India’s attempt to tackle New Delhi’s toxic air by using cloud seeding appears to have produced disappointing results, with scientists and activists questioning whether the costly experiment was worth it.

Cloud seeding — a process in which aircraft spray particles such as silver iodide or salt into clouds to induce rainfall is intended to help wash pollutants out of the atmosphere.

Authorities in Delhi, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, began the trials last week using a Cessna aircraft over parts of the capital.

However, officials said the initial tests yielded minimal rainfall due to limited cloud cover.

“This will never do the job it’s an illusion,” said environmental activist Bhavreen Kandhari. “We can only control air pollution by addressing its sources, not by chasing clouds.”

Local media reported that the government has spent around $364,000 on the project so far.

Each winter, a thick blanket of smog envelops Delhi and its 30 million residents, as cold air traps emissions from vehicle exhaust, factory smoke, and crop burning in nearby states.

Despite various government efforts including vehicle restrictions, anti-smog towers, and mist-spraying trucks Delhi consistently ranks among the world’s most polluted capitals.

Following the latest cloud seeding attempt, levels of PM2.5 the fine particles linked to heart and lung disease reached 323 micrograms per cubic meter, over 20 times the World Health Organization’s safe daily limit.

A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health last year estimated that 3.8 million deaths in India between 2009 and 2019 were associated with air pollution exposure.

Questions also remain about the environmental impact of cloud seeding chemicals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says limited research suggests silver iodide poses little risk to human health or the environment, but acknowledges that the long-term effects of widespread use remain unclear.

Research process

Environmental activists say even if cloud seeding produces rain, the benefits are short-lived.

Climate scientist Daniele Visioni at Cornell University said it was unclear how efficient it was in heavy polluted conditions.

“It can’t create rain where there is no moisture in the air, but it just ‘forces’ some of the water to condense in one location rather than another,” he told AFP.

“There is only one thing that can sensibly reduce pollution: avoiding the burning of fossil fuels.”

Virendra Sachdeva, from Delhi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said it was too early to dismiss the cloud seeding experiment as a “scientific failure”.

“It is a part of the research process, and success is not always achieved in the first attempt,” he told reporters.

However, two atmospheric scientists at IIT Delhi called the cloud seeding plan “another gimmick”.

“It is a textbook case of science misapplied and ethics ignored,” Shahzad Gani and Krishna Achutarao wrote in The Hindu newspaper.

Mohan George, from the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, said artificial rain was not the answer.

“The levels of pollution will come back almost immediately as rain stops,” the scientist told AFP.

When it does work, it will increase precipitation in one area — while potentially decreasing it for another.

Costly spectacle

Cloud seeding, first developed in the 1940s, has been used in various countries to induce rain, clear fog, and reduce drought, but with mixed results.

China used it during the 2008 Beijing Olympics in an attempt to control the weather.

Gani and Achutarao said Delhi’s pollution causes — unchecked emissions and seasonal crop burning — are well known.

So too are the solutions cleaner fuel, better waste management and stricter enforcement of rules.

“Instead of reinforcing these priorities, parts of the scientific ecosystem researchers, advisors, and institutions — are lending credibility to a costly spectacle that will do little to address the sources of the crisis,” they said.

• Police called after reports of train stabbings.
• Senior officials inform armed cops enter train.
• Eyewitnesses say one suspect tasered by police.

Multiple people were taken to the hospital after a series of stabbings on a train near Cambridge in eastern England on Saturday, and two men have been arrested, in what Prime Minister Keir Starmer called an “appalling incident.”

British police and ambulance services said several people had been stabbed on the train, which stopped at Huntingdon, with armed officers seen entering the train in videos on social media.

Cambridgeshire police said they were called at 1939 GMT after reports that multiple people had been stabbed on a train.

“Armed officers attended and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, where two men were arrested. A number of people have been taken to hospital,” the police said in a statement.

The East of England Ambulance Service said it mobilised a large-scale response to Huntingdon Railway Station, which included numerous ambulances and critical care teams, including three air ambulances.

“We can confirm we have transported multiple patients to hospital,” it said.

One eyewitness told Sky News that one of the suspects, waving a large knife, was tasered by police.

PM Starmer posted on X that the incident was “deeply concerning.”

“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” he said.

• Trump warns of “guns-a-blazing” strike to “fully wipe out” militants.
• Says goal is to target “terrorists committing horrible atrocities.”
• Instructs “Department of War” to prepare for possible action.
  

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has asked the Defence Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”

The US government will also immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Trump said the US may “very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the … Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!” he further wrote in the post.

Trump’s smoking statement comes hours after the Nigerian government vowed to keep fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally after Trump added the West African nation to a US watch list over what he said were threats to Christianity.

“The Federal Government of Nigeria will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

“Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity and inclusion, in concurrence with the rules-based international order,” the ministry added.

On Friday, Trump said he was putting Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country, on a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations the US finds have engaged in religious freedom violations, which also includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.

The Republican US President had designated the country a concern during his first term in the White House, but his Democratic successor Joe Biden removed it from the US State Department list in 2021.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radicals are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he wrote in a social media post on Friday without offering any specifics.

A nation of more than 200 ethnic groups practising Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, Nigeria has a long history of peaceful coexistence with mosques and churches dotting its cities.

But it also has a long history of violence breaking out between groups, in which religious differences sometimes overlap with other fault lines such as ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce land and water resources.

For 15 years, the extremist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorised northeast Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly Muslims.

Trump also asked the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to examine the issue and report back to him. A US congressional subcommittee held a hearing on Christian killings in Nigeria earlier this year.

Appropriations Committee Chairman US Representative Tom Cole, in an X post on Friday, said the designation “sends a strong message: the US will not ignore Christian persecution.”