World

More than 100 people were wounded after Iranian missiles struck two southern Israeli towns when air defences failed to stop the incoming projectiles, medics and officials said. Two direct hits ripped open the fronts of residential buildings and left large craters in the ground. Magen David Adom first responders reported 84 wounded in Arad — 10 of them seriously — following an earlier wave of injuries in nearby Dimona, where 33 people were hurt. Iranian state television said the strike on Dimona, home to a nuclear facility,…

A nationwide power cut plunged all of Cuba into darkness, the island's energy ministry said, marking the second countrywide blackout in under a week as the electrical grid buckles amid an effective US oil blockade. Lights went out across Havana before nightfall, officials said, coming just five days after an earlier outage that also left large parts of the country without electricity. The energy ministry said on X that the national system experienced a "total disconnection" and teams were already at work to restore service.…

Elon Musk was found by a federal jury in California to have misled Twitter shareholders, a verdict that jurors say caused the social media company's stock to tumble while he was attempting a $44 billion takeover. The decision in the class-action securities suit could expose the billionaire to a multi-billion-dollar judgment: jurors’ damage calculations were reported to be roughly $2.6 billion. Shortly after the verdict, lawyers for Mr. Musk told AFP their client plans to appeal, calling the outcome a "setback." Following a…

Kneecap, the Irish-language rap trio from Belfast, said they joined an international aid convoy to Cuba because they could not stand by while the island — which they described as being "strangled" by a US fuel blockade — suffered acute shortages. The group travelled with a wider contingent of public figures and humanitarian organisations bringing medicine, drinking water, food, solar panels and other relief supplies to the Caribbean nation this week by air and sea. Speaking at a Havana press conference flanked by former UK…

Two residents of Zaporizhzhia were killed and much of Chernihiv region was plunged into darkness after Russian strikes, Ukrainian officials reported. Zaporizhzhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said the morning attack on the city claimed the lives of a man and a woman and wounded six other people, among them two children. In neighboring Chernihiv, Governor Viacheslav Chaus said crews were working to repair damage from a drone strike that struck an energy facility. The northern region, which shares borders with Russia and Belarus, had…

The meningitis outbreak centered in Kent in the UK has grown to 34 linked cases — up from 29 — as hundreds of students lined up for a third straight day to be vaccinated. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in an update this morning that 23 cases have been confirmed, with a further 11 cases that "remain under investigation". More than 400 people — students and others eligible — queued outside the University of Kent campus clinic for meningitis jabs at the start of the weekend. NHS Kent and Medway reported that 5,794…

Europe’s hunt for an economic reset has stretched across two turbulent years, ever since the abrupt end of cheap Russian oil and gas collided with a steady slide in competitiveness against the United States and China. Each time a fix seemed within reach, President Donald Trump shifted the terms of debate—first with his Liberation Day tariffs, and now with the Iran War. Yet, in a twist, the very disarray Mr Trump provokes has jolted into motion reforms long stalled by member-state pushback. Chief among them is “EU Inc,”…

Israel pounded Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, with a pre-dawn wave of strikes targeting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, the military said, after it had called on residents in several areas to evacuate. Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war when Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel on 2 March to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Since then, Israel has struck targets across Lebanon and deployed ground forces in the country’s south. In a short statement, the army said its forces were…

In a watershed for LGBT rights in Poland, the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) has ruled that same-sex marriages performed in other EU member states must be recognised — a striking shift in a traditionally Catholic nation. The decision, delivered in line with a ruling by the EU’s top court, drew applause in the courtroom as longtime activists and same-sex couples gathered to celebrate. The case centred on Jakub Cupriak-Trojan and his husband, Mateusz Trojan, who married in Berlin in 2018. After the couple relocated to…

Invoking one of the most consequential ambushes in modern history, US President Donald Trump defended the war he launched against Tehran by comparing American strikes on Iran to Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor during talks in Washington with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. "We wanted surprise. Who knows better about surprise than Japan? Why didn't you tell me about Pearl Harbor?" Mr Trump replied when a journalist asked why he had not told allies about his war plans. "You believe in surprise, I think much more so…