The Irish government will temporarily reduce excise duty on fuel to ease pressure from recent price spikes.From midnight on Wednesday until the end of May, diesel duty will be cut by €0.20 per litre and petrol by €0.15 per litre.Cabinet approval is expected after leaders agreed the measure on Monday. Officials also plan a backdated rebate for haulage companies and bus operators to help...

Mortgage borrowers, and first-time buyers in particular, are facing a sudden squeeze as lenders withdraw low-deposit deals and interest rates climb sharply.Industry data show more than 200 low-deposit mortgage products have been removed since 6 March, with one day seeing 52 deals pulled and another 30 taken off the market.Overall, over 20% of products available at the start of the month are no...

Many families who once treated days out as a routine are tightening their belts as everyday leisure costs climb.Parents across the UK say meals, attractions and activities have become harder to justify on a middle-income budget, even when both adults are in work.Bianca and Paul Osborne, who live in Stockport and earn close to the national average household income, found a typical family outing...

A bitter disagreement over the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline has stalled a vital €90bn EU loan to Ukraine and laid bare how a single member state can disrupt bloc decisions.No crude has passed from Russia through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia since a Russian strike hit the Brody pumping station in western Ukraine on 27 January.Satellite imagery and on-the-ground reports show a massive storage...

A Russian drone hit a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, killing two people and wounding two children, local officials say.The attack came on the eve of new negotiations between Ukrainian and American delegations in the United States.The talks, which had been paused after the recent escalation in the Middle East, are expected to cover Ukraine’s response to Washington’s temporary easing of...

A bitter dispute over repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline has blocked a vital €90bn EU loan to Kyiv.The row pits Hungary and Slovakia against Ukraine after a Russian strike damaged the Brody pumping station on 27 January and stopped all flows.Satellite images and local reporting show a giant storage tank at Brody — one of Ukraine’s largest — burned for days after the attack. Engineers...

Crown Princess Mette-Marit has agreed to speak publicly about her contacts with the late Jeffrey Epstein in an interview due to air on NRK on Friday.The conversation, filmed at the couple’s Skaugum residence alongside Crown Prince Haakon, comes as her son’s high-profile trial reaches its conclusion.Marius Borg Høiby’s seven-week trial in Oslo District Court began in February and has drawn...

A sudden cluster of meningitis cases in a small area of Kent has left health officials searching for answers.Around 20 people fell ill over a single weekend, an unusually rapid spike for a disease that normally appears as isolated cases.Meningitis in the UK is rare and usually scattered. Past notable outbreaks, such as a 1980s MenB episode in Gloucestershire, unfolded over years rather than...

The NFL looks set to expand further into Europe, and the New Orleans Saints are positioning themselves at the centre of a push to bring a regular-season game to Paris.Stade de France is in the running to host a fixture in 2026 or 2027, and the Saints have indicated they would like to be the visiting team if the French capital wins the bid.New Orleans has been the league’s on-the-ground team in...

Belgium is preparing for widespread disruption this week as unions launch a three-day national strike aimed at protest­ing government austerity plans.Key public services and transport links are expected to be hit, with airports among the worst affected.The industrial action responds to a package of reforms from Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s centre-right coalition that aim to cut the budget...