THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l sunday l november 30, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l LATE city EDITION Anthony Albanese first oz PM to get hitched while in office Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese married his partner Jodie Haydon in a secretive ceremony Saturday at his residence in Canberra pet dog ring-bearer; pair write own vows avoid lavish wedding on expert advice Albanese is the first prime minister to marry while in office in the 124-year history of the Australian federal government. The couple were married by a civil celebrant before 60 guests, including several cabinet ministers. The pair wrote their own vows and their dog Toto was the ring bearer. Haydon’s 5-year-old niece Ella was the flower girl, a statement read ■ ■ Albanese, 62, who is divorced with an adult son, had proposed to Haydon, 46, at Canberra’s The Lodge on Valentine’s Day last year They initially planned a larger-scale wedding. But the ruling centerleft Labor Party feared a lavish wedding during a cost of living crisis could hurt the government’s chances of being re-elected 2020 is when Haydon met Albanese at a business dinner in Melbourne 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 Software update of A320s delays flights across India Four AI Express flights cancelled; all updates expected by midnight Uncommanded pitch-down event Ex p r ess N ews Serv i ce @ New Delhi A residential area left inundated after heavy rain in Kaduwela on the outskirts of Colombo on Saturday | AFP National emergency in Lanka as toll rises to 153; India steps up aid Ditwah weakens, but rain alert on m aya n k s i n g h @ New Delhi SRI Lanka was on Saturday picking up the pieces after widespread destruction caused by cyclone Ditwah, with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake declaring a state of emergency throughout the country as the death toll rose to 153. Disaster management authorities in Colombo told local newspapers about 191 people still remaining untraced as search and relief efforts continue across 25 districts. The cyclone brought landslides, flash floods, and heavy rains, affecting over 7,74,724 people from 2,17,263 families. More than 15,000 homes were destroyed, and nearly 78,000 people have been displaced to temporary shelters, marking one of Sri Lanka’s worst natural disasters in recent public memory . Demonstrating its “neighbourhood first” spirit, India has rapidly escalated its humanitarian response under Operation Sagar Bandhu. The Indian Air Force deployed a C-130 and an IL-76 from Hindon Air Base on the night of November 28-29, delivering 21 tonnes of relief materials, including es- NDRF personnel supply Indian aid in Sri Lanka on Saturday| MEA sential rations and disaster relief equipment, alongside over 80 National Disaster Response Force personnel to Colombo. “India stands firmly with Sri Lanka in this hour of need,” the IAF said in a message on X. The Indian Navy stepped in and dispatched dry and fresh rations and crucial supplies, including 4.5 tons of dry rations, 2 tons of fresh rations, and essential items, with the help of INS Vikrant and INS Udaygiri. Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said on X that two Chetak helicopters from aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, staffed with Sri Lankan Air Force personnel, undertook search and rescue operations. Chennai: Cyclone Ditwah, which lay over the southwest Bay of Bengal, continued its slow north-northwesterly drift, triggering rain in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and delta districts on Saturday. According to the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC), Chennai, the cyclone is showing clear signs of weakening. Meanwhile, the IMD has retained the red and orange alerts issued earlier, with very heavy to extremely heavy rain forecast for Tiruvallur and Ranipet, and very heavy spells predicted for Chennai, Kancheepuram, Chengalpattu, Vellore, Tirupattur and several coastal districts in Tamil Nadu on Sunday. U.S. donates $2 million for relief COLOMBO: The US announced an immediate allocation of $2 million to support emergency relief efforts while Maldives has decided to extend relief assistance to Sri Lanka through financial support of $50,000 and 25,000 cases of tuna cans . Congress had received complaints against Rahul, admits Chennithala K S S r ee j i t h @ T’Puram In what may prove costly for the Congress in the run-up to the elections, senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has admitted that the party acted against Rahul Mamkootathil after the then KPCC president and the Leader of Opposition received multiple complaints against the Palakkad MLA. This is the first time that a senior party leader has publicly said so. The open confirmation by Chennithala counters the party leadership’s public claims that it had not received any taken disciplinary action harassment-related com- against Rahul based on strong plaints against the young conviction or in the light of leader. the allegations. He fur“The Leader of Opther said it was an indiposition, the then vidual issue. “Law will KPCC president and take its own course. party leaders received What can we do,” he several complaints asked. (against Rahul MamkThe leadership had ootathil). It was then earlier maintained that Ramesh that the party unaniRahul’s removal as Chennithala mously took such a deYo u t h C o n g r e s s cision,” he said, while state president and his addressing re por ters in suspension from the primary Kozhikode on Saturday . membership of Congress were He was responding to ques- solely based on the allegations tions on whether the