27/04/2026

MONDAY | APR 27, 2026

9 Trump cancels Pakistan talks

Three die in Russian strikes KYIV: Russian strikes across Ukraine killed three people and wounded at least four others, Ukrainian officials said yesterday. Moscow has fired hundreds of drones on its neighbour almost nightly since its 2022 invasion, while Ukraine has carried out regular attacks on Russian energy and military targets. In the northeastern Ukraine border region of Sumy, a drone attack killed two civilians, according to the head of Sumy’s regional military administration. “The enemy struck civilians in the territory of Bilopillia community – near one of the settlements, less than 5km from the state border with the Russian Federation,” Oleg Grygorov said. He said two men aged 48 and 72 were killed. Drone and artillery attacks in the central-eastern city of Dnipro killed one person and wounded four more, the region’s military administration head Oleksandr Ganzha said. Earlier yesterday, the governor of Sevastopol said a man was killed in a vehicle during a Ukrainian drone attack that damaged several homes and a dance school in different neighbourhoods of the port city. – AFP BELFAST: Police launched a security operation in Belfast yesterday after a car bomb reportedly exploded on Saturday night outside a police station, with no reported casualties. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said it was at the scene of a “security alert” in Dunmurry, southwest of the Northern Irish capital. Videos circulated on social media showing a vehicle on fire at the police station around midnight. Fire crews and police worked to put out the blaze, according to local media. The PSNI said an evacuation operation was underway. Local politicians denounced the latest apparent attack. – AFP ISRAELI ATTACKS KILL FOUR IN GAZA CAIRO: Israeli military attacks killed at least four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip yesterday. Medics said an airstrike carried out by Israel’s forces killed one person near the central village of Al-Mughraqa, while Israeli gunfire and tank shelling killed two others near Gaza City. In another incident, Israeli forces shot and killed a 40-year-old woman in Khan Younis, in the south of the territory, health officials said. The Israeli military said it had struck and killed several Hamas gunmen in Gaza since Friday. Violence in Gaza has persisted despite an October 2025 ceasefire, with Israel conducting almost daily attacks on Palestinians. – Reuters SECURITY SWEEP IN BELFAST AFTER BLAST

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Iran said Araghchi had left for Muscat and would return to Pakistan yesterday after meetings in Oman, before travelling to Russia for talks on ending the war. Araghchi described his Pakistan trip as “very fruitful” but signalled scepticism over Washington’s intentions. “Have yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy,” he said. Even before Trump’s move, prospects for talks were uncertain, with Iranian state television saying Araghchi had no plans to meet US officials and that Islamabad would act as a conduit. Sharif said he had spoken to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and reiterated Islamabad’s commitment to facilitating “durable peace”. Iranian state TV said Pezeshkian told Sharif the Islamic republic

Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff were to set off for Pakistan on Saturday for talks with Iran aimed at moving “towards a deal”, but Trump later told Fox News he had scrapped the trip. “We have all the cards. They can call us anytime they want, but you’re not going to be making any more 18-hour flights to sit around talking about nothing,” the president said he had told his team. Asked separately whether the cancellation meant a return to hostilities, Trump said: “No, it doesn’t mean that. We haven’t thought about it yet.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrapped up a visit to Islamabad after meeting Pakistan’s military chief Asim Munir, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.

Washington’s “hostile actions”. On the war’s Lebanese front, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered strikes on Hezbollah after accusing the group of violating a ceasefire. Lebanese media reported Israeli attacks in at least four locations in the south: a pair of strikes in quick succession in a town in Bint Jbeil district, another on a town in Tyre district, and strikes on two more towns in Nabatieh district. The strikes in Nabatieh and Bint Jbeil killed six people. Israel’s military said it “eliminated” three Hezbollah operatives who were driving “a vehicle loaded with weapons”, as well as another one riding a motorcycle, and two more armed members of the group elsewhere. – AFP

WASHINGTON: International efforts to mediate between the United States and Iran were in the balance yesterday, after President Donald Trump cancelled his envoys’ planned trip to Pakistan. Trump said there was no point “sitting around talking about nothing” and dismissed Tehran’s negotiating position, but added that Iran had revised its proposal within minutes of his decision. “They gave us a paper that should have been better and – interestingly – immediately, when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” he told reporters, without elaborating. The White House had said

Israeli left-wing activists in HaBima Square, Tel Aviv demonstrating against the war with Iran and against the Israeli government. – AFPPIC

ICE detains Egyptian family after court orders release WASHINGTON: An Egyptian family which was released from more than 10 months of immigration detention following court orders was taken into custody again by federal authorities for several hours on Saturday, the family’s legal team said. The family, which lives in Colorado, was arrested as they complied with a requirement to check in at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Denver, according to The Colorado Sun . later said a federal court granted an emergency motion to stop the planned deportation. Lee posted early yesterday that “ICE just released the El Gamal family”, saying their detention violated court orders.

a similar separate ruling earlier in the week. The family was first taken into federal custody last June. Their immigration detention, the longest for a family under President Donald Trump’s administration, began after El Gamal’s ex-husband, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, was charged with attempted murder, assault and a federal hate crime following last year’s firebomb attack in Boulder, Colorado. – Reuters

terrorist’s family onto American streets again.” “We are confident the courts will ultimately vindicate us,” the DHS’ acting assistant secretary, Lauren Bis, said. The statement did not address why the family was detained on Saturday after Thursday’s ruling. El Gamal and the children were released from their earlier detention on Thursday after District Judge Fred Biery ordered their release following

In a statement on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said the family was receiving “full due process” and cast the judge who ordered the family’s release as an “activist judge” who is “releasing this

ICE had put them on a plane that would have flown to Michigan “and then outside the United States to an unknown location”, the family’s legal team said. Eric Lee, a lawyer for the family,

Hayam El Gamal and her five children aged five to 18 were detained less than 48 hours after a federal judge had ordered their release, the family’s legal team said in a statement.