Category: 2. World

Social media platform says the Indian government ordered it last week to block 2,355 accounts, including two Reuters handles.

X says it is “deeply concerned about ongoing press censorship in India” after New Delhi ordered the social media platform to block more than 2,300 accounts, including two Reuters news agency handles.

X restored the Reuters News account in India on Sunday, a day after it said it was asked by the Indian government to suspend it, citing a legal demand.

Many other blocked accounts were also restored, with New Delhi denying its role in the takedown.

In a post on Tuesday, X, promoted by billionaire Elon Musk, said the Indian government on July 3 ordered it to block 2,355 accounts in India under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act.

“Non-compliance risked criminal liability. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology demanded immediate action – within one hour – without providing justification, and required the accounts to remain blocked until further notice,” X said.

“After public outcry, the government requested X to unblock @Reuters and @ReutersWorld.”

On July 3, 2025, the Indian government ordered X to block 2,355 accounts in India, including international news outlets like @Reuters and @ReutersWorld, under Section 69A of the IT Act. Non-compliance risked criminal liability. The Ministry of Electronics and Information…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 8, 2025

A spokesperson for India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the government did not issue “any fresh blocking order” on July 3 and had “no intention to block any prominent international news channels”, including Reuters and Reuters World, according to a post on X by ANI news agency, Reuters’ partner in India.

“The moment Reuters and Reuters World were blocked on X platform in India, immediately the government wrote to X to unblock them,” the post said. “The government continuously engaged and vigorously pursued with X from the late night of July 5, 2025.”

The spokesperson said X had “unnecessarily exploited technicalities involved around the process and didn’t unblock” the accounts.

India’s IT law, passed in 2000, allows designated government officials to demand the takedown of content from social media platforms they deem to violate local laws, including on the grounds of national security or if a post threatens public order.

X, formerly known as Twitter, has long been at odds with India’s government over content-removal requests. In March, the company sued the federal government over a new government website the company says expands takedown powers to “countless” government officials. The case is continuing.

India, the world’s biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content.

Rights groups say freedom of expression and free press is under threat in India since Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.

New Delhi has regularly imposed blanket internet shutdowns during periods of unrest.

In April, the government launched a sweeping crackdown on social media, banning more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading “provocative” content following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. Many of those have been restored.

New Delhi has also imposed intermittent internet outages in the northeastern state of Manipur since 2023 in the wake of ethnic violence.

The government has justified internet and social media bans as ways to curb disinformation in a country where hundreds of millions have access to some of the cheapest mobile internet rates in the world.

In its post on Tuesday, X said it was exploring all legal options available over censorship, but added that it was “restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges”.

“We urge affected users to pursue legal remedies through the courts,” it said.

Gaza – The World Food Programme (WFP) continues to deliver lifesaving food assistance inside Gaza despite deteriorating security, limited access and growing desperation of communities in need of food assistance. A recent WFP assessment shows nearly 1 person in 3 is not eating for days, placing more people at risk of starvation. More than 700,000 people have been forced to relocate since March 18 as an estimated 85% of Gaza is now considered an active militarized zone.

Here are the latest updates on food insecurity and WFP operations in Gaza, including quotes from WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau who is currently in Gaza:

WFP Operations Inside Gaza

• Since May 21, when border crossings re-opened to limited amounts of aid, WFP teams have been able to dispatch dozens of aid convoys with more than 1,200 trucks carrying more than 40 million pounds of food aid inside Gaza. Despite these efforts, the food delivered to date is still a tiny fraction of what a population of over 2 million people need to survive.
• The breakdown of the food aid brought into Gaza includes (as of July 3):
  • 27,066,375 pounds of wheat flour for bread
  • 12,850,740 pounds of ready-to-eat rations
  • 249,165 pounds of emergency nutritional supplies
  • 66,150 pounds of yeast for baking
• While most trucks carrying food assistance into Gaza have been intercepted by hungry civilian communities, WFP has been able to conduct some direct distributions. These include:
  • Food aid distributed directly to 24,649 people (5,357 households)
  • Nutrition prevention assistance to 102,544 children under 5 and pregnant and breastfeeding women across 92 active distribution sites
  • Nutritional supplements to 11,125 people
  • In addition, 250,000 meals were also provided in June through 72 community kitchens by food security partners.
• Israeli authorities have provided written assurances that operating conditions inside Gaza will improve, and that more trucks will be able to carry food aid into Gaza.
• The assurances also include the use of more routes and border crossing points with faster clearances, dependable communications, and without armed forces near convoys.
• In agreement with Israeli authorities, WFP’s target is to bring 4,410,000 pounds of food aid into Gaza every day (2,205,000 pounds to the north, 2,205,000 pounds to the south).
• WFP stands ready to scale up food assistance into Gaza if a ceasefire comes into effect. We have experienced teams on the ground, and proven systems in place to respond at scale.
• During the recent ceasefire, WFP facilitated nearly 40% of all humanitarian aid that entered Gaza, including 8,000 trucks of food, which helped push back the tide of hunger. The agency stands ready to do this again.
• WFP has over 308,700,000 pounds of food in or on its way to the region – enough to feed the entire population of 2.1 million people for two months.

