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  • Pope Leo XIV calls for ‘hope’ before 100,000 faithful in Angola

    Pope Leo XIV calls for ‘hope’ before 100,000 faithful in Angola

    On a sunlit Sunday outside Angola’s capital Luanda, a crowd of nearly 100,000 worshippers gathered under the open sky for the first public Mass held by Pope Leo XIV during his visit to the southern African nation, receiving a message of hope tailored to a country blessed with abundant natural resources yet haunted by systemic poverty and deep-seated division.

    The pontiff’s arrival in Portuguese-speaking Angola on Saturday marked the third stop of an ambitious 11-day, four-nation tour across Africa, a journey that has already seen the leader of the Catholic Church speak out forcefully against systemic corruption and the ongoing foreign and domestic plunder of the continent’s rich natural endowments – and sparked a high-profile public dispute with United States President Donald Trump.

    According to Vatican figures sourced from local Angolan authorities, the gathering at Kilamba, a planned community located roughly 30 kilometers from Luanda’s city center, drew an estimated 100,000 attendees. In his address to the assembled faithful, Pope Leo urged the crowd to embrace a hopeful vision of the future, framing the moment as a potential new beginning for a nation still carrying deep social and political scars from a 27-year civil war that only concluded in 2002.

    “ It is within our power to build a nation where old divisions are laid to rest forever, where hatred and violence fade from memory, where the festering wound of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and shared prosperity,” the pontiff told the assembled crowd.

    Fresh off his previous stop in Cameroon, Pope Leo met immediately after his Saturday arrival with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and other senior government officials, where he doubled down on the sharp rhetorical tone that has defined his African trip, calling out the widespread human suffering driven by extreme poverty and the unregulated exploitation of Angola’s natural wealth.

    As one of Africa’s leading oil producers and home to vast diamond reserves, Angola counts enormous natural wealth among its assets. Yet World Bank data reveals stark economic inequality across the country, with roughly one-third of its 36.6 million population living below the poverty line. Demographically, Angola is an overwhelmingly young nation, with an average population age of just 23 years old.

    For many young attendees, the papal visit offered a rare opportunity to draw global attention to the systemic barriers facing Angola’s youth. Patricio Musanga, a 32-year-old attendee who traveled to the Mass wearing a branded t-shirt bearing Pope Leo’s image and a white cap, explained that he came seeking encouragement for young people, who face widespread unemployment that pushes thousands to migrate to Western countries each year in search of better opportunities.

    “We are blessed with enormous natural wealth, yet we live with a shocking gap between the small fraction of the population that thrives and the majority that struggles,” Musanga told reporters. “The pope must hold our leaders accountable. I believe authorities will at least listen to what he has to say,” he added, echoing widespread calls for national reconciliation across the country.

    Father Pedro Chingandu, a Catholic priest who traveled to the Mass from the eastern Angolan province of Moxico, echoed these sentiments. “Wealth is concentrated in the hands of just a tiny elite, and the decades-long civil war only made this systemic inequality far worse,” Chingandu explained to AFP. “What this country needs is real democracy, meaningful wealth redistribution, and equal access to justice for all.”

    Following the open-air Mass in Kilamba, Pope Leo is scheduled to travel 110 kilometers by helicopter to the historic riverside town of Muxima, Angola’s most sacred Catholic pilgrimage site. The town is home to a 300-year-old church that overlooks the Kwanza River, once a primary transport route for enslaved African people trafficked to the Americas. The church houses a statue of the Virgin Mary known affectionately to local worshippers as “Mama Muxima,” and draws roughly two million pilgrims to the site each year. Originally built by Portuguese colonial settlers to baptize enslaved people before they were shipped downriver to the Atlantic and onward to the Americas, the site carries layered historical meaning for modern Angolan Catholics.

    The Angolan government has drawn criticism in recent years for launching a multi-million-euro project to construct a grand new basilica in Muxima, with critics arguing that public funds would be better directed to addressing widespread poverty and basic infrastructure needs. Those economic grievances boiled over into public unrest last July, when a three-day wave of looting across Luanda and other major urban centers left roughly 30 people dead, with critics condemning what they described as a heavy-handed response by police forces. Analysts have framed the unrest as a clear signal of widespread public dissatisfaction with President Lourenco’s ruling MPLA party, which has held continuous control of the Angolan government since the country won independence from Portugal in 1975.

