Main PointsDiplomatic negotiations aimed at halting the war in the Middle East appeared to be faltering a day before a deadline imposed by Donald Trump Trump has threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopenedStrikes continued in Iran and Israel overnightStocks stumble, oil above $110 as Trump’s Iran deadline nearsKey Reads
Órla Ryan – 2 minutes ago
A strike on a residential area in Iran’s Alborz province has killed at least 18 people and wounded 24 others, according to Fars news agency.
Órla Ryan – 14 minutes ago
Eurozone investor morale plunges, Sentix survey shows
The Sentix index measuring investor morale in the eurozone fell sharply in April, stung by higher energy prices and supply chain disruptions from the US-Israeli war on Iran.
The index fell to -19.2 points, down from -3.1 the month before, the survey showed on Tuesday, worse than forecasts by analysts polled by Reuters for a reading of -9 points.
“Investors realise that recession is once again on the table,” Sentix said.
Sentix likened the decline to that of a year earlier, when Trump began to increase tariffs.
“The attacks on energy infrastructure and disruptions to shipping in the Persian Gulf are weighing even more heavily on people’s minds than they did four weeks ago,” Sentix added
The survey of 1,047 investors was taken from April 2nd to 4th. – Reuters
Órla Ryan – 45 minutes ago
Fuel protests causing traffic delays around the country
There are reports of heavy traffic in several locations around the country as people stage slow-moving convoys protesting high fuel prices caused by the war.
You can read the latest updates in our live story on the protests here.
Traffic Alert – County Kildare
A slow-moving convoy is currently traveling eastbound on the M7 approaching Junction 13 (Kildare Village), County Kildare. Motorists are advised to plan their journeys accordingly. pic.twitter.com/pv1JcxQWbM
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) April 7, 2026
Traffic Alert – Limerick
We are aware of a slow-moving convoy currently on the M7 near Limerick city. Motorists are advised to plan their journeys accordingly. pic.twitter.com/6iDSDRCE1m
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) April 7, 2026
Traffic Alert – County Galway
A slow-moving convoy is currently traveling westbound on the M6 Junction 18 (Athenry), Co. Galway.
Motorists are advised to plan their journeys accordingly. pic.twitter.com/0SwZ791Ipp
— An Garda Síochána (@GardaTraffic) April 7, 2026
Órla Ryan – 59 minutes ago
Iran’s Mehr news agency is reporting that Khorramabad Airport has been targeted in a US-Israeli attack. More as we get it.
Iran war jeopardises US global leadership, warns Italian minister
The Iran war has put US global leadership on the line, Italy’s defence minister Guido Crosetto said, expressing fear about the “madness” of nuclear escalation.
Like some other Nato allies reluctant to join Trump’s attacks on Iran, Italy last week denied permission for US military aircraft to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily en route to the Middle East.
“This war is also putting the United States at risk in its global leadership,” Crosetto told Italian daily Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Tuesday. Crosetto, a close ally of Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, who has a good relationship with Trump, said he worried the conflict could take an even worse turn and cited the 1945 US nuclear bombings of Japan in the second World War.
“Just think: it was human beings like us who decided that even Hiroshima and Nagasaki were acceptable means of ending a conflict. Unfortunately, we still possess nuclear weapons, and those who do not have them are seeking to acquire them. We have learned nothing,” he said.
“The risk is madness, and what we are experiencing is a conflict in which every action triggers a reaction at a higher level”.
Crosetto, who is due to address parliament about the Iran war later on Tuesday, said Trump should have braver advisers.
“One of the problems of this presidency is that no one dares contradict the boss,” he said.
With Trump angry at Europe’s stance on the war, Crosetto said Italy has not given the US permission to use its bases in other circumstances than those that arose last week. Meloni, who has so far refrained from taking a hard line against the war, visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates over the weekend to show support for Gulf nations facing Iranian attacks and to protect Italy’s energy supplies as the world grapples with rising fuel prices. – Reuters
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As negotiations to end the war continue, civilians on the ground are surveying the destruction.
People gather on Tuesday as an excavator clears rubble at the site of Sunday’s Israeli strike on a building in Beirut’s Jnah neighbourhood, Lebanon. Photograph: Hassan Ammar/AP 
Workers remove debris at Tehran’s Sharif University of Technology complex, which Iranian authorities say was hit on Monday by a US-Israeli strike. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP
About 18 per cent of French petrol stations were lacking some kind of fuel on Tuesday morning, junior energy minister Maud Bregeon said.
French oil major TotalEnergies has set a ceiling on its retail prices in France, below what other brands charge, which led to supply issues at some stations, she said in an interview on news TV channel BFM TV.
There is no overall problem of supply, she said, with only a problem of logistics because of demand changes. – Reuters
Current oil and gas crisis ‘worse than 1973, 1979, 2002 together’, energy chief says
The current oil and gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, 1979 and 2002 together”, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Le Figaro newspaper.
“The world has never experienced a disruption to energy supply of such magnitude,” he said in an interview with the French newspaper released in its Tuesday edition.
He said the European countries, as well Japan, Australia and others will suffer, but the countries most at risk were developing nations that will suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation.
The IEA member countries agreed last month to release part of their strategic reserves. Some of this had already been released and the process continues, said Birol.
