Teen charged with murder of stepsister on Carnival Horizon cruise ship

A teenager has been indicted on murder and aggravated sexual abuse charges after his stepsister was found dead underneath a bed on a cruise ship in November.

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Trump branded a 'pirate' by furious Iran as Strait of Hormuz blockade bites

Iran has branded Trump a "pirate" and warned that no Gulf port will be safe - as the Strait of Hormuz blockade bites and Tehran taunts Americans over $4 gas

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Elko Regional Airport shooting leaves one dead and one critical in Nevada

The airport has been closed until further notice, with police at scene and an investigation is now taking place

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Trump plots Iran strikes after peace talks collapse: 'desalination plants easy to hit'

Donald Trump is weighing fresh military strikes on Iran after peace talks collapsed in Pakistan - warning on Iranian desalination plants and power stations

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PNS TAIMUR & ASLAT arrive in Colombo

The Pakistan Navy Ship (PNS) TAIMUR and ASLAT arrived at the Port of Colombo on a goodwill visit on 12 Apr 26.

The visiting ships were welcomed by the Sri Lanka Navy in
compliance with naval traditions.

The duo of ships is commanded by Captain NIAMAT SAEED KHAN (PNS TAIMUR) and Captain NADIR MATEEN AFRIDI (PNS ASLAT).

Meanwhile, the ships are expected to conduct a Bilateral Naval Exercise LION STAR V with the Sri Lanka Navy in Colombo seas.

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A Fragile Ceasefire: Pakistan’s Glory and Israel’s Sabotage

After threatening to annihilate one of the planet’s oldest civilizations, TACO* Trump chickened out again by grasping the ceasefire lifeline that Pakistan had assiduously prepared. Trump needed the ceasefire badly to stem the mounting opposition to the war in America. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted the war to continue because he needed it badly for his political survival. So, he contrived a fiction and convinced Trump that Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire. Trump as usual may not have noticed that Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Shariff had clearly indicated Lebanon’s inclusion in his announcement of the ceasefire at 7:50 PM, Tuesday, on X. Ten minutes before Donald Trump’s fake deadline.

True to form on Wednesday, Israel unleashed the heaviest assault by far on Lebanon, reportedly killing over 300 people, the highest single-day death toll in the current war. Iran responded by re-closing the Strait of Hormuz and questioning the need for talks in Islamabad over the weekend. There were other incidents as well, with an oil refinery attacked in Iran, and Iranian drones and missiles slamming oil and gas infrastructure in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar.

The US tried to insist that Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire, with the argumentative US Vice President JD Vance, who was in Budapest, Hungary, campaigning for Viktor Orban, calling the whole thing a matter of “bad faith negotiation” as well as “legitimate misunderstanding” on the part of Iran, and warning Iran that “it would be dumb to jeopardise its ceasefire with Washington over Israel’s attacks in Lebanon.”

But as the attack in Lebanon drew international condemnation – from Pope Leo to UN Secretary General António Guterres, and several world leaders, and amidst fears of Lebanon becoming another Gaza with 1,500 people including 130 children killed and more than a million people displaced, Washington got Israel to stop its “lawn mowing” in southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to “open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,”. Lebanese President Joeseph Aoun has also called for “a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, followed by direct negotiations between them.” Israel’s involvement in Lebanon remains a wild card that threatens the ceasefire and could scuttle the talks between the US and Iran scheduled for Saturday in Islamabad.

Losers and Winners

After the ceasefire, both the Trump Administration and Iran have claimed total victories while the Israeli government wants the war to continue. The truth is that after more than a month into nonstop bombing of Iran, America and Israel have won nothing. Only Iran has won something it did not have when Trump and Netanyahu started their war. Iran now has not only a say over but control of the Strait of Hormuz. The ceasefire acknowledges this. Both Trump and Netanyahu are under fire in their respective countries and have no allies in the world except one another.

The real diplomatic winner is Pakistan. Salman Rushdie’s palimpsest-country has emerged as a key player in global politics and an influential mediator in a volatile region. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Field Marshal Asim Munir have both been praised by President Trump and credited for achieving the current ceasefire. The Iranian regime has also been effusive in its praise of Pakistan’s efforts.

It is Pakistan that persisted with the effort after initial attempts at backdoor diplomacy by Egypt, Pakistan and Türkiye started floundering. Sharing a 900 km border and deep cultural history with Iran, and having a skirmish of its own on the eastern front with Afghanistan, Pakistan has all the reason to contain and potentially resolve the current conflict in Iran. Although a majority Sunni Muslim country, Pakistan is home to the second largest Shia Muslim population after Iran, and is the easterly terminus of the Shia Arc that stretches from Lebanon. The country also has a mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia that includes Pakistan’s nuclear cover for the Kingdom. An open conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would have put Pakistan in a dangerously awkward position.

It is now known and Trump has acknowledged that China had a hand in helping Iran get to the diplomatic table. Pakistan used its connections well to get Chinese diplomatic reinforcement. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar flew to Beijing to brief his Chinese counterpart and secured China’s public support for the diplomatic efforts. The visit produced a Five-Point Plan that became a sequel to America’s 15-point proposal and the eventual ten-point offer by Iran.

There is no consensus between parties as to which points are where and who is agreeing to what. The chaos is par for the course the way Donald Trumps conducts global affairs. So, all kudos to Pakistan for quietly persisting with old school toing and froing and producing a semblance of an agreement on a tweet without a parchment.

