chennai l tuesday l june 24, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Kirsty Coventry: First female IOC president takes charge Out-going International Olympic president International hands over key of Olympic House to Coventry Olympic Committee in Lausanne during Handover Ceremony breaking glass ceiling, ushering in new era troubled times but promise in horizon Coventry has quite a few first on Monday after taking charge of the IOC. Besides being the first female, she is the first African, youngest at the age of 41 and first from a developing nation (Zimbabwe). The multiple Olympic medallist is supposed to bring in freshness and usher in a new progressive era in IOC. She also served in Zimbabwe govt as sports minister ■ ■ She will walk into a world that’s politically charged with war and conflict raging in quite a few regions. Hosting 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles in Trump era will be a challenge as well She said she would collaborate and govern. “I believe you get more collective if everyone feels that they’ve at least had a say...” Eight the number of years she will be in office 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 visa, First Iranian strike on U.S. base in Qatar For USmediaset social to Identity verification a G E N C I ES IRAN fired multiple missiles against a US military base in Qatar on Monday, a day after the US hit its nuclear sites. This is the first time that Iran has launched a direct attack against US assets. However, US media reports said Iran had informed Qatar in advance to minimise casualties, suggesting that the retaliatory attacks were a symbolic move. Reports said multiple explosions were heard in Doha as missiles flew and interceptors fired, lighting up the sky. Qatar’s airspace was closed amid fears of an Iranian attack. The US air base in Iraq was also reportedly targeted. Qatar is home to a large Israel Syria Iraq Iran Saudi Arabia Qatar US military bases in the Middle East number of expatriates, many of them Indians. “In view of the ongoing situation, Indian community in Qatar is urged to be cautious and remains indoors,” an advisory by the Indian embassy in Qatar read. The Al Udeid Air Base, located near Doha, is the largest US military installation in the re- gion, which is also the home to US Central Command’s forward headquarters. It hosts around 10,000 US troops and also includes UK military personnel on rotation. Qatar condemned the attack, saying it “reserves the right to respond directly in a manner equivalent with the nature and scale of this brazen aggression”. The Foreign Ministry of Qatar issued a statement late on Monday saying Qatari air defences “thwarted the attack and successfully intercepted the Iranian missiles,” with no injuries or deaths reported. Meanwhile, Israel continued to strike multiple sites in Iran on Monday, including Fordo, which the US claimed to have ‘obliterated’ on Sunday  . P11 Flight with nose damage: ‘Pilots had no clear plan’ s l a l i t h a @ New Delhi IndiGo pilots on a Delhi to Srinagar flight last month, which suffered extensive nose damage due to a heavy hailstorm, did not have any clear plan to handle the situation, aviation regulator DGCA said in its report. The Air Traffic Control, too, faulted the pilots for their decisions. On May 21, 227 passengers on board had a miraculous escape with the nose of the flight suffered extensive damage. The pilots managed to land the flight in Srinagar. In its 29-page report, the DGCA pointed out that the forecast presented in the brief to pilots did not specify any significant weather changes. But the whether changed enroute. “The crew started taking deviations from the planned route to avoid weather in co-ordination with the three ATCs — the one at Delhi Airport, the Alpha Control for J&K and the Northern Control of the Air Force just before it reached the waypoint ASARI,” it said. “The cockpit crew were proactive in indentification of the weather. However, the actions and decisions which preceeded it indicate that the crew were not having a clear plan on the next course of action.” On convective weather systems, it said, “Pilots are advised to navigate such areas laterally than climbing or descending.” The DGCA advised pilots to take a conservative approach to decision making during adverse weather conditions. Both pilots had valid licences The probe by DGCA said that the cockpit crew (pilots) had valid licences and the flight duty times of both the crew members was within the specified time limit. The aircraft too had a valid Airworthiness Review Certificate, the DGCA probe found plainer 41 FIRs behind ED’s Tasmac probe involve `92L in bribes Si d d h a r t h Pr a b h a k a r @ Chennai The 41 FIRs registered by Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), based on which the Enforcement Directorate (ED) launched its money laundering investigation three months ago into the affairs of Tasmac, covered bribery allegations worth `92 lakh. They predominantly involve regional and district managers, flying squad officials, supervisors and salesmen of the state-owned liquor marketing company in 18 districts. Of these 41 FIRs filed between 2017 and 2022, 34 were registered during the previous AIADMK regime while the remaining seven were filed after the DMK came to power in 2021, government sources said. After intense searches at Tasmac headquarters and premises related to the firm, the ED, in a press release on March 13, said it had found incriminating materials indicating a scam of `1,000 crore, where funds generated illegally by breweries and bottling units were given as kickback to officials for getting more procurement orders from them. The agency said it found materials showing manipulation in Tasmac’s tender allocations, irregularities in transfer postings, bar licence tenders and indent orders favouring a few distilleries.  