| Good morning! The day began with an early morning alert. A powerful 8.7 magnitude earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering a Pacific-wide tsunami of up to 4 metres (13 feet). The tsunami has damaged buildings and prompted evacuation warnings across the peninsular region and most of Japan's east coast. The shallow earthquake struck at a depth of 19.3 km, according to the US Geological Survey. Shallow earthquakes tend to cause greater damage since the seismic waves have a shorter distance to travel and hence, don't lose their energy when they reach the surface. The US government has also sounded a tsunami warning for Hawaii, Alaska and along the Pacific coast (west). So far, there have been no reports of casualties. On that note, let’s get to today’s edition.
🚨Big Story Before a gunfight ensued on Monday morning in the Dachigam forests of Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, security forces were quietly planning to ambush the three men, who had been on the run since the April 22 Pahalgam attack. On Tuesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced in Parliament that the three terrorists behind the attack had been slain. The breakthrough: Codenamed 'Operation Mahadev', the exercise began with a crucial hint. On Saturday, the Army and the J&K Police detected a satellite phone signal for a second time in the last 17 days, which led them to the foothills of Mahadev Peak, the highest and strategically important peak in Srinagar. Sources told The Indian Express that the men had earlier used the device on July 11 in the Baisaran area, alerting the security forces. The planning: The security forces zeroed in on the terrorists' location through heat signature drones and with the help of local nomads. The perpetrators were eventually gunned down on Monday morning, three months after security forces and intelligence agencies launched a large-scale hunt for the terrorists. Read how Operation Mahadev unfolded in our detailed report. The terrorists: The three men have been identified as Suleiman alias Faisal Jatt, Afghan, and Jibran. All three are from Pakistan, Shah confirmed. Suleiman was also involved in previous attacks at the Z-Morh tunnel.
⚡Only in Express West vs rest? In 1957, Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong had declared that the “East wind will prevail over the West”. The idea that the West is in decline and will be swamped by the rising tide of "the rest" has been around for centuries. However, the truth is the West has stood resilient. A risen China once again talks of leading the East, or as it's called now, the Global South, against the West. But is the end of the US-led world order near? Sceptics would say, not so fast. 'The rest' have time and again failed to band together to challenge the world order, and columnist C Raja Mohan tells us why.
📰 From the Front Page The waiting game: As the August 1 deadline looms near, India has yet to finalise its trade deal with the US. If it fails to reach an agreement soon, it may face tariffs as high as 25 per cent, US President Donald Trump warned yesterday. As my colleague Anil Sasi writes, a delay in carving out a trade deal may not be entirely disadvantageous, as it offers more visibility into US tariffs on other countries it has negotiated with. For instance, as the US engages with China, it would serve well for New Delhi to know what comparative advantage it will have over Beijing. However, the ensuing uncertainty has spelt trouble for exporters, with buyers holding out on orders. Read on. China in? Amid the changing geopolitical dynamics, India is rethinking its 'China-out' strategy, which blocked foreign investments from Beijing ever since the 2020 border clashes. While India kept Chinese firms out of critical sectors like telecommunications, crucial imports such as electronic components, for which India has little production base, have continued. Now, the government is slowly but surely easing more of its restrictions.
📌Must Read Two-eyed beast: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has been working on the world's most powerful Earth observation satellite for over one and a half decades. Its joint efforts with the US-based NASA are set to be paid off today with the launch of NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture) into space. NISAR's two synthetic aperture radars (SARs) make it a one-of-a-kind satellite, which will offer a detailed view of the planet like never before. We explain the significance of NISAR and the NASA-ISRO collaboration. New colours: Tej Pratap Yadav, the estranged elder son of Rasthriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad, has decided to walk his own path. Yadav was expelled from the party in May after a controversial photo was posted on his Facebook profile. Now, he has decided to contest the upcoming Bihar elections as an Independent candidate, shifting his tone towards RJD from reconciliatory to adversarial.
⏳And Finally… 🏏 India's next match with England is a momentous one. The game, set to begin tomorrow and end on July 4, will either see Team India end the Test series with a well-deserved tie or a crushing 3-1 defeat. So, who will the selectors turn to? Will it finally be Kuldeep Yadav's turn? National sports editor Sandeep Dwivedi writes that a combination of factors is playing against Yadav's selection — not because of his skill, but because of the unreliability of frontline batsmen and even the local conditions. Read. 🎧 Before you go, do tune in to the latest ‘3 Things’ podcast episode. Today’s lineup: India’s Maldives reset, Divya Deshmukh’s victory, and the TCS layoffs. That’s all for today, folks! Until tomorrow, Sonal Gupta | 
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