mondAY 20 october, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard Gone in 4 minutes: Thieves steal Napoleon-era jewels at Louvre X.com/TheMornStandard The Morning Standard wishes its readers a Robbers on Sunday broke into the iconic Paris museum and made off with the jewels in an audacious daylight robbery lasting 4 minutes nine items stolen from gallery of apollo Our office and press will remain closed today and there will be no issue of the paper on Tuesday A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi Gaza truce strained after Israel, Hamas trade fire 33 reported dead, both sides accuse each other of breaching ceasefire Ag e n c i e s Just nine days after the guns fell silent in Gaza, the landmark ceasefire agreement appeared to be faltering on Sunday, with Israel carrying out fresh airstrikes in Gaza after accusing Hamas of violating the truce terms by firing at Israeli troops. Gaza’s civil defence agency, which operates under Hamas authority, said at least 33 people, including a woman and two children, were killed in Israeli strikes across the territory on Sunday Israel said it was check. ing reports of casualties. Israel’s military said Hamas militants opened fire on troops in parts of Rafah city that fall under Israeli control according to the agreed ceasefire lines. In response, the military launched fresh airstrikes on Hamas targets in southern Gaza, it said. Israel said it responded to at least three incidents in which “Hamas fired towards our troops standing behind the yellow line in the agreed-upon positions.” Hamas, however, insisted it was complying with the truce. Smoke billows following an Israeli strike in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday | afp The group said communication with its remaining units in Rafah had been cut off for months, and “we are not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas”. Hamas reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire, claiming in a statement that Israel “continues to breach the agreement and fabricate flimsy pretexts to justify its crimes”. The escalation comes just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed security forces to take “strong action” against Hamas targets in Gaza over alleged ceasefire violations. Israel informed the Trump administration in advance of the strikes via the US command centre overseeing the ceasefire, Axios reported. A US official said Washington urged Israel to “show restraint”. The renewed tensions follow Israel’s demand on Saturday for Hamas to fulfil its ceasefire obligations by returning the remains of all 28 deceased hostages. l J8.00 l Around 9.30 am, several intruders broke a first-floor window, cut through the glass with a disc cutter, and headed straight to the Gallery of Apollo, officials said. They are believed to have entered the museum from the riverfront side, where construction is underway, used a freight elevator to reach the gallery, stole nine items from a 23-piece Napoleon collection and fled on scooters PAGES 12 meeting on oct 22 in delhi Ladakh representatives called for talks with MHA KDA to resume talks. The delegation will include three representaIN a significant thaw after months tives each from LAB and KDA, of impasse, Ladakh’s key agita- their legal advisor, and MP Haji tors are set to resume talks with Haneefa. Dorjay said they would the Centre, with an eight-member push for the release of all detaindelegation from the Leh Apex ees, including climate activist Body (LAB) and Kargil Democrat- Sonam Wangchuk, who remains ic Alliance (KDA), alongside MP jailed under the National Security Haji Haneefa Jan, scheduled to en- Act, and seek compensation for gage a Ministry of Home Affairs the victims. (MHA) sub-committee on “The sub-committee October 22 in New Delhi. meeting will allow us to LAB co-chair man raise our issues freely, Chering Dorjay told this from detainees’ release to newspaper that the MHA We welcome the core demands of statedecision of the has invited them for talks hood and the Sixth SchedGovernment of chaired by the Union India to invite us ule,” Dorjay said. Home Secretary. This KDA leader Sajjad Kar(LAB, KDA and marks the first direct en- others) for talks in gili said the LAB and Delhi and look gagement between LadaKDA will jointly attend forward to a kh representatives and the sub-committee the Centre after the dia- positive outcome meeting. of the dialogue logue broke down follow“We are meeting for with respect to our ing protests in Leh on statehood & Sixth Scheddemands September 24 demanding ule status, justice for Sepstatehood and inclusion Chering Dorgay, LAB tember 24 victims, and under the Sixth Schedule. release of detainees inThe violence left four people cluding Sonam Wangchuk. We bedead and over 80 injured in lieve