Peru holds presidential election amid a decade of political tumult
Congress versus the presidency Experts like Tuesta argue that the last decade of political instability has all but rendered Peru’s executive branch a secondary power. By contrast, its unicameral Congress has expanded its might, though its members are largely unpopular among Peruvians. Part of its influence comes from its impeachment powers. Peru’s Congress can remove presidents for “moral incapacity”, a catch-all term that has been used to denounce anything from undisclosed meetings to security crises. Paulo Vilca, a researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies, explained that the shifting power dynamics have made it difficult for presidents to remain in office. “In the past, we used to elect presidents for five years. Now, what’s more likely is that they will not last five years,” said Vilca. But Peru’s unicameral Congress will come to an end this year. On Sunday, Peruvians will vote for a second congressional chamber, a Senate, for the first time since 1990. Vilca argues that the congressional election may be even more important than this year’s presidential race. But it will also likely deepen Peru’s ongoing political crisis, he added. He predicts that Congress’s chambers will soon be in conflict with each other, as well as with the president, in a three-way battle for power. “It is very likely that those who are elected deputies, for example, will not be very satisfied with having a subordinate position in front of the Senate,” Vilca said. “So we’re going to move from a crisis of two to a crisis of three.” Pedestrians in Cuzco, Peru, pass campaign signs on April 8 [Martin Mejia/AP Photo] The Senate was eliminated in 1992 by the late President Fujimori, Keiko Fujimori’s father, after he dissolved Peru’s bicameral Congress and implemented military rule. The younger Fujimori has sought to build on her father’s legacy, and her right-wing party, Fuerza Popular, has become a deciding force in the unicameral legislature. Keiko Fujimori even pledged to use her party’s power to “govern from Congress” after her defeat in the 2016 presidential race. Since then, analysts have argued that Fuerza Popular has led efforts to change governmental processes to maintain or expand its power, even at the expense of democratic participation. One change that it championed and passed in 2025 requires parties to earn at least 5 percent of the overall vote and a minimum of seven seats in the lower chamber to maintain their official political registration. For the Senate, parties must get at least three seats and 5 percent of votes. Critics have said the measure creates a nearly insurmountable threshold. “This whole system has been designed by the parties that are currently in Congress. And in particular, the one that has controlled the Constitutional Committee all these years has been Fuerza Popular,” said Vilca. “I think the purpose of designing this whole model has been to maintain a status quo, which the Fujimori wing has also created in the last five years.” Vilca is not optimistic that a new Senate will resolve the erosion of power away from the presidency. If anything, he anticipates more conflicts to come. “My most likely scenario is that the crisis continues,” he said, “that whoever is elected president will enter into confrontation with the Senate”. Adblock test (Why?)
Moment Artemis II splashes down after moon mission
NewsFeed NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have safely splashed down on Earth, completing a landmark mission that carried humans around the Moon and back for the first time in more than 50 years. Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Trump says Strait of Hormuz to reopen ‘soon’ as US, Iran head to talks
Trump says Washington will not accept Iran’s imposition of a de facto toll booth system in the critical waterway. Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 United States President Donald Trump has said the Strait of Hormuz will reopen “fairly soon” with or without Iran’s assistance, as Tehran’s effective blockade of the waterway continues to roil global energy supplies. Speaking to reporters on Friday in advance of peace talks between US and Iranian officials in Pakistan, Trump said the US would “open up the Gulf” and that other countries were ready to “help out”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “It won’t be easy,” Trump said. “I would say this: We will have that open fairly soon,” he added. Trump, who did not elaborate on how Washington would unblock the critical maritime chokepoint, also said he would not accept Iran’s imposition of a de facto toll booth system in the strait. Tehran has indicated that it intends to charge vessels fees for safe passage even in the event that a deal is reached with the US to end the war. “If they are doing that, we’re not going to let that happen,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Camp Springs, Maryland. Trump said ensuring Iran does not possess nuclear weapons is the priority in any agreement, and the strait would open “automatically”. “No nuclear weapons, that’s 99 percent of it,” Trump said. “The strait will open up,” he added. “If we just left … otherwise they make no money.” Despite the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran on Tuesday, shipping in the strait remains at an effective standstill, disrupting approximately one-fifth of global oil and natural gas flows. Advertisement Only two vessels passed through the strait on Friday, down from five the previous day, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. Since the start of the ceasefire, just 22 ships with their automatic identification system turned on have exited the strait, according to the market intelligence provider, compared with about 135 daily transits before the war. More than 600 vessels, including 325 tankers, are still stranded in the Gulf due to the blockage of the strait, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. US Vice President JD Vance and Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf are on Saturday set to lead negotiations in Islamabad aimed at securing a permanent end to the war. The US and Iran have offered conflicting messages on the agreed-upon terms for the negotiations, including the contents of a 10-point plan put forward by Tehran. Adblock test (Why?)