party had that emerged later. ● More on P7 Global fears of a massive travel chaos following a European Union Safety Agency advisory on Friday to fly about 6,400 Airbus A320s in service only after a flight control software update, were largely eased as airlines scrambled to implement it quickly While some flights were . delayed, only a few cancellations were reported. In India, where 338 A320 are operational, Air India, IndiGo and Air India Express fixed the problem in most of their fleet after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gave them a Sunday morning (5.29 am) deadline to do so. It, however, led to flight delays, while Air India Express cancelled four of its flights on S at u rd ay t o f a c i l i t at e compliance. Air India Express flights from Varanasi to Bengaluru, Bengaluru to Varanasi, Guwahati to Jaipur and Jaipur to Guwahati were cancelled while its The problem was first noticed in an Jet Blue Airbus A320 last month after it experienced an “uncommanded and limited pitch-down event. The autopilot remained engaged throughout the event, with a brief and limited loss of altitude.” The rest of the flight was uneventful flights were delayed across some sectors. IndiGo A320 aircraft across the country suffered a delay of up to 30 minutes, said a source. Air India flights too suffered delays. The problem is expected to be fixed in all A320s before midnight. As of 5.30 pm, Indigo upgraded the software in 184 out of its 200 A320s; Air India did likewise for 69 on 113 aircraft; and Air India Express did so for 17 on 25 aircraft. The issue was detected after a preliminary technical probe by Airbus on an accident involving a JetBlue flight in the pEACE SERVING THE Supreme Court has barred litigants from orally mentioning matters for urgent listing before the Chief Justice of India as items requiring special attention will come up for hearing automatically within two working days. The court made these changes while restructuring the sys- tem of oral mentioning, urgent listing and adjournment of cases effective December 1. The changes also include barring senior advocates to mention matters before any bench, while encouraging junior counsel to make oral mentionings. A circular said bereavement in the family or medical emer- gencies of advocates or parties were the only grounds for adjournments, apart from other genuine reasons accepted by the court. Four circulars issued by the SC registry on S a t u r d ay s a i d t h e changes were to reduce unnecessary mentioning before benches, and ensure faster listing of matters. WITH THIS ISSUE Speaking Their Mind PLUS 12 P AGES MLA Kanathil Jameela no more E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Kozhikode Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with Deputy CM D K Shivakumar during a breakfast meeting at the CM’s residence in Bengaluru on Saturday | PTI J&K-PoK barter is intra-state trade, rules HC F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar In a significant judgment, the J&K and Ladakh High Court ruled that trade between J&K and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) qualifies as intra-state trade, as PoK is part of J&K and trade is bound by the GST Act. Cross-LoC trade between J&K and PoK was started in 2008 as a confidence building measure by India and Pakistan. However, after the February 14, 2019 Pulwama suicide attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed and many others injured, India suspended the cross-LoC trade and cross-LoC bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, PoK’s capital. “The cross-LoC trade was essentially a barter trade where there was no exchange of currency from either side. This crossLoC trade was between the people living across LoC i.e., trade between two parts of the State of Jammu and Kashmir - one, the then ‘State of Jammu and Kashmir’ and the other PoK, observed a division bench of J&K High Court comprising justices Sanjeev Kumar and Sanjay Parihar. The division bench was hearing at least 35 petitions challenging CGST show-cause notices issued to them. 4 SC circulars specify oral mention rule, urgent matters u d aya n k i s h o r e @ New Delhi US on October 30. Captain C S Randhawa, former Deputy Chief flight Inspector Operations, DGCA, told this newspaper, “A flight from Cancun in Mexico to Newark International Airport in the US suddenly lost altitude when flying and caused injuries to the passengers on board. This happened when the auto-pilot mode was on, which is meant to smoothly take care of operations. It was later detected that the Elevated Aileron Computer in the cockpit had malfunctioned due to solar radiation,” he said. For cases requiring advance listing due to urgent interim orders, parties must submit the mentioning proforma and a letter explaining the urgency to the Mentioning Officer by 3 pm on the previous working day or 11.30 am on a Saturday . Exceptions are limited to anticipatory bail, death penalty, habeas corpus and urgent eviction or demolition issues. No listing on same day unless liberty is involved or a death sentence is to be executed CJI Surya Kant Koyilandy MLA Kanathil Jameela passed away on Saturday at a private hospital in Kozhikode following illness. She was 59. The CPM leader had been convalescing at home for the last six months after undergoing treatment for cancer. Jameela had a unique political ascent, achieving the rare feat of serving and winning elections across all three tiers of the panchayat system before being elected to the assembly in 2021. Born in Kuttiadi, Jameela inherited her political fervour from her father, T K K Abdulla, a frontline com● More on P7 munist leader during the Emergency era.