The George Institute for Global Health has welcomed the proposal of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) to expand the donor base by proposing an enabling move that seeks to widen the definition of ‘near relatives’ under the Human Organs and Tissues Transplantation Act, 1994.

The proposal by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare seeks to increase the number of organ transplants as the existing rules are restrictive. Six new categories if relatives are proposed to be included in the Human Organs and Tissues Transplantation Act, 1994 (amended in 2011) to get more donors within the extended family of the patient.

The new relatives can be step father and step mother; step brother, step sister, step son, step daughter and their spouses; spouses of sons and daughters of the recipient; brothers and sisters of recipient’s spouse and their spouses; brothers and sisters of recipient’s parents and their spouses and first cousins of the parents.

The organ transplant program in India is overwhelmingly dependent on altruistic donation by living individuals.

“We hope that this enabling provision will be supported by clear and transparent processes to confirm of such relationships with a high degree of confidence, so that this provision is not used as a loophole to indulge in the reprehensible practice of commercial transplants. The verification should be based on objective genetic tests and not just on documents of questionable countenance. Such processes should be developed in consultation with all stakeholders, viz. the professional societies, legal experts and patient groups,’’ Dr Vivekanand Jha, Executive Director of the Institute has said in a statement.

We also call upon the government to enforce the provisions that already exist in the Act to facilitate ethical deceased organ donation. Deceased donations will not only help kidney transplant recipients but also save the lives of those in need for unpaired organs like liver, lung, heart, pancreas, and intestine. “We urge that that all intensive care units identify and document brain deaths and ensure that transplant coordinators discuss the possibility of donation with the next of the kin,’’ the statement said.

The George Institute for Global Health is improving the lives of millions of people worldwide through innovative health research. The Institute conducts clinical, population and health system research aimed at changing health practice and policy worldwide. The Institute has been ranked among the top 10 global institutes for impact for the last several years. 

GANDHINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that ties between the India and Japan are not limited to bilateral or regional spheres but the two countries are also cooperating on key global issues. 
In a joint press statement after delegation level talks with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Mr. Modi said that in 2016-2017 Japan had invested 4.7 billion dollars in India which is 80 per cent higher than the last year. Referring to the ground breaking ceremony of Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Project earlier this morning, Mr. Modi said it will be the lifeline of “New India.” The high speed Bullet Train will cover the nearly 510 km distance between Ahmedabad and Mumbai in little over two hours, cutting down the present travel time of seven hours by nearly one-third time. The project is expected to be completed by August 2022. 
He said that both India and Japan enjoy trust and confidence in their bilateral ties and understood each other’s concerns as well. 
Mr. Modi said that India Post and Japan Post will soon start a “Cool Box” service for Japanese living in India so that they can order and get their favourite food delivered at home from Japan. He also urged the business community to open chain of new Japanese restaurants in India which has the potential of a thriving business. 
Mr. Modi said that be it the ease of doing business, Skill India or Make in India programmes, India is transforming and presenting new opportunities for Japanese companies to who are connected with many of these programmes, 
Welcoming the agreements signed today in the presence of both the Prime Ministers, Mr. Modi said the agreements would strengthen India-Japan partnership.The two countries signed MoU on international academic and sports exchange, on cooperation in civil aviation and other areas.
The two Prime Ministers also condemned in the strongest terms North Korea’s continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes. 
Prime Minister Abe recalled that India, Japan and the U.S. had conducted maritime exercise Malabar for the first time which was indicative of the strong ties of mutual trust. 
Referring to his last year’s visit to Japan, Mr. Modi thanked Japan for ratification of cooperation agreement on civil nuclear programme. He said that both the countries were also cooperating in clean energy and climate change. 
Mr. Modi welcomed Mr. Abe whom he described as his friend and greeted him in Japanese.

