Odds Of Asteroid The Size Of Football Field Hitting Earth Increased Yet Again

Scientists have revised the odds of asteroid 2024 YR4 colliding with Earth when it makes its closest pass on December 22, 2032. According to NASA's Center for Near Earth Object Studies (Cneos) the chances of a strike by the space rock, which is roughly the size of a football field, have been calculated at 2.3 per cent which is significantly greater than the 1.3 per cent chance given by the European Space Agency (ESA), barely a week ago.

The unassuming asteroid was first spotted in late December by scientists at the NASA-funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System station in Chile. Since then, 2024 YR4 has become a hot topic of discussion among the scientific community.

The asteroid, measuring around 130 to 300 feet across, may not be big enough to cause a civilization collapse upon the impact but it is big enough to inflict major damage to a big city. It ranks as a 3 on the Torino Impact Hazard Scale, which classifies asteroids on a scale of 0 to 10 to capture the likelihood and consequences of a potential impact.

Objects within the 5 to 7 categories are considered "threatening," while any certain encounters are classified within the 8 to 10 categories, depending on the severity of impact.

Also read | This Asteroid Could Hit Earth In 2032, Threatening To Wipe Out A City

As per NASA, 2024 YR4 follows a highly elliptical, four-year orbit, swinging through the inner planets before shooting past Mars and out toward Jupiter. If it does make an impact, the possible impact sites could be the Eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.

The most infamous asteroid impact occurred 66 million years ago, when a six-mile-wide space rock triggered a global winter, wiping out the dinosaurs and 75 percent of all species. By contrast, 2024 YR4 falls into the "city killer" category.

The best modern comparison is the 1908 Tunguska Event, when an asteroid or comet fragment measuring 30-50 meters exploded over Siberia, flattening 80 million trees across 770 square miles (2,000 square kilometers).

Scientists say that there have been several objects in the past that have risen on the risk list and eventually dropped off as more data have come in. New observations may result in the reassignment of this asteroid to 0 as more data is analysed.

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Muslim Man Thrashed In Bhopal Courtroom For Trying To Marry Hindu Woman

A man was allegedly brutally thrashed by members of a right wing organisation at a district court in Bhopal, when he arrived at the premises with a woman, from another faith, whom he wanted to marry.

A purported viral video of the incident shows the man, a Muslim, getting beaten up by two men, even as he writhes in pain.

Police said they have launched a probe and are also trying to verify the authenticity of the video.

*ब्रेकिंग भोपाल*

*भोपाल जिला अदालत में जमकर हुआ हंगामा*

*मुस्लिम युवक की हिंदूवादी संगठन के कार्यकर्ताओं ने की पिटाई*

*हिंदूवादी संगठन ने युवक पर लगाए लव जिहाद के आरोप*

*लव जिहाद का आरोप लगाते हुए की जमकर पिटाई*

नरसिंहपुर से मुस्लिम युवक कोर्ट हिंदू लड़की को लेकर पहुंचा था। pic.twitter.com/39wGOamwQr

— tarun yadav / तरुण यादव (@CameramanTarun) February 7, 2025

According to sources, the victim is a resident of Narsinghpur and had arrived in Bhopal to marry the woman, a Hindu, from Pipariya in court.
 
"The victim, a Muslim, had come to the district court with a Hindu woman to meet a lawyer who was to notarise their documents. We have called their families to speak to them," MP Nagar police station inspector Jai Hind Sharma was quoted as saying by PTI.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Akshay Chaudhary said the man is undergoing a medical examination, and a probe into the assault is underway. "We will take appropriate action against those involved," he said. 

The right wing organisation alleged a "love jihad" conspiracy.

"He brought the woman after trapping her. When we got information from the lawyers, we intervened...," Chandrashekhar Tiwari, president of the outfit Sanskriti Bachao Manch, said. 

The outfit also demanded strict action against the victim.

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US Government Vessels To Sail Through Panama Canal Without Fees

The United States said Wednesday that its government vessels would be allowed to sail for free through the Panama Canal, following heavy pressure from President Donald Trump.

"US government vessels can now transit the Panama Canal without charge fees, saving the US government millions of dollars a year," the State Department said in a post on social media platform X.

It was the first public announcement of promises hinted at by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who said that Panama offered concessions during his talks on Sunday.

Rubio said he had told Panama that it was unfair for the United States to be in a position to defend the vital waterway and also to be charged for its use.

