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Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party is the most prolific user of social media platforms, particularly after the country’s traditional media began censoring news about the former cricket star and his party in the run-up to the polls. Khan has 20.6 million followers on X. ⠀

Pakistan blocked access to social media platform X around the time of elections in February, the interior ministry said, citing national security concerns.

Users had reported problems using the platform, formerly known as Twitter, since mid-February, when jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party called for protests against a government official’s admission of vote manipulation.

At the time, both the government and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the state regulatory body, refused to comment on the outages that were also widely reported by internet watchdog groups. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Interior mentioned the shutdown in a written court submission.

“It is very pertinent to mention here that the failure of Twitter/X to adhere to the lawful directives of the government of Pakistan and address concerns regarding the misuse of its platform necessitated the imposition of a ban,” said the report, seen by the Reuters news agency, which confirmed the long-suspected shutdown. ⠀

Activists challenging the ban said it was designed to quash dissent after the February 8 general elections that were marred by widespread opposition claims of vote rigging and protests. ⠀

The decision to temporarily block X was taken after considering confidential reports from Pakistan’s intelligence and security agencies, the report said.

It claimed that “hostile elements operating on Twitter/X have nefarious intentions to create an environment of chaos and instability, with the ultimate goal of destabilising the country and plunging it into some form of anarchy”. ⠀

Access to X has been sporadic, occasionally available for short cycles based on the internet service provider, forcing users to use virtual private networks, said Alp Toker of NetBlocks.

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• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said ‘we will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself’
• Germany’s foreign minister said ‘escalation ‘would serve no one, not Israel’s security, not the many dozens of hostages still in the hands of Hamas’ ⠀

Netanyahu met the German and British foreign ministers, who both travelled to Israel as part of a coordinated push to keep the confrontation between Israel and Iran from escalating into a regional conflict fuelled by the Gaza war.

Netanyahu’s office said he thanked David Cameron and Annalena Baerbock for their support, while telling them: “I want to make it clear – we will make our own decisions, and the State of Israel will do everything necessary to defend itself.” ⠀

The Iranian missiles and drones launched on Saturday were mostly shot down by Israel and its allies and caused no deaths. But Israel says it must retaliate to preserve the credibility of its deterrents. Iran says it considers the matter closed, but will retaliate again if Israel does. Washington says it is planning to impose new sanctions targeting Iran’s missile and drone programme in coming days, and expects its allies will follow suit. EU leaders are due to discuss sanctions at a summit in Brussels, and sanctions are also on the agenda at G7 talks in Italy. ⠀

Inside Gaza, Israel has launched a massive air and ground assault, with nearly 34,000 people confirmed killed, according to Palestinian doctors, and thousands of others feared dead, still lost among the ruins. ⠀

Israel says it will discuss a pause to free hostages but will not stop fighting until Hamas is wiped out; Hamas says it will not release hostages without a truce leading to an end to the war. The prime minister of Qatar, which has served as mediator, said negotiations were at a delicate phase. The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, three of whose sons were killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza this month, is set to visit Turkey in coming days for talks with President Tayyip Erdogan.

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Mobs of Israeli settlers have rampaged through the occupied West Bank attacking Palestinians and their property, killing two people. The latest violence was sparked by the disappearance of a 14-year-old boy from an illegal outpost, whose body was later found.

Iranian military chief says overnight attack ‘achieved all its goals’, adding that US bases are under threat if it backs Israeli retaliation.

Iran has warned Israel of a larger attack on its territory should it retaliate against Tehran’s overnight drone and missile attacks, adding that the United States should not back an Israeli military action.

“If the Zionist regime [Israel] or its supporters demonstrate reckless behaviour, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response,” Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi said in a statement on Sunday. ⠀

However, in a signal that Iran’s response was calculated in an attempt to avoid any major escalation, the Iranian foreign minister Amir Abdollahian said that Tehran had informed the US of the planned attack 72 hours in advance, and said that the strikes would be “limited” and for self-defence.

That did not stop more aggressive language from other officials, with the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hossein Salami, warning that Tehran would retaliate against any Israeli attacks on its interests, officials or citizens.

“From now on, whenever Israel attacks Iranian interests… we will attack from Iran.” ⠀

“The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe,” said a statement.

It added that the US should “stay away” from the conflict, as it is an issue between Iran and Israel.

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US President Joe Biden has condemned Iranian attacks on military facilities in Israel, pledging a coordinated Group of Seven (G7) diplomatic response while highlighting the United States’s help in taking down “nearly all” of the attacking drones and missiles.

Biden, who cut short a trip to Delaware and returned to Washington, DC to meet advisers over the late Saturday night attack, said in a statement released by the White House that the US forces and facilities had not been hit.

The US president said he reiterated the “ironclad” support for Israel’s security in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with whom he has had strained relations over Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.

“Tomorrow, I will convene my fellow G7 leaders to coordinate a united diplomatic response to Iran’s brazen attack,” he said.

“And while we have not seen attacks on our forces or facilities today, we will remain vigilant to all threats and will not hesitate to take all necessary action to protect our people,” he said.

