World
Pro-Palestinian protesters paralyse roads in US cities over Israel attacks

Demonstrators block highways and shut down travel in Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest.
Pro-Palestinian protesters have blocked major roads in the states of Illinois, California, New York and the Pacific Northwest, temporarily preventing travel into some of the United States’s most heavily used airports, onto the Golden Gate and Brooklyn bridges and along a busy West Coast highway.
In Chicago, protesters linked arms and blocked lanes of Interstate 190 leading into O’Hare International Airport at about 7am (12:00 GMT) on Monday in a demonstration they said was part of a global “economic blockade to free Palestine”, according to Rifqa Falaneh, one of the organisers.
Protesters say they chose O’Hare in part because it is one of the largest airports in the US. Dozens were arrested, according to Falaneh. Chicago police said that “multiple people” were taken into custody after a protest where people obstructed traffic but did not provide a detailed count.
In California, demonstrators blocked lanes on the northbound I-880 in Oakland by chaining themselves to barrels, while a separate group of protesters with banners disrupted traffic on the southbound lanes. On the Golden Gate Bridge, protesters impeded traffic in both directions, displaying a banner that read, “Stop the world for Gaza.”
In Eugene, Oregon, protesters blocked Interstate 5, shutting down traffic on the major highway for about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, protesters marching into Brooklyn blocked Manhattan-bound traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge.
Antiwar protesters have held demonstrations in Chicago nearly every day since Hamas’s October 7 attack on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, triggered an Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 33,700 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
O’Hare warned travellers on social platform X to find alternative ways to get to the airport, with car travel “substantially delayed this morning due to protest activity”.
Some travellers stuck in standstill traffic left their cars and walked the final leg to the airport along the freeway, trailing their luggage behind them.
“This was an inconvenience,” Madeline Hannan from suburban Chicago said in a telephone interview as she was heading to Florida. “But in the grand scheme of things going on overseas, it’s a minor inconvenience.”
Inbound traffic towards O’Hare resumed at about 9am (14:00 GMT).
Arrests and calls for Gaza ceasefire
Near Seattle, the Washington State Department of Transportation said a demonstration closed the main road to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Social media posts showed people holding a banner and waving Palestinian flags while standing on the highway, which reopened about three hours later.
About 20 protesters were arrested at the Golden Gate Bridge demonstration and traffic resumed shortly after noon, according to the California Highway Patrol. The agency said officers were making arrests at two points on the highway, including one spot where roughly 300 protesters refused orders to disperse.
“Attempting to block or shut down a freeway or state highway to protest is unlawful, dangerous, and prevents motorists from safely reaching their destinations,” the agency said in a statement.
Oregon State Police said 52 protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct following the Interstate 5 protest in Eugene, Oregon, about 177km (110 miles) south of Portland. Six vehicles were towed from the scene.
New York Police made numerous arrests, saying 150 protesters were initially involved in the march at about 3:15 pm (19:15 GMT) but that the crowd grew quickly.
In San Antonio, protesters holding Palestinian flags obstructed both sides of the Valero Energy Company headquarters, causing traffic congestion on the city’s northwest side.


World
Pope Places Antoni Gaudí, ‘God’s Architect,’ on Path to Sainthood

Pope Francis on Monday placed Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan modernist once called “God’s architect” for his work on the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona’s world-famous basilica, on the path to sainthood.
Francis recognized his “heroic virtues” and authorized a decree declaring him “venerable,” a move toward sainthood, the Vatican said in a statement. For the next step, beatification, a miracle attributed to him would have to be verified. After that, a confirmation of yet another miracle would be required for Gaudí to be declared a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. The process can take years, even centuries.
The basilica marked the pope’s decision by noting on its website that after Gaudí died at 73, a leading prelate at the time called him God’s architect, and that the Sagrada Familia “opens hearts to beauty with its beauty.”
Antoni Gaudí i Cornet was born on June 25, 1852, most likely in Reus, Spain. He moved years later to Barcelona, where he studied architecture, earning his degree in 1878. After working on some small projects, according to the basilica’s website, “he soon became one of the most sought-after architects and began taking on larger commissions.”
The Gaudi Foundation notes that his association with the architect Joan Martorell i Montells brought Gaudí into contact with the rich industrialist and prominent Barcelona figure Eusebio Güell, which “helped to engender many of the imperishable works” still admired today.
Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882, and Gaudí took over the project a year later, when he was 31. He worked on the basilica for more than four decades, the last 12 years of his life exclusively. It remains unfinished.
Gaudí was hit by a tram in Barcelona on June 7, 1926, and taken to the city’s hospital for the poor because he was not recognized. He died three days later.
In 2010, the basilica was consecrated by Pope Benedict XVI, who described Gaudí as “a creative architect and a practising Christian who kept the torch of his faith alight to the end of his life, a life lived in dignity and absolute austerity.”
“Gaudí, by opening his spirit to God, was capable of creating in this city a space of beauty, faith and hope, which leads man to an encounter with him who is truth and beauty itself,” Benedict said in 2010.
In announcing the decree, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which oversees the canonization process, described Gaudí as a faithful layman who, “moved by the yearning for union with the Lord,” led a “good spiritual and moral life above the ordinary.”
It added that Gaudí “offered to God the fruits of his own labor understood as a mission to make the people know and draw them closer to God, and made art a hymn of praise to the Lord.”
Cardinal Juan José Omella, the archbishop of Barcelona, said in a video statement on Monday that “it was a joy to receive the news” that Gaudí had been declared “venerable.” It was a recognition, he said, “not only of his architectural work, but of something more important than his holiness, that he is a man who was good.”
An association to promote Gaudí’s beatification was established in 1992, with the aim of achieving that goal “through the organization of lectures, exhibitions and publications; and to collect testimonies of favors granted by his intercession,” according to a book published by the association.
In 2023, the cause was submitted to the Vatican, and the Archdiocese of Barcelona became officially involved.
Not many artists have achieved saintly status. Some are prelates who also wrote poetry. One is an abbess who wrote musical compositions.
Fra Angelico, the Renaissance artist and Dominican friar who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982, may be the best known. A major Fra Angelico exhibition opens in Florence, Italy, on Sept. 26 and looks set to be one of the major European art shows of the fall.
As Gaudí inches toward sainthood, so, too, is the Sagrada Familia creeping toward completion. Two towers were finished in 2023, and the Sagrada Familia Foundation has said it hopes that the central, and tallest, tower will be finished by 2026 — the centennial of Gaudí’s death.
“He was a visionary, and a Christian visionary, so the cause for beatification is more than merited,” said the Italian historian Giovanni Maria Vian, who called the Sagrada Familia “the last great church” in the long history of ecclesiastical architecture in Europe.
Gaudí had conceived the basilica “as a religious monument to give praise and praise God,” he said, much like the craftsmen who worked on the great cathedrals of the Middle Ages.
World
Trump says Iran must ditch ‘concept of a nuclear weapon’ ahead of more talks

