chennai l friday l may 16, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 40 l late 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 CM slams centre for seeking SC opinion on deadline for guv Calls out the neighbour’s nuclear blackmail during recent Operation Sindoor India rebuts Trump claim on zero tariffs MAYA N K SI N GH @ 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 | P9 SC raps ‘irresponsible’ MP minister SUCHITRA KA LYA N MOHA N TY @ 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 s s ne 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 in Manipur’s Chandel district. The Army’s Eastern Command said an Assam Rifles unit under the Spear C o r p s ( N a g a l a n d ’s D i mapur-based 3 Corps) had launched an operation on May 14 acting on intelligence about the movement of militants near New Samtal village in Khengjoy Tehsil of Chandel. “During the operation, troops were fired upon by suspected cadres, to which they retaliated in a calibrated 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. W I T H T H I S I SSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 40 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) 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.” President Murmu has posed 14 questions to the apex court under Article 143(1) The reference reveals centre’s “sinister intent” to distort distribution of powers & incapacitate the state legislatures M K Stalin, Chief Minister Order came on TN plea The SC on April 8, on a plea filed by TN against Governor R N Ravi’s action to withhold assent to 10 bills, had set timeline for President and governors to decide on bills passed by legislatures Express News Service @ Chennai Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday strongly condemned the BJP-led union government for using the Presidential reference route to seek the Supreme Court’s opinion on deadlines fixed by the court for governors and the President to decide on bills. The move revealed the centre’s “sinister intent”, Stalin said. President Droupadi Murmu has posed 14 questions to the SC under Article 143(1) including one on exercise of plenary power by the SC under Article 142 to make the bills re-presented to TN governor as deemed to have been passed. The CM said the Presidential reference attempts to subvert the constitutional position settled by the SC in its April 8 verdict in the TN governor’s case and other precedents set by the court. The CM raised three questions to the union government: “Why should there be any objection to prescribing a time limit for governors to act? Is the BJP seeking to legitimise governors’ obstruction by allowing indefinite delay in assent to bills?” and third, “Does the union government intend to paralyse legislatures of non-BJPruled states?” The CM alleged that the Presidential reference has exposed that the TN governor acted at the BJP’s behest to undermine the people’s mandate. “This is nothing but a desperate attempt to weaken democratically elected state governments by placing them under the control of governors serving as agents of the union government,” CM Stalin said.  P7 Inside SC reply not mandatory | P4 timeline for bills | P9 e x p r e ss r e a d Man suspects wife of infidelity, kills three Ranipet: A 30-year-old man who suspected his wife of infidelity went on a killing spree in Ranipet on Wednesday night and murdered his mother-in-law and both the parents of a man with whom he thought his wife was in a relationship. The three bodies were sent to the Government Medical College Hospital in Vellore for autopsy | P5 Chemical water floods homes after tank blast Cuddalore: An explosion in the effluent treatment plant (ETP) tank of a dyeing unit at SIPCOT industrial estate near Kudikadu village in Cuddalore caused chemical-laced wastewater to flood nearly 50 houses on Wednesday midnight. At least 35 people were admitted to GH with symptoms of eye & skin irritation and respiratory trouble | P4 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 P15