TUESDAY 24 INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE JUNE, 2025 Eight epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard THE NUMBER OF YEARS SHE WILL BE IN OFFICE HITLER SONG WEST TO PERFORM IN SLOVAKIA TROUBLED TIMES BUT PROMISE IN HORIZON US rapper Kanye West, who released a song in May glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, will perform at a festival in Bratislava in July, organisers said on Monday. A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 She said she would collaborate and govern. “I believe you get more collective if everyone feels that they’ve at least had a say...” KIRSTY COVENTRY: FIRST FEMALE IOC PRESIDENT TAKES CHARGE Out-going International Olympic president hands over key of Olympic House to Coventry in Lausanne during Handover Ceremony visa, FIRST IRANIAN STRIKE ON U.S. BASE IN QATAR For USmediaset social to IDENTITY VERIFICATION AGENCIES 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 P9 ‘obliterated’ on Sunday . 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 investigation found EXPRESS READ Preserve docus on Emergency: Modi PM Narendra Modi on Monday suggested Prime Ministers Museum and Library (PMML) Society to prepare a compilation of all the legal battles and documents relating to the ‘Emergency’ and preserve them. Modi was chairing an annual general meeting of the PMML Society, which was also attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and others. | P5 DOUBLE IMPACT 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 SMUGGLING 72K LITRES ATF FUEL SEIZED, 6 ARRESTED EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi Delhi Police on Monday claimed to have busted an Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) smuggling racket and arrested six people involved in siphoning off the jet fuel and selling it in black market. According to police, the racket was being operated from a godown in Mundka area, from where they recovered 72,000 litres of ATF fuel, saving the national exchequer from a monthly loss of `1.62 crore. Two persons have been arrested. Based on a tip-off, police conducted a raid at a concealed godown in Mundka village. Three oil tankers, each loaded with 24,000 litres of ATF, were found to be siphoned using pipes into barrels, DCP (Crime) Aditya Gautam said. Two pick-up trucks meant for further transportation of stolen fuel were also seized. Additionally duplicate master keys, bar, rels filled with stolen ATF, and `1.05 lakh in cash were recovered from the spot. The ATF was originally loaded at the HPCL Asoda Depot, Bahadurgarh, in Haryana, for delivery to IGIA. The accused drivers, in collusion with the transporter and godown operator, manipulated the GPS tracking system and diverted the tankers to the Mundka godown for commissioning the crime. ‘Don’t speculate on Pahalgam attackers’ 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 | P11 The NIA, probing Pahalgam terror attack, on Monday said some media coverage claiming that the sketches of attackers released by J&K cops are not the same, is “speculative and therefore of misleading nature”. “The two arrested accused persons charged for harbouring terror perpetrators were produced before the Special Court on June 23, 2025 at Jammu and they have been remanded to 5 days of police custody,” it said. Cong wrests seat in Kerala, AAP makes gains in Gujarat, Punjab Doval meets China foreign minister NSA Ajit Doval underscored the importance of countering terrorism in all its forms and manifestations to ensure regional peace and stability during a highlevel meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Sunday. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the 20th Meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Security Council Secretaries, where Doval is representing India. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi IN the first set of bypolls 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- polls with Aryadan Shoukath’s win over CPM 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 P8 elections in 2027. 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 R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi 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 . MONSOON LIKELY TO HIT CITY TODAY, EARLIEST ARRIVAL SINCE ’13 The national capital is poised to welcome the monsoon earlier than usual this year, with IMD issuing a yellow alert for Tuesday, warning of rain, thunderstorms, and lightning. If the monsoon sets in on June 24, it will be the earliest arrival since 2013, when it reached Delhi on June 16. The typical onset date is around June 30 | P4 public visibility E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C 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.