President Donald Trump on Monday once again reiterated that Iran must abandon any hope of obtaining a nuclear weapon as the U.S. prepares for more talks in less than a week.
“Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office while sitting alongside the president of El Salvador.
“Iran wants to deal with us, but they don’t know how. They really don’t know how,” Trump continued.
TRUMP TEAM HOLDS ‘CONSTRUCTIVE’ FACE-TO-FACE NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN, WILL MEET AGAIN NEXT WEEKEND
President Donald Trump shakes the hand of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Apr. 14, 2025. (Pool via AP)
The president confirmed the U.S. will hold more talks with Iran next Saturday in Italy, one week after the first talks began in Oman.
Details of the discussion remain nil, though they were seen as a launching point as Washington tries to negotiate with Tehran to end its nuclear program.
Iranian state media reported that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “briefly spoke” together during the two-hour meeting, which suggests Tehran viewed the discussions positively given their initial refusal to hold “direct” talks.
The White House similarly described the talks as “very positive and constructive,” though it also conceded that “very complicated” issues remain unresolved.
TRUMP DEMANDS DO-OR-DIE NUCLEAR TALKS WITH IRAN. WHO HAS THE LEVERAGE?

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, left, meets his Omani counterpart Sayyid Badr Albusaidi prior to negotiations with U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff in Muscat, Oman, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (Iranian Foreign Ministry via AP)
Trump has said negotiations with Iran need to happen “very quickly” but he has not provided a specific timeline on how long he will allow the diplomatic process to be carried out before he turns to military options.
The president has repeatedly threatened to “bomb” Iran should it not stop its ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon.
But the extent that the U.S. intends to shut down Tehran’s nuclear program also remains unclear as some call for complete disarmament as Iran also continues to advance its missile programs.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) has analyzed where Iran’s nuclear infrastructure is located as Israel mulls retaliatory attack, Jan. 31, 2025. (Image provided by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) )
“I’ll solve that problem. It’s almost an easy one,” Trump told reporters while comparing the end of Iran’s decades-long ambitions to develop a nuclear weapon to the challenge of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I think Iran could be a great country as long as it doesn’t have nuclear weapons,” Trump said. “If they have nuclear weapons, they’ll never get a chance to be a great country.”
World
Two bodies found on Greek island after suspected migrant boat sinking

Greek authorities say they have found 39 survivors and the bodies of two women on the small, remote island of Farmakonisi after a suspected migrant boat sank.
The coastguard said the migrants and bodies were found Monday morning but the vessel they had used to make the journey from Turkey was not located.
Officials said there were no reports of any missing people, nor any immediate information on the migrants’ nationalities or how their boat had sunk.
Earlier this month, at least 16 people died when two dinghies sank, one in Turkish and one in Greek waters, as dozens of migrants attempted to make their way from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands.
Greece is a main entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Many make the short but often treacherous journey from the Turkish coast to Greek islands in inflatable dinghies or other small boats.
Many are not seaworthy or set out in bad weather and fatal accidents are common.
The Greek government has cracked down with increased patrols at sea. Many smuggling rings have shifted their operations south, using larger boats to transport people from the northern coast of Africa to southern Greece.
Last year, more than 54,000 people used what has become known as the eastern Mediterranean route heading to Greece and more than 7,700 crossed Greece’s small land border with Turkey, according to figures from the UN refugee agency.
There were 125 people reported dead or missing.
The UN high commissioner for refugees has said over 8,000 people arrived in Greece by sea and 755 by land between the start of this year and 30 March.
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