Since winning the November US election, Trump has refused to rule out the use of force to seize the canal, through which 40 percent of US container traffic passes. Trump and Rubio have complained about Chinese investment -- including ports on both sides of the canal -- and warned that Beijing could close the waterway to the United States in a crisis.  

Panama has forcefully denied Trump's repeated allegations that China has been given a role in operating the canal.  

But it has also moved to address US concerns. President Jose Raul Mulino after his talks with Rubio said that Panama would not renew membership in the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing's signature infrastructure-building program.

Rubio told reporters on Monday that his talks with Mulino were "respectful" and that the visit was "going to achieve potentially good things that assuage concerns we have."

Trump, however, said that he was still "not happy," although he acknowledged that Panama had "agreed to certain things."

The United States and Panama are scheduled to hold new talks on Friday to discuss the canal.

Trump in his inaugural address said the United States would be "taking back" the canal -- built more than a century ago by Washington with Afro-Caribbean labor and handed back to Panama at the end of 1999.

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

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A Blank South Korea? New North Korea Map Piques Interest Online

The tension between North and South Korea is legendary. Since the Korean War in the 1950s, reconciliation efforts have not been successful. And now, a photo of North Korea's map circulating on the internet has baffled policy researchers and other users. The map has been shared on the Chinese social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu) and claims the revised map was shared in April 2024, as per a report in Newsweek. It marks a major shift in the country's policy on unification by showing the Korean Peninsula divided into two separate parts, further driving home North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's break from the long-standing goal of eventual reunification with the South.

For decades, Pyongyang had demanded to be reunited with the South but always on its terms. The three-year Korean War, which started when communist North invaded South, ended in an armistice in 1953 without a peace treaty ever being signed. Still, Pyongyang kept preaching reunification for many years afterward, according to the news portal.

According to Newsweek, labelled "Joseon," the term North Korea typically uses for itself, the map displayed administrative districts only for the North and omitted them for the South-unlike older charts that have been made public.

Instead, South Korea was shown in grey like China and labelled simply as "South Korea. This was a departure from the previously used term "Puppet Korea", which implied the South was not an independent country but a US puppet state.

Kim Jong Un, supreme leader of North Korea, said in an October speech: "In the previous period, we talked a lot about liberating the South and unifying the country by force, but now we are not interested in that at all, and since we declared two countries, we are not even conscious of that country."

North Korea's rhetoric on the South has been subdued since the December political crisis in Seoul following now-jailed President Yoon Suk-yeol's brief declaration of martial law. Despite this, experts believe Kim Jong Un will not reverse his purge of unification symbols.

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Kapil Sharma Reveals Coldplay Wanted To Be A Part Of His Show

Kapil Sharma is all set to return with season 3 of his The Great Indian Kapil Show. On Monday, Netflix India announced an impressive line-up of shows, slated for 2025. At the event, Kapil Sharma revealed Coldplay wanted to be a part of his show.

Coldplay had blockbuster concerts in Mumbai and Ahmedabad last month. Kapil, with his tinge of humour, shared how Coldplay reached out to them via e-mail. 

 "Humlog toh inko (makers) bole pura saal set lagake rakhho. Aap believe nahi karoge log Coldplay ke liye ticket le rahe hain, unka email humein aa raha tha humein aapke show mein aana. 

"Humne kaha le toh aate, humara chal nahi raha abhi. Toh, it's a humble request for Netflix- guys, please keep going on," Kapil quipped (We told the makers to keep the set ready all year. You won't believe it - while people were buying Coldplay tickets, they emailed us saying they wanted to come on our show. I told them, 'You should have come, but our show wasn't running.' So I humbly request Netflix: please keep it going.)

Asked about his infamous rift with co-actor Sunil Grover, Kapil took the question in his stride and responded, "Season 3 toh inke liye, humare liye toh ek aur episode hain. Humein toh aadat padhi hain 200 episode ka serial. Wo bhi hum tab tak nahi bandh karte jab tak humara khud ka ladai na ho jaye." (Season 3 is for them, but for us, it's just another episode. We're used to doing 200-episode series and don't stop until we fight ourselves.)"

Kapil's show stars Sunil Grover, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Rajiv Thakur and Archana Puran Singh. The format of The Great Indian Kapil Show is largely identical to that of Kapil Sharma's former shows The Kapil Sharma Show and Comedy Nights With Kapil. The Great Indian Kapil Show hosted a slew of celebrities in its second season.

