chennai l friday l june 27, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 44 l late city EDITION iran delivered a slap on face of u.s., says iran’s supreme leader In his first comments since a ceasefire with Israel after 12 days of war, Ayatollah Khamenei on Thursday warned US against further attacks recorded speech full of warnings iaea chief, hegseth concur on u.s. strikes Khamenei spoke in a recorded video broadcast on Iranian state television, his first appearance since June 19. The 86-year-old looked and sounded more tired than he did only a week ago, speaking in a hoarse voice and occasionally stumbling over his words. The 10-minute speech was filled with warnings and threats directed toward the United States and Israel ■ ■ Khamenei’s threats were preceded by IAEA director Rafael Grossi saying US attacks on Iran had largely destroyed its nuclear facilities US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted Thursday that American strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were a success. President created the conditions to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” Hegseth said | P13 1,054 iranians died in the 12-day war, as per a u.s. based think tank 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 Coming, farm water tax Rajnath refuses J i t e n d r a Ch o u b e y @ New Delhi TO reduce wastage and misuse of groundwater, the Union Government now plans to impose a tax on water usage for agricultural purposes. In collaboration with state governments, the Union government will soon launch 22 pilot projects across different states. Under this initiative, farmers will receive sufficient water and would be taxed based on its usage. “We are in the process of finalizing pilot projects,” said C R Patil, Union Minister for Jal Shakti. “These will provide adequate water at a central loca- tion with enough pressure so that different farmers can utilize it according to their needs. Users will be taxed based on the quantity of water they consume,” he explained. According to the Annual Groundwater Extraction report, the farm sector accounts for 87% of 239.16 billion cubic meters (BCM) of water extracted. Indiscriminate extraction has led to severe depletion of groundwater. The Centre has allocated `1,600 crore for this scheme. States would determine the tax. “It is essential to prevent mis- use. Local water user associations, rather than the state, should levy taxes to control water wastage,” said Ashok K Meena, additional secretary Dept of , D r i n k i n g Wa t e r a n d Sanitation. When asked about India’s stance on the Ganga Water Treaty, which is set to expire next year, Patil stated that a decision would be made in the country’s best interest, as it is an international treaty. “The political situation in Bangladesh is not conducive to discussing another river treaty Patil said while interacting ,” with journalists. Forced to abort female foetus, mom ends life Dragon spacecraft Raja l akshmi S am pat h @ Tiruvannamalai Unable to withstand the harassment of husband and in-laws over her female foetus, a five-month pregnant woman allegedly killed one-and-ahalf-year-old daughter and ended her life at Karikalampadi village near Kilpennathur in Tiruvannamalai district on Tuesday. Two days after Umadevi (25) and daughter Meghanasree were found dead in a well near their house, police on Thursday arrested Umadevi’s husband Vignesh (27), an auto driver, his parents Jayavel (58) and Sivagami (43), and a relative of the deceased woman, Sarathy (39), on the charge of abetment to suicide and other sections. After Umadevi’s family raised the suspicion of murder, police are looking into that allegation too, sources said. According to police, Umadevi and her husband had travelled to Tirupati on Monday, allegedly accompanied by Sarathy, to illegally determine the sex of the foetus.  P9 WITH THIS ISSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 44 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) 2 1. ISS crew greet Shubhanshu Shukla (C) and other astronauts after the docking of their spacecraft | PTI 1 2. Screengrab of the docking Shux scripts history, first Indian in ISS BO S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla became the first Indian to set foot on the International Space Station (ISS) as he floated into the space lab at 5.54 pm IST on Thursday The . Axiom-4 mission’s spacecraft capsule, Grace, carrying three other astronauts, docked with the space lab at 4.01 pm, 29 minutes ahead of schedule. Upon docking, mission commander Peggy Whitson of the USA, who is a former NASA astronaut and current director of Axiom Space (human space flight), sent a message to Mission Control Hus- AI black box data in, being analysed: Govt E X PRE S S N EW S S ERV I CE @ New Delhi THE Civil Aviation Ministry said on Thursday that the black box data of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed in Ahmedabad on June 12 has been successfully retrieved and it’s being analysed at the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau lab in Delhi. The Cockpit Voice Recorder and Flight Data Recorder of the ill-fated plane were brought from Ahmedabad to Delhi on Tuesday in an Indian Air