The top photos of the day by AP's photojournalists

From front-page news to powerful moments you may have missed, this gallery showcases today’s top photos chosen by Associated Press photo editors.

Two armchairs sit at an abandoned railway crossing used as a checkpoint by the Assad regime's Syrian army, east of Homs, Syria, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Doug Bartek takes a break from shoveling soybeans in a bin on his farm near Wahoo, Neb., on Monday, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

In this long exposure photo, Orthodox believers walk with candles past a bust of the Russian Tsar Alexander III installed near a church during Orthodox Easter midnight service in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Christian Orthodox pilgrims hold up candles during the Holy Fire ceremony, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the site where, according to tradition, Jesus was crucified and buried, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani salutes his supporters during an address marking his first 100 days in office at the Knockdown Center, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

A pilgrim kisses her sick grandfather, Ramon Gamboa, after a priest blessed him at his home during the Quasimodo Feast, a procession held the Sunday following Easter, Colina, Chile, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Rory McIlroy, of Northern Ireland, celebrates after winning the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Augusta, Ga. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Mirabad ridden by Tristan Durrell clears a fence on the way to winning the Hallgarten & Novum Wines Maghull Novices' Chase during the Grand National horse race meeting at Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

People react in the streets after the announcement of partial results of the Hungarian parliamentary in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Seagulls are pictured at the Baltic Sea beach in Timmendorfer Strand, Germany, on a sunny Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Haifa Kenjo, who fled Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, holds her 15-day-old daughter Shiman inside the tent she uses as a shelter and where she gave birth to her in Beirut, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mourners react during the funeral of 13 state security officers killed the previous day in an Israeli strike in Lebanon's coastal city of Sidon, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Mourners pray over the six coffins of members of the Al-Jalib family, who were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes in Beirut, during their funeral in the village of al-Sour, Deir al-Zour province, northeastern Syria, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

US flag symbol merchandise and other rhinestone-studded items are displayed at the California Republican Party Convention in San Diego, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

U.S. Vice President JD Vance, center, walks with Pakistan's Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of Army Staff Field Marshall Asim Munir, left, and Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar after arriving for talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

CAIRO (AP) — The U.S. military announced it will begin a blockade of all Iranian ports and coastal areas on Monday, tempering President Donald Trump 's earlier vow to entirely block the strategic Strait of Hormuz as early reports indicated that ships had stopped crossing the waterway.

The move came after marathon U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks in Pakistan ended without an agreement, and it set the stage for a showdown. Iranian leaders vowed to counter the blockade.

U.S. Central Command announced the blockade would begin on Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran, and would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.” CENTCOM said it would still allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to transit the strait, a step down from the president’s earlier threat to blockade the entire strait.

Trump later confirmed the timing in a post on his Truth Social website.

The announcement of the blockade halted the limited ship traffic that resumed in the strait since the ceasefire, said an early report from Lloyd’s List intelligence. Marine trackers say over 40 commercial ships have crossed since the start of the ceasefire, down from roughly 100 to 135 vessel passages per day before the war.

Later Sunday, Trump extended his feud over the war with Pope Leo XIV, lashing out in a Truth Social post that called the Catholic leader “terrible on foreign policy.” The extraordinary broadside came after Leo denounced the war and demanded that political leaders stop and negotiate peace.

The blockage is likely intended to add pressure on Iran, which has exported millions of barrels of oil since the war began, much of it likely carried by so-called “dark” transits that evade Western government sanctions and oversight.

Trump also hopes to undercut Iran's control over the Strait of Hormuz after demanding that it reopen the waterway where 20% of global oil transited before fighting began. A U.S. blockade could further rattle global energy markets.

Oil prices rose in early market trading after the blockade announcement. The price of U.S. crude rose 8% to $104.24 a barrel, and Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 7% to $102.29. Brent crude cost roughly $70 per barrel before the war in late February.

A chorus of top-ranking Iranian officials threatened retaliation. Mohsen Rezaei, a military adviser and a former Revolutionary Guard Commander, wrote on X that the country’s armed forces had “major untouched levers” to counter a Hormuz blockade. He said Iran would not be coerced by “tweets and imaginary plans.”

Iranian parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who led Iran’s side in the talks, addressed Trump in a statement on his return to Iran: “If you fight, we will fight.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later said the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would get a “forceful response,” two semi-official Iranian news agencies reported.

During the 21-hour talks this weekend in Pakistan, the U.S. military said two destroyers had transited the strait ahead of mine-clearing work, a first since the war began. Iran denied it.

The face-to-face talks that ended early Sunday were the highest-level negotiations between the longtime rivals since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Trump said Tehran’s nuclear ambitions were the core reason for the talks’ failure. In comments to Fox News, he again threatened to strike civilian infrastructure if it didn't give up its nuclear program.

“In one half of a day they wouldn’t have one bridge standing, they wouldn’t have one electric generating plant standing, and they’re back in the stone ages,” Trump said.

Vice President JD Vance, who led the U.S. side in the talks, said Washington would need "an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon."

Iranian negotiators could not agree to all U.S. “red lines,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to describe positions on the record. Those red lines included Iran never obtaining a nuclear weapon, ending uranium enrichment, dismantling major enrichment facilities and allowing retrieval of its highly enriched uranium, along with opening the Strait of Hormuz and ending funding for Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi rebels.

Iranian officials said talks fell apart over two or three key issues, blaming what they called U.S. overreach. Qalibaf, who noted progress in negotiations, said it was time for the United States “to decide whether it can gain our trust or not.”

Iran’s foreign minister claimed that the U.S. tanked the negotiations when they were within “inches” of an agreement, but did not provide evidence.

"We encountered maximalism, shifting goalposts, and blockade,” wrote Abbas Araghchi on X.

Neither Iran nor the U.S. indicated what will happen after the ceasefire expires on April 22.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said his country will try to facilitate a new dialogue in the coming days. Iran said it was open to continuing dialogue, state-run IRNA news agency reported.

Iran’s nuclear program was at the center of tensions long before the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28. The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, 2,055 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states, and damaged infrastructure in half a dozen countries.

Tehran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons but insists on its right to a civilian nuclear program. The landmark 2015 nuclear deal, which Trump later pulled the U.S. out of, took well over a year of negotiations. Experts say Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, though not weapons-grade, is only a short technical step away.

Metz reported from Ramallah, West Bank, Boak from Miami and Magdy from Cairo. Associated Press writers E. Eduardo Castillo in Beijing; Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington; Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Brian Melley in London; Ghaya Ben MBarek in Tunis; Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julia Frankel and Mae Anderson in New York contributed to this report.

A woman checks her smartphone while walking past a police special forces car at Tajrish Square in northern Tehran, Iran, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Residents inspect debris at the site of a building where efforts continue to recover the body of missing woman Zahraa Aboud, 26, after it was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday, in central Beirut, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Haifa Kenjo, who fled Israeli airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut, holds her 15-day-old daughter Shiman inside the tent she uses as a shelter and where she gave birth to her in Beirut, Sunday, April 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Vice President JD Vance gives a thumbs up gesture while boarding Air Force Two as he leaves Islamabad, Sunday, April 12, 2026, after attending talks on Iran. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

FILE - Oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri,File)