This illustration shows NASA’s Cassini spacecraft heading for the gap between Saturn and its rings during one of 22 such dives of the mission’s finale. The spacecraft will make a final plunge into the planet’s atmosphere on Sept. 15, 2017. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet’s atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.
Cassini is ending its 13-year tour of the Saturn system with an intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn’s moons – in particular Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity – remain pristine for future exploration. The spacecraft’s fateful dive is the final beat in the mission’s Grand Finale, 22 weekly dives, which began in late April, through the gap between Saturn and its rings. No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before.
The mission’s final calculations predict loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft will take place on Sept. 15 at 7:55 a.m. EDT (4:55 a.m. PDT). Cassini will enter Saturn’s atmosphere approximately one minute earlier, at an altitude of about 1,190 miles (1,915 kilometers) above the planet’s estimated cloud tops (the altitude where the air pressure is 1-bar, equivalent to sea level on Earth). During its dive into the atmosphere, the spacecraft’s speed will be approximately 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) per hour. The final plunge will take place on the day side of Saturn, near local noon, with the spacecraft entering the atmosphere around 10 degrees north latitude.
When Cassini first begins to encounter Saturn’s atmosphere, the spacecraft’s attitude control thrusters will begin firing in short bursts to work against the thin gas and keep Cassini’s saucer-shaped high-gain antenna pointed at Earth to relay the mission’s precious final data. As the atmosphere thickens, the thrusters will be forced to ramp up their activity, going from 10 percent of their capacity to 100 percent in the span of about a minute. Once they are firing at full capacity, the thrusters can do no more to keep Cassini stably pointed, and the spacecraft will begin to tumble.
When the antenna points just a few fractions of a degree away from Earth, communications will be severed permanently. The predicted altitude for loss of signal is approximately 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) above Saturn’s cloud tops. From that point, the spacecraft will begin to burn up like a meteor. Within about 30 seconds following loss of signal, the spacecraft will begin to come apart; within a couple of minutes, all remnants of the spacecraft are expected to be completely consumed in the atmosphere of Saturn.
Due to the travel time for radio signals from Saturn, which changes as both Earth and the ringed planet travel around the Sun, events currently take place there 86 minutes before they are observed on Earth. This means that, although the spacecraft will begin to tumble and go out of communication at 6:31 a.m. EDT (3:31 a.m. PDT) at Saturn, the signal from that event will not be received at Earth until 86 minutes later.
“The spacecraft’s final signal will be like an echo. It will radiate across the solar system for nearly an hour and a half after Cassini itself has gone,” said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. “Even though we’ll know that, at Saturn, Cassini has already met its fate, its mission isn’t truly over for us on Earth as long as we’re still receiving its signal.”
Cassini’s last transmissions will be received by antennas at NASA’s Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia.
Cassini is set to make groundbreaking scientific observations of Saturn, using eight of its 12 science instruments. All of the mission’s magnetosphere and plasma science instruments, plus the spacecraft’s radio science system, and its infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers will collect data during the final plunge.
Chief among the observations being made as Cassini dives into Saturn are those of the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS). The instrument will directly sample the composition and structure of the atmosphere, which cannot be done from orbit. The spacecraft will be oriented so that INMS is pointed in the direction of motion, to allow it the best possible access to oncoming atmospheric gases.
For the next couple of days, as Saturn looms ever larger, Cassini expects to take a last look around the Saturn system, snapping a few final images of the planet, features in its rings, and the moons Enceladus and Titan. The final set of views from Cassini’s imaging cameras is scheduled to be taken and transmitted to Earth on Thursday, Sept. 14. If all goes as planned, images will be posted to the Cassini mission website beginning around 11 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. PDT). 
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

The India Institute of Technology Roorkee is setting up a network of 100 earthquake sensors between Chamoli and Dharchula in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand as part of an exercise to provide an alert in case of any high magnitude earthquake occurs in the Himalayas.

The project supported by the Uttarakhand government includes installation of sirens in the state government’s Emergency Operation Centres at Dehradun and all district headquarters. It builds upon the existing network of 84 sensors between Uttarkashi and Chamoli in the Garhwal region put in place as part of a pilot project supported by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Speaking to India Science Wire, Prof. M.L.Sharma of the Department of Earthquake Engineering at IIT Roorkee and Principal Investigator of the project, said the deployment of additional sensors will go a long way in providing protection not only to the people of Uttarakhand but also those living further down south.

“Data compiled over the last two centuries has shown that large magnitude earthquakes have occurred in different regions of the Himalayas except one segment in its central part. It is called Central seismic Gap. Scientists apprehend that it has potential to generate a major earthquake and that it is overdue. Areas within a radius of 200 km from the Gap could be vulnerable and these include Chandigarh, Delhi, Lucknow, Patna and other parts of the highly populated Indo-Gangetic Plain, apart from Uttarakhand itself,” Sharma said.

The new 100 sensors along with the existing 84 spread over a distance of 200 km would cover the Gap area and help monitor the seismic activity there. The sensors will stream data in real-time basis to a server at the Institute using network of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and SWAN network of the Uttarakhand government. The computer will process the data and issue an alert immediately.

