Nagoya faces flooding ahead of Asiad With less than ten days to go for the event, the host city receives record rainfall. A look... coimbatore l Thursday l September 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION 68 Pages free booklet with today’s issue War gets nasty, oil @ $100+ Iran war escalates as several ships in Gulf region come under attack BATORE 6 | COIM SEP, 202 ETING Record rain flooded dozens of roads and homes, stranding pedestrians but athletes who have arrived early for the Asian Games were unharmed by extensive flooding, Mayor Ichiro Hirosawa said. “We are not worried about the conditions of the venues and we believe there is no problem holding the Asian Games as planned,” Hirosawa told reporters ■ 400 athletes, staff briefly evacuated Hirosawa said about 400 athletes and staff who are staying in converted shipping containers were briefly evacuated to higher ground during the heavy rain BRICS SUMMIT Modi, Xi Jinping bilateral on Sat TIVE INITIA E MARK A SPAC Combo videograbs of US Central Command (CENTCOM) forces firing missiles to blow up an Iranian crude oil carrier | CENTCOM E x p r e s s Re a d TVK allies name bloc Chennai: TVK’s post-poll allies — Congress, VCK, IUML, and MDMK — on Wednesday formally joined hands with the ruling party and named their bloc the ‘Secular Social Justice Victory Alliance’. The CM will be the leader of the bloc | P4 DMK bypoll candidates Chennai: DMK on Wednesday announced I Paranthaman and S Suganya as candidates for the bypolls to Madurantakam and Dharapuram seats. K Sethu Selvam will be the candidate for the bypoll to Puducherry’s Thattanchavady seat | P4 cussions on strengthening multilateralism and promotPrime Minister Narendra ing more inclusive global Modi and Chinese President governance. Xi Jinping will hold a bilatThe summit programme eral meeting on September will begin on Saturday after12 in the second half noon with the arrivof the day, sources al of BRICS leaders said. Xi will arrive at Bharat Mandain India on Septempam. The leaders ber 12, according to will then participate sources, as New in a closed session Open Delhi hosts the on “Inclusive Global session BRICS Leaders’ G ove r n a n c e a n d Summit 2026. Prime Strengthening MulAn open session Minister Modi will tilateralism” at 2.35 on “Resilience, host a gala dinner pm. The session is Innovation, for leaders of BRICS expected to focus on Cooperation and member countries ways to strengthen Sustainability: on Saturday evening Shaping the Future multilateral instituat Bharat Mandations and make glofor Inclusive pam in New Delhi, Global Growth”, is bal governance more as India hosts the scheduled to begin representative and at 10.50 am, the two-day summit. inclusive. MEA said The dinner, schedFollowing the sesuled for 7.30 pm on sion, the leaders will September 12, will be part of visit the “Bharat Innovates a packed first day of the Exhibition”, which will summit, which will bring to- showcase India’s innovation, gether leaders of BRICS technology and development member countries for dis- capabilities. J ayanth J aco b @ New Delhi 1 The CENTCOM attack came after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) targeted a US Navy warship with ballistic missiles R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi in a major escalation in the West Asia war, Iran on Wednesday attacked several oil tankers trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz besides US military targets in the region, sending alarm bells across the region and beyond and pushing oil prices past $100 a barrel. Iran claimed that it attacked 20 ships and US military targets in Jordan in retaliation to the sinking of five Iranian crude oil carriers by the US military on Tuesday. Tehran also extended the ‘restricted 2 3 The US warship successfully evaded the IRGC’s attacks twice over two days. It then destroyed five of IRGC’s crude oil carriers The destroyed carriers were M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, M/T Horizon 1, and M/T Riesco in Gulf of Oman and M/T Derya near Kharg zone’ beyond the Strait of Hormuz into parts of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, warning that any passing vessels could be ‘sanctioned’. Following the fresh escalation, the international Brent crude benchmark breached $100 a barrel for the first time since July It also pushed the In. dian crude basket, comprising Sweet grade (Brent Dated) and Sour grade (Oman & Dubai average) crude oil to $108.91 per barrel on September 8, 2026. For India, which imports more than 88% of its crude oil requirement, any rise in inter- national prices is bad news. The war has already inflated India’s import bill for crude and gas, which touched $63.37 billion during April-July . A $1 rise in crude prices for a year may lead to `18,000 crore rise in the total import bill. Prashant Vasisht, senior vice-president at ICRA, warns that crude oil prices could rise further if the current geo-political situation persists. He said several countries including China were tapping their strategic reserves for consumption and their return to the market could increase demand. 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 ■ ‘Venues, players unharmed’ 3rd language: SC pushes to exempt Class 6 this year S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Central Board of Secondary Education to consider a one-time exemption for Class 6 students from the three-language policy . A three-judge bench led Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said implementation from the next academic year is fine, but the current Class 6 batch could be exempted. “Consider Class 6 for this year... If they can be given some accommodation,” the court told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. The court made the observations after hearing a batch of petitions challenging the CBSE’s May 20, 2025 circular on implementing the three-language formula for Classes 6-10 under the National Education Policy 2020. As per the circular, all the CBSE students must lear n three languages, at least two of them Indian languages.