    Pope Leo launched his 18,000-kilometer African journey earlier this week, with first stops in Algeria and Cameroon before traveling on to Angola. Speaking to reporters aboard his flight to Luanda, the pope, who is the first American pontiff in Catholic history, expressed regret that his public war of words with Donald Trump had overshadowed the core messages of his African trip. Trump previously labeled Pope Leo “weak” after the pontiff called for an immediate end to the ongoing war in the Middle East. “Entering into a public debate with the US president is not something that serves any of my goals,” the pope told reporters. After concluding his engagements in Angola, the pontiff will travel to Equatorial Guinea for the final stop of his continental tour.

  • Pope Leo XIV heads to Catholic shrine in Angola that was a center of African slave trade

    Pope Leo XIV heads to Catholic shrine in Angola that was a center of African slave trade

    On a historic stop of his African pilgrimage in Luanda, Angola, Pope Leo XIV kicked off Sunday with a rousing call to action for Angolans to root out the pervasive “scourge of corruption” by embedding a culture of justice and collective sharing across the nation. The visit, which later brought the first U.S.-born pontiff to one of the trans-Atlantic slave trade’s most significant remaining sites, weaves together calls for national reconciliation in Angola with overdue reckoning over the Catholic Church’s centuries-old complicity in human trafficking.

    Speaking to a crowd of roughly 100,000 worshippers gathered in Kilamba, a large residential development constructed by Chinese partners 15 miles outside the Angolan capital, the pontiff used his homily to lift up the aspirations of the Angolan people, while calling out the continued exploitation of the nation’s abundant mineral resources and its most vulnerable citizens. Decades after the end of a brutal post-independence civil war that left deep, unhealed scars across the country, Leo urged an end to old sectarian divides, hatred, and violence. “We wish to build a country where old divisions are overcome once and for all, where hatred and violence disappear, and where the scourge of corruption is healed by a new culture of justice and sharing,” he told the assembled crowd.

    By Sunday afternoon, the pontiff traveled to the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a revered contemporary Catholic shrine located 70 miles south of Luanda on the banks of the Kwanza River. But the site’s origins stretch back to the late 16th century, when Portuguese colonizers built the Church of Our Lady of Muxima as part of a colonial fortress. For decades, it operated as a central hub of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: enslaved African people were held at the site, forcibly baptized by Portuguese clergy, then marched overland to the port of Luanda to be loaded onto slave ships bound for the Americas.

    Today, the shrine’s layered history serves as a stark reminder of the Catholic Church’s institutional role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, from the forced conversion of enslaved people to the Vatican’s long refusal to issue a full, formal acknowledgement and atonement for its complicity. The visit carries particular personal weight for Pope Leo XIV: genealogical research has confirmed the pontiff’s Creole ancestry includes both enslaved African people and white slaveholders in his family line that traces its North American roots to Louisiana.

    For many Black Catholics across the globe, the trip to Muxima represents a long-awaited moment of reckoning and healing, according to Anthea Butler, a Black Catholic scholar and senior fellow at Oxford University’s Koch Center. Butler explained that millions of Black Catholics trace their connection to the faith directly to the era of slavery, when France’s Code Noir required all enslaved people owned by Catholic slaveholders to receive baptism, while many other enslaved Angolans brought their existing Catholic faith with them when they were trafficked to the Americas.

    Scholars have long documented that 15th-century papal directives from the Vatican emboldened Portuguese colonizers to expand their slave trading operations across Africa. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V issued the papal bull *Dum Diversas*, which granted the Portuguese crown and its successors formal permission to “invade, conquer, fight and subjugate” non-Christian peoples across the globe, seize their lands and possessions, and “reduce their persons to perpetual slavery.” A second bull, *Romanus Pontifex*, issued three years later, alongside *Dum Diversas* formed the legal and ideological foundation of the Doctrine of Discovery, the framework that legitimized European colonial seizure of land across Africa and the Americas and justified the enslavement of Indigenous and African peoples.

    While the Vatican formally repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery in 2023, it has never formally rescinded or rejected the original 15th-century papal bulls that authorized the slave trade. The Holy See has argued that a 1537 bull, *Sublimis Deus*, later reaffirmed that Indigenous peoples should not be stripped of their liberty, property, or enslaved, but scholars note this directive did not explicitly reverse or cancel the earlier authorization for the enslavement of African peoples.

    Jesuit priest and slavery historian Christopher J. Kellerman, author of *All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Catholic Church*, acknowledges that most of the 12.5 million Africans trafficked across the Atlantic were initially sold into slavery by African intermediaries, rather than captured directly by European traders. Even so, he notes, when the Muxima fortress and church were constructed, Portuguese forces both conducted independent slave raids and purchased enslaved people, openly relying on the papal permissions granted by the 15th-century bulls. “The popes repeatedly authorized Portugal’s colonization efforts in Africa and Portuguese participation in the slave trade, but the Vatican has never fully admitted this,” Kellerman said in comments to the Associated Press. “It would be so powerful if at some point Pope Leo were to apologize for the popes’ role in the trade.”

