FRIDAY 31 OCTOBER, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard LOUVRE HEIST 5 MORE SUSPECTS NABBED IN FRANCE TRUMP’S FIAT TO RESUME US NUCLEAR TESTS ALARMS WORLD French police have arrested five more people, including a prime suspect, over this month’s daring Louvre museum robbery, the Paris prosecutor said. EXPERTS PUZZLED BY UNCLEAR STATEMENT A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 9  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had ordered the Pentagon to begin nuclear weapons testing “on an equal basis” with China and Russia. Experts were unsure whether he meant live nuclear tests, missile system trials, or subcritical experiments. Many said his comments reflected confusion rather than a concrete policy shift | P9 Man killed, hostage drama over Police rescue 17 children and two adults from Mumbai studio after tense two-hour standoff S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea | AP Trump-Xi TALKS SUCCESSFUL, 10% TARIFF DOWN. TIME FOR INDIA TO WRAP UP ITS PACT China’s development and rejuvenation are not incompatible with President Trump’s goal of ‘Making America Great Again’ — Xi Jinping, in his conversation with President Trump P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi US President Donald Trump on Thursday gushed about a summit he had with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in South Korea, describing it as a roaring success. On a scale of 1 to 10, Trump gave the meeting a 12. With Beijing agreeing to allow the export of rare earth elements and start buying American soybeans, Trump reduced China’s total tariff from 57% to 47%, which is now 3% less than India’s 50%. Experts say New Delhi must not lose momentum in pursuing its own trade pact with Washington so as to protect market access and remain competitive. Without an early trade deal, India risks losing further ground in its largest export destination, they said. Even with higher tariffs (57%) than India earlier, China’s exports to the US rose from $28.8 billion in May 2025 to $34.3 billion in September 2025, indicating no tariff impact, while India’s exports to the US plunged 37% during the same period — from $8.8 billion to $5.5 billion. “China did pressure the US as it is more competitive than India because of lower cost of manufacturing. India should focus on bringing down the tariff to 15% or the lowest level possible,” said Arpita Mukherjee, professor, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). China used its cost-effective manufacturing and dominance in rare earths as bargaining chips against the US, factors India lacks. In lieu of lower tariffs, China has agreed on a one-year rare earths supply deal with the US. “Weak domestic manufacturing and persistent cost advantages have kept US buyers reliant on Chinese supply Beijing, however, un. derstands that America’s dependence extends far beyond rare earths—to green-energy inputs, pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and mass-market consumer goods—giving China multiple levers of influence, even after tariff cuts,” said Ajay Srivastava, founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI). P9 Rare earth import licence Some Indian companies have secured licences to import rareearth elements, including highperformance magnets, from China, the foreign office said. “Some Indian companies have received licences for importing rare earth magnets from China... We have to look at how the US and China talks will play into our domain,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. While the ministry didn’t disclose the beneficiary companies, reports suggested they were Continental India, Hitachi, and Jay Ushin EXPRESS READ SC order on summoning of lawyers case today Cops file reply in 2020 riots case before SC The Supreme Court is scheduled to deliver on Friday its verdict in a suo motu matter concerning the summoning of advocates who give legal opinion or represent parties during the probe of cases. The three-judge bench, headed by CJI B R Gavai, had reserved the order on August 12 on the case. The Delhi Police on Thursday filed its affidavit before the Supreme Court in the 2020 Delhi riots case, and submitted that the alleged offences by the accused—Sharjeel Imam, Umar Khalid and others—allegedly involved a deliberate attempt to destabilise the state, therefore warranted “jail and not bail”. P3 IN an exchange of fire during a rescue operation at a Powai studio on Thursday police shot , dead a man who had held 19 people hostage for over two hours. The accused, identified as Rohit Aryan, was hit in the chest after he allegedly tried to open fire at the police team that entered the premises to free the captives. According to the police, the hostages included 17 students and two adults whom Aryan had called to a studio in the Mahavir Classic building in Powai