In reaction to the strikes by Israel and the US, Iran has almost entirely blocked the traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 per cent of world oil and gas regularly flows, creating a surge in energy prices. – Reuters
Protests over fuel prices may cause delays on roads
Road users have been advised to allow extra time for journeys this morning as a number of protests against the price of fuel are due to take place in various locations around the country.
An Garda Síochána said the protest activity is “proposed to take the form of slow-moving convoys of vehicles on the main arteries leading to Dublin and in the vicinity of large urban areas across the country from after 8am”.
Dublin Airport has advised passengers travelling to the airport “to allow extra time for their journey due to the possibility of traffic disruption on roads around the airport”.
An Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people and wounded several others outside a school housing displaced Palestinians on Monday, health officials said, in the latest violence overshadowing the fragile US-backed Gaza ceasefire deal.
Before the strikes, some Palestinians had clashed with members of an Israeli-backed militia who they accused of attacking the school in an attempt to abduct some people, medics and residents said. – Reuters
A petrol pump out of use at a petrol station near Ipswich, England. Photograph: Lucy North/PA Wire
Global stocks wavered on Tuesday, while oil prices were perched above $110 (about €95) per barrel as the prospect of escalation in the war in the Middle East and the looming deadline for a deal to be reached kept nervy investors on the sidelines.
Markets have been rattled since the US-Israel war on Iran broke out at the end of February, with Tehran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil transit chokepoint that has spurred inflation worries.
While investors have pinned their hopes on a resolution to the war, the talks so far have yielded no progress, with Trump imposing a deadline of 1am on Wednesday (Irish time) for a deal to be reached. -Reuters
Russia helping Iran strike US targets
Russian satellites have made dozens of detailed imagery surveys of military facilities and critical sites across the Middle East to help Iran strike US forces and other targets, according to a Ukrainian intelligence assessment.
The conclusions, reviewed by Reuters, also found that Russian and Iranian hackers were collaborating in the cyber domain. They represent the most detailed account yet of how Russia has provided secret support to Iran since Israel and the US launched their assault on February 28th.
Russian satellites, the undated assessment said, made at least 24 surveys of areas in 11 Middle Eastern countries from March 21st to 31st, covering 46 “objects”, including US and other military bases and sites including airports and oil fields.
Within days of being surveyed, military bases and headquarters were targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles and drones, the assessment said, in what it described as a clear pattern.
A Western military source and a separate regional security source told Reuters that their intelligence also indicated intense Russian satellite activity in the region and said that imagery had been shared with Iran.
Nine surveys covered parts of Saudi Arabia, including five over the King Khalid Military City near Hafar Al-Batin, in what appeared to be an effort to locate elements of the US-made Thaad air defence system, the Ukrainian assessment said. – Reuters
Negotiations enter ‘critical, sensitive’ stage
Pakistan positive and productive endeavours in Good Will and Good Office to stop the war is approaching a critical, sensitive stage …
Stay Tuned for more
— Reza Amiri Moghadam (@IranAmbPak) April 7, 2026
Pakistan’s “positive and productive” efforts to stop the US-Israeli war with Iran are approaching a “critical, sensitive” stage, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Reza Amiri Moghadam said in a post on X on Tuesday.
Strikes continued in Iran and in the region overnight. Israel said it targeted three airports and a petrochemical facility, while Iran launched another wave of missiles towards Israel.
The Israeli military meanwhile told Iranian citizens that “your presence on trains and near railway lines endangers your life”, according to a post made on X.
The King Fahd Causeway, a key bridge linking Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain, closed early on Tuesday due to threats. The King Fahd Causeway Authority made the announcement in a post on X. It said vehicle movements had been “suspended as a precautionary measure” over Iranian attacks targeting Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
The 25km bridge is the only connection by road for Bahrain – home to the US navy’s 5th Fleet – to the Arabian Peninsula, the Associated Press reports.
Diplomatic negotiations aimed at halting the war in the Middle East appeared to be faltering a day before a deadline imposed by Donald Trump with a threat to destroy Iran’s bridges and attack its power plants.
Mediators from Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey want both sides to agree to a ceasefire and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, to be followed by a period of detailed negotiations intended to reach a more complete peace agreement.
Iran, however, said it wanted a permanent end to the war, not a ceasefire. It submitted its own 10-point peace plan, according to the country’s Iran news agency, and called for a “permanent end to the war in line with Iran’s considerations, while rejecting a ceasefire”.
Trump acknowledged Iran’s proposal as he spoke to reporters during an Easter egg event for children at the White House on Monday and said it was insufficient. “It’s a significant step. It’s not good enough,” he said. -AP
Trump ‘not at all’ concerned about possible war crimes
Donald Trump said he was ‘not at all’ concerned about committing possible war crimes. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times
Donald Trump has said he is “not at all” concerned about committing possible war crimes as he threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure if Tehran does not open the Strait of Hormuz by his deadline.
He threatened to destroy bridges and power plants if the regime does not move on the blockade by 8pm Eastern Time on Tuesday.
“I’m not worried about it,” the US president said. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon.”
At a news conference, Trump said all of Iran could be “taken out” in one night “and that night might be tomorrow night”, referring to Tuesday.
Israel and the US carried out a wave of attacks on Iran on Monday, killing more than 25 people. Iran responded with missile fire on Israel and its Gulf Arab neighbours.