    This is not the first time a sitting pope has addressed the harm of the slave trade during a visit to Africa. During a 1985 trip to Cameroon, St. John Paul II asked for forgiveness from African peoples for the crime of the slave trade, and during a 1992 visit to Goree Island, Senegal, West Africa’s largest historical slave trading center, he denounced the injustice of slavery, calling it a “tragedy of a civilization that called itself Christian.”

    The connection between Pope Leo XIV and this painful history runs deeper than institutional responsibility. Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., host of the popular genealogy series *Finding Your Roots*, published research confirming 17 of the pope’s American ancestors were Black, recorded in census records as mulatto, Black, Creole, or free people of color, with the pope’s family tree including both enslaved people and slaveholders. Gates presented his findings to Pope Leo during a private audience at the Vatican on July 5, and the Harvard Gazette reports the pope asked specifically about both his Black and white ancestors who held people in bondage. The pope has not yet spoken publicly about his family heritage or Gates’ findings, and some Black Catholic scholars say it would be inappropriate to impose a public narrative about the pope’s identity before he chooses to speak on the matter.

    “It’s important that we tell our own stories,” said Tia Noelle Pratt, a sociologist of religion at Villanova University, Pope Leo’s alma mater, and author of *Faithful and Devoted: Racism and Identity in the African-American Catholic Experience*. “We haven’t heard anything from him about what he thinks about it, and so to impose anything on him, I think would be completely inappropriate.”

    Cardinal Wilton Gregory, the retired first African American archbishop of Washington, who helped facilitate the meeting between Gates and Pope Leo, said he was delighted to support the encounter. “It’s one of the things that I think for many African Americans and people of color, they identify with great pride the pope has roots in our own heritage,” Gregory said. “And I think he’s happy about that too, because it’s another link to the people that he tries to serve and is called to serve.”

  • Zelensky condemns US extension of Russian sanctions waiver

    Zelensky condemns US extension of Russian sanctions waiver

    As relentless Russian airstrikes and missile barrages continue to pummel Ukrainian cities, leaving a rising trail of death and civilian suffering, a new diplomatic rift has emerged over a U.S. decision to extend a key exemption to Western sanctions on Russian crude oil exports. The U.S. move extends the window for global buyers to purchase Russian oil and petroleum products already loaded onto cargo vessels at sea until May 16, a measure Washington says is designed to head off a catastrophic global energy supply crunch stoked by escalating conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran.

  • Iran tightens control of Strait of Hormuz amid continued US blockade

    Iran tightens control of Strait of Hormuz amid continued US blockade

    Just 24 hours after the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical energy shipping chokepoints, was reopened to global traffic, Iran’s military announced Saturday it is reimposing sweeping strict controls over the waterway. The move directly responds to the ongoing US blockade of Iranian maritime ports, with Tehran stating the enhanced military oversight will remain in place until Washington fully lifts the restrictive measure.

    Iran has labeled the US blockade as nothing less than state-backed piracy and illegal maritime plunder, drawing a sharp rebuke from US President Donald Trump, who dismissed Iran’s actions as unacceptable blackmail while claiming negotiations between the two nations are still progressing smoothly. Multiple on-the-ground reports confirm escalating incidents in the strait over the past 24 hours: The Washington Post documented Iranian forces opening fire on a tanker attempting to transit the lane early Saturday, while the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) confirmed an unidentified vessel was struck by unknown munitions, damaging several cargo containers but leaving no crew members injured. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps also fired on and turned away two supertankers registered under the flag of India, according to regional maritime sources.

    Following the escalation, Trump convened an emergency high-level strategy session in the White House Situation Room, bringing together top national security and economic officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to map out the US response. The president told reporters he expected clarity on whether a comprehensive deal could be reached by the end of Saturday, but as of 8 pm Eastern Time that day, no official progress on negotiations had been announced. Iranian state media, however, confirmed the country’s Supreme National Security Council is currently reviewing new diplomatic proposals put forward by the US. Trump downplayed the renewed tensions, noting Iran “got a little cute” by reimposing controls, but maintained bilateral talks with Tehran remain productive.

    Real-time shipping data captured by global maritime trackers showed dozens of commercial vessels executing U-turns in waters adjacent to the strait Saturday afternoon, diverting away from the restricted lane to avoid potential conflict. Amid growing market uncertainty over the disruption to global energy supplies, global oil prices ticked upward in early trading Saturday. The Strait of Hormuz, which connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, carries roughly 20 percent of all globally traded oil, making even minor disruptions a major risk to international energy markets.

