World

High in the mountains above Beirut, in the village of Aintoura, a former school has taken on a very different purpose. Classrooms no longer hold lessons; they now hold families driven from their homes. Inside, Omar Toni Azar works alongside his mother and father to manage the shelter they set up there. It resembles a family enterprise in one sense only: they do the work without pay. "There are around 160 people here now," Omar told RTÉ News. "I hope there will not be more, because some rooms are divided between two, three,…

The Artemis II crew has already etched its place in spaceflight history with a lunar flyby, extraordinary views of the Moon and a trove of mission data. But for NASA, the moment that matters most in the ten-day voyage still lies ahead: bringing the astronauts safely home. Earlier this week, Americans Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian Jeremy Hansen, travelled farther from Earth than any humans before them. The mission is widely seen as a pivotal step toward future crewed landings on the Moon…

After nearly 10 days in space, the Artemis II capsule carrying four astronauts tore back through Earth's atmosphere and splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean, closing out humanity's first journey into the moon's neighborhood in more than 50 years. NASA's gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule, named Integrity, drifted under parachutes into the ocean off Southern California shortly after 5pm PT (1am Irish time), bringing to an end a mission that carried its crew farther into space than any people had traveled before. Covering…

BAFTA has issued an "unreserved" apology to black and disability communities after a racial slur was heard during its 2026 film awards, as an independent review concluded the organisation’s planning for the ceremony contained "a number of structural weaknesses". In a statement published on Friday, the BAFTA board of trustees said its apology extended not only to the black community over the racist language broadcast during the event, but also to the disability community, which it said had been subjected to "unfair judgement"…

A fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran faces a pivotal test in Islamabad, where the two sides are holding their highest-level talks in years in a Pakistan-brokered effort to turn a two-week pause in fighting into a durable end to a war that has shaken global energy markets. Here are five things to know about the Islamabad talks. The conflict that set the stage On 28 February, the US and Israel carried out coordinated strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and hit Iran's military and nuclear…

Shielded from the freezing void outside their spacecraft, the Artemis II astronauts still face one of deep space travel’s most persistent threats: radiation. NASA is now waiting closely for data that could reveal how much exposure the crew endured and what it means for future missions. The four astronauts traveled farther into space than any humans before them, venturing more than 1,000 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station. In low Earth orbit, the planet’s magnetosphere helps blunt some of the…

Fresh uncertainty hung over planned peace talks in Pakistan after Iran said negotiations cannot begin unless blocked Iranian assets are released and a ceasefire in Lebanon is firmly in place. Iran's parliament ⁠speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, said on X that both conditions had already been agreed with the US and said the talks would not go ahead until they are met. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi repeated that message and likewise demanded an end to Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon. Pakistani sources said both Mr Qalibaf and Mr…

Global development aid plunged by a record 23.1% in real terms last year, the OECD said, describing the drop as a historic setback driven largely by a sharp pullback in US support amid mounting budget pressures and geopolitical strain. Preliminary figures from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development showed that official development assistance (ODA) from members of its Development Assistance Committee totaled $174.3 billion last year, marking a second straight annual decline. "This is the largest…

With Earth drawing closer and a fiery homecoming ahead, the four astronauts aboard NASA’s Artemis II mission reflected on a voyage unlike any before it, describing the strain, wonder and emotion of preparing to plunge back through the atmosphere during their first press conference from space. The Artemis II crew have been travelling in their Orion capsule since lifting off from Florida last week, and are scheduled to splash down off the southern California coast tomorrow after reaching the Moon earlier this week. Their route…

With a ceasefire now taking hold between the United States and Iran, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is pressing for Washington to restore full energy sanctions on Russia, arguing that the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz removes the rationale for easing pressure on Moscow’s oil exports. "Now a ceasefire is beginning in the Middle East and the Gulf. And I am waiting for sanctions on Russian oil to be fully reimposed, as they were before," Mr Zelensky said. Last month, the United States relaxed some sanctions on…