Main pointsKey readsInevitable EU will consider easing budget deficit rules if war persists, says Italian economy minister
It is inevitable that the European Union will consider easing its budget deficit rules if the US-Israeli war with Iran persists, Italy’s economy minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said on Friday.
Giorgetti also told reporters in Rome that the cabinet had approved a decree setting aside some €500 million to extend, from April 7th until May 1st, a cut in excise duties on fuels, in a bid to stabilise prices.
Exports to Europe disrupted by conflict, says Hyundai Motor
Hyundai Motor said on Friday that exports to Europe and North Africa, which typically transit through the Middle East, were being disrupted by the conflict in the region, underscoring growing strains on global supply chains.
The disruption highlights how the conflict is choking key shipping routes, driving up logistics costs, delaying deliveries and adding pressure on the automaker and its suppliers.
Hyundai Motor, the world’s third-biggest automaker by sales with its affiliate Kia Corp, warned that even if the Iran war ended soon the impact would linger.
Kim Dong-jo, a senior vice-president at Hyundai Motor’s Global Policy Office, said rebuilding supply chains would take time.
“Even if the conflict ends, it will take a considerable amount of time to rebuild and restore existing supply chains,” said Kim, who was speaking at Pyeongtaek-Dangjin Port, southwest of the capital Seoul, where government officials, logistics firms and automakers met to assess the impact of the war.
Kim said rising logistics costs and raw material constraints linked to the conflict were also pressuring parts suppliers and production, adding that Hyundai was working with suppliers and the government to minimise disruption.
Hyundai Motor Group’s logistics unit, Hyundai Glovis, said it was unable to access some Middle East routes, forcing it to temporarily store cargo at alternative locations until conditions stabilise.
The company said that while routes to North America’s west and east coasts have not been significantly affected so far, restricted access to the Middle East and higher fuel costs were hampering operations and efficiency.
South Korea’s trade minister, Yeo Han-koo, told the gathering that some shipments were being diverted to intermediate hubs such as Sri Lanka, where they are being held while companies reassess when transport can resume.
A child looks at the damage as first responders work at a site hit during an Iranian strike over Petah Tikva on Tuesday. Photograph: Jack Guez/ AFP via Getty Images
Message from the Editor
Irish Times Editor Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
Thanks for reading. If you’re interested in world news, The Irish Times has the largest network of foreign correspondents of any Irish news organisation.
Our team provides sharp reporting, in-depth analysis and thought-provoking commentary. Receive our Global Briefing newsletter in your inbox every morning to enjoy Denis Staunton’s guide to understanding world events; what’s happening, why it matters and how it affects you.
At The Irish Times, our journalism is free of any personal, political or commercial control. Unlike most publishers, we have no shareholders to satisfy, no media baron owner in the background telling us what we can and cannot publish.
We are owned by a Trust that mandates us to uphold a set of public-interest values. Those values describe a worldview that is outward-looking, tolerant, curious, interested in divergent views and attentive to the needs of minorities.
Our watchwords are fairness and accuracy. Our goal is to enable you to make informed and independent judgments. And any profit we make goes towards supporting our journalism.
Ruadhán Mac Cormaic
Editor
To join Ireland’s biggest community of news subscribers, sign up hereBritish government should consider abandoning increase in fuel duty, says cost-of-living tsar
The British government should consider abandoning the increase in fuel duty planned for September because of the rise in pump prices, prime minister Keir Starmer’s cost-of-living tsar has suggested.
Richard Walker, also the executive chairman of Iceland, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The 5p fuel duty cut that you allude to is an interesting one. That’s going to expire in September.
“I think given where we are, we do need to be thinking and talking about extending it or enlarging it.
“Interestingly, the Australian government, I was reading, have recently taken 14p per litre cut to their fuel tax. I mean that this cut is 5p.”
Macron tells Trump to get ‘serious’ about Iran war
French president Emmanuel Macron has said people “want to be serious” about dealing with the Iran war.
Without referencing US president Donald Trump directly, Macron showed a cold fury to a man who insulted him in a long and rambling speech at the Easter gathering in the White House.
“There is too much talk … and it’s all over the place,” he said on a visit to South Korea “We all need stability, calm, a return to peace – this isn’t a show!”
Macron added: “You have to be serious. When you want to be serious, you don’t go around saying the opposite every day of what you just said the day before. And perhaps you shouldn’t talk every day.”
Macron’s patience with Trump’s contradictory messages on support for Nato is also running out.
Tehran warns against ‘provocative action’ before UN Security Council vote on Strait of Hormuz
Iran has warned the UN Security Council against “provocative action” ahead of a vote on the use of “defensive force” to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, reports AFP.
The security council had already postponed the vote, scheduled for Friday, on authorising the use of such force to protect shipping in the strait from Iranian attacks, according to the official programme.
The 15-member body was set to vote Friday morning on a draft resolution brought by Bahrain, but by Thursday night the schedule shifted. The reason given was that the United Nations observes Good Friday as a public holiday, according to diplomatic sources – despite this fact being known when the vote was first announced.
“Any provocative action by the aggressors and their supporters, including in the UN security council regarding the situation in the strait of Hormuz, will only complicate the situation,” Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said. – Guardian
Hegseth tells US army chief to step down
Yesterday came the news, on the same day US attorney general Pam Bondi was fired by Trump, that US army chief of staff Randy George was asked to step down by defence secretary Pete Hegseth.
George’s removal adds to recent upheaval at all levels of leadership at the Pentagon, including the firing last year of the previous chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, air force gen C Q Brown, as well as the chief of naval operations and air force vice-chief of staff.
Read the full story here.