    The waterway has remained a persistent flashpoint for conflict since US-Israeli joint military strikes against Iranian targets began on February 28. Iran has officially confirmed that more than 3,300 Iranian citizens have been killed in the ongoing strikes, and recent satellite imagery shows persistent fires still burning at damaged Iranian refineries, with large plumes of crude oil leaking into the Persian Gulf from damaged infrastructure.

    Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei reiterated Saturday that war reparations for damage from the US-Israeli strikes will be a non-negotiable top priority in any peace talks with Washington. In a small sign of de-escalation, Iran also announced that six major domestic airports, including Tehran’s flagship Imam Khomeini International Airport, have reopened for preparation, though no commercial or passenger flights have yet been authorized to operate.

    The sudden re-escalation in the Strait of Hormuz has thrown already fragile peace negotiations into further jeopardy. Just one day before Iran’s announcement, a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon went into effect, raising cautious hopes for broader regional de-escalation. But renewed tensions in the Hormuz region now threaten to unravel that fragile progress, pushing the Middle East back toward the brink of wider conflict.

  • War in the Middle East: latest developments

    War in the Middle East: latest developments

    The already volatile landscape of the Middle East has seen a fresh wave of destabilizing developments in recent days, even as a fragile 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah holds tenuously along the Israel-Lebanon border.

    One of the most striking recent incidents is the deadly ambush that claimed the life of a French peacekeeper deployed with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in southern Lebanon, leaving three additional service members wounded. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a swift and forceful condemnation of the attack, noting that an initial UNIFIL investigation points to Hezbollah as the perpetrator. France has formally placed blame on the militant group, though Hezbollah has issued a categorical denial of any involvement in the ambush.

    Along the border, Lebanon’s military has begun moving to restore critical infrastructure damaged by weeks of cross-border fighting. Officials confirmed Sunday that a key highway connecting the city of Nabatieh to the Khardali region has been fully reopened to traffic, while a second major crossing, the Burj Rahal-Tyre bridge, is now partially operational. This incremental recovery comes as the ceasefire continues to hold in broad terms, though sporadic clashes have persisted. The Israeli military confirmed Saturday that one additional Israeli soldier had been killed in ongoing combat operations in southern Lebanon, marking the second Israeli military fatality since the truce went into effect Friday. To date, AFP’s tally based on official Israeli military data puts the total Israeli army death toll at 15 across six weeks of open conflict with Hezbollah. Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem has emphasized that the ceasefire cannot be a one-sided agreement, warning that his fighters remain on high alert and will respond immediately to any Israeli violation of the truce terms. “Because we do not trust this enemy, the resistance fighters will remain in the field with their hands on the trigger, and they will respond to violations accordingly,” Qassem said in a televised address Saturday. Despite the ceasefire, the Israeli military carried out an airstrike Saturday targeting what it described as a Hezbollah terrorist cell operating near its troops in southern Lebanon. Lebanese state media also reported that Israeli forces conducted demolition operations in multiple border towns, including Bint Jbeil, which saw some of the heaviest fighting before the truce took effect.

    Beyond the Lebanese border, the wider regional conflict has triggered major shifts in geopolitics and global energy security. The strategic Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas shipments pass, has been re-closed by Iranian authorities. The closure came just one day after Iran briefly reopened the waterway following the announcement of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, after U.S. President Donald Trump rejected any easing of the American naval blockade of Iranian ports, insisting the restriction would remain in place until a comprehensive peace deal is reached to end the wider regional war. Iran’s leadership called the U.S. position unacceptable and reimposed the closure, a move Trump has labeled “Iranian blackmail.” Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Navy has issued a stark warning to commercial and military shipping, announcing that no vessels may depart anchorages in the Persian Gulf or Sea of Oman, and any ship attempting to approach the Strait of Hormuz will be treated as an enemy collaborator and targeted.

    Diplomatic efforts to end the wider conflict between Iran, the U.S. and Israel remain stalled, according to senior Iranian officials. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key member of Iran’s negotiation team, said in a televised address Saturday that while incremental progress has been made in bilateral talks with the U.S., major gaps and fundamental disagreements remain to be resolved. “We are still far from the final discussion,” Ghalibaf said. “We made progress in the negotiations, but there are many gaps and some fundamental points remain.” The human cost of the conflict for Iran has also been made public for the first time: Iranian state news agency ISNA quoted the country’s state-run Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs reporting that 3,468 Iranians have been killed since the start of the war with the U.S. and Israel.