Food Needs Inside Gaza

• Inside Gaza, the fear of starvation and desperate need for food remains high.
•  A recent WFP assessment found nearly 1 person in 3 is not eating for days at a time.
• Findings from the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report show a high risk that famine will occur as conflict persists and humanitarian agencies are unable to provide essential aid.
• Some 470,000 people are expected to face catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) between May and September of this year.
• Malnutrition is surging and some 90,000 children and women urgently need treatment.
• Food aid is the only real way for people to eat.
• Flour for bread is 3,000 times more expensive than before the war. Cooking fuel is simply nowhere to be found.

Requirements to Scale Operations

• WFP stands ready to scale up and deliver lifesaving assistance directly to the most vulnerable families in need. For this, WFP urgently calls for:
  • At least 100 aid trucks per day to be allowed through northern, central and southern border points.
  • Faster loading and dispatching of trucks from crossing points into Gaza.
  • No armed presence near convoy routes or civilian aid distribution points.
  • Uninterrupted connectivity to allow humanitarian organizations to coordinate effectively.
  • A sustained ceasefire that creates the necessary conditions for safe, scaled and impactful humanitarian aid.

Note to editor
WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau visited Gaza City on July 1-2, talking to families there and assessing the humanitarian situation. The following quotes may be attributed to him:

“This is my fourth visit to Gaza since the start of the conflict. The situation is the worst I’ve ever seen. It’s hard to find words to describe the level of desperation I have witnessed. People are dying just trying to get food. Our kitchens are empty; they are now serving hot water with a bit of pasta floating in it. A mother told me she had gone to a kitchen hoping to find a hot meal and fainted there. There was nothing to eat and she went home without anything for her children. A father I met had lost 25 kgs in the past two months. People are starving, while we have food just across the border.”

“Our WFP teams in Gaza are doing heroic work under conditions that are simply impossible. They are frequently caught in cross-fire, they are stuck in steaming hot cars for 24 hours straight, escorting food convoys through combat zones. We don’t have enough fuel for our vehicles, or spare parts for our trucks or cars, or basic equipment to communicate. And our national staff are not just aid workers — they live here, they face the same dangers, the same hunger as the rest of the population. We can’t continue in these conditions.”

“A ceasefire is urgently needed. We stand ready to deliver – we have the food, the capacity and the systems to assist the entire population in Gaza. During the previous ceasefire, we showed what was possible: delivering over 8,000 trucks of food in only 42 days. We can do it again, but we need all routes and entry points to open, and we need safety and order to be able to reach most vulnerable. The ceasefire must also be the first step toward lasting peace.”

#                #            #

The World Food Programme is the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and the world’s leading humanitarian organization, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate extremes.

Follow WFP on X, formerly Twitter, via @wfp_media

The Ministry of Religious Affairs has announced that tomorrow, Wednesday, July 9, is the last day for mandatory advance registration for Pakistanis intending to perform Hajj in 2026, reported 24NewsHD TV.

According to official sources, over 200,000 Pakistanis have already registered for the upcoming pilgrimage. The advance registration, which has been made compulsory on the instructions of the Saudi Arabian government, is a key requirement to determine Pakistan’s Hajj quota.

Pilgrims can register through 15 designated banks or online from home, with no registration fee required. However, only those who complete this process will be considered eligible to apply under either the government or private Hajj schemes once they open.

“The data collected during this registration drive will be shared with the Saudi authorities to finalise the number of Pakistani pilgrims,” said a ministry spokesperson.

The expenses, packages, and terms & conditions of Hajj 2026 will be announced later under a separate Hajj Policy, the ministry added.

All prospective pilgrims are urged to complete their registration before the deadline to avoid disqualification.

Reporter: Usman Khan

King Charles is set to personally guide President Emmanuel Macron through a meaningful day of diplomacy, heritage, and remembrance on Wednesday, as the State Visit continues.

The day will begin with a tour of the Windsor Castle Gardens, where King Charles who also serves as Ranger of Windsor Great Park will showcase key nature restoration and biodiversity projects across the Gardens and the wider parklands.

In a nod to historic royal ties, the King and President Macron will reunite with Queen Camilla and First Lady Brigitte Macron to admire a beautifully preserved Charabanc carriage from the Royal Mews. 

The ornate carriage, gifted to Queen Victoria by French King Louis-Philippe in 1844, stands as a symbol of the long-standing Franco-British friendship.

