Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium must be “taken out” before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran can be considered over, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told an American broadcaster yesterday.

“It’s not over, because there’s still nuclear material — enriched uranium — that has to be taken out of Iran. There are still enrichment sites that have to be dismantled,” Mr. Netanyahu said in an interview that aired yesterday on the CBS News program “60 Minutes.”

“You go in and you take it out,” the Israeli leader said when asked how the uranium could be removed.

Mr. Netanyahu said U.S. President Donald Trump had a similar position.

-AFP

Tehran on Saturday threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz once more if the United States continues its blockade of Iranian ports, hours after the key waterway was reopened in the wake of a ceasefire deal in Lebanon.

The resumption of transit had lifted stock markets on Friday and prompted optimism from Washington, with U.S. President Donald Trump telling AFP a peace deal was “very close” and saying Iran had agreed to hand over its enriched uranium — a key sticking point in negotiations.

“We’re going to get it by going in with Iran, with lots of excavators,” Mr. Trump told a gathering of the conservative Turning Point USA movement in Phoenix, Arizona.– AFP

President Donald Trump said the U.S. war with Iran was a “little diversion” during his second term in power, as recent polling shows the conflict’s unpopularity with the American public.

At an event in Las Vegas, Nevada touting his “no tax on tips” measure from the major tax reform bill passed last year, the 79-year-old president boasted about his economic record since returning to office in 2025.

“We had the best economy in the history of our country in my first term. And we’re blowing it out now…And despite our little diversion to the lovely country of Iran, lovely place,” Trump told the crowd of supporters.

“But we had to do that, because otherwise, bad things could happen, the really bad thing,” he continued, referencing Iran’s apparent nuclear potential.

– AFP

The Israeli military on Wednesday killed four Lebanese rescue workers and wounded six others in three consecutive, targeted strikes, paramedic groups said, a stark illustration of the human cost of the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon a day after it the two countries held historic talks in Washington.

The back-to-back Israeli attacks on the southern village of Mayfadoun, near the bigger town of Nabatiyeh, hit the first group of medics responding to a distress call from wounded civilians, a second group trying to assist their wounded colleagues and a third group rushing to aid the first two teams that had been targeted.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on the strikes beyond saying it was “looking into” what happened. It has previously accused the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group of using ambulances as cover for militant activities, without offering evidence.– AP

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday deleted a social media image apparently depicting him as Jesus after an outcry from religious leaders that he was being blasphemous.

The image posted on Mr. Trump’s Truth Social platform showed him in flowing red and white robes, touching the forehead of what appeared to be a sick man and with light shining from his hand and head.

An American flag waved in the background while various figures gazed up at the president in reverence.

The AI picture was posted late on Sunday and removed on Monday.

Asked about the post, Mr. Trump denied that he was trying to look like Jesus Christ.

“I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do Red Cross,” he told journalists. “It’s supposed to be me as a doctor, making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better.”

The Israeli military said on Monday (April 13, 2026) its troops had completely surrounded a key town in southern Lebanon after killing more than 100 Hezbollah fighters there over the past week.

The announcement marks a significant advance in Israel’s ongoing invasion of southern Lebanon.

“The forces of the 98th Division have completed the encirclement of the town of Bint Jbeil and have begun an assault on it,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Colonel Avichay Adraee said on X.

Over the past week, Israeli forces have killed more than 100 Hezbollah fighters in and around the town in “face-to-face” clashes and with air strikes, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting that since Sunday the fighting in southern Lebanon had been “concentrated” in Bint Jbeil.

“The fighting continues. It has not stopped — it is ongoing all the time. Yesterday and today it has been concentrated in Bint Jbeil,” he said, according to a video statement released by his office on Monday (April 13, 2026).

Mr. Netanyahu said that Israeli troops were pushing Hezbollah fighters away from the border.

“We are talking about a solid security belt, deeper than before, one that prevents the danger of infiltration and pushes back the anti-tank threat,” he said.

“They are also dealing with the terror villages that were right up against us — every terror position, and there were many, has simply been flattened.”

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said it has been engaged for days in clashes with Israeli forces in Bint Jbeil. — AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump forcefully criticized Pope Leo late on Sunday in ‌an unusual, direct attack on the leader of the 1.4-billion-member Catholic Church that drew immediate rebuke from believers. 

The President, in an apparent response to the pope’s growing criticisms of the ⁠U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies, said Leo was “terrible”. 

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. 

Catholics on social media quickly lambasted Mr. Trump for attacking the leader ‌of their Church, who they believe is the successor of St. Peter, one of Jesus’ 12 apostles. 

-Reuters