tadepalligudem l friday l may 16, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Voyager 1 makes comeback as dormant thrusters revived NASA engineers have revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, just before a planned communications blackout feat accomplished just in time: nasa revival process took lots of planning The feat was accomplished just in time, as a scheduled maintenance period for a crucial Earth-based antenna threatened to sever communication with the probe. The revived thrusters are the original roll thrusters, which have been dormant since 2004. These thrusters allow Voyager 1’s orientation in space and let it send data back to earth ■ ■ Voyager 1 operates at an immense distance, beyond the heliosphere, and the team had to carefully plan and execute the revival process In addition to the risk, the team faced time constraint. A giant antenna in Canberra went offline on May 4. The antenna is the only one with enough signal strength to send commands to the probe 56,000 kmph is the speed at which the voyager moves in space CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Put rogue Pakistan’s nukes under IAEA’s supervision, says Rajnath SIPB meet gives its nod to 19 projects worth L33k crore Calls out the neighbour’s nuclear blackmail during recent Operation Sindoor India rebuts Trump claim on zero tariffs MAYANK S INGH @ New Delhi Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday demanded IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) supervision over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, arguing they were not safe in the hands of the rogue nation. Pointing out that India was not deterred by Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail, he said Operation Sindoor sent a clear message to the terrorists in Pakistan that they no longer had a safe sanctuary . Addressing soldiers in Srinagar, Rajnath said the world has witnessed how irresponsibly Islamabad has issued nuclear threats to New Delhi several times. “I raise this question before the world: Are nuclear weapons safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of the IAEA,” Rajnath said. Pakistan had sought to play the nuclear card amid Operation Sindoor as media reports suggested that a meeting of D i pa k M o n d a l @ New Delhi their Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) — the highest decision making body on the use of nukes — would be held shortly While it sent the inter. national community into a tizzy, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif later denied any proposal to call the meeting. Another lie peddled on social media that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities were hit during Operation Sindoor, was rebutted by the IAEA, which said there was no radiation leak. “Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan,” the IAEA said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh in Srinagar on Thursday | PTI Work on CBMs to continue “Further to the understanding between the two DGMOs on 10 May, it has been decided to continue the confidence building measures so as to reduce the alertness level,” the army said on Thursday | P7 SC raps ‘irresponsible’ MP minister S UCHITRA KA LYAN MOHANTY @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday rapped Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, against whom an FIR has been filed for his remarks on Col Sofiya Qureshi, saying persons holding constitutional post must exercise restraint. “What kind of statement you are making? Such a person holding a constitutional office encounter 10 militants neutralised in Manipur E x p r e ss n e w s s e r v i c e @ Guwahati TEN suspected militants were killed by the Assam Rifles in an encounter near the India-Myanmar border i n M a n i p u r ’s C h a n d e l district. The Army’s Eastern Command said an Assam Rifles unit under the Spear Corps (Nagaland’s Dimapur-based 3 Corps) had launched an operation on May 14 acting on specific intelligence about the movement of armed militants near New Samtal village in Khengjoy Tehsil of Chandel. “During the operation, troops were fired upon by suspected cadres, to which they quickly retaliated in a calibrated and measured manner. In the ensuing firefight, 10 cadres were neutralized,” the Eastern Command posted on X. A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered. The Army did not disclose the name of the group. The operation is in progress in a remote area. “We will share the inputs as soon as possible,” an Army of ficer said. T his was among the major counterinsurgency operations in Manipur since the ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribals on May 3, 2023. In the past 24 hours, security forces apprehended seven militants from Thoubal, Kakching, Bishnupur and Churachandpur. should be responsible... when this country is going through such a situation (Operation Sindoor),” said a bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai. The SC’s remarks came when lawyer Vibha Makhija mentioned Shah’s plea against the Madhya Pradesh HC’s order to register an FIR against him. The bench declined to grant any stay on the FIR at this stage but agreed to hear the matter on Friday . Fir weak: hc The FIR against Shah is weak, the HC said, saying it is vulnerable to being quashed in its present form US President Donald Trump on Thursday said India has decided to drop all tariffs on US goods, a statement the latter immediately denied. “They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs,” Trump has said while responding to a question in Doha on Apple’s plan to shift iPhone manufacturing to India. He told the Apple CEO not to shift manufacturing to India. India rebutted the claims. “Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on. These are complicatS Jaishankar ed negotiations. Nothing is decided till everything is. Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; it has to work for both countries. That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” minister of external affairs S Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, a commerce ministry official said every country negotiates with its national interests in mind. “Negotiations must balance sensitivities and strengths on both sides. The aim is always a mutually beneficial agreement, as mentioned in the joint statement.” New firms to create 35k jobs New projects to be set up in Energy, Tourism, IT, and Electronics sectors are expected to generate 35,000 jobs SIPB so far cleared 76 projects SIPB, which had six meetings in the past 11 months, has given its consent for `4,95,796 crore investments with regard to 76 projects. CM directs officials to provide real-time updates on progress of sanctioned projects S V i s w a n at h @ Vijayawada The sixth State Investment Promotion Board (SIPB) meeting, held under the Chairmanship of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu at the State Secretariat on Thursday, approved `33,000 crore investments related to 19 projects, which are expected to generate employment for 35,000 people in the Energy, Tourism, IT, and Electronics sectors. The SIPB, which had six meetings in the past 11 months, has given its consent for `4,95,796 crore investments with regard to 76 projects, creating a total of 4,50,934 jobs. Officials stated that the State is making significant pro g ress in industrial growth, with both national and global organizations showing keen interest in investing in the State due to the new policies adopted by the government. Immediately after signing agreements with the State Government, these organizations are initiating the process of establishing their units. While some have already completed the process of laying foundation stones, others have signed agreements and are in the initial phases of implementation. The Chief Minister instructed officials to continuously monitor the companies that have committed to investing in the State, from laying the foundation stone to till the inauguration. Officials are to closely track the progress of each project and develop a dashboard to reflect the status of investments and on-ground developments. This will allow real-time monitoring of each project’s progress, the Chief Minister noted.  P4 express read Girls outperform boys in AP ECET-2025 Vijayawada: Girls outshone boys in the AP Engineering Common Entrance Test (AP ECET) 2025 results declared on Thursday, registering a pass percentage of 95.60% against 92.18% by boys. The overall pass rate stood at 93.26%. Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Anantapur (JNTUA) conducted the exam | P3 Trump urges Apple to halt iPhone mfg in India New Delhi: In a move that could jeopardise India’s ambitions to become a hub for iPhone manufacturing, US President Donald Trump on Thursday said he has asked Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook to stop producing iPhones in the country. Trump described India as one of the highest tariff nations in the world, making it “very hard to sell” products | P10 I didn’t have a very strong relationship (with Nadeem). Things will not be the same again Neeraj Chopra on his relationship with Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem after Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Operation Sindoor | More on P11