under the pretext of conducting acting classes and auditions. The hostages were kept inside for more than two hours before the police entered the premises. Police officials said there were indications that Aryan might have been mentally disturbed, though this has not been confirmed. They added Grouse over unpaid government dues Aryan staged the hostage act to allegedly draw public and government officials’ attention over pending payments for work that he did for government A screengrab shows the situation at R A Studio in Mumbai | EXPRESS that the accused’s motive was linked to some pending government-related work. Aryan and his associates had u n d e r t a k e n g o ve r n m e n t projects for which payments had reportedly not been made. To draw the attention of the public and the government, Aryan decided to hold the stu- Bihar will never forgive insult to ‘Chhathi Maiyya’, says PM RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ Chapra/Muzaffarpur A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched an all-out attack on Prime Ninister Narendra Modi, the latter lit into him and the Opposition’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav, in two back-to-back rallies in Bihar’s Chapra and Motipur on Thursday. Lampooning them as princes who want to bring back ‘jungle raj’ in Bihar, he alleged that their parties have always been mired in corruption and scams. Responding to a Rahul barb on the PM’s participation in the ‘Chhath puja’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally in Muzaffarpur | PTI Modi said it was an insult to ‘Chhathi Maiyya’ and her devotees. “For some, the worship of ‘Chhathi Maiyya’ was mere drama,” he said, adding that no person from Bihar could forget this insult. He informed the gatherings that the Centre is working to get ‘Chhath’ A new study from IIT-Delhi reveals that the humble GPS chip inside smartphones can disclose far more than a user’s location. It can also quietly indicate what someone is doing—whether sitting, walking, or flying—and even describe their immediate environment, such as whether they are indoors, outdoors, in a crowded area, or on a flight. The work, led by Soham Nag, an MTech student, and Profesor Smruti R. Sarangi from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, introduces a system called AndroCon, which can extract detailed contextual information solely from GPS data. Their findings were published in the ACM Transactions on Sensor Net- included in UNESCO’s list. “We are continuously striving to include Chhath Mahaparv in UNESCO’s list of world heritage as humanity’s grand festival,” he said, drawing loud applause from the crowds. Mocking the two ‘princes’ he said, “Both of them are on bail in scams worth thousands of crores of rupees.” Reviving memories of the ‘jungle raj’ during RJD’s tenure in power, Modi recalled the frequent kidnappings during that time, including in Muzaffarpur, where a young boy Golu was abducted while on his way to school in 2001. “When his parents could not pay the large ransom, RJD henchmen brutally dismembered the boy Modi said. P8 ,” Cloud seeding goes up in smog, city gasps for breath E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi DELHI woke up under a thick, choking veil of smog on Thursday morning as the city’s air quality nosedived to its worst levels this season. The average Air Quality Index (AQI) across the capital touched 373, plunging deep into the “very poor” category and inching perilously close to “severe”, according to data from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Data showed PM2.5 concentrations at 184.4 µg/m³ and PM10 at 301.9 µg/m³. Several monitoring stations recorded “severe” air quality levels— Vivek Vihar (426), Anand Vihar (415), Ashok Vihar (414), Bawana (411), Wazirpur (419), and Sonia Vihar (406). Out of 38 stations, 37 recorded AQI above 300. WORST AIR QUALITY SO FAR THIS SEASON 292 301 309 OCT 25 26 works, one of the leading journals in privacy-aware sensing. AndroCon is the first system to demonstrate that finegrained GPS info already accessible to Android applications with “precise location” permissions can serve as a covert environmental sensor. Without relying on the phone’s camera, microphone, or motion sensors, the system analy- NEW CJI APPOINTED Justice Surya Kant has been appointed as India’s 53rd Chief Justice. He will assume office on November 24 and serve till February 9, 2027, marking a 15-month tenure. Justice Kant succeeds Justice Bhushan R Gavai, who will demit office on November 23. A Tagore song invites treason charge in Assam P R A SA N TA M A Z U M DA R @ Guwahati ASSAM’S Bengali-dominated Barak Valley faced a piquant tussle of belonging and othering on Thursday as a Congress , leader rendered the Rabindra Sangeet Amar Sonar Bangla, Ami Tomay Bhalobasi at a Seva Dal meeting. As the video