Force aircraft with full security . “On the evening of 24 June, the team led by Director General, AAIB with technical members from AAIB and the US-based National Transportation Safety Board began the data extraction process. The Crash Protection Module from the front black box was safely retrieved, and on 25 June, the memory module was successfully accessed and its data downloaded at the AAIB Lab,” the ministry said. It added that the analysis of the data is underway to reconstruct the sequence of events leading to the accident. Boeing 787 aircraft has two black boxes, each having a CVR and an FDR. e x pr e ss r e a d Actor Krishna arrested in cocaine case Chennai: The Greater Chennai Police on Thursday arrested actor Srikrishna alias Krishna (47) in the cocaine case, along with one Kevin alias Jasvin (35), identified as an important distributor/peddler in the case | P6 Online portal for TN livestock prices soon Chennai: Animal Husbandry Secretary N Subbaiyan on Thursday announced that an online portal is being developed to provide information on prices of livestock, including cows, buffaloes, goats, and other animals | P6 Soft capture and hard locking After the ‘soft capture’ of the spacecraft by the ISS, the two were connected with 12 sets of hooks. A pressurised vestibule was created between the orbiting bodies and then hatches were opened to allow the Ax-4 crew to float into the ISS ton ground station and to the 11-astronaut team already on the ISS: “Grace happy to be on Harmony”. Harmony is the module on the ISS that provides international docking adapters. Shukla was the second to enter the ISS after Peggy The . entire docking exercise, in slow capture mode, was completed autonomously by Grace, with mission pilot Shukla’s services required only if any maneuvering glitches had occurred. All the four Ax-4 mission crew members, also including Ax-4 mission specialists Stawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski from Poland and Tibor Kapu from Hungary, were warmly greeted with hugs and cheers by the astronauts of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Roscosmos already aboard the ISS. Incidentally, soon after docking, Ax-4 astronauts experienced a minor technical glitch with their communication system, needing five extra minutes before commencing the hatch opening procedures to enter the ISS. The entire docking exercise was completed in 13 minutes. The docking took place when the ISS was over the North Atlantic at an altitude of 400 km. Over the next two weeks, the Ax-4 mission crew members will undertake 60 listed experiments. to sign draft SCO joint statement Pak blocked inclusion of Pahalgam, mention of cross-border terror attacks in document M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi India on Thursday declined to sign a joint declaration at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Ministers’ meeting in Qingdao, China, as it failed to address the country’s concerns on terror. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who represented the country at the meet, sought the inclusion of explicit language condemning terror, particularly cross-border terrorism. However, the proposal was blocked by “one particular country Pa,” kistan. Also, there was no mention of the recent Pahalgam terror attack in the draft. Sources said Pakistan wanted to include Balochistan in the joint statement, which was not acceptable to India. As the draft failed to address India’s core concerns, Rajnath refused to put India’s name on the document. In his address, Rajnath called on all SCO members to unite in combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. He reiterated that the perpetrators, organisers, financers and sponsors of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, need to be held accountable and brought to justice. He emphasised that there can be no double standards in the global fight against terror. “I understand that the defence ministers could not adopt a joint statement. Certain member countries could not reach con- Pak wanted inclusion of Balochistan India demanded mention of the Pahalgam terror attack where 26 people were killed after religious profiling, but the proposal was blocked by ‘one particular country’. Sources said Pak wanted to include Balochistan in the joint statement, which was not acceptable to India. sensus on specific issues, and hence the document could not be finalised. India wanted concerns on terrorism to be reflected in the statement, which was not acceptable to one particular country said Randhir Jaiswal, ,” spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs. Rajnath mentioned Operation Sindoor and asserted that it was launched in response to the heinous ter ror attack in Pahalgam. “During the Pahalgam terror attack, 26 people were shot dead after they were profiled on religious identity. The Resistance Front, a proxy of UN-designated terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the attack.” AIADMK was mute when periyar, anna were denigrated: CM Slamming the BJP for dividing people along religious lines, the CM accused the AIADMK of aiding the BJP and said it is not religion that is under threat, but the saffron alliance | P8