Alia Bhatt, Karan Johar, Kareena and Karisma Kapoor, Sudha Murthy, Narayan Murthy, Deepinder Goyal and Gia Goyal, Rekha, Sonakshi Sinha, Zaheer Iqbal, Shatrughan Sinha and Poonam Sinha appeared as guests in the second season. 

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Ear Muscles Flex to Help Focus on Sounds, Study Reveals Evolutionary Link

A study has found that small muscles in the human ear flex when an individual tries to focus on a particular sound in a noisy environment. These muscles, which were once crucial for movement in ancestral species, no longer play a significant role in modern human hearing. However, their activation suggests an evolutionary remnant of a once-functional auditory system. Researchers believe that understanding these subtle muscular responses could contribute to advancements in hearing aid technology.

Research Findings on Ear Muscles

According to the study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, experiments were conducted by Saarland University in Germany to examine the response of auricular muscles during listening tasks. Participants with normal hearing were exposed to overlapping audio sources while their ear muscles were monitored using electrodes. The results indicated that the superior auricular muscles, located above the ears, became more active as the difficulty of distinguishing sounds increased.

In contrast, the posterior auricular muscles, which are situated behind the ears, showed heightened activity when sounds originated from behind the participants. It has been suggested that these reflexive movements may have once helped early humans detect sounds outside their direct line of sight.

Potential Applications in Hearing Aids

Steven Hackley, a researcher at the University of Missouri, stated to Live Science that these findings could influence future hearing aid development. He explained that if hearing aids could detect muscle activation, they might be able to automatically amplify sounds in the direction a person is trying to focus on.

While some researchers believe the study provides insights into how humans attempt to enhance their hearing, others have noted that the increased muscle activity may not necessarily correlate with listening effort. Matthew Winn, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, stated to Live Science that the muscle response could instead reflect a heightened state of alertness rather than a conscious attempt to hear better.

 

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Founder Struggled With Mental Health After Selling Company For $100 Million

Jake Kassan, who sold his company for $100 million at the age of 27 in 2018, initially believed wealth would bring him happiness. He now reveals that instead, it led to a loss of purpose and struggles with anxiety and depression.

"The North Star for me when I was younger was always financial freedom," Mr Kassan told CNBC Make It. "I always felt my purpose was to make money."

A college dropout, Mr Kassan founded the Los Angeles-based accessory brand MVMT Watches and later sold it to the Movado Group, leaving him a multi-millionaire.

However, after the sale, he struggled to find meaning. "I think I lost purpose," he admitted. "For the first time in years... nothing felt as important as that entrepreneurial journey." His mental health, already affected by anxiety and panic attacks, worsened after selling his company.

As time went on, Mr Kassan felt an increasing void. "I finally climbed to the top of my mountain, but I didn't find what I was looking for," he shared in a YouTube video. He also found it difficult to talk about his struggles.

"I turned 30, I [had] just gone through a breakup... I had friends, but finding people who truly understood how lonely it felt was difficult. It was emotionally depleting," he told CNBC Make It. In his video, he posed a question many wouldn't expect: "How do you empathize with someone who is rich and depressed?"

Now 33, Mr Kassan is focused on rediscovering his sense of purpose. He is building his YouTube channel and working as an angel investor.

"I can't buy more peace of mind," he said. "That's my relationship with money. I'm grateful for it, I appreciate it, and I'd rather have it than not... but it won't make me a happier person."

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Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College Student Found Dead At Her Home

A student of Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was found dead at the ESI Hospital Quarters in Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.

The student's mother, a doctor, panicked after calls to her daughter went unanswered. Ivy Prasad was found dead in her room by her mother.

The police have registered a case of unnatural death and have launched an investigation into the matter. 

A post-mortem has been conducted and the report is awaited. 

The dead student's father works in a bank and lives in Mumbai.

On August 9 last year, the body of a post-graduate trainee doctor was found in the RG Kar Hospital's seminar room.   

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Watch: PCB Gets Creative To Prevent Pitch Invasion In Champions Trophy

Amid concerns over its readiness, Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium is "ready to host the ICC Champions Trophy". On Friday, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared a sneak-peek of the newly-renovated facility in Lahore. The iconic venue is undergoing its biggest state-of-the-art upgrades since the 1996 World Cup, which Pakistan co-hosted alongside India and Sri Lanka. The stadium, which is set to host at least four matches as of now, will feature a deep moat, separating the stands and ground, to prevent pitch invasion.

