World

Flames tore through the Sheskharis oil terminal in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk after overnight Ukrainian drone strikes, in what appeared to be one of the most consequential hits on Russia’s energy infrastructure in the more than four-year-old conflict. Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine struck facilities at the maritime transhipment complex in Novorossiysk, damaging a mooring point used by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) and setting four oil product reservoirs ablaze, according to Russian media. The…

A major shift in UK welfare policy takes effect as the two-child cap on benefits is formally abolished, a move expected to lift an estimated 450,000 children out of poverty. Introduced by the Conservatives in 2017, the measure limited child tax credit and universal credit payments to the first two children in most households. Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed in her November budget that the cap would be removed on 6 April, following months of sustained pressure from Labour backbenchers. The end of the two-child cap comes…

Another blast inside a UN position has underscored just how perilous southern Lebanon has become, with three peacekeepers injured on Friday in what a UN spokesperson called “a difficult week” for troops operating in the heart of UNIFIL’s area. The latest incident came after two separate attacks earlier in the week killed three Indonesian soldiers and wounded three others. Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the violence as a “shocking escalation”. Even as the Blue Helmets insist they will hold their ground, conditions on the…

Humanity’s next chapter in deep space is edging into view as the four astronauts of NASA's Artemis II mission cross into the Moon's gravitational sphere of influence, riding a trajectory that will soon carry them above the shadowed lunar far side and place them farther from Earth than any people have ever travelled. The Artemis II crew, aboard their Orion capsule since lifting off from Florida last week, are expected to wake at about 10.50am ET (3.05pm Irish time) for the mission’s sixth day in flight. At 7:05pm ET (12.05am…

More than five weeks into a war that has killed thousands, rattled economies and driven up oil prices, fresh aerial strikes were reported in Tehran as the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran showed no sign of easing. US President Donald Trump warned Iran he would unleash "hell" if it failed to reach a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has in effect shut the Hormuz waterway — a passage for about a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas supply — while also striking US military bases and other targets across…

A stark new warning from President Donald Trump has raised the temperature in an already dangerous conflict, as he threatened to unleash “hell” on Tehran if it failed to strike a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by his Tuesday deadline, while also hailing US special forces for extracting an airman from deep inside Iran in a risky rescue mission. For more than five weeks, the United States and Israel have battered Iran with missiles and airstrikes in a campaign they say is aimed at eliminating an imminent threat posed by…

A deadly Easter weekend crossing in the central Mediterranean left two migrants dead and dozens more feared missing after a boat traveling from Libya toward Europe ran into trouble near the Italian coast. Two merchant vessels recovered the bodies of two migrants and rescued 32 survivors, according to rescue charities Mediterranea Saving Humans and Sea-Watch. Citing accounts from those pulled from the water, the groups said 71 other people were lost at sea. The victims were transferred to an Italian coast guard patrol boat…

On 16 February 1992, Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi was heading to Beirut in a black Mercedes with his wife and five-year-old son when the journey turned deadly. The Iran-backed Hezbollah secretary-general was travelling with two Range Rovers carrying armed bodyguards. He was returning from a ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the killing of one of Hezbollah's founders. Trailing the convoy were Israeli Apache AH-64 helicopters, which fired missiles and killed the Hezbollah leader along with his family. A month later, a…

The Moon was looming larger outside NASA’s Orion capsule on Saturday as the crew of Artemis II entered the third day of a mission billed as a crucial step toward putting humans back on the lunar surface later this decade. NASA said the four-member Artemis crew has now crossed the halfway mark between Earth and the Moon as Orion presses on toward its scheduled lunar flyby. "We're halfway there," the space agency posted on social media. NASA also published the first images captured from inside Orion, among them a striking…

A Russian drone strike tore through a market in the frontline Ukrainian city of Nikopol this morning, killing five people and wounding 19 others, according to Ukraine's prosecutor general's office. "This is yet another war crime committed by the Russian Federation," the prosecutor's office said on Telegram. Regional governor Oleksandr Ganja said in a Telegram post that the dead included three women and two men. He also said a 14-year-old girl was among the 19 injured and remained in "critical condition". At the same time, a…