Gold’s worst single-day plunge in 12 yrs, falls 6% After record rally of more than 70% so far this year, the yellow metal fell 6.3% on Tuesday, its biggest single-day fall in more than 12 years. The sharp fall in prices is attributed primarily to profit booking and a slew of positive news flows which have shaved the sheen off the safehaven metal | p14 Dharmapuri l thursday l october 23, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 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 nuances stance on India’s Russian oil buy 16ha paddy under water US president says Narendra Modi isn’t going to buy much J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Modi unlikely to travel to Malaysia Modi is unlikely to participate in the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia scheduled for Oct 26–28, which is expected to be attended by Donald Trump, according to sources. While official word on the level of India’s participation is awaited, the PM may address the summit virtually US President Donald Trump has softened his earlier assertion that India would completely stop buying Russian crude oil, saying after a Diwali phone call with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India “is not going to buy much oil from Russia”. It reflects a nuanced shift from his previous claim that Modi had promised a full halt to Ru s s i a n i m p o r t s, wh i ch was not corroborated by the Indian government. Speaking to reporters after the call, Trump added that he also spoke about “let’s not have no wars with Pakistan,” a claim refuted sources here in Delhi. Sources said “Pakistan was not discussed during the phone conversation” between the two leaders. “I just spoke to your prime minister today Had a great con. versation. We talked about trade... He’s very interested in that. Although we did talk a little while ago about let’s have no wars with Pakistan. The fact that trade was involved, I was able to talk about that. And we have no war with Pakistan and India. That was a very very good , thing,” Trump said. The Diwali call, initiated by Trump, was their third publicly known conversation since midSeptember and comes amid ongoing tensions in US–India relat i o n s, p a r t i c u l a rl y ove r Washington’s decision to impose steep tariffs on key Indian exports. In his Oval Office remarks, Trump dialed back his earlier stance: “He’s not going to buy much oil from Russia. He wants to see that war end as much as I do. So they’ve cut it way back, and they’re continuing to cut it way back.” Boys seen playing with foam at Srinivasapuram beach in Chennai on Wednesday | Ashwin prasath Rain pauses as weather system weakens in TN Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam on Wednesday said over 16,000 hectares of paddy crop, including 5,000 hectares of ready-to-harvest kuruvai, has been inundated by rainwater across Tamil Nadu SV K RISHNA CHAITANYA @ Chennai 4 die in wall collapse The Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) on Wednesday lifted the orange alert that had earlier been issued for Chennai and neighbouring districts for Thursday as the weather , system over the Bay of Bengal weakened and lost momentum. However, officials have cautioned that heavy rains are likely to return to the region from October 26 (Sunday). RMC Director B Amudha said the weather system would cross the north Tamil Nadu coast as a well-marked lowpressure area by Thursday morning and would not intensify into a depression. “It is sort of getting diffused,” she said, adding that heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected between Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  P7 Four women were killed and four injured in separate wall, roof collapses incidents in Cuddalore, Villupuram, and Kallakurichi districts after continuous rainfall | P4 6 lakh Amazon workers to lose jobs to robots E x p r e s s Ne w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai Amazon.com plans to replace more than 6,00,000 employees with robots over the next decade in the US, The New York Times reported on Tuesday, citing inter nal documents. Referring to interviews with employees and internal documents, the NYT reported that the company’s ultimate plan is to automate 75% of its operations and expects to increase sales by a factor of two by 2033 compared to now through automation. Automating the operation would help Amazon.com avoid the recruitment of 1,60,000 employees by the end of 2027, resulting in savings of $12.5 billion over, the report said. To avoid backlash, the company is planning for greater community involvement by Amazon and changing corporate language from ‘automation’, ‘ I’, and ‘robot’ A to ‘advanced technology’ and ‘cobot’ (robots collaborating with humans). express read HC okays pond work on `6,500 crore land Chennai: The Madras HC on Wednesday permitted the state government to continue with the work to create ponds on the `6,500 crore worth of land recovered from the Madras Race Club in Chennai | P2 Leh delegation meets Home Ministry team New Delhi: In the first sign of a thaw, leaders of Ladakh met with Home Ministry representatives here on Wednesday for sub-committee level talks.