kochi l thursday l july 24, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION ICJ: Countries harmed by climate change entitled to reparations The International Court of Justice said affected countries can claim reparations but what they are owed could be determined on a case-by-case basis U.N. Court’s Legal opinion, but non-binding Failure to protect planet a wrongful act In its first ever opinion on climate change, the ICJ said the consequences of climate change are far-reaching as they affect both natural ecosystems and human populations. “These consequences underscore the urgent and existential threat posed by climate change,” said judge Yuji Iwasawa while reading out the opinion, which is advisory in nature and non-binding | P9 ■ ■ “Failure of a state to take appropriate action to protect the climate system... may constitute an internationally wrongful act,” he added After years of efforts by vulnerable island nations who fear they could disappear under rising sea waters, the UN General Assembly asked the top UN court in 2023 for an advisory opinion on climate change 130 Countries backed the case, brought by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu 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 In company of communist legends After 22-hour-long funeral procession, CPM veteran cremated with full state honours as thousands brave heavy rain to bid him farewell A n i l S @Alappuzha Kerala Police present Guard of Honour to former chief minister and CPM icon V S Achuthanandan at Valiyachudukadu in Alappuzha on Wednesday | T P Sooraj 12.20pm: After 22 hours on the road, funeral procession carrying VS’ mortal remains from Thiruvananthapuram reaches Velikkakath house, his ancestral home, at Paravoor in Alappuzha 3.20pm: The body is kept for public homage at CPM’s Alappuzha district committee office 6.10pm: Police present Guard of Honour 5.50pm: Funeral procession reaches Recreation Ground near Alappuzha Beach where thousands pay respects 9pm: Mortal remains brought to Valiyachudukadu 9.10pm: Full gun salute 9.15pm: VS’ son V A Arun Kumar lights funeral pyre Onward to a final resting place, to be in the company of martyrs and his comrades. After a six-year interval, former Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan, for one last time, returned to the very land that once reverberated with revolutionary slogans and heart-wrenching tales of the Punnapra-Vayalar uprising. A founding leader of the CPM, VS, who breathed his last on Monday was cremated with , full state honours, including a full gun salute, at Martyrs’ Column at Valiyachudukadu in Alappuzha on Wednesday His . son V A Arun Kumar lit the funeral pyre around 9.10pm, a good six hours after the scheduled time. It was here in 2019 that VS had his final outing with the masses, the last time he addressed legions of adoring fans. Abiding by a long-held practice, he had come to attend the anniversary of the 1946 Punnapra-Vayalar uprising, when he suffered a stroke that left him incapacitated. V A Arun Kumar lights the funeral pyre of his father V S Achuthanandan at Valiyachudukadu | T P Sooraj On Wednesday, he returned once again, accompanied by thousands who thronged the place from across the state, giving scant regard to the heavy rain, to catch one final glimpse of their beloved leader. The tremendous love and affection the masses had for the stalwart was reflected in emotional chants of ‘Kanne Karale Veeyese’ echoing through the 150-km-long stretch from the state capital to his hometown. It took the procession nearly 22 hours to cover the distance to reach Velikkakath house at 12.20pm on Wednesday . Tens of thousands waited patiently along the way through the night to bid adieu to the leader they loved, adored and trusted with their lives. An ocean of emotions could be seen surging through the everburgeoning crowd. When it rained, it seemed as if even the skies had opened up to join the thousands of mourners. Among the umpteen wailing faces, one could spot a child perched on the roof of an adjacent building. Clutching at her aunt’s hands, she too raised slogans with the others, with the same energy . “He was our own comrade: a rose-petal in our lives. What more to say!” averred five-yearold Aira B Hamid, a Class 1 student of Puramattom Higher Secondary School in Pathanamthitta. The mortal remains were kept for public homage at VS’ home, then the district committee office, and later at the Recreation Ground.  ● More on P4 Shah sets Justice Varma Now, tourist visa to Chinese nationals impeachment ball rolling Decision after Jaishankar’s visit Jaya n t h Jac o b @ New Delhi P r e e t h a Na i r @ New Delhi Days after the abrupt resignation of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, the government set the ball rolling for the impeachment of Allahabad High Court judge Yaswant Varma with Union minister Amit Shah holding high level meetings with Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh on Wednesday . Sources said while Birla and Harivansh held a meeting at Parliament to discuss the proceedings, Shah met them later. According to people familiar with the development, the Lok Sabha Speaker may now initiate the process to set up a statutory committee to examine the charges of corruption levelled against the judge. The committee comprising a senior judge of the Supreme Court, a sitting chief justice of a high court and a distinguished jurist will then probe the charges against him and submit its report in three months. If the committee finds him guilty, the inquiry report will LS Speaker Om Birla and RS deputy chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh RS notice now active “A notice was given in RS on Justice Verma which he acknowledged and almost admitted it. When the chair has pronounced his ruling that it has fulfilled the stipulated requirement, it’s an order,” an RS member said be tabled in Parliament, followed by a discussion in both Houses after which there will be voting on the motion for the removal of the judge. The meeting of the presiding officers assumes significance as the impeachment process of Justice Varma reportedly led to the resignation of Dhankhar. Though there was no official word on the reason behind his exit, sources say it is linked to Dhankhar’s acceptance of a notice sponsored by the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, which went against the government’s plan to lead the offensive. While a total of 145 Lok Sabha and 63 Rajya Sabha MPs submitted notices to the presiding officers for the removal of Varma on Monday, Dhankhar took cognisance of the Opposition notice and made a statement in the Rajya Sabha. Speaking to this newspaper, a senior Rajya Sabha MP said that the notice is active as the Chairman has pronounced it as an order. In his statement in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, Dhankhar said, “I direct the secretary general to find out whether a similar motion has been moved in Lok Sabha... If the motion is presented in the two houses on different