16/04/2026

THURSDAY | APR 16, 2026

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Peru presidential candidate demands vote annulment

Trump takes pot shots at pope again WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump, whose war and immigration policies have been condemned by Pope Leo, reiterated his criticism of the religious leader on Tuesday night. In a post on Truth Social, Trump urged that “someone please tell Pope Leo” about the killings of protesters by Iran and that “for Iran to have a nuclear bomb is absolutely unacceptable”. Iran does not have nuclear weapons while the US does. Israel is widely believed to be the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons. While Western countries have long believed that Iran wants a nuclear bomb – or at least the ability to make one very quickly – Tehran has always denied that, citing its membership of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Trump’s comments come after Pope Leo warned earlier in the day of the risk of democracies sliding into “majoritarian tyranny”. Leo wrote in a letter issued by the Vatican about the use of power in democratic societies and said democracies remained healthy only when they were rooted in moral values. The pope has criticised Trump’s decision to launch the war against Iran, saying God rejects the prayers of those who launch wars and have “hands full of blood”. The pope termed Trump’s threat this month to destroy the Iranian civilisation as unacceptable and previously declined to join the so-called “Board of Peace” initiative for Gaza. The religious leader has also urged a “deep reflection” on the way migrants are treated in the US while Trump has pursued a hardline immigration policy. On Sunday, Trump called the pope “weak” and “terrible” on crime and foreign policy issues. – Reuters YouTuber jailed for statue outrage SEOUL: An American YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating wartime sex slaves has been

LIMA: Peruvian right-wing presidential hopeful Rafael Lopez Aliaga gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga, a fan of President Donald Trump, is locked in a tight three-way race with a leftist candidate and a social democrat for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against conservative frontrunner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow, I will call for a nationwide protest.” The election ran into Monday in parts of the capital Lima because of delays in the supply of ballots and other materials, which prevented tens of thousands of people from casting their vote the day before. Elections observers acknowledged the dysfunctional nature of the vote but said they o Election observers find no evidence of fraud

A record 35 candidates ran for president of the unstable Andean nation, where four presidents have been impeached in the past 10 years. The campaign was dominated by promises to tackle a surge in extortion and contract killings, and disillusionment with a political class widely seen as ineffectual and corrupt. With no candidate winning the 50% of votes needed for outright victory, a second round of voting is planned in June. Tens of thousands of people were unable to cast a ballot on Sunday because election materials arrived late or not at all. Several polling stations reopened on Monday to allow them to have their say. Political scientist Eduardo Dargent said the logistics mess had “given arguments ... to several people who will cry fraud or worse if they are not happy with the result.” Some voters said the chaos undermined their faith in the democratic process. “We don’t know if the results are true,” said Yeraldine Garrido, a 35-year-old receptionist. “It’s been a major democratic failure,” Luis Gomez, a self-employed man of 60, said. Police have detained one election official and raided a private contractor blamed for failing to deliver election materials on time. The head of the European Union’s election observer mission, Annalisa Corrado, said her team found no evidence of fraud. – AFP

saw no evidence of fraud. Ultraconservative Lima former mayor Lopez Aliaga saw his lead over leftist ex minister Roberto Sanchez and social democratic candidate Jorge Nieto shrink as the vote count continued. With just over 80% of ballots counted, Fujimori, the daughter of divisive former president Alberto Fujimori, had about 17%. Lopez Aliaga was on just over 13%, compared with more than 11% for Sanchez. Projections from the Ipsos institute suggest that Sanchez is on course to reach the second round. Addressing reporters, Lopez Aliaga repeated his fraud claims and called on the electoral commission to “act, declare this entire process null and void, or figure out how to resolve this”. In response to a question, he confirmed that he was seeking the annulment of the vote and called on his supporters to take to the streets. “Don’t let them steal our future,” he wrote on Facebook. Hundreds of his supporters protested in Lima, carrying placards and chanting “fraud” and “we want new elections”. In an interview, Sanchez called for “the popular vote to be respected”. “One can win or be defeated. And that has to be accepted because those are the rules of the game,” he said.

Lopez Aliaga gave authorities 24 hours. – REUTERSPIC

sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali (pic) , 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.

South Korean authorities indicted Somali, whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael, in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in prison,” said a representative of the Seoul Western District Court. In October 2024, Somali uploaded a video of himself kissing and twerking beside a statue memorialising Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese occupying forces before and during World War II. The incident caused strong public backlash and condemnation, and the clip was later removed. Somali apologised, saying he was “not aware of the significance of the statue”. In 2023, Somali caused consternation in Japan for taunting subway commuters about Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the two cities devastated by US atomic bombs. – AFP

xAI sued over gas turbines WASHINGTON: The largest US civil rights group on Tuesday sued xAI and a subsidiary, claiming they illegally operated more than two dozen gas turbines in Mississippi to power its Colossus 2 data centre, posing a health risk to local residents.

Act requires 60 days of notice ahead of filing a lawsuit. Mississippi regulators held one public hearing that month about permits for those turbines after just a few days of public notice for the hearing, and subsequently approved the permits. xAI was not available for comment. Earthjustice said that xAI’s Southaven power plant has the potential to emit more than 1,700 tonnes of smog-causing nitrogen oxides each year, a major source of smog in the greater Memphis area. They are also estimated to emit 180 tonnes of fine particulate matter, 500 tonnes of carbon monoxide and 19 tonnes of cancer-causing formaldehyde. – Reuters

with the full backing of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves, but the facility, as well as Colossus 1 just over the border in Memphis, Tennessee, has met heavy opposition from local communities due to their effect on local air and environmental quality. “By looking to evade clean air laws to operate dirty turbines that emit pollution and known carcinogens, these companies are following a shameful, familiar pattern: asking Black and frontline communities to bear the toxic brunt of innovation,” said Abre’ Conner, director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP. The NAACP announced its intention to sue xAI and MZX in February because the Clean Air

The NAACP, represented by Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center, sued xAI and subsidiary MZX Tech, charging they violated the federal Clean Air Act by running 27 gas-fired turbines before getting necessary air permits for its massive data centre that powers xAI’s Grok chatbot. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has invested more than US$20 billion (RM79 billion) to build the data centre in Southaven