Their Majesties will also introduce them to Fabuleu de Maucour, the striking grey gelding gifted by President Macron to the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 in honour of her Platinum Jubilee.

The visit will take on a moment of solemn reflection as the French President and First Lady privately pay tribute at Queen Elizabeth’s tomb in St George’s Chapel, laying flowers in a gesture of deep respect.

In London, President Emmanuel will turn his focus to the future on Wednesday as he visits an AI and Emerging Technology Innovators Exhibition at Imperial College. 

There, he’ll engage with leading academics and researchers driving the UK’s cutting-edge advancements in science and tech.

The French leader will then head to Downing Street, where he and First Lady Brigitte Macron will join Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Starmer for a private lunch. 

The meeting comes ahead of Thursday’s high-level UK-France summit, set to take place at Number 10.

Capping off a dynamic day, the Macrons will attend a glittering banquet at Guildhall in the City of London, hosted by the Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation. 

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester will represent the Royal Family at the evening affair. 

Both President Macron and the Lord Mayor are expected to deliver speeches following the dinner, reinforcing the strength of the UK-France relationship.

Reuters

Getty Images

With more than 100 people dead, many of them children attending a Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, Friday’s extreme flash flooding that overwhelmed a sizeable chunk of central Texas will be recorded as one of the state’s worst ever natural disasters.

The brunt of the tragedy was felt in Kerr county, where at least 27 children and counsellors were killed after a deluge of water described by one witness as a “a pitch-black wall of death” swept through the all-girl Camp Mystic on the river’s south fork. About 750 young campers were celebrating the Fourth of July holiday.

map of central Texas showing Guadalupe River and location of Camp Mystic

Elsewhere in the county, authorities reported almost 50 more deaths, a number certain to rise in the coming days as the grim task of recovering bodies continues.

Alongside the human toll, torrential rain and catastrophic flooding caused near-unprecedented levels of destruction, affecting homes, businesses and vehicles. A preliminary estimate by the private weather service AccuWeather places the damage and economic loss at $18bn-$22bn (£13.2bn-£16.2bn).

“Everyone in the community is hurting,” said Dalton Rice, the city manager of Kerrville, the county seat, at a press conference on Sunday. “We are seeing bodies recovered all over, up and down.”

The first inkling that a disaster was imminent came in a bulletin issued by the Austin-San Antonio office of the National Weather Service at 1.18pm local time on Thursday, warning that “pockets of heavy rain are expected and may result in flooding of low-lying areas, rivers/creeks, and low water crossings”.

The message was amplified in a post to X little more than an hour later.

Shortly after midnight on Friday, the NWS was warning of “significant impacts” from torrential rain dousing counties north of San Antonio, which never let up through the early morning hours and swelled rivers and other waterways at an astonishing pace.

By 5.16am, the City of Kerrville’s police department was warning of a “life-threatening event” and urging anyone living along the Guadalupe River to immediately move to higher ground – warnings that some residents said came too late, or were not received at all.

speeded-up footage of river rising and sweeping through area

According to meteorologists, some parts of central Texas saw several months’ worth of rain in just a few hours, while gauges in the unincorporated Kerr county community of Hunt, where Camp Mystic is located, recorded 6.5in (16.5cm) of rain in only 180 minutes.

Some areas received up to 15in (38.1cm) through the day on Friday, more than a summer’s worth of rain in a single day, and reports of rainfall up to 8in (20.3cm) were widespread.

Map of rainfall in south-central Texas

The Guadalupe River rose by 26ft (8 metres) in 45 minutes, and 33ft (10 metres) in only two hours, surpassing the level of 31.5ft (9.6 metres) from a July 1987 flood less than 20 miles (32km) east of Kerrville in which 10 teenagers from a Christian summer camp drowned after their bus stalled in floodwater.

graphic showing sudden increase in water height

Search and rescue crews from local, state and federal agencies, using drones, boats and helicopters, were deployed at first light on Friday, as news footage began to convey the scale of the disaster.

At a briefing on Saturday, authorities said about 850 people had been rescued, with more than 400 first responders from almost two dozen agencies covering an area of over 60 miles (97 miles). The number of responders grew to above 1,000 by the end of the day.

footage showing brown floodwaters across San Angelo: roads, gardens and yards are submerged with cars stranded and water surrounding houses

The Texas national guard deployed a MQ-9 Reaper uncrewed aerial vehicle over remote spots, while personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) joined emergency teams from other states in the search for survivors.

Rice, the Kerrville city manager, criticised the operation of unauthorised drones operated by private citizens and the news media for interfering with the rescue effort, which he said was further hampered by difficult terrain and more heavy rain.

By Sunday morning, 48 hours after the water first started to rise, and after a full day of recovering and identifying bodies while searching for those still missing, it was clear that central Texas had experienced its worst flooding event – and one of its most costly natural disasters – in decades.

Footage of river rushing under bridge; damage can be seen to the bottom of it.