When an earthquake occurs, different types of waves with different velocities are generated. P-waves travel the fastest at a speed of 5 to 6 km per second followed by S-waves which move at a speed of about 3 km per second. But P-wave itself is slower than electromagnetic wave transmitted through telephone. The sensors would send out a signal to the Institute through telephone towers of BSNL as soon as a P-wave is detected.  

Dr. Sharma said Dehradun would get a lead time of about 10 seconds. “It may not be much. Not all may be in a position to respond that quickly. But, at least measures could be in place for the immediate shut down of hazardous units’’. IIT Roorkee, he said, was working on scaling up the alert system to cover cities like Delhi and Chandigarh which were in the vulnerable zone. Delhi, for instance, could get a lead time of 70 to 80 seconds. The system is being designed to issue an alarm for any earthquake with a magnitude of over 6 on the Richter scale. 

(India Science Wire)

Japan PM Shinzo Abe reaching Ahmedabad today for India-Japan annual summit; PM Narendra Modi to receive him

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will receive his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at Ahmedabad in Gujarat today. Mr Abe is coming to India on a two-day visit to attend the India-Japan annual summit meeting. The 12th edition of the summit, which will be the fourth meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Abe, will be held in Gandhinagar tomorrow.

The two leaders will review the recent progress in the multifaceted co-operation between India and Japan under the framework of their ‘Special Strategic and Global Partnership’ and will set its future direction. 

Mr Modi and Mr Abe will also attend a function to mark the commencement of work of India’s first high-speed rail project between Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

Today, the two Prime Ministers will visit Dandi Kutir, the museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, at the Mahatma Mandir and other hostorical places. Ahead of the Japanese Prime Minister’s visit, Mr Modi yesterday said in a tweet that India truly values its ties with Japan and looks forward to further boosting the bilateral relations in a wide range of areas.

Supreme Court says minimum cooling period of six months for granting divorce can be waived by trial court

The Supreme Court has held that the minimum cooling period of six months for granting the decree of divorce under the Hindu law can be waived by a trial court if there was no possibility of cohabitation between an estranged couple. 

The 1955 Hindu Marriage Act provides for a statutory cooling period of six months between the first and the last motion for seeking divorce by mutual consent to explore the possibility of settlement and cohabitation. 

The apex court said, the object of the cooling off period was to safeguard against a hurried decision if there was otherwise a possibility of differences being reconciled. It said, though every effort has to be made to save a marriage, but if there are no chances of reunion and there are chances of fresh rehabilitation, the court should not be powerless in enabling the parties to have a better option. 

The court also said, in conducting such proceedings, the trial court can use the medium of video conferencing. The bench was dealing with a plea filed by an estranged couple which had sought waiver of the six month period on the ground that they have been living separately for the past eight years and there was no possibility of their re-union.

Zero balance accounts under PMJDY come down to 20% from 77%: Arun Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said zero balance accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana have come down to 20 per cent from 77 per cent previously. Speaking at the Conclave on Financial Inclusion by United Nations in Delhi, Mr Jaitley said 300 million accounts were opened under Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY). He said before 2014, financial inclusion was not a centre stage agenda of the government. 

Mr Jaitley said, the government launched the PMJDY in a mission mode throughout the country with the help of banks. The minister said 44 per cent of Indian households were earlier outside the banking system. Mr Jaitley further hit out at the criticism from the Opposition who said 77 per cent of the PMJDY accounts were zero balance. He said the figure today has come down to a little below 20. He, however, said the real challenge was how to get people to open these accounts, get them to make these accounts operational and how do you incentivise them to really operate these accounts. Launched in 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was aimed at providing universal access to banking facilities starting. 

Mr Jaitley said these Basic Banking Accounts could get overdraft facility of 5,000 rupees. Mr Jaitley said India was substantially an unpensioned society as people could not afford the premiums. He said the government has announced two important insurance schemes and a pension scheme that would be linked to these bank accounts. Mr Jaitley said these insurance schemes where you pay 1 rupee a month and get 2 lakh rupees accident insurance and at a slightly higher premium, someone get a life insurance. The finance minister said Aadhar legislation has been passed and it will stand test of constitutionality. Mr Jaitley also said untargetted subsidy puts pressure on exchequer.

Los Angeles to host 2028 Olympics

Los Angeles will host the 2028 Olympics. The evaluation commission of International Olympic Committee, IOC gave the formal go ahead to its bid yesterday. Today, the full IOC will award the 2024 Games to Paris and the 2028 Games to Los Angeles.

