war

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…

For Europe, the week brought back an unwelcome memory: the kind of creeping economic dread last seen when Covid-19 tore through the continent and pushed its economies to the brink in 2020 and 2021. "If this war escalates into a major regional conflict," Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a Berlin news conference on Monday, "it could burden Germany and Europe even more than we experienced most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic or at the beginning of the war in Ukraine." Those two crises still loom large in EU capitals,…

Easter Sunday will carry unusual weight at the Vatican this year, as Pope Leo XIV prepares to mark the holiest day in the Christian calendar for the first time as pontiff while war in the Middle East darkens the celebration. The US-born pope, who has become one of the conflict’s most prominent critics, is due to celebrate mass in St Peter's Square from 9.30am Irish time before thousands of worshippers. The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics will then deliver the traditional blessing at 11am Irish time, a moment likely…

Friday April 3, 2026 A picture released by the Iranian government's foreign media department shows graves being prepared for victims, mostly children, of a United States attack on a girls' primary school in Minab, Iran More than 100 international law scholars based in the United States have issued a sharp open letter condemning US and Israeli strikes on Iran, saying the attacks violate the United Nations Charter and could amount to “war crimes”. Published on Thursday, the letter says the conduct of US forces and remarks by…

A recent report by Human Rights Watch has uncovered a harrowing reality in Burkina Faso, revealing that over 1,800 civilians have lost their lives in the turmoil following Ibrahim Traoré's ascent to power three years ago. The document outlines incidents that constitute both war crimes and crimes against humanity, with 1,837 civilians—including many children—reported killed across 57 events from January 2023 to August 2025. The majority of these killings have been linked to the military and its allied militias, while a…

Washington’s case for the US operation in Iran remains as murky as ever, with shifting explanations about its purpose and endgame leaving Americans and allied governments struggling to pin down exactly what the mission is meant to achieve. The Trump administration’s public message has repeatedly shifted, as the president and his top officials offer conflicting accounts of why the campaign began, what success looks like and when it is supposed to conclude. Since the start of March, President Donald Trump has said more than a…

President Donald Trump declared in a televised address that the US military was close to meeting its objectives in Iran, yet he offered no firm end date for the month-long war and warned that the country could be bombed back into the "stone ages". Markets recoiled after Mr Trump signalled that military action would intensify over the next two to three weeks, without setting out a concrete path to ending a conflict that has rattled global energy supplies and raised fears of a broader economic shock. Brent crude, which had…

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested the end of the war with Iran may be coming into view, as Washington signalled room for direct contact with Tehran's leadership and indicated the conflict could wind down even without a formal agreement. The comments highlighted the administration's evolving — and at times conflicting — messaging over when and under what conditions a war that has killed thousands, engulfed the region and triggered severe energy disruption might be brought to a close. "We'll…

Four men appeared in a Harare courtroom accused of running a trafficking ring that sent Zimbabweans to Russia, where victims were allegedly coerced into fighting in the Russia-Ukraine war. Prosecutors say the suspects worked with a Russian national to recruit five people by advertising bogus firefighting jobs. Authorities allege the group targeted recruits on Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp, arranging travel to Russia before confiscating the victims’ documents on arrival. Instead of the promised emergency work, the…

With energy markets jolted and anxiety spreading through the global economy, G7 finance ministers and central bank chiefs met today to confront the fallout from the war in the Middle East. The crisis escalated after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran in late February. Tehran responded by targeting crude-exporting states across the region and stopping most shipments moving through the Gulf. That blow to supply has driven oil and natural gas prices sharply upward, sending disruptive aftershocks through…