only genuine dialogue can police action. restore trust & fulfil Ladakh’s asAhead of the meeting, the MHA pirations,” he said. on October 17 announced a judiThe LAB and KDA, representcial inquiry led by a retired Su- ing political, social, religious, and preme Court judge into the Sep- trade bodies across Leh and tember 24 incident—one of the Kargil, have been seeking statekey preconditions set by LAB and hood and Sixth Schedule status. f aya z w a n i @ Srinagar Ceasefire Af, Pak to end hostilities Afghanistan and Pakistan, embroiled in fighting that has killed dozens of people and injured hundreds, pledged on Sunday to respect a ceasefire. The truce came into effect immediately | P9 Express read NMC nod for 10K MBBS seats, 41 new colleges The National Medical Commission (NMC) has approved a total of 10,650 new MBBS seats and 41 new medical colleges for the academic year 2025–26, officials revealed. With the addition of the 41 new medical colleges, the total number has gone up to 816. | P7 Centre writes to States states directed to snuff out bonded labour, trafficking J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi Need organ, tissue donation teams in all hospitals K AVITA B AJELI - DATT @ New Delhi THE Ministry of Labour and Employment (MoLE) ALL hospitals in India should have dedicated teams has directed all states and Union Territories to intento counsel families of potential organ and tissue dosify action against inter-state human trafficking and nors, the Centre said in a communication to all states. bonded labour, following mounting concerns over Hospitals have been asked to report all deaths, make slow progress in rehabilitation efforts. efforts for timely counselling of family members, and In a government order issued on September 25, Secencourage them for organ and tissue donation. retary Vandana Gurnani instructed all Chief SecreThe move comes as India faces a huge gap between taries to constitute vigilance committees in every the number of patients requiring human organ and district and sub-division to track bonded and child tissue transplants and the availability of donors. labour cases. States have also been asked to submit “It is essential that hospitals should constitute orproposals for immediate financial asgan and tissue donation teams by insistance to rescued labourers within volving brain stem death committee three months of issuing release members and transplant coordinator / certificates. counsellor,” said the National Organ The directive follows a Supreme and Tissue Transplant Organization Even if the Centre will rehabilitate Court order of November 22, 2024, (NOTTO) in a letter to all states. NOT- family does 1.84 crore which asked MoLE to conTO is a national-level ogan- not agree to bonded sult with states to simplify isation set up under the Un- organ press donation, the labourers by procedures for identifying clusive ion health ministry. option for 2030. So far, and rehabilitating bonded NOTTO director Dr Anil tissue 35,000 Kumar, in his letter, said donation labourers labourers. This is the secthe organ and tissue donation team must be have been ond such directive since December must be mandatorily notified of all the given to it freed 2024, after the Centre expressed dissatisfaction with the states’ progress. deaths happening in hospitals. Ministry of “However, not much progress seems to “Even if the family does not agree to Dr Anil Kumar, Labour have been made,” the order observed. organ donation, the option for tissue director, NOTTO MoLE oversees the Bonded Labour donation must be given to the family ,” System (Abolition) Act, 1976, and implements the “ReDr Kumar said in the letter dated October 17. habilitation of Bonded Labour-2021” scheme, which Tissues such as corneas, skin, bones, and heart provides compensation of `30,000 and rehabilitation valves can be donated from cases of brain-stem-death grants of `1 lakh for men and `2 lakh for women. and cardiovascular deaths in hospitals or due to natuNCRB data for 2023 shows forced labour (23,520 casral death cases. Tissues can be harvested up to 10 es) as the largest human trafficking crime, followed hours after death. One donor can save eight lives. by sexual exploitation (17,944). Maharashtra, Telan“India requires nearly one lakh corneas annually , gana, and Odisha reported the highest cases. yet only about one-third of this demand is being met. Dr Tina Kuriakose Jacob of the International InstiBone donation, in particular, plays a vital role in the tute for Migration Development termed the order “a treatment of patients with trauma, nonunion of bone step toward systematic review and monitoring to profractures, congenital abnormalities, and other bonetect the poorest and most vulnerable workers.” related disorders,” the letter