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KATRA, November 18 — The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board (SMVDSB) has mandated a significant upgrade in disaster management and security protocols following a comprehensive review meeting held on Monday. The review, chaired by CEO Sachin Kumar Vaishya, involved officials from the Board and security and administrative heads from Reasi district. The directives aim to enhance pilgrim safety through better coordination, modernized equipment, and stricter compliance with safety measures. The CEO issued several key instructions focused on disaster preparedness, underscoring the necessity of swift and effective response. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was instructed to organize frequent mock drills to ensure Shrine Board teams and stakeholder agencies are fully prepared and in...

WASHINGTON, November 18 — The Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Dinesh K. Tripathi, visited the Centre for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DMHA) at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii as part of his official visit to the U.S., signaling a focus on enhancing joint capabilities in humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR). The visit underscores the shared commitment between India and the U.S. to strengthening regional preparedness and humanitarian partnerships across the Indo-Pacific. Focus on Disaster Resilience and Maritime Operations Admiral Tripathi received a comprehensive briefing on the CFE-DMHA's vision, lines of efforts, and initiatives related to HADR capacity building and regional cooperation. According to the Indian Navy, disc...

NEW DELHI, November 18, 2025 – While Delhi's overall air quality registered a marginal improvement on Tuesday morning, moving to an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 341 (Very Poor) at 6 am, several key hotspots, including Jahangirpuri, continued to reel in the life-threatening 'Severe' category. According to data from the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) Sameer app, Jahangirpuri recorded a toxic AQI reading of 414 by 6 am on Tuesday. This placed it firmly in the 'Severe' zone (AQI 401-500), along with Wazirpur (410) and Bawana (419), indicating an air quality that "affects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases." Fifth Day of Toxic Air Tuesday marked the fifth consecutive day the national capital and its adjoining areas have been blanketed by 'very poo...

WHITE SANDS, New Mexico, November 18, 2025 — The history of human settlement in North America is being fundamentally rewritten following the definitive dating of fossilized human footprints in New Mexico’s White Sands National Park. New evidence, published in Science Advances in October 2025, confirms that humans were present on the continent an astonishing 23,000 years ago, pushing back the earliest confirmed presence by at least 7,000 years. The trail of prints, found in the ancient lakebed of Lake Otero, provides clear and direct proof of Homo sapiens activity during the Last Glacial Maximum, a period previously considered too harsh for sustained habitation. This timeline delivers a direct and powerful challenge to the long-standing "Clovis-first" model, which posited that the first ...

TEHRAN, Iran, November 18, 2025 — Iran is grappling with its most severe water crisis in six decades, a shortage so acute that President Masoud Pezeshkian has warned of possible evacuations if the drought persists. The capital, Tehran, and the second-largest city, Mashhad, are in dire straits, with major reservoirs reportedly operating at less than 5% and 3% capacity, respectively. Authorities have begun implementing nighttime water cut-offs in Tehran as groundwater reserves are depleted, leading to social unrest and past protests in regions like Isfahan and Khuzestan. Human-Made Crisis Deepened by Isolation The crisis is primarily attributed to poor long-term management, not just climate change: • Agricultural Overuse: Over 90% of Iran's water is inefficiently used by the farm...

PUNJAB, India, November 18, 2025 — A significant shift is underway in Punjab as a growing number of farmers opt to recycle crop stubble rather than burn it, offering a hopeful measure against the severe winter air pollution choking India's capital, New Delhi. The annual ritual of stubble burning has long been identified as a major source of the thick smog that plunges Delhi's Air Quality Index (AQI) into the 'Severe' category, which it hit around 400 last week. However, farmers in over 800 villages across the state are now adapting modern methods to convert agricultural waste into valuable products. Recycling for a Cleaner Future According to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) group, farmers are using balers to collect and compact the stubble left behind after the rice har...

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), operating under the continued effort of "Operation Fire Trail," successfully intercepted a sophisticated smuggling attempt, seizing a consignment of illegally imported Chinese-origin firecrackers at Mundra Port. The Concealment and Seizure During the operation on November 15, 2025, DRI officers intercepted a 40-foot container originating from China. The cargo was falsely declared as "water glass set" and "flower receptacle." A detailed examination revealed 30,000 pieces of concealed firecrackers/fireworks hidden behind the front layer of the cover goods. The total estimated value of the smuggled Chinese firecrackers and the cover goods was ₹5 crore. The goods were seized under the Customs Act, 1962, and the mastermind-cum-financier of...

Jakarta, Indonesia—A majestic apex predator, the Javan tiger (P. tigris sondaica), long presumed extinct, may still be prowling the dense, remote forests of Java. A recent genetic analysis of a single hair sample has provided a "glimmer of hope" for conservationists and has ignited renewed, urgent efforts to confirm the tiger's survival. The Javan tiger was officially thought to have vanished from the wild in the 1970s, a victim of rampant habitat destruction and poaching on the world's most populous island. However, a surprising clue emerged in 2019 when a team of local researchers found an unusual hair sample in the West Java region. The Genetic Match That Re-Wrote Extinction The breakthrough came when the hair, discovered on a fence at a community plantation in South Sukabumi, ...

Southampton, UK—Earth scientists have uncovered a hidden and slow-moving geological process where the lower layers of continents are gradually stripped away and swept deep into the oceanic mantle. This newly identified mechanism helps explain a long-standing puzzle: the presence of continental-like chemical signatures in volcanic islands located far from tectonic plate boundaries. The study, led by the University of Southampton and published in Nature Geoscience, proposes that continents are not only pulled apart at the surface during rifting events but also "peeled" from below over much greater distances than previously imagined. The Mystery of the “Contaminated” Mantle For decades, scientists have been puzzled by volcanic islands, such as Christmas Island in the northeast Indian...

Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh—The Fourth Khangri Glacier scientific expedition has successfully concluded, achieving major scientific milestones in Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang district, including the first-ever reconnaissance of a high-risk glacial lake and the discovery of deep-water aquatic life in a high-altitude lake. The week-long mission, conducted from November 8 to 14, is a joint flagship initiative between the Centre for Earth Sciences and Himalayan Studies (CESHS) and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. Landmark Achievement: Reconnaissance of High-Risk Glacial Lake A landmark success of this year’s expedition was the first scientific scaling and reconnaissance of Dharkha Tso. This lake is one of the 29 Glacial...