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 ■ ■ coimbatore l Saturday l October 11, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION Nobel Peace Prize goes to Venezuelan leader Machado, who dedicates it to US President Humbled, grateful Thank god it’s not Trump! Agencies There was a collective sigh of relief across the world after the Norwegian Nobel committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, passing over US President Donald Trump in the process. Months of badgering by Trump for the most coveted award came to nought despite loads of nominations in his favour. He knew he had little Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee, Duflo to leave US a g e n c e f r a n c e p r e s s e @Geneva US-based Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will soon join the University of Zurich, where they will establish a new centre for development economics, the institution said Friday . The University of Zurich (UZH) said the married couple, who won the 2019 Economics Nobel alongside Michael Kremer, and currently work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), would join its economics faculty from July next year. They will be moving to Switzerland at a time when experts have warned that US President Donald Trump’s cuts to research funding and attacks on academic freedoms could lead to a brain drain. chance of making it, as most of those nominations came after the February 1 deadline for this year’s award, yet he went on bullying the Nobel committee like a spoilt child. That the panel showed spine to fob him off came like a breath of fresh air. After the announcement, he went into a sulk, despite Machado dedicating the award to Trump. “Today more than ever , we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our main allies to achieve freedom and democracy she said. ,” Her opposition to Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro aligns with the Trump administration’s stance. Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously praised her as ‘the personification of resilience, tenacity and patriotism’. , The first nation to face Trump’s anger was China, as he said he no longer felt it nec- Tata Trusts board meet cordial amid public listing call B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai The board of Tata Trusts, recently hit by an unprecedented revolt from four trustees led by Mehli Mistry — a close friend of the late Ratan Tata and first cousin of the late Cyrus Mistry — against chairman Noel Tata, held a ‘cordial’ meeting on Friday . It discussed only routine charity matters, even as the government urged the warring sides to resolve their differences quickly . The meeting took place a day after the first death anniversary of Ratan Tata and amid growing questions over Noel Tata’s leadership. Tata Trusts own 66.6% of Tata Sons that controls around 400 companies, 30 of them publicly listed with a combined market capitalisation of about `30 trillion. While the meeting was underway the Shapoor, ji Pallonji Group — which owns 18.4% of Tata Sons, making it the second-largest shareholder after the Trusts — issued a statement urging that Tata Sons be taken public to improve transparency and governance. The company has already missed the Reserve Bank’s September 30 deadline for its listing. essary to meet President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit later this month. He lit into China’s hostile trade practices, including new export controls on rare earths, and threatened it with massive tariff hikes. Democracy activist Machado who sought to challenge President Maduro in last year’s elections, has become a “unifying” figure in Venezuela, the Nobel jury said. “In the past year, Ms Machado has been “This is something that the Venezuelan people deserve,” Machado said in a call with the Nobel Institute. ‘I am just part of a huge movement... I’m humbled, I’m grateful and I’m honoured.” forced to live in hiding,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel committee. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions. When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.” Machado was set to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government disqualified her. She then campaigned for her stand-in, ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, seen by much of the international community as the rightful winner. The run-up to the election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations to ‘steal’ the mandate. India upgrades its technical mission in Kabul to embassy J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi IN a recalibrated diplomatic strategy India has officially up, graded its Technical Mission in Kabul to a full-fledged Embassy , the clearest sign yet of New Delhi’s intent to deepen engagement with Afghanistan under Taliban rule. The announcement was made at External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s meeting in New Delhi with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Friday where , the two leaders held wide-ranging discussions spanning security cooperation, infrastruct u r e, h u m a n i t a r i a n a i d , education, trade, and people-topeople ties. S Jaishankar with Afghani counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi | PTI Muttaqi used the occasion to publicly reassure India on one of its core concerns: terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. “We had a detailed discussion on security cooperation. We will not allow Afghan territory to be used against any country ,” he said. He further urged re- straint over cross-border tensions, cautioning that “issues cannot be solved through this approach” and referencing Afghanistan’s historical resistance to foreign aggression. “The Afghan people’s patience and courage should not be challenged. If someone doesn’t know, they should ask the British, Soviets, or Americans.” In response, Jaishankar acknowledged Kabul’s assurances and said that India and Afghanistan shared a common goal peace, prosperity, and regional stability “We appreciate . your sensitivity towards India’s security concerns. Your solidarity with us in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack was noteworthy he said. ,” It’s not for me to judge whether the current US president deserves the Nobel prize — I don’t know. He’s really doing a lot to resolve these complex crises, which have lasted for years, even decades Vladimir Putin, Russian President It should... remind those of us lucky enough to live in America that we have a solemn responsibility to constantly preserve and defend our own hard-won democratic traditions Barack Obama, former US President Democracy is a precondition for peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat Nobel Peace Prize jury express read SC questions HC over SIT probe on Karur stampede New delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday questioned the Madras High Court for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) to probe into the Karur stampede in which 41 people were killed. The top court also asked how the postmortem examination of the victims was conducted at midnight and completed within four hours | P7 Kidney racket: SC okays spl team investigation New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the petition filed by Tamil Nadu government against the special investigation team set up in the kidney scam case. The Madras High Court had ordered the formation of the SIT after allegations were raised against two hospitals whose owners are allegedly linked to the ruling party