China announces tariffs on U.S. imports China will impose tariffs on imports of US energy, vehicles and equipment, firing a return salvo in an escalating trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. Beijing unveiled levies of 15% on imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States, while crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles, and pickup trucks face 10 percent duties. Beijing said the measures were in response to the “unilateral tariff hike” by Washington | P10 mangaluru l wednesday l february 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION 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 Don sends first deportation flight to India US military flight with 205 undocumented Indians aboard to land in Amritsar today J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi THE US on Tuesday deported 205 people, mostly from Punjab, on a military plane as it stepped up its efforts to remove illegal migrants. The C-17 military aircraft, which took off from Texas in the wee hours on Tuesday, will make a refuel stop at the Ramstein airbase in Germany before landing in Amritsar on Wednesday While there . was no official word either from Washington or New Delhi about the deportation flight, sources said the deportees were verified before they were put on the plane. A recheck of the passengers’ nationalities will be done once the flight lands in Amritsar. Punjab Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said state government officials will receive the deportees and set up counters for them. This is the first time the US is using a military plane to deport people: last October, a chartered flight was used to fly back Indians who were staying in the US illegally . A spokesperson of the US embassy in New Delhi said the crackdown would send a clear message, that illegal migration is not worth the risk. Tough action against illegal immigra- tion was one of the major poll promises of Donald Trump. “All illegal entry will be immediately halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of illegal aliens back to the places from which they came,” he said during his inauguration speech. Following a call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month, Trump said the Indian PM “will do what’s right” regarding illegal Indian immigrants in the US. India’s stated position is that it does not support illegal migration and will take back its citizens, upon verification, if they are found to be staying in other countries illegally . Indications are that there could be more such repatriation flights. At least 20,407 undocumented ‘Indians’ could be impacted by the crackdown, with 17,940 being paperless individuals with final removal orders, according to the US Department of Homeland Security Another 2,467 individ. uals are currently in detention under the Enforcement and Removal Operations division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These figures, last updated in 2022, may have increased significantly  . P8 Ahead of Delhi polling, Modi tears into Rahul, Kejri P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi A day after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s fiery speech in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the grand old party and said his government has helped as many as 25 crore Indians “defeat poverty and come out of it” in the last 10 years. Replying to the debate in the Lok Sabha on the motion of thanks on the President’s address, Modi said such achieve- ments happen when “we sacrifice our lives for the poor in a planned way”. He reiterated his commitment to the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047. Rebutting Rahul’s charges on ‘rising unemployment’ and the ‘Make in India’ programme’s failure to revive production, Modi listed his government achievements in different sectors like education, foreign policy, MSMEs and job creation. While Rahul spoke about data localisation and artificial intelligence, Modi said, “Our focus is on double AI. One AI is artificial intelligence and the other aspirational India.” Rubbishing Rahul’s allegations on Chinese encroach- ment, Modi observed that “some don’t feel mature enough if they do not talk about foreign policy though it might hurt the country “If they have an inter.” est in foreign policy want to un, derstand it, and aim to do something in this field in the future, they should definitely read a book, JFK’s Forgotten Crisis, on the subject,” he said without mentioning its author. Slamming Rahul for his demand for a caste census, the PM said some people had made it fashion to talk about caste. express read art of deception SC slams Assam govt for not deporting foreigners Thief spent `15L on actress per visit, built `3 cr house for bar dancer GF New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Assam government for keeping people declared as foreigners in detention centres indefinitely rather than deporting them. The apex court said once the detained persons are held to be foreigners, they should be deported immediately. press Intake Dr G: Guv is back, hoping to get microfin ordinance cleared | P4 Top brass will resolve leadership row within 15 days: Ashoka | P4 Kumbh stampede toll supressed, says SP | P7 Sensex rises 1.8% as trade tension eases | P11 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru A 37-year-old interstate thief who had gifted a Rs 3 crore, palatial house to his bar dancer girlfriend has been arrested by the city police for committing a theft at a house in Maruthinagar in Madiwala police limits. He had also gifted a Rs 22 lakh aquarium to a well-known Bollywood actress. A state-level kickboxer and a black belt in karate, Panchakshari Sangayya Swami, who hails from Solapur in Maharashtra, was arrested on January 20 and was taken into police custody to recover the stolen valuables. He had committed the theft on January 9. During interrogation, the police officers were stunned to know of his glorified criminal past. He has more than 150 cases of robbery and theft across Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka. In 2012, Illustration: Mandar Pardikar the Navi Mumbai crime branch sleuths had arrested him. Again in 2016, he was arrested by the Gujarat police in a robbery case and had been sentenced to six years imprisonment and was lodg ed in Sabar mati Central Prison. Since he was infamous in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana, he had shifted his base to Bengaluru. Swami’s first crime was stealing a laptop way back in 2003 when he was still 15 years old. By 2009, he had turned professional. When he was 24 years old, he came in contact with the Bollywood actress. He would spend up to Rs 15 lakh per visit on the actress. He had gifted her the expensive aquarium during one of her birthday celebrations.  P5 radical push Let all public vehicles be electric: Min E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru As vehicle emissions have a direct impact on the health of the people, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao has written to Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy to take measures to permit only electric public vehicles to operate in Bengaluru in the future and also that all buses procured for public transport by the government should be e-vehicles only . He specified that autorickshaws, cabs, taxis, goods autos and solid waste collection vehicles should be electric. In the letter dated February 3, Rao said, “Air pollution due to the use of vehicles running on conventional fuels is common and it is well-established that it has a direct adverse effect on public health. Due to high number of vehicles in Bengaluru, the pollution is high and due to the high population of the city the pollution , affects more people.” The health minister went on to explain that Bengaluru’s geography and weather conditions compound air pollution and stressed that everyone should wake up before Bengaluru becomes infamous for air pollution like Delhi. “Our generation must take action to control air pollution to limit far-reaching negative effects on the environment. The government too is accountable for this,” he said. P5