dates, then the motion which is presented in the House first, that alone is taken into consideration and the second motion gets non-jurisdictional,” he said, citing the Judges (Inquiry) Act, 1968. India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese nationals from July 24, in a significant move aimed at normalising strained ties following the deadly 2020 border clashes. The Indian Embassy in Beijing confirmed the decision on Wednesday, marking the first time in five years that Chinese tourists can apply for Indian visas. The embassy announced that Chinese citizens may now submit applications online and visit Indian Visa Application Centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with the required documents. Tourist visas were suspend- The decision to lift the curbs came after foreign minister S Jaishankar visited China on July 14–15, where he held talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Vice President Han Zheng ed in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but the freeze remained in place due to ongoing tensions along the eastern Ladakh border. The resumption of tourist visas is part of a broader series of confidence-building measures between the two countries. Last month, India and China also resumed the Kailash Ma- EXPRESS READ BJP begins ‘countdown’ for LSG, assembly polls Kottayam: BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar activated a countdown clock at the party’s Kottayam west district committee office on Wednesday, signalling the start of the party’s elaborate preparations for the local body and assembly polls | P5 13 pets rescued after landslide find homes Kalpetta: Thirteen pets, orphaned following the Wayanad landslide, have found new homes outside Kerala. The animal husbandry department, in collaboration with PETA India, facilitated adoption of the pets—eight cats, three kittens and two dogs | P5 16 pages, including 4 pages of kochi Express Diplomatic coup UP police raid Westarctica embassy, arrest ‘ambassador’ N A MI TA B A J PA I @ Lucknow IN what may look like a plot straight out of a Bollywood flick, the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh Police busted a fake embassy in Ghaziabad and arrested a man who ran the fake diplomatic mission posing as the ambassador of non-existent countries. The arrest was made on Tuesday when the STF’s Noida unit raided KB 35, Kavingar, where the accused had set up the ‘Embassy of Westarctica’. Westarctica is a self-proclaimed micronation in Antarctica founded by a former US Navy officer. It is not recognised by any government. “The accused, Harshvardhan Jain, had been operating an il- Luxury cars bearing fake diplomatic number plates in front of the illegal embassy in Kavinagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Inset: Fake diplomat Harshvardhan Jain | ani legal diplomatic mission from a rented house in Ghaziabad’s Kavi Nagar,” additional direc- tor general (law & order) Amitabh Yash said on Wednesday . Police said Jain posed as the ambassador of the fictional nations of Westarctica, Saborga, Poulvia, and Lodonia. He moved around in luxury vehicles bearing fake diplomatic number plates and had morphed his photographs with prominent figures, including the Prime Minister and the President to impress and mislead people. According to officials, Jain engaged in brokering deals by falsely promising job placements for companies and individuals in foreign countries. “Investigations revealed Jain’s past connections with Godman Chandraswami as well as international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi,” Yash said. In 2011, Jain was found with illegal satellite phones and a case was registered against him at the Kavi Nagar police station, the ADG added. During the raid, the STF seized over `44 lakh in cash and foreign currency of several countries. Besides, four vehicles with diplomatic number plates, 18 diplomatic number plates, 12 diplomatic passports of micronations, forged documents with the seal of the Ministry of External Affairs, two fake PAN cards, 34 seals of various countries and companies, two fake press cards, and documents of various companies were also recovered from the house of the accused. An FIR has been lodged at Kavi Nagar police station, and further proceedings are underway the STF said. , nasarovar Yatra after a fiveyear gap. The thaw began late last year, after Indian and Chinese troops disengaged at key friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), paving the way for diplomatic reengagement. China welcomed India’s visa announcement. “It is a positive move,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun. “Making cross-border travel easier serves the interests of all parties. China stands ready to maintain communication and coordination with India to keep facilitating peopleto-people exchanges between the two countries.” Tourist visas for Indian nationals remained suspended until March, when both sides agreed to restore direct air connectivity. After a meeting between a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Russia last October, ties have steadily improved, marked by high-level engagements and confidence building measures. Divya creates history, storms into WC final was threatening to queen her b pawn. The engines said she was DIVYA Deshmukh was so spent within 20 moves of checkmate. she had no energy When asked That’s when Zhongyi resigned . to reflect, all she managed was handing the Indian her biggest a tired smile. For five hours victory till date. and change — the second tie of Even before the Chinese her women’s Chess World Cup shook hands, Deshmukh, who semifinal against Tan Zhongyi used to travel to Chennai for — and a 100+ moves, she had classes as a child, was overgone through the whole whelmed by what was gamut of emotions. about to happen. Like She was losing. She she had done a few was winning. She was times over the last week winning completely. in Batumi, a tear or two She had missed several escaped her eyes. chances. Then, at the It’s only logical bevery end, the former cause the last three w o r l d c h a m p i o n , Divya Deshmukh players she took down Zhongyi, had made one includes Zhu Jiner, D too many inaccuracies. Harika and now Zhongyi. BeatThis time, the 19-year-old, ing three established GMs still only an IM, capitalised. By back-to-back in a course of a virtue of this win, she has also week can be an immense chalqualified for the next edition of lenge for any IM, especially the women’s Candidates in 2026 someone as young as her. She as well as earning a GM norm. now has the chance to rest for a She’s one of the youngest play- couple of days before the final ers to qualify for the Candi- where she will either face comdates in decades. Up a few patriot Koneru Humpy or Chipawns in a rook endgame, she na’s Lie Tingjie. S w a r o o p S w a m i n at h a n @ Chennai ECi begins process to elect new V-P Poll panel takes cognisance of the vacancy, starts prep. Formal schedule for the Vice Presidential poll will be announced soon