5 stories you must read today, October 29: From President Murmu’s Rafale sortie to Amazon laying off 14,000 employees and more

President Droupadi Murmu made history by undertaking a sortie in a Rafale fighter jet at the Air Force Station in Ambala, Haryana, on Wednesday. This marked the first time an Indian President has flown in the advanced French-origin multirole combat aircraft. The 30-minute flight took the President over an area roughly 100 miles around Ambala, during which time she was shown various technical capabilities of the Rafale aircraft. In 2023, she had became the first head of state to fly in a Sukhoi-30 MKI. Read more

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday praised PM Narendra Modi, saying, “Prime Minister Modi is the nicest-looking guy. He’s a killer. He’s tough as hell.” Trump also said that he was doing a trade deal with India. The US President also repeated his claim that he threatened India with a trade sanction to persuade “tough guy” PM Modi to stop Operation Sindoor against Pakistan. Read more

The Indian government has said that ‘political enemy Pakistan’ won’t be stopped from travelling to Ahmedabad for the Commonwealth Games in 2030, and other multilateral tournaments. According to the Indian government, it has a clear stand about playing Pakistan in multilateral tournaments. India will be confirmed as the host country for the 2030 CWG during the Commonwealth Sport General Assembly on November 26, with Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar chosen as the venues. Read more

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced the largest layoff in the company’s history, affecting approximately 14,000 corporate employees. According to Amazon, the layoffs are being carried out to make the tech giant leaner. Amazon is the US’s second-largest private employer, with more than 1.54 million employees globally as of the end of the second quarter. The Amazon layoffs come at a time when there are growing concerns about AI taking away millions of whitecollar jobs. Read more

Sonam Wangchuk’s wife Gitanjali Angmo, on Wednesday, termed the activist’s detention under the National Security Act (NSA) “a calculated attempt” to prevent him from exercising his “democratic and constitutional right to dissent”. In a plea seeking the Supreme Court’s permission to amend her writ petition challenging his detention, Angmo argued that his “continued detention…should be vitiated on account of the grave and incurable procedural lapses” as mandatory safeguards under the Act had not been complied with. Wangchuk, who is lodged in Jodhpur Central Jail, was detained on September 26, two days after four protesters were killed in police firing at Leh. Read more