    The ongoing conflict has also triggered a major realignment in British foreign policy, according to government insiders. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration is preparing to introduce new legislation next month aimed at significantly deepening the country’s economic and political ties with the European Union, a shift accelerated by the Iran war and growing strains in the UK’s long-standing “special relationship” with the United States. Sources note that President Trump’s well-documented unpredictability and repeated public insults toward the U.K. have given added momentum to the move, which comes a full decade after British voters narrowly approved the decision to leave the 27-nation bloc.

  • Thousands gather for Pope Leo’s first mass in Angola

    Thousands gather for Pope Leo’s first mass in Angola

    On the second day of his high-stakes visit to Angola, a resource-rich southern African nation grappling with systemic widespread poverty, Pope Leo XIV led a massive open-air Holy Mass on Sunday that drew tens of thousands of pilgrims and hopeful attendees to the Kilamba district on the outskirts of the capital, Luanda.

    The pontiff arrived in the Portuguese-speaking country Saturday to kick off the third leg of his 11-day, four-nation tour across the African continent. Immediately after landing, he held a formal meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco and top government officials, where he delivered sharp criticism of systemic oppression, the deep human suffering driven by extreme poverty, and the unregulated exploitation of Angola’s abundant natural resources. These remarks aligned with the core theme of his entire tour, which has centered on repeated warnings about the scourge of transnational corruption and the continued plunder of African natural wealth by foreign and domestic elites.

    For many in the crowd, the Pope’s visit represented a rare opportunity to appeal for global attention to Angola’s paradox of plenty: a nation sitting on some of the continent’s largest reserves of crude oil and diamonds, yet marked by crippling income inequality. Thirty-two-year-old attendee Patricio Musanga, who wore a branded cap and T-shirt emblazoned with the Pope’s image, told reporters he had come seeking a message of encouragement for Angola’s struggling youth. Facing persistent mass unemployment, thousands of young Angolans flee every year to Western countries in search of better economic prospects. Musanga noted, “We are very rich in natural resources but … there is a glaring inequality between those who live well and the others,” adding that he hoped the Pope would reinforce that Angolans can build prosperous lives at home without leaving for opportunities abroad.

    World Bank data underscores this gap: despite its status as one of Africa’s top crude oil producers, roughly one-third of Angola’s 36.6 million residents live below the international poverty line. Father Pedro Chingandu, who traveled from Angola’s eastern Moxico Province to attend the mass, pointed to decades of conflict as a key driver of persistent inequality. “There’s a concentration of wealth in the hands of very few, and of course the war just aggravated the situation,” he told Agence France-Presse, calling for “real democracy and the redistribution of wealth and justice” across the country. Angola has yet to fully heal from the 27-year civil war that broke out immediately after the nation gained independence from Portugal in 1975, only ending in 2002.

    Following the Kilamba mass, Pope Leo is scheduled to travel 110 kilometers by helicopter to Muxima, Angola’s most sacred Catholic pilgrimage site. The small river town is home to a 300-year-old church that overlooks the Kwanza River, once a major transit route for enslaved Africans trafficked to the Americas. Built by Portuguese colonial settlers to baptize enslaved people before they were shipped across the Atlantic, the church houses the beloved statue of the Virgin Mary known locally as “Mama Muxima,” which draws two million pilgrims annually. Large crowds are expected to greet the pontiff during his stop at the historic slave-route shrine.

    The Angolan government has drawn criticism for its multi-million-euro infrastructure project to build a new basilica, residential housing, and expanded public services in Muxima ahead of the Pope’s visit, with opponents questioning the government’s spending priorities at a time when widespread poverty persists across the country. Economic frustration already boiled over into public unrest last July, when a three-day looting spree across Luanda and other urban centers left roughly 30 people dead, many killed during what critics called a heavy-handed police crackdown. Political analysts have framed the unrest as a clear signal of widespread public dissatisfaction with the ruling socialist MPLA party, which has held uninterrupted control of the Angolan government since independence in 1975.

    In comments to reporters on his flight to Angola, the Pope, who was elected to the papacy one year ago, opened up about a recent public dispute that has overshadowed much of his African tour. He expressed regret over his public war of words with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has attacked the Pope as “weak” after Leo called for an immediate ceasefire to end the ongoing war in the Middle East. “It is not in my interest at all” to publicly debate the U.S. leader, the Pope affirmed.

    After wrapping up his engagements in Angola, Pope Leo will travel to Equatorial Guinea for the final stop of the 18,000-kilometer cross-continental tour, concluding a journey that has centered the needs of African nations and the urgent need for equitable global development.