Los Angeles had originally bid for 2024, but because of the new date, it had to make changes to its host contract.The evaluation commission said that although details need to be finalised, it is confident LA can host Olympics in 2028.

Taking a serious note of incidents of child abuse in schools, the Union Ministries of Women & Child Development and Human Resource Development will hold a high level meeting in New Delhi tomorrow to discuss the safety and protection of children in schools.

The objective of the meeting of the two ministries is to develop a set of guidelines and protocols which schools must follow so that the children remain protected from any kind of abuse or physical/ mental harm.

The Supreme Court will also take up a case of security in schools and is likely to issue guidelines. The Apex Court has already issued notices to the Centre, Haryana State, CBSE and NCERT in connection with the murder of a student in a renowned private school in Gurugram.  

The meeting will be co-chaired by the Minister of Women & Child Development, Maneka Sanjay Gandhi and Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javdekar. Officials of the two ministries, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, CBSE, NCERT, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan will also participate in the meeting.

Ms Gandhi today spoke to Mr Javadekar requesting him to consider suggestions like having women employees as the support staff and bus drivers/conductors in the schools, screening of educational films on child sexual abuse in the schools, popularizing POCSO e-Box and Childline 1098 through NCERT publications and having strict norms for employing the support staff. She has also given these suggestions in writing to the HRD Minister.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development has already started its outreach campaign for protection of children through electronic as well as social media.

The WCD Minister further stated that the parents, guardians and teachers should remain vigilant about the children as well as their behavior and any suspected situation should be reported immediately on the Childline No.1098 and the POCSO e-Box.  

All this follows the killing of a 7-year-old Pradyuman in the toilet of Gurugram branch of Ryan International School last week. His case will be tried in a special POCSO court in Gurugram. Three persons have already been arrested in this connection – one for allegedly killing the student and two others from the management for negligence. The main accused, Ashok Kumar has reportedly tried to sexually assault the boy but was stabbed when he offered resistance.

A high-powered committee, instituted by the district administration, had found major lapses in the school security.

Meanwhile, a Mumbai court has stayed the arrest of the promoters of Ryan School until tomorrow when it hears their anticipatory bail application. A team of Haryana police is already in Mumbai where they are questioning the promoters of the school which has several branches in and outside India. 

India contributes to one-fifth of global live births and more than a quarter of neonatal deaths. Nearly, 0.75 million neonates died in India in 2013, the highest for any country in the world.

The current Neonatal Mortality Rate is 28 per 1000 live births.Given the infant and under-five child mortality rates of 40 and 49 per 1000 live births respectively, 70% of total infant deaths, and more than half of under-five deaths fall in the neonatal period. Indeed, with the early NMR of 22 per 1000 live births, deaths in the first week alone account for 45% of total under-five deaths.

The ‘Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed’ goal of reducing under-five mortality to 20 or less per 1000 live births by 2035 would not be attained without specific efforts to reduce newborn mortality, a study on “State of newborn health in India’’ done by M.J.Sankar and others had warned. The study was published in the online edition of the Journal of Perinatology.  

The unacceptable number of crib deaths being witnessed in India over the past months is, perhaps, just an example of what the study had warned of and much more.  “There is an interplay of different demographic, educational, socioeconomic, biological and care-seeking factors, which are responsible for the disparities and the high burden of neonatal mortality. The country has to increase the coverage of key interventions and also improve the quality of care in health facilities on an urgent basis,’’ the study had emphatically said.

India has witnessed a significant improvement in neonatal health after the introduction of National Rural Health Mission. Apart from the Janani Suraksha Yojana, the country has launched several new initiatives to improve neonatal care. Notwithstanding this newfound focus on neonatal health, the annual rate of reduction in NMR and Early NMR still lags behind Infant Mortality Rate and Under-5 Mortality Rate. 

Only a quarter of pregnant women had full antenatal check-up, that is, three or more antenatal checkups, at least one tetanus toxoid injection and at least 100+ iron and folic acid tablets during pregnancy. About 73% of women had institutional deliveries. Only one-third of neonates were breastfed within 1?hour after birth. Less than half of the neonates received three postnatal visits by health-care providers in the first 10 days of life. 

The NMR is not uniform across the country. Although Kerala and Tamil Nadu have low NMRs (less than 20 per 1000 live births), Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have very high NMRs (35 or more per 1000 live births). Four states—Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan—alone contribute to 55% of total neonatal deaths in India and to 15% of global neonatal deaths that occur every year.

