kottayam l sunday l september 06, 2026 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city EDITION Putin, Zelenskyy agree to pause strikes during talks with U.S. The pause on strikes on Kyiv and Moscow from Saturday was tied to Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner’s (pics ) visit to Moscow and Kyiv russia says ‘no talk of new ideas’ Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed, in a clip from Tass News, that Kushner and Witkoff would meet Putin during their Moscow visit on Saturday, but said there was “no talk of new ideas” to end the conflict. The envoys’ trip comes as both Ukraine and Russia escalate aerial attacks, some 4.5 years after the Kremlin’s invasion of its neighbour ■ 53 u.s. push to stop war loses momentum ■ Washington’s push to end the fighting, now in its fifth year, has lost momentum as US attention has been focused for the past six months on its war with Iran and a protracted engagement in the Gulf | P9 The two US envoys were received in Moscow by envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who shared photos cap tioned “Welcome to Moscow Peacemakers” drones of ukraine shot down by russia on friday night 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 all 10 guilty in Naxal attack that wiped out C’garh Cong leadership Awaiting punishment EJ A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with a boy in Delhi Metro en route to the Shri Ram College of Commerce for its centenary celebrations on Saturday | PTI PM taps Gen Z idiom, calls SRCC alumni the OGs WITH THIS ISSUE will meet two kinds of people. One kind consists of people PRIME Minister Narendra who positively transform the Modi struck a distinctly Gen Z strength of society into the note as he addressed students strength of the nation. The secat Shri Ram College of Com- ond kind is made up of people merce (SRCC) in Delhi on the who become the ‘naraz fufa’ occasion of Teachers’ Day on whenever any work is started. Saturday, using contemporary Their favourite thing is to opphrases like “OG (original pose everything?” he said. gangster)” and invok“ W h e n we we re ing popular culture building the world’s while returning to the tallest statue, the ‘fufa’ campus 13 years after said, ‘What is the need Those who saw the for this?’ When we his 2013 visit. glass as half Setting the tone earstarted working on the empty in 2013, ly in his speech, Modi high-speed train, the referred to SRCC’s when I had visited ‘fufa’ again said, ‘What the SRCC, still alumni as trendsetters choose to see it the is the need for this? in their own right. “If When we introduced same way today I say it in Gen Z lanUPI, these same ‘fufas’ Narendra Modi, guage, they are OG,” asked, ‘Why UPI.’ PM at SRCC he said, pointing to When we built the new their contributions Parliament building, across fields. He added, they again said, ‘What is the “Dhurandhar na ho, lekin need for this?’” Modi said. dhoom toh machayi hai.” Reflecting on SRCC’s legacy, Modi also took aim at critics Modi drew from his personal of the government’s develop- interactions with alumni ment initiatives during his ad- across sectors. “Our Arun Jaitdress, calling them “naraz fufa ley studied here. Currently my , (aggrieved uncle)” who oppose team includes Sanjeev Sanyal, all projects by asking why they who also studied here. In other are needed. He told students, words, SRCC members have “Outside this campus, you will made a name for themselves in encounter a new world. You every field,” he said. I f rah M u f t i @ New Delhi Squeezed PLUS in the12 PAGES Middle PLUS 12 P AGES express read Messi row: New report flags bid to dupe govt T’Puram: Unearthing more irregularities in the aborted visit of football superstar Lionel Messi and his Argentina team to the state, a new report has flagged deliberate attempts by the sponsor to dupe the state government. P4 Party probe into scuffle involving MLA Ramya T’Puram: The KPCC has ordered an inquiry into the scuffle involving Chirayinkeezhu MLA Ramya Haridas and Congress leaders that took place on Friday night. P4 A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) Court in Jagdalpur on Saturday convicted all 10 surviving Maoist insurgents, including three women, on trial for their alleged role in the ghastly 2013 Jhiram Ghati massacre in south Chhattisgarh, known as one of India’s most politically catastrophic terror strikes. The court of special judge Ajay Singh Rajput found all the accused guilty of terror and mass murder, and will announce the quantum of punishment on September 16. The accused are lodged in Jagdalpur Central Jail in Bastar. The prosecution examined as many as 101 witnesses