P7 double impact KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant score hundreds and share 195-run stand in the second innings of first Test England on Monday. India are in command after taking 370-run lead | AP | P13 India braces for Strait choke Over 2,000 Indians evacuated 290 more Indians were evacuated from Iran on Monday, the Ministry of External Affairs said. With this, 2,003 Indians have been rescued. The first batch of 161 Indians from Israel will reach Delhi at 1:20 am on Tuesday Photo: Martin Louis In the first set of bypolls to be held after Operation Sindoor, the Opposition bagged four out of five assembly seats, in which elections were held across four states. The ruling BJP in Gujarat retained the Kadi constituency . While the AAP received a shot in the arm in Punjab and Gujarat after its recent setbacks in Delhi, the Congress romped home with a convincing victory in Kerala ahead of assembly polls in the state next year. In bengal, the TMC retained its hold on Kaliganj in Nadia district. After the Congress-led UDF wrested Nilambur from the ruling LDF in Kerala in the by- India is staring at a possible energy crisis if Iran goes ahead and closes the strategically important Strait of Hormuz. Even though the government has said oil supply to India remains intact and that it will take all necessary steps to ensure the stability of crude oil supply energy , experts and analysts think otherwise. Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Sunday said India has enough oil supplies to last for weeks. He said India has diversified sourc- es of crude oil, and out of the 5.5 million barrels of crude oil that India consumes daily, 1.5-2 million come through the Straits of Hormuz. However, data sourced from Kpler SAS—a global trade intelligence provider —shows 85% of India’s oil supplies come from the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has repeatedly threatened to close if attacked by the US. Meanwhile, oil prices fell as Iran spared energy assets and did not disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Brent oil futures dropped 6.4% to $72.07 a barrel on Monday . express read Murugan meet: DMK CM flays NEET after taunts rival AIADMK ‘manipulation’ case Actor Srikanth held in drug case E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v ic e @ Chennai Actor Srikanth (46) was arrested by the Greater Chennai Police on Monday in connection with a cocaine peddling case. The actor was arrested based on leads given by T Prasad, an AIADMK IT wing member, Pradeep Kumar (38) and John (38), a Ghana native, who were all arrested for peddling cocaine, a c c o rd i n g t o N u n g a m bakkam police. The Anti-Narcotics Intelligence Unit had seized 11g of cocaine from Pradeep and John on June 17. Their confessional statements revealed they had sourced the drug from Prasad, who had also sold it to Srikanth at a popular resto bar in Nungambakkam a month ago. Police had arrested Prasad last month in an unrelated attempt-to-murder case regarding a brawl at the same resto bar. It was also alleged that he was part of a job fraud racket along with two cops — a personal security officer of an MP and a sub-inspector from Coimbatore.  P7 Cong wrests seat in Kerala, AAP holds its ground in Guj, Punjab Pr e e t h a N a ir @ New Delhi R a k e s h K u m a r @ New Delhi polls with Aryadan Shoukath’s win over CPI (M) state secretariat member M Swaraj, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said working as a team with pointed focus, is the most important lesson of success. While the AAP’s Gopal Italia won from Gujarat’s Visavadar seat, his party also retained the Ludhiana West seat. The Congress which is seeking to strengthen the organisation in Gujarat by appointing new district party chiefs, suffered a setback with state party president Shaktisinh Gohil stepping down, taking moral responsibility for the loss on the two constituencies. Both Gujarat and Punjab will face assembly elections in 2027.  P10 Big margin of victory The Trinamool Congress retained Kaliganj by a massive margin of 50,049 votes over BJP’s Ashish Ghosh. In a post on X, TMC’s Derek O’Brien that since the 2024 LS elections, the TMC has won all 11 bypolls held in Bengal with a vote share higher than that registered in the 2024 LS elections Chennai: After Dravidian ideologues E V R Periyar and C N Annadurai were strongly criticised at the Murugan maanadu that took place in Madurai on Sunday, in which former AIADMK ministers took part, the DMK taunted the rival party asking if it had “replaced Annadurai’s image with that of Amit Shah” on its flag | P4 Chennai: Referring to a CBI case against a Maharashtra man and a few officials of the NTA over alleged mark manipulation in NEET-UG exam, CM M K Stalin on Monday said, “The test has never been about merit, it’s only about the market” | P4 public visibility E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v ic e @ New Delhi In a major overhaul of its visa screening process, the US embassy has advised all applicants for F, M, or J non-immigrant visas to set their personal social media accounts to public visibility effective immediately , . The policy, aimed at strengthening national security protocols, is designed to enhance identity verification and assist consular officers in determining applicants’ admissibility under US immigration law. F visas are intended for academic students attending US colleges, universities, or language training programmes; M visas cover non-academic VISA or vocational study; and J visas are reserved for individuals participating in exchange programmes, including, research scholars, and cultural exchange participants. The US Embassy in India posted on X: “Every visa adjudication is a national security decision.” Making social media accounts public became mandatory for vetting processes since 2019. Officials reiterated that all available information, including online presence, is used in visa screening to detect potential threats. The US State Department temporarily paused the issuance of student visas as it developed new social media screening guidelines on May-end.