The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, appeared at a press conference the day before to insist that crews would continue to consider anyone unaccounted for as alive, and called a statewide day of prayer for Sunday.

“All we know is that prayer does work,” he said, signing a request for a federal emergency declaration that the president, Donald Trump, approved on Sunday, freeing up more money and resources for recovery efforts.

Camp Mystic

map showing layout of the camp beside the river, including the dormitories on higher and lower ground

The popular private Christian summer camp, which is set to celebrate its centenary in 2026, lost at least 27 campers and counsellors, it said in a post to its website. “Our hearts are broken alongside our families that are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. We are praying for them constantly,” it said.

The camp’s longtime owner and director, Richard “Dick” Eastland, was among those lost.

The sprawling campsite on the bank of south fork features dormitories on lower ground that were completely overwhelmed by water. Post-flood photographs from inside one of the buildings show metal beds thrown around, as well as pink and purple sleeping bags and bedding, lunchboxes and mud-covered luggage that was abandoned as campers and staff evacuated in haste.

About 750 girls were attending the camp, which offers more than 30 activities during three month-long terms over the summer “to provide young girls with a wholesome Christian atmosphere in which they can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem”.

By Monday night, 10 campers and one counsellor were still unaccounted for. Families with ties to Camp Mystic gathered in Dallas for a vigil at the George W Bush Presidential Center.

Recovery so far

Drier weather forecasts for the area from Tuesday and beyond, allied to falling river levels, offered hope that clean-up and recovery efforts can gather pace.

Some residents returned to their flood-ravaged properties on Monday to salvage what they could, while others found they had no homes to go back to, some taking refuge in a Red Cross centre in Kerrville.

Kathy Perkins told the Guardian that her trailer home was damaged by water, but some of her neighbours’ homes were swept away or moved around in the flood.

The White House announced that Trump would visit, probably on Friday, to look at the damage and announce more federal aid in terms of money and resources for Kerr county and neighbouring areas.

Another Hunt resident, Lesa Baird, 65, rode out the flood in a tree, then walked to her local Baptist church for help. “There’s no home to go to. It’s done,” she said.

The deliveries of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries occurred after a de-facto truce was struck between Iran and Israel on 24 June, an Arab official familiar with the intelligence told MEE.

Another Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said that the US’s Arab allies were aware of Tehran’s efforts to “back up and reinforce” its air defences and that the White House had been informed of Iran’s progress. 

The officials did not say how many surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, Iran had received from China since the end of the fighting. However, one of the Arab officials said that Iran was paying for the SAMs with oil shipments.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, and the US Energy Information Administration suggested in a report in May that nearly 90 percent of Iran’s crude and condensate exports flow to Beijing.

For several years, China has imported record amounts of Iranian oil despite US sanctions, using countries such as Malaysia as a transshipment hub to mask the crude’s origin.

“The Iranians engage in creative ways of trading,” the second Arab official told MEE.

MNA/

Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since early June, according to the United Nations refugee agency, after Tehran imposed a July 6 deadline for undocumented migrants and refugees to leave the country.

The surge compounds Afghanistan’s existing challenges as the impoverished nation struggles to integrate waves of returnees from Pakistan and Iran since 2023, amid one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises after decades of conflict.

The UNHCR reports that more than 1.4 million people have “returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan” this year alone. Iran’s late May directive potentially affects four million undocumented Afghans among the approximately six million Afghan residents claimed by Tehran.

Border crossings increased dramatically from mid-June, with some days seeing approximately 40,000 people entering Afghanistan. Between June 1 and July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, bringing the 2024 total to 906,326, according to an International Organization for Migration spokesman.

Many returnees report experiencing pressure from authorities, arrests, deportations, and financial losses due to hasty departures. The crisis response has been hampered by significant cuts in foreign aid, prompting calls for increased funding from the UN, international NGOs, and Taliban officials.

The UN has cautioned that this mass return could further destabilise Afghanistan, which already faces entrenched poverty, unemployment, and climate change effects. “Forcing or pressuring Afghans to return risks further instability in the region, and onward movement towards Europe,” the UNHCR said on Friday.

While Taliban officials advocate for a “dignified” return process, Iranian media frequently reports mass arrests of “illegal” Afghans. Iran’s deputy interior minister, Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian, acknowledged that while undocumented Afghans in the country were “respected neighbours and brothers in faith”, Iran’s “capacities also have limits”. He indicated the return process “will be implemented gradually”.

Many Afghans had migrated to Iran for employment, sending vital remittances to families in Afghanistan. Returnee Ahmad Mohammadi told the AFP news agency at a reception centre in Herat province, “If I can find a job here that covers our daily expenses, I’ll stay here. But if that’s not possible, we’ll be forced to go to Iran again, or Pakistan, or some other country.”

Getty Images

EPA