  • Trump says US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran

    Trump says US negotiators will be in Pakistan on Monday for talks with Iran

    Eight weeks into open conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, fragile hopes for diplomatic de-escalation have emerged alongside fresh threats of renewed violence, as Washington prepares to send a negotiation team to Islamabad for new talks with Iranian officials just days before a bilateral ceasefire is set to expire. The planned meeting, announced by former U.S. President Donald Trump on social media, comes as tensions remain locked over the strategic Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has blocked all commercial transits in response to a ongoing U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports, a standoff that threatens to roil global energy markets and drag the entire Middle East back into full-scale war.

    The pathway to negotiations was laid out over the weekend, when Pakistani mediators confirmed that advance U.S. security teams have already arrived in the Pakistani capital to finalize arrangements for the second round of face-to-face talks. Iran’s top leadership confirmed Saturday that it had received new U.S. proposals via Pakistani military envoys and remained open to diplomatic dialogue, even as it held firm to its position that the strait will remain closed to all commercial traffic for as long as the U.S. blockade cuts off Iran’s own access to global shipping.

    “It is impossible for others to pass through the Strait of Hormuz while we cannot,” Iranian Parliament Speaker and chief nuclear negotiator Mohammed Bagher Qalibaf stated in remarks broadcast on Iranian state television Saturday evening. In line with that position, Iran reversed an earlier announcement that it would reopen the waterway following the start of a 10-day truce between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, after Trump reaffirmed that the U.S. blockade would remain in full effect until a comprehensive final deal is reached with Tehran.

    After a brief resumption of transit attempts Saturday, two India-flagged merchant vessels came under fire while attempting to cross the strait, forcing both to turn back and leaving the waterway at a complete standstill, just as it was before the ceasefire took hold. The UK Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors Gulf commercial shipping, confirmed that Revolutionary Guard gunboats fired on an oil tanker, and a projectile struck a nearby container vessel, damaging cargo. India’s foreign ministry responded by summoning Iran’s ambassador to New Delhi to protest the attack, which came only days after Iran had allowed multiple India-bound ships to pass through the strait.

    In his announcement of the upcoming talks, Trump doubled down on pressure against Tehran, accusing Iran of violating the existing ceasefire with the attacks on commercial shipping and issuing an extreme threat to Iran’s civilian infrastructure if Tehran rejects the U.S.’s final proposal. “If they don’t [take the deal], the United States is going to knock out every single Power Plant, and every single Bridge, in Iran,” Trump wrote. He did not name which U.S. officials would travel to Islamabad for the talks, and the White House and the office of Vice President JD Vance, who led the first round of U.S.-Iran negotiations, have not responded to requests for comment as of Sunday morning.

    Iranian officials have pushed back against U.S. pressure, framing the American blockade as a reckless violation of the existing ceasefire that puts the entire diplomatic process at risk. “Americans are risking the international community, risking the global economy through these, I can say, miscalculations,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Saeed Khatibzadeh told the Associated Press, adding that the U.S. is “risking the whole ceasefire package.”

    Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, which has operated as the country’s top de facto decision-making body throughout the conflict, reiterated Saturday that Iran will maintain full control over all transits through the strait until the U.S. blockade is lifted and the war is formally ended. The council also rejected a core U.S. proposal that would require Tehran to hand over its existing stockpile of 440 kilograms of enriched uranium, with Khatibzadeh calling the demand “a nonstarter” while noting that Iran remains open to addressing international concerns over its nuclear program through diplomacy.

    Qalibaf emphasized Saturday that Iran remains committed to the diplomatic process despite the wide gap between the two sides’ positions and deep-seated distrust of U.S. intentions. “There will be no retreat in the field of diplomacy,” he said, adding that Iran continues to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

    The conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran began on February 28, when military operations were launched amid ongoing negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. For Tehran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil trade passes — has emerged as its most powerful leverage point, capable of disrupting the global economy and raising political pressure on the U.S. administration. For Washington, the naval blockade serves to cut off Iran’s key export revenue, squeezing its already fragile economy to force concessions at the negotiating table.

    As of the weekend, the ongoing conflict has killed more than 3,000 people in Iran, over 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel, and more than a dozen across Gulf Arab states. Fifteen Israeli soldiers deployed to Lebanon and 13 U.S. service members stationed across the Middle East have also been killed. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed Saturday that his government is working aggressively to bridge remaining gaps between the two sides, with mediation efforts already in their final stages ahead of the planned talks.

    It remains unclear whether either side has shifted its core positions on the key unresolved issues that derailed the first round of negotiations, including the future of Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, Iran’s support for regional militant proxies, and long-term sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz. With the existing ceasefire set to expire later this week, the outcome of the Islamabad talks will likely determine whether the region can step back from the brink of full-scale war or slip back into open conflict.