Title: Artemis II astronauts journey back to Earth after Moon mission
NewsFeed NASA’s Artemis II astronauts have returned to Earth after completing the first crewed lunar mission in more than 50 years, reaching the greatest distance ever travelled by humans. The crew successfully completed a parachute landing in the Pacific Ocean, after a high-speed re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere. Published On 11 Apr 202611 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Riot police push back protesters demanding higher wages in Venezuela
NewsFeed Police pushed back protesters in Venezuela’s capital as they demanded an increase to the minimum wage of 130 bolivars ($0.27) per month. Earlier this week, Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, promised ‘a responsible increase’ in salaries by May 1, but didn’t disclose the amount. Published On 10 Apr 202610 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Shipping in Strait of Hormuz still at a trickle despite US-Iran ceasefire
Washington and Tehran accuse each other of not honouring truce agreement. Published On 10 Apr 202610 Apr 2026 Shipping remains at a standstill in the Strait of Hormuz despite the ceasefire agreement between the United States and Iran, dampening hopes for a resolution to one of the worst global energy disruptions in history. Only a handful of vessels have transited the critical strait since Washington and Tehran on Tuesday announced a two-week pause in fighting, according to ship tracking data. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Five vessels crossed the strait on Wednesday, down from 11 the previous day, and seven transited on Thursday, according to data from market intelligence firm Kpler. More than 600 vessels, including 325 tankers, are still stranded in the Gulf due to the blockage of the strait, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. “While some vessel movement has resumed, traffic remains very limited, compliant shipowners are likely to stay cautious, and safe transit capacity is expected to remain constrained at maximum 10–15 passages a day if the ceasefire holds, without consideration of tolls applied,” Kpler trade risk analyst Ana Subasic said in an analysis on Thursday. The waterway, which usually carries about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, typically handled about 120-140 transits before the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran on February 28. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump accused Iran of failing to live up to its part of the ceasefire agreement, which includes a commitment to allow “safe passage” through the waterway for two weeks. “Iran is doing a very poor job, dishonorable some would say, of allowing Oil to go through the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. Advertisement “That is not the agreement we have!” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier accused the US of not honouring the deal, warning, in reference to Israel’s ongoing attacks on Lebanon, that it had to choose between a ceasefire or “continued war” via its ally. “The world sees the massacres in Lebanon,” Araghchi said in a post on social media. “The ball is in the US court, and the world is watching whether it will act on its commitments.” After plummeting on the back of the ceasefire announcement, oil prices have begun to tick up as markets digest the reality that maritime traffic remains effectively halted despite the truce. “This moment requires clarity. So let’s be clear: the Strait of Hormuz is not open,” Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ state-run oil company, ADNOC, said in a social media post on Thursday. “Access is being restricted, conditioned and controlled. Iran has made clear – through both its statements and actions – that passage is subject to permission, conditions and political leverage. That is not freedom of navigation. That is coercion.” Brent crude, the international benchmark, stood at $96.39 as of 02:00 GMT on Friday, after falling below $95 a barrel on Wednesday. Asia’s main stock markets opened higher on Friday, following overnight gains on Wall Street driven by hopes of a resolution to the war. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 was up 1.8 percent in early trading, while South Korea’s KOSPI and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index were up about 2 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Adblock test (Why?)
UK PM Keir Starmer visits Gulf to shore up ‘fragile’ US-Iran ceasefire
NewsFeed As UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Doha as part of a Gulf tour spanning Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar, he discussed efforts to secure the US-Iran ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Starmer warned there’s more ‘work to do’, stressing the need for regional partners to restore global energy flows. Published On 10 Apr 202610 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Has Iran’s 10-point plan changed, as JD Vance claims?
