14/04/2026

TUESDAY | APR 14, 2026

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Blessed are the peacemakers ABOARD PAPAL PLANE: Pope Leo said yesterday that he plans to continue speaking out against war after US President Donald Trump’s direct attack on the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Church. In comments aboard the papal flight to Algiers, where the first US pope is starting a 10-day tour to four African countries, the pontiff also said the Christian message was being “abused”. “I don’t want to get into a debate with him,”Leo said as he greeted journalists on the plane. “I don’t think that the message of the Gospel is meant to be abused in the way that some people are doing.” “I will continue to speak out against war, looking to promote peace, promoting dialogue and multilateral relationships among the states to look for just solutions,” he said in English. “Too many people are suffering in the world today,” said Leo. “Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there’s a better way.” “The message of the Church, my message, the message of the Gospel: Blessed are the peacemakers. I do not look at my role as being political, a politician,” he said. Leo, originally from Chicago, has emerged as an outspoken critic of the US-Israeli war on Iran in recent weeks and decried the “madness of war” in a peace appeal on Saturday. Trump, in an apparent response to the pope’s criticisms of both the conflict and the White House’s hard-line immigration policies, said late on Sunday that Leo was “terrible”. “Pope Leo is weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. – Reuters

Leo is escorted by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at ‘Houari Boumediene’ International Airport. – REUTERSPIC

US to blockade Iran ports o Revolutionary Guards warn ofharsh response

Israeli airstrike kills three in Gaza GAZA: An Israeli airstrike killed at least three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip yesterday, health officials said, as mediators met leaders from Hamas to shore up a US-brokered ceasefire deal. Medics said the strike had hit a group of men outside a school in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. There was no immediate comment by the Israeli military. At Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, the bodies of those killed lay on the ground in white shrouds outside the morgue as relatives and friends arrived to bid them farewell. “This isn’t a truce; it’s a trap for our young men. Every day there are martyrs, every single day. How long can this continue?” said Umm Hussam Abu El-Rous, a female relative of one of the victims. “Isn’t it unjust that a three-year-old child is afraid of seeing his (dead) father? He says, ‘My father went to bring me something from the shop’,” she said. The ceasefire that began last October halted two years of war but left Israeli troops in control of a depopulated zone demarcated by yellow-painted blocks that comprises well over half of Gaza, with Hamas in power in a narrow coastal strip. More than 750 Palestinians have been killed since the deal took effect, while gunmen have killed four Israeli soldiers. – Reuters Roberto Burneo, head of Peru’s electoral authority, said legal action would be taken against the company responsible for distributing the voting materials. Educated in the US and leader of the powerful Popular Force party in Congress, Fujimori has framed herself as a guarantor of order and economic stability, appealing to voters alarmed by surging violent crime. Her candidacy remains polarising, however, due to her family legacy and past legal troubles. Former Lima mayor Lopez Aliaga, a wealthy businessman with socially conservative views, campaigned on an ultra-conservative platform and had seen support fluctuate in the weeks leading up to the election. – Reuters

the medium to long-term.” After Trump’s initial remarks on Sunday, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards warned that military vessels approaching the strait will be considered a ceasefire breach and dealt with harshly and decisively, underlining the risk of a dangerous escalation. A US official said Iran rejected Washington’s call for an end to all uranium enrichment, the dismantling of all major enrichment facilities and the transfer of highly enriched uranium. Iran also refused US demands that Iran cease funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, as well as fully open the Strait of Hormuz, the official added. Iranian media said there was agreement on a number of issues, but the strait and Iran’s nuclear programme were the main sticking points. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran had “encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade” when just inches away from an “Islamabad MoU”. “Zero lessons learned,” he said. “Goodwill begets goodwill. Enmity begets enmity.” – Reuters

including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman”. Vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports will not be impeded, the US military said. Additional information would be provided to commercial mariners through a formal notice, it said. President Donald Trump said on Sunday US forces would also intercept every vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran. “No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump wrote on social media, adding: “Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be blown to hell!” He said the US Navy will begin destroying mines in the Strait of Hormuz. While shipping data showed three supertankers fully laden with oil passed through the Strait on Saturday, tankers were steering clear of the waterway yesterday. “Trump wants a quick fix,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior Pentagon official during the Biden administration now at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “The reality is, this mission is difficult to execute alone and likely unsustainable over

WASHINGTON: The US military said it will begin a blockade of all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas yesterday, after weekend talks failed to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, jeopardising a fragile two-week ceasefire. The talks in Islamabad, which ran from Saturday into early Sunday, were the first direct US-Iranian meeting in more than a decade and the highest-level discussions since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The negotiations came days after a ceasefire began on Tuesday, aimed at ending six weeks of fighting that has killed thousands of people, throttled vital supplies of energy and sparked fears of a wider regional conflict. The US Central Command said that the blockade, starting at 10am ET yesterday (10pm in Malaysia), would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas,

Keiko Fujimori leads Peru presidential vote LIMA: The preliminary results of Peru’s presidential vote flipped early yesterday as conservative Keiko Fujimori overtook right-wing rival Rafael Lopez Aliaga in the official count. With 37% of ballots counted, Fujimori led with 17.17%, ahead of Lopez Aliaga on 16.97%, according to the electoral authority ONPE. The reversal followed earlier results on Sunday that had put Lopez Aliaga in front, while exit polls had shown Fujimori leading. prolong uncertainty in the world’s third-largest copper producer at a time of rising crime and intensifying competition for influence between the United States and China. “I want to express my solidarity with the citizens who today were denied the opportunity to exercise their right to vote,” Fujimori said in a brief statement, adding that she would begin a new campaign for the runoff.

Delays to polling stations opening were reported in some areas on Sunday morning, centred in Lima, following logistical issues involving a contractor responsible for the distribution of electoral material. The disruptions prompted authorities to extend voting hours by one more day for over 50,000 people.

Years of political turmoil in the Andean nation have eroded confidence in institutions and left voters deeply disillusioned. With no clear frontrunner and all major candidates polling well below the 50% needed to win outright, a June 7 runoff appeared likely – a scenario that could

Fujimori, alongside vice-presidential candidates Luis Galarreta Velarde and Miguel Torres Morales, tracks preliminary results in Lima. – REUTERSPIC