan does have strong allies in the Haqqani network and it would look to ensure they occupy important portfolios in the new government. Pakistan was crucial in providing Taliban safe harbours but allies like Sirajuddin Haqqani also have a reputation for wanton bloodshed that can deter international recognition.
Sources said a negotiated takeover where Pakistan had a clear role would have helped Islamabad’s cause. As things turned out, theTaliban faced almost no resistance. It also remains to be seen if the group will make space for non-Pashtun communities or hog power. Also, whether the new leader or Emir, will be imposed right away or there will be a loya jirga process that may enhance his legitimacy.
Perhaps in recognition that Afghanistan has changed in the last 20 years, the Taliban have so far tread carefully. There is a significant Afghan population that has been exposed to progress, education and foreign travel, and a policy of outright suppression may not work well despite fear of torture and punishment.



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Science

A Major Prediction Stephen Hawking Made About Black Holes Has Finally Been Observed

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Gravitational wave astronomy has just given us another amazing gift: the first observational confirmation of one of Stephen Hawking’s predictions about black holes.

An analysis of the very first gravitational wave detection made back in 2015, GW150914, has confirmed Hawking’s area theorem. It states that, under classical physics, the area of the event horizon of a black hole can only grow larger – never smaller.

 

The work gives us a new tool for probing these mysterious objects, and testing the limits of our understanding of the Universe.

“It is possible that there’s a zoo of different compact objects, and while some of them are the black holes that follow Einstein and Hawking’s laws, others may be slightly different beasts,” said astrophysicist Maximiliano Isi of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

“So, it’s not like you do this test once and it’s over. You do this once, and it’s the beginning.”

Hawking first proposed his theorem back in 1971. It predicted that the surface area of the event horizon of a black hole should never decrease, but only increase.

The event horizon is not the black hole itself, but the radius at which even light speed in a vacuum is insufficient to achieve escape velocity from the gravitational field generated by the black hole singularity. It’s proportional to the mass of the black hole; since black holes can only gain mass, under general relativity, the event horizon should only be able to grow.

 

(This increase-only model is also curiously similar to another theory, the second law of thermodynamics. It states that entropy – the progression from order to disorder in the Universe – can only increase. Black holes also have entropy ascribed to them, and it’s directly proportional to their event horizon surface area.)

Mathematically, the area theorem checks out, but it’s been observationally difficult to confirm – mainly because black holes are extremely difficult to observe directly, since they emit no detectable radiation. But then, we detected the gravitational ripples propagating through space-time of a collision between two of these enigmatic objects.

This was GW150914, and the brief bloop of the collision recorded by the LIGO interferometer changed everything. It was the first direct detection of not one black hole, but two. They came together and formed one larger black hole.

This black hole then faintly rung, like a struck bell. In 2019, Isi and his colleagues worked out how to detect the signal of this ringdown. Now they’ve decoded it, breaking it down to calculate the mass and spin of the final black hole.

 

They also performed a new analysis of the merger signal to calculate the mass and spin of the two pre-merger black holes. Since mass and spin are related to the area of the event horizon, this allowed them to calculate the event horizons of all three objects.

If the event horizon could shrink in size, then the event horizon of the final merged black hole should be smaller than those of the two black holes that created it. According to their calculations, the two smaller black holes had a total event horizon area of 235,000 square kilometers (91,000 square miles). The final black hole had an area of 367,000 square kilometers.

“The data show with overwhelming confidence that the horizon area increased after the merger, and that the area law is satisfied with very high probability,” Isi said.

“It was a relief that our result does agree with the paradigm that we expect, and does confirm our understanding of these complicated black hole mergers.”

At least in the short term. Under quantum mechanics – which does not play nicely with classical physics – Hawking later predicted that, over very long timescales, black holes should lose mass in the form of a type of black-body radiation we now call Hawking radiation. So it’s still possible that the event horizon of a black hole could decrease in area, eventually.

That will obviously need to be examined more closely in the future. In the meantime, the work of Isi and his team have given us a new toolset for probing other gravitational wave observations, in the hope of gaining even more insights into black holes and the physics of the Universe.

“It’s encouraging that we can think in new, creative ways about gravitational-wave data, and reach questions we thought we couldn’t before,” Isi said.

“We can keep teasing out pieces of information that speak directly to the pillars of what we think we understand. One day, this data may reveal something we didn’t expect.”

The research has been published in Physical Review Letters.

 

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