Confusion over competing United States and Iranian proposals to end the war is deepening uncertainty about the fragile two-week ceasefire between the longtime foes, with officials presenting sometimes differing accounts of what has been agreed. At the centre of the dispute is an Iranian 10-point plan, which is the basis for the upcoming negotiations with the US in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, this weekend. President Donald Trump has called the plan “workable”, despite initially handing Iran a 15-point plan that Tehran dismissed as “maximalist”. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list However, hours after the ceasefire, US officials, including Trump, offered mixed responses to Iran’s proposal and what Washington understood the key points of the document to be. Vice President JD Vance dismissed the publicised version as little more than a “random yahoo in Iran submitting it to public access television”. Adding to the confusion, the Persian version of the plan notably diverges from the English one on a key sticking point between Washington and Tehran – Iran’s right to enrich uranium. What was the US’s 15-point plan, and what was Iran’s response? The Trump administration presented Iran with what officials described as a 15-point framework aimed at ending the war, and potentially achieving a permanent end to hostilities between the longtime foes. While the full details have not been publicly released, reports by US media outlets and others included the following elements: Iran commits to never developing nuclear weapons. Iran must also no longer enrich uranium within the country, and hand over its stockpile of already enriched uranium to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Tehran would also commit to allowing the IAEA to monitor all elements of the country’s remaining nuclear infrastructure. Reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Ending Iran’s support for regional proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. A removal of all sanctions imposed on Iran, alongside the ending of the United Nations mechanism that allows sanctions to be reimposed. Limits on the range and number of Iran’s missiles. Advertisement Donald Trump on Wednesday said that “many of the 15 points” in the proposal had been agreed upon, signalling optimism about a broader deal. “We are, and will be, talking tariff and sanctions relief with Iran,” the US president added. However, Iran rejected the US framework, with its Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirming that Tehran had received messages from the US via intermediaries. He dismissed Washington’s demands as “maximalist” and “illogical”. Tehran advanced its own positions in a 10-point counterproposal, which included demands of compensation for damages suffered by Iran during the war, a commitment to non-aggression by the US, Iran retaining its leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and acceptance of Iran’s nuclear enrichment. How has the US reacted to the 10-point proposal? Trump on Wednesday said the US has received a 10-point proposal from Iran, which he called a “workable basis on which to negotiate”. However, later in the day, confusion over what the official US position was started to become apparent. Trump turned to his Truth Social platform to attack those he accused of spreading inaccurate accounts of supposed agreements. “There is only one group of meaningful ‘POINTS’ that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations,” Trump said, without providing details. “These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE.” The US president, in a separate post, said there will be “no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust’”. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt downplayed certain reports about the Iranian proposal and said that Trump would reject any uranium enrichment by Tehran. “The president’s red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed,” Leavitt told reporters. While Iran says it is not seeking nuclear weapons, it insists on enriching its own uranium as a national right. Moreover, Leavitt said Iran’s initial 10-point proposal was “literally thrown in the garbage” by Trump’s team, but Tehran later put forward a revised “more reasonable and entirely different” plan, one which could be aligned with Trump’s own 15-point proposal. “The idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd,” she said. Trump’s second-in-command, Vance, dismissed the publicised version as little more than a “random yahoo in Iran submitting it to public access television”. Advertisement “We don’t really concern ourselves with what they claim they have the right to do; we concern ourselves with what they actually do,” he added in remarks made to reporters in Budapest. He said he had seen at least three different drafts of the proposals. “The first 10-point proposal was something that was submitted, and we think, frankly, was probably written by ChatGPT,” Vance said. Are there different versions of Iran’s 10-point plan? In short, yes. At least two different versions of that same plan appear to exist, one in English and the other in Persian. In the Persian version, made public by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, it said the “US has, in principle, committed to” a series of demands, most notably the “acceptance of enrichment”, signalling that any deal must recognise Iran’s right to continue enriching uranium. However, this phrase was allegedly omitted from the English-language version. Iran has consistently framed uranium enrichment as a sovereign right, while the Trump administration and its ally Israel call the demand a non-starter and a red line. For years, Tehran has maintained that its nuclear activities are strictly civilian and that it has no plans to build nuclear weapons. In 2015, it reached an agreement with the US to curb its nuclear programme in return for relief from sanctions. In 2018, however, Trump pulled Washington out of that landmark accord and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli attacks on Lebanon aimed to undermine ceasefire, critics say