of the singing went viral, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took exception, as it is the national anthem of Bangladesh and instructed the police to file a case of treason against Congress leaders. On the other hand, the Congress saw it as an insult to the Bengali culture in general and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in particular, terming it as the BJP’s attempt to other the Bengalis of Assam. At a meeting at Sribhumi in Barak Valley, local Congress leader Bidhu Bhushan Das started his address by singing the song. Bengalis are in a majority in Barak Valley, which adjoins Bangladesh. Tagore had penned this song in 1905 during the first partition of Bengal. Sarma said, “The meeting of the Congress started with the singing of Bangladesh’s national anthem. We cannot accept it in Assam.” Other party leaders said the Congress sang Bangladesh’s national anthem in Assam just days after Bangladesh dared to publish a map swallowing the entire Northeast. However, Jorhat MP and Assam Congress chief Gaurav Gogoi said that the song conveys the sentiments of Bengali culture. He alleged that the BJP always insulted the Bengali language and culture. “In the past, its IT cell has insulted the people of Bengal. The BJP has shown that it does not know the history of Rabindranath Tagore and his philosophy he said. ,” Women’s Day for India in WC 373 279 294 27 28 29 30 NCR cities also reported high pollution levels. Noida recorded an AQI of 372, Ghaziabad 364, Greater Noida 330, Gurugram 248, and Faridabad 166. Met conditions contributed to the pollution spike. The ventilation index remained below the threshold of 6,000 m²/s, indicating poor dispersion capacity. Winds remained weak at less than 10 kmph, and high humidity trapped pollutants close to the ground. P3 Phone signal can track more than your location E X P R ESS N E WS S E RV I C E @ New Delhi dents hostage. The Powai and Sakinaka police received a distress call around 1.45 pm and reached the studio soon after. A rescue operation was launched, during which the police entered the premises and freed all 19 hostages. The operation continued for about two hours. The police recovered an airgun, chemical substances, and other materials from the studio. Police sources said that more than 100 children had initially come for the auditions, out of which Aryan shortlisted 17 and confined them in a room while asking the remaining students to leave. The children were kept inside the studio between 1 pm and 4 pm. When the shortlisted students failed to return home for lunch, parents alerted authorities, leading to the police response. The rescued children, aged between 13 and 17 years, were later handed over to their parents and guardians. The accused and his associates were taken for medical examination. A detailed investigation has begun, and police are verifying all aspects of the case, including the alleged pending government work and payment delays that may have led to the incident. ... SONAR BANGLA ses nine GPS parameters— such as Doppler shift, signal power, and multipath interference—to infer human activity and environmental context. Using only this data, AndroCon can deter mine whether a user is sitting, standing, lying down, travelling in a metro, flying on an aircraft, or walking in a park. It can even detect whether a room is crowded or empty . Jemimah Rodrigues with her teammates after leading India to five-wicket win against Australia | AFP | P11 G O M E S H S @ Navi Mumbai A USTRALIA, the defending champions, seven-time champions. They are the perfect definition of a winning combination. Coming into the match, the numbers did not look favourable for India at all. At 3-11 head-to-head in World Cup seemed even more intimidating. When Australia set a target of 339, the total seemed lofty because of the enormity of the game — it was the semifinal of the ICC Women’s World Cup. India had made 330 against Australia the group stage. Thursday’s target seemed achievable but statistic did not favour India. That’s what sport is all about. Defying odds and rising up beyond challenges. India chased down the total and kept their dream of a World Cup title alive. A strong 35,000 odd fans let out a collective roar as India romped into the final. Eight years after the historic evening at Derby, England, when the Women in Blue pulled down the Australian juggernaut in a World Cup semifinal, there was an encore at home. Har manpreet Kaur-led team came into the match knowing Australia had lost only twice to India in the last eight years. But India knew one thing — they had to keep calm and not give in. And them came Jemimah Rodrigues. Her sublime form and a bit of luck helped her to a matchwinning unbeaten hundred. She added 167 runs for the third wicket with Kaur that set the tone for a surreal evening in Navi Mumbai.