said. Kerala U-turn on PM SHRI amid CPI concerns E x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ T’Puram In an apparent capitulation to the arm-twisting by the Union government—that purportedly involved the withholding of funds—Kerala has gone back on its opposition to the Pradhan Mantri Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme. On Sunday, General Education Minister V Sivankutty announced that the state will become a signatory to the scheme, which will be rolled out in over 260 schools in the state. However, he said the scheme will not be implemented at the cost of the educational values and traditions of the state. “When the Centre erased historic events, including the assassination of Mahatma Gan- dhi, from textbooks, Kerala introduced alternatives,” he said at the press meet on Sunday. However, several top CPI leaders questioned the move to roll out PM SHRI, saying it was not discussed in the Cabinet. Earlier this year, Sivankutty had held that the government would not sign the MoU on PM SHRI, as it entailed implementing multiple recommendations put forward by the National Education Policy (NEP) introduced by the Union government in 2020. Central funds will be use for printing books, setting question papers, education needs of coastal regions and SC/ST students V Sivankutty festive lights Visitors watch a laser show during the Deepotsav celebrations on the eve of Diwali at Ram Ki Paidi in Ayodhya on Sunday | pti Grap II curbs imposed in capital as AQI inches towards ‘very poor’ on Diwali eve ... 12 stations saw ‘very poor’ AQI Of the 38 monitoring stations in Delhi, 12 saw AQI in the ‘very poor’ range. Anand Vihar recorded the highest at 430, followed by Wazirpur (364), Vivek Vihar (351), Dwarka (335), & R K Puram (323) Above normal temps The city recorded a maximum temperature of 33.3° Celsius, 0.9° above the season’s average, while the minimum temperature settled at 20.6° Celsius, 2.2° above normal, as per the IMD Express News Service @ New Delhi The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on Sunday imposed Stage II of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi-NCR as the air quality inched towards the “very poor” category, causing a rise in the pollution levels in the region. According to the CPCB, the city recorded an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 296 at 4 pm, placing it in the “poor” category. An AQI between 301 and 400 is considered “very poor”. Meanwhile, the Delhi government deployed water sprinklers at the India Gate to combat pollution in the area. Of the total 38 monitoring stations in the national capital, 12 reported air quality in the “very poor” range. Anand Vihar recorded the highest AQI at 430, followed by Wazirpur (364), Vivek Vihar (351), Dwarka (335), and RK Puram (323), respectively . Other areas such as Siri Fort, Dilshad Garden, and Jahangirpuri reported an AQI of 318. Punjabi Bagh stood at 313, Nehru Nagar at 310, Ashok Vihar at 305, and Bawana at 304, the CPCB data showed. The city recorded a maximum temperature of 33.3 degrees Celsius, 0.9 degrees above the season’s average, while the Parveen Negi ... stubble burning in Pak Punjab adds to woes HARPREET B AJWA @ Chandigarh minimum temperature settled at 20.6 degrees Celsius, 2.2 degrees above normal, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). At 8.30 am, the relative humidity was 71% which rose to 91% by 5.30 pm. The IMD has forecast mist for Monday morning, with the maximum and minimum temperatures likely to hover around 33 degrees Celsius and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively . Earlier on Wednesday, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said that cloud seeding, a method of inducing artificial rain, is all set to be carried out the moment the IMD gives the go-ahead, after Diwali. At a press conference, he said that the Delhi government has “everything” it needs to carry out cloud seeding. The farmers of Punjab cannot be solely blamed for the deteriorating air quality in the region due to stubble burning, as Pakistan contributes much more to pollution with more farm fires in Pakistani Punjab than in Indian Punjab. According to Dr Ravindra Khaiwal, Professor of Environmental Health Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, “The recent analysis reveals a 10-fold disparity in stubble bur ning hotspots between Pakistani and Indian Punjab. Between October 9 and 18, Pakistani Punjab recorded as many as 2,009 farm fires compared to 189 in Indian Punjab during the same period. This phenomenon has been occurring for the past few years, he added. He said three districts—Okara, Kasur, and Pakpattan—have emerged as primary hotspots in Pakistani Punjab with Okara accounting for 34.89% of all detected fires. Continued on P3