  • Hezbollah leader vows to retaliate against Israeli ceasefire violations, seeks fresh start with Lebanese govt

    Hezbollah leader vows to retaliate against Israeli ceasefire violations, seeks fresh start with Lebanese govt

    BEIRUT, April 19, 2026 – Days after a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah went into effect, the group’s leader Naim Qassem has issued a firm warning that any Israeli violations of the truce in southern Lebanon will be met with immediate retaliation, while also opening the door to a new era of cooperation with Lebanon’s national government.

    The ceasefire, brokered following an announcement by former U.S. President Donald Trump, took effect at 2100 GMT on Thursday, bringing a temporary halt to weeks of open hostilities between the two sides. But within 48 hours of the truce coming into force, reports emerged of multiple actions by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that raise questions about Israel’s commitment to the pause in fighting.

    In a public statement released Saturday, Qassem stressed that a ceasefire cannot be a one-sided arrangement. “There is no ceasefire from one side only,” he said, noting that Hezbollah’s fighters stand ready to “respond to violations of aggression accordingly.”

    Qassem laid out five non-negotiable core conditions for a durable long-term peace, starting with a permanent end to all hostilities across Lebanese territory. He also called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from all occupied areas of southern Lebanon, the release of all detainees held by Israel, the safe return of thousands of displaced Lebanese residents who fled their homes amid the recent escalation, and large-scale reconstruction of damaged infrastructure backed by Arab and international partners. Rejecting claims that Hezbollah had been weakened by the conflict, Qassem reaffirmed the group’s commitment to advancing Lebanon’s full liberation and national sovereignty.

    On the domestic front, Qassem struck a conciliatory tone, saying Hezbollah is ready to turn “a new page” in its relationship with Lebanon’s official state institutions. He stressed the group’s willingness to work alongside the Lebanese government to reinforce national unity and protect the country’s territorial independence amid ongoing external pressure.

    Even as diplomatic efforts to cement the ceasefire move forward, the IDF confirmed Saturday that it had carried out airstrikes on militants it said approached the “Yellow Line,” the de facto border marking the northern edge of an Israeli-declared “security zone” inside southern Lebanon. Beyond the strike, local eyewitnesses and a Lebanese security source confirmed Saturday that Israeli engineering units, protected by a Merkava main battle tank, had begun earthmoving works to build a new permanent military outpost on Rbaa al-Teben hill, roughly 1.5 kilometers inside Lebanese territory from the official demarcation line with Israel. The site, which includes existing olive groves and vineyards owned by local Lebanese farmers, is located southwest of the southern Lebanese border village of Kfarchouba. Works include ground leveling, excavation, and construction of defensive earthen berms, with the new outpost set to be administratively linked to Israel’s existing deployment near Kfarchouba.

    The new construction comes amid widespread concerns in Lebanon that Israel is using the 10-day ceasefire to solidify its territorial gains inside southern Lebanon rather than withdrawing, as called for in preliminary truce discussions. The escalation of Israeli infrastructure work along the border has already heightened tensions, with Hezbollah’s warning marking the first formal response to the reported breaches since the ceasefire took effect.

  • Iran’s IRGC says Strait of Hormuz blocked, demands end to US naval blockade

    Iran’s IRGC says Strait of Hormuz blocked, demands end to US naval blockade

    Escalating regional tensions have boiled over into a new standoff in one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints, as Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy announced it has blocked all passage through the Strait of Hormuz, with the closure remaining in place until the United States withdraws its ongoing naval blockade of Iranian waters. The shutdown went into effect Saturday evening, the IRGC confirmed in an official statement published by its media wing Sepah News.

    The action came in direct response to what the IRGC calls a clear breach of a two-week ceasefire agreement that entered force on April 8. Under the terms of that truce, the U.S. was expected to end its naval blockade targeting Iranian commercial vessels and national ports. That commitment never materialized, leaving Iran to follow through on its warnings of retaliatory action, the statement added.

    In its advisory to global maritime operators, the IRGC urged all vessel crews and shipowners to monitor official updates through its dedicated communication channel and VHF Channel 16, the global standard for maritime safety and emergency communications. The IRGC also dismissed any statements from U.S. President Donald Trump regarding navigation rights in the strait and surrounding Gulf waters as entirely lacking credibility. The corps issued a stark warning: all vessels currently anchored in the Persian Gulf or Gulf of Oman are prohibited from moving, and any ship attempting to approach the blocked strait will be considered to be collaborating with the enemy, and will be met with defensive targeting.

    This latest escalation builds on months of growing friction over control of the strategic waterway. Iran first ramped up access controls on February 28, shortly after the United States and Israel carried out joint airstrikes on Iranian sovereign territory. At that time, Tehran banned any passage for vessels owned by or affiliated with the two countries. Following the collapse of bilateral peace talks hosted in Islamabad, Pakistan, Washington responded by imposing its own naval blockade on the strait.

