chennai l wednesday l february 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late 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 | P13 ■ ■ 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 Assam gets it for failing to deport foreigners Ahead of Delhi polling, Modi tears into Rahul, Kejri in LS s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y 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 sacrifice 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 encroach- P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Tuesday lambasted the Assam government for its failure to deport individuals declared as foreigners, while ordering the state to initiate deportation proceedings against 63 whose nationalities were known. A two-judge bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan held that once individuals are declared foreigners, they should be deported immediately. “Are you waiting for some muhurat to deport?” the court asked the Assam government’s counsel. The bench said it’s for the Centre to decide where the foreigners should go, adding Assam cannot continue to detain them indefinitely . The SC was hearing a case of petitioner Rajubala against the Centre over deportation of foreigners. “Once you declare a person foreigner, you have to take the next logical step... There are many foreigner detention centres in Assam. How many have you deported?” the bench questioned. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said he would sit with External Affairs ministry officials and find a solution. SC direced the Assam government to ensure better conditions in detention centres and asked the Centre to clarify in a month how to handle ‘stateless’ individuals. german tourist killed in elephant attack A 77-year-old German tourist, identified as Mickel Jurcen, died after he was attacked by an elephant at Tiger Valley along the Pollachi-Valparai road in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR), Coimbatore district on Tuesday night | P7 dELHI votes TODAY Polling officials collect election material at a distribution centre on the eve of the Delhi Assembly elections | PTI Don sends first deportation flight to India US military flight with 205 undocumented Indians aboard to land in Amritsar today 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, will make a refuel stop at the Ramstein airbase in Germany before landing in Amritsar on Wednesday . While there was no official word 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. 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. India’s stated position is that it will take back its citizens, Anna univ rape: Court pulls up TN police’s SIT for harassing journalists R s i v a k u m a r @ Chennai The Madras High Court on Tuesday restrained the Tamil Nadu police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) from harassing journalists by issuing repeated summons, grilling them with unnecessary questions about their families and seizing their electronic devices — including mobile phones — in connection with the case over the leaking of the FIR in the sexual assault of a student inside the Anna University campus. The HC ordered the SIT to return the seized electronic devices while directing the journalists to cooperate with the investigations. The court also questioned why the SIT has not examined the police officers responsible for registering the FIR and uploading it to the of ficial website. Justice G K Ilanthiraiyan passed the orders while hearing a batch of petitions filed by the affected journalists, belonging to mainstream television channels and a newspaper. The judge posed a series of questions to the government advocate K M D Muhilan who represented the SIT. “How many people have you examined other than the journalists? Have you examined the officer who authored the FIR and uploaded it to the website,” he asked, stating that the first person to be examined must be the Station House Officer who registered the FIR. “Before examining others, why are you harassing the journalists,” the judge questioned.  P7 upon verification, if they are found to be staying in other countries illegally . At least 20,407 undocumented ‘Indians’ could be impacted by the crackdown, with 17,940 being paperless individuals with final removal orders, according to the US Department of Homeland Security Another . 2,467 are currently in detention under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Meanwhile, the Standing Committee on External Affairs on Tuesday discussed deportation of Indians. Panel members sought to know how the government would handle the issue as it “involves the lives and livelihood” of thousands of Indians. Sources said the panel was apprised that the government is in talks with the US authorities on migration and movement of people. After the meeting, Congress leader Rajeev Shukla claimed 7.25 lakh Indians face deportation. The figure is from a Pew Research report, citing estimates from the year 2021. Constitution rap Hitting out at Rahul’s Constitution pitch, the PM said, “those who walk with Constitution in their pockets forget Muslim women. We ended triple talaq, gave women their rights. We live by the Constitution.” Urban Naxal lingo Have three members of a SC or ST family served as members of Parliament together at any point in time ever? PM’s broadside against Sonia’s family ment, 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 In a veiled attack on Rahul, he said, “Some openly speak the language of urban Naxals and attack the Indian state. They don’t understand Constitution or democracy.” from across parties were demanding 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 . at kilambakkam Woman waiting for bus abducted, assaulted by trio E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai An 18-year-old woman from Assam, who was waiting for a bus near the busy Kilambakkam terminus on Monday night, was allegedly kidnapped in an autorickshaw and sexually assaulted inside the vehicle by three men, including the auto driver, at knife-point. Tambaram city police are combing through CCTV footage from the locality to identify the men, and two special teams have been formed to nab them. Sources said the woman managed to contact the police after the men put her in another auto passing by and asked that driver to drop her off at Koyambedu. That auto driver is believed to have helped her contact her relatives in Chennai who, in turn, reached out to the police. Meanwhile, the police control room had also been alerted by passersby who saw her struggling in the first auto after she was abducted, sources said. Police managed to rescue her near Koyembedu around midnight. According to a source, the woman, who is employed as a domestic worker in Salem, had come to Chennai to visit her relative in Madhavaram.  P7 a r t o f d e c e pti o n Love, luxe and loot: Interstate thief nabbed January 20 for stealing gold and silver ornaments worth `12.25 lakh from a house in MEET Panchakshari Sangayya Madiwala. Swami, a 37-year-old thief with Swami had over 150 cases of a taste for the high life. robbery and theft across A state-level kickboxer Telangana, Maharashand black belt in karate, tra, Gujarat and KarnaSwami had a penchant taka and had been arf o r g i f t i n g l av i s h rested twice before. presents to his loved When he turned 24, he ones, including a `3 came in contact with crore palatial house to the Bollywood actress. his bar dancer girlP S Swami Police believed he friend and a `22 lakh would spend up to `15 aquarium to a well-known Bol- lakh for every visit to the aclywood actress. But law caught tress. He gifted her the pricey up with him when he was ar- aquarium on one of her rested by Bengaluru police on birthdays. Express News Service @ Bengaluru Illustration: Mandar Pardikar Besides this, he had also constructed a palatial building for his girlfriend, a bar dancer in Kolkata. “He had met her at a bar and had fallen in love. He constructed the bungalow costing `3 crore for her using his ill-gotten money police said, adding that ,” Swami was married but his wife deserted him. His latest arrest was made possible by CCTV footage and technical evidence. Police said he had melted all stolen gold ornaments and converted them into gold biscuits. Police recovered a fire gun that he used to melt gold.