Infinity Social Updates

A United Nations inquiry on Wednesday expressed concern at reports of abuse against a prominent Palestinian doctor seized by the Israeli military in Gaza in December 2024, who is still being held in Israel. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya , the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in the Gaza Strip. Rights groups and Abu Safiya’s lawyer have said his life is in imminent danger, and he continues to be held without charge, according to the Physicians for Human Rights Israel , an Israeli rights group. “The actions of the Israeli Prison Service guards towards Palestinian detainees raise grave concerns of violations of international law that likely amount to international crimes. “Dr Abu Safiya’s medical condition is the direct result of these actions,” the UN inquiry said in a statement. An Israel Prison Service (IPS) spokesperson said on Wednesday,...

A Chinese industry regulator warned users on Wednesday of a “security backdoor” embedded in versions of US artificial intelligence company Anthropic’s coding tool, Claude Code. The alleged backdoor could allow the software to “transmit sensitive information”, including users’ locations and identity-related identifiers, back to Anthropic’s servers without users’ consent, said China’s National Vulnerability Database (NVDB), a cybersecurity platform. Claude Code is an AI coding agent that can generate computer code, debug software and review code based on user prompts. San Francisco startup Anthropic blocks users and companies in China and other nations it deems adversarial from accessing its products, but it is still possible to use them in the country through a VPN or third-party proxy services. The NVDB, which is affiliated with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said on its website that it had recently “detected that the AI coding tool Claude Code contains se...

Prime Minister’s Coordinator for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Affairs Ikhtiar Wali Khan on Wednesday demanded the reversal of laws enacted by KP that expand MPAs’ powers and immunities. The KP Assembly passed three acts on April 30, which pertained to immunities and privileges of MPAs, the speaker and the deputy speaker, as well as salaries and allowances of lawmakers. Although KP Gov­ernor Faisal Karim Kundi assen­ted to the laws on May 6, the legislation has remained under wraps. The Acts and the gazette notifications have yet to be uploaded to the KP Assembly website. Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Wednesday, Khan said, “No law of this country applies to them. They can fire at anyone or hit anyone, but they are not answerable to anyone.” Under Section 10 of the legislation, provincial assembly members have been granted blanket immunity from preventive detention. Under Section 11, authorities will now have to seek the speaker’s prior permission before arresting a member on ...

Italy will not respond further to US President Donald Trump’s attacks on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, ministers said, pledging to protect bilateral ties that have come under strain in recent weeks after the two leaders traded accusations. Meloni was once seen as a close ally of Trump , but the relationship faltered last month when he told Italian TV channel La7 that she had “begged” him to take a photo with her at a G7 summit in France. She denied the claim and accused him of fabricating the story. With the two leaders due to attend the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Ankara on Tuesday and Wednesday, Trump appeared to reignite the dispute when he posted on Truth Social a picture of Meloni looking up at him with the caption “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED”. US President Donald Trump shared a doctored picture with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on July 6, 2026. —Truth Social/@realDonaldTrump The latest provocation raised questions ...

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday again warned the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the federal authorities against delaying local government (LG) elections, directing them to submit all pending delimitation notifications ahead of the next hearing on July 28. The tenure of LGs in KP ended on March 15 this year. According to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Act, 2013, local representatives are elected for a four-year term. The term of the last local government in Islamabad expired in February 2021, and since then, elections have been delayed under various pretexts. As a result, around 2.5 million residents of Islamabad continue to face issues ranging from water shortages to unpaved streets. The ECP took up separate cases regarding the conduct of LG polls in KP and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). In the KP case, the KP chief secretary and LG secretary appeared before a four-member bench headed by Member Sindh Nisar Ahmed Durrani. In the ...

PESHAWAR: One person was killed and four others were injured in a quadcopter attack in the Bakakhel area of Bannu district, police said on Tuesday. According to Bannu’s District Police Officer (DPO) Muhammad Furqan Bilal, terrorists dropped an explosive device from a quadcopter within the jurisdiction of Baka Khel Police Station. As a result, one person was killed on the spot, while four others sustained injuries, including a teenager, he said. The injured were immediately taken to the District Headquarters Hospital, where they are receiving medical treatment, he added. Assistant Commissioner Sajjad Hussain and former provincial minister Malik Shah Muhammad Khan visited the hospital to enquire about the condition of the injured and expressed solidarity with the affected families. The DPO stated that the deployment of anti-drone guns and enhanced security measures at police stations, checkpoints, and other sensitive locations had recently foiled several quadcopter attacks targeting ...

European football body UEFA has lashed out at FIFA’s decision to suspend US striker Folarin Balogun’s red-card ban in the World Cup, after American President Donald Trump called FIFA to ask it to review the case, saying world football’s governing body had “crossed a red line” and undermined the integrity of the game. “We express our disbelief at such an unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable decision,” UEFA said in a statement on Monday. “When the certainty of rules is no longer guaranteed by its guardians, the integrity of the game is at stake, and the credibility of a competition is undermined.” Reuters has reached out to FIFA for comment. Balogun, who has scored three goals for the US in the tournament, was sent off after a VAR review for dragging his cleats down the back of defender Tarik Muharemovic’s leg and onto his foot during their win over Bosnia in the round of 32. Trump had asked FIFA president Gianni Infant...

There is a specific flavour of panic that colours the existence of the Pakistani woman. It develops as she becomes cognizant of society’s Three Holy Ms: Money, Marriage, and Motherhood, all three for which she is expected to stick a landing within a tyrannically slim opening in time. One of them, *Rubab Shahid, had spent what some would call her biologically prime years, focusing on the M of her own damn choosing: Money. She went full throttle on her career and like other women, mused that marriage would eventually find its place in the grand scheme of her things. Fast forward to her year 37. Rubab was a boss lady at work, but her relationship status still checked the single box on intrusive government forms. She had navigated a mediocrity-soaked dating pool into her early 30s but had not come close to finding someone who wouldn’t make her grind her teeth at night. It became clear then that time waits for no man, and certainly no husband. By 38, she had resolved to preserve her ferti...