Iran claims US fighter jet shot down over Iran
Iran has said a second US F-35 fighter jet has been shot down over Iran, with the state news agency saying it is unlikely the pilot survived.
A spokesperson for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya central HQ said on Friday the second F-35 jet was shot down over central Iran by Revolutionary Guard air defences, with low chances of pilot survival, Reuters reported.
There was no immediate comment from the US, and the Guardian has not been able to confirm the report.
Last month, the US military said in a statement that a US F-35 aircraft conducted an emergency landing after flying a combat mission over Iran. The military said the pilot of that jet was in stable condition. – Reuters
Iran fires on targets across Middle East; Israel and US hit Tehran
Damage to an industrial zone in Petah Tivka, Israel, after an Iranian missile strike on Thursday. Photograph: Amit Elkayam/The New York Times
Iran fired on targets across the Middle East, sparking multiple blazes at a Kuwaiti oil refinery, while American and Israeli air strikes hit the Islamic Republic early on Friday as the war neared the end of its fifth week unabated.
Despite claims from the US and Israel that Iran’s military capabilities have been all but destroyed, Tehran has continued to keep the pressure on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours, hitting Kuwait’s Mina al-Ahmadi oil refinery in a drone attack.
The refinery has been hit multiple times during the war and state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp said firefighters were working to control several blazes.
Sirens also sounded in Bahrain, warning of Iranian attacks and Israel reported incoming missiles.
Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan, but it was not immediately clear what was hit.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, have sent oil prices skyrocketing and are impacting global economies.
The UN Security Council was expected to vote on Saturday on a proposal from Bahrain that would authorise defensive action to ensure vessels can safely transit the strait.
Bahrain’s initial draft would have allowed countries to “use all necessary means” to secure the strait, but Russia, China and France – who have veto power on the council – expressed opposition to approving the use of force.
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 US service members have been killed.
More than 1,300 people have been killed and more than one million displaced in Lebanon, where Israel has launched a ground invasion in its fight with the pro-Iranian Hizbullah militant group. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there. – AP
Trump’s dangerous road to escalation
Today’s Irish Times editorial says Donald Trump’s recent boast that if there is no deal the US intends to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age, where they belong” represents an outrageous threat to violate the international rules of war, specifically the Geneva conventions.
It notes those rules, particularly the failure to distinguish between military and civilian targets, have been breached many times in Gaza, Ukraine and now Iran. “Those responsible have sought, however unconvincingly, to excuse themselves by insisting civilian casualties are accidental byproducts of strikes on legitimate military targets. Trump has no such scruples.”
The writer says western powers are, rightly, rejecting his claim that the guaranteeing of safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz is now a matter for everyone else.
Any role in escorting ships and demining in the strait, they insist, will have to await an end to hostilities.
“In response, Trump has taken his bullying of allies to new levels, again threatening to pull out of Nato because they have refused to back his war. His recklessness will further convince these countries that the US is an unreliable – and dangerous – partner under Trump and that they must set their future strategies accordingly.”
Trump mocks Starmer as ‘weak’
Donald Trump has mocked British prime minister Keir Starmer as weak and had a fresh dig at the UK’s navy as Britain led diplomatic efforts to try and reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, closed by the Iran war.
The US president impersonated Starmer as he recounted him saying he had to ask his team about sending “two old broken-down aircraft carriers” to the Middle East.
Trump said Britain “should be our best” ally but had not been, in his latest sideswipe over the UK’s refusal to be drawn into the conflict with Tehran. The latest criticism emerged in a video from a private Easter White House lunch.
It is not the first time the American leader has been critical of the UK’s aircraft carriers, having previously dismissed them as “toys” that “aren’t the best”.
Earlier this week, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth rounded on Britain for failing to send warships to the region, saying “last time I checked there was supposed to be a big, bad Royal Navy that could be prepared to do things like that as well.”
Their disparaging remarks come as British king Charles, who is head of the armed forces, is due to travel to Washington later this month for a state visit to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.
Europe must prepare for ‘long-lasting’ energy shock
The EU is assessing “all possibilities” including fuel rationing and releasing more oil from emergency reserves as it braces for a “long-lasting” energy shock from the Middle East war, the Financial Times reported on Friday in an interview with EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen.
“This will be a long crisis … energy prices will be higher for a very long time,” Jorgensen told the FT, saying that for some more “critical” products “we expect it to be even worse in the weeks to come”.
Trump renews threat to increase ferocity of Iran assault
Donald Trump renewed threats to Iran on Truth Social
Donald Trump said the US “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran”, reiterating vows to increase the ferocity of attacks on its infrastructure, as dozens of countries sought ways to restart vital energy shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
Nearly five weeks after it started with a joint US-Israeli aerial assault, the war in Iran continues to spread chaos across the region and on financial markets, raising the pressure on Trump to find a quick resolution to the conflict.
Trump has stepped up his rhetoric in recent days as negotiations conducted via intermediaries with new leaders in Iran show limited signs of progress.
The US military “hasn’t even started destroying what’s left in Iran. Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants,” Trump wrote on social media late on Thursday, adding that Iran’s leadership “knows what has to be done, and has to be done, FAST!”
He earlier posted video of the US bombing a newly constructed bridge between Tehran and the major northwest suburb of Karaj. The B1 bridge was scheduled to open to traffic this year. According to Iran’s state media, eight people were killed and 95 others were wounded in the US attack.
“Striking civilian structures, including unfinished bridges, will not compel Iranians to surrender,” Iran foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement.
Satellite images also showed smoke rising from the port in Qeshm, an Iranian island strategically located in the Strait of Hormuz, earlier this week.