It is also noteworthy that Israel has been excluded from all the diplomatic efforts so far. And it is remarkable, but should not be surprising, the way Trump has sidelined Isreal from the talks. Prime Minister Netanyahu has been enjoying overwhelming support of Israelis for starting the war of his life against Iran and getting the US to spearhead it. But now the country is getting confused and is exposed to Iranian missiles and drones far more than ever before. The Israeli opposition is finally coming alive realizing what little has Netanyahu’s wars have achieved and at what cost. Israel has alienated a majority of Americans and has no ally anywhere else.

It will be a busy Saturday in Islamabad, where the US and Iranian delegations are set to meet. Iran would seem to have insisted and secured the assurance that the US delegation will be led by Vice President Vance, while including Trump’s personal diplomats – Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iran has not announced its team but it is expected to be led, for protocol parity, by Iran’s Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and will likely include its suave Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. Vice President Vance’s attendance will be the most senior US engagement with Iran since Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated the 2015 nuclear deal under President Obama.

The physical arrangements for the talks are still not public although Islamabad has been turned into a security fortress given the stakes and risks involved. The talks are expected to be ‘indirect’, with the two delegations in separate rooms and Pakistani officials shuttling between them. The status of Iran’s enriched uranium and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz will be the major points of contention. After Netanyahu’s overreach on Wednesday, Lebanon is also on the short list

The 2015 nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan) took months of negotiations and involved multiple parties besides the US and Iran, including China, France, Germany, UK, Russia and the EU. That served the cause of regional and world peace well until Trump tore up the deal to spite Obama. It would be too much to expect anything similar after a weekend encounter in Islamabad. But if the talks could lead to at least a permanent ceasefire and the return to diplomacy that would be a huge achievement.

(*As of 2025–2026, Donald Trump is nicknamed “TACO Trump” by Wall Street traders and investors as an acronym for “”. This term highlights a perceived pattern of him making strong tariff threats that cause market panic, only to later retreat or weaken them, causing a rebound.)

by Rajan Philips

from The Island https://ift.tt/SygRh97

Geopolitics experts call for Global South to lead push for lasting Middle East peace

Sri Lanka’s policy of neutrality in the ongoing Middle East conflict reflects both principle and pragmatism, while positioning the country to play a wider diplomatic role, the Asian Geopolitics Sustainability and Peace Council has said in a statement.

In the statement signed by Prof Mohan Munasinghe and Sugiswara Senadheera, the Council noted that Sri Lanka has maintained a firm stance of non-alignment, refusing to allow its territory to be used against any state while continuing to meet humanitarian obligations. It cited an instance in which Sri Lanka declined a request from the United States to provide refuelling access for warplanes.

Full text of the statement: Sri Lanka is maintaining strict neutrality in the middle east conflict, while preventing its territory from being used against any other state, and fulfilling humanitarian obligations. When one of the belligerents, the US, requested refueling rights for its warplanes, Sri Lanka refused. When an Iranian vessel was sunk within our maritime economic zone, it was the small Sri Lankan navy which rescued a large number of sailors and brought them for treatment in our hospitals. This is not a passive stance; it is both principled and pragmatic, while building the foundation for further potential diplomatic initiatives

Sri Lanka’s demonstrated neutrality presents an opportunity. Instead of being merely a bystander to great power rivalry, Sri Lanka could revive its historic diplomatic tradition and help mobilise a coalition of neutral nations from the Global South to push for peace.

The vast majority of the global population are peace-loving and aghast at the devastation of the economic and sociopolitical fabric in the Middle East due to the conflict, as well as its destructive impact on the economies of the Global South. Neutrality should not mean silence. Historically, many useful peace initiatives have come from smaller countries that were not directly involved in wars.

Norway facilitated peace talks in Colombia and the Tamil militancy in Sri Lanka. Qatar has mediated several regional conflicts. Switzerland has long hosted negotiations between hostile states.

Sri Lanka, too, has been a leading voice of moderation at world forums. In 1951, Finance Minister J R Jayewardene’s San Francisco speech quoted from Buddhist scriptures (“hatred begets hatred; only through loving kindness will it cease”), and persuaded world leaders to soften their reparation demands on Japan after World War II. In 1952, the pro-western UNP government, bravely defied the USA to sign the rubber-rice pact with the newly established communist Chinese government. We have benefited greatly from both initiatives ever since, because both China and Japan have been steadfast friends who have supported our development efforts for over seven decades.

It was Sri Lankan Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike who proposed the Indian Ocean Peace Zone resolution which was passed unanimously at the United Nations. She also presided over the 1976 NAM summit attended by 86 heads of state in Colombo, which envisaged a world where smaller nations could avoid being dragged into superpower rivalries. Sri Lankan UN Envoy

Shirley Amarasinghe also played a laudable role in getting the support of powerful nations to establish the UN Convention on Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) – a point which was stressed by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath at the recent AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

If the ongoing middle-east war spreads, the consequences will be dire. First, it will exacerbate the looming global recession — Sri Lanka and other neutral countries are already feeling the consequences of the effective closure of the Straits of Hormuz. Second, further escalation beyond the war crimes and genocide already underway, will greatly increase the risk of nuclear World War 3 – a truly human extinction event, to be avoided at all costs. Experts feel that we are closer to such a catastrophe, than ever before in human history, especially since prior nuclear arms limitation treaties have lapsed.

These grim realities give all affected countries a strong incentive and the moral authority to advocate immediate de-escalation. Sri Lanka could play a key role, by urging the global south, together with neutral and nonaligned nations that have no direct military stake in the conflict, to call for a lasting cessation of hostilities that goes beyond the current temporary ceasefire and ends this dangerous and destructive war. Individual nations cannot force the warring powers to negotiate. But collectively we carry weight, representing the voice of the Global South comprising over 85% of the global population, who are suffering the economic and humanitarian consequences of great-power rivalries.

from The Island https://ift.tt/lCf3LUs