kollam l Wednesday l February 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION counterpunch: China announces retaliatory tariff on U.S. imports China countered President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products with levies of its own on multiple US imports as well as a probe on Google 15% tariff on coal, lng; 10% on crude oil impact on u.s. exports may be limited China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the US. The tariffs would take effect next Monday. “The US’s unilateral tariff increase violates rules of the WTO,” China’s State Council Tariff Commission said in a statement | P9 ■ ■ The impact on US exports may be limited. Though the US is the biggest exporter of LNG globally, it does not export much to China. In 2023, the US exported only 2.3% of its natural gas to China China also placed two US companies on an unreliable entities list: PVH Group, which owns Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, and Illumina 2018 was when Trump first began the tariff war with ChinA 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 Ahead of Delhi polling, Modi tears into Rahul, Kejri deportation flight to India P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi 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 immigration 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. 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 achievements happen when “we sacri- fice 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 gover nment 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 encroachment, 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 interest in foreign policy, want to understand 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. “For the last 30-35 years, MPs from across parties were de- manding constitutional status for the OBC Commission. It’s we who gave it constitutional status,” he emphasised. With Delhi going to elections the next day, the PM’s speech mostly revolved around criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party government and the alleged corruption charges against it. Targeting former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, he said, “some people are focused on building jacuzzi and showers”, while the BJP government is working to provide tap water to every home in the country . Thyroid cancer high among Anomalies found in accounts women in southern Kerala of Guruvayur Devaswom U n n i k r i s h n a n S @T’Puram Women in the state’s southern districts are more prone to thyroid cancer and those in the northern parts to ovarian and lung cancer. However, breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women across the state, data with the cancer registries show. In Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Pathanamthitta districts, thyroid cancer is the second most common form of the dreaded disease among women after breast cancer. Since 2021, the thyroid cancer rate in these districts has ranged from 13 to 22 cases per one lakh population, contributing to the state’s top ranking in t hy r o i d c a n c e r c a s e s nationwide. In contrast, the thyroid cancer rate among women in Kannur and Kasaragod districts is low. Ovarian cancer (9-12 cases per one lakh) and lung cancer (9-11 cases per one lakh) are more prevalent after breast cancer in this region. Cervical cancer rates are also notably high in these districts. The data comes from the Trivandrum Cancer Registry which tracks cases from the , Regional Cancer Centre (RCC) in Thiruvananthapuram, and the Malabar Cancer Registry, maintained by the Malabar Cancer Centre (MCC). In the case of breast cancer, the southern districts register a crude incidence rate of 189-208 cases per one lakh women. The rate is significantly lower in Kannur and Kasaragod, at 42-59 cases per one lakh women. ● More on P4 P R a m d a s @Kochi Citing repeated instances of improper accounting of receipts and expenditures by temple staff, the Kerala State Audit Department has flagged serious audit failures in the Gur uvayur Devaswom accounts. An affidavit submitted in the High Court by the department reveals a shortfall of nearly `27 lakh deposited in the banks over three years from the sale of gold lockets and chains. Besides, the devaswom incurred a loss of `89,55,595 in connection with installing CCTV cameras in the temple. Rajeev R, Senior Deputy Director of the Kerala State Audit Department, Guruvayur Devaswom Audit, filed the affidavit in response to a petition filed by Dr P S Mahendra Kumar of Neyyattinkara seeking a directive to the devaswom to produce the list of deposits of funds of Guruvayoor Devaswom in the cooperative societies in light of the bank scams that occurred in Thrissur dis● More on P4 trict.