The innovation, which is designed for both security and drainage, is 10 feet wide and as deep, and replaces the traditional stell cage.

As reported by The Nation, "Two VVIP enclosures, named after cricketing legends Zaheer Abbas and Majid Khan, have been added to honor their contributions to Pakistan cricket. The installation of modern LED floodlights, high-resolution SMD screens, and upgraded seating has significantly enhanced the viewing experience, ensuring that the stadium meets the highest international standards."

Be cautious. Don't think of invading; a deep and wide moat has been built in #GaddafiStadium #ChampionsTrophy pic.twitter.com/3I0YEks4Av

— Sohail Imran (@sohailimrangeo) January 31, 2025

For smooth conduction, a protecting net will be placed on the trench to keep the ball in play. The stadium will be inaugrated ahead of Pakistan's tri-series against South Africa and New Zealand in the leadup to the Champions Trophy.

Pakistan are the defending champions, having won the tournament in 2017. This time, Pakistan are hosting this 2025 edition, along with the UAE.

Mohammad Rizwan will lead the team, having done so since Babar Azam stepped down from the role after the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in 2023. This is the first 50-over ICC tournament since then.

Rising star hitter Saim Ayub is a notable absentee, having sustained an ankle injury in Pakistan's New Year's Test in Cape Town, South Africa.

The hosts named a 15-member squad for the tournament, with four names being recalled to the side.

Pakistan squad: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi.

(With ANI Inputs)

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Espanyol vs Real Madrid LIVE Streaming, La Liga: When And Where To Watch

Espanyol vs Real Madrid LIVE Streaming, La Liga 2024-25: La Liga leaders Real Madrid take on relegation-battling Espanyol in their 22nd league game of the season. Real Madrid are in red-hot form, having won five games in a row in all competitions, and enter the game with a four-point lead at the top of La Liga. Forwards Kylian Mbappe and Rodrygo have enjoyed great form in recent weeks, while Vinicius Jr is also expected to re-enter the playing XI after missing the midweek Champions League tie against Brest due to suspension. Espanyol sit in 18th spot, having managed only 20 points from their 21 games so far. Earlier in the season, Real Madrid beat Espanyol 4-1.

Espanyol vs Real Madrid LIVE Streaming details, La Liga 2024-25 LIVE Telecast: Check Where and How to Watch?

When will the Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match take place?

The Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match will take place on Sunday, February 2 (IST).

Where will the Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match be held?

The Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match will be held at the RCDE Stadium, Barcelona.

What time will the Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match start?

The Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match will start at 1:30 AM IST.

Which TV channels will show the live telecast of the Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match?

The Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match will not be televised live in India.

Where to follow the live streaming of the Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match?

The Espanyol vs Real Madrid, La Liga match will not be live streamed in India due to technical issues faced by broadcasters GXR World this weekend. In USA, watch the match on Fubo (free trial), or catch it on ESPN+, ESPN Deportes, DirecTV Stream.

(All details are as per information shared by the broadcaster)

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"Move To Attract Delhi, Bihar Voters' Attention": P Chidambaram On Tax Cuts

Former Union finance minister, Congress's P Chidambaram, today ripped into the Union Budget 2025, criticising it on multiple heads including the biggest talking point -- the income tax rebate to the middle class. He also trashed the possibility of the budget boosting private investment, saying given the current scenario of excessive regulations and "weaponisation" of central agencies, investors are finding other nations more attractive. 

Asked about the tax proposed rebates that will kick in soon, Mr Chidambaram called it a "clever  move intended to attract the attention of the voters of Delhi and Bihar".

Underscoring he had "no complaints" about the relief to tax payers, he said this much lauded initiative will only benefit 3.2 crore people in that tax bracket. "What happens to the rest 140 crore people? What about the rest," he questioned.

"If you cut GST, reduced taxes on petrol and diesel, increased MNREGA wages it would have benefitted more people," he added.

He also thumbs downed on the introduction of new schemes, saying why it was required when the existing schemes are "underfunded or underutilised".

Moreover, he said that allocation expenditure number is not giving him "optimism". 

"For example, revenue receipts are down by 41,240 crore. revised net tax receipts are lower by 26,439 crore," he added, pointing out that the growth figures will be the same as last year. "Neither the finance minister not Chief Economic Advisor can say because of this budget, the growth figure will rise next year to 8 per cent... The money in key sectors remain underspent. Not sure of the capacity of such a government," he added.
 

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