    Just days before the closure, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi reaffirmed that the strait would stay fully open to non-military commercial shipping for the duration of the ceasefire with the U.S., aligning Iran’s position with the truce agreement reached between Lebanon and Israeli forces. But the U.S. refused to match Iran’s public commitment. On Friday, President Trump confirmed that the American naval blockade would remain in full effect, noting the restriction would only be lifted once Washington secured a new comprehensive deal with Tehran. One day later, on Saturday, Trump doubled down, accusing Iran of attempting to use the strategic strait as leverage for blackmail against the United States.

    The Strait of Hormuz remains the most critical oil transit chokepoint in the world, with roughly 20% of the globe’s daily oil consumption passing through the narrow waterway. Any prolonged closure is expected to send shockwaves through global energy markets and raise the risk of open military conflict between Iran and the United States.

  • Pope Leo to hold giant mass for Angola’s Catholics

    Pope Leo to hold giant mass for Angola’s Catholics

    One year after his historic election to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Angola, the third stop on his 11-day four-nation African pilgrimage, and will Sunday lead a massive open-air Mass followed by a visit to one of southern Africa’s most sacred Catholic sites. The Portuguese-speaking nation welcomed the pontiff Saturday, kicking off a leg of the tour that carries both religious significance and sharp social commentary for a resource-rich nation grappling with deep inequality.

    In his first formal address to Angolan leaders, including President Joao Lourenco, Pope Leo doubled down on a core theme of his African journey: a rebuke of unregulated natural resource extraction that has, he argues, fueled systemic suffering and created sweeping social and environmental disasters across the continent. The pope has used the tour to issue repeated warnings against corruption and the plunder of Africa’s abundant natural wealth, a throughline he has maintained through every stop of the trip.

    The tour, which launched in Algeria Monday, has already been marked by a high-profile public feud with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Last weekend, after Pope Leo called for an immediate end to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Trump attacked the first American pope as “weak” in a public statement.

    Speaking to reporters Saturday aboard his flight from Cameroon to Angola, the pontiff pushed back against the narrative that his recent comments had been crafted to respond to Trump’s criticism. He noted that a widely discussed reference to “tyrants” during a speech in Cameroon had been written long before Trump’s remarks, adding that entering into a public debate with the U.S. leader holds no benefit for him or the Vatican. “It is not in my interest at all to debate the US leader,” he told the assembled press.

    Sunday’s centerpiece events will draw crowds expected to number in the tens of thousands. First, the pope will celebrate Mass in Kilamba, a suburb of Angola’s capital Luanda. After the service, he will travel 110 kilometers by helicopter to Muxima, Angola’s most revered Catholic pilgrimage site, which is home to a 300-year-old church perched on the banks of the Kwanza River—once a major transit route for enslaved people bound for the Americas.

    Built by Portuguese colonial settlers to baptize enslaved people before they were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, the church houses a beloved statue of the Virgin Mary known locally as “Mama Muxima.” The site draws roughly 2 million pilgrims annually, and organizers expect large crowds to greet the pope during his visit.

    In preparation for the papal visit, the Angolan government has launched a massive multi-million-euro infrastructure project to construct a new basilica, residential housing, and expanded public services in Muxima. The development has sparked sharp criticism from observers, who question the government’s spending priorities in a country that, despite massive oil and diamond reserves, remains plagued by widespread poverty and severe wealth inequality.

    Local Catholic leader Domingos das Neves, a lawyer active in church affairs, told Agence France-Presse that Pope Leo is fully aware of Angola’s stark social divides. “The pope comes to Angola fully aware of the reality our country is facing, particularly in terms of stark social asymmetries and inequalities, which also stem from the unequal distribution of wealth,” das Neves said. He added that the pontiff would almost certainly address the urgent demand for social justice during his public remarks, noting “Angola is in great need of a guiding light to illuminate our collective efforts — both within ecclesiastical institutions and the state — so that we do not forget the poor and the destitute.”

    Widespread poverty has already fueled visible public discontent in Angola in recent years. Last July, a three-day wave of looting across the country left roughly 30 people dead, with critics blaming police for a heavy-handed response to the unrest. Analysts widely frame the unrest as a signal of deep dissatisfaction with the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the socialist party that has held continuous power since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

    Following his Sunday events in Luanda and Muxima, Pope Leo will travel 800 kilometers to Saurimo Monday, where he will visit a local retirement home and celebrate a second Mass before departing Angola Tuesday morning. From there, he will travel to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop on a whirlwind 18,000-kilometer journey across the African continent.