Just hours after the United States and Iran announced a ceasefire in the war that has dominated news headlines around the world and pushed oil prices to new heights, Israel bombarded Lebanon on Wednesday, killing hundreds, injuring thousands and prompting Iran to reimpose its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The bone of contention: whether or not Israel’s relentless strikes on Lebanon were included in the ceasefire at all. Pakistan, which brokered the agreement, said they were. Israel said they weren’t. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list Later on Wednesday, the US sided with Israel, with President Donald Trump calling the violence in Lebanon “a separate skirmish” even though Hezbollah had entered the war in defence of Iran. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under intense political pressure since the US and Iran signed the ceasefire, which had little or no active involvement from Israel. None of Israel’s war aims, which Netanyahu had assured his country were the basis for what he framed as an existential battle with Iran, had been achieved, angering those who supported the war. Furthermore, under the terms of the truce published yesterday, a 10-point peace plan put forward by Iran has been accepted as a starting point for negotiations due to begin this weekend in Islamabad. Under early descriptions of the Iranian plan, Iran would retain its nuclear stock and could benefit financially from levies charged on shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and from tariffs and sanctions relief promised by Israel’s ally, US President Donald Trump, on his Truth Social account. Advertisement This is far from the 15-point list of demands the US previously put forward to Iran, which would have seen the strait completely reopened without conditions, and Iran giving up its enriched uranium stocks, ending its ballistic missiles programme and promising to stop arming proxy groups in the region, such as the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and a flurry of armed groups in Iraq. Arguing that Lebanon is exempt from the ceasefire agreement, Israel launched the most extensive bombardment on its neighbour in recent months on Wednesday. In the space of about 10 minutes, the Israeli military carried out more than 100 strikes on what it claimed were Hezbollah targets, hitting Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, killing at least 254 people, 91 of them in the capital, Beirut, alone. The attacks have been condemned by numerous nations and international organisations, including Spain, France, the United Kingdom, the United Nations and Pakistan, which brokered the ceasefire deal and stated explicitly that Lebanon was included. Responding to the strikes, Iranian state media announced that its government was now considering walking away from the truce and has already announced that restrictions on the economically vital Strait of Hormuz will be reimposed. For its part, Israel says it is not trying to kill the ceasefire by launching strikes on Lebanon. Charles Freilich, Israel’s former deputy national security adviser, told Al Jazeera that the motivation for the strikes arose solely from the “opportunity to hit numerous mid to high-level Hezbollah fighters, not spoil the ceasefire, which both the US and Israel maintain does not include Lebanon”. ‘Provocateurs-in-chief’ Some analysts are sceptical, however. “Israeli officials will no doubt claim that this was a super sophisticated operation against necessary security targets, perhaps embellishing those arguments with claims of deep intel and technological penetration and sophistication, and you will probably have the usual mainstream Western media outlets slavishly parroting the Israeli line,” former Israeli government adviser Daniel Levy told Al Jazeera, before explaining that such operations typically combine two principal features. “The first is, sadly, an Israeli devotion to death and destruction, largely for its own sake, to spread terror and upend state capacity in various places in the region, and to upend civilian life,” he said. “And, secondly, a very transparent attempt to prolong the broader war against Iran, to collapse any ceasefire prospects, and to act as provocateurs-in-chief.” Advertisement Politically, support within Israel for the war may have weakened, however. Many of those who initially supported the war on Iran have been unsparing in their criticism of a potential pause in the conflict negotiated by the other two parties at Israel’s apparent expense. Posting on X, opposition leader Yair Lapid claimed that Prime Minister “Netanyahu has turned us into a protectorate state that receives instructions over the phone on matters pertaining to the core of our national security”. Democrats leader Yair Golan was equally scathing. “Netanyahu lied,” he wrote on X. “He promised a ‘historic victory’ and security for generations, and in practice, we got one of the most severe strategic failures Israel has ever known.” Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has been unsparing in his criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following a ceasefire he claims Israel was excluded from [Evelyn Hockstein/Pool via AP] “Netanyahu is in real trouble, and he thinks he has to wreck the ceasefire to get out of it, just as he did previously in Gaza,” Member of the Knesset Aida Touma Sliman of the left-wing Hadash party, which has opposed the war from the start, told Al Jazeera. “The ceasefire has lost him a lot of support, even among those who backed the war. None of his war aims have been achieved and it looks like he is losing control to the Trump administration,” she said. “Don’t forget, we’re heading towards elections,” she added, referring to the vote currently slated for October, “and Netanyahu’s dropping in the polls. He needs something he can claim is a victory. “And that’s why he did what he did,” she said, of Wednesday’s barrage on busy Lebanese neighbourhoods that killed hundreds, including women, children and medical workers, according to emergency workers on the ground. “He conducted a massacre in Lebanon.” Adblock test (Why?)
Can global supply chains recover from the Iran war?
Conflict upends flow of critical raw materials for manufacturing, aviation and technology. The United States and Iran may have agreed to a ceasefire for now, but the world’s supply chains will continue to feel the effects. Beyond oil and gas, Iran’s near closure of the Strait of Hormuz has blocked shipments of critical raw materials from the Gulf. Petrochemicals, helium and aluminium are just some of the products that have not been able to reach manufacturing hubs around the world. Many everyday items are affected, from plastic packaging to the advanced semiconductors in our smartphones. How will our supply chains recover, and can they become more resilient to global shocks? Published On 9 Apr 20269 Apr 2026 Click here to share on social media share-nodes Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)