in the The convicts were identified as Pramila Modiyam, Chaitu Lekam, Sumitra Punem Modiyam, Mukka Mandavi, Kosa Kavasi, Aayata Markam, Madkami Deva, Joga Madkami, Banjami Sanna and Mahadev Nag. Kosa Kavasi’s brother Guddu claimed that Kosa and Mukka Mandavi had been falsely implicated in the case case. Defence counsel Arvind Choudhary said his team will appeal against the verdict in higher courts. The 10 individuals convicted for orchestrating and executing the bloodshed hailed from the Bastar region. On May 25, 2013, ahead of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections, a convoy of the Congress’ ‘Parivartan Yatra’ returning from a rally in Sukma was ambushed by heavily-armed Maoists in the dense forests of Jhiram valley between Darbha and Tongpal. The ambush wiped out virtually the entire top-tier leadership of the state Congress. Among the 31 killed were then- Woman, 60, trapped in flood slush at home, rescued after 10 days in Nepal S V K R I S H N A C H A I TA N YA @ Kathmandu Rescue teams on Saturday pulled a Chinese national alive from a tunnel at the Upper T r i s h u l i - 1 H yd ro e l e c t r i c Project, nearly two weeks after the devastating flood that swept through Nepal’s northern districts, while rescuers separately saved a 60-year-old woman trapped inside a debris-buried house in Nuwakot. In the rescue operation in Betrawati, Nuwakot, an Armed Police Force team led by Inspector Suman B K rescued Chandika Shrestha from the top floor of a four-storey house owned by her husband, Anand Shrestha. The house had been buried under debris following the devastating floods. Shrestha was brought out alive from a window on the top floor. She had passed out when rescuers spotted her but gradually regained Death toll crosses 1,300, including 85 children The death toll from the flash floods in Nepal reached 1,344 on Saturday as more bodies were recovered. They included 85 children, while 501 were found with body parts missing, officials said. As many as 1,030 bodies have been temporarily buried after DNA collection The woman rescued from her house in Betrawati, Nuwakot | Express consciousness. Her family had performed symbolic last rites assuming she was dead, after they could not find her for several days following the flash floods. At the Upper Trishuli-1 Hydroelectric Project, the Chinese national, identified as Luhaitao, was rescued from about 225 metres inside the tunnel by a joint team involving the Nepali Army and foreign personnel. Further search and rescue operations at the hydropower project are continuing. The rescue comes a day after two Nepali workers, Sanjay Sah and Kabir Maharjan, were pulled alive from a tunnel at the Trishuli-3A Hydroelectric Project after being trapped for nine days. The two rescues have raised hopes that more people could still be alive inside underground structures across the flood-hit hydropower projects. 8 from TN killed as car rams parked truck M K S a j e e v k u mar @Thrissur A leisure trip by friends ended in a tragedy as eight engineering students from Tamil Nadu were killed after their car rammed a parked goods truck on an underconstruction NH-66 stretch at Panambikkunnu in Kaipamangalam, Thrissur, late on Friday . The car was proceeding from Guruvayur towards Kodungallur when it crashed into the rear of the Maharashtra-registered truck around 11.45pm. According to the police, the lorry was parked illegally on the side of the highway near a barricaded stretch where traffic had been diverted as part of ongoing NH work. Police said the car was travelling at a high speed and the driver apparently failed to no- The mangled remains of the car that rammed a parked truck on the NH 66 stretch truck in Kaipamangalam, Thrissur, on Friday night | Express tice the diversion before the collision. The impact left the car mangled beyond recognition. Hearing the sound of the crash, local residents and people sleeping in other parked trucks rushed to the spot and alerted the police and fire and rescue services personnel. Rescue operations continued for hours as firefighters used cutters to retrieve the bodies trapped inside the car. The deceased are Viswam of Salem, who was driving the car, Surya, Yuvasanjith and Jeeva N of Dindigul, Santhosh, Prasanna, Joshua Hilson J and Muralikrishnan M of Madurai — all aged around 20 and students of PSNA College of Engineering and Technology in Dindigul. The friends had set out on the trip in the hired vehicle reportedly to celebrate the purchase of a new car by Santhosh. The accident has raised questions over the alleged lapses in safety arrangements on the NH 66 construction stretch. The lorry was parked