PPP’s Amjad Hussain on Monday was sworn in as the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan in a ceremony attended by his party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari. Advocate Hussain was elected for the role on June 22 following the June 7 elections , in which the PPP emerged as the largest party, with 12 seats in the 24-member GB assembly. Addressing the ceremony in Gilgit after taking the oath, Hussain said the PPP emerged as the “largest party” in the elections. He noted that the region’s youth and women “had a huge role” in the polls, in which his party candidates secured several seats. Hussain particularly thanked the people of Nagar who “gave the PPP 100 per cent results and two seats”, adding that the “heavy mandate” given to his party was an expression of the public confidence in the PPP. He highlighted that the Gilgit and Baltistan divisions were traditionally considered areas with a mandate for the PPP, thanking the residents there fo...

Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes killed nearly 3,000, updated official figures showed on Saturday, as international rescue teams began winding down search operations for survivors in the rubble of the disaster. Fatalities jumped by more than 300 from Friday to 2,954, following the June 24 disaster that has left thousands homeless in the streets and sheltering in camps. Tens of thousands more are still reported missing. The government has not given any estimates, but the United Nations has estimated as many as 50,000 are unaccounted for following the 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude shocks. One of Latin America’s worst earthquake disasters hit hardest in the coastal La Guaira area north of the capital, Caracas, where scores of residential complexes were flattened. Ten days after the double shocks, which came just 38 seconds apart, rescue teams are starting to wrap up searches for survivors while families still try to recover bodies of loved ones from the wr...

Lahore Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran said on Sunday that the police were ordered to treat a suspect — reportedly linked to a senior government minister — in the case of alleged abduction and assault of two foreign women like “any other criminal”. On Thursday, the police booked five suspects over alleged abduction and sexual assault after the two women were rescued. Four of the suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, were arrested and later sent on a five-day physical remand . Addressing a press conference, he recounted the events leading up to the recovery of the women and the subsequent arrest of the suspects. “Our priority was to ensure the recovery of the women. We carried out raids in Sargodha and several other locations; at the same time, when we found the family tree of one of the suspects and after speaking to inhabitants at one of the raided houses, it emerged that the family of suspect used to live in the house some...

The leadership of the Pakistan armed forces paid tribute to Captain Karnal Sher Khan Shaheed for his “unmatched courage, unwavering devotion, and supreme sacrifice” on the 27th anniversary of his martyrdom, the military’s media wing said on Sunday. Khan was martyred on July 5, 1999, while fighting against Indian forces in the snow-capped mountains in Kargil. The Inter-Service Public Relations (ISPR) said that Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Asim Munir, Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Naveed Ashraf, and Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Ahmed Baber Sidhu and the armed forces of Pakistan paid “profound tribute” to Khan to his “unmatched courage, unwavering devotion, and supreme sacrifice in the service of the nation”. Khan had displayed “extraordinary gallantry and resolute leadership while defending the motherland against overwhelming odds” during the 1999 Kargil conflict, the ISPR statement said. “Leading from the front with exceptional determination, he embraced ...

Hit by the biggest energy supply shock in decades during the Middle East war, import-dependent India is expanding domestic crude exploration, its oil minister says. India, the world’s third-largest importer of oil and the second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas, faced major disruptions due to restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz during the conflict between the United States and Iran. With a temporary US-Iran deal in place to pause hostilities, oil and gas shipments are flowing through the Gulf waterway again, and restrictions and price hikes in India are being rolled back. But Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said the energy crunch provided fresh impetus for India’s expansion of domestic supplies. “We are currently in the process… to bid out about 250,000 square kilometres (96,500 square miles) of unexplored area,” Puri told AFP. India is a modest producer in global terms. Domestic crude production in 2025-2026 was 25.98 million metric tonnes, ac...

Canada have already made World Cup history, while Mexico and the USA are also on course to beat their best-ever runs in the tournament as home advantage has paid dividends. AFP Sports looks at how all three co-hosts have thrived while others have struggled with the sprawling tournament spread over three countries and 17 cities. Mexico Swept along by fanatical support in the stadiums and the streets, Mexico have already ended a 40-year wait to win a knockout game by beating Ecuador to make the last 16. El Tri are confident of eliminating England in what could be a World Cup classic on Sunday. Javier Aguirre’s side made the most of a kind group-stage draw to ease past South Africa, South Korea and the Czech Republic. But the first-half destruction of Ecuador, who beat Germany in the group stages and finished second to Argentina in South American qualifying, served as a warning to England. Winger Julian Quinones has been Mexico’s breakout star wit...

Mourners beat their chests and chanted “revenge, revenge” as thousands gathered in Tehran early on Saturday for a final farewell to assassinated supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei . Khamenei, who ruled Iran for more than three decades, was killed in US-Israeli attacks on February 28 that sparked a regional war. “We have come not for the funeral but for revenge,” a eulogist at the event chanted. “We’re never going to give up your blood, which is the reddest line.” The mourners, some in tears, made their way through strict security towards the courtyard where Khamenei’s coffin was placed for people to pay their respects. “We must rise up and, God willing, avenge the blood of our leader,” Hamidreza Shabani, an 18-year-old student, told AFP. The coffin, wrapped in an Iranian flag, was unveiled on a stage from behind dark blue velvet drapes after recitations from the Quran. It stood on a raised platform accompanied by the coffins of his family memb...