Although several initiatives, such as Janani Suraksha Yojana and Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, have attempted to address these gaps, their impact remains limited due to poor governance, shortage of health workers in primary health-care facilities and lack of preparedness of health-care facilities, the study had said. 

Ensuring equitable access to health services requires a clear understanding of the multiple levels of inequity across many sectors. The inter-sectoral approaches need to be promoted within and between departments. Improving access to safe water and sanitation, providing adequate food security, and poverty alleviation measures complemented by an equitable health system can ensure better health outcomes for every neonate in India, the study recommended. 

This study, done jointly by experts from AIIMS, Public Health Foundation of India and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, was supported by Save the Children’s Saving Newborn Lives program.

In contrast to children born in families with better financial resources, poorer children are more at risk for diseases due to inadequate water and sanitation, indoor air pollution, crowding and poor housing conditions. Access to clean water supply, and sanitation and good hygienic practices, especially at delivery points, is crucial for a safe delivery, and prevention of maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity. Creating conditions for better hygiene and reduced exposure to contamination makes children less susceptible to diseases and infections that may lead to death.

Maternal factors including age at birth, educational and nutritional status, and parity influence the neonatal survival to a great extent. It is estimated that the risks of neonatal mortality and low birth weight (LBW) are increased by almost 50% if maternal age at childbirth is less than 20 years. It is also estimated that shifting age at childbirth to above 20 years would reduce overall NMR by 9.4%.

An inverse relationship exists between the per capita net state domestic product and NMR—states with a high NMR usually have a low per capita GDP. But there are a few exceptions—Haryana and Gujarat have a similar or higher per capita GDP than Tamil Nadu, but almost double the NMR, the study pointed out. 

A pooled analysis of the data from three studies on the timing of neonatal deaths indicates that about three-fourths of total neonatal deaths occur in the first week of life. The first 24?hours account for more than one-third (36.9%) of the deaths that occur in the entire neonatal period.

Almost all deaths (97.8%) due to asphyxia occur in the first week of life, with 70% of them occurring within the first 24?hours (day 0). About three-fourth of deaths due to prematurity (74.8%) occur in the first week of life, with 30% in the first 24?hours and less than 50% of neonatal deaths secondary to sepsis occur in the first week of life. About 30% of sepsis-related deaths occur in the second week, whereas around one-fifth in weeks 3–4. Three-fourth of the deaths due to malformations occur in the first week of life, with day 0 alone contributing to nearly half of these deaths. 

Features of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus

The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus has an all-glass body and comes in silver, space grey and a new gold colour. For those worried about cracking the front and back of the new device, Phil Schiller says the glass is reinforced with a steel and copper structure and is “the most durable ever in a smartphone”.

The devices have 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch retina displays and run on an A11 bionic chip.  

Speakers are 25 percent louder and have deeper bass. Inside, it has an A11 Bionic chip. It is a 64-bit chip with two high performance cores that are 25 percent faster than the A10 and 4 high-efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than in the A10 (the A10 only had two high-efficiency cores too). The GPU part is 30 percent faster.

The camera sensor and processor are band new. It works better in low light condition, it has some noise reduction technology. The two sensors on the back of the iPhone 8 Plus are f1.8 and f2.8 apertures — it is brighter than the iPhone 7 Plus. There are new color filters too, which should make colors pop more according to SVP of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller.

Wireless charging feature added to new iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.

Apple today announced iPhone X, the future of the smartphone, in a gorgeous all-glass design with a beautiful 5.8-inch Super Retina display, A11 Bionic chip, wireless charging and an improved rear camera with dual optical image stabilization. iPhone X delivers an innovative and secure new way for customers to unlock, authenticate and pay using Face ID, enabled by the new TrueDepth camera. iPhone X will be available for pre-order beginning Friday, October 27 in more than 55 countries and territories, and in stores beginning Friday, November 3.

Features of iPhone X

“iPhone X is the future of the smartphone. It is packed with incredible new technologies, like the innovative TrueDepth camera system, beautiful Super Retina display and super fast A11 Bionic chip with neural engine,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences — from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages — it is the beginning of the next ten years for iPhone.”

iPhone X introduces a revolutionary design with a stunning all-screen display that precisely follows the curve of the device, clear to the elegantly rounded corners. The all-glass front and back feature the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in silver or space gray, while a highly polished, surgical-grade stainless steel band seamlessly wraps around and reinforces iPhone X. A seven-layer color process allows for precise color hues and opacity on the glass finish, and a reflective optical layer enhances the rich colors, making the design as elegant as it is durable, while maintaining water and dust resistance.

