Relentless Les Blues march into semfinals Kylian Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele were on target as France surged past Morocco 2-0 to book their place in the semifinals on Thursday. This will be their third consecutive World Cup semifinal appearance after 2018 and 2022 Today's matches villupuram l Saturday l July 11, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Kylian Mbappe celebrates after scoring France’s first goal against Morocco | afp | P11 Norway vs England @ Miami Stadium | 2.30 AM* | Argentina vs Switzerland @ Kansas City Stadium | 6.30 AM * Live on United8 Sports & ZEE5 (IST Sunday*) CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI CM calls Karur stampede a State song first, then Nat’l conspiracy, blames police Song in govt events: MHA Announces TVK memorial for victims to send message to ‘plotters’ E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Karur 23 counting staff of Ram temple quit n a m i ta b a j pa i @ Lucknow As many as 23 people hired from an external agency by the SBI branch in Ayodhya for counting donations at the Ram Mandir there resigned on Friday amid the ongoing investigation into the alleged embezzlement of offerings, reducing the strength of counting personnel to a little more than a dozen. Earlier, there were 40 counting personnel at the temple. Those who quit said the counting at the temple had become more time consuming and tedious as the number of `10 and `20 denomination notes being offered by devotees had increased significantly after the donation theft came to light. The counting staff said they used to collect 70 to 80 bundles of `500 notes earlier, allowing quick completion of the counting process. Now, they barely manage 15 bundles of `500 notes a day . Earlier, they worked in two shifts, now it’s one. Calling the stampede during the TVK rally in Karur in September 2025, in which 41 people died, a ‘political conspiracy’, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay announced on Friday that his party would establish a memorial in the city to send a strong message to the alleged conspirators. Addressing a crowd of 5,000 people at Vennaimalai in his first visit to Karur district after the tragedy, the CM faulted the Karur police for neither alerting him about the swelling crowd at the TVK venue on September 27, nor taking steps to cancel the meeting after it became unmanageable. Dressed in black shirt and black trousers, Vijay recalled his election campaigns and said that Perambalur police had cancelled his meeting due to crowd swell but the Karur police failed to stop him from attending the meeting. “The police could have alerted us that the crowd had become unmanageable to control. The police have all the right to cancel the meeting. Without doing so, the police escorted us on the highway he said. ,” Calling the police’s action a drama, Vijay said, “I trusted the police fully and even thanked them at the meeting. I didn’t know about the drama. Who is responsible for this? Under whose instruction was all this done,” he asked. He also accused the police of not ensuring proper protection at the venue. Incidentally, the state police’s FIR inside Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay distributing job orders to the family members of the stampede victims in Karur on Friday | Express had, among other things, attributed the stampede and fatalities to a four-toseven-hour delay in Vijay’s arrival to the venue at Velusamypuram and poor arrangements by the TVK. Training his guns on DMK president, Vijay accused the then CM, MK Stalin, of trying to gain “political mileage” from the incident. “You (DMK) accused me of hiding and uttered many things against me in the Tamil Nadu Assembly I am not a poli. tician who looks for political gains. I have come to politics to thank the people, to serve them. Did you think I will run away? If you ask me to choose between money and people, I will say people… people alone are important to me,” Vijay said. He also said that while the DMK ran a corrupt regime raising “party funds” from each government department, the AIADMK was a spent force.  P5 Journos not allowed to cover event | p4 ‘Tragedy caused by film team’s plan’ | p4 Temp jobs only: HC Madras HC on Friday permitted TVK government to give jobs to kin of stampede victims on compassionate grounds, but said it should only be on a temporary basis. Thirty-one beneficiaries got job orders, but there is no clarity if the jobs are temporary or permanent | P4 M U K E S H RA N J A N @ New Delhi THE Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has clarified that state songs must be played or sung first in government functions, followed by the National Song and National Anthem, in that order. Issuing fresh directions to all state governments, Union Territory (UT) administrations and central ministries, the Union home ministry directed the states and the UTs to strictly adhere to the sequence. “In some of the States, State Song is also sung and played along with National Anthem/ National Song. It is stated that whenever State Song is sung or played with National Song/National Anthem, both the National Song and National Anthem shall be sung or played together; and National Song will be sung or played first followed by National Anthem,” the MHA said in its order dated July 9. Clarifying the protocol to be observed in functions that play a state song along with the National Song/Anthem, an official said: “In such cases, state songs should be sung first followed by the National Song and the National Anthem.” The latest MHA directive Govt: E20 cuts mileage; can’t offer other options RA K E S H K U M AR @ New Delhi THE Union petroleum ministry on Friday acknowledged that the use of E20 (20% ethanolblended petrol) can cut vehicle mileage by up to 5%, but ruled out offering consumers a choice between pure petrol, E10, and E20, citing logistical and investment-related constraints. In a detailed explainer, the ministry said stocking three different grades of petrol at over 1 lakh retail outlets across the country would create enormous logistical challenges. The ministry also pointed to the massive investments made in India’s ethanol ecosystem. It said public sector banks have financed nearly `1 lakh crore annually for ethanol production and related infrastructure, including dedicated ethanol plants, distilleries, storage facilities and logistics networks. It said E20 is more efficient than pure petrol and E10. It acknowledged that E20 is more expensive to produce than pure petrol when inter national crude oil prices are around $70 per barrel. It becomes economical only if crude prices rise to $120-130 per barrel, as ethanol is procured at a relatively stable price of about `71 per litre. also called for adherence to the correct script and text, and diction and pronunciation while playing or singing the National Song and National Anthem. To facilitate compliance, the MHA said the authentic text as well as the correct pronunciation of the National Song and the National Anthem is available on the ministry’s website. The MHA said its orders contain an exhaustive list of occasions during which the National Anthem / National Song “shall be played or sung” as well as occasions where they “may be sung or played”. express read HC bars ECI from holding by-election to five seats Chennai: The Madras HC on Friday restrained the ECI from issuing notification for holding by-elections to five Assembly seats that fell vacant after the resignation of CM Vijay and four AIADMK MLAs, who later defected to the TVK | P4 Move to unblock HR&CE land sparks war of words Chennai: An HR&CE department order removing a registration block on 3,085 acres of temple land in Karur worth `25,000 crore sparked a political row. While BJP slammed the move, the state government said no temple land has been given to anyone | P2