Pakistan uses artificial rain to battle smog for first time
Artificial rain has been used for the first time in Pakistan to battle hazardous levels of smog.
Planes equipped with cloud-seeding equipment – which helps clouds form and increases precipitation – flew over areas of Lahore on Saturday.
The megacity in Pakistan’s east is often ranked as one of the worst places in the world for air pollution.
“It drizzled in at least 10 areas of Lahore,” said the caretaker chief minister of Punjab, Mohsin Naqvi, according to Al Jazeera.
He said authorities were monitoring the impact of artificial rain in a 15km (nine mile) radius.
People use face masks to protect themselves from the smog
The “gift” of artificial rain was provided by the United Arab Emirates, Mr Naqvi said, adding: “Teams from the UAE, along with two planes, arrived here about 10 to 12 days ago. They used 48 flares to create the rain.”
The UAE has increasingly turned to cloud seeding to create rain in the country’s arid expanse.
The process, also known as artificial rain or blueskying, sees silver iodide, which has a similar structure to ice, sown into clouds to encourage condensation to form as rain.
Experts have said rain is effective in bringing down pollution.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants – which are microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs and can cause cancer – were measured as hazardous in Lahore on Saturday at more than 66 times the World Health Organisation’s danger limits.
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Pakistan’s air pollution problem has worsened in recent years as a result of low-grade diesel fumes, smoke from seasonal crop burnings and colder winter temperatures.
Mr Naqvi said there would be more use of artificial rain in the city, as well as the installation of smog towers, which are designed to capture pollution.
Israel has approved a plan to capture all of the Gaza Strip and remain there for an unspecified length of time, Israeli officials say.
According to Reuters, the plan includes distributing aid, though supplies will not be let in yet.
The Israeli official told the agency that the newly approved offensive plan would move Gaza’s civilian population southward and keep humanitarian aid from falling into Hamas’s hands.
On Sunday, the United Nations rejected what it said was a new plan for aid to be distributed in what it described as Israeli hubs.
Israeli cabinet ministers approved plans for the new offensive on Monday morning, hours after it was announced that tens of thousands of reserve soldiers are being called up.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far failed to achieve his goal of destroying Hamas or returning all the hostages, despite more than a year of brutal war in Gaza.
Palestinian children struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis, Gaza. Pic: AP
Officials say the plan will help with these war aims but it would also push hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to southern Gaza, exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis.
They said the plan included the “capturing of the strip and the holding of territories”.
It would also try to prevent Hamas from distributing humanitarian aid, which Israel says strengthens the group’s rule in Gaza.
The UN rejected the plan, saying it would leave large parts of the population, including the most vulnerable, without supplies.
It said it “appears designed to reinforce control over life-sustaining items as a pressure tactic – as part of a military strategy”.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since the IDF launched its ground offensive in the densely-populated territory, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
It followed the deadly Hamas attacks on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
A fragile ceasefire that saw a pause in the fighting and the exchange of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners collapsed earlier this year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retaliate against the Houthis and their Iranian “masters” after the group launched a missile attack on the country’s main international airport.
A missile fired by the group from Yemen landed near Ben Gurion Airport, causing panic among passengers in the terminal building.
“Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran,” Mr Netanyahu wrote on X. “Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport AND, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.”
Israeli police officers investigate the missile crater. Pic: Reuters
The missile impact left a plume of smoke and briefly halted flights and commuter traffic at the airport. Some international carriers have cancelled flights to and from Tel Aviv for several days.
Four people were lightly wounded, paramedic service Magen David Adom said.
Air raid sirens went off across Israel and footage showed passengers yelling and rushing for cover.
The attack came hours before senior Israeli cabinet ministers were set to vote on whether to intensify the country’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, and as the army began calling up thousands of reserves in anticipation of a wider operation in the enclave.
Houthi military spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the group fired a hypersonic ballistic missile at the airport.
Iran’s defence minister later told a state TV broadcaster that if the country was attacked by the US or Israel, it would target their bases, interests and forces where necessary.
Israel’s military said several attempts to intercept the missile were unsuccessful.
Air, road and rail traffic were halted after the attack, police said, though it resumed around an hour later.
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Yemen’s Houthis have been firing missiles at Israel since its war with Hamas in Gaza began on 7 October 2023, and while most have been intercepted, some have penetrated the country’s missile defence systems and caused damage.
Israel has previously struck the group in Yemen in retaliation and the US and UK have also launched strikes after the Houthis began attacking international shipping, saying it was in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas.
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