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• Iran’s attack came in retaliation for an April 1 strike on the consular annexe of Iran’s embassy in Damascus and killed 7 Revolutionary Guards, 2 of them generals

• The attack come against the backdrop of the Gaza war, which began with Hamas’s attack on Israel. Tehran backs Hamas but denies involvement in its attack on Israel ⠀

Thousands of Iranians took to the streets of Iran early on Sunday in a show of support for the unprecedented drone and missile attack under way against arch foe Israel.

“Death to Israel!” and “Death to America!” chanted demonstrators in Tehran’s Palestine Square shortly after the Revolutionary Guards announced the launch of Operation Honest Promise. ⠀

Iranian media described the attack on Israel as “complex” as it also involved Iranian allies in Yemen, Lebanon and Iraq.

“This attack did not come from Iran only, and this regime [Israel] is being punished from four directions,” the Tasnim news agency said. ⠀

A large crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the British embassy in Tehran.

Supporters of the retaliatory attack also demonstrated in Iran’s third-largest city Isfahan where Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, one of the generals killed in the Damascus strike, is buried.

Demonstrators also gathered near the grave in the southern city of Kerman of prominent Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a 2020 US drone strike in Baghdad.

Tehran had earlier appealed to Washington to keep out of its conflict with Israel, but Iranian hopes were dashed after a Pentagon official confirmed that US forces were shooting down Israel-bound drones.

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• Sitonholy, which has been added to the US Entity List, is one of a few ‘elite-level’ Nvidia data centre product solutions providers in China
• The company has also been distributing Huawei Technologies’ Ascend 910B AI chips, an alternative to Nvidia’s A100 GPUs ⠀

Chinese companies have lost access to one of the country’s largest distribution channels for Nvidia processors after the US added a major reseller to its export blacklist, strengthening Washington’s efforts to curb artificial intelligence (AI) development in China while pushing more Chinese businesses towards local replacements.

Sitonholy (Tianjin) was among four Chinese companies added to the US Entity List on Wednesday for allegedly helping China’s military acquire AI chips, according to a post published on the Federal Register. ⠀

Sitonholy is one of a few “elite-level” Nvidia data centre product solutions providers in China, having retained its franchise rights for being able maintain strong sales year after year, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the media.

While Nvidia has been banned by the US from exporting to China its advanced A100 and H100 data-centre graphics processing units (GPUs), which have become sought-after for AI training, it has come up with new replacements for China-based clients, such as the H20, L20 and L2 GPUs.

However, being blacklisted by the US has effectively ended Sitonholy’s distributorship of Nvidia products, forcing it to sell mostly domestic chips from now on, sources said. ⠀

China has accelerated efforts to substitute foreign chips and software with domestic products to safeguard national and industrial security.

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Iranian armed forces have seized a container ship near the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tensions across the region after a deadly Israeli attack on Iran’s consulate in Syria.

The ship was commandeered by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite force that lost seven members, including two generals, in the Syria strike, Iranian state media reported on Saturday.

“The ship has now been guided towards the territorial waters of our country,” state-run IRNA reported.

The vessel was identified as the Portugal-flagged MSC Aries, which reportedly departed from a port in the United Arab Emirates en route to India. It is associated with the London-based Zodiac Maritime, a part of the Zodiac Group run by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer and his family.

Footage from the deck of the vessel obtained by The Associated Press news agency on Saturday showed soldiers rappelling down from a helicopter.

The helicopter appeared to be a Soviet-designed Mil Mi-17, which is operated by the naval forces of the IRGC. ⠀

Another Israeli-linked container ship was attacked and damaged by a drone in the Indian Ocean in late November, which the United States blamed on Iran.

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• Tehran views the attack as equivalent to an attack on its own territory, so a direct response on Israeli soil by Iran itself is a serious possibility

• Countries including India, France, Poland and Russia have warned their citizens against travel to the region, already on edge over the war in Gaza ‎⠀

“The revenge will come,” wrote Israel’s largest daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. “For the moment, the premise is that it will be very soon, in the next few days.” ⠀

“It’s going to be very difficult for Iran not to retaliate,” said Raz Zimmt, senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.

“I still believe that Iran doesn’t want to engage in full-scale, direct military confrontation against Israel, and certainly not with the United States. But it has to do something.” ⠀

Iranian sources and diplomats from the United States, Israel’s main protector, say Tehran has signalled to Washington that it wishes to avoid escalation and will not act hastily.

But the risk remains that any response might spin out of control. ⠀

Iran has missiles capable of hitting Israel directly and in recent weeks, Israel has bolstered its air defences, which have intercepted thousands of rockets fired by Hamas from Gaza and by Hezbollah from Lebanon.

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On Thursday, the spokeswoman of the Foreign Ministry of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Ning, demonstrated Beijing’s support for the addition of Palestine to the UN. ⠀

The spokeswoman also called for the United Nations not to delay the decision any longer and to take action to stop the genocide and end the bloodshed as soon as possible. ⠀

On the other hand, the United States said it will not accept Palestine’s request until a comprehensive agreement is reached with its ally, Israel.

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