Tejashwi Yadav’s Coming of Age; Why the EC's Decision to Skip SIR for Assam is Raising Eyebrows; Trump Continues to Taunt Modi

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by Tanweer Alam, Sidharth Bhatia, Pratik Kanjilal, Seema Chishti, Sushant Singh, MK Venu, and Siddharth Varadarajan | Contributing writer: Kalrav Joshi, with additional inputs by Anirudh SK

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Snapshot of the day

October 29, 2025

Siddharth Varadarajan

Indian refiners have not placed new orders for Russian oil since swingeing US sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil were imposed last week, says Reuters, noting that they “await clarity from the government and suppliers.”

So far, the Modi government has not reacted to the secondary US sanctions – which target any bank that helps make payments to the targeted Russian entities –and the buzz in diplomatic circles is that India will use their imposition as an alibi to concede one of the demands President Donald Trump has been making and stop buying Russian oil.

However, India is planning to build passenger jets in collaboration with Russia. An MoU between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and Russia’s United Aircraft Corp has just been signed for the eventual manufacture of commercial aircraft.

United States President Donald Trump has once again – for the umpteenth time – repeated the claim that he used trade to bring tensions down between India and Pakistan in May. This time, he said that he used the threat of a 250% tariff imposition with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, adding that seven planes were “shot down” in the strikes and counter-strikes. Speaking during an address in South Korea ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Trump said that the US is “doing” a new trade deal with India, laying out the background of a claim he has repeated upwards of 50 times now. Trump then narrated what was his version of the events following Operation Sindoor – India’s strikes on terror bases in Pakistan following the terror strike in Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians.

“And I’m reading that seven planes were shot down. They’re going at it and they’re really starting to go, and it’s a big thing. These are two nuclear nations, and they’re really going at it. And I called Prime Minister Modi. I said, we can’t make a trade deal with you.”

Trump then continued, ostensibly quoting Modi:

“‘No, no, we must make a trade deal’.”

He then said that he also called Pakistan after saying no to India.

“I said no we can’t. ‘You’re starting a war with Pakistan.’ We’re not going to do it. And then I called Pakistan. I said, ‘We’re not going to do trade with you because you’re fighting with India,’ and you know two nuclear nations,