without adequate warning lights, hazard indicators, or reflectors. The stretch was also poorly lit, with no sufficient streetlighting to alert motorists to the obstruc● More on P5 tion ahead. The tournament will be conducted in accordance with the guidelines of the Kerala Cricket Association, and KCA-approved umpires will officiate the matches Fr Dominic Muriyankavunkal Members of Kathanar Cricket Club, the team of the Changanassery archdiocese, during a practice session at Bails Arena Oval Cricket Turf, Puthuppally Come September 9, Puthupally will witness an unusual cricket contest. Christian priests from across the state and denominations is set to swap the pulpit for the pitch, as they come together to battle it out for the inaugural Kathanar Cricket League. Organised by the Kathanar Cricket Club (KCC) under the Syro-Malabar Archdiocese of The CBI has registered an FIR against Subhash Chandra for allegedly inflating his net worth to avail loans from LICHFL and defaulting on repayment | P7 JLR to slash headcount by 4k in UK as US levy bites @ New Delhi india spin a web Shafali Verma (L) celebrates the wicket of Muneeba Ali with Richa Ghosh (R) as Pakistan collapsed from 27/0 to 55 all out against India in the Women’s T20 Asia Cup on Saturday. India chased the total in 8.4 overs to win by seven wickets | bcci From pulpit to pitch: Priests gear up for Kathanar Cricket League Changanassery, the first edition of the tournament will bring together priests united by the passion for cricket while providing a platform to foster fellowship and camaraderie beyond the Church. Priests from the Syro-Malabar, Latin Catholic, SyroMalankara, Malankara Orthodox and Mar Thoma denominations will participate in the tournament. Deacons from St Thomas seminary, Essel group founder booked by CBI e X p r e ss n e w s S e r v ic e A different ball game A B H I L A S H C H A N D R A N @Kottayam Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh Patel, former Union Minister Vidya Charan Shukla, senior Congress leader and Salwa Judum architect Mahendra Karma, and former MLA Uday Mudliyar, alongside several party workers. The then Raman Singh-led BJP government handed over the probe to the NIA within two days of the attack. NIA filed a supplementary chargesheet on September 28, 2015, following arrest of two more suspects. In January 2019, the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the attack, alleging NIA had not investigated the larger conspiracy behind the attack. Vadavathoor, have also been invited to take part. The tournament will be held at Bails Arena Oval Cricket Turf, Puthuppally, on September 9 and 10. Fr Dominic Muriyankavunkal, captain of the Changanassery team, said the idea for the league emerged from the Changanassery Syro-Malabar Archdiocese, where a group of cricket-loving priests formed a club and began playing the sport. “The initiative subsequently inspired other dioceses and Christian denominations to form their own teams, eventually leading to the idea of a common tour nament,” he said. The only eligibility criterion is that players should be priests. An exception has been made for the deacons from St Thomas Seminary, who have been given a special invitation to ● More on P4 participate.  TATA Motors-owned Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is preparing to cut around 4,000 jobs in the United Kingdom (UK) over the next two years amid a drop in sales and rising costs. The luxury carmaker has taken a hit after the US slapped import duty on imports from the UK and a cyberattack in 2025 that led to a complete halt in operations. The planned job cut, reported by The Times, is part of JLR’s effort to deliver 1.7 billion British pounds (`21,700 crore) in savings and reduce its breakeven point to 300,000 vehicles. The carmaker has already told employees and trade union partners that it is opening a voluntary redundancy programme for salaried and management staff. JLR employs around 34,000 people directly in the UK across three sites in the West Midlands and another in Halewood, Merseyside. “Today we informed our col, leagues and trade union partners that JLR is opening a voluntary redundancy programme offering salaried and management team members the opportunity to leave the business. We will share further information with our colleagues first,” the company added. JLR’s profits fell by 10% in the quarter to June 2026, while pre-tax profit dropped by more than two-thirds to £109 million. US President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a 10% tariff on cars imported from UK hit its operations in its biggest market. North America accounts for 29% of JLR’s sales.