The beautiful 5.8-inch Super Retina display2 is the first OLED panel that rises to the standards of iPhone, with stunning colors, true blacks, a million-to-one contrast ratio and wide color support with the best system-wide color management in a smartphone. The HDR display supports Dolby Vision and HDR10, which together make photo and video content look even more amazing. The addition of True Tone dynamically adjusts the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience.

iOS 11 is redesigned to take full advantage of the Super Retina display and replaces the Home button with fast and fluid gestures, allowing customers to naturally and intuitively navigate iPhone X. Simply swipe up from the bottom to go home from anywhere.

Face ID revolutionizes authentication on iPhone X, using a state-of-the-art TrueDepth camera system made up of a dot projector, infrared camera and flood illuminator, and is powered by A11 Bionic to accurately map and recognize a face. These advanced depth-sensing technologies work together to securely unlock iPhone, enable Apple Pay, gain access to secure apps and many more new features.

Face ID projects more than 30,000 invisible IR dots. The IR image and dot pattern are pushed through neural networks to create a mathematical model of your face and send the data to the secure enclave to confirm a match, while adapting to physical changes in appearance over time.

The new 7-megapixel TrueDepth camera that enables Face ID features wide color capture, auto image stabilization and precise exposure control, and brings Portrait mode to the front camera for stunning selfies with a depth-of-field effect.

iPhone X also features a redesigned dual 12-megapixel rear camera system with dual optical image stabilization. The ƒ/1.8 aperture on the wide-angle camera joins an improved ƒ/2.4 aperture on the telephoto camera for better photos and videos. A new color filter, deeper pixels and an improved Apple-designed image signal processor delivers advanced pixel processing, wide color capture, faster autofocus in low light and better HDR photos. A new quad LED True Tone Flash offers twice the uniformity of light and includes Slow Sync, resulting in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds.

The cameras on iPhone X are custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. The A11 Bionic CPU handles world tracking, scene recognition and the GPU enables incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the TrueDepth camera and the rear cameras to create games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.

The new camera also delivers the highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone, with better video stabilization, 4K video up to 60fps and 1080p slo-mo up to 240fps. The Apple-designed video encoder provides real-time image and motion analysis for optimal quality video.

The TrueDepth camera brings emoji to life in a fun new way with Animoji. Working with A11 Bionic, the TrueDepth camera captures and analyzes over 50 different facial muscle movements, then animates those expressions in a dozen different Animoji, including a panda, unicorn and robot.

A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone, features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while lasting two hours longer than iPhone 7. 

The glass back design enables a world-class wireless charging solution. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie.

The United Nations migration agency today confirmed that 270,000 people have fled violence in Myanmar for safety in Bangladesh over the past two weeks, and the number of new arrivals continues to increase.

“Humanitarian agencies are deploying mobile medical teams, installing emergency latrines, providing water, and are distributing tarpaulins for basic shelter and food rations to new arrivals. But much more is needed and we are fast running out of stock,” Margo Baars, who facilitates the Inter Sector Coordination Group convened by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said in a press release.

Last week, at least 300 boats arrived in Cox’s Bazar from Myanmar. Sea routes are particularly dangerous in this season of rough seas.

IOM said that new arrivals usually start by looking for space in the established makeshift settlements, where there are some services. But these are already full. Three new spontaneous settlements have sprung up in areas which still have very little services.

An estimated 130,000 of the new arrivals are now living in the registered refugee camps and three makeshift settlements of Kutupalong, Leda and Balukhali. Another 90,000 people are sheltering in host communities, and nearly 50,000 have settled in new spontaneous settlements.

IOM, which yesterday allocated $1 million from its emergency funds to boost the humanitarian response in Cox’s Bazar, is working with the government and partners to scale up its delivery of lifesaving aid – most importantly shelter, drinking water, food and medical assistance – to those most in need.

Separately, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund yesterday also announced a further $7 million to help the thousands of destitute people who continue to flood into Bangladesh.

Most of the people now crossing the border are women, children and the elderly, many of whom are vulnerable and lack the ability to take care of themselves. There are also many pregnant and lactating women among the new arrivals.

Healthcare facilities are also struggling to provide adequate services as the number of people in need of emergency and basic health care continue to grow. Seven mobile health teams have been deployed to the spontaneous settlement areas, and IOM and partners are recruiting more doctors, nurses and midwives to increase the reach of the teams.