Flight disruptions at Mumbai airport due to network outage BELAGAVI l sunday l august 10, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l LATE city EDITION A third-party data network outage at Mumbai airport on Saturday caused a delay in flight operations of multiple airlines. Though the glitch affected the airport systems for a couple of minutes, it took an hour to fix it, a source said. “Around 4 pm, the passenger processing handling system was moved to manual mode as the systems reported a glitch. Due to this, there was some disruption in several flight operations,” an official source said Photo: IANS ki st an 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 Possible Structural damage Pa Roof damage Bholari airbase India Rajasthan Aftermath of A gaping hole in the roof of a hangar in Bholari airbase in Pakistan the missile strike after India’s missile strike. A large aircraft was destroyed there India opposes plastic phase-out list TNIE in Switzerland S V Krishna Chaitanya @ geneva IAF hit Pak for a six F during Op Sindoor E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Bengaluru WITH THIS ISSUE Toy Story The rise of the ‘Kidult’ is transforming the toy industry. Is it merely a hobby, or does it reflect something deeper? PLUS 12 P AGES FOR the first time, a senior Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has confirmed that six Pakistan Air Force aircraft were shot down during Operation Sindoor, carried out amid heightened tensions along the northwestern border after the April 22 Pahalgam terror attacks. Speaking in Bengaluru on Saturday, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh said the IAF had destroyed five fighter jets and one large aircraft in the operation. Speaking at the 16th Air Chief Marshal LM Katre Memorial Lecture, Air Chief Marshal Singh said that one of the kills during Operation Sindoor was the IAF’s longest-ever surface-toair strike. He credited Russian-made defence systems for helping the force dominate the skies. “We have confirmed the destruction of at least five fighter jets and one large aircraft, possibly an ELINT or an AEW&C, which was taken down from nearly 300 km away — the longest recorded surfaceto-air kill we can disclose,” IAF Chief Marshal said. “Apart from these aircraft, many Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and drones were also brought down. Some of their missiles even fell in our territory and we have recovered , them,” he said, further adding that large amount of wreckage has been collected and is being examined to determine what missions they carried out, where they were launched from, the routes they took, the systems they used, their generation, and their features. The recently acquired S-400 system has proven to be a game-changer, Singh said, explaining that its range has kept enemy aircraft out of reach, preventing them from using long-range weapons like glide bombs, as they have been unable to breach the system’s defences.  P5 or the first time in the global plastics treaty negotiations, India openly opposed the inclusion of any global list with phase-out dates under the article on plastic products — a move that puts it squarely alongside Kuwait and the Like-Minded Group (LMG) of countries that includes Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran. Speaking at the second part of the fifth session of the Intergover nmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5.2) in Geneva, Vir Vikram Yadav, Chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board and member of India’s delegation, warned that such provisions would have “larger implications in respect of the right to development of Member States” and should be avoided. “T he instr ument needs to have clearly defined scope… Separate article on supply or any measures to regulate the production of primary plastic polymers has larger implications… Similarly, inclusion of any global list with phaseout dates under the article on plastic products should be avoided,” Yadav told the stocktake plenary . India also reiterated that all decisions should be taken by consensus and that the treaty’s scope should focus strictly on “addressing plastic pollution only” as mandated by the 5/14 resolution, without overlapping with other multilateral bodies such as the WTO or WHO. The stance aligns with Kuwait’s call, on behalf of the Arab Group, for a “party-driven process” and for avoiding irreconcilable issues, as well as with Iran’s rejection of standalone texts on scope, supply and exemptions. This bloc has resisted broaden- ‘Tariffs will bring India, Russia closer’ J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi FORMER US National Security Advisor John Bolton has warned that punitive tariffs imposed on India could backfire strategically, pushing New Delhi closer to Russia and China, the very outcome decades of American diplomacy have sought to avoid. In an interview with CNN, Bolton said: “ T r u m p ’s t a r i f f s against India are intended to hurt Russia, but they could push India closer to Russia and to China to oppose these tariffs.” He warned that Trump’s le- niency towards China while taking a heavy-handed approach with India was undermining long-term US interests. “Trump’s leniency on the Chinese, and heavyhanded tariffs on India, jeopardise decades of American efforts to bring India away from Russia and China,” Bolton said. In April, Trump briefly escalated a trade war with China, only to pause further action, pending a potential deal. On July 30, he announced a 25% tariff on Indian imports — a significant hike from the previous average of 2.4%. India also faces addition- al tariff of 25% due to its continued purchases of Russian oil, which Trump argues funds the ‘war in Ukraine.’ In his op-ed for The Hill, Bolton earlier called Trump’s trade policy “an enormous mistake and entirely counterproductive for America.” He emphasised that levying tariffs on both allies and adversaries erodes long-standing diplomatic capital with India. “The US, by levying tariffs on friend and foe alike, has likely suffered a considerable loss of trust and confidence, built over decades of effort, in exchange for minimal economic gains,” he wrote. “This is a geopolitical own goal ... one that could cost US far more than it gains economically .” ing the treaty’s mandate to include production caps or health provisions and has pushed for more procedural control by member states. The negotiations, chaired by Ecuador’s Ambassador Luis Vayas Valdivieso, face a firm August 14 deadline to deliver a final text. But divisions on scope, product bans and production controls remain entrenched. The Chair has urged delegates to clear converged articles for transmission to the legal drafting group and to avoid procedural deadlock. India’s intervention marks a shift from its image as a global model for single-use plastics (SUP) bans.  Continued on: P5 e x p r ess r e a d PM to open Vande Bharat between B’luru-Belagavi Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the Vande Bharat Express between Bengaluru and Belagavi at KSR Bengaluru City Railway Station on Sunday. He will also launch the Yellow Line of Namma Metro, stretching 19.15 km from RV Road to Bommasandra | P2 RG Kar victim’s mother alleges assault by police Kolkata: The mother of the RG Kar victim on Saturday alleged that she was roughed up by women police personnel during a march to West Bengal state secretariat ‘Nabanna’, called to mark one year of the rape and murder of her daughter at the state-run hospital | P8