06/04/2026

MONDAY | APR 6, 2026

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

8

Taiwan politician heads to China TAIPEI: Taiwan’s main opposition leader will make a rare trip to China tomorrow, weeks before US President Donald Trump, with Beijing expected to use the visit to increase its influence over the democratic island. Cheng Li-wun, who will become the first sitting chairperson of the Kuomintang (KMT) to travel to China in a decade, said she wants to meet President Xi Jinping to build cross-strait “peace”. However, Taiwanese officials and experts say Xi sees an opportunity to reinforce Cheng’s standing in the KMT and stymie further US weapons sales to Taiwan. The KMT has long advocated closer relations with China. But Cheng, whose unexpected rise to the top of the KMT drew congratulations from Xi in October, has been accused by critics, including inside the party, of being too pro-China. Cheng’s visit comes as the United States, Taiwan’s most important security backer, intensifies pressure on Taiwanese opposition lawmakers to approve a proposal for defence purchases, including billions of dollars worth of US weapons, to deter a potential Chinese attack. – AFP TOULOUSE: A 40-year-old skier died when he apparently set off an avalanche while coming down a mountain in the Pyrenees in southern France, sources told AFP yesterday. Police found the man’s body after an avalanche on Saturday on the Pique d’Endron, a mountain peak near the Spanish border. The skier had been alone on the mountain at the time, according to the sources. Avalanches tend to be more deadly in the French Alps, a more popular skiing destination with higher altitudes where at least 28 people have died this year. – AFP CAR SLAMS INTO CROWD, MAN ARRESTED NEW ORLEANS: Louisiana police have charged a man with impaired driving after his car slammed into a crowd during a community parade on Saturday, injuring several people, some critically. Louisiana State Police said they arrested Todd Landry, 57, and charged him with driving while impaired, 18 counts of first-degree negligent injuring and careless operation following the incident in New Iberia, Louisiana. He is also accused of having an open container with an alcoholic beverage in the vehicle. The incident occurred during a Lao New Year celebration, Louisiana State Police said in a statement. – Reuters SKIER DIES IN FRENCH PYRENEES AVALANCHE

End wars, leaders urged

BR I E F S

o Abandon schemes for power, conquest or domination: Pope

Chappell Roan’s pop smash Pink Pony Club . “Morale is high on board,” commander Wiseman told Houston’s Mission Control as the space crew’s work day began. The father of two girls was in high spirits in part because he had the chance to speak with his daughters from space. “We’re up here, we’re so far away, and for a moment, I was reunited with my little family. It was just the greatest moment of my entire life,” he told a live press conference. – AFP “The doors are still closed,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in his Easter Vigil homily at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. “The silence is almost absolute, broken perhaps by the distant sound of what war continues to sow in this holy and torn land,” he said, according to the sermon text issued by his office. – Reuters/AFP crucifixion, shows that Christ was “entirely nonviolent”. “On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars,” Leo urged. Leo, who is known for choosing his words carefully, has been forcefully decrying the world’s violent conflicts in recent weeks and ramping up his criticism of the Iran war. In a sermon for the Easter vigil on Saturday night, he urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace. The pope made a rare direct appeal to President Donald Trump on Tuesday, urging him to find an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war. The pope also announced he would return to the Basilica on April 11 to host a prayer vigil for peace. The ceremony yesterday brought back memories of the late pope Francis, who last appeared in public on Easter Sunday last year, a few hours before he died. Speaking during an Easter Vigil on Saturday, the pontiff called for “a new world of peace and unity” and decried the divisions created by “war, injustice and the isolation of peoples and nations”. In Jerusalem, services in the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Christians believe Christ was resurrected, were held behind closed doors. Israel has imposed restrictions on large gatherings as a security precaution. “It is the first time in my life that I experience a total closure of the Holy Sepulchre”, said Jack Straw, a 52-year-old resident of Jerusalem’s Old City. “It’s sad. The Sepulchre is empty. It’s the symbol of the most important event in Christian history,” he said, adding that he hoped the closure would only be for this year.

pope exhorted. “Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace!” Leo did not mention any specific conflicts in the message, known as the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) blessing. It was unusually brief and direct. The pope said the story of Easter, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead three days after not resisting his execution by

abandon any schemes for power, conquest or domination. The pope, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, lamented in a special message to the thousands gathered in St Peter’s Square that people “are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent”. “Let those who have weapons lay them down!” the first US

VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo urged global leaders in his Easter message to end the conflicts raging across the world and

Pope Leo leading the Easter mass at the Vatican. – REUTERSPIC

Artemis crew glimpse Moon ‘Grand Canyon’ HOUSTON: The Artemis astronauts have taken in sights of the Moon never before seen by human eyes, crew members reported yesterday as their spacecraft crossed the two thirds mark on their journey to a long anticipated lunar flyby. Artemis crew, showing a distant Moon with the Orientale basin visible. “This mission marks the first time the entire basin has been seen with human eyes,” Nasa said. The massive crater, which resembles a bullseye, had been photographed before by orbiting cameras. until today, really, when we were privileged enough to see it,” Koch said during the question-and-answer session hosted by the Canadian Space Agency.

Glover along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen – could set a record by venturing farther from Earth than any human before. Nasa said the Artemis crew has completed a manual piloting demonstration and reviewed their lunar flyby plan, including reviewing the surface features they must analyse and photograph during their time circling the Moon. Earlier, the astronauts kicked off their day with a meal that included scrambled eggs and coffee, Nasa said, and had woken up to the tune of

The next major milestone is expected on Sunday night, at which point the astronauts will enter the “lunar sphere of influence”, where the Moon’s gravity will have stronger pull on the spacecraft than Earth’s. If all proceeds smoothly, as the Orion spacecraft whips around the Moon, the astronauts – Americans Koch, Reid Wiseman and Victor

As the astronauts went to bed early yesterday, closing out the fourth day of their 10-day mission, they were nearly 321,869km from Earth and 131,966 from the Moon, according to Nasa’s online dashboard. The US space agency published yesterday an image taken by the

Speaking to Canadian children live from space, astronaut Christina Koch said the crew was most excited to see the basin, sometimes known as the Moon “Grand Canyon”. “It’s very distinctive and no human eyes previously had seen this crater